Deeper Commentary
2Ch 2:1 Now Solomon purposed to build a house for the name of Yahweh,
and a house for his kingdom-
"The royal house"
of Esther 1:9
is literally "the house of the kingdom", the term used for the temple in 2
Chron. 2:1,12. This extends the impression discussed on Esther 1:7
that we have here a fake, imitation temple of Yahweh.
2Ch 2:2 Solomon counted out seventy thousand men to bear burdens, and
eighty thousand men who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three
thousand six hundred to oversee them-
1 Kings 5:13-16 reveals that Solomon had 153,000
full time and 90,000 part time male
servants. Israel's complaint that Solomon
had whipped them implies that he treated them like
slaves, with himself as the slave-driver. 600,000 adults came
out of Egypt (Ex. 12:37), and assuming the population only rose slightly over the next 550 years, we
have the picture of an Israel where almost half the males
(i.e. probably the majority of the working population) were pressganged
into slavery to a despotic King Solomon.
This huge number of men involved in quarrying and transportation of the
stones was because of the obsession with building projects which Solomon
admits he had in Ecclesiastes. Just as Solomon's abundance of wives led to
having a few thousand mouths to feed, and Israel needed to provide for
that; so his obsession with thousands of horses meant that there was a
need for a huge amount of fodder for them (1 Kings 4:28). And all Israel
had to provide this- all for the sake of Solomon's obsessive desires. That
he reigned for as long as he did was truly a sign of God's grace to him
for the sake of his father David, and is a tacit reflection of how much
God loved David despite all his failures.
2Ch 2:3 Solomon sent to Huram the king of Tyre saying, As you dealt with
David my father, and sent him cedars to build him a house in which to
dwell, so deal with me-
Solomon was obsessed with living out the image of his father. As Hiram
had sent messengers to David (2 Sam. 5:11), so Solomon sends to Hiram.
2Ch 2:4 Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God,
to dedicate it to Him, and to burn before Him incense of sweet spices, and
for the continual showbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and
evening, on the Sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the set feasts of
Yahweh our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel-
Solomon reasons as if all these Mosaic rituals required a temple in
which to perform them. But the Mosaic laws about the tabernacle required
just a tent, and not at all the grandiose religious system which David had
become so obsessed with designing. It could be that Hiram was some kind of
proselyte, and therefore all the information about the Mosaic rituals was
meaningful to him.
Solomon is alluding [as always] to the words of his father
David, in Ps. 135:5: "For I am certain that Yahweh is great and great is
our Lord beyond all gods". It is Yahweh who is great. But Solomon turns
this into a statement that therefore the temple he builds must be "great"
and greater than any temple built to other gods. This explains why the
style of the temple is so similar to that of other temples from the time-
it's just bigger and more lavish. Solomon reduces the greatness of Yahweh,
and His infinite superiority over the other gods, to the simple term of
having a greater temple than the other gods. Any purely religious approach
to God diminishes His true greatness, which is in His grace. Solomon
reduces the unique greatness of Yahweh to the uniqueness of the temple he
is going to build Him. A temple Yahweh never wanted anyway. He fails to
see Yahweh's greatness as being in terms of His grace and eternal
salvation, which He had demonstrated for all time in His salvation of
David regarding his affair with Solomon's mother Bathsheba. David made the
same mistake in confusing the greatness of his projected temple with the
greatness of Yahweh Himself. He says in 1 Chron. 29:11 "To you, Yahweh,
belong the utmost greatness, might, distinction, eminence, and splendor-
yes all that is in heaven and on earth" but then in 1 Chron. 22:5 "The
temple I am about to build for Yahweh must become utterly great, for fame
and distinction throughout all lands".
2Ch 2:5 The house which I build is great; for our God is great above all
gods-
The deeper our realization of God's greatness, the higher our response.
"My utmost for His highest". Thus Solomon built a "great" house for Yahweh,
"for great is our God above all gods" (2 Chron. 2:5 AV). Israel prayed to
God but without meaning, "though they called them to the most High, none at
all would exalt him" (Hos. 11:7). They theoretically knew Him as "the most
High" but in their hearts they failed to exalt Him. And so their prayers
remained as empty words.
2Ch 2:6 But who is able to build Him a house, since heaven and the heaven of
heavens can’t contain Him? Who am I then, that I should build Him a house,
except just to burn incense before Him?-
"Who am I?" is a quotation of David's words about the temple in
1 Chron. 29:14: "But who am I..?". But this in turn had been David's
response when God first told him that He didn't want a temple, but rather
would build a house for David from his descendants. David totally misrepresented God's response as saying that He did in
fact welcome the idea of a grandiose physical temple, and so by repeating
his response at the time, he is surely guilty of a false humility. Solomon
quotes these words of apparent humility and applies them to himself. But
just as we cannot sing words of humility in a Christian song or hymn and
thereby be humble, Solomon failed to realize that humility is not a bought
or inherited position. It has to come from the heart. And he had no sense
of personal sin or possibility of failure, and therefore no humility.
Solomon claims that he solely wanted to build a temple in order to
offer incense and sacrifice. But the obvious counter to that is that God
only asked for an altar roughly made of earth or at best, unhewn stones,
in order for man to offer sacrifice. A grandiose temple wasn't required
for sacrifice.
2Ch 2:7 Now therefore send me a man talented to work in gold, silver,
brass, iron, purple, crimson and blue, and who knows how to produce
engravings, to be with the talented men who are with me in Judah and in
Jerusalem, whom David my father provided-
The impression David had given in his closing speech to Israel was
that he had provided absolutely every resource, human and material,
required to realize his temple plans. But this was evidently not the case,
as Solomon has to order more materials and skilled labour to complete it.
I noted on 1 Chron. 28,29 the hollowness and exaggeration in David's words
at that point.
2Ch 2:8 Send me also cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees, out of
Lebanon; for I know that your servants know how to cut timber in Lebanon.
My servants shall be with your servants-
Perhaps this was connected with the Divine wisdom about cedar trees
which God had given Solomon (1 Kings 4:33). "Fir" is LXX "pine", which
would have created a pleasant smell in the temple.
2Ch 2:9 even to prepare me timber in abundance; for the house which I am
about to build shall be great and wonderful-
The greatness and wonder of the house was a big theme with David and
Solomon. But God's response to David's initial suggestion of a temple was
that He is a humble God, and doesn't like grandiose structures; rather
does He wish above all for men to allow Him to work according to His grace
in building a house for His glory made out of contrite, responsive hearts.
Form eclipsed content for Solomon, religion overtook spirituality, as has
happened constantly in the history of God's people. "Great and wonderful"
is a Hebrew phrase consistently used about what God does for men by His
grace; and not what man can do for God (Job 5:9; 9:10; 37:5; Ps. 86:10;
136:4; Jer. 32:17). In a time of greater humility, David had vowed not to
exercise himself in this great and wonderful (s.w. Ps. 131:1). But now,
Solomon is seeking to build a great and wonderful place for God, rather
than allowing God to build that great and wonderful house of humbled human
hearts.
2Ch 2:10 Behold, I will give to your servants, the cutters who cut timber,
twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of
barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of
oil-
The different figures in 1 Kings 5:11 cp. 2 Chron. 2:10 could be
because part of the amount was for Tyre generally, and part for Hiram's
personal household. Twenty measure of pure oil (1 Kings 5:11) appears relatively small;
but it is the same word used for the oil of the tabernacle rituals (Ex.
27:20), and as a proselyte Hiram may well have built his own kind of
tabernacle system. I suggest on Ez. 28:14 that he indeed did so, but it
turned into apostacy.
2Ch 2:11 Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in a writing which he sent
to Solomon, Because Yahweh loves His people, therefore He has made you
king over them-
These are identical words as in 1 Kings 10:9, of the queen of Sheba's response. We
are given the impression that they became proselytes because they used the
Yahweh Name; although polytheists could take the name of other gods, such
as Yahweh, without it meaning they had accepted them as their own gods.
2Ch 2:12 Huram continued, Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel that made
heaven and earth, Who has given to David the king a wise son, endowed with
discretion and understanding, that should build a house for Yahweh, and a
house for His kingdom-
This statement of faith that Yahweh was creator of heaven and earth
would imply Hiram truly was a proselyte. For all the other nations had
their various theories as to how their gods created heaven and earth.
Hiram is repeating what Solomon had told him, in saying that this temple
was a "house for Yahweh, and... His Kingdom". God had made it clear that
He could not be contained in a house, and His Kingdom "rules over all" and
was not so geographically and spatially limited. The temple obsession was
really bringing God down to a very human, limited level.
2Ch 2:13 Now I have sent a talented man endowed with understanding, of
Huram my fathers-
This shows that there was more than one Hiram; it was likely a
generic kingly name, like Pharaoh. However, we must compare this with
1 Kings 7:13: "King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre". This contrasts with how Solomon's communications with Hiram regarding
the temple had been by messenger. But for the matters of building his own
house, he wants him present in person. Again we see how more effort was
put into Solomon's own house than God's house.
However I suggest that the actual Hiram king of Tyre is not necessarily in view, but a man called Huram (2 Chron. 4:11), of similar spelling, who is described as a "father" to Hiram the king (2 Chron. 2:13); in the sense in which Joseph was a father to Pharaoh (Gen. 45:8), his leading official. Thus we read in 2 Chron. 4:16 that "the vessels thereof did Huram his father make for king Solomon". However the point is established that a leading political figure within Tyre, who was known for his craftsmanship, was summoned personally to work on Solomon's own house, whereas this wasn't done for the work of God's house.
Another possibility is that this craftsman was Hiram's own representative, and is therefore spoken of as being "Hiram".
2Ch 2:14 the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan; and his father was a
man of Tyre, talented to work in gold, silver, brass, iron, stone, timber,
purple, blue, fine linen and crimson, also to engrave any kind of
engraving, and to devise any device. Let there be a place appointed to him
with your talented men, and with the talented men of my lord David your
father-
2 Chron. 2:14 says "Hiram" was "son of a woman of the daughters of
Dan", whereas 1 King 7:14 says he was "the son of a widow of the tribe of
Naphtali". Dan may refer to the town called Dan or Laish which was in the
territory of Naphtali, but inhabited by Danites (Josh. 18:27; 19:47; Jud.
18:7). Here we see how an apparent discrepancy on a surface level reveals
a deep evidence of the way the records do not contradict but dovetail
perfectly, as we would expect of a Divinely inspired writing. But this is
only apparent to those who respectfully search the entire scriptures,
rather than bandying around a surface level contradiction with an
eagerness which speaks more of their own fears the Bible is inspired than
of deep factual persuasion.
2Ch 2:15 Now therefore the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine,
which my lord has spoken of, let him send to his servants-
Tyre as a small island state had a major problem in obtaining enough
food for their affluent population, so these basic food supplies were
valuable to them.
2Ch 2:16 and we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as you shall need.
We will bring it to you in floats by sea to Joppa; and you shall carry it
up to Jerusalem-
1 Kings 5 says it was "fir", or LXX "pine", which would have created
a pleasant smell throughout the temple.
2Ch 2:17 Solomon numbered all the foreigners who were in the land of
Israel, after the numbering with which David his father had numbered them;
and they were found one hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred-
This may connect with the 153 fishes which were caught in
Jn. 21:11, representing the ingathering of the Gentiles to the people of
God (see note there). But despite the typical significance, Solomon was
clearly abusing Gentile labour in order to satisfy his own obsession for
architecture and building work. He admits in Ecc. 2 that he had such an
obsession, and indulged it in his search for meaning in his own life. But
it was at a terrible cost to those thousands of individuals made to serve
it. Instead of Israel being a blessing to the Gentiles, Solomon made them
a huge disadvertisment for Israel's God. See on :18. David
claimed to have already prepared all the resources necessary for the
building of the temple. So this massive number of men involved in
quarrying (:18) was an outcome of Solomon's obsession with architecture
and building, rather than a genuine desire to glorify God.
2Ch 2:18 He set seventy thousand of them to bear burdens, and eighty
thousand to be stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six
hundred overseers to set the people to work-
1 Kings 5:16 has "three thousand and three hundred". The word for three in
Hebrew, 'sls', can easily be confused with that for "six" ['ss']. The same
confusion is found in 2 Chron. 8:10 cp. 1 Kings 9:23. This would appear to
be one of the copying errors in these Divinely inspired records.
This levy of labour was evidently one of the reasons which led the next generation to complain that Solomon had chastised the people with whips (1 Kings 12:11; the happiness of the people which the Queen of Sheba observed in 1 Kings 10:8 was therefore just an impression Solomon arranged for her to receive). Yet "this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised: in order to build the house of the Lord, and his own house..." (1 Kings 9:15). Solomon justified his zest for power and control by saying it was in order to do the Lord's work, to build His house... and yet had he listened to God's word more carefully, he would have realized that the true house of Yahweh was in fact people... yet Solomon abused people in order to build a visible house for God. And so very often religious people have gone down the same path- devaluing the meaning and value of persons, because they want to be seen as achieving something visible for God, no matter how many people they abuse on the way. The ends simply don't justify the means; Solomon told himself that they did, and he ended up as bad as Saul and Pharaoh, who are alluded to in the records of his levy of slaves from Israel. And yet the 1 Kings record gives the impression of all happily working together to create a great temple for God. When we probe deeper, we find this was far from the case.
David had prophesied that his great son would "have dominion from sea to sea" (Ps. 72:8). 'Have dominion' is the Hebrew word translated 'oversee' here, or 'rule over' in 1 Kings 5:15. David's vision of his Messianic son having a world-wide Kingdom, in which all people blessed him for his grace and beneficence, was abused by Solomon into justifying 'having dominion' over people as his personal slaves; and they certainly didn't bless him for it but rather complained (1 Kings 12:11). It's as if Solomon grabbed the word 'rule over / have dominion', wrenched it out of context, and used it to justify his actions, giving a quasi-Biblical justification to his pure selfishness. This is where knowledge of God's word can be a dangerous thing; leading people into a stronger self-justification than they would otherwise have had if they were guided by self-recognized greed alone.
This suggests that Solomon made the same mistake as Israel in earlier
days- he was a satisficer, he himself married into those tribes, and he
wasn’t obedient to the clear covenant of the land which was binding upon
him.
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