1 Kings 9 - Introduction
IX. Of this chapter, the first portion (1 Kings 9:1) forms the conclusion of the detailed narrative of the preceding chapter; the latter portion is wholly different in style and subject.... [ Continue Reading ]
IX. Of this chapter, the first portion (1 Kings 9:1) forms the conclusion of the detailed narrative of the preceding chapter; the latter portion is wholly different in style and subject.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT CAME TO PASS. — The obvious _primâ facie_ meaning of this verse would land us in much difficulty. By 1 Kings 6:38; 1 Kings 7:1, we find that, while the Temple was built in seven years, the erection of the palace and the other buildings occupied thirteen years; and from 1 Kings 5:10 and 2 Chro... [ Continue Reading ]
TO PUT MY NAME THERE FOR EVER. — The meaning of the words “for ever” is determined by the prayer which they answer. They simply mark the Temple as the “settled habitation to abide in for ever” (see 1 Kings 8:13), in contradistinction from the movable tabernacle. Whether they were to have a larger _s... [ Continue Reading ]
(3-9) AND THE LORD SAID UNTO HIM. — This vision of the Lord presents a remarkable contrast with that recorded in 1 Kings 6:11, while the Temple was in building. Then all was promise and encouragement; now, not only is warning mingled with promise, but, as in Solomon’s own prayer, the sadder alternat... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THOU WILT WALK. — The fall of the house of Solomon from dominion over all Israel is an emphatic comment on the conditional nature of this promise. Yet the essence of the covenant with David was kept in that preservation of the diminished kingdom to an unbroken succession of his descendants — sing... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN WILL I CUT OFF. — These warnings were repeated with terrible force by Jeremiah on the eve of their fulfilment. (See Jeremiah 7:12; Jeremiah 24:9; Jeremiah 25:9.) The destruction of the Temple is by him compared with that which fell on Shiloh — no doubt, after the great defeat by the Philistines... [ Continue Reading ]
AT THIS HOUSE, WHICH IS HIGH. — The word “which” is not in the original Hebrew here (although found in the present Hebrew text of 2 Chronicles 7:21). The true meaning is certainly “This house shall be high;” which is the reading of the LXX., while the Vulg. has a good explanatory gloss, “This house... [ Continue Reading ]
BROUGHT... OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT. — This is appealed to here in exactly a converse sense to the mention of it in Solomon’s prayer. There it was made the ground for pleading with the Lord for His continued favour (see 1 Kings 8:51); here for His claim of the undivided allegiance of the people, for... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT CAME TO PASS. — To this detailed account of the building and consecration of the Temple, ending at 1 Kings 9:9, succeed, first, a notice of a visit of Hiram; and then a section of wholly different character, a series of brief notes (evidently official records), of the works and the government... [ Continue Reading ]
GAVE HIRAM... CITIES. — This implies a debt to him for timber and gold, and probably stone also, over and above the payment in kind stipulated for in 1 Kings 5:9. From the notice in 2 Chronicles 8:2, that, when these cities were restored by Hiram, Solomon rebuilt them, and peopled them with Israelit... [ Continue Reading ]
The cities are said to have been in “the land of Galilee.” The name _Galilee_, signifying properly a “circle” or “ring” of territory, is used twice in the Book of Joshua for a region round Kedesh-Naphtali (Joshua 20:7; Joshua 21:32), lying to the north-west of the Lake of Gennesareth, and extending... [ Continue Reading ]
CABUL. — The derivation of this word is uncertain. Josephus evidently did not know it as a Hebrew word; for he expressly says, that in the Phænician language it signifies “what is unpleasing.” (_Ant. viii._ 100:5, sect. 3). A city Cabul is mentioned in Joshua 19:27, in the territory of Asher, eviden... [ Continue Reading ]
HIRAM SENT TO THE KING SIXSCORE TALENTS OF GOLD. — The payment, on any calculation, was a large one, though little more than a sixth of Solomon’s yearly revenue. (See 1 Kings 10:14.) How it is connected with the previous verses is matter of conjecture. It may possibly be a note referring back to 1 K... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LEVY. — This (see 1 Kings 5:13; 1 Kings 5:15) was both of Israelites and of the subject races, first originated for the building of the Temple, afterwards extended to the other great building works. The building works enumerated are, first in Jerusalem, then in various parts of the country of c... [ Continue Reading ]
A PRESENT — that is, of course, a dowry, on her marriage with Solomon.... [ Continue Reading ]
BETH-HORON THE NETHER. — The name “Beth-horon” (“the house of caves,”) was given to two small towns or villages (still called _Beit-ûr_), near Gezer, commanding the steep and rugged pass from the maritime plain, celebrated for three great victories of Israel — the great victory of Joshua (Joshua, 10... [ Continue Reading ]
BAALATH is said by Josephus to have been in the same neighbourhood; and this agrees with the mention of it in Joshua 19:44, as lying in the region assigned to Dan, on the edge of the Philistine country. The three, Gezer, Beth-horon, and Baalath, evidently form a group of fortified places commanding... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT WHICH SOLOMON DESIRED TO BUILD. — See, in Ecclesiastes 2:4, the description of the vineyards, and gardens, and orchards, in Jerusalem, with trees of all manner of fruits and pools of water, “whatsoever mine eyes desired;” and in Song of Solomon 2:10; Song of Solomon 4:8; Song of Solomon 7:11, t... [ Continue Reading ]
A TRIBUTE OF BOND SERVICE. — This was probably not originated, but simply enforced and organised, by Solomon. It dated, in theory at least, from the Conquest. The most notable example of it is the case of the Gibeonites (Joshua 9:21); but there are incidental notices of similar imposition of serfshi... [ Continue Reading ]
NO BONDMEN. — This exemption, however it may have continued in theory, must virtually have been set aside in the later days of Solomon. (See 1 Kings 12:4.) They are here described as occupying the position of a dominant race — as warriors, servants about the person of the king, princes, and officers... [ Continue Reading ]
FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY. — In 1 Kings 5:16 we read of just six times as many officers as those here mentioned over the workers for the Temple. But in that passage there would seem to be reference to the special levy then raised; here the description is apparently of a regularly established system.... [ Continue Reading ]
PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER CAME UP... — In 2 Chronicles 8:11 a reason is assigned for this removal: “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.” In this passage the notice of her withdrawal is evidently connected with th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THREE TIMES IN A YEAR. — This verse seems by the last words to be a kind of note or postscript to the description of the completion and consecration of the Temple. To the record of the great inaugural sacrifice it adds a notice of the solemn renewal of the royal offering, both of victims and of... [ Continue Reading ]
EZION-GEBER. — This place is first noticed in Numbers 33:35 and Deuteronomy 2:8 as a station in the wanderings of the Israelites, reached not long before their entrance into Canaan. It lies at the head of the Gulf of Akabah, the nearest point of the Red Sea, on the edge of the mountain country of Ed... [ Continue Reading ]
SHIPMEN THAT HAD KNOWLEDGE OF THE SEA. — The Tyrians were known far and wide as the great sailors both of the Mediterranean and the seas beyond it, till they were rivalled and superseded by their own colonists in Carthage and by the Greeks. How greatly their seamanship, their commerce, and their civ... [ Continue Reading ]
OPHIR. — All that can be certainly gathered from the mention of Ophir in the Old Testament is, first; that it was situated to the east of Palestine and approached by the Red Sea (as is clear from this passage, from 1 Kings 22:48, and from 2 Chronicles 8:18; 2 Chronicles 9:10), and next, that so famo... [ Continue Reading ]