1 Kings 8:27

8:27 “God does not really live on the earth! ¹  Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built!

1 Kings 8:2

8:2 All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon during the festival ²  in the month Ethanim ³  (the seventh month).

1 Kings 2:12

Solomon Secures the Throne

2:12 Solomon sat on his father David’s throne, and his royal authority ⁴  was firmly solidified.

Isaiah 66:1

66:1 This is what the Lord says:

“The heavens are my throne

and the earth is my footstool.

Where then is the house you will build for me?

Where is the place where I will rest?

Jeremiah 10:11

10:11 You people of Israel should tell those nations this:

‘These gods did not make heaven and earth.

They will disappear ⁵  from the earth and from under the heavens.’ ⁶ 

Daniel 2:21

2:21 He changes times and seasons,

deposing some kings

and establishing others. ⁷ 

He gives wisdom to the wise;

he imparts knowledge to those with understanding; ⁸ 

Daniel 2:28

2:28 However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, ⁹  and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the times to come. ¹⁰  The dream and the visions you had while lying on your bed ¹¹  are as follows.

Daniel 5:23

5:23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone – gods ¹²  that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control ¹³  your very breath and all your ways!

¹ tn Heb “Indeed, can God really live on the earth?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not,” the force of which the translation above seeks to reflect.

² sn The festival. This was the Feast of Tabernacles, see Lev 23:34.

³ sn The month Ethanim. This would be September-October in modern reckoning.

³ tn Or “kingship.”

⁴ tn Aram “The gods who did not make…earth will disappear…” The sentence is broken up in the translation to avoid a long, complex English sentence in conformity with contemporary English style.

⁵ tn This verse is in Aramaic. It is the only Aramaic sentence in Jeremiah. Scholars debate the appropriateness of this verse to this context. Many see it as a gloss added by a postexilic scribe which was later incorporated into the text. Both R. E. Clendenen (“Discourse Strategies in Jeremiah 10,” JBL 106 [1987]: 401-8) and W. L. Holladay (Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 1:324-25, 334-35) have given detailed arguments that the passage is not only original but the climax and center of the contrast between the Lord and idols in vv. 2-16. Holladay shows that the passage is a very carefully constructed chiasm (see accompanying study note) which argues that “these” at the end is the subject of the verb “will disappear” not the attributive adjective modifying heaven. He also makes a very good case that the verse is poetry and not prose as it is rendered in the majority of modern English versions.

⁵ tn Aram “kings.”

⁶ tn Aram “the knowers of understanding.”

⁶ tn Aram “a revealer of mysteries.” The phrase serves as a quasi-title for God in Daniel.

⁷ tn Aram “in the latter days.”

⁸ tn Aram “your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed.”

⁷ tn Aram “which.”

⁸ tn Aram “in whose hand [are].”