2 Chronicles

Solomon son of David took firm control of his kingdom. The LORD his God was with him and made him very great.

1And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and the LORD his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly.

2Then Solomon spoke to all Israel: to the commanders of a thousand men and the commanders of a hundred men, to the judges, and to every leader in all Israel, the heads of the families.

2Then Solomon spake unto all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and to the judges, and to every governor in all Israel, the chief of the fathers.

Note"Commanders of a thousand" and "of a hundred" are ranks in a military structure built on units of that nominal size; the numbers are organizational labels rather than exact head counts. "Heads of the families" translates a phrase meaning the chiefs of the ancestral houses, the senior men of each extended clan, who held civil authority within their kin group.

3So Solomon and the whole assembly with him went to the worship site on the hill at Gibeon, because God's Tent of Meeting was there. That was the tent Moses, the servant of the LORD, had made in the desert.

3So Solomon, and all the congregation with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for there was the tabernacle of the congregation of God, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness.

NoteA "high place" was an open-air place of sacrifice, usually on a hilltop or raised platform, with an altar and often other fittings. Gibeon was a town about six miles northwest of Jerusalem. The "tabernacle of the congregation," better rendered Tent of Meeting, was the portable tent-shrine described in Exodus as built under Moses in the desert; it was still standing at Gibeon in Solomon's day.

4David had already brought the ark of God up from Kirjath-jearim to the place he had prepared for it, because he had set up a tent for it in Jerusalem.

4But the ark of God had David brought up from Kirjathjearim to the place which David had prepared for it: for he had pitched a tent for it at Jerusalem.

NoteThe ark was a gold-covered wooden chest containing the stone tablets of the covenant, carried on poles and treated as the most sacred object of Israel's worship. Kirjath-jearim was a town roughly nine miles west of Jerusalem where the ark had been kept for about twenty years after the Philistines returned it. The point of verses 3-5 is that the two great objects of worship were in two different places: the ark in David's new tent at Jerusalem, the old tabernacle and its altar still at Gibeon.

5But the bronze altar that Bezaleel son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made was there in front of the LORD's tabernacle. So Solomon and the assembly went there to seek the LORD.

5Moreover the brasen altar, that Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, he put before the tabernacle of the LORD: and Solomon and the congregation sought unto it.

Note"Brasen" is the older English for bronze. Bezaleel (Bezalel) is named in Exodus as the master craftsman who built the tabernacle and its furnishings; naming him identifies this altar as the original one from Moses' time. "Sought unto it" means went there to consult God, to seek a decision or answer, not merely to visit.

6Solomon went up to the bronze altar in front of the LORD, at the Tent of Meeting, and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.

6And Solomon went up thither to the brasen altar before the LORD, which was at the tabernacle of the congregation, and offered a thousand burnt offerings upon it.

NoteA burnt offering was an animal killed and then burned whole on the altar, with no part of it eaten by the worshipers or priests. A thousand of them is a display of royal scale, far beyond ordinary practice.

7That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you."

7In that night did God appear unto Solomon, and said unto him, Ask what I shall give thee.

8Solomon said to God, "You showed great and faithful love to my father David, and you have made me king in his place.

8And Solomon said unto God, Thou hast shewed great mercy unto David my father, and hast made me to reign in his stead.

NoteThe word behind "mercy" is Hebrew *hesed*, which means steady, loyal love within a committed relationship, faithfulness to an obligation rather than pardon for an offense.

9Now, LORD God, let your promise to my father David come true, because you have made me king over a people as many as the dust of the earth.

9Now, O LORD God, let thy promise unto David my father be established: for thou hast made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude.

NoteThe "promise unto David" is the pledge, recorded in 2 Samuel 7 and 1 Chronicles 17, that David's line would hold the throne and his son would build the temple. "As many as the dust of the earth" is a stock Hebrew figure for a number too large to count, echoing the promises made to Abraham and Jacob.

10Give me wisdom and knowledge now, so I can lead this people in everything they do. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?"

10Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people: for who can judge this thy people, that is so great?

Note"Go out and come in before this people" is a Hebrew idiom for leading a nation, literally marching out at their head and bringing them home again, and by extension the whole conduct of public leadership. The "wisdom and knowledge" asked for is practical skill in governing and judging, not learning in the abstract.

11God said to Solomon, "Because this was what was in your heart, and you did not ask for riches, wealth, or honor, or for the death of your enemies, and did not even ask for a long life, but asked for wisdom and knowledge so you could govern my people, over whom I have made you king,

11And God said to Solomon, Because this was in thine heart, and thou hast not asked riches, wealth, or honour, nor the life of thine enemies, neither yet hast asked long life; but hast asked wisdom and knowledge for thyself, that thou mayest judge my people, over whom I have made thee king:

12wisdom and knowledge are given to you. And I will also give you riches, wealth, and honor such as no king before you has had, and no king after you will have."

12Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee; and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like.

13Then Solomon came back from the worship site at Gibeon, from in front of the Tent of Meeting, to Jerusalem, and he ruled over Israel.

13Then Solomon came from his journey to the high place that was at Gibeon to Jerusalem, from before the tabernacle of the congregation, and reigned over Israel.

14Solomon built up a force of chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities and with himself, the king, in Jerusalem.

14And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, which he placed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.

NoteThe Hebrew word translated "horsemen" can mean either mounted riders or the horses of a chariot team, and translators divide over which is meant here. Chariots were the most expensive weapon of the age. The "chariot cities" were garrison towns where the chariot force and its horses were stationed.

15The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar wood as plentiful as the sycamore trees in the low western hills.

15And the king made silver and gold at Jerusalem as plenteous as stones, and cedar trees made he as the sycomore trees that are in the vale for abundance.

NoteThe sycamore here is not the American sycamore but a fig-bearing tree of the lowlands, whose timber was cheap and everywhere available, the contrast is with cedar, an expensive import from Lebanon used in palaces and temples. "The vale" is the Shephelah, the belt of low hills between the coastal plain and the central highlands.

16Solomon's horses were brought in from Egypt and from Kue. The king's traders bought them from Kue at a set price.

16And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king’s merchants received the linen yarn at a price.

NoteThe KJV's "linen yarn" and the modern "Kue" come from the same Hebrew consonants read two ways: as an ordinary noun, or as the place name Kue (Que), a region in southeastern Asia Minor, in what is now Turkey, famous for breeding horses. Most translators now take it as the place name, which fits the trading route described here; the ambiguity is genuine.

17They brought a chariot up out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. Through these same traders they also supplied horses to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.

17And they fetched up, and brought forth out of Egypt a chariot for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty: and so brought they out horses for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, by their means.

NoteA shekel was a weight of silver, about two-fifths of an ounce (roughly 11.5 grams), not a coin, coinage did not yet exist, and silver was weighed out on scales. Six hundred shekels is therefore about fifteen pounds of silver. The "Hittites" here are not the old Anatolian empire but the small successor kingdoms of northern Syria that still bore the name. "Syria" translates Aram, the Aramean kingdoms centered on Damascus. The verse describes Solomon's traders as middlemen, buying in one market and reselling northward.