Bible Commentaries

2 Chronicles 8:1 And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, wherein Solomon had built the house of the LORD, and his own house,

Ver. 1. At the end of twenty years.] See 1 Kings 9:19.

2 Chronicles 8:2 That the cities which Huram had restored to Solomon, Solomon built them, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there.

Ver. 2. Which Huram had restored.] Out of dislike of them. [1 Kings 9:12] Or, Which Huram had given to Solomon, that by exchange of courtesies their love might increase.

2 Chronicles 8:3 And Solomon went to Hamathzobah, and prevailed against it.

Ver. 3. And prevailed against it.] King James, when he first entered England at Berwick, himself gave fire to, and shot off a piece of ordinance, in which cannon he might seem to have discharged war out of England; so did Solomon out of Israel, by this one expedition.

2 Chronicles 8:4 And he built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the store cities, which he built in Hamath.

Ver. 4. And he built Tadmor, &c.] See 1 Kings 9:18-19.

2 Chronicles 8:5 Also he built Bethhoron the upper, and Bethhoron the nether, fenced cities, with walls, gates, and bars;

Ver. 5. Fenced cities.] To prevent and frighten an enemy.

2 Chronicles 8:6 And Baalath, and all the store cities that Solomon had, and all the chariot cities, and the cities of the horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and throughout all the land of his dominion.

Ver. 6. And in Lebanon.] In the forest of Lebanon, where he had his summer house.

2 Chronicles 8:8 [But] of their children, who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel consumed not, them did Solomon make to pay tribute until this day.

Ver. 8. Them did Solomon make to pay tribute.] Not for a toleration of their heathenish superstitions - as our William Rufus dealt by the Jews here, nor to use them as the Pope still doth the Jews in his dominions, to suck from the meanest, and to be sucked - or rather squeezed as full sponges - by the greatest; but for state service, and haply to gain them to God.

2 Chronicles 8:9 But 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 captains of his chariots and horsemen.

Ver. 9. But of the children of Israel.] See 1 Kings 9:22.

2 Chronicles 8:10 And these [were] the chief of king Solomon’s officers, [even] two hundred and fifty, that bare rule over the people.

Ver. 10. See on 1 Kings 9:23.

2 Chronicles 8:11 And 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 places are] holy, whereunto the ark of the LORD hath come.

Ver. 11. For he said, My wife shall not dwell.] Or, He had said so, sc., before he built a house for her: and while the ark was yet in the city of David.

Because the places are holy.] And she not yet too holy, but retaining some of her Egyptian profanenesses: vel propter multiplices huius sexus immunditles legales. Solomon had, against the law of God, married this and other strange wives, for political ends no doubt, and as hoping that by his wisdom he should reclaim them, or at least rule them. He did so at first, as we see in this instance. For we may not think that Solomon did this out of superstition, - as the monks at this day pare and sweep the rooms of their monasteries wherein women have been, as if they were unclean creatures, - but out of the reverential fear of God, and a religious respect to the ark. Howbeit afterwards, overcome by the importunities of his strange wives, he yielded to them shamefully. Watch, therefore, and beware.

2 Chronicles 8:12 Then Solomon offered burnt offerings unto the LORD on the altar of the LORD, which he had built before the porch,

Ver. 12. Then Solomon offered.] These sacrifices were their sacraments, visible words directing them to Christ.

2 Chronicles 8:13 Even after a certain rate every day, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn 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.

Ver. 13. Three times in a year.] At the three great feasts following.

2 Chronicles 8:14 And he appointed, according to the order of David his father, the courses of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their charges, to praise and minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required: the porters also by their courses at every gate: for so had David the man of God commanded.

Ver. 14. According to the order of David.] See 1 Chronicles 24:1.

2 Chronicles 8:16 Now 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.

Ver. 16. So the house of God was perfected.] See 1 Kings 9:25.

2 Chronicles 8:17 Then went Solomon to Eziongeber, and to Eloth, at the sea side in the land of Edom.

Ver. 17. To Eziongeber.] A haven of the Red Sea, called by Josephus Berenice, by Jerome Essia; Eloth is also called Elath, [Deuteronomy 2:8] and at this day Elana, unde sinus Elaniticus.

Four hundred and fifty talents.] Thirty of them seem to go for the charges of the voyage. Compare 1 Kings 9:28.