What the Bible says about Debir

Debir first appears in I Kings 6:5, where God describes Solomon's Temple:

Against the wall of the temple [Solomon] built chambers all around, against the walls of the temple, all around both the sanctuary and of the inner sanctuary [(debir) "oracle" KJV].

Verse 16 makes clear what this oracle in fact is:

He built twenty cubits of the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the rafters; he built it within for the sanctuary [oracle—debir], the Holy of Holies. (The Amplified Bible)

In this verse, "Holy of Holies" parallels debir, or "oracle," explaining what the oracle is. The oracle of which God speaks here is none other than the Most Holy Place, the inner room wherein the Ark of the Covenant resided. Other translators render debir as "Holy Place," "sanctuary," "inner house," "hinder room," "back room," "recess," "inner sanctuary."

Debir is special. The translators never render it as the regular word for "behind" or "back."

We develop a composite picture of "oracle"—a clear picture of what it means—by merging the meaning of dabar ("word") in II Samuel 16:23 with the meaning of debir ("back") in the books of Kings and Chronicles. The oracle of God is the room wherein He abode, the Holy of Holies, from which He at times spoke. In the Old Testament, the oracle is God's speaking place.

In Psalm 28:2 debir makes its only appearance outside the books of Kings and Chronicles and forms a fine bridge to the New Testament understanding of the word "oracle." Like the other Old Testament instances we mentioned, debir is in the singular:

To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock: Do not be silent to me, lest, if You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You, when I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary [oracle, KJV].

Alone and troubled, David knows that he can look in prayer toward God's speaking place, His holy abode, from which He will surely break silence, speaking and acting—repaying the wicked "according to their deeds" (verse 4). David worshipped the Logos, He who all powerfully speaks and acts.

Charles Whitaker
The Oracles of God