Chapter VIII
1–6 (compare 1 Kings ix. 10, 11, 17–19).
Solomon’s Cities.
¹And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, wherein Solomon had built the house of the Lord, and his own house,
1. twenty years] Compare 1 Kings vi. 38, vii. 1.
²that the cities which Huram had given to Solomon, Solomon built them, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there.
2. the cities which Huram had given to Solomon] According to 1 Kings ix. 12, 13 it was Solomon who gave Huram cities. Huram however was not pleased with them (1 Kings ix. 12, 13), and from this fact the English translators of 1611 concluded that Huram rejected them and “restored” them. No reconciliation of these different versions is tenable; and it is to be supposed that the Chronicler’s tradition is unhistorical—the idea that the wealthy Solomon could not or did not purchase what he required from Huram except by parting with a portion of the territories of Israel was repugnant, if not incredible, in the Chronicler’s day.
built them] i.e. fortified them.
³And Solomon went to Hamath-zobah, and prevailed against it.
3. Hamath-zobah] The two kingdoms of Hamath and Zobah are distinguished from one another (1 Chronicles xviii. 3, 9 = 2 Samuel viii. 3, 9), Hamath apparently being north of Zobah. It is probable however that Hamath as the name of a city belonged to more than one place, and Hamath-zobah may be a southern namesake of the well-known Hamath the great (Amos vi. 2).
prevailed against it] No mention of this campaign is made elsewhere. It may be a genuine tradition preserved only in Chronicles. On the other hand, this statement and the reference to the store-cities built in Hamath (verse 4) may be due to nothing except the mention of Tadmor in the wilderness (itself an error, see following note). If Solomon built far-off Tadmor, then (the Chronicler thinks) he must also have subdued the region of Hamath.
⁴And he built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the store cities, which he built in Hamath.
4. Tadmor in the wilderness] Palmyra (Bädeker, Palestine⁵, p. 344) is meant, a city on an oasis north-east of Damascus half-way between Damascus and the Euphrates. Apart from this passage of Chronicles it first appears in history in B.C. 34, when it was threatened with attack by Mark Antony. This silence of history for a thousand years casts a doubt on the belief that Tadmor (Palmyra) is as old as the time of Solomon, and the doubt is strengthened by a reference to the parallel passage (1 Kings ix. 18), for there (1) the text (Kethīb) has “Tamar,” with “Tadmor” as marginal reading (Ḳerī), and (2) Tamar (Tadmor) is associated with Gezer, Beth-horon, and Baalath, cities either in Judah or on its borders. Probably therefore the marginal reading “Tadmor” in 1 Kings is due to the influence of 2 Chronicles, and the text of 1 Kings (“Tamar”) is correct. The city built by Solomon was a Tamar in the south of Judah.
⁵Also he built Beth-horon the upper, and Beth-horon the nether, fenced cities, with walls, gates, and bars;
5. Beth-horon the upper] Not mentioned in the parallel passage (1 Kings ix. 17) which however has Gezer. The site of Gezer has recently been explored with extremely interesting results (see e.g. Macalister, Bible Side-lights from the Mound of Gezer). The Chronicler probably omits the name of Gezer, because he had no liking for the tradition that Solomon married a daughter of Pharaoh (a heinous sin in the eyes of the Chronicler’s contemporaries), and according to 1 Kings ix. 16 Gezer was presented to Solomon by the Pharaoh as the dowry of his daughter.
⁶and Baalath, and all the store cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.
6. Baalath] A city in the tribe of (the southern) Dan not far from Gezer and Beth-horon (1 Kings ix. 18).
cities for his chariots] See note on i. 14.
7–10 (= 1 Kings ix. 20–23).
Solomon’s Task-workers.
⁷As for all the people that were left of the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which were not of Israel;
7. Hittites... Jebusites] See notes on 1 Chronicles i. 13–15.
⁸of their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel consumed not, of them did Solomon raise a levy of bondservants, unto this day.
8. consumed not] But in Kings, were not able to consume, a displeasing remark, which the Chronicler therefore softened down.
a levy of bondservants] Compare the notes on ii. 2, 17.
⁹But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no servants for his work; but they were men of war, and chief of his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen.
9. and chief of his captains] Read (with 1 Kings ix. 22) and his princes and his captains. The statements of this verse must be read in connection with 1 Kings v. 13 ff., xii. 4 ff., whence it appears that, though Solomon did not actually reduce any Israelite to permanent slavery, yet he imposed upon his own people a corvée which was felt to be very burdensome.
¹⁰And these were the chief officers of king Solomon, even two hundred and fifty, that bare rule over the people.
10. And these were the chief] After this preface (compare 1 Kings ix. 23) we expect both here and in 1 Kings a list of these persons; compare 1 Chronicles xi. 10 ff., xii. 1 ff. Possibly the text of 1 Kings suffered at an early date, and the list was missing when the Chronicler wrote.
two hundred and fifty] According to 1 Kings ix. 23, five hundred and fifty. On the other hand the under-overseers are reckoned at three thousand six hundred in 2 Chronicles ii. 18 as against three thousand three hundred in 1 Kings v. 16. The total number therefore of overseers of all kinds is given both in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles as 3850.
11 (= 1 Kings ix. 24).
The House of Pharaoh’s Daughter.
¹¹And Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David unto the house that he had built for her: for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places¹ are holy, whereunto the ark of the Lord hath come.
¹ Hebrew they are.
11. for he said, My wife, etc.] These words are an addition by the Chronicler. In 1 Kings iii. 1 it is said simply that Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter into the city of David until his own house was finished.
My wife shall not dwell] Render, No wife of mine shall dwell.
12–16 (compare 1 Kings ix. 25).
Solomon’s arrangements for the Temple Worship.
This paragraph is in the main an expansion of 1 Kings ix. 25.
¹²Then Solomon offered burnt offerings unto the Lord on the altar of the Lord, which he had built before the porch,
12. on the altar of the Lord, which he had built before the porch] This refers to the great brasen altar of burnt-offering (iv. 1). In 1 Kings the statement is that Solomon burnt incense upon the altar that was before the Lord (referring to the altar of incense; compare Exodus xxx. 1–10). Such an act, according to the Chronicler, was of the nature of trespass, being punished in the case of Uzziah with leprosy (xxvi. 16), and was therefore not to be attributed to so great a king as Solomon.
¹³even as the duty of every day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the set feasts, three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.
13. on the sabbaths, and on the new moons] The writer in Kings confines Solomon’s sacrificial duties to three times in the year, i.e. on the three great feasts specified at the end of this verse. The Chronicler adds the weekly and monthly festivals, in conformity with the developed ritual of the Priestly Code.
¹⁴And he appointed, according to the ordinance of David his father, the courses of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their charges, to praise, and to minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required: the doorkeepers also by their courses at every gate: for so had David the man of God commanded. ¹⁵And they departed not from the commandment of the king unto the priests and Levites concerning any matter, or concerning the treasures.
14. of David] Compare 1 Chronicles xxiv.–xxvi.
to praise, and to minister before the priests] Compare 1 Chronicles xxiii. 28.
David the man of God] Targum David the prophet of the Lord (a correct paraphrase). Compare Nehemiah xii. 36.
¹⁶Now all the work of Solomon was prepared unto the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord, and until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was perfected.
16. Now all the work of Solomon was prepared] Render, So all the work of Solomon was established.
unto the day... was perfected] LXX. offers a much shorter and smoother text, from the day on which it was founded until Solomon perfected the house of the Lord. This reading is probably right.
17, 18 (= 1 Kings ix. 26–28).
Solomon’s Fleet.
¹⁷Then went Solomon to Ezion-geber, and to Eloth, on the sea shore in the land of Edom.
17. to Ezion-geber, and to Eloth] In 1 Kings Ezion-geber which is beside Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea. Strictly speaking it was at the head of the Gulf of Akaba, the eastern arm of the Red Sea. Compare xx. 36 and Deuteronomy ii. 8.
¹⁸And Huram sent him by the hands of his servants ships, and servants that had knowledge of the sea; and they came with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and fetched from thence four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon.
18. sent him by the hands of his servants ships] The words would seem to imply that Huram had ships transported overland from the Phoenician coast to the Gulf of Akaba! Either the Chronicler has phrased the matter carelessly, or perhaps the text should be altered to conform with Kings, where it is merely said that Solomon built ships in Ezion-geber—probably with the help of Huram—and that Huram helped to man them.
Ophir] The situation of this oft-mentioned place is not known. It has been identified with some part of the coast (a) of India, (b) of Africa, (c) of Arabia. The last identification is the most probable; Ophir appears as the name of an Arabian tribe (Genesis x. 29). The name is variously written in the LXX. but usually with an initial “S,” Sophir(a), which has been supposed to refer to India.
four hundred and fifty talents] So LXX., but in 1 Kings “four hundred and twenty” (so Hebrew, in LXX. B “a hundred and twenty”).