and said: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His own hand what He spoke with His mouth to my father David, saying, 'Since the day I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house so that My Name would be there. But I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.' Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel. But the LORD said to my father David, 'Since it was in your heart to build a house for My Name, you have done well to have this in your heart. Nevertheless, you are not the one to build it; but your son, your own offspring, will build the house for My Name.' Now the LORD has fulfilled the word that He spoke. I have succeeded my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel. And there I have provided a place for the ark, which contains the covenant of the LORD that He made with our fathers when He brought them out of the land of Egypt."
Instead, you must seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.
Significance
Solomon's speech in 1 Kings 8:15-21 declares that God has now chosen (בָּחַר, bachar) Jerusalem for His name, fulfilling the Deuteronomic formula of "the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name" (Deut 12:5, לְשַׁכֵּן שְׁמוֹ שָׁם). Deuteronomy deliberately withheld the identity of this place, speaking only of a future divine choice. Solomon's dedication speech answers the centuries-long open question by identifying Jerusalem's temple as the definitive chosen place. The verbal echo of "choosing" connects the cultic centralization mandate of Deuteronomy to its concrete historical fulfillment in the Jerusalem temple. The realization is embodied concretely: Solomon places the ark in the temple and the glory-cloud fills it (1 Kings 8:10-11), giving Deuteronomy's abstract place chosen "as a dwelling for His Name" its visible, historical fulfillment.
