When Solomon had made an end of praying. — (1 Kings 8:54, “And it came to pass, when S. had made an end of praying unto Jehovah all this prayer and supplication.”) From this point the divergence between the two accounts begins. There is no objective ground for supposing that the chronicler invented the facts here recorded. He must have found them in one of his sources, although we have no means of determining whether or not they were related in the original narrative followed by the author of Kings. It is gratuitous to fancy that the chronicler was more partial to miracle than the older writer. (Comp. 1 Kings 8:10; 1 Kings 18:38.) His greater interest in all that concerned the worship of the Temple is enough to account for the present and similar additions to the older narrative.
The fire came down from heaven. — Comp. Leviticus 9:22-24, from which passage it appears likely that the fire descended after Solomon had blessed the people. (Comp. also 1 Chronicles 21:26; 2 Kings 1:10; 2 Kings 1:12; 2 Kings 1:14.)
And the sacrifices. — The offerings presented when the ark entered the Temple (2 Chronicles 5:6).
And the glory of the Lord filled the house. — This statement is not a mere duplicate of 2 Chronicles 5:13-14. See next verse. The “glory of the Lord” is apparently a manifestation quite distinct from the “fire.”