1.
And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do,
2.
That the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon.
3.
And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.
4.
And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments:
5.
Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.
6.
But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:
7.
Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:
8.
And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house?
9.
And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil.
10.
And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD, and the king's house,
11.
(Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
12.
And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not.
13.
And he said, What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day.
1 Kings 9:13. And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day— Houbigant thinks that Cabul is derived from an Arabic word, signifying to defer the payment of a debt; perhaps because he had not given them to king Hiram before he had finished all his buildings. The Arabic word signifies also to refuse, to be short in; which signification may imply, that those cities were either too small, or such as a Tyrian king should refuse. Some think, that the word כבול Cabul should here be considered as a compound of כ caph, (like, as,) and בל bal, or בול bul, (nothing:) thus well expressing king Hiram's dislike, as signifying that those cities were worthless, next to nothing. See Parkhurst on the word. It is uncertain why Hiram so much disliked these cities. Bedford thinks it was because the Tyrians were wholly addicted to trade and merchandize, and therefore would not remove from the sea-shores to live in a soil which required a great deal of labour to cultivate it; a business to which they were little accustomed. See Calmet.
14.
And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold.
15.
And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.
1 Kings 9:15. And this is the reason of the levy— Therefore this was the reason of the levy or tribute. That is, the money which Solomon borrowed of Hiram, 1Ki 9:14 was the reason of his raising the tribute upon his people. Houbigant.
And Millo— See 2 Samuel 5:9. מלוא Millo was a place in Jerusalem in which the people of Israel assembled, when there was any consultation to be made about public affairs. It is derived from the Hebrew word מלא male, which signifies full, because the people filled the place.
16.
For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon's wife.
17.
And Solomon built Gezer, and Beth-horon the nether,
18.
and Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land,
1 Kings 9:18. And Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land— See 2 Chronicles 8:3-4. This Tadmor in the wilderness is generally supposed to be the same with the city of Palmyra, whose ruins are at present so extraordinary, and of which some valuable travellers of our nation have given us the most pleasing and accurate accounts. We refer our reader to these, not only that they may receive great pleasure but great improvement; since it is not possible to conceive higher ideas of Solomon's magnificence than these ruins present, nor more humiliating ideas of the vanity and weakness of all human splendor. See Messrs. Dawkins and Wood's ruins of Palmyra.
19.
And all the cities of store that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.
1 Kings 9:19. And in Lebanon— That is, in the palace which was styled of the forest of Lebanon, near Jerusalem; for Solomon built nothing in mount Lebanon, nor do we any where read that any part of that mountain was within his jurisdiction. Houbigant.
20.
And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel,
21.
Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto this day.
22.
But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen.
23.
These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon's work, five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work.
24.
But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Millo.
25.
And three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar which he built unto the LORD, and he burnt incense upon the altar that was before the LORD. So he finished the house.
26.
And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom.
27.
And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.
28.
And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.
1 Kings 9:28. And they came to Ophir— Infinite are the conjectures of different writers concerning this land of Ophir. The authors of the Universal History have taken great pains to confute those opinions which appear less probable; and upon the whole their conclusion is, "that Ophir appears most likely to have been in some of those remote rich countries of India beyond Ganges, and perhaps as far as China or Japan; which last still abounds with the finest gold, and several other commodities in which Solomon's fleet dealt, as silver, precious stones, ebony, and other valuable sorts of wood; to say nothing of spices, peacocks, parrots, apes, and other such creatures; and by its distance best answers to the length of the voyage."
Note; Even the gold of Ophir perishes in the using; but the treasures of grace never wax old, or decay. He that is possessed of these, hath that fine gold which constitutes the truest riches, Revelation 3:18.