The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 96

"le'l"J'." in ver. 21 of the pamllel probnbly Ver. 15.-Considering the l&et climee of explams the suddenly mentioned similar the previous verse, the king probably designa l&ngn&ge of its fifteenth verae, and a.go.in David, not Solomou. The oommandment,,, betrays the collected and copied nature of ooncerning the treasures. (See, with the the historio mttteri&l, the ce.refulness of exposition, 1 Chron. xxvi. 20-32. Comp. roquence not being as obserV&ble in selco- also our eh, xxxv. 3-5.) tion &s might be desired. The distinction Ver, 16.-Waa prepe.1·ed. Thie is the between the remn&nt of 11liens and the nip h. of 11:;i; and occurs eight times in people of Israel was ma.nifestlv that the menial and the laborious service.was put on Chronicles, but in other conjugations forty- the former. Useful but fe.milie.r references two times. The evident signiflontion is, to this whole subject e.re found in Judg. i. Th'U8 was all the work of Solomon steadily 21-36; iii. 1-5; 1 Chron. xxii. 2; 1 Kings ordered to the day of foundation of the house v. 13-18. For our two hundred e.nd 11.fty . . . and on uninterruptedly till it was (~hich gives the number of overseers over .finilihed; i.e. there was no remitting of dili- Israelites only) the pe.re.llol ree.ds, '' five gence and care from the beginning to the hundred e.nd fiftv." It will be remembered end of the grand undertaking. For of this that e.n e.nalogou·s difference occurs between the Chronicle-history has told us, first in our eh. ii. 18 and 1 Kings v. 16. Whether eh. ii., and then in eh. iii.-viii. it were the dete1mining reason or not in Ver. 17.-Ezion-geber , , , Eloth. Pa- these two places, it is very imaginable the.t rallel, 1 Kings ix. 26, which· describes the it would be of less importance in the ages of former of these ports as "beside" the latter, the post-Captivity annalist to dwell on the "on the Red Sea," i.e. e.t the extremity of minutim of the different treatment of the the ea.stern gulf of the Red Sea., called the aliens. Elanitic Gulf by Greeks and Romans, but Ver. 11 (parallel, 1 Kiags ix. 24).-As now the Gulf of Ake.bah (Numb. xx:z:ili. the writer of Chronicles he.s not before 35-37; Deut. ii. 8; 2 Sam. viii.14; 1 Kings allnded to the m&rria.ge and the cireu.m- xxii. 48: 2 Kings xiv. 22 : xvi. 6; eh. xx. stanoes of it ~vol ved in this verse, hie 36, 37). David's conquest of Edom was the account and assignment of Solomon's motive occasion of its coming into the possession of for the remova.l of hie wife, Phare.oh's Israel daughter, ie given something more speci- Ver. 18.-The first impression cre&ted on fiea.lly (see 1 Kings iii 1; vii 8). The reading this verse no doubt would be that valley of Tyropeum le.y between the temple Hiram sent ships to Solomon, at Ezion- on the eastern hill and Solomon's pe.le.ce, geber and Eloth. But it is almost impos- which was on the western side of it. The sible to see how he could do so. The name of this wife we.s probably Psusennes, parallel much helps us, by saying that le.et of the twenty-first dynasty. "Solomon me.de a navy," aud Hiram assisted Vere. 12, 13,-Parallel in compressed form by manning it with competent sailors; he 1 Kings ix. 25. After a certain rate every •• sent in the ne.vy hie servants," etc. (1 Kings day; Hebrew, ci--1?-;i:;11; the probable mean- ix. 26, 27). Some he.ve suggested that the ing is, according to the fiud appointment of exple.nation is that Hiram ge.ve materials, day after day (Exod. xxiii 14 : xxix. 23, workmen, and models for Solomon's ships, 38 : Numb. xxviii 3 ; Deut. xvi 16). possibly having ships lying in the Red Sea. Ver. 14.-The colll'lleB of the prieatl , .• The parallel, however, meets all difficulties, the Levitel to their cha.rgeB . , , the portera and eaves the necessity of going far for far- alBo by their oouneB at every gate, (For the fetched explan&tions. Ophir. This we.a the pe.rticnlare of th.ie verse, see, with the ex- name of the son of Joktan (Gen. x. 25-29), position to them, I Chron. xxiv.1-35: xxv. who, it is supposed, gave his name to the 1-7; xxvi.; ix. 17-28.) David the man place or Ie.nd in the south of Arabia. It is of God. This title occurs only once in still quite an unsettled question, however, 1 Chronicles, viz. xxiii 14, where it is used where Ophir was situated, though a.n Ara- of Moses ; and six times iu 2 Chronicles, bian situation is on every e.ccount the most viz. here to David; xi. 2, to Sheme.ie.h: probable (see Exposition 1 Chron. xxix. 4; three times, xxv. 7, 9, to an unnamed pro- and Dr. Smith's' Bible Dictionary,' ii. 637- phet: and once age.in to Moses, xxx. 16; 642). Our four hundred e.nd fifty talents of the expression occurs much more frequently gold reads in the parallel (1 Kings ix. 28) in KingL as "four hundred and twenty,"