1 Kings 9

1 Kings 9:1-9

In this chapter we have, 1. The answer which God in a vision grew to Solomon’s prayer, ver. 1—9. 2. The interchanging of graceful kindness between Solomon and Hiram, ver. 10—14. 3. His user-men and buildings, ver. 15—24. 4. His devotion, ver. 25. 5. His trading navy, ver. 26—28.

1. AND it came to pass when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he was pleased to do. 2. That the LORD appeared to Solomon ’the second time,’ as he had appeared unto him at Gibbon. 3. And the LORD said unto him, ‘I have heard thy prayer and thy longf奖励 that thou had made before me: I have hallowed this house which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever, and ‘mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. 4. And if thou wilt walk before me as David thy father walked, ‘in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments: 5. Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever: ‘as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel. 6. But if you shall at all turn from following me, you or your children, and will not keep my commandments, and my statutes, which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them: 7. Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and ‘Israel shall be a proverb, and a by-word among all people: 8. And at this house which is high, every one that passed by it shall be astonished, and ‘shall his; and they shall say, ‘Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house? 9. And they shall answer, ‘Because they foresee the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers

out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil.

Solomon receives from God a gracious visit, such as he had been favoured with at Solomon, probably the same night when the congregation was deposed, and not thirteen years afterwards, as the foregoing were sojourn to intimate: therefore some read, v. 2. The Lord had approved, See.

1. God declares his acceptance of his prayer, and promises to answer it. As he had manifested his presence in his temple, his eye and heart shall be shown upon it, and his ear387. The prayer of all that come thither for help. Nate, God’s eyes are now in every place over the righteous, and his ears open to their prayers.

2. He promises him, on his obedience, the establishment of his house and throne, to the latest potterity, v. 4, 5. Nate, They who would secure to their children the entail of God’s blessings, must leave them the examples of their fidelity.

3. He warns him of the dreadful consequence of his and the people’s, and their potterity’s departure and apostasy from God, v. 6—9, which would cause the destruction of his family, the ruin of his kingdom, the demolition of this glorious temple, the contempt of the brethren, and the unarmed rebellion of those that remained on the sins that brought down such defolusing judgments. Thus Solomon and the people were admonished not to pride themselves on their outward privileges, or rest on the glory of the temple, seeing its greatest beauty was the holiness of the worshippers; and that once lost, the fine gold would become dim, and this lofty fabric be laid in the dust. Nate, (1.) If our growth in grace does not correspond with our privileges, our boast of the temple, and the best form of worship, will but delude and destroy us. (2.) Whenever we see or read the defolusing God hath wrought in the earth, we should reflect on the dreadful evil and malignity of sin, and take warning.

4. ¶ And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, ‘when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD, and the king’s house. 11. (Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar-trees, and fir-trees, and with gold according to all his desire) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 12. And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, and they pleased him not. 13. And he said, What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabal unto this day. 14. And Hiram sent to the king Sialcore talents of gold.

1 Kings 9:10-14

Solomon having now finished all his building, generously makes an offering to Hiram of twenty cities in Galilee, or on the borders of it, 1st. xix. 27. over and above the coarsals subsisting between them, chap. v. not willing to be behind in generosity with the king of Tyre, to whole assistance he was so greatly indebted. Hiram, on viewing these cities, which not being in the list of any particular cities, were yet unoccupied by Israel, finds them not suited to the genius of his mercantile Tyriani, and therefore declines accepting them, calling them Cabal, or leading; which name they afterwards bore, or they were so called when this book was written. No doubt Solomon took care to gratify him with some other pretext, See v. 27, and that not the insignificance of the other, but the unfurnishness of their situation, occasioned Hiram’s refusal. Nate, (1.) A generous mind will not chuse to lie under obligations it is in his power to repay. (2.) Various are the sentiments of men: the richest soil hath on charms to him, who delights to plough the main; whilst the lover of the rural scene, with wonder sees the sailor tempt the boisterous waves, and counts the gain too dearly earned amidst the dangers of the deep.

15. ¶ And this is the reason of the levy, which king Solomon raised, for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazan, and Megiddo, and Gezer. 16. For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Cananites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon’s wife. 17. And Solomon built Gezer, and Beth-horon the nether, 18. And Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land, 19. And all the cities of those that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon defied to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 20. And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hitites, Perizates, Hivites, and

Jebu-

Scholters, which were not of the children of Israel, 21. Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bond-service unto this day. 22. But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bond-men: but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his characters, and his hooferees. 23. These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon’s work, five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work. 24. But Pharaoh’s daughter came up out of the city of David, unto her house which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Milks. 25. And there times in a year did Solomon offer burns-offerings, and peace-offerings, upon the altar which he built unto the LORD, and he burnt incense upon the altar that our before the LORD: so he finished the house. 26. And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eaton-geher, which is beside E545, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. 27. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, ship-men that had knowledge of the Sea, with the servants of Solomon. 28. And they came to Ophir, and fell from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.

c. 15-28. Though Solomon had no wars to engage him, his buildings were vast and expensive, and occasioned him to levy a tribute on the people.

1. The Lord’s house was his great concern; there his chief evil was employed, and when this was finished, his own palace, the strengthening and beautifying his capital, the repairing flour, and the building others, gave opportunity of displaying his own tells and magnificence, and strengthening his kingdoms, v. 19. Gezer among the rich, till now unconquered, Pharaoh had taken from the old Columnium, and having made a present of it to his daughter Solomon’s wife, he rejoined and testified it. Note, They who make God’s glory their first concern, may expect his blessing upon all the labour of their hands.

2. The old inhabitants of the land were reduced to servitude by him, c. 20, 21. proselyted perhaps, and therefore not to be extirpated; the therefore he employed in the more laborious works, which the Israelites were all discharged from meamer services, and made officers in his court, or Superintendants of his works, c. 22. Note, In the court of Jefon, our king, every Ipsitual Israelite shall be advanced to fit among the princes.

3. Pharaoh’s daughter, when her palace was finished, came up to it, from the city of David.

4. Solomon, in the midst of all his vast undertakings, neglected not the regular returns of worship, c. 25. he could only take comfort in the labour of his hands, when his heart continued findfully cleaving unto God. The altar he built, he frequented. Note, We must carefully observe that our worldly engagements draw not off our hearts, or indispose them for the service of the blessed God.

5. To enrich his kingdom, and to carry on his expensive works, by means of the part of Eaton Geher on the Red Sea, which David had conquered from the Edomites, he fated out a dam, manned chiefly with Tyrtum, under the command of his servants, and trafficked to Ophir: in what part of the Indies this was situated is uncertain; whether Ceylon, Malacca, or perhaps nearer, on what is now called the coast of Coromandel, the return of the voyage was very advantageous, amounting to four hundred and twenty talents of gold, about one million, eight hundred and ninety thousand pounds. Note, (1.) Nothing enriches a flute like traffic. (2.) Even the gold of Ophir perishes in the using, but the treasures of grace never was old, or decay. He that is possessed of these, hath that fine gold which constitutes the true riches, Rev. iii. 18.