And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the house of Jehovah and his own house,
Twenty years of building are over. The record now turns from the temple and the palace to cities, borders and tribute. Commentators ask what those years say about Solomon, and why this chapter says nothing about the failure 1 Kings records.
The twenty years split into seven and thirteen. One writer reads that split as a measure of Solomon's heart.
"Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished his entire house" (1 Kings 7:1). It had taken Solomon seven years to build the house of the Lord. We see in this his promptness at this work. At the beginning of his career the service of the Lord came before all else in the king's heart. His own house, certainly of less importance than the temple, cost him thirteen years of labor.
One writer draws a general rule out of these twenty years, then turns it on the reader.
The first general truth is this. All human work comes to nothing unless the Lord is with us in it, guiding, controlling and sustaining. It must be His purposes and plans that we are carrying out. It was good for Solomon to hold that conviction deeply, since half his reign — twenty years — went into building the house of the Lord and his own house… Sadly, how often do we start our own service in real dependence on the Lord, fully aware that we can do nothing apart from Him. Then, for one reason or another — sometimes even from delight in the work itself — we slip into leaning on our own methods and our own energy. Or we lose sight of God's aim because we are taken up with our own.
The verse counts both houses as finished. One commentator sees a picture in each.
Both the temple and Solomon's house took a long time to build, but both were finished in the end (v. 11). The work was not wasted, as it sometimes is when people do not first count the cost. What God builds is always finished perfectly. The temple pictures the Father's house in glory. Solomon's house pictures the Church in her condition and circumstances on earth, where God's order is to be kept among His saints.
With the houses finished, one writer sees the point of Solomon's whole reign coming into view.
Here we have the grand object of Solomon's coming to the throne. It was this great picture of the kingdom.
Another writer fills in what that kingdom looked like.
Solomon brings under his control everything that could have blocked the full enjoyment of the promised land in its whole extent, whether on the side of Tyre or of Syria. The foreigners in the land keep paying tribute, and the children of Israel are captains and fighting men… The king of Tyre, who stands for the Gentile glory of the world, gave him all that he needed to carry out his plans.
Right after this verse, cities change hands — the opposite direction to the record in 1 Kings.
The first book of Kings tells us that Solomon gave Hiram, the king of Tyre, "twenty cities in the land of Galilee." Hiram looked down on this gift and called these cities the "land of Cabul" (good for nothing)… Solomon was truly unfaithful in giving away Jehovah's land. As always in this book, Solomon's sin goes unmentioned… Instead of Solomon giving cities to Huram, in verse 2 we see Huram giving cities to Solomon. A day is coming when the world, which Tyre represents in the Word, will come with its riches, admit that it owes tribute to Christ, and offer its finest cities as homes for the children of Israel.
One writer gives the reason for that silence.
Yet 2 Chronicles does not speak of Solomon's shameful failure in turning from the Lord, as 1 Kings does. Chronicles emphasizes the grace of God, while Kings emphasizes His government.
Commentators differ on how to read the chapter. One writer sees the fortified cities and the horses as a step down.
We are now on lower ground (ch. 8). This is not a foreshadowing of the peaceful reign of Messiah. Here is a man who holds glory and honour, given to him so that he might display, as far as a mere man can, the glories of the coming kingdom… This is a display of good sense and strength in the face of possible enemies. It is the evidence of the wisdom God gave him — wisdom which, if he had not misused it, he would not have spent on gathering horses and fortifying cities.
- Finished. Both houses took years, and both were completed. What God builds is always finished perfectly.
- First. Seven years for the Lord's house and thirteen for his own show what came first in Solomon's heart.
- Forgotten. All human work comes to nothing unless the Lord is in it. Half of Solomon's reign went into building.
- Foreshadowed. With the houses done, the grand object of his coming to the throne appears. It is a kingdom where every rival power is subdued and Tyre's wealth serves the king.
- Forgiven. In 1 Kings, Solomon hands Israel's land away. In Chronicles, Huram hands cities to him. The silence about his sin is how the book emphasises grace rather than government.
that the cities which Huram had given to Solomon, Solomon built them and caused the children of Israel to dwell there.
Here Chronicles says that Hiram gave cities to Solomon. The parallel account in 1 Kings says the opposite: Solomon gave cities to Hiram. That difference is not a mistake. It opens up both the character of this book and the coming kingdom it pictures.
Hiram, king of Tyre — also spelled Huram — had supplied Solomon with timber and gold. Solomon paid him with land. Hiram disliked the cities, and the name he gave them said so.
As well as supplying Solomon with timber, he also gave him gold — 120 talents of it. Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in Galilee. Hiram came to look at them. He was not pleased with them, and he called them Cabul, which probably means "as nothing." Solomon may have given these cities to King Hiram for the gold he had received from him. Hiram later gave the cities back to Solomon, most likely after Solomon had paid back the gold Hiram had supplied.
So the cities came back. This verse picks up the story there. It says nothing about how they left.
The handover itself was wrong. One writer gives the reason: the land was not Solomon's to trade away.
Was Solomon acting according to God when he took away part of Israel's inheritance — even the smallest part — for the benefit of one of the leading rulers of the nations? We have no hesitation in saying no, because the land could not be given away. The Lord had said: "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me" (Lev. 25:23). So the land belonged to the Lord… In 1 Kings Solomon makes God's inheritance smaller; in 2 Chronicles he makes it larger. What is even more significant is that Solomon gave this territory up to a nation that idolatry was overrunning more and more, until the whole land came to be called "Galilee of the nations." Still, it was there that God's grace began to shine out through the ministry of the Lord. So, a thousand years after Solomon, grace remedied his fault.
The omission follows a pattern running through the whole of Chronicles. It is not concealment; it is a different subject.
Chronicles does not give the history of kingship under human responsibility. It gives the history of kingship according to God's purposes of grace — purposes that will only be fully met when the crown rests on Christ's head. So Chronicles always records God's ways of grace, which remedy the faults of the kings who follow one another on the throne, right up to the coming of the great King. This is also why God's account passes over faults in silence as far as it can. As we have said, the Spirit of God leaves out David's serious sins and their results; He leaves out Solomon's too.
Read this way, the reversal points forward. Tyre hands over cities instead of receiving them, and Tyre stands for more than itself.
In verse 2 we do not see Solomon giving cities to Huram. We see Huram giving cities to Solomon. A day is coming when the world will come with its riches and admit that it owes tribute to Christ. In the Word, Tyre stands for that world. It will offer its finest cities as homes for the children of Israel.
Solomon rebuilt the cities so that Israelites could live in them. The rest of the chapter shows who serves whom.
So here we see every kind of right exercised, and what had been wrong put right. "But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves for his work." A very remarkable statement. He made the Gentiles servants. The Jews will then be lords on the earth, not slaves. The Gentiles will have to take the place of the tail while Israel is at the head, as the prophet said.
Not everyone reads chapter 8 as a picture of the kingdom. One writer sees a step down here: a man using his wisdom well, but only as a man.
We are now on lower ground (ch. 8). This is not a foreshadowing of the peaceful reign of the Messiah. Here we see a man who holds glory and honour. He had been given that glory so that he might show, as far as a mere man can, the glories of the coming kingdom… In his wisdom he uses the cities that Hiram refused… This shows prudence and strength in the face of possible enemies.
- Fact. Solomon handed twenty Galilean cities to Hiram. Hiram disliked them and named them Cabul. Later he gave them back, and this verse starts there.
- Fault. The land was the Lord's. Solomon had no right to give it away, so the handover was a real wrong.
- Grace. Chronicles tells the story of kingship according to God's purposes of grace. It passes over the fault and records the restoration. A thousand years later, grace shone out in that same Galilee.
- Reach. The reversal points forward. The world will one day bring its riches to Christ and offer its best cities as homes for His people.
- Result. Israel lives in those cities as free people, not as labour. The nations serve, and God's people are at the head.
And Solomon went to Hamath-Zobah, and overcame it.
Chapter 8 turns from the temple to the rest of the king's work. This verse is the only campaign recorded in a reign famous for peace, and commentators ask two things of it: where the place was, and why a book of peace records a conquest.
The name joins two places in the far north, and the link between them is not settled.
A city conquered by Solomon. 2 Chr. 8:3. It can hardly be the same as the Hamath mentioned in 2 Chr. 8:4. Probably Hamath was a province or city belonging to Zobah.
Zobah itself had a long history with Israel.
District in the north of Syria lying between Hamath and Damascus. Saul fought against its kings, and David subdued them; but they were still troublesome in Solomon's time.
Solomon inherited a kingdom his father had already pacified, so this verse is the exception in his record.
David had subdued all the enemies of Israel around them, and he left Solomon a peaceful throne. Only one military incident is recorded: "Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and took it" (2 Chron. 8:3). Then came deep peace for the rest of his forty years' reign.
The same writer marks where the picture breaks down.
But Solomon did not believe in disarmament. Twice we read that he gathered chariots and horsemen — fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen. Truly every type fails! When He who is "greater than Solomon" reigns in Jerusalem, men "shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore" (Isa. 2:4).
Solomon's reign pictures Christ's coming rule. This verse belongs inside that picture.
We read of no wars in Solomon's time, because his reign symbolizes that of the Lord Jesus in the age to come. Yet verse 3 tells us that Solomon went to Hamath Zobah and seized it. In the same way, Christ will bring cities and nations into subjection to Him without bloodshed.
Chronicles and 1 Kings tell Solomon's story, but they do not tell it the same way.
It is true that God had said a king should not multiply horses (Deut. 17:16). But Solomon is not reproved for this here. Again his actions serve as a picture of the future glory of Christ, instead of exposing his own unfaithfulness, as 1 Kings does.
Another writer points to what the record is shaped to show.
In these passages we do not have any failure of Solomon recorded. Taken as a picture, everything in the record given to us here is perfect. It would set before us in picture that one Man who never failed… His name means "peaceable." David was the warrior king, the man who subdued all the enemies.
Commentators differ on whether chapter 8 keeps the same high note as chapter 7. One writer hears a drop.
We are now on lower ground (ch. 8). This is not a foreshadowing of the peaceful reign of Messiah. Instead we are shown a man who holds glory and honour. It was given to him so that he might display the glories of the coming kingdom, as far as a mere man can… Here is the display of prudence and strength in the presence of possible enemies… A kingdom can be strong and unbreakable even under the oppressive power of a tyrant.
This one conquest belongs to a wider settling of the land.
Solomon brings into subjection everything that could have hindered the full enjoyment of the promised land in its whole extent. This is true on the side of Tyre and on the side of Syria. The strangers in the land continue to pay tribute, and the children of Israel are captains and men of war.
- Place. Hamath-zobah lay in the far north. David had beaten that territory down, but it stayed troublesome into Solomon's reign.
- Exception. It is the single campaign recorded of Solomon — one line of war framed by forty years of peace.
- Picture. That single line pictures Christ bringing cities and nations under Him without bloodshed.
- Silence. Chronicles never reproves Solomon here. It leaves out the failures named in 1 Kings, so the picture of the King who never failed stays whole.
- Result. Subjection is not the end but the start of order. Hindrances are removed, strangers pay tribute, and Israel's own sons are captains and men of war.
And he built Tadmor, in the wilderness, and all the store-cities, which he built in Hamath.
Solomon has finished the temple and his own palace, and now the record turns to what he built far beyond Israel — a city in the desert and supply towns in the far north. Why would a king of peace fortify the edges of his realm, and what do these far-off outposts say about the kingdom they picture?
The city named here stood far from Jerusalem, out in open desert. There was a practical reason for that site.
Solomon built this city in the wilderness. 2 Chr. 8:4. Josephus says it was the same place the Greeks called Palmyra, and that Solomon built it so far out because springs were there, with no water nearer in that direction. Palmyra stood about halfway between Damascus and Tiphsah, or Thapsacus, on the Euphrates. It is still called Tadmur. In Roman times it was a large and splendid city, and columns and remarkable ruins still stand there.
Hamath was a district in the far north, well outside Israel's usual reach. Solomon's building there measures how far his authority ran.
The district lay north of the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountains, but perhaps extended south, since Israel's northern border is described as the entrance to Hamath. 1 Kings 8:65. Hamath was more than a hundred miles further north than Dan, but it came to pay tribute to Solomon, and he built store cities there. 2 Chr. 8:4.
1 Kings gives the desert city's name in another form. Writers explain the difference in two ways. One reading treats both names as one place, with Tadmor the name used later:
Tadmor is Palmyra, the name the Greeks and Romans gave it, and it is still called Tadmor today. In 1 Kings 9:18 the Hebrew gives the name as "Tamar"; in 2 Chron. 8:4 it is "Tadmor." Tamor means "palm tree," the same as Palmyra. Chronicles uses Tadmor because it was known by that name after the exile.
Commentators differ. Another reading makes them two places, resting on one small phrase and on the towns listed beside each name:
Solomon also built this city in the wilderness, but the text adds 'in the land,' while Tadmor lay outside it. The other towns named in that passage belong to the south of the land. So it is surely a different place, and may be the same as the Tamar of Ezek. 47:19 and Ezek. 48:28.
Tadmor appears in a list of outlying lands and peoples. Every item on that list points back to one king.
Tyre; Lebanon; Pharaoh of Egypt; his daughter, Solomon's wife; the land of Edom where he organized his fleet; the desert where he built Tadmor; the kings of Arabia (1 Kings 10:15); the remnant of the Canaanites whom he brings into bondage. All these different elements circle around him as their centre, and all of them add to the fame of his kingdom.
In 1 Kings, Solomon's horses expose his unfaithfulness. Here the same building work draws no rebuke, and one writer links that silence to the purpose of this book.
Verses 5 and 6 speak of his building various cities, storage cities and fortified cities, some for his cavalry. So he was ready for war, which is an important way to keep peace. God had indeed said that a king should not multiply horses (Deut. 17:16), but Solomon is not rebuked for it here. Again his actions serve as a picture of the future glory of Christ, instead of exposing his own unfaithfulness, as 1 Kings does.
Still, walls and gates belong to a world with enemies. That is where the likeness to Messiah's reign ends.
He built store cities. He secured his links with the outlying districts by fortifying upper and lower Beth-horon, and he walled cities with gates and bars. This shows good sense and strength in the face of possible enemies... This is not the character of Messiah's peaceful reign, when peace and safety belong to every Israelite. A kingdom can be strong and unbreakable under the oppressive power of a tyrant, and the showy splendour of the king may be only a veil to hide the oppression and tears of his people.
- Place. Solomon built Tadmor in the desert where springs were, halfway between Damascus and the Euphrates. The Greeks and Romans called it Palmyra, and its ruins still stand.
- Reach. Hamath lay more than a hundred miles north of Dan. Yet it paid tribute to Solomon and held his store cities, so the map itself measures his rule.
- Centre. Desert, Lebanon, Egypt, Arabia, Edom: every outlying element circles one king and adds to his fame. That is how Solomon pictures Christ.
- Silence. Chronicles names the chariot cities without rebuke. Here Solomon pictures Christ's coming glory, not a man exposed in his failure.
- Limit. Walls, gates and bars still assume enemies. So the picture falls short of the reign where peace and safety belong to every Israelite.
And he built upper Beth-Horon and lower Beth-Horon, fortified cities, with walls, gates, and bars;
Solomon's building list comes after he finishes the temple, and verse 5 picks out two towns on one hillside, ringed with walls, gates and bars. Why did a reign famous for peace need fortresses at all, and what do these walls say about the greater King Solomon pictures?
The two names are not two separate places. They mark one site on two levels of a slope, and the place already had a history.
Two towns called the 'upper' and the 'lower,' though also spoken of as one, on the boundary between Benjamin and Ephraim. The district is memorable as the place where Joshua defeated the Amorites, and near which God struck them with hailstones… Solomon also built or rebuilt them.
So Solomon founded nothing new here. He rebuilt the place where God had once fought for His people.
Chronicles tells this stretch of Solomon's reign differently from Kings. Rather than Solomon handing territory away, the foreign king hands cities in — and one writer reads that reversal as the shape of things to come.
Instead of Solomon giving cities to Huram, in verse 2 we see Huram giving cities to Solomon. A day is coming when the world, which Tyre represents in the Word, will come with its riches. It will acknowledge that it owes tribute to Christ, and offer its finest cities as dwelling places for the children of Israel. Solomon fortifies them, surrounds them with walls, equips them with gates and bars — in a word, he prepares them for defence. There too he gathers his armed forces. He does not gather them to make war. He knows the nations are not willing to submit, so he prepares this power so that peace can rule. During his long reign of forty years we never see Solomon in a war of conquest. But the weight of his scepter must be felt, so that the nations will submit.
Commentators differ over whether the walls are a credit to Solomon. One writer sees real skill here, but skill aimed at possible enemies.
He built store cities. He secured his links with outlying districts by fortifying Upper and Lower Beth-horon, fenced cities with walls and gates and bars. This is a display of prudence and strength in the presence of possible enemies. It shows the wisdom he was given. If he had not misused that wisdom, he would not have spent it on collecting horses and fortifying cities. This is not the picture of Messiah's peaceful reign, when peace and safety belong to every Israelite. A kingdom can be strong and unbreakable even under the oppressive power of a tyrant.
Another writer notes that Chronicles gives no rebuke here, and draws the opposite conclusion.
Verses 5 and 6 speak of his building various cities, storage cities and fortified cities, some for his cavalry. So he was ready for war, which is an important way of preserving peace. It is true that God had said a king should not multiply horses (Deuteronomy 17:16). But Solomon is not blamed for this here. Again his actions serve as a picture of the future glory of Christ, rather than exposing his own unfaithfulness, as 1 Kings does.
Whatever the walls cost, their effect on ordinary Israelites was quiet safety — and that safety becomes a picture of what a prophet later promises.
Solomon built cities and fenced them with walls and bars, so that "Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon." In the same way the King says through His prophet, "My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places."
The verses just after this one tell who did the labour on these walls, and the arrangement is deliberate.
"But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves for his work." A very remarkable statement. He made the other nations servants. The Jews will, then, be lords upon the earth, not slaves. The other nations will have to take the place of the tail when Israel is at the head, as the prophet says.
- Place — Upper and Lower Beth-horon are one hillside site in two parts, on the border between Benjamin and Ephraim. It is remembered as the place where God struck the Amorites with hailstones for Joshua.
- Gift — In Chronicles the foreign king gives cities to Solomon. That pictures the day when the world brings its riches and its finest cities to Christ and admits it owes Him tribute.
- Walls — The gates and bars show prudence and strength facing possible enemies. Commentators differ: one sees wisdom misused on horses and fortresses, another sees a king ready for war as a way to preserve peace.
- Rest — Solomon fenced the cities, so every man lived in safety under his own vine and fig tree. The prophet promises the same: a peaceful home and quiet resting places.
- Order — Solomon made no Israelite a slave for this work; the other nations served. In the kingdom this pictures, God's people are at the head, not enslaved.
and Baalath, and all the store-cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for chariots, and the cities for the horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and on Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.
With the temple and his own house finished, Solomon turns outward to fortify and supply the land he rules. The cities listed here raise two questions: what do they picture, and why does a record of stockpiles, chariots and cavalry draw no rebuke?
The building in this verse comes after the house of God is finished. One writer says the reign that follows was the point of Solomon's coming to the throne.
So the next chapter shows us Solomon after he had built everything. Here we have the grand object of Solomon's coming to the throne. It was this great picture of the kingdom.
The verse names two kinds of city — one for storing goods, one for chariots and horsemen. One writer sees Solomon's wisdom at work in both.
Solomon's activity and wisdom show in his setting up of store-cities, cities for chariots, and cities for horsemen. It is the external organization of the kingdom, whether for commerce and trade or for war.
Chariots and cavalry seem to clash with the command that a king must not multiply horses. One writer answers that being ready for war helps keep the peace.
Verses 5 and 6 speak of his building various cities: storage cities and fortified cities, some for his cavalry. So he was prepared for war, which is an important way of preserving peace. It is true that God had said a king should not multiply horses (Deut. 17:16). But Solomon receives no rebuke for this here. Again his actions serve as a picture of the future glory of Christ, rather than exposing his own unfaithfulness, as 1 Kings does.
Not every writer reads the walls and the stables as a good sign. Commentators differ over whether this chapter still pictures Christ's reign or marks a step down from it. One writer treats the fortifying as wisdom misused, and warns that a strong kingdom is no proof of a happy one.
He built store cities. He also kept his links with outlying districts safe by fortifying the upper and the lower Beth-horon — walled cities with gates and bars. This shows caution and strength in the face of possible enemies. It is evidence of the wisdom he had received. Had he not misused that wisdom, he would never have turned it to piling up horses and fortifying cities. This is not how Messiah's peaceful reign looks, when peace and safety belong to every Israelite. A kingdom may be strong and unbreakable and still lie under the crushing power of a tyrant. The king's showy splendour may be only a veil to hide the oppression and tears of his subjects.
The silence about failure is not accident but design. Chronicles follows a different aim from Kings, and that aim shapes what it leaves out.
To sum up, Chronicles does not present the history of kingship as a matter of responsibility. It presents kingship according to God's counsels in grace. Those counsels will not be fully carried out until the crown rests on Christ's head. So Chronicles always records God's ways in grace, which remedy the faults of the kings. They follow one another on the throne, up to the appearing of the great King. This is also why the divine account passes over faults committed, as far as possible.
The verse ends by spreading the building work across everywhere Solomon ruled — Jerusalem, Lebanon, the whole land. Wide as that was, one writer measures it against something wider.
Solomon's dominion was only a weak picture of Christ's. Christ will have the ends of the earth for His possession (Ps. 2:8). The king of Israel ruled the whole region on this side of the river, as far as the land of the Philistines and the border of Egypt. These were the limits the Lord had assigned to Israel in Joshua 1:4. But Solomon's wisdom reached far beyond them.
- House first. The cities come after the temple. Once the house of God stands, the kingdom itself comes into view as a picture of Christ's reign.
- Then order. Store cities and chariot cities organise the kingdom on the outside: supply for trade, strength for war.
- Then reach. Solomon ruled to the limits God had assigned Israel, and his wisdom reached further still. Even that falls short of a rule reaching the ends of the earth.
- Silence by design. Chronicles traces kingship according to God's purposes in grace, not royal responsibility. So it passes over the king's faults as far as possible.
- Two readings. Commentators differ. Some see the horses and fortresses as part of the picture of Christ's coming glory. Others see wisdom misused, since an unbreakable kingdom can still hide a tyrant.
All the people that were left of the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel,
Solomon's building programme pauses here to name five peoples still living in the land. Why were they still there, and why did Solomon put them to work instead of driving them out?
The names themselves carry meaning. One writer, looking at the same list in the book of Judges, explains what they meant and what living beside them did to Israel:
The Hittites ("children of fear"), Amorites ("sayers"), Perizzites ("squatters") and Jebusites ("treaders down") were added to the other nations left in the land, so that all these evils very soon troubled the Israelites. Once the thin edge of the wedge of evil begins its work, it is not long before it brings a complete split. If once we welcome evil, we shall soon find that it is far too strong for us, and we become slaves.
The verse calls them the people "who were left." One writer looks at an earlier moment when Israel put Canaanites to forced labour instead of driving them out, and asks why:
Their strength exposed the secret of their inability. They "could not" because they "would not" drive them out. They preferred to make a profit out of these pagan peoples rather than obey God. And so it happened that, after a time, Israel learned all the detestable practices of the Canaanites, and served them as a punishment for their sins.
Solomon put these peoples under tribute. One dictionary explains the word:
Several Hebrew words are translated as "tribute." The general sense is what one nation or people paid to another, in money or in goods, so that it could be left holding its land in peace. Some of the Canaanites were not driven out of the land, but they paid tribute to the Israelites, and Solomon put others under tribute.
Under Solomon the two groups change places. What Israel once compromised with now serves Israel:
So this glorious reign brings about a state of things that had never existed before, because the people had been unfaithful. All their former mingling with the Canaanites has disappeared. From now on the Lord's people are a free people, and no one can force them into servitude.
The strangers serve, and Israel does not. One writer reads that pairing as a picture of the future:
He made the Gentiles servants. The Jews will then be lords upon the earth, not slaves. The Gentiles will have to take the place of the tail, while Israel is at the head, as the prophet said.
One writer reads the whole chapter as a picture of the last days:
2 Chronicles 8 gives us a few more details of the state of Israel — a state which prefigures that of the last days. Solomon brings under control everything that could have blocked the full enjoyment of the promised land, from one end to the other, whether on the side of Tyre or of Syria. The strangers in the land continue to pay tribute, and the children of Israel are captains and men of war.
Submission is not the same as faith. One writer marks the difference:
So Solomon had full control of the country. When the Lord Jesus takes His kingdom, there will be those from the nations who will submit to Him despite not having genuine faith.
Not every writer sees a preview of Messiah's peace here. One writer puts it bluntly:
This is a display of prudence and strength in the presence of possible enemies… This is not the look of Messiah's peaceful reign, when peace and safety belong to every Israelite. A kingdom can be strong and unbreakable under the oppressive power of a tyrant. The showy splendour of the king may be only a veil hiding the oppression and tears of his people.
One writer thinks the descendants of these levied peoples may be a group found centuries later among the Lord's people. He draws out the mercy in it:
Instead of being destroyed with the sword of the Lord's host, they were rescued, and now, after centuries, they are found in honourable association with the Lord's people, and with a heart too for the Lord's house… the least connection with the Lord's people and the Lord's things becomes a means of blessing — not always spiritual blessing, as it surely is not, but almost always blessing in this life.
- Left — these peoples were still in the land because Israel never drove them out. They "could not" because they "would not."
- Levied — tribute was payment in money or goods so a people could be left in peace. Solomon turned an old compromise into forced labour.
- Reversed — under this reign the old mingling is gone. Israel is free, and the strangers alone carry the load.
- Foreshadowed — writers see the coming kingdom here. One warns that some will submit to Christ without real faith. Another says this chapter does not picture Messiah's peace at all.
- Rescued — the servitude was not the end. Descendants of these spared peoples may be the ones found centuries later among God's people. The least link with the Lord's things can become blessing.
their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel had not destroyed, upon them did Solomon impose tribute-service until this day.
Chapter 8 turns from the temple to Solomon's rule, and this verse tells what became of the peoples Israel never drove out of Canaan. Why were they still there, and what does their service under a glorious king picture?
Israel should have removed the nations named in verse 7 long before. Their survival traces back to a failure. Under Solomon that failure comes under control.
The men who carried loads, the stone cutters, and the overseers all came from the Canaanites living among Israel, whom the people had failed to drive out (2 Chron. 2:1-2, 17-18; 2 Chron. 8:7-9): "But of the children of Israel, Solomon made none of them slaves for his work." So this glorious reign reaches a state of things that had never existed before, because the people had been unfaithful. All their former mixing with the Canaanites has disappeared. From now on the Lord's people are a free people, and no one can bring them into servitude.
Older translations call this "a tribute of bondservice." Tribute was a known arrangement, and Israel had already imposed it on some of these peoples before Solomon.
Several Hebrew words are translated "tribute." In general it means what one nation or people paid to another, either in money or in goods (2 Kings 3:4), so that they could keep their land in peace. Some of the Canaanites were not driven out of the land, but they paid tribute to the Israelites, and Solomon put others under tribute. Joshua 17:13; 2 Chr. 8:7-8.
The next verse completes the picture: Solomon made no Israelite a slave for the work. One writer sees in that contrast a promise about Israel's future place among the nations.
So we see every kind of right exercised, and what had been wrong put right. "But of the children of Israel Solomon made no servants for his work." A very remarkable statement. He made the Gentiles servants. The Jews will then be lords upon the earth, not slaves. The Gentiles will have to take the place of the tail while Israel is at the head, as the prophet said.
Another writer finds a hint of Israel's future freedom in a question the Lord put to Peter.
Our Lord's words to Peter come to mind. They may refer to this period of Solomon's reign, and they throw a ray of light on the future condition of the children of Israel. "From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their sons or from others?" "From others," said Peter. "Then," said the Lord, "the sons are free." Solomon had not yet sunk so far into idolatry and forgetfulness of God. He did not yet treat Israelites, the chosen people, as he treated Canaanites.
Solomon's grip on the whole land points forward, but one writer marks a limit in the comparison.
Israel had not expelled all the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites from the land. Solomon conscripted those who were left as forced labour. So he had full control of the country. When the Lord Jesus takes His kingdom, there will be those from the nations who will submit to Him despite not having genuine faith (Ps. 18:43-45).
The verse ends by noting that this service was still going on when the record was written. One writer traces the Nethinim — temple servants of a later age — back to these spared peoples.
Here we probably find the origin of the Nethinim — those who were spared from the just judgment of God. If they were reduced to bondage, it was bondage in His mercy, in connection with His house, and so the very curse that rested on them (see Joshua 9:23) was turned into a blessing. Instead of being destroyed with the sword of the Lord's host, they were rescued. Now, hundreds of years later, they are found in honourable association with the Lord's people, and with a heart too for the Lord's house, since they returned from Babylon with their fellow-captives at this special moment. They are no small foreshadowing of the objects of grace even in this present age.
- Failure — These peoples were still there because Israel never drove them out. The verse records an unfinished obedience.
- Order — Solomon's reign reaches what Israel's unfaithfulness had never allowed: the mixing ends, and the Lord's people are free.
- Freedom — Solomon made no Israelite a slave for the work. The sons are free; others bear the tribute.
- Limit — Forced service pictures the nations under Christ. Yet people can submit to Him without genuine faith.
- Mercy — Those spared judgment and tied to God's house end up honoured among His people. Their bondage became blessing.