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, _Palestine_⁵, 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”).