The feast of dedication, and B. C. 1004. e B. C. 1004. A. M. 3000. 61 Let your heart therefore be || and meat-offerings, and the fat of the A. M. 3000. h perfect with the LORD our God, to peace-offerings: because the brazen walk in his statutes, and to keep his command-altar that was before the LORD was too little ments, as at this day. to receive the burnt-offerings, and meat-offer 62 ¶ And the king, and all Israel with him, ings, and the fat of the peace-offerings. offered sacrifice before the LORD. 63 And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peaceofferings, which he offered unto the LORD, two and twenty thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD. 64 The same day did the king hallow the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD: for there he offered burnt-offerings, Chap. xi. 4; xv. 3, 14; 2 Kings xx. 3.- 2 Chron. vii. 4, &2 Chron. vii. 7.- 2 Chron. iv. 1. Verse 2; Leviticus xxiii. 34. enemies, all the nations of the world may be con- Verse 61. Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord your God-Be sincere and serious in your purposes of new obedience. Let it be universal, without dividing; upright, without dissembling; and Constant, without declining. Thus having spoken to God for them, he here speaks from God to them; and those only would be the better for his prayers, that were made better by his preaching. 65 And at that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt, before the LORD our God, "seven days and seven days, even fourteen days. 66 "On the eighth day he sent the people away: and they 19 blessed the king, and went unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the LORD had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people. * Num. xxxiv. 8; Josh. xiii. 5; Judg. iii. 3; 2 Kings xiv. 25. 1 Genesis xv. 18; Numbers xxxiv. 5.- 2 Chron. vii. 8. a 2 Chron. vii. 9, 10.- 19 Or, thanked. direction of God's Spirit, wherewith Solomon was endowed, as being a prophet, as well as a king. Here therefore he suddenly reared up divers altars, which, after this solemnity, were demolished. Verses 65, 66. At that time Solomon held a feastThat is, kept a solemn festival. And all Israel from Hamath unto the river of Egypt-The usual and known bounds of the land, in the utmost length of it, Num. xxxiv. 8; Josh. xiii. 5; Jud. iii. 3. Before the Lord-Before the temple, as in God's presence. Seven days and seven days-Seven for the dedication of the temple, or altar; and the other seven for the feast of tabernacles. And it seems to be expressed in this manner, to intimate, that these fourteen days of rejoicing were not all together, but that there was some interval between them, which indeed was necessary, because the day of atonement was on the tenth day of this month, Lev. xxiii. 27. And because these fourteen days ended on the twentysecond day, (2 Chron. vii. 10,) it may seem most probable, that the feast of the dedication was kept before the tenth day; and the feast of tabernacles some days after it. On the eighth day he sent the people Verse 63. And Solomon offered-By the hands away-Having joined with them in the solemn of the priests, two and twenty thousand oxen, &c.-assembly, which was kept on the eighth day; in the Not all in one day, but in seven, or, it may be, in close of that day he took his solemn farewell, and the fourteen days mentioned verse 65. So the king dismissed them with his blessing; and the next and all Israel dedicated the house of the Lord-morning, when the heads and elders, with divers of Began to set it apart for the work and services of the people, came to take their leave of the king, he God by these sacrifices and holy exercises. sent them away. And they blessed the king-They Verse 64. The same day-Or rather, at the same applauded, admired, and returned him the thanks of time. For it can scarcely be supposed that it could the congregation for the great care and pains he had all be done the same day. Did the king hallow the taken in building the temple and setting up God's middle of the court-Namely, the court of the priests worship among them. Or, they prayed to God to in which the great altar was. This he consecrated bless him, according to their duty and custom. And as he did the great altar, by sacrifices; but with this went to their tents joyful and glad of heart-Easy difference, that he consecrated that for perpetual in mind and pleased; rejoicing in all the goodness use, but this only for the present occasion, being that the Lord had done for David-In giving him Warranted to do so both by the necessity of it for a sure house, and a wise and religious son, by whom God's service, and for the present solemn work, for he had now fulfilled the promise made to him about which the brazen altar was not sufficient; and by the building the temple. And for Israel his people The Lord appears a I. KINGS. second time to Solomon. They rejoiced in God's blessings both on the royal || the covenant of redemption; and to all believers, his family and on the kingdom. In this spirit should spiritual Israel, in their sanctification and consolawe go home from holy ordinances, and should tion, pursuant to the covenant of grace. If we rerejoice for God's goodness to our Lord Jesus, of joice not herein always, it is our own fault; it is whom David his servant was a type, in the advance- owing to the weakness of our faith and hope, and the ment and establishment of his throne, pursuant to|| coldness of our love. God in a vision answers Solomon's prayer, 1–9. A. M. 3012. AND b CHAPTER IX. The mutual presents of Solomon and Hiram, 10-14. His workmen and buildings, 15-24. His devotion, 25. His navy, 26–28. g B. C. 992. ND it came to pass, when Solo- || made before me: I have hallowed A. M. 3012. mon had finished the building of this house, which thou hast built, to the house of the LORD, and the king's house, put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased and my heart shall be there perpetually. to do, i 4 And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in 2 That the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at || uprightness, to do according to all that I have Gibeon. commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments: 5 Then I will establish the throne of thy NOTES ON CHAPTER IX. tive to hallow or consecrate it. Men cannot make Verses 1, 2. And it came to pass when Solomon a place holy; yet what we in sincerity devote to had finished, &c.-Or rather, according to 2 Chron. God, we may hope he will graciously accept as his. vii. 11, Thus Solomon finished the house of the To put my name there for ever-As long as the Lord, &c., and concluded all with the foregoing Mosaic dispensation lasts: whereas hitherto my worprayer, and the great festival which he kept. That ship has been successively in several places. And the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time- || mine eyes-My watchful and gracious providence. That is, the second time in a dream or vision; the My heart-My true and tender affection. Shall be divine message, mentioned chap. vi. 11, having been there perpetually-Shall be toward this place and imparted unto him by some prophet or messenger people, upon condition of your obedience, as it sent from God on that errand. Accordingly this here follows. Apply this to persons, to God's living appearance, like the former at Gibeon, is said (2 temples: those whom he hallows or sanctifies; Chron. vii. 10) to have been made by night, and in whom he sets apart for himself, in consequence of all probability the very night after he had finished their repentance and faith in Jesus, have his eye the solemnities of his festival, as the other had been. upon and his heart toward them; they have his God had given a real answer to Solomon's prayer, love and his care, and this perpetually. and tokens of his acceptance of it, immediately, by the fire from heaven which consumed the sacrifice, (2 Chron. vii. 1,) but here we have a more express and distinct answer to it. Verse 3. The Lord said, I have heard thy prayer -This shows that the first verse is to be understood as we have just stated: for otherwise we must suppose this appearance of God to Solomon to have taken place, and this answer to have been given to his prayer, eleven years after he had finished the house, and addressed that prayer to him at the dedication of it; which is very unlikely. I have hallowed this house-By my glorious presence in the cloud, and by my acceptance of thy sacrifices. I have sanctified it to my proper use and service. Solomon had dedicated it, but it was God's preroga Verses 4, 5. If thou wilt walk before me, &c.-He shows him that he and his people were for the future upon their good behaviour: Let them not be secure now, as if they might conduct themselves as they please, having the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord among them, Jer. vii. 4. No: this house was designed to protect them in their allegiance to God, not in their rebellion against him, or disobedience to him. As David thy father walked-Who, though he foully miscarried in some things, yet in the general course of his life was upright and faithful, especially in things relating to the worship of God and civil government. Then will I establish the throne of thy kingdom-Upon that condition, and not otherwise; for my promise to David was conditional, Psa. cxxxii. 12. If we The mutual presents B. C. 992. CHAPTER IX. A. M. 3012. kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel. 61 But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes, which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them: 7 Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house which I have hallowed "for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a by-word among all people: 8 And Pat this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house? વ્ perform our part of the condition, God will not fail to perform his. If we improve the grace God has given us, he will confirm us to the end. Let not the children of godly parents expect the entail of the blessing, unless they tread in the steps of those that are gone before them, and keep up the virtue and piety of their ancestors. if of Solomon and Hiram. B. C. 992. 9 And they shall answer, Because A. M. 3012. they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil. 10 And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD, and the king's house, 11 (s Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar-trees and fir-trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 12 And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not. not so high as to be out of the reach of his judgments, which should assuredly fall upon it and them, if they vilified it so as to exchange it for groves and idol-temples, and yet, at the same time, most inconsistently and absurdly magnified it, so as to suppose it would secure the favour of God to them, although they ever so much corrupted themselves. Every Verses 6,7. If you shall at all turn from follow-one that passeth by it shall be astonished-At its iag me-Hebrew, If in turning you turn from me; unexpected and wonderful ruin. As they who now that is, if you assuredly, and indeed, or, as some pass by it are astonished at the bulk and beauty, the understand it, altogether turn from me; if you for- richness, contrivance, and workmanship of it, and sake my service, desert my altar, and go and serve call it a stupendous fabric; so, if you forsake God, other gods; (for that was the covenant-breaking sin;) its height will make its fall the more amazing, and you or your children break off from me, and they that pass by will be as much astonished at its knowingly and wilfully violate my laws, this house ruins. And shall hiss-By way of contempt and will not save you. Then will I cut off Israel-By derision; and shall say, Why hath the Lord, &c.-one judgment after another, till they become the What is the reason that this famous place, which most despicable people under the sun, though they boasted so much of the favour and protection of God, be now the most honourable. This implies the de- is thus laid in ruins? And they shall answer, Bestruction of the royal family, though it is not par- cause they forsook, &c.-The guilty, self-convicted, ticularly threatened; for the king is of course un- self-condemned Israelites will be forced to acknowdone if his kingdom be destroyed. And this house ledge with shame, that they themselves were the ruin will I cast out of my sight-I will not regard it, of it. See Deut. xxix. 24. Their sin will be read in but will take away my presence and protection their punishment. They deserted the temple, and from it: it shall be abandoned and laid desolate. therefore God deserted it; they profaned it with their And Israel shall be a proverb-Their calamities sins, and laid it common; and therefore God proand miseries shall be mentioned proverbially, to ex-faned it with his judgments, and laid it waste. Of press extreme affliction and distress. And a by- this God thus gave Solomon fair warning, now he among all people-Who would mock at their had newly built and dedicated it, that he and his calamitous and deplorable state. people might not be high-minded, but fear. word Verses 8, 9. And at this house, which is highExalted in its privileges, and renowned for its riches and splendour, and the great resort of people to it. They gloried in the stateliness and magnificence of the structure; but God here lets them know it was VOL. II. Verses 11-14. Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee-Or, near the land of Galilee, bordering upon it; in those parts which were near, and adjoining to, Hiram's dominions: with the cities, understand the territories belonging to them. 49 14 And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents unto his daughter, Solomon's wife. of gold. 15 ¶ And this is the reason of "the levy which King Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and * Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and a Gezer. Josh. xix. 27.- -2 That is, displeasing, or, dirty." Chap. v. 13. Verse 24; 2 Samuel v. 9.- -y Joshua xix. 36. Joshua xvii. 11. 17 And Solomon built Gezer, and Bethhoron the nether, d 18 And Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land, 19 And all the cities of store that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his a Josh. xvi. 10; Judg. i. 29.-b Josh. xvi. 10. Joshua xvi. 3; xxi. 22; 2 Chron. viii. 5. d Josh. xix. 44; 2 Chron. viii. 4, 6, &c.- Chap. iv. 26. service. And Millo-David had built round about Zion, from Millo inward, (2 Sam. v. 9,) but had left the structure of Millo itself imperfect, which Solomon now completed, with a particular respect to Pharaoh's daughter, whose house was near it, verse These cities, though they were within those large bounds which God fixed to the land of promise, (Gen. xv. 18; Josh. i. 4,) yet were not within those parts which were distributed by lot in Joshua's time. It is probable they were not inhabited by Is- || raelites, but by Canaanites, or other heathen; who 24. It seems, from chap. xi. 27, and 2 Chron. xxxii. having been subdued and made tributary by David || or Solomon, those cities became a part of their do- | minions; and afterward were reckoned a part of Galilee, as Josephus notes. They pleased him not|| -Were not suitable to his desire, and the genius of his people. He called them the land of Cabul-A Phenician word, says Josephus, which signifies displeasing. But Rabbi Salomon writes that the land was so called because it was "quasi compedita, id est, argillacea, tenax, et infrugifera," bound, stiff, || clayey, and unfruitful. Hiram did not like it, because, though it might be very good, yet being a thick and stiff clay, and therefore requiring great pains to cultivate and manure it, it was very unsuitable to the disposition of the Tyrians, who were delicate, and lazy, and luxurious, and wholly given to merchandise. And, on his returning them, there is no doubt but Solomon gave him an equivalent, more to his taste. And Hiram sent to the king-Or || rather, For Hiram had sent, &c. And this seems to be here added, both to declare the quantity of the gold sent, which had been only named before, (verse 11,) and as the reason why he resented Solomon's action, because so great a sum required a better recompense. 5, to have been an eminent, large, and strong fort, or castle, in that part of Jerusalem termed the city of David, where the fortress which David took from the Jebusites anciently stood. Here, it is thought, the people of Israel assembled when there was any consultation to be made about public affairs. The name, Millo, appears to be derived from the word so, malee, which signifies full. Kimchi thinks it was so called because it was frequently full of people, being "locus amplus et latus, comitiis et conventibus publicis destinatus," a large and open place, appointed for holding public courts and assemblies. And the wall of Jerusalem-Which was a great structure: for there were three walls, one within another, as Abarbinel and Joseph Ben-Gorion explain it; the inner wall encompassing the house of God and the house of the king; the middle wall encompassing the houses of great persons; (termed the College, 2 Kings xxii. 14;) and the third the houses of all the people. And Hazor-Which had been a very eminent city, and the head of some kingdoms before the conquest of Canaan, (Josh. xi. 10,) and was given to the tribe of Naphtali, Josh. xix. 36. Megiddo-A city in the tribe of Manasseh, Josh. xvii. 11. And Gezer-In the tribe of Ephraim, Josh. xxi. 21. Verse 15. This is the reason of the levy, &c.That the raising of a great tribute upon the people, Verse 16. For Pharaoh had gone up and taken and employing so many men in his works, might not Gezer, &c., and slain the Canaanites-For the Isseem strange, the sacred writer here shows the cause raelites did not dispossess the Canaanites, but they of it; which was, his great and numerous buildings, continued to dwell in Gezer in Joshua's time and suitable to the high dignity to which God had ad- || after, Josh. xvi. 10; Judges i. 29. And, it seems, vanced him. The Hebrew word, DD, mass, here neither David nor Solomon expelled them, but only rendered levy, as Mr. Selden hath shown, by many kept them under tribute; till Pharaoh, upon some instances, is not only used for pecuniary tribute, but provocation which is not recorded, extirpated them, also for bodily labour; it means a levy of men as and burned their city. This, Sir John Marsham well as a levy of money. And he thus interprets thinks, was the first expedition which the Egyptians this clause: This is the cause of requiring the labour || made out of their own country. of so many men; it was to build, &c. Having thus Verses 17-19. And Beth-horon the nether-The declared the cause, the historian proceeds (verse 20) || lower Beth-horon, which was in the tribe of Benjato relate who they were that he employed in this || min, Josh. xviii. 13. Baalath-A city in the tribe Pharaoh's daughter comes B. C. 992. A. M. 3012. horsemen, and that which Solomon || captains, and rulers of his chariots, A. M. 3012. 'desired to build in Jerusalem, and in and his horsemen. Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 20 And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel, B. C. 992. 23 These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon's work, " five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work. i 21 Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of 'bond-service unto this day. 22 But of the children of Israel did Solomon "make no bond-men: but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his 'Heb. the desire of Solomon which he desired.- Verse 1. 12 Chron. viii. 7, &c. Judg. i. 21, 27, 29; iii. 1.-i Josh. v.63; xvii. 12. Judges I. 28. Gen. ix. 25; Ezra ii. 55, 56; Neh. vii. 57; xi. 3. 24 But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Millo. m Leviticus xxv. 39. 4 2 Chron. viii. 10. Chap. iii. 1; vii. 8.-9 2 Samuel v. 9; Chap. r2 Chron. viii. 12, 16. Heb. of Dan, Josh. xix. 44. And Tadmor in the wilder-power to do so?" The command to destroy them, ess-The name of this city signifies wonderful, or (Deut. vii. 2,) did chiefly, if not only, concern that admirable, and it was so named, probably, from the generation of Canaanites who lived in or near the singularity of the thing, in finding here springs and time of the Israelites entering into Canaan. And wells of water, and other conveniences to subsist a that command seems not to have been absolute, but city, among such horrid and parched sands, with conditional, and with some exception for those who which it was on all sides surrounded. It is probable should submit and embrace the true religion, as may that Solomon built this city among the deserts to be gathered both from Josh. xi. 19, and from the hinder the communication between the Syrians and history of the Gibeonites. For if God's command the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, that they might not had been absolute, the oaths of Joshua, and of the join their forces in confederacy together against the princes, could not have obliged them, nor dispensed Israelites, as they had done in the time of David. with such a command. This city appears to have been the same which was Verses 22, 23. Of the children of Israel did Soafterward called Palmyra by the Greeks, the ruins lomon make no bond-men-He spared them, and did of which still remain. Some English gentlemen of not employ them in any servile labours about his credit and fortune visited it about the year 1750, public works, but put them into nobler offices, as it who have published such a description of the ex- here follows. They were men of war-Which was ceeding magnificence and beauty of its ruins, at this accounted an honourable employment. And his day, as is astonishing. We refer our readers to that servants-Officers in his court. And his princes— publication, not only that they may receive great Governors of provinces. And his captains, &c.— pleasure, but great improvement; since it is not Commanders of his guards. Five hundred and fifty possible to conceive higher ideas of Solomon's mag-In 2 Chron. viii. 10, they are said to be but two nificence than these ruins present, nor more humili-hundred and fifty. But perhaps the meaning there ating ideas of the vanity and weakness of all human is, that there were two hundred and fifty set over splendour. See Messrs. Dawkin's and Wood's Ruins those that wrought in the temple; the rest probably of Palmyra. In the land-Of Hamath-Zoba, being employed in overseeing his public works in part of Syria, as is said 2 Chron. viii. 3, 4, which other places. And it must be observed also, that country Solomon had conquered. And all the cities there were far greater numbers employed when the of store that Solomon had-Where he laid up corn temple work was carried on with great speed. against a time of need; or arms and ammunition in case of war. And cities for his chariots and—his horsemen-Which he had in great numbers. Verses 20, 21. All the people that were left of the Amorites-Who, it is likely, by this time were become proselytes to the Jewish religion, as the were, or at least renounced their idolatry. Gibeonites a Upon those did Solomon levy a tribute-He used them as bond-men, and imposed bodily labours upon them. "But why did not Solomon destroy them, as God had commanded, when now it was fully in his Verse 24. Pharaoh's daughter came up, &c.—In 2 Chron. viii. 11, we learn the reason why she did not continue in the house where David had dwelt; which was because it was a kind of holy place, where it was not fit she should remain, the ark of God having dwelt there. Verse 25. Three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt-offerings-That is, at least three times, namely, at the three solemn feasts which God had commanded to be observed by all the people. Then he offered sacrifices suitable to those great mercies |