1 Kings 3:1-4. Solomon marries Pharaoh's daughter. Sacrifices still offered on the high places. Solomon's sacrifice at Gibeon (2 Chronicles 1:3) At the beginning of this Chapter the LXX. inserts a long passage which has nothing to correspond to it in the Hebrew. It speaks of Solomon's wisdom, the n... [ Continue Reading ]
_Pharaoh king of Egypt_ This is the first notice since the Exodus of any connexion of Israel with Egypt. It is impossible to decide with certainty which Pharaoh it was whose daughter Solomon took to wife. The 22nd Egyptian dynasty commenced with Sheshonk I. (the Shishak of the Bible), about b.c. 990... [ Continue Reading ]
_Only the people sacrificed_ The first word here seems to force us to connect this verse with the last clause of the previous chapter. The kingdom was established and all was well in temporal matters, but there was still a part of the Divine appointment not duly observed. There were high places in c... [ Continue Reading ]
_walking in the statutes of David his father_ These are the observances which David had enjoined in 1 Kings 2:3. There they are called -the charge of the Lord," and are here named -of David," because David had been diligent in their observance. So in 2 Kings 17:8, -the statutes of the heathen" means... [ Continue Reading ]
_to Gibeon_ The Hivite city which was assigned by Joshua to the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18:21-25). It is most known in early times for the cunning device of its inhabitants to secure a treaty with Joshua and the Israelites (Joshua 9), and in later history because it was the place where the taberna... [ Continue Reading ]
God appears to Solomon in a dream at Gibeon (2 Chronicles 1:7-13) 5. _In Gibeon_ The narrative which follows shews that God accepted the sacrifice of the king, though from want of a proper temple, it was offered on the high place. _in a dream_ The frequent way in which God is said to have made know... [ Continue Reading ]
_great mercy_ As the word is the same as that rendered KINDNESS in the latter half of the verse it is better to render it so here. The first kindness was during David's life, the further kindness was in giving him a successor.... [ Continue Reading ]
_I_am but _a little child_ This is a form of expression meant to indicate want of experience, but cannot be pressed literally. What Solomon's age may have been we have very imperfect data for judging. The ordinary chronology puts the murder of Uriah about twenty years before David's death. If this b... [ Continue Reading ]
_a great people_, &c. The language is that of inexperience, which exaggerates the extent of duties and cares which it has not yet encountered, and which come upon it all at once.... [ Continue Reading ]
_an understanding heart_ This is explained (2 Chronicles 1:10) by -wisdom and knowledge." The participle rendered -understanding" is literally -hearing," and the LXX. has paraphrased the clause thus: -a heart to hear and judge thy people in righteousness." But the hearing of the heart must refer to... [ Continue Reading ]
_to discern judgement_ Literally,-to hear judgement." The word is the same as in 1 Kings 3:9, where see note.... [ Continue Reading ]
_according to thy words_ The Hebrew is singular, and there seems no gain in the English plural. _so that there was none_ It is more agreeable to the English idiom in this sense to render -there HATH BEEN none." In the matter of tenses the English and Hebrew are not at all conterminous, and choice m... [ Continue Reading ]
_so that there shall not be_ The Hebrew is precisely the same as in the previous verse. Render therefore -so that there hath not been." The translation of the A.V. is no doubt due to the words with which the verse closes -all thy days." But these words may be very well understood, if we suppose them... [ Continue Reading ]
_as thy father David did walk_ We are not to draw from words like these an approval by God of all David's life, but only that his heart was right towards God for the most part, and his repentance sincere for the sins into which he fell. _I will lengthen thy days_ Not only shall the king's life be m... [ Continue Reading ]
_behold it was a dream_ So of Pharaoh (Genesis 41:7). This expression does not imply, as at first sight might be supposed, that the vision was something illusory and not to be trusted to. On the contrary, the dream was one of the recognized modes whereby men expected to receive knowledge of the divi... [ Continue Reading ]
Solomon's judgement between the two harlots, and the effect produced thereby (Not in Chronicles) 16. _Then came,_&c. We need not, any more than with τότε in the New Test., consider -then" as indicating immediate succession in order of time upon what has gone before. _harlots_ The Chaldee paraphras... [ Continue Reading ]
_I was delivered of a child with her_ In the narrative of Josephus the two children are said to have been born at the same hour of the same day. The LXX. renders -we were delivered of children in the house," making -with her" equivalent to -I as well as she.... [ Continue Reading ]
there was _no stranger with us_ Thus the mother of the dead child was able to persist in her false story. The word of one was as good as that of the other.... [ Continue Reading ]
_overlaid it_ And so smothered it, while both mother and child were asleep.... [ Continue Reading ]
_and laid it in her bosom_ It is not easy to account for the action of this woman. We need not however suppose her to have been possessed of very fine feelings, as indeed her after-behaviour shews. But it is somewhat more than unnatural to adopt such a scheme as this described here at a moment's not... [ Continue Reading ]
_behold it was dead_ i.e. I had a dead child in my bosom which I supposed to be mine. _I had considered_ The form of the verb implies a careful examination, a looking over and over, and noticing such marks on the child's body as none but its mother would. _in the morning_ When the daylight was suf... [ Continue Reading ]
_Bring me a sword_ As the verb is not the same as that which in the next clause is rendered -brought", it may be well to use different English. Read - FETCH me a sword.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Divide the living child_ According to Josephus, the order of the king was that both the living and the dead child should be divided and half of either be given to each mother. But this was not in Solomon's thought. He was not wishing to make a fair division of the two children, but, by threatening... [ Continue Reading ]
_her bowels yerned_ It was believed that some of the viscera were the seat of the emotions. Hence this expression is very common both in the Old and New Testament for the keenest and strongest feeling. The verb _yern_, cognate with the German adverb _gern_= -eagerly", -gladly", implies intense desir... [ Continue Reading ]
_Give her the living child_ Not referring to the woman who had last spoken as the sequence of the clauses might lead us to expect. The king no doubt pointed to the mother who was desirous at all cost to keep the child alive. The late Dr Bernard had a most ingenious explanation of the construction o... [ Continue Reading ]
_they feared the king_ As having a power beyond what they had seen in any other to detect wrong, and to find out truth and falsehood, and so to make certain the punishment of evildoers. There was no escape from such a judge. _the wisdom of God_ i.e. Wisdom which God had given, and which made the ki... [ Continue Reading ]