2 Chronicleschapter 1
17 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Key verse
And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly.
It stands in Solomon seeks God at the tent in Gibeon, verses 1 to 6.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Solomon is strengthened in his kingdom, and his first public act is to go with all Israel to the high place at Gibeon, where the tent of meeting and the brazen altar Bezalel made still stood, and offer a thousand burnt-offerings. That night God appears: 'Ask what I shall give thee.' Solomon asks for wisdom and knowledge, not riches or honor or the life of his enemies, 'that I may go out and come in before this people: for who can judge this thy people, that is so great?' God grants the request and adds what was not asked. The chapter closes with the king's chariots and horsemen and silver made as stones in Jerusalem, the answer arriving in full.
Context
History · Ezra · 2 Chronicles overview
The world behind this chapter
2 Chronicles 1The history
The chapter belongs to Solomon in his first year, a young king already established over the kingdom and still to build anything. The date is about 970 BC.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The place is Gibeon, and the chapter explains why a king of Jerusalem worshipped there. Israel's holy things stood in two places. The tabernacle Moses made in the wilderness stood at Gibeon with the bronze altar Bezalel built, and the ark stood in the tent David had pitched in Jerusalem. The thousand burnt offerings went up on the oldest altar in the nation.
The occasion is a national sacrifice, with the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, the judges and the heads of the families all present.
A first hearer knew two things a reader today has to be told. Spending a night at a sanctuary to seek a word from God was a recognised practice across the ancient world, and that is what happens here.
The closing paragraph is a trade report. The horses came from Egypt and from Kue, the region of Cilicia in what is now southern Turkey. The crown's own merchants bought at fixed prices, six hundred shekels of silver for a chariot and a hundred and fifty for a horse, and resold to the Hittite and Aramean kings farther north. Judah sat on the land bridge between Egypt and the north, and the crown taxed what crossed it.
Silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, and cedar as plentiful as the ordinary sycamore of the lowland, is a proverb of plenty rather than a measurement.
What it meant to them
God offers an open hand and the young king asks for wisdom and knowledge to govern a people too numerous to count. The wealth follows as an addition he had not requested.
Their own governors were appointed from Susa, and their fortunes turned on the character of a foreign official. This was a portrait of what a ruler asks for when his first thought is the people.
Sources cited
- K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
Where the chapter sits
2 Chronicles 1 falls in Solomon's reign (chapters 1–9). Wisdom at Gibeon; temple construction and dedication; the Queen of Sheba; Solomon's riches and death. Parallels 1 Kgs 1–11 with temple emphasis.
After it: Kings of Judah: Rehoboam to Ahaz, chapters 10–28.
The whole shape of 2 Chronicles→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Solomon seeks God at the tent in Gibeon
1. (vv. 1-2)
2 Chronicles 1:1
“And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom,.... Well settled and established on the throne of his father, after the death of some persons, from whom he might expect trouble, see 1Ki 2:46. and the Lord God was with him; directing and instructing him, prospering and succeeding him: the Targum is,"the Word of the Lord was his help:''and magnified him exceedingly; see 1Ch 29:25.”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
2 Chronicles 1:1
“And Solomon the son of David - The very beginning of this book shows that it is a continuation of the preceding, and should not be thus formally separated from it. See the preface to the first book. The Lord his God was with him - “The Word of the Lord was his support.” - Targum.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 1:1
“Though he had a contested title, yet, God being with him, he was strengthened in his kingdom; his heart and hands were strengthened, and his interest in the people.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Chronicles 1:2
The narrative here corresponds with 1Ki 3:4; but is very much fuller. We learn from the present passage: (1) that Solomon’s sacrifice at Gibeon was a great public festivity, to which he collected vast numbers of the people; (2) that it was made upon the brass altar of Bezaleel, which (3) stood before the tabernacle; and (4) that Solomon’s vision was on the night of his sacrifice. Consult the marginal references 2Ch 1:5 Sought unto it - i. e., “frequented it” - “were in the habit of making use of it.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 1:2
“The date of this occurrence was the second year of Solomon's reign, and the high place at Gibeon was chosen for the performance of the sacred rites, because the tabernacle and all the ancient furniture connected with the national worship were deposited there. Zadok was the officiating high priest (1Ch 16:39).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
was strengthened in his kingdom: Chronicles moves straight from David's death to a king already strengthened and magnified, skipping the account of Adonijah's threat and Solomon's purge that fills 1 Kings 1-2. Kings names Solomon going up to Gibeon in one sentence; Chronicles instead has him call all Israel first, captains of thousands and hundreds, judges, governors, and the chief of the fathers, a national assembly Kings does not detail. The pattern fits the book's habit of gathering the whole people around its kings, repeated when the ark comes up in chapter 5 and at David's last offering in chapter 29.
2. (vv. 3-4)
2 Chronicles 1:3
“So Solomon, and all the congregation with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon,.... They agreed to his motion, and went with him thither, see 1Ki 3:4. for there was the tabernacle of the congregation of God, which Moses the servant of the Lord had made in the wilderness: by the Lord's direction; where was also the altar of the Lord, and so most proper to offer sacrifice on, which was what Solomon went thither to do; see 1Ch 21:29.”
2 Chronicles 1:4
“But the ark - The tabernacle and the brazen altar remained still at Gibeon; but David had brought away the ark out of the tabernacle, and placed it in a tent at Jerusalem; 2Sa 6:2, 2Sa 6:17.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the tabernacle of the congregation of God: Solomon leads the congregation to Gibeon because that is where Moses' tabernacle still stood, while the ark itself sat under a tent David had pitched in Jerusalem. Chronicles already explained the split in an earlier chapter: 1 Chr 16:1 and 16:39 record David bringing the ark to Jerusalem and leaving Zadok with the priests ministering before the tabernacle at Gibeon. A reader of Chronicles alone already knows why Solomon's sacrifice happens away from where the ark rests, a detail Kings never supplies.
3. (vv. 5-6)
2 Chronicles 1:5
“Moreover, the brasen altar that Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made,....”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 1:5
“Sought unto it - Went to seek the Lord there.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 1:6
“And Solomon went up thither,.... To the high place at Gibeon: to the brasen altar before the lord; where he used to be, and accept the sacrifices of his people, though the ark, the symbol of his presence, was not there: which was at the tabernacle of the congregation; that is, which altar was there; or rather "who", that is, God, was there, as Osiander, hearing the prayers of his people, and accepting their offerings: and offered a thousand offerings upon it; by the priests, see 1Ki 3:4.”
Bezaleel the son of Uri: The brasen altar Solomon approaches was made by Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, the same craftsman Exodus names for the tabernacle's furniture, tying Solomon's worship back to the pattern given at Sinai. His thousand burnt offerings are made at that altar rather than before the ark, healing in one act the split worship the previous verses named. Kings records the thousand offerings without naming the altar's maker; Chronicles supplies the craftsman and, with him, the line of continuity back to Moses.
B. Ask what I shall give thee: wisdom chosen over riches
1. (vv. 7-10)
2 Chronicles 1:7
“The verbal differences between this passage and the corresponding one of Kings 1Ki 3:5-14 are very considerable, and indicate the general truth that the object of the sacred historians is to give a true account of the real bearing of what was said: not ordinarily to furnish us with all or the exact words that were uttered.”
2 Chronicles 1:8
"Lord, thou hast put me into this place, and therefore I can in faith ask of thee grace to enable me to do the duty of it." What service we have reason to believe God calls us to we have reason to hope he will qualify us for.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Chronicles 1:9
“Let thy promise - דברך debarcha, thy word; פתגמך pithgamach, Targum. It is very remarkable that when either God or man is represented as having spoken a word then the noun פתגם pithgam is used by the Targumist; but when word is used personally, then he employs the noun מימרא meymera, which appears to answer to the Λογος of St. John, Joh 1:1, etc.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 1:9
“He means the promise of concerning his successor. "In performance of that promise, Lord, give me wisdom. " We do not find that wisdom was any of the things promised, but it was necessary in order to the accomplishment of what was promised, 2 Sam. vii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Chronicles 1:10
"There was no wise man like you before you, and there will not be after you." Therefore, because the Lord had given [Solomon] an abundance of prudence, "like the sand of the sea," that he might judge his people "in wisdom," thus he could exercise many virtues at the same time.
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· HOMILIES ON GENESIS 11.2patristic
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 1:10
“The truth, and the whole Word, is full of difficulty and obscurity; and as it were with a small instrument we are undertaking a great work, when with merely human wisdom we pursue the knowledge of the self-existent, and in company with, or not apart from, the senses, by which we are borne hither and thither and led into error, we apply ourselves to the search after things that are only to be grasped by the mind, and we are unable by meeting bare realities with bare intellect to approximate somewhat more closely to the truth and to mold the mind by its concepts.”
Gregory of Nazianzus· written before 390· ON THEOLOGY, THEOLOGICAL ORATION 2(28).21patristic
Ask what I shall give thee: The night vision and Solomon's answer run parallel to 1 Ki 3:5-15, already carried in full there, and Chronicles compresses the exchange while keeping its shape: God's mercy to David, Solomon's own inexperience, and the plea for wisdom to judge so great a people. Chronicles' own wording at verse 9, a people like the dust of the earth in multitude, is not the phrase Kings uses, and it recalls the promise made to Abraham and Jacob that their seed would be as the dust of the earth. Solomon asks for wisdom to govern the very multitude the old promise foretold.
2. (vv. 11-12)
Because this was in thine heart: God's answer names everything Solomon did not ask before granting what he did: riches, wealth, honour, the life of his enemies, and long life all sit unrequested in the sentence, and wisdom and knowledge stand alone as the actual petition. What Solomon asked he receives, and what he did not ask is added besides, riches, wealth and honour beyond any king before or after him. Chronicles keeps the shape of 1 Ki 3:11-13 nearly intact, the prayer's restraint framing the wealth catalog that will fill the rest of this chapter and the next.
3. (v. 13)
2 Chronicles 1:13
From his journey - These words are not in the original text, which is thought to be corrupt. It is best to correct the text, and then simply to translate: “And Solomon came from the high place that was at Gibeon to Jerusalem.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 1:13
“Then Solomon came from his journey to the high place that was at Gibeon,.... Or rather without the supplement, the words may be read as in the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions: Solomon came from the high places; having sacrificed there, so Vatablus; ל being put for מ, as R.”
from before the tabernacle of the congregation: Solomon returns to Jerusalem from before the tabernacle of the congregation at Gibeon and reigns over Israel, closing the episode where it began, at the altar Moses' generation raised. The verse's wording has drawn textual comment, since the underlying Hebrew reads more simply than the added phrasing suggests, but the sense is not in question either way. The Gibeon night stands behind everything Solomon now builds.
C. Chariots, horses, and silver as common as stones
1. (vv. 14-15)
2 Chronicles 1:14
“I do not remember that ever we find his good father in a chariot or on horseback; a mule was the highest he mounted. We should endeavor to excel those that went before us in goodness rather than in grandeur. The wealth and trade of his kingdom.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 1:14
“This was a prohibited indulgence, whether as an instrument of luxury or power. But it was not merely for his own use that he imported the horses of Egypt. The immense equestrian establishment he erected was not for show merely, but also for profit.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Chronicles 1:15
“The increase of gold lowers the value of it; but the increase of grace advances its price; the more men have of that the more they value it. How much better therefore is it to get wisdom than gold!”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
a thousand and four hundred chariots: The chariots, horsemen, silver, and gold that fill these two verses read almost word for word like 2 Chr 9:25-27, the summary that will close Solomon's reign. Chronicles frames the wisdom he asked for at the start of the chapter with the wealth God added on both sides, an opening catalog and a closing one holding the same numbers. Silver as stones and cedar as sycomore trees are the language of surplus, not of need.
2. (vv. 16-17)
2 Chronicles 1:16
“Linen yarn - See the note on 1Ki 10:28, where this subject is particularly examined.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 1:17
“A horse for a hundred and fifty - Suppose we take the shekel at the utmost value at which it has been rated, three shillings; then the price of a horse was about twenty-two pounds ten shillings. On Solomon’s multiplying horses, Bishop Warburton has made some judicious remarks: - “Moses had expressly prohibited the multiplying of horses, Deu 17:16, by which the future king was forbidden to establish a body of cavalry, because this could not be effected without sending into Egypt, with which people God had forbidden any communication, as this would be dangerous to religion.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
linen yarn at a price: Solomon's horses and chariots come from Egypt, bought and resold to the Hittite and Syrian kings through the crown's own merchants, a trading operation Chronicles simply records. Deut 17:16 had forbidden Israel's king to multiply horses to himself or cause the people to return to Egypt for them, and the text sets that command beside Solomon's practice with no editorial word added either way. Chronicles states what Kings also states and lets the reader hold the law and the king's commerce side by side.
This page carries no textual note on 2 Chronicles 1. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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