Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Then the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying: “As for this temple you are building, if you walk in My statutes, carry out My ordinances, and keep all…

“It was very seasonable, being designed: first, to encourage him to go on with the building, by confirming anew the promise made to his father David (2Sa 7:12-16); and secondly, to warn him against the pride and presumption of supposing that after the erection of…”

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 cedar-wood was beautifully embellished with figures in relievo, representing clusters of foliage, open flowers, cherubims, and palm trees.”

The foundation of the house of the LORD was laid in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, in the month of Ziv.

“In the fourth year was the foundation laid--The building was begun in the second month of the fourth year and completed in the eighth month of the eleventh year of Solomon's reign, comprising a period of seven and a half years, which is reckoned here…”

He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a craftsman in bronze.

“He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali--In 2Ch 2:14 his mother is said to have been of the daughters of Dan.”

Thus he set up the pillars at the portico of the temple. The pillar to the south he named Jachin, and the pillar to the north he named Boaz.

“Boaz--These names were symbolical, and indicated the strength and stability--not so much of the material temple, for they were destroyed along with it (Jer 52:17), as of the spiritual kingdom of God, which was embodied in the temple.”

Additionally, Huram made the pots, shovels, and sprinkling bowls. So Huram finished all the work that he had undertaken for King Solomon in the house of the LORD: the two…

“The Tyrian artists are frequently mentioned by ancient authors as skilful artificers in fashioning and embossing metal cups and bowls; and we need not wonder, therefore, to find them employed by Solomon in making the golden and brazen utensils for his temple and palaces.”

The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan.

“In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them--Zarthan, or Zaretan (Jos 3:16), or Zartanah (1Ki 4:12), or Zeredathah (2Ch 4:17), was on the bank of the Jordan in the territories of western Manasseh.”

And all the men of Israel came together to King Solomon at the feast in the seventh month, the month of Ethanim.

“That annual festival had been instituted in commemoration of the Israelites dwelling in booths during their stay in the wilderness, as well as of the tabernacle, which was then erected, in which God promised to meet and dwell with His people, sanctifying it with His…”

so that the priests could not stand there to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.

“The dazzling brightness, or rather, perhaps, the dense portentous darkness of the cloud, struck the minds of the priests, as it formerly had done Moses, which such astonishment and terror (Le 16:2-13; Ex 40:35) that they could not remain.”

Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven,

“He specifies seven cases in which the merciful interposition of God would be required; and he earnestly bespeaks it on the condition of people praying towards that holy place.”

And Solomon offered as peace offerings to the LORD 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the house of the LORD.

“So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord--The dedication was not a ceremony ordained by the law, but it was done in accordance with the sentiments of reverence naturally associated with edifices appropriated to divine worship.”

On that same day the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard in front of the house of the LORD, and there he offered the burnt offerings, the grain offerings…

“The same day did the king hallow the middle of the court--that is, the whole extent of the priests' court--the altar of burnt offerings, though large (2Ch 4:1), being totally inadequate for the vast number of sacrifices that distinguished this occasion.”

Now when Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all that he had desired to do,

“And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house--This first verse is connected with 1Ki 9:11, all that is contained between 1Ki 9:2-10 being parenthetical.”

Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel.

“Blessed be the Lord thy God--(See on 1Ki 5:7). It is quite possible, as Jewish writers say, that this queen was converted, through Solomon's influence, to the worship of the true God.”

Additionally, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold. The throne had six steps, and its back had a rounded top.

“The ascent to it was by six steps, on each of which stood lions, in place of a railing--while a lion, probably of gilt metal, stood at each side, which, we may suppose from the analogy of other Oriental thrones, supported a canopy.”

Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

“Ashtoreth--Astarte, Milcom--Molech, and Chemosh--He built altars for these three; but, although he is described (1Ki 11:8) as doing the same for "all his strange wives," there is no evidence that they had idols distinct from these; and there is no trace whatever of Egyptian idolatry.”

Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom away from him. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake…

“I will give one tribe to thy son--There were left to Rehoboam the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi (2Ch 11:12, 13); and multitudes of Israelites, who, after the schism of the kingdom, established their residence within the territory of Judah to enjoy the privileges…”

Then the LORD raised up against Solomon an adversary, Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom.

“Then, having acquired great power, he at length became king in Damascus, threw off the yoke, and was "the adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon."”

Now Jeroboam son of Nebat was an Ephraimite from Zeredah whose mother was a widow named Zeruah.

“He was a young man of talent and energy, who, having been appointed by Solomon superintendent of the engineering works projected around Jerusalem, had risen into public notice, and on being informed by a very significant act of the prophet Ahijah of the royal destiny…”

During that time, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met Jeroboam on the road as he was going out of Jerusalem.

“The heavy exactions and compulsory labor (1Ki 11:28) which Solomon latterly imposed upon his subjects, when his foreign resources began to fail, had prepared the greater part of the kingdom for a revolt under so popular a demagogue as Jeroboam.”

Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.

“When all Israel came to make him king, it was not to exercise their old right of election (1Sa 10:19-21), for, after God's promise of the perpetual sovereignty to David's posterity, their duty was submission to the authority of the rightful heir; but their object…”

So the king did not listen to the people, and indeed this turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill the word He had spoken to Jeroboam son of…

“It was received with mingled scorn and derision. The revolt was accomplished, and yet so quietly, that Rehoboam remained in Shechem, fancying himself the sovereign of a united kingdom, until his chief tax gatherer, who had been most imprudently sent to treat with the people…”

When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel.

“Rehoboam determined to assert his authority by leading a large force into the disaffected provinces. But the revolt of the ten tribes was completed when the prophet Shemaiah ordered, in the Lord's name, an abandonment of any hostile measures against the revolutionists.”

Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And from there he went out and built Penuel.

“It was rebuilt, and perhaps fortified, by Jeroboam, as a royal residence. built Penuel--a ruined city with a tower (Jud 8:9), east of Jordan, on the north bank of the Jabbok.”

Then the prophet replied, “I too am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to…

“The "angel," that is, "messenger," was his own sons, who were worshippers, perhaps priests, at Beth-el.”