Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 7:8
So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him—a very great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—kept the feast for seven days.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes Solomon and the gathered Israelite assembly observing a feast immediately after Solomon consecrates the temple courtyard and offers sacrifices on the bronze altar. The event occurs at the conclusion of the temple dedication week, just before the eighth-day solemn assembly.
The words — וַיַּעַשׂ (va.ya.'as) translates literally as "and he made" or "he observed," indicating the formal enactment of the festival. הַחָג (ha.chag) means "the festival" or "the feast," referring specifically to the appointed gathering.
The thread — The geographic boundary "from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt" echoes the territorial promise in Genesis 15:18. The parallel account of this same assembly appears in 1 Kings 8:65, while the seven-day duration aligns with the Feast of Tabernations described in Leviticus 23:34.
Why it lands — The text records a historical boundary and duration for a specific worship event, requiring the reader to track how Israel's gathered identity and appointed feasts intersect. It asks the reader to recognize the precise fulfillment of territorial and liturgical markers without adding theological speculation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Also at the same time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt.
Cross-references
- Genesis 15:18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—
- 1 Kings 8:65 So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him—a great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—kept the feast before the LORD our God for seven days and seven more days—fourteen days in all.
- Leviticus 23:34 “Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Feast of Tabernacles to the LORD begins, and it continues for seven days.
- Numbers 29:12 On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, you are to hold a sacred assembly; you must not do any regular work, and you shall observe a feast to the LORD for seven days.
- Numbers 34:5 where it will turn from Azmon, join the Brook of Egypt, and end at the Sea.
- Deuteronomy 16:13 You are to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress.
- Joshua 13:3 from the Shihor east of Egypt to the territory of Ekron on the north (considered to be Canaanite territory)—that of the five Philistine rulers of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron, as well as that of the Avvites;
- 1 Kings 4:21 And Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These kingdoms offered tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.
- 2 Chronicles 30:13 In the second month, a very great assembly gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
- Nehemiah 8:13 On the second day of the month, the heads of all the families, along with the priests and Levites, gathered around Ezra the scribe to study the words of the Law.