2 Chronicles 8: Summary and Commentary

Verse 2

8:2 The twenty towns that Solomon had given Hiram in exchange for gold were unsatisfactory to Hiram (1 Kgs 9:11-14); this implies that Hiram gave them back to Solomon, who apparently provided other compensation.

Verse 3

8:3 This verse is the only reference in Chronicles of Solomon’s military accomplishments; he was known as a man of peace (1 Chr 22:9). The kingdoms of David and Solomon extended to Hamath-zobah in the far north on the Orontes River. King Toi, the ruler of Hamath, sought David’s support against Hadadezer, king of Zobah (1 Chr 18:9-10). Hadadezer was also referred to as the king of Zobah-Hamath (1 Chr 18:3). Solomon conducted an expedition against this territory to maintain the stability of his kingdom’s northern border.

Verse 4

8:4 The Chronicler describes the northern reaches of Solomon’s kingdom. Tadmor later became Palmyra, an oasis city in Syria along the desert trade routes with Mesopotamia, 120 miles northeast of Damascus. It is not mentioned elsewhere in the Bible. At some point, it came to be identified with the list of fortified cities in Solomon’s kingdom (cp. 1 Kgs 9:18, where Tamar/Tadmor indicates a city in southeast Judah).

Verse 5

8:5 Upper and Lower Beth-horon sit astride a ridge rising from the Valley of Aijalon to the plateau north of Jerusalem. Fortifications protected the route connecting Jerusalem to the major coastal trade route.

Verse 6

8:6 Some cities were used for storage and for military cavalry. Large building complexes at Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer contained long rooms divided into three sections with two rows of pillars. They might have been used as stables and storehouses, or they might have provided barracks for a professional army.

Verse 11

8:11 Solomon’s alliance with Egypt through his marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter is mentioned repeatedly in Kings (1 Kgs 3:1; 9:16, 24; 11:1). Solomon’s ability to marry into the Egyptian royal family shows the extent of his kingdom and international influence. Solomon provided her with a permanent personal residence to show that he regarded her as the most important of his wives. It also preserved the sanctity of David’s palace, probably because Pharaoh’s daughter was pagan.

Verse 17

8:17-18 By discussing Solomon’s activities at his kingdom’s most northern and southern borders, the Chronicler shows the extent of Solomon’s empire. Solomon controlled ports on the Red Sea that provided for international trade to the south. • Hiram was a valuable ally; his people, the Phoenicians of Tyre, had extensive trade networks and were expert mariners, helping Solomon trade with Ophir. • Ophir is traditionally thought to be in southwest Arabia (see Gen 10:28-29).

Verse 1

This we had Kg1 9:10-24, and therefore shall only observe here,

I. Though Solomon was a man of great learning and knowledge, yet he spent his days, not in contemplation, but in action, not in his study, but in his country, in building cities and fortifying them, in a time of peace preparing for a time of war, which is as much a man's business as it is in summer to provide food for winter.

II. As he was a man of business himself, and did not consult his own ease, so he employed a great many hands, kept abundance of people to work. It is the interest of a state by all means possible to promote and encourage industry, and to keep its subjects from idleness. A great many strangers there were in Israel, many that remained of the Canaanites; and they were welcome to live there, but not to live and do nothing. The men of Laish, who had no business, were an easy prey to the invaders, Jdg 18:7.

III. When Solomon had begun with building the house of God, and made good work and quick work of that, he prospered in all his undertakings, so that he built all that he desired to build, Ch2 8:6. Those who have a genius for building find that one project draws on another, and the latter must amend and improve the former. Now observe, 1. How the divine providence gratified even Solomon's humour, and gave him success, not only in all that he needed to build and that it was for his advantage to build, but in all that he had a mind to build. So indulgent a Father God is sometimes to the innocent desires of his children that serve him. Thus he pleased Jacob with that promise, Joseph shall put his hand on thy eyes. 2. Solomon knew how to set bounds to his desires. He was not one of those that enlarge them endlessly, and can never be satisfied, but knew when to draw in; for he finished all he desired, and then he desired no more. He did not sit down and fret that he had not more cities to build, as Alexander did that he had not more worlds to conquer, Hab 2:5.

IV. That one reason why Solomon built a palace on purpose for the queen, and removed her and her court to it, was because he thought it by no means proper that she should dwell in the house of David (Ch2 8:11), considering that that had been a place of great piety, and perhaps her house was a place of great vanity. She was proselyted, it is likely, to the Jewish religion; but it is a question whether all her servants were. Perhaps they had among them the idols of Egypt, and a great deal of profaneness and debauchery. Now, though Solomon had not zeal and courage enough to suppress and punish what was amiss there, yet he so far consulted the honour of his father's memory that he would not suffer that place to be thus profaned where the ark of God had been and where holy David had prayed many a good prayer and sung many a sweet psalm. Not that all the places where the ark had been were so holy as never to be put to a common use; for then the houses of Abinadab and Obed-edom must have been so. But the place where it had been so long, and had been so publicly attended on, was so venerable that it was not fit to be the place of so much gaiety, not to say iniquity, as was to be found, I fear, in the court that Pharaoh's daughter kept. Note, Between things sacred and things common the ancient landmarks ought to be kept up. It was an outer-court of the temple that was the court of the women.

Verse 12

Here is, I. Solomon's devotion. The building of the temple was in order to the service of the temple. Whatever cost he was at in rearing the structure, if he had neglected the worship that was to be performed there, it would all have been to no purpose. Assisting the devotion of others will not atone for our own neglects. When Solomon had built the temple, 1. He kept up the holy sacrifices there, according to the law of Moses, Ch2 8:12, Ch2 8:13. In vain had the altar been built, and in vain had fire come down from heaven, if sacrifices had not been constantly brought as the food of the altar and the fuel of that fire. There were daily sacrifices, a certain rate every day, as duly as the day came, weekly sacrifices on the sabbath, double to what was offered on other days, monthly sacrifices on the new moons, and yearly sacrifices at the three solemn feasts. Those are spiritual sacrifices that are now required of us, which we are to bring daily and weekly; and it is good to be in a settled method of devotion. 2. He kept up the holy songs there, according to the law of David, who is here called the man of God, as Moses was, because he was both instructed and authorised of God to make these establishments; and Solomon took care to see them observed as the duty of every day required, Ch2 8:14. Solomon, though a wise and great man and the builder of the temple, did not attempt to amend, alter, or add to what the man of God had, in God's name, commanded, but closely adhered to that, and used his authority to have that duly observed; and then none departed from the commandment of the king concerning any matter, Ch2 8:15. He observed God's laws, and then all obeyed his orders. When the service of the temple was put into this good order, then it is said, The house of the Lord was perfected, Ch2 8:16. The work was the main matter, not the place; the temple was unfinished till all this was done.

II. Solomon's merchandise. He did himself in person visit the sea-port towns of Eloth and Ezion-geber; for those that deal much in the world will find it their interest, as far as they can, to inspect their affairs themselves and to see with their own eyes, Ch2 8:17. Canaan was a rich country, and yet must send to Ophir for gold; the Israelites were a wise and understanding people, and yet must be beholden to the king of Tyre for men that had knowledge of the seas, Ch2 8:18. Yet Canaan was God's peculiar land, and Israel God's peculiar people. This teaches us that grace, and not gold, is the best riches, and acquaintance with God and his law, not with arts and sciences, the best knowledge.

Verse 3

And Solomon went to Hamath-zobah—Hamath was on the Orontes, in CÅ“le-Syria. Its king, Toi, had been the ally of David; but from the combination, Hamath and Zobah, it would appear that some revolution had taken place which led to the union of these two petty kingdoms of Syria into one. For what cause the resentment of Solomon was provoked against it, we are not informed, but he sent an armed force which reduced it. He made himself master also of Tadmor, the famous Palmyra in the same region. Various other cities along the frontiers of his extended dominions he repaired and fitted up, either to serve as store-places for the furtherance of his commercial enterprises, or to secure his kingdom from foreign invasion (see on Ch2 1:14; Kg1 9:15).

Verse 7

THE CANAANITES MADE TRIBUTARIES. (Ch2 8:7-11)

all the people that were left, &c.—The descendants of the Canaanites who remained in the country were treated as war prisoners, being obliged to "pay tribute or to serve as galley slaves" (Ch2 2:18), while the Israelites were employed in no works but such as were of an honorable character.

Verse 10

two hundred and fifty that bare rule—(Compare Kg1 9:23). It is generally agreed that the text of one of these passages is corrupt.

Verse 11

Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David unto the house that he had built for her—On his marriage with the Egyptian princess at the beginning of his reign, he assigned her a temporary abode in the city of David, that is, Jerusalem, until a suitable palace for his wife had been erected. While that palace was in progress, he himself lodged in the palace of David, but he did not allow her to occupy it, because he felt that she being a heathen proselyte, and having brought from her own country an establishment of heathen maid-servants, there would have been an impropriety in her being domiciled in a mansion which was or had been hallowed by the reception of the ark. It seems she was received on her arrival into his mother's abode (Sol 3:4; Sol 8:2).

Verse 15

SOLOMON'S FESTIVAL SACRIFICES. (Ch2 8:15-18)

they departed not from the commandment of the king—that is, David, in any of his ordinances, which by divine authority he established.

unto the priests and Levites concerning any matter, or concerning the treasures—either in regulating the courses of the priests and Levites, or in the destination of his accumulated treasures to the construction and adornment of the temple.

Verse 17

Then went Solomon to Ezion-geber, and to Eloth—These two maritime ports were situated at the eastern gulf of the Red Sea, now called the Gulf of Akaba. Eloth is seen in the modern Akaba, Ezion-geber in El Gudyan [ROBINSON]. Solomon, determined to cultivate the arts of peace, was sagacious enough to perceive that his kingdom could become great and glorious only by encouraging a spirit of commercial enterprise among his subjects; and, accordingly, with that in mind he made a contract with Huram for ships and seamen to instruct his people in navigation.

Verse 18

Huram sent him . . . ships—either sent him ship-men, able seamen, overland; or, taking the word "sent" in a looser sense, supplied him, that is, built him ships—namely, in docks at Eloth (compare Kg1 9:26-27). This navy of Solomon was manned by Tyrians, for Solomon had no seamen capable of performing distant expeditions. The Hebrew fishermen, whose boats plied on the Sea of Tiberias or coasted the shores of the Mediterranean, were not equal to the conducting of large vessels laden with valuable cargoes on long voyages and through the wide and unfrequented ocean.

four hundred and fifty talents of gold—(Compare Kg1 9:28). The text in one of these passages is corrupt.

Next: 2 Chronicles Chapter 9