Enthronement and Sabbath

1 Kings 8:12-13 begins Solomon’s lengthy speech at the temple dedication. It is a poetic and formal utterance, and contins a number of intriguing features.

First, it appears to be structured chiastically:

Yahweh said A. to dwell (SHAKAN) B. in the gloom C. Building I have built B’. a house a lofty-dwelling for you A’. A place for your enthronement (for) ages.

If this works, it connects dwelling and enthronement, two different sorts of “dwelling.” Also the connection of the “gloom” or “darkness” where Yahweh dwells and the “house” that Solomon builds is intriguing; the house is an architectural form of the shadowy gloom that veils Yahweh from Israel, or, in Klinean terms, the temple is made in the image of the glory-Spirit. At the center is the oath-form, “building I have built.”

Second, there is a fairly clear pun embedded in the A’. The word for “dwell” or “enthronement” is YASHAB. Though it can mean “dwell,” enthrone is better in the context (the verb can mean “sit”). The particular form that appears in v 13 plays on the word SHABAT: Solomon has made a place “for your enthronement” punningly evokes “for your Sabbath.” The temple is a place for Yahweh to rest, now that He has put the land to rest, and now that His enemies are put down; now is the time for Sabbatical enthronement.