CHAPTER 9

(992 B.C.)

GODS COVENANT WITH SOLOMON

¹And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the House of the LORD, and the kings house, and all Solomons desire which he was pleased to do,

²That the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time (approximately 20 years after the first appearance [Vs. 10]), as He had appeared unto him at Gibeon (appeared in a dream [3:5]).

³And the LORD said unto him, I have heard your prayer and your supplication, that you have made before Me: I have hallowed this house, which you have built, to put My Name there forever; and My eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually. (In II Chron. 7:12, we read, And have chosen this place to Myself for a House of Sacrifice, proclaiming the fact that the Cross, so to speak, was the foundation of Israels blessings and prosperity.)

⁴And if you will walk before Me, as David your father walked (David was ever used as the example; self-righteousness would have great difficulty in accepting David as such, especially considering his great failures; however, only Pharisees or self-righteousness would have such difficulty; those who truly know themselves and truly know God and His Grace have no difficulty whatsoever), in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My Statutes and My Judgments:

⁵Then I will establish the throne of your kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David your father, saying, There shall not fail you a man upon the throne of Israel. (The committal to Solomon and Israel was conditional upon obedience. This means that the path of safety pointed out by God to Solomon was obedience and attachment to the Bible.)

⁶But 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:

⁷Then 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 byword among all people (tragically and sadly, thats exactly what happened):

⁸And at this House, which is high, everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why has the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this House? (In effect, the Lord is telling Solomon that it doesnt matter how big or how high this House is, it will be pulled down. And when the world asks, Why? the next Verse records the answer!

⁹And they shall answer, Because they forsook 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 has the LORD brought upon them all this evil. (The Lord delivered Israel out of Egypt by virtue of the slain lamb. And if Israel forsakes that way, they will be lost, which they were. Regrettably, the modern Church seems to be quickly following suit.)

¹⁰And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the House of the LORD, and the kings house, (In a sense, both houses are regarded as one house. If the House of Sacrifice, i.e., the Cross, maintains its way, the other house, which symbolizes government, the Government of God, will be correct, as well. When the Cross is ignored, or rejected, the government also goes awry.)

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. (Even though this area bordered the kingdom of Tyre, Solomon should not have done this. No part of Immanuels land must be conveyed to a foreigner, that they may have dominion over the people of the Lord [Lev. 25:23; Deut. 17:15].)

¹²And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not.

¹³And he said, What cities are these which you have given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day. (Cabul, in a sense, means worthless. They were not at all worthless to the Lord, because Galilee would be the area where the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, would make His Headquarters. This shows that Solomon did not realize their significance either. Not one part of our life or living as a Believer must be given over to Satan.)

¹⁴And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold (equal to approximately $30 million in 2004 calculations).

¹⁵And 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 Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

¹⁶For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and killed the Canaanites who dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomons wife (Gezer, nearly 600 years before, had been allotted to Ephraim [Josh. 16:3], and was designated as a Levitical city [Josh. 21:21]; but apparently, the Canaanite inhabitants had never been dispossessed, until Pharaoh dispossessed them).

¹⁷And Solomon built Gezer, and Beth-horon the nether (nearby Gezer),

¹⁸And Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land,

¹⁹And all the cities of store that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

²⁰And all the people who were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the Children of Israel,

²¹Their children who 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 bondservice unto this day.

²²But of the Children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen.

²³These were the chief of the officers who were over Solomons work, five hundred and fifty, which bore rule over the people who wrought in the work.

²⁴But Pharaohs daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Millo. (The daughter of Pharaoh had dwelt in Davids palace on Mount Zion, but Solomon was constrained to relieve her, because he looked upon all the precincts now as consecrated [II Chron. 8:11].)

²⁵And three times in a year did Solomon offer Burnt Offerings and Peace Offerings upon the Altar (the great Brazen Altar, which sat in front of the Temple) which he built unto the LORD, and he burnt Incense upon the Altar that was before the LORD (situated in the Holy Place, immediately before the Ark of the Covenant; in reality, Solomon did not do these things, but saw to it that the Priests, who alone could do such, officiated accordingly). So he finished the house (the three times in a year were Passover, in April; Pentecost, in June; and Tabernacles, in October; a representative male from each household was required to be there at these three respective times).

²⁶And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom (this subjugation of Edom is mentioned in II Sam. 8:14).

²⁷And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen who had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon (the Tyrians helped Solomon form his fleet).

²⁸And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon (it is not known exactly where Ophir was).