2 Chronicles 6 · a question people ask
The last words of the prayer are close to Psalm 132. Which came first?
The Bible doesn't say. 2 Chronicles ends the prayer, "Now therefore arise, LORD God, into your resting place, you, and the ark of your strength. Let your priests, LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in goodness" (6:41), and "LORD God, don’t turn away the face of your anointed. Remember your loving kindnesses to David your servant" (6:42). Psalm 132, whose title is "A Song of Ascents" (Psalm 132:1) and names no writer, has "Arise, LORD, into your resting place, you, and the ark of your strength" (Psalm 132:8), "Let your priests be clothed with righteousness. Let your saints shout for joy!" (Psalm 132:9), and "For your servant David’s sake, don’t turn away the face of your anointed one" (Psalm 132:10). So 2 Chronicles begins "Now therefore" and calls on the "LORD God" three times, where the psalm has "LORD" once; the priests are clothed with salvation in one and righteousness in the other (later in the psalm the LORD says, "I will also clothe her priests with salvation" (Psalm 132:16)); the saints rejoice in goodness in one and shout for joy in the other; "your anointed" is "your anointed one" in the psalm; and David comes before the request in the psalm ("For your servant David’s sake") and after it in 2 Chronicles ("Remember your loving kindnesses to David your servant"). The psalm begins, "LORD, remember David" (Psalm 132:1); 2 Chronicles ends, "Remember your loving kindnesses to David" (6:42). 1 Kings 8 has none of these words and ends the prayer with Egypt (1 Kings 8:51-53). Neither book says why, and this answer quotes them and leaves them side by side.
The verses
““Now therefore arise, LORD God, into your resting place, you, and the ark of your strength. Let your priests, LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in goodness. “LORD God, don’t turn away the face of your anointed. Remember your loving kindnesses to David your servant.””
“A Song of Ascents. LORD, remember David and all his affliction,”
“Arise, LORD, into your resting place, you, and the ark of your strength. Let your priests be clothed with righteousness. Let your saints shout for joy! For your servant David’s sake, don’t turn away the face of your anointed one.”
“I will also clothe her priests with salvation. Her saints will shout aloud for joy.”