2 Chronicles 1

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

Solomon at Gibeon

¹ Solomon the son of David established himself firmly over his kingdom, and Yahweh his Elohim was with him and made him exceedingly great. ² Then Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, to the judges, and to every leader in all Israel, the heads of the fathers' houses. ³ And Solomon, and all the assembly with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon, for the tent of meeting of Elohim was there, which Moses the servant of Yahweh had made in the wilderness. ⁴ But David had brought up the ark of Elohim from Kiriath-jearim to the place that David had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. ⁵ And the bronze altar that Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, he had set before the tabernacle of Yahweh; and Solomon and the assembly sought Him. ⁶ Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before Yahweh, which was at the tent of meeting, and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.

Solomon asks for wisdom

⁷ That night Elohim appeared to Solomon and said to him, "Ask what I shall give you." ⁸ Solomon said to Elohim, "You have shown great lovingkindness to David my father, and have made me king in his place. ⁹ Now, Yahweh Elohim, let Your word to David my father be made sure, for You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. ¹⁰ Now give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this great people of Yours?" ¹¹ Elohim said to Solomon, "Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked for riches, wealth or honor, or the life of those who hate you, and have not even asked for long life, but have asked for yourself wisdom and knowledge, that you may judge My people over whom I have made you king, ¹² wisdom and knowledge are granted to you; and I will give you riches, wealth and honor, such as none of the kings who were before you has had, nor shall any after you have the like." ¹³ So Solomon came from the high place that was at Gibeon, from before the tent of meeting, to Jerusalem; and he reigned over Israel.

Solomon's chariots and riches

¹⁴ Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedars as plentiful as the sycamore-fig trees that are in the lowland. ¹⁶ Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt and from Kue; the king's traders bought them from Kue at a price. ¹⁷ A chariot could be imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for one hundred and fifty; and in the same way, through them, they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Aram.

Notes

• 1:1 In the Hebrew Bible, Chronicles is a single book; its division into two books is usually traced to the Greek translation, so this chapter continues directly from the end of 1 Chronicles. "Made him exceedingly great" repeats the words of 1 Chronicles 29:25: what was said at Solomon's anointing is now shown at the start of his reign.
• 1:5 1 Kings 3:4 says only that Gibeon was "the great high place"; Chronicles gives the reason: the tent of meeting that Moses made and the bronze altar of Bezalel stood there (1 Chronicles 16:39-40; 21:29), while the ark was in the tent David had pitched in Jerusalem (verse 4). "Sought" is darash, a key word in Chronicles: Saul "did not inquire of Yahweh" (1 Chronicles 10:14). The pronoun can mean "Him," Yahweh, or "it," the altar; since Gibeon was where one went "to inquire of Elohim" (1 Chronicles 21:30), "Him" is given here, and either way Solomon begins his reign by seeking Yahweh where Moses had set up worship. The Leningrad Codex reads sam, "he had set," while some Hebrew manuscripts and ancient translations read sham, "was there."
• 1:9 "Be made sure" is ye'amen, from aman, "to be firm, faithful," the same verb David used when he prayed over Yahweh's promise: "let the word You spoke about Your servant and his house be made sure forever" (1 Chronicles 17:23). "As the dust of the earth" recalls the promise to Abraham, "I will make your seed like the dust of the earth" (Genesis 13:16): Solomon sees Israel's great number as Yahweh's word to the fathers kept.
• 1:10 Chronicles tells the night at Gibeon more briefly than 1 Kings 3:5-15, and in its own words. In 1 Kings Solomon asks for "a hearing heart" (lev shomea); here he asks for "wisdom and knowledge" (chokhmah umadda), and the gift is the same. "To go out and come in" is the Hebrew idiom for leading the people in all of life (see the note at 1 Kings 3:7).
• 1:13 The Hebrew reads literally "Solomon came to the high place that was at Gibeon, Jerusalem, from before the tent of meeting"; the sense, which the ancient Greek and Latin translations give, is that he returned from Gibeon to Jerusalem. 1 Kings 3:15 adds that there he stood before the ark and offered sacrifices.
• 1:15 Verses 14-17 repeat 1 Kings 10:26-29 almost word for word, and 9:25-28 returns to them; here they show at once the riches and honor promised in verse 12. Where 1 Kings 10:27 speaks of silver only, Chronicles says "silver and gold." The Torah had said of Israel's king, "he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt in order to multiply horses," "nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself" (Deuteronomy 17:16-17); the writer records these things without comment.

1 Chronicles 29 · 2 Chronicles 2

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