2 Chronicles 8

Twenty years went by, during which Solomon built the house of the LORD and his own palace. At the end of that time, this is what happened.

1And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, wherein Solomon had built the house of the LORD, and his own house,

Note"The house of the LORD" is the temple in Jerusalem, the building described in chapters 3–7. "House" is used the same way for a king's palace, as in this same verse.

2Solomon rebuilt the towns that Huram had given him, and he settled Israelites in them.

2That the cities which Huram had restored to Solomon, Solomon built them, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there.

NoteHuram (spelled Hiram in Kings) was the king of Tyre, a wealthy Phoenician port city on the coast north of Israel, who had supplied Solomon with timber and craftsmen. The parallel account in 1 Kings 9:11–13 says Solomon gave these towns to Hiram, who was displeased with them; here the towns move the other way. The Hebrew of Chronicles does not explain the difference.

3Solomon marched against Hamath-zobah and captured it.

3And Solomon went to Hamathzobah, and prevailed against it.

NoteHamath-zobah combines two names from the Aramean region well north of Israel, in what is now Syria. Zobah was a kingdom David had fought; Hamath was a city-state on the Orontes river further north.

4He built Tadmor out in the desert, along with all the supply towns that he built in the region of Hamath.

4And he built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the store cities, which he built in Hamath.

NoteTadmor is the desert oasis later known as Palmyra, on the caravan route between Syria and the Euphrates. "Store cities" were fortified depots where grain, oil, weapons and other supplies were stockpiled for the army and the crown.

5He also rebuilt Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon as fortified towns, with walls, gates, and heavy bars to lock the gates.

5Also he built Bethhoron the upper, and Bethhoron the nether, fenced cities, with walls, gates, and bars;

NoteUpper and Lower Beth-horon were twin towns guarding the steep pass that carried the main road from the coastal plain up to the hill country and Jerusalem, the route an invading army would use.

6He built Baalath, all the supply towns he owned, and all the towns where he kept his chariots and his horses. He built whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and everywhere he ruled.

6And Baalath, and all the store cities that Solomon had, and all the chariot cities, and the cities of the horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and throughout all the land of his dominion.

7There were still people living in the land from the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These people were not Israelites.

7As for all the people that were left of the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which were not of Israel,

NoteThese five are among the peoples listed in Israel's older texts as the inhabitants of Canaan before Israel settled there. The Jebusites had held Jerusalem itself until David took it.

8They were the descendants of those earlier peoples, still left in the land because the Israelites had not wiped them out. Solomon forced these people to work for him, and their descendants still do this work today.

8But of their children, who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel consumed not, them did Solomon make to pay tribute until this day.

NoteThis is conscripted state labor: work gangs owed to the crown, not personal slavery. "To this day" means the day of the writer, centuries after Solomon, who is explaining to his own readers how a labor obligation still in force began.

9But Solomon did not force any Israelites into that kind of labor. They served as his soldiers, his officers, his commanders, and the leaders of his chariot troops and cavalry.

9But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no servants for his work; but they were men of war, and chief of his captains, and captains of his chariots and horsemen.

Note"Horsemen" here means chariot crews and mounted troops, the elite and expensive arm of an ancient army, which is why serving in it was a privilege rather than a burden.

10These were also King Solomon's chief officials: two hundred and fifty men who ruled over the people.

10And these were the chief of king Solomon’s officers, even two hundred and fifty, that bare rule over the people.

11Solomon moved Pharaoh's daughter, his wife, up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her. He said, "My wife must not live in the house of David king of Israel, because any place the ark of the LORD has entered is holy."

11And Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David unto the house that he had built for her: for he said, 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.

NoteMarrying a Pharaoh's daughter signaled a treaty between Egypt and Israel; such marriages sealed alliances between royal houses. The City of David was the old fortified ridge of Jerusalem that David had captured, next to the temple mount. The ark was the gold-covered chest holding the tablets of the covenant, kept in the innermost room of the temple. "Holy" means set apart for God's use and hedged about with rules of purity, Solomon's stated concern is about the status of the ground, not about his wife's character.

12Then Solomon presented burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD that he had built in front of the temple porch.

12Then Solomon offered burnt offerings unto the LORD on the altar of the LORD, which he had built before the porch,

NoteA burnt offering was an animal burned whole on the altar, with no portion kept back to be eaten by priests or worshipers. The "porch" was the roofed entrance hall at the front of the temple; the altar stood outside it in the open courtyard.

13He did this following the daily schedule of offerings that Moses had commanded, and also on the Sabbath days, at the new moon festivals, and at the three yearly festivals: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles.

13Even after a certain rate every day, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts, three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.

NoteNew moon: the first day of each lunar month, marked as a festival. Unleavened Bread: the spring week-long feast joined to Passover, when no yeast was used. Weeks: a harvest festival seven weeks later, later called Pentecost. Tabernacles (also called Booths): an autumn harvest festival at which people lived for a week in temporary shelters. These three were the occasions on which Israelites were expected to come to the sanctuary.

14Following the rules his father David had set, Solomon assigned the groups of priests to their duties. He assigned the Levites to praise and to assist the priests, doing each day's work as it came. He also assigned the gatekeepers by their groups to each gate, because David, the man of God, had commanded it this way.

14And he appointed, according to the order of David his father, the courses of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their charges, to praise and minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required: the porters also by their courses at every gate: for so had David the man of God commanded.

NoteThe priests were the descendants of Aaron who handled the sacrifices; the Levites were the wider tribe who did the temple's other work, music, maintenance, guarding. "Courses" or divisions were rotas: each family group served for a fixed spell and then went home, so the work was shared across the year. "Man of God" is a standard title for a prophet or someone who speaks with divine authority; here it is applied to David.

15The people did not turn away from anything the king had commanded about the priests and Levites, or about the storerooms where valuables were kept.

15And they departed not from the commandment of the king unto the priests and Levites concerning any matter, or concerning the treasures.

NoteThe treasuries were the temple's storerooms, holding not only silver and gold but grain, oil, incense and equipment, effectively a national treasury as well as a religious one.

16So all of Solomon's work was carried out, from the day the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid until the day it was done. The house of the LORD was finished completely.

16Now all the work of Solomon was prepared unto the day of the foundation of the house of the LORD, and until it was finished. So the house of the LORD was perfected.

17Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth, on the coast in the land of Edom.

17Then went Solomon to Eziongeber, and to Eloth, at the sea side in the land of Edom.

NoteEzion-geber and Eloth (Elath) were ports at the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, the eastern arm of the Red Sea. Reaching them meant controlling Edom, the territory south-east of the Dead Sea, and they gave Israel access to sea trade with Arabia and Africa.

18Huram sent him ships commanded by his own servants, along with crews of sailors who knew the sea. They sailed with Solomon's servants to Ophir, took on four hundred and fifty talents of gold there, and brought it to King Solomon.

18And Huram sent him by the hands of his servants ships, and servants that had knowledge of the sea; and they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and took thence four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon.

NoteOphir was a source of exceptionally fine gold, famous enough that "gold of Ophir" became a byword for quality; its location is unknown, with southern Arabia, the African coast and India all proposed. A talent was a weight of roughly seventy-five pounds (about thirty-four kilograms), so 450 talents is somewhere near fifteen tons of gold. Phoenicians like Huram's crews were the accomplished deep-water sailors of the age; Israelites were not.