Solomon’s Temple Dedication Prayer with seven petitions employing the phrase “hear from heaven” is recorded in both 1 Kings 8:27-53 and 2 Chronicles 6:18-40. Why on an Isaiah website, a webpage note on Solomon’s Temple Dedication Prayer? It has been proposed that verses using the words “near” and “far” bracket Menorah structures in Isaiah. It is not just that the words “near” and “far” are used in 1 Kings 8:41, 46 and 2 Chronicles 6:32, 36. The placement of the words also appears to occur with structural intent. Their structural use is evident because there is a geographical similarity between the placement of the words in Isaiah, and their placement in Solomon’s Temple Dedication prayer.
This chart below shows a proposed branch-paired Menorah arrangement for the petitions, associating them with the same land-regions found in Deuteronomy 12. Readers should begin by counting the number of “hear from heaven” petitions in 2 Chronicles 6:18-40, and verify that there are seven. Then, compare the locations the petitions indicate with locations in the Deuteronomy 12 Altar Law.
Solomon’s Temple Dedication Prayer
Keep in mind that while 1 and 2 Chronicles were written or compiled after Isaiah’s time, Solomon’s temple dedication prayer was spoken well prior to Isaiah’s time. The temple dedication was a key event in the history of Ancient Israel, and there is no doubt that this prayer would have been preserved and read by subsequent generations (just like people in the U.S. cherish their constitution or the Declaration of Independence). Therefore, Isaiah would have been familiar with this prayer.