1 Kings 8:63

63 Solomon offered well-being sacrifices to the LORD: twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep when the king and all Israel dedicated the LORD's temple.

1 Kings 8:63 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 8:63

And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he
offered unto the Lord
Part of which belonged to the offerer, and with those Solomon feasted the people all the days of the feast of the dedication, if not of tabernacles also; for the number was exceeding large, as follows:

22,000 oxen, and 120,000 sheep;
which, as suggested, might be the number for all the fourteen days; nor need it seem incredible, since, as Josephus ^F2 says, at a passover celebrated in the times of Cestius the Roman governor, at the evening of the passover, in two hours time 256,500 lambs were slain; however, this was a very munificent sacrifice of Solomon's, in which he greatly exceeded the Heathens, whose highest number of sacrifices were hecatombs, or by hundreds, but his by thousands:

so the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the
Lord;
devoted it to divine and religious worship by these sacrifices: hence in imitation of this sprung the dedication of temples with the Heathens; the first of which among the Romans was that in the capitol at Rome ^F3 by Romulus; the rites and ceremonies used therein by them may be read in Cicero, Livy, Tacitus, and others ^F4.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 9. sect. 3.
F3 Vid. Liv. Hist. Decad. 1. l. 1. p. s. & l. 2. p. 33.
F4 Vid. Hospinian. de Templis, l. 4. c. 2. p. 451. & Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 14.

1 Kings 8:63 In-Context

61 Now may you be committed to the LORD our God with all your heart by following his laws and observing his commands, just as you are doing right now."

62 Then the king and all Israel with him sacrificed to the LORD.

63 Solomon offered well-being sacrifices to the LORD: twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep when the king and all Israel dedicated the LORD's temple.

64 On that day the king made holy the middle of the courtyard in front of the LORD's temple. He had to offer the entirely burned offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of well-being sacrifices there, because the bronze altar that was in the LORD's presence was too small to contain the entirely burned offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the well-being sacrifices.

65 At that time Solomon, together with all Israel, held a celebration. It was a large assembly from Lebo-hamath to the border of Egypt. They celebrated for seven days and then for another seven days in the presence of the LORD our God: fourteen days in all.