And Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land,
and Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land,
and Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land;
and Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land,
1 Kings — From Solomon's glory to the divided kingdom — then Elijah's confrontation with Ahab and Jezebel dominating the second half. The promise of the Davidic covenant unfolding through temple glory, then beginning to unravel as idolatry and political fragmentation take hold.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The verses this one reaches4
Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath,
He built Tadmor in the wilderness, in addition to all the store cities that he had built in Hamath.
as well as Baalath, all the store cities that belonged to Solomon, and all the cities for his chariots and horses—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion.
May the nomads bow before him, and his enemies lick the dust.
The walk4
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
2 Chronicles 8:4He built Tadmor in the wilderness, in addition to all the store cities that he had built in Hamath.
leads to
So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon,
Through
Joshua 19:44Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath,
leads to
In the twenty-seventh year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Zimri reigned in Tirzah for seven days. Now the troops were encamped against Gibbethon of the Philistines,
Then Baasha son of Ahijah of the house of Issachar conspired against Nadab, and Baasha struck him down at Gibbethon of the Philistines while Nadab and all Israel were besieging the city.
From the tribe of Dan they were given Elteke, Gibbethon,
The whole web at once: see the Arc.
Voices2
And Baalath,.... A city in the tribe of Dan, Jos 19:44. and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land; or "Tamar", as in the Cetib, or Scriptural reading; for we go according to the marginal reading, and so Thamato in Ptolemy (p); and is thought by some to be the same with Tamar in Eze 47:19, which Jerom there says is Palmyra.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed
And Tadmor in the wilderness - This is almost universally allowed to be the same with the celebrated Palmyra, the ruins of which remain to the present day, and give us the highest idea of Solomons splendor and magnificence. Palmyra stood upon a fertile plain surrounded by a barren desert, having the river Euphrates on the east. The ruins are well described by Messrs. Dawkes and Wood, of which they give fine representations. They are also well described in the ancient part of the Universal History, vol. i., p. 367-
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832evangelical
