Seven days and seven days, even fourteen days. On the eighth day.... — The origin of this curious phrase is singularly illustrated by the account in 2 Chronicles 7:9-10, for it tells us that the people were dismissed on “the three and twentieth day” of the month, which was the day after the close of the Feast of Tabernacles. Hence it is clear that the festival week of the Dedication preceded the regular feast; and the day of dismissal was the “eighth day,” regularly so-called, of the close of the Feast of Tabernacles.
Unto their tents. — The old memory of the wandering life of Israel still lingers in this expression, as in the well-known phrase “To your tents, O Israel!” (2 Samuel 20:1; 1 Kings 12:16.) It may have been suggested to the writer in this place by the ideas symbolised in the Feast of Tabernacles, of which he had just recorded the observance.