And all the men of Israel came together to King Solomon at the feast in the seventh month, the month of Ethanim.
The temple, though richly beautified, yet while it was without the ark was like a body without a soul, or a candlestick without a candle, or (to speak more properly) a house without an inhabitant. All the cost and pains bestowed on this stately structure are lost if God do not accept them; and, unless he please to own it as the place where he...
Commenting on 1 Kings 8:1-11
And all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto King Solomon at the feast,.... Not of tabernacles, as the Targum on Ch2 5:3 and so Jarchi; though that was in the same month next mentioned, and began on the fifteenth of it, and held seven days; wherefore this must be the feast of the dedication of the temple, and which was kept before that; since...
And all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto king Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which [is] the seventh month. (b) Containing part of September and part of October, in which they held three solemn feasts, .