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2 Chronicles 8

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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,

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

on 2 Chronicles 8

The Kingdom, Power, And Glory

Most people remember King Solomon as the man who built the temple of God in Jerusalem, but during his reign, he was occupied with many different activities. These chapters record a series of vignettes depicting some of the things Solomon did to advance his kingdom and enhance his life. But these activities also reveal Solomon’s character and expose some of the areas of weakness that later produced a bitter harvest. Gradually, Solomon became more interested in prices than in values, and in reputation rather than character, and in the splendor of the kingdom rather than the good of the people and the glory of the Lord.

The Kingdom, Power, And Glory

Solomon builds a palace

The work on the temple structure was completed in seven years, but it took several more years for Hiram and his crew to decorate the interior and construct the furnishings. While they were busy at the temple, Solomon designed and built a palace for himself that was a combination of personal residence, city hall, armory, and official reception center. “I enlarged my works,” he wrote, “I built houses for myself” (Eccl. 2: nasb).

When you read this description of the project, you get the impression that it involved several isolated structures, but 1 Kings 9: refers to “the two houses [buildings],” the temple and the “palace.” The palace was twice as large as the temple and probably had two if not three stories. It was 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. (The temple was 90 x 30 x 45.) The total structure included two porches or colonnades, Solomon’s own residence, a residence for his Egyptian wife (and perhaps part of his harem), a throne room (“hall of justice”), and a spacious reception hall, all tied together by a large courtyard set off by walls like those at the temple.

We don’t have a detailed description to guide us, but it appears that when you approached the building, you came to a smaller porch that served as the main entrance (v. 7). This led to a larger porch or colonnade with cedar pillars, which probably served as a waiting room. From here you moved into “the hall of pillars,” a large assembly hall with sixty cedar pillars (vv. 2–3), forty-five of which held up the cedar-beamed ceiling that formed the floor of the second story. Fifteen pillars were placed opposite each other against the side walls, to the right and left of the entrance, and fifteen down the center of the room, all bearing the cedar beams. The other fifteen pillars were placed strategically where needed, especially at the entrance (see v. 6 niv).

Because of the abundance of these cedar pillars from Lebanon, the structure was known as “the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.” The assembly hall was no doubt used for official government occasions. In this hall, Solomon displayed three hundred large shields and two hundred smaller shields, all made of wood covered with gold (10:16–17). The larger ones used seven and a half pounds of gold each, a total of 1,500 pounds, and the smaller shields three and a half pounds apiece, making 1,025 pounds, a total of 2,525 pounds of gold for all five hundred shields. Since gold is too soft to provide protection, these shields were not used in battle but were there to impress visitors. They were taken from the building only when displayed on special ceremonial occasions.

From the hall you moved into the throne room, the “Hall of Justice,” where Solomon met with his officers, settled disputes referred to him, and gave judgment concerning governmental affairs. It was there he had his magnificent throne described in 10:18–20. Solomon’s living quarters, and, we assume, the queen’s quarters, were behind this throne room (7:7–8 niv). Of course there were other entrances to various parts of the building, all of them protected by the king’s special bodyguard, and Solomon had a private concourse that led from his residence to the temple. Next to the temple of the Lord, Solomon’s “palace” must have been an imposing structure.

Solomon builds a palace

Solomon disappoints a friend

Hiram, king of Tyre, had been David’s good friend, and David had told him about his plans to build a temple for the Lord (5:1–3), plans the Lord didn’t permit David to carry out. After David’s death, Solomon became Hiram’s friend (Prov. 27:10) and contracted with Hiram to help build the temple (5:1–12). Hiram would send timber and workers if Solomon would pay the workers and provide Hiram with food in return for the timber. Solomon also conscripted Jewish men to cut stone (5:13–18) and the aliens in the land to help bear burdens (9:15, 20–23; 2 Chron. 8:7–10).

But 1 Kings 9: and 14 inform us that Hiram also supplied Solomon with 120 talents of gold (about four and a half tons)! King Solomon had at least 3,750 tons of gold available before he began to build the temple (1 Chron. 22:14–16), and the fact that he had to get gold from Hiram surprises us. The gold, silver, and other materials for the temple that are inventoried in 1 Chronicles 22, 28–29 were all dedicated to the Lord, so they couldn’t be used for any other building. This means Solomon needed the gold for the “palace” complex, perhaps for the gold shields, so he borrowed it from Hiram, giving him the twenty cities as collateral. These cities were conveniently located on the border of Phoenicia and Galilee.

Apart from the fact that Solomon shouldn’t have been so extravagant in building his “palace,” he didn’t have the right to give twenty cities away just to pay his debts. All the land belonged to the Lord and could not be deeded away permanently (Lev. 25:23). One purpose for the Year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:8ff.) was to make sure the land that had been sold was returned to the original owners and so that no clan or tribe could be deprived of their inheritance. But Solomon was starting to behave like his Egyptian father-in-law who had wiped out the population of an entire Canaanite city and given the city to his daughter as a wedding gift (v. 16).

But Hiram didn’t like the cities that Solomon gave him! After looking them over, he called them “Cabul” which sounds like a Hebrew word that means “good for nothing.” He didn’t think the collateral was worth the investment he had made. However, the story seems to have had a happy ending. Solomon must have paid back the loan because Hiram returned the cities to him and Solomon rebuilt them for the Israelites (2 Chron. 8:1–2). Did Solomon pay off the loan with the 120 talents of gold that the Queen of Sheba gave him (10:10)?

Solomon exhibits in this incident some character traits that disturb us, including the extravagant cost of the “palace” that necessitated a loan, and then giving a friend poor collateral that wasn’t even his to give away. Humanly speaking, were it not for Hiram, the temple would not have been built, and this was no way for Solomon to treat a generous friend.

Solomon disappoints a friend

Solomon strengthens his kingdom

When the Lord appeared to Solomon in Gibeon, He promised to give him riches and honor to such an extent that there would be no king like him all the days of his life (3:13). He kept that promise and made Solomon’s name famous and his accomplishments admired by people in other nations. Solomon’s father, David, had conquered enemy territory and added it to the kingdom, but he hadn’t attempted to build an international network that would make Israel powerful among the nations. David was a mighty general who feared no enemy, but Solomon was a shrewd diplomat and politician who missed no opportunity to increase his wealth and power. This section lists for us the achievements of Solomon both at home and abroad.

We don’t usually think of Solomon as being a military man, but this one exploit is recorded in Scripture (2 Chron. 8:3). Hamath was a city north of Damascus at the farthest northern border of the kingdom of Israel (Num. 34:8; Josh. 13:5). People from this area attended the dedication of the temple (8:65; 2 Chron. 7:8). The city was situated on a very important trade route from which Solomon could collect custom and duty and also guard against invaders. Along with Hamath, Solomon fortified Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer and made them “store cities,” that is, places where chariots, horses, arms, and food were stored for the use of the Jewish troops. Solomon knew that if he didn’t protect the outlying areas of the kingdom, he might find himself at war with his neighbors, his treaties notwithstanding.

Solomon also strengthened and extended “the Millo,” the terraced area next to the walls of Jerusalem that buttressed the wall and gave more protection to the city. The word millo means “to fill.” This was an “earthfill fortification” that was begun by David (2 Sam. 5:9) and continued by Solomon (9:24; 11:27). The king and his family, the people of the city, and the wealth in the temple and the palace all had to be protected.

To accomplish all this work, the king conscripted the aliens in Israel, the descendants of the Canaanites who had once ruled the land (v. 20; Gen. 15:18–21; Josh. 3:10). In building the temple, he had also enlisted the temporary help of the Jewish men (5:13–14; 9:15, 22–23), but no Jewish worker was treated like a slave. The Jews were made officers and leaders in these building projects.

Solomon strengthens his kingdom

Conscripting workers

It would take a great deal of manpower to fell the trees, trim the logs, and transport them to the construction site for the builders to use. David’s incomplete census had revealed that there were 1,300,000 able-bodied men in the land (2 Sam. 24:9), and Solomon conscripted only 30,000 to labor on the temple, about 2. percent of the total available labor force. Ten thousand of the men spent one month each quarter in Lebanon assisting Hiram’s men in their work, and then they had two months at home. These men were Jewish citizens and were not treated like slaves (9:22; see Lev. 25:39–43). We aren’t told if they shared in any of the wages Solomon promised Hiram’s workers, but they probably didn’t.

Solomon also took a census of the non-Israelite aliens in the land and drafted 150,000 of them to cut and transport stones for the temple (5:15–18; 9:15–23; 2 Chron. 2:17–18; 8:7–10). Of this group, 70,000 carried burdens and 80,000 cut limestone blocks from the hills. In charge of this group were 3,000 overseers and 300 supervisors who were aliens, and over the entire group were 250 Jewish officers. The stone blocks had to be cut carefully so they would fit together perfectly when assembled at the temple site (6:7), and that would demand careful planning and expert supervision.

Even though the conscription involved a very small portion of the male citizens, the Jewish people resented Solomon taking 30,000 of their men to work in Lebanon four months out of the year. This critical attitude helped to strengthen the people’s revolt against Rehoboam and to precipitate the division of the nation after Solomon’s death (12:1–21). Indeed, when it came to labor and taxes, Solomon did indeed put a heavy yoke on the people.

Both Jews and Gentiles assisted in the construction of the temple, and this fact is significant, for the temple was to be “a house of prayer for all nations” (Isa. 56:7; Matt. 21:13; Luke 19:46). After the captivity, the Persian government assisted the Jews in rebuilding their temple, and Herod’s temple had a special area for the Gentiles. Sad to say, some of the Jewish religious leaders turned the court of the Gentiles into a market for selling sacrifices and changing foreign money into Jewish currency. The church today is a temple of God composed of believers in Jesus Christ, both Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:11–22). It is being “built up” to the glory of the Lord as “living stones”—both Jews and Gentiles—are added to the temple by the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 2:5).

Hiram’s workmen in Lebanon were not worshippers of the Lord, and the aliens in the land of Israel were not Jewish proselytes, yet God used both of these groups of “outsiders” to help build His holy temple. The Lord would “have all men to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4), but even if they aren’t believers, He can use them to fulfill His purposes. He used Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army to chasten Israel, and called Nebuchadnezzar “my servant” (Jer. 25:9), and He used Cyrus king of Persia to set Israel free and help them rebuild their temple (Ezra 1). This should encourage us in our praying and serving, for the Lord can use people we least appreciate to get His will done on earth. God can even work through unconverted government officials to open doors for His people or meet the needs they might have.

Conscripting workers

Solomon worships the Lord

Annually, the adult Jewish males in Israel were required to appear at Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, (Ex. 23:14–19; Deut. 16:1–17). To Christian believers today, these three feasts signify the death of Christ, the Lamb of God, for our sins (John 1:29; 1 Cor. 5:7); the resurrection of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 15:23; Acts 2); and the future regathering of God’s people in the kingdom (Rev. 20:1–6). To the Jewish people, Passover looked back to their deliverance from Egyptian bondage while Tabernacles commemorated God’s care during their years in the wilderness. Firstfruits (Pentecost) celebrated the goodness of God in sending the harvest.

Solomon lived in Jerusalem, but he set an example by going to the temple and offering sacrifices. Of course, it was the priests who offered both the sacrifices and the incense. The burnt offering signified total dedication to the Lord; the fellowship or peace offerings spoke of peace with God and communion with Him and one another; and the burning incense was a picture of prayer offered to the Lord (Ex. 30:1–10; Ps. 141:2; Rev. 8:3). There are no instances in Scripture of the common people bringing incense to be offered on the golden altar, since this was a task the priests performed twice daily for the whole nation. However, Psalm 72, “A Psalm for Solomon,” mentions continual prayer to be made for the king (v. 15), and there is no reason why Solomon could not have provided some of the spices needed for the special incense (10:2, 10; Ex. 30:34–38).

The account in 2 Chronicles 8 indicates that Solomon also provided the sacrifices that were needed during these feasts as well as on the special Sabbaths and the new moon festivals. He obeyed the law of Moses in this regard, and he also followed the plan instituted by his father, David, for the ministry of the priests and Levites in the temple (1 Chron. 23—26). Asaph was chief over the musicians (1 Chron. 16:4–5), and there were 4,000 singers divided into twenty-four courses. Each singer ministered at the temple two weeks every year. There was also a special choir of 288 singers (1 Chron. 25:7). Solomon was careful to see to it that David’s songs and instruments were used and that his plan for organizing the priests and Levites was honored.

Solomon worships the Lord

Solomon expands his influence

Solomon was a great entrepreneur. He made trade agreements with many nations, built a navy, and hired Hiram’s expert seamen to manage it for him. Being an inland people for the most part, the Jews were not given to maritime pursuits, so Solomon depended on the Phoenicians, a coastal people, to handle this aspect of his enterprises. Importing products from the east enriched Solomon’s coffers and helped to make the kingdom more international in its outlook. This outreach surely gave opportunities for the Jews to bear witness of their God to the pagan Gentiles, but there’s no record that there was such a ministry. Solomon had to maintain a huge budget and he needed as much money as he could get. On one trip they brought back 420 talents of gold, about sixteen tons of gold. The ships also brought luxury items like ivory, apes, and peacocks. It appears that Solomon also had a zoo (Eccl. 2:4–9). The words of the English poet Oliver Goldsmith come to mind: Ill fares the land, to hast’ning ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.

The visit of the Queen of Sheba (10:1–13) was undoubtedly motivated both by Solomon’s mercantile endeavors as well as her own desires to meet Solomon, see the glories of his kingdom, and test his highly esteemed wisdom. Sheba was a wealthy and highly civilized nation located in southwest Arabia, and the queen brought with her expensive gifts that also served as samples of what her country had to offer (Isa. 60:6; Jer. 6:20; Ezek. 38:13). She “told him all her heart” and he told her what she wanted to know. What she heard and what she saw left her breathless. She had heard the reports but she didn’t really believe them until she saw it all for herself. We’re reminded of the experience of Thomas (John 20:24–29).

The record of her visit gives us an opportunity to get a glimpse of life in the palace. The queen not only marveled at Solomon’s palace, but she was impressed by the meals (4:7, 22–23), the livery and conduct of the servants, the seating of the officers and guests, and the incredible wealth that was displayed on and around the tables. She walked with Solomon on his private concourse to the temple where she watched him worship. (See 10: and 2 Chron. 9: niv margin.) The wisdom of Solomon’s words and the wealth of Solomon’s kingdom were just too much for her, and she was no pauper herself! She brought Solomon expensive gifts, including an abundance of spices and 120 talents of gold (four and a half tons). Solomon reciprocated by giving her whatever she asked for out of his royal bounty.

The queen couldn’t contain herself. She announced publicly that Solomon and his servants had to be the happiest people on earth, yet it was Solomon who later wrote the book of Ecclesiastes and declared, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!” We wonder if Solomon’s officers and servants didn’t gradually grow accustomed to all the pomp and circumstance of court life, especially the gaudy display of wealth. Even Solomon wrote, “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure with trouble. Better is a dinner of herbs [vegetables] where love is, than a fatted calf with hatred” (Prov. 15:16–17 nkjv). Hearing Solomon’s words of wisdom may have excited the dinner guests, but the officers and servants had heard it before. One of the dangers of living in that kind of situation is that we begin to take things for granted, and before long, we don’t value them at all. This can apply to spiritual treasures as well as material wealth.

When the queen said, “Blessed be the Lord, your God,” she wasn’t affirming her personal faith in Jehovah. People in those days believed in “territorial deities.” Each nation had its own god or gods (1 Kings 20:28) and when you left your land, you left your gods behind (1 Sam. 26:19). Once she returned home, the queen would worship the gods of her own land, even though she had seen the glories of the God of Israel and heard His wisdom. Jesus didn’t commend the Queen of Sheba for her faith but for the fact that she made every effort to travel about 1,500 miles to hear the wisdom of Solomon, when the Son of God, one “greater than Solomon,” was in the midst of the Jewish people (Matt. 12:39–42). The tragedy of lost opportunity!

It’s interesting to contrast this account of the meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba with the account of Solomon’s first act of justice as king when he met two prostitutes (3:16ff.). They were commoners but she was a queen, and they had very little but she was very wealthy. Yet the king’s door was open to all three of these women and he sought to help them. Of course, the Queen of Sheba negotiated a trade pact with Solomon, but there’s no evidence that she trusted the true and living God.

The commercial network that Solomon established certainly helped the economy of the nation and brought many influential visitors to Jerusalem, but did it help the king and his people draw near to God? Israel wasn’t supposed to be isolated from the community of nations, because she was to be a light to the Gentiles, but she was supposed to be separated from the sins of those nations that didn’t know the true and living God. Along with the influx of foreign merchandise came the influx of foreign ideas, including ideas about religion and worship; and eventually Solomon himself, influenced by his foreign wives, succumbed to idolatry (11:1ff.).