ix. 23) we expect both here and in 1 Kings a list of these persons;

compare 1 Chronicles xi. 10 ff., xii. 1 ff. Possibly the text of 1 Kings suffered at an early date, and the list was missing when the Chronicler wrote.

_two hundred and fifty_] According to 1 Kings ix. 23, _five hundred and fifty_. On the other hand the _under_-overseers are reckoned at three thousand six hundred in 2 Chronicles ii. 18 as against three thousand three hundred in 1 Kings v. 16. The total number therefore of overseers of all kinds is given both in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles as 3850.

=11= (= 1 Kings ix. 24). THE HOUSE OF PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER.

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 places¹ are holy, whereunto the ark of the LORD hath come.

¹ Hebrew _they are_.

=11.= _for he said, My wife_, etc.] These words are an addition by the Chronicler. In 1 Kings iii. 1 it is said simply that Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter into the city of David until his own house was finished.

_My wife shall not dwell_] Render, =No wife of mine shall dwell=.

=12‒16= (compare 1 Kings ix. 25). SOLOMON’S ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE TEMPLE WORSHIP.

This paragraph is in the main an expansion of 1 Kings ix. 25.

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

=12.= _on the altar of the LORD, which he had built before the porch_] This refers to the great brasen altar of burnt-offering (iv. 1). In 1 Kings the statement is that _Solomon burnt incense upon the altar that was before the LORD_ (referring to the altar of incense; compare Exodus xxx. 1‒10). Such an act, according to the Chronicler, was of the nature of trespass, being punished in the case of Uzziah with leprosy (xxvi. 16), and was therefore not to be attributed to so great a king as Solomon.

¹³even as the duty of every day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the set 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.

=13.= _on the sabbaths, and on the new moons_] The writer in Kings confines Solomon’s sacrificial duties to _three times in the year_, i.e. on the three great feasts specified at the end of this verse. The Chronicler adds the weekly and monthly festivals, in conformity with the developed ritual of the Priestly Code.

¹⁴And he appointed, according to the ordinance of David his father, the courses of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their charges, to praise, and to minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required: the doorkeepers 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.

=14.= _of David_] Compare 1 Chronicles xxiv.‒xxvi.

_to praise, and to minister before the priests_] Compare 1 Chronicles xxiii. 28.

_David the man of God_] Targum _David the prophet of the Lord_ (a correct paraphrase). Compare Nehemiah xii. 36.

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.

=16.= _Now all the work of Solomon was prepared_] Render, =So all the work of Solomon was established=.

_unto the day ... was perfected_] LXX. offers a much shorter and smoother text, _from the day on which it was founded until Solomon perfected the house of the LORD_. This reading is probably right.

=17, 18= (= 1 Kings ix. 26‒28). SOLOMON’S FLEET.

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

=17.= _to Ezion-geber, and to Eloth_] In 1 Kings _Ezion-geber which is beside Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea_. Strictly speaking it was at the head of the Gulf of Akaba, the eastern arm of the Red Sea. Compare xx. 36 and Deuteronomy ii. 8.

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

=18.= _sent him by the hands of his servants ships_] The words would seem to imply that Huram had ships transported overland from the Phoenician coast to the Gulf of Akaba! Either the Chronicler has phrased the matter carelessly, or perhaps the text should be altered to conform with Kings, where it is merely said that Solomon built ships in Ezion-geber――probably with the help of Huram――and that Huram helped to man them.

_Ophir_] The situation of this oft-mentioned place is not known. It has been identified with some part of the coast (a) of India, (b) of Africa, (c) of Arabia. The last identification is the most probable; Ophir appears as the name of an Arabian tribe (Genesis x. 29). The name is variously written in the LXX. but usually with an initial “S,” _Sophir(a)_, which has been supposed to refer to India.

_four hundred and fifty talents_] So LXX., but in 1 Kings “four hundred and twenty” (so Hebrew, in LXX. B “a hundred and twenty”).