1 Kings 9:10-24

Solomon’s Other Activities

10 At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings—the temple of the LORD and the royal palace—
11 King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and juniper and gold he wanted.
12 But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them.
13 “What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?” he asked. And he called them the Land of Kabul,[a] a name they have to this day.
14 Now Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents[b] of gold.
15 Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the LORD’s temple, his own palace, the terraces,[c] the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer.
16 (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.
17 And Solomon rebuilt Gezer.) He built up Lower Beth Horon,
18 Baalath, and Tadmor[d] in the desert, within his land,
19 as well as all his store cities and the towns for his chariots and for his horses[e] —whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and throughout all the territory he ruled.
20 There were still people left from the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (these peoples were not Israelites).
21 Solomon conscripted the descendants of all these peoples remaining in the land—whom the Israelites could not exterminate[f] —to serve as slave labor, as it is to this day.
22 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.
23 They were also the chief officials in charge of Solomon’s projects—550 officials supervising those who did the work.
24 After Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace Solomon had built for her, he constructed the terraces.

1 Kings 9:10-24 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 9

This chapter relates a second vision Solomon had at Gibeon, in which he received an answer to his prayer in the preceding chapter, 1Ki 9:1-9 that passed between him and Hiram king of Tyre, 1Ki 9:10-14, the places that Solomon built or repaired, 1Ki 9:15-19, the Canaanitish people that became bondmen to him, and the officers he had among the children of Israel, 1Ki 9:20-23 the removal of Pharaoh's daughter to the house built for her, 1Ki 9:24. Solomon's attention to religious services, 1Ki 9:25 and the navy of ships he employed, which brought him in great riches, 1Ki 9:26-28.

Cross References 21

  • 1. ver 14; 2 Chronicles 8:2
  • 2. Joshua 19:27
  • 3. ver 11
  • 4. Joshua 16:10; 1 Kings 5:13
  • 5. ver 24; S 2 Samuel 5:9
  • 6. Joshua 11:10-11; Joshua 19:36
  • 7. S Joshua 10:33; Joshua 17:11
  • 8. 1 Kings 3:1; Psalms 45:12; Psalms 68:29; Psalms 72:10
  • 9. S Joshua 10:10; Joshua 16:3; 2 Chronicles 8:5
  • 10. S Joshua 19:44
  • 11. ver 1; S Exodus 1:11
  • 12. S Deuteronomy 17:16; 1 Kings 4:26; 2 Chronicles 1:14; 2 Chronicles 9:25
  • 13. S Numbers 13:29
  • 14. S Joshua 11:3
  • 15. S Genesis 9:25-26
  • 16. S Joshua 15:63; Joshua 17:12; Jdg 1:21,27,29
  • 17. S Genesis 49:15; S Exodus 1:11; S Deuteronomy 20:11; Ezra 2:55,58
  • 18. S Leviticus 25:39
  • 19. 1 Kings 5:16
  • 20. S 1 Kings 3:1; 1 Kings 7:8
  • 21. 2 Samuel 5:9; 1 Kings 11:27; 2 Chronicles 32:5

Footnotes 6

  • [a]. "Kabul" sounds like the Hebrew for "good-for-nothing."
  • [b]. That is, about 4 1/2 tons or about 4 metric tons
  • [c]. Or "the Millo" ; also in verse 24
  • [d]. The Hebrew may also be read "Tamar."
  • [e]. Or "charioteers"
  • [f]. The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.
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