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 2:6

2:6 Do to him what you think is appropriate, ⁴  but don’t let him live long and die a peaceful death. ⁵ 

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?

Acts 7:47-49

7:47 But Solomon built a house ⁶  for him. 7:48 Yet the Most High ⁷  does not live in houses made by human hands, ⁸  as the prophet says,

7:49 ‘Heaven is my throne,

and earth is the footstool for my feet.

What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,

or what is my resting place? ⁹ 

Ephesians 2:22

2:22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

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.

⁴ tn Heb “according to your wisdom.”

⁵ tn Heb “and do not bring down his grey hair in peace [to] Sheol.”

⁶ sn See 1 Kgs 8:1-21.

⁷ sn The title the Most High points to God’s majesty (Heb 7:1; Luke 1:32, 35; Acts 16:7).

⁸ sn The phrase made by human hands is negative in the NT: Mark 14:58; Acts 17:24; Eph 2:11; Heb 9:11, 24. It suggests “man-made” or “impermanent.” The rebuke is like parts of the Hebrew scripture where the rebuke is not of the temple, but for making too much of it (1 Kgs 8:27; Isa 57:15; 1 Chr 6:8; Jer 7:1-34).

⁹ sn What kind…resting place? The rhetorical questions suggest mere human beings cannot build a house to contain God.