CHAPTER VIII.

=1‒6= (compare 1 Kings ix. 10, 11, 17‒19). SOLOMON’S CITIES.

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

=1.= _twenty years_] Compare 1 Kings vi. 38, vii. 1.

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

=2.= _the cities which Huram had given to Solomon_] According to 1 Kings ix. 12, 13 it was Solomon who gave _Huram_ cities. Huram however was not pleased with them (1 Kings ix. 12, 13), and from this fact the English translators of 1611 concluded that Huram rejected them and “restored” them. No reconciliation of these different versions is tenable; and it is to be supposed that the Chronicler’s tradition is unhistorical――the idea that the wealthy Solomon could not or did not purchase what he required from Huram except by parting with a portion of the territories of Israel was repugnant, if not incredible, in the Chronicler’s day.

_built them_] i.e. fortified them.

³And Solomon went to Hamath-zobah, and prevailed against it.

=3.= _Hamath-zobah_] The two kingdoms of Hamath and Zobah are distinguished from one another (1 Chronicles xviii. 3, 9 = 2 Samuel viii. 3, 9), Hamath apparently being north of Zobah. It is probable however that _Hamath_ as the name of a city belonged to more than one place, and Hamath-zobah may be a southern namesake of the well-known Hamath the great (Amos vi. 2).

_prevailed against it_] No mention of this campaign is made elsewhere. It may be a genuine tradition preserved only in Chronicles. On the other hand, this statement and the reference to the store-cities _built in Hamath_ (verse 4) may be due to nothing except the mention of _Tadmor in the wilderness_ (itself an error, see following note). If Solomon built far-off Tadmor, then (the Chronicler thinks) he must also have subdued the region of Hamath.

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

=4.= _Tadmor in the wilderness_] Palmyra (Bädeker, _Palestine_⁵, p. 344) is meant, a city on an oasis north-east of Damascus half-way between Damascus and the Euphrates. Apart from this passage of Chronicles it first appears in history in B.C. 34, when it was threatened with attack by Mark Antony. This silence of history for a thousand years casts a doubt on the belief that Tadmor (Palmyra) is as old as the time of Solomon, and the doubt is strengthened by a reference to the parallel passage (1 Kings ix. 18), for there (1) the text (_Kethīb_) has “Tamar,” with “Tadmor” as marginal reading (_Ḳerī_), and (2) Tamar (Tadmor) is associated with Gezer, Beth-horon, and Baalath, cities either in Judah or on its borders. Probably therefore the marginal reading “Tadmor” in 1 Kings is due to the influence of 2 Chronicles, and the text of 1 Kings (“Tamar”) is correct. The city built by Solomon was a Tamar in the south of Judah.

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

=5.= _Beth-horon the upper_] Not mentioned in the parallel passage (1 Kings ix. 17) which however has Gezer. The site of Gezer has recently been explored with extremely interesting results (see e.g. Macalister, _Bible Side-lights from the Mound of Gezer_). The Chronicler probably omits the name of Gezer, because he had no liking for the tradition that Solomon married a daughter of Pharaoh (a heinous sin in the eyes of the Chronicler’s contemporaries), and according to 1 Kings ix. 16 Gezer was presented to Solomon by the Pharaoh as the dowry of his daughter.

⁶and Baalath, and all the store cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

=6.= _Baalath_] A city in the tribe of (the southern) Dan not far from Gezer and Beth-horon (1 Kings ix. 18).

_cities for his chariots_] See note on i. 14.

=7‒10= (= 1 Kings ix. 20‒23). SOLOMON’S TASK-WORKERS.

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;

=7.= _Hittites ... Jebusites_] See notes on 1 Chronicles i. 13‒15.

⁸of their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel consumed not, of them did Solomon raise a levy _of bondservants_, unto this day.

=8.= _consumed not_] But in Kings, _were not able to consume_, a displeasing remark, which the Chronicler therefore softened down.

_a levy_ of bondservants] Compare the notes on ii. 2, 17.

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 rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen.

=9.= _and chief of his captains_] Read (with 1 Kings ix. 22) =and his princes and his captains=. The statements of this verse must be read in connection with 1 Kings v. 13 ff., xii. 4 ff., whence it appears that, though Solomon did not actually reduce any Israelite to permanent slavery, yet he imposed upon his own people a corvée which was felt to be very burdensome.

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

=10.= _And these were the chief_] After this preface (compare 1 Kings