1 Kings 9:15

Of the levy which king Solomon raised (2 Chronicles 8:4-11)

15. the reason of the levy On the nature and amount of this compulsory service see notes on chap. 1 Kings 5:13 seqq. The present passage explains the whole purpose for which it was enforced.

and Millo This word is always found in the original with the definite article -the Millo" (2 Samuel 5:9; 1Ki 11:27; 2 Chronicles 11:8; 2 Chronicles 32:5). Wherever it occurs it is in connexion with the walls or fortifications of Jerusalem. In 2 Chronicles 32:5 it is stated to be in the city of David. Now the most common rendering of the word in the LXX. is ἡ ἄκρα = -the citadel," a word which is constantly used in the Books of the Maccabees for the fortress on Mount Zion. It seems probable therefore that -the Millo" was some specially important, and hence strongly fortified, portion of the oldest walls where they approached most closely to Zion. From 2 Samuel 5:9 we should conclude that the fortress was already existing before David conquered Jerusalem, and the name itself may have been given by the Jebusites.

and Hazor A strong city, south of Kedesh-Naphtali in the north of Palestine. When the Israelites entered Canaan it was in the possession of king Jabin, but was taken and burnt by Joshua. Standing on a lofty position it was a post of much importance for the defence of the kingdom on the north. For this reason no doubt Solomon fortified it, but it must have already been rebuilt since its destruction by Joshua, for we read of it in Judges 4:2; Judges 4:17, as the city of another Jabin, whose commander in chief was Sisera, slain by Jael.

Megiddo This city (Joshua 12:21) lay on the south side of the plain of Esdraelon, between Mt. Tabor and the modern bay of St Jean d'Acre, and must have been important as a protection against inroads from the northern highlands and from the direction of Phœnicia, commanding, as it would, the great road from the sea to the plain of the Jordan. Megiddo lay within the tribe of Issachar, but was allotted to Manasseh (Joshua 17:11; 1 Chronicles 7:29). The city was famous for the overthrow of Sisera, but most especially as the place where king Josiah was slain in the war against Pharaoh-Necho (2 Kings 23:29).

Gezer The position of this ancient city has not been identified, and it is not clear that there were not two places of the same name. One Gezer is mentioned (Joshua 10:33) in connexion with Lachish and Eglon and other places in the south part of Canaan, but a Gezer is also spoken of as in the land assigned to the children of Joseph (Joshua 16:3), that is, the tribe of Ephraim, and as being not far from Beth-horon. If these two be references to the same place the king of Gezer came a long distance to help the king of Lachish. It seems more likely that they were distinct towns. The Gezer in Ephraim did however remain in the possession of the Canaanites (see Joshua 16:10), and so the king of Egypt may have come against it (as we read in the next verse) without being at war with Israel. Yet the fortification by Solomon of a place to protect his dominions on the south makes it perhaps a little more probable that some place nearer Eglon and Lachish is meant in the present passage, for there Canaanites might also be dwelling.