The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 91

,il ,¥~Q, the fortress of, or fortified Tyre donble a.ccusa.tive) which is justified by Ps11. (Josh. iix. 29; 2 Sa.m. xxiv. 7, &o.) The cix. 3) until the Lord put them under the oa.pita.l of Phcsnicia.. In e&rlier times, Sidon soles of h1s feet [until, i.e., He trampled would seem to ha.ve been the more import- them down. The same image is found in ant town ; hence the Canaanites who in- some of David's psalms, e.g., vii. 5; Ix. 12; habited this region were generally c&lled cf. Psa. viii. 6; xci. 13 ; Isa.. I.xiii. 3 ; Rom. Zidonians, as in ver. 6] sent h1s servants xvi. 20 ; Eph. i 22; Heh. ii. 8.J [legatos, Vate.blns] unto Solomon [The Vat. Ver. 4.-But now the Lord my God hath LXX. has here a strange reading, " To given me rest [In fulfilment of the promise anoint Solomon," &c. The object of this of 1 Chron. xxii. 9. David had ho.d a. brief embassy was evidently to recognize and rest (2 Sam. vii. 1), Solomon's was perma- congratulate the youthful king (the Syriao nent. He was " a man of rest"] on every has a gloss, "and he blessed him," which mde [Heb. round about, same word as in well represents one object of the embassy) ver. 3, and in 1 Chron. xxii. 9] , so that there and at the same time to make overtures of ls neither adversary [He.dad and Rezon, of friendship. An alliance, or good under- whom this word is used (1 Kings xi. 14, 23), standing, with Israel was then, as at a later appa.rently belonged to a somewho.t later period (Acts xii. 20) of great importance to period of his reign] nor evil occurrent them of Tyre and Sidon. Their narrow [Rather, "occurrence," or" plague" (l/~~), strip of seaboard furnished no corn lands, so i.e., " rebellion, famine, pestilence, or other that their country depended upon Israel for snffering" (Bahr). Davidho.dhe.dmanysuch its nourishment]; for he had heard that "occurrences 11 (2 Sam. xv. 14; u. 1 ; xxi. they had ULointed h1m king 1n the room of 1 ; xxiv. 15).J David h1s father [i.e., he had heard of the death of David and the accession of Solo- Ver. 5.-And, behold, I purpose [Heb. be- mon ; possibly of the events narrated in hold me saying (i91$, with infin. expresses chap. i.]: for Hiram was ever [Heb. all the purpose. Cf. Exod. ii. 14 ; 2 Sam. xxi. 16)] to days: i.e., of their reigns; so long as they build an house unto the name of the Lord my were contempora.cy sovereigns] a lover of God, as the Lord spa.ke unto David my David. father, saying [2 Sam. vii. 12, 13. He thns Ver. 2.-And Solomon sent to Hiram. gives Hiram to understand that he is carry- [According to Josephns (Ant. viii. 2. 6), he ing out his father's plane, and plans which wrote a letter, which together with Hiram's had the Divine sanction, o.nd that this is no reply (ver. 8) was preserved among the pub- fanciful project of a young prince], Thy son lic archives of Tyre. The account of 2 whom I will set upon thy throne in thy Chronicles ii., which as a rule is more de- room, he shall build UL [Heb. the] house tailed than that of the Kings, begins here. unto my name. It does not notice, that is to say, the prior Ver. 6.-Now therefore command thou embassy of the Phcenician king, as the that they hew me cedar trees out of object of the chronicler is merely to narrate Lebanon [Heb. the Lebanon, i.e., the White the measnres taken for the erection of the (sc. mountain). "It is the Mont Blanc of temple], saying [The return embassy gave Palestine " (Porter) ; but whether it is so Solomon the opportunity to aek for the c&lled because of its summits of snow or be- timber, &c., that he desired.] canse of the colour of its limestone is nncer- Ver. 3.-Thou knowest how that David te.in. Practically, the cedars are now found my father could not build UL house [Hiram in one place only, though Ehrenberg is sa.id conld not fail to know this, as his relations to have found them in considerable numbers with David had been close and intimate. to the north of the road between Bao.lbek Not only had he " sent cedar trees and car- and Tripoli. •• At the head of Wady Ka.dish& penters and masons " to build David"s house there is a vast recess in the central ridge of (2 Sam. v. 11), but" they of Tyre bronght Lebo.non, somo eight miles in die.meter. mnch cedar wood to David" (1 Chron. xxii. Above it rise the loftiest summits in Syria, 4) for the house of the Lord] unto thtname streaked with perpetual snow . . . In the of the Lord [i.e., to be dedicated to the very centre of this recess, on a little irregu- Lord as His shrine and habite.tion (cf. Dent. lar knoll, sta.nds the clump of cede.re" (Ibid., xii. 5, 11 ; and eh. viii 18, 19, 20, &c.)] for Handbook, ii. p. 584), over 6,000 feet above the wan [Heb., war. As we have singular the level of the sea. It wonld seem as if noun and plural verb, Ewe.Id, Rawlinson, al. that part of Lebanon where the cedars grew assume that war stands for adTJer,arie,, as belonged to Hiram'& dominion. " Tho the next clause seems to imply. Diihr and northern frontier of Canaan did not reBCh as Keil, however, with greater reason, inter- far asBjerreh 11 (Keil), where the oedar grove pret, "for the war with which they sur- is now. The idea of some older writers roUDded bb:o ;" a oonstructior:1 (:i;r;, with that the cedi.rs belonged to Bolo111on, ai:id od. v. l-18.] TttE FIRST :BOOK OF :KING8. 88