(1) When Solomon had made an end of praying.--(1Kings 8:54, "And it came to pass, when S. had made an end of praying unto Jehovah all this prayer and supplication.") From this point the divergence between the two accounts begins. There is no objective ground for supposing that the chronicler invented the facts here recorded. He must have found them in one of his sources, although we have no means of determining whether or not they were related in the original narrative followed by the author of Kings. It is gratuitous to fancy that the chronicler was more partial to miracle than the older writer. (Comp. 1Kings 8:10; 1Kings 18:38.) His greater interest in all that concerned the worship of the Temple is enough to account for the present and similar additions to the older narrative.

The fire came down from heaven.--Comp. Leviticus 9:22-24, from which passage it appears likely that the fire descended after Solomon had blessed the people. (Comp. also 1Chronicles 21:26; 2Kings 1:10; 2Kings 1:12; 2Kings 1:14.)

And the sacrifices.--The offerings presented when the ark entered the Temple (2Chronicles 5:6).

And the glory of the Lord filled the house.--This statement is not a mere duplicate of 2Chronicles 5:13-14. See next verse. The "glory of the Lord" is apparently a manifestation quite distinct from the "fire."

Verse 1. - When Solomon had made an end of praying. See the parallel, 1 Kings 8:54, which verse, however, in a sense, disappoints us; for, beginning with these same words, it does not go on at all to tell of this second occurrence of the fire and the cloud and the glory. The fire came... and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices. So Leviticus 9:24, when the tabernacle was consecrated. The closing verses of our ch. 5, compared with the first verse of ch. 6, and in particular the first word of that verse, "then," leave it quite open to conjecture that the demonstration of the fire and the glory of the Lord had not ceased, but was continued during the prayer of Solomon, though at its close they may have been marked with added brightness, and then wrought their sacrifice-consuming work. Such supposition may bring us nearest to some tenable explanation of what otherwise seems the very unaccountable omission in the parallel. The language of our ver. 2 adds something to countenance this theory, coinciding as it does with the language of the last verses of ch. 5.

7:1-22 God's answer to Solomon's prayer. - God gave a gracious answer to Solomon's prayer. The mercies of God to sinners are made known in a manner well suited to impress all who receive them, with his majesty and holiness. The people worshipped and praised God. When he manifests himself as a consuming Fire to sinners, his people can rejoice in him as their Light. Nay, they had reason to say, that God was good in this. It is of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, but the sacrifice in our stead, for which we should be very thankful. And whoever beholds with true faith, the Saviour agonizing and dying for man's sin, will, by that view, find his godly sorrow enlarged, his hatred of sin increased, his soul made more watchful, and his life more holy. Solomon prosperously effected all he designed, for adorning both God's house and his own. Those who begin with the service of God, are likely to go on successfully in their own affairs. It was Solomon's praise, that what he undertook, he went through with; it was by the grace of God that he prospered in it. Let us then stand in awe, and sin not. Let us fear the Lord's displeasure, hope in his mercy, and walk in his commandments.Now when Solomon had made an end of praying,.... The prayer recorded in the preceding chapter:

the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; which was the token God gave of his acceptance of them, of which there had been several instances before, Leviticus 9:24, 1 Kings 18:38,

and the glory of the Lord filled the house; the glory of the Shechinah of the Lord, as the Targum, see 1 Kings 8:11.