1 Kings 9:21

_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._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

15-28 Here is a further account of Solomon's greatness. He began at the right end, for he built God's house first, and finished that before he began his own; then God blessed him, and he prospered in all his other buildings. Let piety begin, and profit follow; leave pleasure to the last. Whatever pains we take for the glory of God, and to profit others, we are likely to have the advantage. Canaan, the holy land, the glory of all lands, had no gold in it; which shows that the best produce is that which is for the present support of life, our own and others; such things did Canaan produce. Solomon got much by his merchandise, and yet has directed us to a better trade, within reach of the poorest. Wisdom is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold, Proverbs 3:14....

Verse 1 Kings 9:21. _A TRIBUTE OF BOND-SERVICE_] He made them do the most laborious part of the public works, the Israelites being generally exempt. When _Sesostris_, king of Egypt, returned from his wars, he caused temples to be built in all the cities of Egypt, but did not employ one _Egyptian_ in the work, having built the whole by the hands of the _captives_ which he had taken in his wars. Hence he caused this inscription to be placed upon each temple: - Ουδεις εγχωριος εις αυτα μεμοχθηκε . _No native has laboured in these._ _Diodor_. Sic. Bibl., lib. i., c. 56. It appears that Solomon might with propriety have placed a similar inscription on most of his works....

See 1 Kings 5:15 note....

EXPOSITION SOLOMON'S BUILDINGS AND UNDERTAKINGS.—So far the historian has spoken exclusively of the two greatest works of Solomon's reign, the Temple and the Palace, and principally of the former. Even the message just related was, as we have seen, the response to the prayer offered when the temple was consecrated. But he now proceeds to mention other proofs of Solomon's greatness, and of the prosperity of his reign—doubtless because the glory of Israel then reached its climax, and the author would be tempted to linger over these details because of the dark contrast which his own time supplied—and this leads him to speak of the means by which all these enterprises were accomplished. The particulars here given are but fragmentary, and are grouped together in a somewhat irregular manner. It would seem as if both this account and that of the chronicler had been compiled from much more copio...

THEIR CHILDREN THAT WERE LEFT AFTER THEM IN THE LAND,.... The posterity of those left unsubdued in the times of Joshua: WHOM THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL ALSO WERE NOT ABLE UTTERLY TO DESTROY; in later times, though now it is thought by some it was not for want of power, but because they had made a covenant with them, as the Gibeonites did, and therefore they could not, because it would have been a breach of covenant to have destroyed them; see 2 Chronicles 8:8, UPON THESE DID SOLOMON LEVY A TRIBUTE OF BOND SERVICE UNTO THIS DAY; not a tribute of money, which being poor they were not able to pay, but of service, and which being once laid on was continued, and even to the time of the writing of this book....

5. JEHOVAH APPEARS UNTO SOLOMON AND THE GREATNESS OF THE KING CHAPTER 9 _ 1. The second appearance of the LORD to Solomon (1 Kings 9:1)_ 2. Transactions with Hiram (1 Kings 9:10) 3. The levy of the king (1 Kings 9:15) 4. Pharaoh's daughter occupies the house (1 Kings 9:24) 5. The king's offerings (1 Kings 9:25) 6. Solomon's navy (1 Kings 9:26) Jehovah's righteous government in the midst of His people Israel had

SOLOMON'S DEALINGS WITH HIRAM. THE LEVY. The source of this section seems to be the Acts of Solomon (see above). After Solomon had completed his buildings he was obliged to give Hiram cities in Galilee (1 Kings 9:11). The Chronicler, regarding this as unworthy of the great king, makes Hiram give the cities to Solomon (2 Chronicles 8:2). Galilee (pp. 28- 30) is mentioned in Joshua 20:7; Joshua 21:32; 1 Chronicles 6:76, and in 2 Kings 15:29, nearly always

BONDSERVICE. See note on 1 Kings 9:22....

_whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy_ There is no word to represent -also" in the original, nor does the English sentence require it. The utter destruction spoken of here is that which had been decreed upon them by God's judgement, and which Israel was to be the agent in executing. _upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice_ The Hebrew noun מם here rendered -tribute" is applied in a concrete sense to the -renderers of the tribute." The verb also here is literally -he caused to go up." As the narrative in this verse is dealing entirely with the persons it is better to render (as R.V.) OF THESE DID SOLOMON RAISE A LEVY OF BONDSERVANTS. Theirs was slave service, such as is alluded to in Joshua 16:10. _unto this day_ A faithful copying by the compiler of the Books of Kings from some earlier record which lay before him, and which