CHAPTER 8 Oct. 17 
Solomon’s Building Projects
It happened at the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the house of Yahweh and his own house, 2that the cities which Huram had given to Solomon, Solomon built them, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there. 3Solomon went to Hamath Zobah, and prevailed against it. 4He built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the storage cities which he built in Hamath. 5Also he built Beth Horon the upper, and Beth Horon the lower, fortified cities, with walls, gates, and bars; 6and Baalath, and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 7As for all the people who were left of the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel; 8of their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel didn’t consume, of them Solomon conscripted forced labour to this day. 9But of the children of Israel, Solomon made no servants for his work; but they were men of war, and chief of his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen. 10These were the chief officers of king Solomon, even two-hundred and fifty, who ruled over the people.11Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David to the house that he had built for her; for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places where the ark of Yahweh has come are holy. 12Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to Yahweh on the altar of Yahweh, which he had built before the porch, 13even as the duty of every day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the Sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the set feasts, three times in the year, in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tents. 14He appointed, according to the ordinance of David his father, the divisions of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their offices, to praise, and to minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required; the doorkeepers also by their divisions at every gate; for so had David the man of God commanded. 15They didn’t depart from the commandment of the king to the priests and Levites concerning any matter, or concerning the treasures. 16Now all the work of Solomon was prepared to the day of the foundation of the house of Yahweh, and until it was finished. So the house of Yahweh was completed. 17Then went Solomon to Ezion Geber, and to Eloth, on the seashore in the land of Edom. 18Huram sent him ships and servants who had knowledge of the sea by the hands of his servants; and they came with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and fetched from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon.

Commentary

8:1 Solomon had built the house of Yahweh and his own house- Again Solomon’s building of God’s house is paralleled with building his own house, implying his dedication to God’s house wasn’t wholehearted, unlike David his father. This chapter goes on to use the word “built” many times. Solomon’s building of God’s house is set within the context of the way he liked building anyway. At the end of his life, he admits that he went through a phase of being obsessed with building, in some vain search to find self-fulfilment without God (Ecc. 2:4). In his apparently zealous building of the temple, Solomon was therefore only serving God in ways which he enjoyed, which reinforced his own personality type. Hence :6 speaks of how he “desired to build for his pleasure”. On one hand, we must use our God-given talents to serve Him; and yet on the other, we are asked to take up Christ’s cross and follow Him, going right against the grain of how we would naturally like to be.
8:6 Solomon had so many horses and chariots that he needed to build cities to store them. This was a specific disobedience to the command that the king of Israel was not to multiply horses to himself (Dt. 17:16). Yet that was the very section of the Law which he had to copy out and remember (Dt. 17:19). He had the ability, like all of us, to know God’s requirements and yet do the very opposite. He must’ve assumed that somehow he was an exception... but if we accept and love God’s principles we will not wish to make ourselves any exception to them.