Chapter Nine

1–9. A new revelation to Solomon. 10–14. Cities ceded by Solomon to Hiram. 15–19. The tribute imposed by Solomon upon the people for his building projects, and the cities he built for storage. 20–22. Tribute laborers from the Canaanites and the more free condition of native Hebrews. 23–28. Overseers of the laborers, the palace for Solomon’s wife, his solemn annual sacrifices, and his fleet for overseas merchant voyages.

1 Kings 9:1. And after Solomon had finished building the Temple of the Lord and the royal house and all that Solomon had desired to build, 1 Kings 9:2. the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. “After the festival, the Lord appears to Solomon again, making this provision for his salvation so that, having been freed from cares, he might not give himself to idleness and out of necessity might remember His laws; He promises to confirm the covenant given to the father, and threatens destruction to those who transgress His laws, and that for their sake He will abandon the consecrated Temple” (the blessed Theodoret, question 30). Thus, the blessed Theodoret attributes this second (after Gibeon) (1 Kgs 3:5-14) or strictly third (if counting the one that occurred during the Temple’s construction (1 Kgs 6:11-13)) revelation of God to Solomon to the time immediately after the Temple’s dedication. Jewish tradition (Midrash Vayikra Rabba on Lev 10) even referred this divine appearance to the very night after the Temple’s consecration. In favor of this, one could argue that the words of the revelation (cf. 2 Chr 7:12-16) in this case have the character of a response to Solomon’s prayer. However, if this revelation, in its content, is undoubtedly connected with the Temple’s dedication described in the preceding (VIII) chapter, the time of this revelation, according to the direct testimony of the biblical text (1 Kgs 9:1), is determined as follows: “after Solomon had finished building the Temple of the Lord and the royal house,” that is, not less than 13 years after the Temple’s dedication (1 Kgs 6:38) or 20 years from the laying of the Temple (1 Kgs 6:1; 2 Chr 8:1), that is, in the 24th year of Solomon’s reign. According to the thought of Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, “the purpose of God’s discourse consists not so much in the promise with which it begins, but in the threat with which it ends. Surely, the Heart-knower saw clearly the danger which external happiness posed to Solomon’s virtue, and warned him beforehand” (Outline of Church-Biblical History, 10th edition, p. 228, note). Thus, the divine revelation described in (1 Kgs 9:1-9) to Solomon happened at the moment of the flowering of his external glory and power, with which coincided the foretelling of his future fall (cf. 1 Kgs 11:1-9).

1 Kings 9:3. And the Lord said to him, I have heard your prayer and your petition, for which you have asked of Me; [I have done according to your prayer]. I have consecrated this Temple, which you have built, to put My name there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there all the time. 1 Kings 9:4. And if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a pure heart and in uprightness, doing all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My laws, 1 Kings 9:5. then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I said to your father David, saying, “There shall not fail you a successor on the throne of Israel. The first part of God’s speech is a promise – to dwell in Solomon’s Temple “forever” (Hebrew ad-olam, verse 3), that is, until the coming of the Messiah – and to establish the Davidic dynasty on the throne (verse 5) on the condition of Solomon’s imitating David (verse 4), that truly theocratic king. This promise, in its content and meaning, closely recalls what was spoken to Solomon earlier (1 Kgs 3:14).

1 Kings 9:6. But if you and your descendants turn away from Me and do not keep My commandments and My statutes, which I have given you, but go and serve other gods and bow down to them, 1 Kings 9:7. then I will cut off Israel from the face of the land which I have given him, and the Temple which I have consecrated for My name I will cast away from My presence, and Israel will become a byword and a mockery among all the peoples. 1 Kings 9:8. And concerning this Temple, so exalted, everyone passing by it will be appalled and hiss, and will say, “Why has the Lord dealt thus with this land and this Temple? 1 Kings 9:9. And they will say, “Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and bowed down to them and served them – because of this the Lord has brought all this disaster upon them. (cf. 2 Chr 7:19-22). The second and principal idea of the revelation is expressed in God’s threats against Israel, its land, and the Temple in case of unfaithfulness of the Israelites to Jehovah and serving “other gods”; these threats are essentially identical to those proclaimed to Israel by Moses himself (cf. Lev 26:14; Deut 8:19). This divine judgment was fulfilled against the people and the Temple first upon the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the captivity of the people by Nebuchadnezzar (around 539 B.C.) (2 Kgs 25:9), and finally, already after Israel’s rejection of the Messiah – Christ the Savior – in 70 A.D., when Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed again and the Judean people ceased to exist as a whole independent nation.

1 Kings 9:10. And at the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, – the house of the Lord and the royal house, – 1 Kings 9:11. for which Hiram, king of Tyre, had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress wood and gold according to his desire, – King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 1 Kings 9:12. And Hiram went out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, and they did not please him. 1 Kings 9:13. And he said, What are these cities which you have given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul, as they are called to this day. 1 Kings 9:14. And Hiram sent to the king one hundred twenty talents of gold. This section stands outside the historical connection with the previous one. Despite the external splendor and wealth of Solomon’s reign, he apparently had no way to reward Hiram, the king of Tyre, for his services in the construction (verse 11) (1 Kgs 5:7-12; 2 Chr 2:8-16), except by ceding to him a portion of Israelite territory, in direct contradiction to the prohibition of the law to sell the land forever (Lev 25:23), and thus to alienate any part of it. Solomon gave Hiram “20 cities in the land of Galilee,” Hebrew Galil (verse 11), LXX: Γαλιλάια, Vulgate: Galilaea. This is not the entire Galilee in the later, New Testament sense – the region between Samaria on the south and Lebanon on the north (Josephus, Jewish War III, 3, 1; (Luke 8:26; Acts 9:31); Onomastics 320), but only the most northern part of it, originally designated as the portion of the tribe of Naphtali (Josh 20:7), but remaining in the hands of Canaanites, predominantly populated by them, and therefore called “Galilee of the Gentiles” (Matt 4:15). This could provide some justification for Solomon’s action regarding the cities. However, situated in a poor, uncultivated province, they naturally did not please Hiram, which he expressed by naming the province Cabul (verse 13). According to the explanation of Josephus (Jewish Antiquities VIII, 5, 3), Cabul, Χάβαλον, means from the Phoenician “unpleasing, unpleasant” (οὐκ ἀρέσκον). The LXX render the Hebrew Cabul sometimes through the proper name Χάβαλον, sometimes through the common noun opiov, Slavonic: “the boundary [of Chavul],” apparently bringing the name close to the Hebrew gevul (boundary, border). The common noun meaning of the name Cabul is generally unclear. “My brother” (verse 13) in Hiram’s address to Solomon is not an expression of intimacy, but the language of diplomatic relations between ancient rulers (cf. 1 Kgs 20:32; 1 Macc 10:18). In (2 Chr 8:2), on the contrary, it is said that Hiram gave cities to Solomon and that the latter settled them and placed Israelites in them. Here (verse 14) it only mentions the 120 talents of gold sent by Hiram to Solomon.

1 Kings 9:15. Here is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon imposed, in order to build the Temple of the Lord and his own house, and the Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer. 1 Kings 9:16. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, came and captured Gezer, and burned it with fire, and killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and gave it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. 1 Kings 9:17. And Solomon built Gezer and Lower Beth-horon, The reason for both Solomon’s material dependence on Hiram and the heavy tribute imposed by Solomon upon the people was one and the same: the multitude of building projects undertaken by him; and the word “build” (bana) when applied to whole cities, sometimes long-existing and earlier, can mean simply repair, restoration, and fortification of a city. Thus, Solomon built, besides the Temple and palace, also the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer (verse 15). “Millo” (LXX: Μελὼ καὶ τὴν ἄκραν, Slavonic: “Melon and acropolis”) – an embankment, a rampart, but also a fortress (such as, for example, was in Shechem), (Judg 9:6); in Jerusalem, David himself founded such a fortress, perhaps strengthened an already existing one left by the Jebusites (2 Sam 5:9; 1 Chr 11:8), and Solomon apparently undertook restoration of these fortifications more than once (1 Kgs 9:15); at the same time, he fortified and perhaps expanded the wall of Jerusalem (1 Kgs 3:1). “Hazor,” LXX: Ασσούρ, Slavonic: “Assur,” is a city in the tribe of Naphtali (Josh 19:36), once the capital of the Canaanite king Jabin (Josh 11:1; Judg 4:2). “Megiddo” (cf. 1 Kgs 4:12) is an important strategic point at the entrance to the Jezreel Valley, the key to the middle and northern Palestine. “Gezer” or Gazer (LXX: Γαζερ, Εσερ) – a Levite city on the western boundary of the tribe of Ephraim, near the Mediterranean Sea; once conquered by Joshua (Josh 10:33), it was not retained by the Hebrews (Judg 1:29) and remained in the hands of the Canaanites until (verse 16) Pharaoh – Solomon’s father-in-law, perhaps Ramesses Miamun (according to Clericus’ conjecture) – took it from the Canaanites and gave it to Solomon as a dowry for his daughter (now Tell-Gezer) (verse 17). Solomon fortified Gezer and nearby Beth-horon (Bet-horon, Βαιθωρών), called Lower; in (Josh 16:5) Upper Beth-horon is mentioned, and according to (2 Chr 8:5) Solomon built both Beth-horons, upper and lower – both in the tribe of Ephraim, now Beit-Ur (Robinson. Palästina, III, 273).

1 Kings 9:18. and Baalah and Tadmor in the wilderness, “Baalah” is in the tribe of Dan (Josh 19:44) not far from Gezer and Beth-horon (cf. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities VII, 6, 1). “Tadmor” (Thadmor, LXX: Θωμώθ, Onomastics 515: according to Eusebius: Θερμώθ; according to the blessed Jerome: Thermoth) – according to conjecture, “a large and wealthy city between the Euphrates and Damascus” (Keil), in the Lebanese mountains, modern Baalbek (Josephus, Jewish Antiquities VII, 6, 1). This conjecture is supported by the fact that in the ketib of the Masoretic text the name Tadmor is written: Tamar (the proper palm tree): Palmyra-Baalbek. But in the parallel passage (2 Chr 8:4) we have Thadmor, so read the ancient translations and the Masoretic qere in manuscripts 30, 113, 115, 246, 249, 251. The main reason, however, preventing us from seeing Palmyra or Baalbek, a Syrian city, here is the fact that Solomon could not possess this city because of its remote location from the boundaries of his domains. Therefore, it is more likely that “Tadmor in the wilderness” should be sought in the south of Solomon’s kingdom, all the more since in the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek 47:19) a city of this name is mentioned among the southern border cities of Palestine.

1 Kings 9:19. and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem and on Lebanon and in all the land of his dominion. “Storage cities” – like the Egyptian Pithom and Ramesses (Exod 1:11; cf. 2 Chr 8:4), where there were grain storehouses or magazines (2 Chr 16:4); “cities for chariots, and cities for horsemen”: Solomon’s cavalry and chariots were distributed among various cities, whose inhabitants maintained the cavalry and stored the chariots (1 Kgs 4:26).

1 Kings 9:20. All the people remaining from the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, [Canaanites,] Girgashites, Evites, Jebusites, and [Girgashites], who were not of the sons of Israel, 1 Kings 9:21. their offspring remaining after them on the land, whom the sons of Israel were not able to destroy completely, Solomon made serve as forced laborers even to this day. 1 Kings 9:22. But the sons of Israel Solomon did not make serve as laborers; instead, they were his men of war, his servants, his princes, his commanders, and the commanders of his chariots and his horsemen. Conquered peoples and captives, according to the common custom of the East, were used for forced state labor. Therefore, Solomon employed all the Canaanites for continuous tributary work (1 Kgs 5:15). Native Hebrews, however, were freed from such work or, at least, were conscripted for such labor only in particular cases, as during the building of the Temple (1 Kgs 5:13) or during the repair of the city fortress (1 Kgs 11:27), when the workers were Hebrews from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (verse 28), which served as a cause for Jeroboam’s rebellion.

1 Kings 9:23. These were the chief officials over Solomon’s work: five hundred fifty who supervised the people doing the work. Concerning the different numbers of overseers according to the indication of this verse, (1 Kgs 5:16), as well as (2 Chr 2:18); see the note on (1 Kgs 5:16). The difference in figures is most likely explained by the fact that the number of Solomon’s overseers was indeed different at different times, depending on the varying number of workers employed at any given time.

1 Kings 9:24. Pharaoh’s daughter moved from the City of David to her house, which Solomon had built for her; then he built the Millo. See verse 15 and (1 Kgs 3:1). The reason for settling Solomon’s wife, the Pharaoh’s daughter, in a separate palace in (2 Chr 8:11) is attributed to Solomon’s reverent concern not to offend the holiness of the House of David, which lay near the Temple, by settling a woman there.

1 Kings 9:25. And Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he had built for the Lord, and he burned incense before the Lord. And he finished the construction of the house. From the succession of Solomon’s sacrifices, those offered three times a year are distinguished, that is, at the great festivals of the Hebrew ecclesiastical year: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, (2 Chr 8:12-13).

1 Kings 9:26. King Solomon also made a fleet at Ezion-geber, which is beside Elath, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. 1 Kings 9:27. And Hiram sent with the fleet his servants who were sailors, men who knew the sea, along with the servants of Solomon; 1 Kings 9:28. and they went to Ophir, and brought from there four hundred twenty talents of gold, and brought it to King Solomon. To cover the numerous expenses of the building projects and other costs, Solomon sought out a source of state income completely unknown before him: maritime trade, naturally under the direction of the maritime traders well-known in the ancient world – the Phoenicians (verse 27). The sacred writer speaks in detail about this unprecedented venture of Solomon here and below (1 Kgs 10:11); cf. (2 Chr 8:17-18). The place of construction of the fleet, more precisely the fleet (the Hebrew word means fleet, while a ship in Hebrew is oniyya), cf. (Prov 30:19), setting out for distant voyages, is determined by two cities: 1) “Ezion-geber” (LXX: Γασιων Γαβερ, Slavonic: “Gasion Gabersky”), an Edomite port on the northeastern gulf, the so-called Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea (Hebrew Yam-Suf, that is, “reed sea” – from the abundance of reeds along its shores); this region became known to the Hebrews at the time of the desert wanderings (Num 33:35; Deut 2:8), (cf. the blessed Theodoret, question 31). Near Ezion-geber was also “Elath” (LXX: Αιλαθ), cf. (Deut 2:8); a city after which the gulf was named Elanitic. David took this port city from the Edomites (2 Sam 8:14); later Uzziah fortified it (2 Kgs 14:22), but under Ahaz, Elath was recaptured from the Judeans by Rezin of Syria for the Edomites (2 Kgs 16:6). Later Elath was called Elana, otherwise Berenice (Josephus VIII, 6, 4; Onomastics 423; Robinson 279), now Aqaba. Elath, more than Ezion-geber, had important trading significance and therefore became the departure point for the Jewish merchant fleet to the mysterious gold-bearing land of “Ophir” (LXX: Ωφείρ, Σωφείρ and others). The location of the latter was attempted to be determined partly by the similarity of its name to various lands on the globe, partly on the basis of the goods brought from Ophir. Ophir was thought to be: 1) in India (Josephus, Jewish Antiquities VIII, 6, 4; the blessed Theodoret, question 32 and many modern scholars), where Ophir was identified with the city of Sopara on the western coast of India or with the city of Abhira on the eastern coast. But the identification of such different names is doubtful; furthermore, there was no gold in India; finally, voyages to India were improbable due to their distance; 2) in East Africa, where the city of Sofala was on the coast opposite Madagascar. But the acquaintance of the Hebrews and even the Phoenicians with East Africa is even more doubtful; 3) in South Arabia: in favor of this assumption is the fact that in (Gen 10:26) Ophir, one of the descendants of Joktan, appears as the ancestor of Arab tribes (along with Sheba and Havila). This assumption is supported by both Jewish and Christian tradition (Onomastics 924). The proximity of this region to Elath was not an obstacle to the fleet spending three years on a single voyage, (1 Kgs 10:22): it is not known how long the fleet stayed in Ophir. From Ophir the fleet brought 420 (according to (2 Chr 8:18) – 450) talents of gold. * * * According to the Midrash, after the Temple’s dedication, Solomon celebrated his wedding with Pharaoh’s daughter: as a result of unbridled merriment at the wedding feast, Solomon overslept the time of the morning sacrifice, and moreover deprived the people of the opportunity to offer it, since the keys to the Temple were kept by Solomon. In general, according to tradition, the moment of the Temple’s dedication was also the beginning of Solomon’s apostasy. Qeri and ketib are marks in Hebrew manuscripts of the biblical text belonging to Hebrew text critics; “qeri” shows how to read the word correctly; “ketib” is the most probable spelling of a questionable word.