Albert Barnes

Solomon had twelve governors over all Israel to provide food for the king and his household. Each one would arrange provisions for one month of the year,

“The requirement of a portion of their produce from subjects, in addition to money payments, is a common practice of Oriental monarchs. It obtained in ancient, and it still obtains in modern, Persia.”

and these were their names: Ben-hur in the hill country of Ephraim;

“In this arrangement of the territory into twelve portions, the divisions of the tribes seem to have been adopted as far as could be managed without unfairness.”

Ben-abinadab in Naphath-dor (Taphath, a daughter of Solomon, was his wife);

“Dor - See Jos 11:2 note. It has always been a practice among Oriental potentates to attach to themselves the more important of their officers by giving them for wives princesses of the royal house.”

Geber son of Uri in the land of Gilead, including the territories of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan.

“The meaning of the last clause is somewhat doubtful. On the whole, our King James Version may well stand as nearly correct.”

And Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt.

“Solomon’s empire, like all the great empires of Asia down to the time of the Persians, consisted of a congeries of small kingdoms, all ruled by their own kings 1Ki 4:24, who admitted the suzerainty of the Jewish monarch, and paid him “presents,” i.”

ten fat oxen, twenty range oxen, and a hundred sheep, as well as deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened poultry.

“Harts ... - The exact sorts of wild land animals here intended are very uncertain. Perhaps it would be best to translate “wild-goats, gazelles, and wild oxen,” which abounded in the wilder parts of Syria, from where Solomon would be supplied. (See 1Ki 4:24.)”

For Solomon had dominion over everything west of the Euphrates—over all the kingdoms from Tiphsah to Gaza—and he had peace on all sides.

“On this side the river - i. e., the region west of the Euphrates. Tiphsah, or Tiphsach, the place on the Euphrates called Thapsacus. The word means “ford,” or “passage,” being formed from פסח pâsach, “to pass over” (compare “paschal”).”

Throughout the days of Solomon, Judah and Israel dwelt securely from Dan to Beersheba, each man under his own vine and his own fig tree.

“Under his vine ... - This phrase seems to have been common among the Jews, and even among neighboring nations 2Ki 18:31, to express a time of quiet and security. It is used by the prophets in descriptions of the Messianic kingdom (marginal references).”

And God gave Solomon wisdom, exceedingly deep insight, and understanding beyond measure, like the sand on the seashore.

“Largeness of heart - What we call “great capacity.” The expression which follows is common in reference to numerical multitude 1Ki 4:20, but its use here to express mere amplitude or greatness is unique.”

He spoke of trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing in the wall, and he taught about animals, birds, reptiles, and fish.

“Trees ... - A keen appreciation of the beauties of nature, and a habit of minute observation, are apparent in the writings of Solomon that remain to us. The writer here means to say that Solomon composed special works on these subjects.”

Now when Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king in his father’s place, he sent envoys to Solomon; for Hiram had always been a friend of…

“Hiram, king of Tyre - Menander of Ephesus, who wrote a history of Tyre in Greek, founded upon native Tyrian documents, about 300 B.C., mentioned this Hiram as the son of Abibaal king of Tyre, and said that he ascended the throne when he was…”

“As you are well aware, due to the wars waged on all sides against my father David, he could not build a house for the Name of the LORD his…

“Solomon’s presumption that Hiram knew David’s design has not appeared in the previous history, but it is in accordance with 1Ch 22:4.”

My servants will haul the logs from Lebanon to the Sea, and I will float them as rafts by sea to the place you specify.

“See the marginal reference. The timber was first carried westward from the flanks of Lebanon to the nearest part of the coast, where it was collected into floats, or rafts, which were then conveyed southward along the coast to Joppa, now Jaffa, from where the…”

and year after year Solomon would provide Hiram with 20,000 cors of wheat as food for his household, as well as 20,000 baths of pure olive oil.

“The number of measures of wheat was considerably less than Solomon’s own annual consumption, which exceeded 32,000 cors 1Ki 4:22; but the small amount of twenty cors of oil, which seems at first sight scarcely to match with the 20,000 cors of wheat, will not…”

Then King Solomon conscripted a labor force of 30,000 men from all Israel.

“A levy out of all Israel - This was, apparently, the first time that the Israelites had been called upon to perform forced labor, though it had been prophesied 1Sa 8:16.”

Solomon had 70,000 porters and 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains,

“That bare burdens ... - Compare the marginal references. These laborers, whose services were continuous, consisted of “strangers” - “the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites” - whom Solomon, following the example of his father 1Ch 22:2, condemned to…”

And the king commanded them to quarry large, costly stones to lay the foundation of the temple with dressed stones.

“Some of these “great, hewed (no and) stones,” are probably still to be seen in the place where they were set by Solomon’s builders, at the southwestern angle of the wall of the Haram area in the modern Jerusalem.”

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt, in the month of Ziv, the second month of the fourth year…

“In the four hundred and eightieth year - It is upon this statement that all the earlier portion of what is called the “received chronology” depends.”

Against the walls of the temple and the inner sanctuary, Solomon built a chambered structure around the temple, in which he constructed the side rooms.

“Chambers - (Margin, floors). Rather, a lean-to, which completely surrounded three sides of the building, the north, the west, and the south.”

The bottom floor was five cubits wide, the middle floor six cubits, and the third floor seven cubits.

“In order to preserve the sanctity of the temple, and at the same time allow the attachment to it of secular buildings - sleeping apartments, probably, for the priests and other attendants - Solomon made “rebatements” in the wall of the temple, or in other…”

The entrance to the bottom floor was on the south side of the temple. A stairway led up to the middle level, and from there to the third floor.

“The door for the middle chamber - i. e., the door which gave access to the mid-most “set of chambers.” The chambers on the ground-floor were possibly reached each by their own door in the outer wall of the lean-to.”

So Solomon built the temple and finished it, roofing it with beams and planks of cedar.

“He built the house, and finished it - i. e., the external shell of the house. The internal fittings were added afterward. See 1Ki 6:15-22. Covered the house - Roofed it with a wooden roof, sloped like our roofs.”

“As for this temple you are building, if you walk in My statutes, carry out My ordinances, and keep all My commandments by walking in them, I will fulfill through…

“The meaning is, “So far as this house goes, thou art obedient (2Sa 7:13; 1Ch 17:12, etc.); if thou wilt be obedient in other things also, then will I perform My word,” etc., God’s promises being always conditional.”

And I will dwell among the Israelites and will not abandon My people Israel.”

“The first promise to “dwell among” the Israelites had been made to Moses Exo 25:8; Exo 29:45, but had not been repeated to David.”

He lined the interior walls with cedar paneling from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and he covered the floor with cypress boards.

“The description of this verse applies to the main chamber of the temple, the holy place, only. The writer in 1Ki 6:16 describes the holy of holies. The marginal rendering of this verse is right, and not the rendering in the text.”