Bible Commentaries

1 Kings 9:1 And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he was pleased to do,

Ver. 1. And all Solomon’s desire.] The word signifieth such a desire as a young man hath after his mistress, or a bridegroom toward his bride; which showeth that Solomon took too much content in his buildings and furniture, passed over his affections too much unto them, and here began his fall. Licitis perimus omnes. See Ecclesiastes 2:2-10.

1 Kings 9:2 That the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon.

Ver. 2. That the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time.] This was a great engagement upon Solomon to cleave close to that God who had appeared unto him twice. [1 Kings 11:9] See an analogical appearance to all that love him, [John 14:21] and be instructed, lest God’s soul depart from us, [Jeremiah 6:8] for our "evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." [Hebrews 3:12]

1 Kings 9:3 And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.

Ver. 3. I have heard thy prayer.] God sometimes answereth his people before they ask, [Isaiah 65:24] as he did David; [Psalms 32:5] sometimes as they are asking, as he did Daniel; [Daniel 9:20] but certainly after they have prayed, provided that they bring to him lawful petitions and honest hearts. The reason whereof, see John 16:26-27.

Mine eyes and my heart shall be there.] It shall well be seen that this house is mihi chara, cordi, et curae.

1 Kings 9:4 And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, [and] wilt keep my statutes and my judgments:

Ver. 4. To do according to all.] "All" is a little word, but of large extent. He doeth not God’s will, but his own will, who doeth no more than himself will. Everything must be done as well as anything, else we do nothing.

1 Kings 9:5 Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.

Ver. 5. Then will I establish.] See on 1 Kings 2:4.

For ever.] That is, For a long season; till Shiloh come, and a period be put to the Jewish polity.

1 Kings 9:6 [But] if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments [and] my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:

Ver. 6. But if you shall at all turn.] Heb., Turning turn; utterly and totally turn, sliding back from me by a perpetual backsliding; [Jeremiah 8:5] if ye shall hold fast deceit, and refuse to return (ibid.).

1 Kings 9:7 Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:

Ver. 7. And Israel shall be a proverb and a byword.] They are so at this day. {See Trapp on "Zechariah 8:13"}

1 Kings 9:8 And at this house, [which] is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house?

Ver. 8. And shall hiss.] In scorn and horror.

1 Kings 9:9 And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil.

Ver. 9. Because they forsook, &c.] Apostasy is hateful even among the heathen. Solyman, the grand signior, rejected the revolt of his Christian subjects to Turkism, and doubled their taxations.

And have taken hold.] Fast hold, such as they will not let go. Nothing is more pertinacious than superstition. Me ex ea opinione quam a maioribus accepi de cultu deorum nullius unquam movebit oratio, saith Cicero: I will never renounce my religion, which yet was no better than a mere irreligion.

1 Kings 9:10 And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD, and the king’s house,

Ver. 10. At the end of twenty years,] viz., From the beginning of the temple’s building.

1 Kings 9:11 ([Now] Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

Ver. 11. In the land of Galilee.] Called Galilee of the Gentiles, [Isaiah 9:1] because by them inhabited, [ 1:31-32] till Solomon dispossessed them, and thus disposed of their country.

1 Kings 9:12 And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not.

Ver. 12. And they pleased him not.] Here some tax Hiram of covetousness, which he expressed by his lofty looks, and discontented expostulations.

1 Kings 9:13 And he said, What cities [are] these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day.

Ver. 13. What cities are these?] i.e., Quanti putas esse? ^(a) How much dost thou hold them worth?

And he called them the land of Cabul,] i.e., Displeasing or dirty; or, by transposition of a letter, terra canina, a land for my dogs. Oh that we could have as light an esteem of all things here below, looking upon this world as a great dunghill!

1 Kings 9:14 And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold.

Ver. 14. And Hiram sent to the king.] Miserat autem, so Vatablus rendereth it, And Hiram had sent. &c., sc., before the offer of those twenty cities.

1 Kings 9:15 And this [is] the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

Ver. 15. And this is the reason of the levy,] sc., That Hiram, since he would not have those cities, might have his money repaid him, that had been bestowed - and much more - upon those buildings.

1 Kings 9:16 [For] Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it [for] a present unto his daughter, Solomon’s wife.

Ver. 16. For Pharaoh king of Egypt, &c.] At the request, likely, of his son-in-law Solomon, who was busied in his buildings.

1 Kings 9:17 And Solomon built Gezer, and Bethhoron the nether,

Ver. 17. And Bethhoron, the nether.] Yea, both the Bethhorons, nether and upper too. [2 Chronicles 8:5]

1 Kings 9:18 And Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land,

Ver. 18. In the wilderness, in the land,] i.e., So in the wilderness, as not out of the land of Canaan. Places which were but thinly inhabited, the Jews called wildernesses.

1 Kings 9:19 And all the cities of store that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

Ver. 19. And cities for his chariots.] Which he had ready, in case war should fall out. Queen Elizabeth likewise provided for war, when she was at perfect peace with all men. ^(a)

And that which Solomon desired.] Heb., The desire of Solomon, which he desired. See on 1 Kings 9:1. God alloweth his servants all lawful delights, only they must see to it that they exceed not.

1 Kings 9:20 [And] all the people [that were] left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which [were] not of the children of Israel,

Ver. 20. And all the people that were left.] These and their posterity seem to be called Solomon’s servants, [Ezra 2:55; Ezra 2:58 Nehemiah 7:57; Nehemiah 7:60; Nehemiah 11:3] like as the Gibeonites were called Nethinims. [Ezra 2:43]

1 Kings 9:21 Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto this day.

Ver. 21. Were not able utterly to destroy.] Once they could, but did not; afterwards they would have done it, but were not able.

1 Kings 9:22 But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they [were] men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen.

Ver. 22. Did Solomon make no bondmen.] Yet were they discontented at his government: and ten whole tribes at once cast off his son and successor, choosing Jeroboam for their king.

1 Kings 9:23 These [were] the chief of the officers that [were] over Solomon’s work, five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work.

Ver. 23. Five hundred and fifty.] Nothing so many as he had about his temple work. [1 Kings 5:16] These also took their turns, two hundred and fifty at a time, and fifty to be over them also. [2 Chronicles 8:10]

1 Kings 9:24 But Pharaoh’s daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which [Solomon] had built for her: then did he build Millo.

Ver. 24. But Pharaoh’s daughter came up.] See the reason of this remove. [2 Chronicles 8:11]

1 Kings 9:25 And three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar which he built unto the LORD, and he burnt incense upon the altar that [was] before the LORD. So he finished the house.

Ver. 25. And three times in a year.] At the three great feasts: {see Deuteronomy 16:16} besides other times. [2 Chronicles 8:13]

1 Kings 9:26 And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which [is] beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom.

Ver. 26. And king Solomon made a navy of ships.] Not now first, but when he first began to build, or before. Neither out of covetousness, but for the ease of the people, and to defray his great charges. Fabrica enim opes etiam regias et maximas exhaurit. Building is very costly.

In Eziongeber.] Jehoshaphat did the like, but with unlike success; and why? see 1 Kings 22:48.

1 Kings 9:27 And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

Ver. 27. Shipmen that had knowledge of the sea.] The Tyrians and Phoenicians were famous all the world over for their great skill in navigation. Of the Hollanders, one saith, Peterent caelum navibus Belgae, si navibus peti posset. The Low-country men are brave seamen; and that the English are no less, our recent conflicts with them and our great achievements in the western parts have proclaimed.

1 Kings 9:28 And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought [it] to king Solomon.

Ver. 28. And they came to Ophir,] i.e., To golden Chersonesus, saith Josephus; to Peru, or Hispaniola, say others, who hold that the newly found world, as we call America, was known to Solomon and the ancients; like as the Chinese say that they had the art of printing among them many hundreds of years before we had. The gold of this land is called gold of Parvaim, [2 Chronicles 3:6] that is, of the two Perus, say they; the greater and the lesser.

Four hundred and twenty talents.] At one time: as at another, four hundred and fifty, [2 Chronicles 8:18] for every three years they made a voyage thither, [1 Kings 10:22] it being distant from Jerusalem four thousand eight hundred miles, as some have computed it.