I Kings 9, God's Covenant with Solomon

Solomon has finished and dedicated the temple.

I Kings 9: 1-5, Second appearance of this YHWH

When Solomon had finished building the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do, the LORD appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

The LORD said to him: "I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

"As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, `You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.'

In the first twenty years of his reign, Solomon achieves everything he desires, including massive building projects described below. (Read Ecclesiastes 2: 1-11 for a declaration of these achievements -- and the thoughts that follow.)

YHWH continues the Davidic covenant with Solomon. This second appearance of YHWH to Solomon is apparently in the middle of his forty year reign. This passage parallels 2 Chronicles 7: 11-22.

I Kings 9: 6-9, "Don't turn away"

"But if you or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. And though this temple is now imposing, all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, `Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?'

People will answer, `Because they have forsaken the LORD their God, who brought their fathers out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them--that is why the LORD brought all this disaster on them.'"

Like the covenants before, this one has both blessings and cursings, promises and warnings.

(NIV footnotes: In verse 6, the Hebrew term translated "you" is plural, addressed presumably to all of Israel, not just Solomon.)

I Kings 9: 10-14, Good-for-nothing

At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings--the temple of the LORD and the royal palace-- King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and pine and gold he wanted.

But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. "What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?" he asked. And he called them the Land of Cabul, a name they have to this day.

Now Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents of gold.

There seems to be a dispute between Solomon and Hiram. The dispute explains a name for a collection of towns; according to the NIV footnotes "Cabul" sounds like the Hebrew for good-for-nothing.

I Kings 9: 15-21, Forced labor

Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the LORD's temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer. (Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire. He killed its Canaanite inhabitants and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon's wife. And Solomon rebuilt Gezer.) 

He built up Lower Beth Horon, Baalath, and Tadmor in the desert, within his land, as well as all his store cities and the towns for his chariots and for his horses --whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and throughout all the territory he ruled. All the people left from the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (these peoples were not Israelites), that is, their descendants remaining in the land, whom the Israelites could not exterminate--these Solomon conscripted for his slave labor force, as it is to this day.

Solomon's temple, palace, and other building projects were built by forced labor conscripted from foreigners left within Canaan. 

As noted in our earlier study of 2 Samuel 5: 9, the Hebrew translated here as "supporting terraces" is unclear. It is literally "the Millo" and is mentioned several times in the Old Testament history.  Wikipedia has an article on it here and the Biblical Archealogical Society has an online article on it here.

Solomon fortifies the towns of Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer. Hubbard says that all three towns were originally Canaanite and were significant in protecting trade routes in the region. The city of Hazor was just north of the Sea of Galilee, at the northern edge of Israel. It was one of the most significant cities of the ancient Near East (see this Wikipedia article.) The city of Gezer was in the middle of Canaan, west of Jerusalem, towards the coast. Joshua, in Joshua 10: 33, defeats Horam, king of Gezer. Here we have the Egyptian king razing the city and then giving it to Solomon as part of the dowry of the king's daughter.  Megiddo, says Hubbard, "guarded a crucial pass in the Carmel mountains, which linked the Valley of Jezreel and the international coastal highway to Egypt" (p. 61 of Hubbard's commentary on First and Second Kings.) All of these actions improve Israel's standing and power in the Levant region of the ancient Near East.

(NIV footnotes: In verse 18, the Hebrew Tadmor may also be read Tamar; ancient manuscripts have different spellings.)

I Kings 9: 22-25, Israelite supervisors

But Solomon did not make slaves of any of the Israelites; they were his fighting men, his government officials, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and charioteers. They were also the chief officials in charge of Solomon's projects--550 officials supervising the men who did the work.

After Pharaoh's daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace Solomon had built for her, he constructed the supporting terraces. 

Three times a year Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, burning incense before the LORD along with them, and so fulfilled the temple obligations.

Israelites were not enslaved. The Israelites oversaw the work of others.

In marrying the daughter of the king of Egypt, Solomon received the town of Gezer (above, verse 16) and then builds her a palace in Jerusalem.

Before the construction of the temple, it was reported that Solomon made sacrifices at the "high places". But now the sacrifices have been moved into the temple where Solomon now makes regular sacrifices, three times a year.

I Kings 9: 26-28, Solomon's navy

King Solomon also built ships at Ezion Geber, which is near Elath in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea. And Hiram sent his men--sailors who knew the sea--to serve in the fleet with Solomon's men. They sailed to Ophir and brought back 420 talents of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.

Solomon also developed a navy, so as to improve trade and commerce. The fleet sailed from the city of Ezion Geber (on the Gulf of Aqaba) down the Red Sea to Ophir (likely along the Gulf of Aden, says Hubbard) and did significant trading, including bringing home 420 talents (probably about 16 tons) of gold. Below, from Google Maps, is that region today. 

With these ships, Israel now has access to ports along the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. This is a significant commercial region and represents, once again, Israel's standing in the region. (See this website for more details on this trade.) The Israelite commercial navy will be short lived; there will be a futile attempt to rebuild the fleet by King Jehoshaphat, Solomon's great-great-grandson, about 70 years later. (See 1 Kings 22: 48.)