2 Chronicles 8

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

Solomon's other works

¹ At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the house of Yahweh and his own house, ² Solomon rebuilt the cities that Huram had given to Solomon, and settled the children of Israel there. ³ Then Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and prevailed over it. ⁴ He built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the store cities that he built in Hamath. ⁵ He also built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon, fortified cities with walls, gates and bars, ⁶ and Baalath, and all the store cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

⁷ All the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel, ⁸ of their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel had not destroyed, these Solomon levied for forced labor, as they are to this day. ⁹ But of the children of Israel Solomon made no slaves for his work; they were men of war, chiefs of his captains, and commanders of his chariots and his horsemen. ¹⁰ These were the chief officers of King Solomon: two hundred and fifty, who had charge of the people.

¹¹ Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the City of David to the house that he had built for her, for he said, "My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, for the places to which the ark of Yahweh has come are holy."

The offerings and the appointed times

¹² Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to Yahweh on the altar of Yahweh which he had built before the porch, ¹³ offering them as each day required, according to the commandment of Moses, on the Shabbats, on the new moons and on the appointed times, three times a year: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹⁴ According to the ordinance of David his father, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their duties, to praise and to minister before the priests as each day required, and the gatekeepers by their divisions at every gate; for so David the man of Elohim had commanded. ¹⁵ And they did not turn aside from the commandment of the king concerning the priests and the Levites in any matter, or concerning the treasuries. ¹⁶ So all the work of Solomon was prepared, from the day the foundation of the house of Yahweh was laid until it was finished. So the house of Yahweh was completed.

Solomon's fleet

¹⁷ Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth, on the shore of the sea in the land of Edom. ¹⁸ And Huram sent him, by the hand of his servants, ships and servants who knew the sea; and they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and took from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought them to King Solomon.

Notes

• 8:2 Kings tells that Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in Galilee, which did not please him (1 Kings 9:11-13); Chronicles speaks of cities that Huram gave to Solomon, which Solomon rebuilt and settled with Israelites. The text does not say how the two accounts fit together. As in chapter 2, Chronicles spells the king's name Huram, where Kings has Hiram.
• 8:4 Hamath-zobah joins the names of two kingdoms to the north, in Syria; David had struck "Hadadezer king of Zobah toward Hamath" (1 Chronicles 18:3). This is the only campaign of Solomon that the Scriptures record. Tadmor, an oasis in the Syrian desert, is the city later called Palmyra (see the note on 1 Kings 9:18).
• 8:10 Kings gives five hundred and fifty chief officers here (1 Kings 9:23) and three thousand three hundred others (1 Kings 5:16); Chronicles gives two hundred and fifty here and three thousand six hundred in 2:18. Many have noticed that both pairs add up to three thousand eight hundred and fifty, so the two books may be counting the same men in different groups. In the same way, the gold from Ophir is four hundred and fifty talents in verse 18 and four hundred and twenty in 1 Kings 9:28.
• 8:11 Solomon had married Pharaoh's daughter early in his reign (1 Kings 3:1). Kings only tells that she moved to her own house (1 Kings 9:24); Chronicles gives Solomon's reason: the places where the ark of Yahweh had come were holy. The text says no more; many think her being an Egyptian was part of the concern.
• 8:13 Solomon's offerings follow "the commandment of Moses" through the whole calendar of the Torah: the weekly Shabbats and the new moons at the start of each month (Numbers 28:9-15), and the appointed times (moadim) of Leviticus 23. The "three times a year" are the pilgrimage feasts, named in the words of Deuteronomy 16:16: "at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Tabernacles" (Chag HaMatzot, Shavuot and Sukkot), kept "in the place which He chooses," now this house (7:12). Kings says only "three times a year" (1 Kings 9:25); Chronicles names the feasts.

2 Chronicles 7 · 2 Chronicles 9

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