Acts 7:49

Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:42-50 Stephen upbraids the Jews with the idolatry of their fathers, to which God gave them up as a punishment for their early forsaking him. It was no dishonour, but an honour to God, that the tabernacle gave way to the temple; so it is now, that the earthly temple gives way to the spiritual one; and so it will be when, at last, the spiritual shall give way to the eternal one. The whole world is God's temple, in which he is every where present, and fills it with his glory; what occasion has he then for a temple to manifest himself in? And these things show his eternal power and Godhead. But as heaven is his throne, and the earth his footstool, so none of our services can profit Him who made all things. Next to the human nature of Christ, the broken and spiritual heart is his most valued temple.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Heaven is my throne - See the notes on Matthew 5:34.

Earth is my footstool - See the notes on Matthew 5:35.

What house ... - What house or temple can be large or magnificent enough for the dwelling of Him who made all things?

The place of my rest - My home, my abode, my fixed seat or habitation. Compare Psalm 95:11.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

45. which … our fathers that came after—rather, "having received it by succession" (Margin), that is, the custody of the tabernacle from their ancestors.

brought in with Jesus—or Joshua.

into the possession—rather, "at the taking possession of [the territory of] the Gentiles."

unto the days of David—for till then Jerusalem continued in the hands of the Jebusites. But Stephen's object in mentioning David is to hasten from the tabernacle which he set up, to the temple which his son built, in Jerusalem; and this only to show, from their own Scripture (Isa 66:1, 2), that even that temple, magnificent though it was, was not the proper resting-place of Jehovah upon earth; as his audience and the nations had all along been prone to imagine. (What that resting-place was, even "the contrite heart, that trembleth at God's word," he leaves to be gathered from the prophet referred to).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The place referred unto, is Isaiah 66:1. What house will ye build me, that shall be big enough for one so great as God is? 1 Kings 8:27.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Heaven is my throne,.... There is the seat of the divine Majesty; there his glory is most conspicuous; there he keeps his court, that is his palace; and there are his attendants, the angels; and from thence are the administrations of his regal power and government, over the whole world:

and earth is my footstool; which is under his feet, is subject to him, and at his dispose, and which he makes use of at his pleasure: these things are not to be literally understood, but are images and figures, representing the majesty, sovereignty, and immensity of God; who is the maker of all things, the governor of the universe, and is above all places, and not to be contained in any:

what house will ye build me? saith the Lord; or where can any be built for him, since he already takes up the heaven and the earth? what house can be built by men, or with hands, that can hold him, or is fit for him to dwell in?

or what is the place of my rest? not in any house made with hands, but in the church among his saints, who are the temples of the living God; and this is his rest for ever, and here will he dwell, because he has chosen and desired them, and built them up for an habitation for himself,

Geneva Study Bible

Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 7:49. τίς τόπος for ποῖος, and οὐχὶ introducing the conclusion instead of γάρ-Although Solomon had expressed this same truth in the dedicatory prayer of his temple, St. Stephen appeals to the great Messianic prophet. It is not, as some have thought, the worthlessness of the temple, but rather its relative value upon which Stephen insists. Those who take the former view of the words must suppose that St. Stephen had forgotten that Solomon had given utterance to the same thought at the moment when he was consecrating the temple (so Wendt, Felten, McGiffert, in loco). Weiss sees in the question another proof of the thought running through the whole address, that God’s presence, with the blessings which He confers and the revelations which He imparts, is not confined to the temple: cf. the use of the same quotation as here against the Jews, Epist. Barn., xvi., 2, after the destruction of the temple.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

49. Heaven is my throne, &c.] The quotation is nearly verbatim from the LXX.

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 7:49. Ὁ σὐρανὸς, κ.τ.λ.) Isaiah 66:1-2, in the Septuag., Οὕτως λέγει Κύριος, ὁ οὐρανός μοι θρόνος, ἡ δὲ γῆ ὑποπόδιον τῶν ποδῶν μου· ποῖον οἶκον οἰκοδομήσετέ μοι; καὶ ποῖος τόπος τῆς καταπαύσεώς μου; πάντα γὰρ ταῦτα ἐποίησεν ἡ χείρ μου.—καταπαύσεως, of My rest) The Gentiles made for their gods cushioned couches.[54] The false use of the temple is hereby reproved.

[54] Pulvinaria, on which their gods were supposed to recline at the banquet called lectisternium.—E. and T.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 49. - The heaven for heaven, A.V.; the earth the footstool of my feet for earth is my footstool, A.V.; what manner of house for what house, A.V. Acts 7:49

Vincent's Word Studies

What house

Rev., more correctly, "what manner of house" (ποῖον).