2 Chronicleschapter 8
18 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her. For he said, “My wife must not live in the house of David king of Israel, because the places the ark of the LORD has entered are holy.”
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 2 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for a province that no longer controlled its own roads, ports or borders. Tradition gives the book to Ezra. After twenty years of building, the writer surveys the rest of Solomon's rule as a register of works. Listen for the kinds of places named and what each one was for. Notice how the king ranks the peoples of the land in his labour policy. The register closes on the calendar of worship, and that ending shows what the writer thinks all the rest was organised around.
Context
- Who
- A people who no longer controlled their own roads, ports or borders
- What
- A register of Solomon's cities, forts, labour levy, worship calendar and sea trade after the temple and palace were finished.
- Where
- Store cities and chariot towns across the kingdom, Tadmor in the desert, and the port of Ezion-geber on the Gulf of Aqaba.
- When
- After the twenty years of building, about 959 to 946 BC.
- Why
- To show a kingdom governed well and ordered around the daily and yearly offerings of the house of God.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Solomon as an administrator, in the years after the twenty years of building closed.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
The places are the frontier and the trade routes. A store city was a fortified depot with granaries, oil and wine stores and stabling, placed on a trade route or a border. Chariot cities held the horses and vehicles, which needed flat approaches and large stables. Tadmor, out in the desert to the north east, was a caravan oasis on the route toward the Euphrates, and holding it meant holding a trade corridor.
The occasion is a register of works rather than a single event.
A first hearer knew the terms of the Tyrian account. This chapter has Huram giving cities to Solomon and 1 Kings 9:11 to 13 has Solomon giving cities to Huram. The common explanation is that they were pledged against the Tyrian loan and handed back once the account was settled, which is the transaction 1 Kings records Huram being unhappy about.
The labour policy is stated carefully. The remaining Canaanite peoples were levied for the heavy work, and Solomon made no Israelite a servant for his work, since the Israelites were his soldiers, officers and commanders. The distinction mattered in Israelite law, and it became the flashpoint of the next generation at 10:4.
The fleet is the most striking item. Israel had no seafaring tradition and no natural harbour on the Mediterranean, so Solomon built ships at Ezion-geber on the Gulf of Aqaba, and Huram sent Phoenician crews who knew the sea. They sailed to Ophir and brought back gold.
Pharaoh's daughter is moved out of the house of David to a palace built for her, because the places the ark of the LORD has entered are holy. The marriage was a political alliance and the housing arrangement was a religious ruling on it.
Significance
The chapter shows a nation at the height of its ordinary competence. Depots stocked, borders garrisoned, ships trading, and the festival calendar of Moses kept without interruption at the new altar.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
For a province whose ports, roads and taxes belonged to Persia, it was a memory of self government.
The closing verses insist that the whole arrangement was ordered around the daily and yearly offerings, with the priests in their divisions and the gatekeepers at every gate.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
2 Chronicles is not read in the synagogue. Chronicles stands among the Writings in the Hebrew canon rather than among the Prophets the Haftarah is drawn from. The division into two books came in through the Greek. The book therefore carries neither a weekly Torah portion nor a Haftarah, and this site's own reading table records the same for all thirty-six chapters. Solomon's cities and his labour force are met in the commentary and the midrash instead, and the rest of this card is drawn from them.
How it is read
The twenty years of the first verse Rashi counts from the Kings account. Seven years went on the house of the Lord and thirteen on the palace, and the twenty is the whole construction (Rashi on II Chronicles 8:1:1, the Judaica Press Tanach with Rashi, CC-BY). The fortified cities were fortified because they stood on the border (Rashi on II Chronicles 8:5:1).
The city named at the fourth verse carries the longest note in the chapter, and it is a note about spelling and about honour. Kings writes the name Tamar and reads it Tadmor. Rashi ties the place to the tractate of Yevamot, where proselytes are not accepted from the Tarmodites. He brings Genesis Rabbah on the binding of Isaac, where they are said to have aided Israel's enemies. The form Tamar in Kings he reads as a word of exchange, because they should have repaid Israel for the city Solomon built them. Here the form is Tadmor, an important city, and Rashi gives the reason. It "is no honor to Solomon to say here that he built a city which rebelled against him and sinned against him" (Rashi on II Chronicles 8:4:1). The Chronicler's habit of protecting his subject is visible in a single letter on this reading.
The labour force is read as a division of the nation rather than a ranking of it. The proselytes did the work of the building. The Israelites were soldiers and men of war and the officers of the chariots and the horsemen (Rashi on II Chronicles 8:9:1). The two hundred and fifty officers here against five hundred and fifty in Kings he reconciles by counting. What one verse leaves out another adds, and the three hundred who differ were proselytes set over the three thousand three hundred. The two hundred and fifty were Israelites set over those three hundred (Rashi on II Chronicles 8:10:1).
Two notes handle holiness. Pharaoh's daughter had lived in the City of David since the marriage, until the palace was finished (Rashi on II Chronicles 8:11:1). At the twelfth verse Rashi meets the claim that Solomon's copper altar replaced the one Moses made, and calls it astounding. The Kings account of Ahaz still speaks of the copper altar that was there before, which proves that Moses' altar was still standing (Rashi on II Chronicles 8:12:1). The phrase about the founding of the house he reads as a span from the founding to the finishing (Rashi on II Chronicles 8:16:1).
Radak and Metzudat David comment across this chapter as well. The corpus carries their refs with the reason that Sefaria holds no English version of them, so they stand here cited and unquoted. Metzudat David on II Chronicles 8:1:1, 8:2:1, 8:3:1, 8:4:1, 8:5:1, 8:6:1, 8:8:1, 8:9:1, 8:13:1 and 8:14:1. Radak on II Chronicles 8:2:1, 8:3:1, 8:10:1, 8:15:1, 8:17:1 and 8:18:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries eight rabbinic locators for this chapter and the text of none, which is the smallest number in this range. Each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. The first verse, the twenty years of building, carries Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Bachodesh 1:4 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 274:1. The fourth, Tadmor in the desert, carries Kohelet Rabbah 2:25:1.
The store cities and the walls draw the tractate of property. The fifth verse carries Introductions to Amoraic Literature, Part II (Notes and Interpretations for Chapters of the Talmud), Baba Batra, Chapter I 245. The sixth carries Jerusalem Talmud Bava Batra 3:3:4.
The appointed offerings at the close draw the last two. The thirteenth verse, the daily rate and the three feasts of unleavened bread and weeks and tabernacles, carries Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 355:4. The fourteenth, the courses of the priests and the Levites as David the man of God had ordered, carries Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 33:1:2 and Sifrei Devarim 342:6. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on II Chronicles 8:1:1 to 8:16:1, eight kept notes, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, CC-BY; Genesis Rabbah, Genesis Rabbah 56:11 on the Tarmodites, reported inside Rashi on II Chronicles 8:4:1; Tractate Yevamot, Yevamot 16a on proselytes from the Tarmodites, reported inside Rashi on II Chronicles 8:4:1; Radak, Radak on II Chronicles 8:2:1, 8:3:1, 8:10:1, 8:15:1, 8:17:1 and 8:18:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on II Chronicles 8:1:1 to 8:14:1, ten refs cited because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/2-chronicles/8.json, the 8 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; This site's reading table, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed in this lane: 2-chronicles parashot total 0, haftarah uses total 0, hasSynagogueReading true for 0 of 36 chapters, festivalReadingForBook null.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Cities built, labor levied, Pharaoh's daughter moved out
2 Chronicles 8:1-6
at the end of the twenty years: The twenty years join the temple's seven and the palace's thirteen into one span. Chronicles lists what filled it: cities rebuilt from Hiram, the capture of Hamath-zobah, and store and chariot cities across the land. Hamath-zobah is the one military campaign recorded for Solomon in either book.
2 Chronicles 8:1
“At the end of twenty years - He employed seven years and a half in building the temple, and twelve and a half, or thirteen, in building his own house. - Compare this with 1Ki 7:1.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the cities Hiram had given: Solomon had given these cities to Hiram, who disliked them, as 1 Kings 9:11-13 tells. Gill reads this verse as the cities coming back to Solomon, who rebuilt them and settled Israelites there. Barnes notes that Chronicles assumes its readers know the story.
2 Chronicles 8:2
“The cities which Huram had restored to Solomon - These cities had not been mentioned previously by the writer of Chronicles, who, however, seems to assume that the fact of their having been given by Hiram to Solomon is known to his readers. See 1Ki 9:11-13.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 8:2
“That the cities which Huram had restored to Solomon,.... Which Solomon first gave to him, but he not liking them, returned them to him, 1Ki 9:12, Solomon built them; or rebuilt them, being very much out of repair, which might be one reason of Huram's not accepting them: and caused the children of Israel to dwell there; they being inhabited by others, the remains of the Canaanitcs perhaps; see 2Ch 8:7.”
went to Hamath-zobah and captured: Hamath and Zobah were two small kingdoms, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read Hamath-zobah as a sign the two had become one. Toi king of Hamath had been an ally of David. Barnes takes Hamath-zobah as a town of Zobah that revolted from Solomon and was brought back under him.
2 Chronicles 8:3
“Hamath-zobah - Usually identified with the “great Hamath” Amo 6:2; the capital of Coele-Syria; but probably a town of Zobah otherwise unknown, which revolted from Solomon, and was reduced to subjection.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 8:3
“Its king, Toi, had been the ally of David; but from the combination, Hamath and Zobah, it would appear that some revolution had taken place which led to the union of these two petty kingdoms of Syria into one. For what cause the resentment of Solomon was provoked against it, we are not informed, but he sent an armed force which reduced it.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
He built Tadmor in the wilderness: Solomon built store cities in Hamath to hold provisions and arms. Gill reads them as the means of holding the newly taken country against any attempt to win it back. He cites Abulpharag, who counts Tadmor in the wilderness among seven cities Solomon built in the twenty-fourth year.
2 Chronicles 8:4
“And built Tadmor in the wilderness,.... Of which See Gill on 1Ki 9:18. and all the storehouses which he built in Hamath; a country in Syria, which he made himself master of, and where he laid up store of provision and ammunition to keep it, should any attempt be made to rescue it out of his hands. According to an Arabic writer (a), Solomon in the twenty fourth year of his reign having demolished Antioch, built seven cities, of which Tadmor was one. (a) Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. dyn. 3. p. 53.”
Upper and Lower Beth-horon: The two Beth-horons were fortified cities in the tribe of Ephraim, an upper town and a lower one. Gill notes that 1 Kings 9:17 names only the lower town. Chronicles adds the upper town to the record.
2 Chronicles 8:5
“Also he built Bethhoron the upper, and Bethhoron the nether,.... Only mention is made of the latter in 1Ki 9:17, fenced cities, with walls, gates, and bars; fortified cities in the tribe of Ephraim.”
Baalath joins a list of store cities and chariot cities spread from Jerusalem to Lebanon. Henry fastens on the phrase whatever he desired, and reads it as God granting success in what he wished as well as what he needed. Henry calls God an indulgent Father here.
2 Chronicles 8:6
“How the divine providence gratified even Solomon's humour, and gave him success, not only in all that he needed to build and that it was for his advantage to build, but in all that he had a mind to build. So indulgent a Father God is sometimes to the innocent desires of his children that serve him. Thus he pleased Jacob with that promise, Joseph shall put his hand on thy eyes.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Chronicles 8:7-10
all the people who remained of the Hittites: The surviving Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites are conscripted as forced laborers. The Israelites serve instead as “his men of war, his officers and captains, and the commanders of his chariots and cavalry”. Kings gives the division in the same terms at 1 Kings 9:20-23.
conscripted these people to be forced laborers: These are the descendants of the Canaanite nations that Israel left in the land at the conquest. Gill links them with the people living in the cities Hiram gave back, the remnant named in verse 7. The forced labor lasts, the verse says, to this day.
his men of war: Israelites filled the army and its command, and the forced labor fell on the Canaanite remnant. Clarke points to the parallel at 1 Kings 9:21. Israel still felt the weight of the reign, and at 10:4 the tribes ask Solomon's son to lighten it.
2 Chronicles 8:9
“But of the children of Israel - See the note on 1Ki 9:21.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the chief officers for King Solomon: The two hundred fifty chief officers were Israelites set over the labor gangs drawn from the Canaanite remnant. Hadoram, over the forced labor, is stoned at 10:18. Clarke, citing Jarchi, says he died while trying to collect the tribute Solomon had imposed.
Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David: Solomon moves Pharaoh's daughter out of the City of David to a palace built for her. Chronicles alone gives his reason: “the places the ark of the LORD has entered are holy”. The ark had stood in the City of David since the procession of 1 Chronicles 15.
2 Chronicles 8:11
“The house - He built this house for her; because the ark was now in the house of David, which therefore ought to be kept pure and free from the very danger and appearance of pollution.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 8:11
“The building of the temple was in order to the service of the temple. Whatever cost he was at in rearing the structure, if he had neglected the worship that was to be performed there, it would all have been to no purpose.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Worship by the ordinance of Moses, and ships sent to Ophir
2 Chronicles 8:12-16
Solomon offered burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar: Solomon offers the burnt offerings by “the daily requirement” and on the Sabbaths, New Moons and three feasts. He sets priests, Levites and gatekeepers in the order of 1 Chronicles 23-26. Only once the worship stands in order does verse 16 say “the house of the LORD was completed”.
2 Chronicles 8:12
“Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord,.... Meaning not barely at the time he rebuilt the above cities, for it was his constant practice: on the altar of the Lord, which he had built before the porch; the brasen altar, which was at the entrance into the temple, within the court; of which see 2Ch 4:1.”
the daily requirement for offerings: The daily requirement was the morning and evening sacrifice of Exodus 29:38, with added offerings on Sabbaths and New Moons under Numbers 28. Gill notes that the three feasts named here explain the three times a year of 1 Kings 9:25. Chronicles names the feasts one by one.
2 Chronicles 8:13
“Even after a certain rate every day, according to the commandment of Moses,.... The daily sacrifice, morning and evening, Exo 29:38, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons; when there were additional sacrifices, Num 28:9, &c. and on the solemn feasts three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles; which serves to explain the three times in 1Ki 9:25.”
the ordinances of his father David: Solomon keeps the order his father David set. Barnes observes that the title man of God, common in Kings, is rare in Chronicles. He finds it given only to Moses at 1 Chronicles 23:14, to David here, and to one prophet at 25:7 and 25:9.
2 Chronicles 8:14
“The man of God - This phrase, so common in Kings (see the introduction to Kings, 4th note), is rare in Chronicles, and is applied only to Moses 1Ch 23:14, David, and one other prophet 2Ch 25:7, 2Ch 25:9.”
any matter concerning the treasuries: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the king's command as the ordinances of David, and the treasures as those given to build and adorn the temple. Gill says the Levites who kept the treasures were faithful to their trust. He cites 1 Chronicles 26:20.
2 Chronicles 8:15
“The commandment of the king - The institutions of David.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
all the work of Solomon: Gill reads the work of Solomon as the preparation, with the stones, timber and money ready before and during the building of the LORD's house. He counts seven years, citing 1 Kings 6:38. Henry holds the house unfinished until its worship was set in order.
2 Chronicles 8:16
“Now all the work of Solomon was prepared unto the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord, and until it was finished,.... The materials were prepared, and the money for the expenses; and even the very stones and timber were made fit for the building, so that there was nothing to retard the completion of it: so the house of God was perfected; in the space of seven years, in all the parts, and according to the form and pattern of it, see 1Ki 6:38.”
2 Chronicles 8:17-18
Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber: Solomon goes to Ezion-geber and Eloth, ports that open the Red Sea trade to Israel. Hiram sends ships and they sail with Solomon's servants to Ophir and bring back “450 talents of gold”. Chronicles closes its account where 1 Kings 9:26-28 closes its telling of the same voyage.
2 Chronicles 8:17
“Solomon, determined to cultivate the arts of peace, was sagacious enough to perceive that his kingdom could become great and glorious only by encouraging a spirit of commercial enterprise among his subjects; and, accordingly, with that in mind he made a contract with Huram for ships and seamen to instruct his people in navigation.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Hiram sent him ships: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown give two readings of sent: Hiram sent seamen overland to Eloth, or he had ships built for Solomon in its docks. Clarke thinks Solomon bore the cost and Hiram supplied the crews. Henry sets grace above gold as the better riches.
2 Chronicles 8:18
“Knowledge of the sea - Skilful sailors. Solomon probably bore the expenses and his friend, the Tyrian king, furnished him with expert sailors; for the Jews, at no period of their history, had any skill in maritime affairs, their navigation being confined to the lakes of their own country, from which they could never acquire any nautical skill. The Tyrians, on the contrary, lived on and in the sea.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
2 Chronicles 8:18
“Yet Canaan was God's peculiar land, and Israel God's peculiar people. This teaches us that grace, and not gold, is the best riches, and acquaintance with God and his law, not with arts and sciences, the best knowledge.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Chronicles 8:18
“Huram sent him . . . ships--either sent him ship-men, able seamen, overland; or, taking the word "sent" in a looser sense, supplied him, that is, built him ships--namely, in docks at Eloth (compare 1Ki 9:26, 27). This navy of Solomon was manned by Tyrians, for Solomon had no seamen capable of performing distant expeditions.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
How this psalm is built
The form: A register of the reign's works, closing on the ordering of worship, as Gill classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The twenty years opened, the work closed | Verse 1 opens on the end of the twenty years in which Solomon built the house of the LORD and his own palace. Verse 16 closes on all the work of Solomon carried out, from the day the foundation was laid until the house was finished. Everything between the two verses is what filled the span. Matthew Henry reads the closing verse as the completion of worship in order rather than of masonry.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2 Chronicles 8:16. | 2 Chronicles 8:1, 2 Chronicles 8:16 |
| The cities, gathered into one register | Verses 2 to 6 list what was built. The cities Hiram had given, Hamath-zobah taken, Tadmor in the wilderness, the store cities of Hamath, Upper and Lower Beth-horon walled and gated and barred, Baalath, and the cities for the chariots and the horses. John Gill and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown both read the list as this book gathering the scattered building notices of 1 Kings 9:15 to 19 into one register.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 2 Chronicles 8:4. | 2 Chronicles 8:2, 2 Chronicles 8:3, 2 Chronicles 8:4, 2 Chronicles 8:5, 2 Chronicles 8:6 |
| The conscripted and the free, set side by side | Verses 7 and 8 put the remnant of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites to forced labour that the Chronicler says continued to his own day. Verses 9 and 10 put the Israelites in the other column, as men of war, officers, captains, commanders of chariots and cavalry, and two hundred and fifty supervisors. Keil and Delitzsch read the division as Israel kept free inside a great building programme.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Books of the Chronicles, on 2 Chronicles 8:9. | 2 Chronicles 8:7, 2 Chronicles 8:8, 2 Chronicles 8:9, 2 Chronicles 8:10 |
Where the chapter stands in the book
8 more paragraphs on the patterns
The reign's wide panel runs from 1:1 to 9:31. In the proposed ring the dossier carries, this chapter opens the limb where the nations come to Solomon, 8:1 to 9:12, with Huram sending ships and sailors as he once sent cedar. The ring is Raymond B. Dillard's, its status is proposed, and it is drawn in full on the study page for chapter 7.
The historical value
The places in the register are locatable. Tadmor in the wilderness is the site later ages knew as Palmyra. Upper and Lower Beth-horon guard the pass from the coastal plain up to the hill country. Ezion-geber and Eloth stand on the shore of Edom at the head of the Red Sea, which is the only access Israel had to that trade.
The voyage of verses 17 and 18 is a joint operation. Huram sends the ships and the experienced sailors, since Tyre held the maritime skill, and the Israelite crews sail with them. The return is four hundred and fifty talents of gold from Ophir.
Hamath-zobah at verse 3 is the one military campaign recorded of Solomon in either book, which the site's exposition note marks as a break from the peace that otherwise defines the reign.
The debated concept
The move of Pharaoh's daughter at verse 11 is the chapter's open question. This book alone gives the reason, that the places the ark of the LORD entered are holy. John Wesley reads the concern as guarding against the appearance of pollution rather than as a charge against her. The parallel at 1 Kings 9:24 records the move with no reason attached, so the motive here is the Chronicler's own contribution and the commentators read it as his judgment about the ark's ground.
The forced labour of verses 7 and 8 is a second question that the book states and leaves. The Chronicler says the arrangement continued to his own day. The claim of verse 9 about Israelite labour stands beside the conscription of 2:17 and 2:18, where the workforce is drawn from the foreign men in the land.
Keep studying
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 form and classifications
John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 2 Chronicles 8:1; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Books of the Chronicles, on 2 Chronicles 8:9; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2 Chronicles 8:16 and Raymond B. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, Word Biblical Commentary, 1987.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.