1 Kings 8:8

And they drew out the staves,.... Not made them larger, as Ben Gersom, than those in the tabernacle of Moses, this place being larger than that; nor did they draw them wholly out, and lay them up in

And they drew out the staves, that the ends of the staves were seen out in the holy place before the oracle, and they were not seen without: and there they are unto this day.

They drew out the staves; not wholly, which was expressly forbidden, ; but in part. In the holy place; either, first, Properly so called; which place was indeed before the oracle, But how then could it be said that they were not seen without, to wit, in the holy place? For that they should be seen without, to wit, in the court, was so ridiculous a conceit, that it had been absurd to suppose it, or to say any thing to prevent it. Nor is it much better what others say, that these ends of the staves did discover themselves through the veil, which they thrust forward, though they did not pierce through it; for neither in that case had they been seen; and besides, there was a wall as well as a veil in that place. Or rather, secondly, In the most holy place, which is oft called by way of eminency the holy place, as 39:1 10:18 16:2,16,17,20. And the Hebrew words rendered before the oracle, may be as well rendered within the oracle, the phrase al pene being so used, , the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, i.e. in the waters, or in that confused heap of earth and water in which God was now working, that he might bring it into order and use; and , where it is well rendered in the open firmament of heaven, i.e. of the air. And thus the whole is most true; they were seen out, to wit, without the ark, and the cherubims which covered all the other parts, but they were not seen without the oracle, to wit, in the holy place, strictly so called; for how could they be seen there, when there was both a wall and a thick veil between that place and the oracle? And these staves were left in this posture, that the high priest might hereby be certainly guided to that very particular place where he was one day in a year to sprinkle blood, and to offer incense before the ark, which otherwise he might mistake in that dark place, where the ark was wholly covered with the wings of the great cherubims, which stood between him and the ark when he entered thither. Some conceive that the door of the oracle stood always open, (which yet seems very improbable,) and that they who were near the door might see the ends of the staves, though by reason of the darkness of the place they could see nothing else there.

1 Kings 8:8 And they drew out the staves, that the ends of the staves were seen out in the holy [place] before the oracle, and they were not seen without: and there they are unto this day.Ver. 8. That the ends of the staves were seen.] These made a lane, as it were, for the high priest when he entered into the most holy place: and showed that there was an ark, though covered. And there they are unto this day,] i.e., Till the captivity of Babylon.

(6-8) And the priests brought in the ark.—It is clear from this description that the ark was placed lengthways between the cherubim, so that the staves by which it was borne, when drawn out (though still partly attached to the ark) were seen—probably by projections visible through the veil—in the Holy Place; although, as the narrative remarks with characteristic minuteness of accuracy, “not without” from the porch. The reason why this detail is dwelt upon is obvious. Up to this time it had been forbidden to withdraw the staves (Exodus 25:13-15), so that the ark might always be ready for transference; now the withdrawal marked the entrance on a new period, during which it was to rest unmoved.There they are unto this day.—This phrase—not unfrequently repeated in the narrative (see 1 Kings 9:21; 1 Kings 10:12; 1 Kings 12:19, &c.)—is an interesting indication of quotation from older documents; for at the time of the compilation of the book the Temple and all that it contained had been destroyed or removed. It is remarkable that in the record of the successive spoilings of the Temple by the Chaldæans (2 Kings 24:13; 2 Kings 25:13-17), while the various vessels, the brazen pillars, and the sea are mentioned in detail, nothing is said of their carrying away the ark, which would have been the choicest, as most sacred, of all the spoils. (See Notes on these passages.) About the Jewish tradition, referred to above (see Note on 1 Kings 8:4), setting aside the supposed miracle, there is no intrinsic improbability, considering the respect paid to Jeremiah by the Chaldæans. (See Jeremiah 39:11-14.)

Verse 8. And there they are unto this day.] This proves that the book was written before the destruction of the first temple, but how long before we cannot tell.

8. And they drew out the staves] The verb either means transitively ‘to make long’ or intransitively ‘to be long,’ and the better rendering is ‘the staves were long.’ We are nowhere told how long the staves were made, but no doubt they were of considerable length that there might be no danger of the bearers touching the sacred coffer. Philippson (die Israelitische Bibel) says the old staves were ten cubits long, but that for this occasion, according to some Jewish commentators, new staves and longer ones had been made that more priests might take a share in the carrying. To join on easily to the following clause we must render the staves were so long. that the ends of the staves were seen out in the holy place] Instead of ‘out in’ the Hebrew has from, and the sense is that, somehow or other, the heads of the staves were to be seen by persons looking from the holy place towards the oracle. It is noteworthy that in 2 Chronicles 5:9 it is said ‘the staves were seen from the ark.’ and [R.V. better, but] they were not seen without] That is to say, when any one went towards the porch and stood at the entrance of the holy place, the heads of the staves were no longer visible. The whole description must refer to occasions when the entrance into the holy of holies was open, but why it is inserted it is hard to say, for it appears to explain nothing, and to be of itself somewhat inexplicable. The ark was not seen at all, but one standing near the division between the holy place and the most holy might at such a time see the ends of the staves, though if he were as far away as the length of the holy place, he could not see them. The phrase in 2 Chronicles 5:9 would then signify that they were seen as they projected from the ark. and there they are unto this day] To have allowed these words to remain bespeaks a singularly close copyist. They appear also in the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles (1 Kings 5:9). They were no doubt written first when the Temple was still standing, but could not have been true either for the compiler of the Kings or of Chronicles. They are omitted by the LXX.

It was forbidden to withdraw the staves wholly from the rings (margin reference); but they appear to have been now drawn forward in such a way that their ends or heads could be seen from the holy

8. Drew out the staves — “That is, they drew the staves, after the ark was set down in the most holy place, so far forward, that their ends could be observed from the sanctuary by the elevations on