2 พงศาวดาร 8:7 วิจารณ์

In this chapter we are told, I. What cities Solomon built (Ch2 8:1-6). II. What workmen Solomon employed (Ch2 8:7-10). III. What care he took about a proper settlement for his wife (Ch2 8:11). IV. What a good method he put the temple-service into (Ch2 8:12-16). V. What trading he had with foreign countries (Ch2 8:17, Ch2 8:18).

INTRODUCTION TO 2 CHRONICLES 8 This chapter contains much the same, with a little variation, as what is related in Kg1 9:10.

Solomon's buildings, conquests, and officers, Ch2 8:1-10. He brings Pharaoh's daughter to his new-built palace, Ch2 8:11. His various sacrifices, and arrangement of the priests, Levites, and porters, Ch2 8:12-16. He sends a fleet to Ophir, Ch2 8:17, Ch2 8:18.

SOLOMON'S BUILDINGS. (Ch2 8:1-6) cities which Huram had restored . . . Solomon built them, &c.--These cities lay in the northwest of Galilee. Though included within the limits of the promised land, they had never been conquered. The right of occupying them Solomon granted to Huram, who, after consideration, refused them as unsuitable to the commercial habits of his subjects (see on Kg1 9:11). Solomon, having wrested them from the possession of the Canaanite inhabitants, repaired them and filled them with a colony of Hebrews.

THE CANAANITES MADE TRIBUTARIES. (Ch2 8:7-11) all the people that were left, &c.--The descendants of the Canaanites who remained in the country were treated as war prisoners, being obliged to "pay tribute or to serve as galley slaves" (Ch2 2:18), while the Israelites were employed in no works but such as were of an honorable character.

Solomon's City-Building, Statute Labour, Arrangement of Public Worship, and Nautical Undertakings - 2 Chronicles 8 The building of the temple was the most important work of Solomon's reign, as compared with which all the other undertakings of the king fall into the background; and these are consequently only summarily enumerated both in the book of Kings and in the Chronicle. In our chapter, in the first place, we have, (a) the building or completion of various cities, which were of importance partly as strongholds, partly as magazines, for the maintenance of the army necessary for the defence of the kingdom against hostile attacks (Ch2 8:1-6); (b) the arrangement of the statute labour for the execution of all his building works (Ch2 8:7-11); (c) the regulation of the sacrificial service and the public worship (Ch2 8:12-16); and (d) the voyage to Ophir (Ch2 8:17, Ch2 8:18). All these undertakings are recounted in the same order and in the same aphoristic way in 1 Kings 9:10-28, but with the addition of various notes, which are not found in our narrative; while the Chronicle, again, mentions several not unimportant though subordinate circumstances, which are not found in the book of Kings; whence it is clear that in the two narratives we have merely short and mutually supplementary extracts from a more elaborate description of these matters.

On the arrangement of the statute labour, see on Kg1 9:20-23. - This note is in Chr. abruptly introduced immediately after the preceding. Ch2 8:7 is an absolute clause: "as regards the whole people, those." מן־בּניהם (Ch2 8:8) is not partitive: some of their sons; but is only placed before the אשׁר: those of their sons (i.e., of the descendants of the whole Canaanite people) who had remained in the land, whom the Israelites had not exterminated; Solomon made a levy of these for statute labourers. The מן is wanting in 1 Kings, but is not to be struck out here on that account. Much more surprising is the אשׁר after שׂראל מן־בּני, Ch2 8:9, which is likewise not found in 1 Kings, since the following verb נתן לא is not to be taken relatively, but contains the predicate of the subject contained in the words ישׂ מן־בּני. This אשׁר cannot be otherwise justified than by supposing that it is placed after ישׂ בני מן, as in Psa 69:27 it is placed after the subject of the relative clause, and so stands for ישׂ בני מן בן אשׂר: those who were of the sons of Israel (i.e., Israelites) Solomon did not make ... The preplacing of בּניהם מן in Ch2 8:8 would naturally suggest that ישׂ בני מן should also precede, in order to bring out sharply the contrast between the sons of the Canaanites and the sons of Israel.