_seven days, and ... seven days_] Compare 1 Kings viii. 65, 66. The _original_ text in Kings agreed with the earlier custom referred to in the previous note, the people being dismissed on the eighth day after observing the seven days Feast of Tabernacles. The evidence of the LXX. and also the opening words of verse 66 put it beyond doubt that in the present text of Kings the words _and seven days, even fourteen days_ are a late addition due probably to the influence of the statement in Chronicles The Chronicler, or the tradition he follows, did not deem it fitting that there should be no special festival for the dedication of the Temple. His statement of events is therefore: a seven days Dedication Feast (from the 8th to the 14th of the month), followed by the Feast of Tabernacles, seven days _plus_ one day of holy assembly (from the 15th to the 22nd); and finally on the 23rd of the month the dismissal of the people to their homes (see verse 10). ¹⁰And on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away unto their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that the LORD had shewed unto David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people. =10.= _unto their tents_] The Hebrew word (_ōhel_) here approaches in meaning the corresponding Arabic word (_ahl_), which denotes _household_ or _one’s own people_, e.g. in the phrase _ahlu ’linjil_, “the household of the Gospel,” i.e. “the Christians,” a phrase found in the Koran. Compare x. 16, xxv. 22. =11‒22= (= 1 Kings ix. 1‒9). THE NIGHT VISION IN ANSWER TO SOLOMON’S PRAYER. ¹¹Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD, and the king’s house: and all that came into Solomon’s heart to make in the house of the LORD, and in his own house, he prosperously effected. ¹²And the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. =12.= _appeared ... by night_] Compare i. 7. _an house of sacrifice_] Compare ii. 6. ¹³If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; ¹⁴if my people, which are called by my name¹, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. ¹⁵Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent, unto the prayer that is made in this place. ¹ Hebrew _upon whom my name is called_. =13‒15.= These verses have no parallel in 1 Kings ix. 1‒9, but are closely modelled upon the language of Solomon’s prayer in vi. 26‒28, 40. =13.= _to devour the land_] LXX. _to devour the trees_; compare Exodus x. 15; Joel i. 6, 7. =15.= _Now ... in this place_] Compare vi. 40.