2 Chronicles 8
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 8
Solomon’s Buildings.[a] 1 At the end of the twenty years that Solomon had taken to build the house of the Lord and his own palace, 2 he rebuilt the cities that Huram had given to him, and he settled the Israelites in them.
3 Then Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and captured it.[b] 4 After that he fortified Tadmor[c] in the wilderness and all the storage towns that he had built in Hamath. 5 He also built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars, 6 and Baalath, all the supply cities belonging to Solomon, and all the towns for his chariots and for his cavalry and whatever else Solomon decided to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and throughout his entire dominion.
7 All the people who still remained of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites who did not belong to Israel— 8 that is, from their descendants still surviving in the land, whom the people of Israel had not destroyed—Solomon subjected to forced labor, as is still the case today.[d]
9 However, Solomon did not use the people of Israel as slaves for all the work he wanted done. Rather, they were assigned as soldiers and his officers, as well as the commanders of his soldiers and his cavalry.[e] 10 These served as King Solomon’s officials, two hundred and fifty in number, who exercised authority over the people.
11 Solomon’s Piety. Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the place that he had built for her, for he said: “No wife of mine shall live in the house of King David of Israel, for the places that the Ark of the Lord has entered are sacred.”
12 Then Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord upon the altar of the Lord that he had built in front of the portico, 13 in accordance with what was required for each day, offerings in accordance with the law of Moses for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the annual dedicated feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths.
14 Following the ordinances of his father David, Solomon designated the various divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their offices of praise and ministry alongside the priests as the duty of each day required, and the gatekeepers designated for specific gates, for such was the command of David, the man of God. 15 The instructions that David had specified in regard to the priests and Levites and also concerning the treasuries were never disregarded.
16 Thus all of Solomon’s work was accomplished, from the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid until the house of the Lord was completed.
17 Solomon’s Glory. Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and Elath on the seacoast of Edom, 18 and Huram sent ships under the command of his own officers and manned by experienced seamen familiar with the sea. They went to Ophir, together with the servants of Solomon, and brought back from there four hundred and fifty talents that they presented to King Solomon.
Footnotes
- 2 Chronicles 8:1 The Lord prospers the undertakings of the man who built his temple. But the picture which the Chronicler sketches of the reign of Solomon is brighter than the reality. For a more concrete and less grandiloquent description of the facts, see the first Book of Kings.
- 2 Chronicles 8:3 See 1 Ki 9:11f. Zobah was an Aramean kingdom north of Damascus. “He went,” like “he built,” etc., means he had it done.
- 2 Chronicles 8:4 Tadmor: the Semitic name, still in use, for Palmyra, an oasis which is mentioned in an Assyrian inscription dating from a century before Solomon and which became famous in the third century A.D. In fact, however, the reference is clearly to Tamar, on the southern shore of the Dead Sea; see the parallel in 1 Ki 9:18.
- 2 Chronicles 8:8 As is still the case today: the expression is repeated elsewhere, showing that the author is using an ancient source.
- 2 Chronicles 8:9 The opening statement does not correspond to the facts (see 1 Ki 5:13), but attests to the Israelites’ sense of being free people.
