2 Chronicles 5:3

5:1-10 The ark was a type of Christ, and, as such, a token of the presence of God. That gracious promise, Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world, does, in effect, bring the ark into our religious assemblies, if we by faith and prayer plead that promise; and this we should be most earnest for. When Christ is formed in a soul, the law written in the heart, the ark of the covenant settled there, so that it becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost, there is true satisfaction in that soul.

Wherefore all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto the king in the {b} feast which was in the seventh {c} month. (b) When the things were dedicated and brought into the temple. (c) Called in Hebrew Ethanim, containing part of September and part of October, 1Ki 8:2, which moves the Jews called the first month, because they say that the world was created in that month, and after they came from Egypt, they began at March: but because this opinion is uncertain, we always make March the first as the best writers do.

The first part of the celebration was the transfer of the ark from Mount Zion to the temple ( 2 Chronicles 5:2-14 ), and in connection with this we have the words in which Solomon celebrates the entry of the Lord into the new temple ( 2 Chronicles 6:1-11 ). This section has been already commented on in the remarks on 1 Kings 8:1-21 , and we have here, consequently, only to set down briefly those discrepancies between our account and that other, which have any influence upon the meaning. - In 2 Chronicles 5:3 the name of the month, האתנים בּירח ( 1 Kings 8:2 ), with which the supplementary clause, "that is the seventh month," is there connected, is omitted, so that we must either change החדשׁ into בּחרשׁ, or supply the name of the month; for the festival is not the seventh month, but was held in that month.