2 Chronicles 8

2 Chronicles 8 (NIV)✞: Solomon’s Other Activities

In this chapter we get listed for us some of the things Solomon accomplished during his reign as king.

I think I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: Chronicles is paying much more attention to the “good stuff” than to the “bad stuff” in the history of the nations of Judah/Israel. That doesn’t mean the author(s) were trying to hide or ignore the nations’ histories—they’re fully expecting the reader to have read the books of Samuel and Kings and to know all of that backstory—it just means they have different purposes in writing. One of the purposes behind the writing of Chronicles is reminding God’s people, as they return to the land of Judah/Israel after the defeats to Assyria and Babylon, of all of the ways God has blessed them, even if it might have been difficult to remember that after hundreds of years of captivity.

Having said all of that, this chapter still feels a little mixed on Solomon. On the whole it definitely feels like a “good news story,” there’s a lot of good mentioned, but there are also some hints of warning signs included.

Because all of this is covered in Kings I’m going to be briefer than usual in going through all of these.

Verses	Activity	Thoughts
1–6	Solomon built up a number of cities throughout the territory he controlled	I think I’ll firmly put this in the “good” category. The nation is getting stronger.
7–10	Because there were still non-Israelite people in the land Solomon conscripted them as slaves. Specific note is made of the fact that Solomon didn’t make Israelites slaves, only the non-Israelite people in the land.	I think this is a warning sign, but I’m not sure that it’s anything to do with Solomon himself. When the Israelites first conquered the land they were supposed to destroy all of the inhabitants, which they didn’t do. God warned His people that these other nations of peoples would be “snares” to them, and, given the amount of idolatry that the Israelites will carry out for the rest of their history, He was right.
11	I don’t know how many wives Solomon has at this point, but one of them is the daughter of Pharaoh of Egypt, and, since he believes the city of Jerusalem to now be holy (since the Ark resides there), he builds a separate palace for her in another city and has her moved there.	This is a definite warning sign for two reasons: Firstly, if Solomon thinks he shouldn’t have this foreign wife in the city of Jerusalem (I believe correctly), then why should he have married her in the first place? Political alliances through marriage have been common all throughout history, but in this case it seems that Solomon is trying to have it both ways: marrying someone he shouldn’t, but also not “polluting” the capital with his offence. Secondly, it seems a tad wasteful to be building an entire palace for one of his wives! (Perhaps he moves other non-Israelite wives there as well?) The word “palace” doesn’t necessarily mean huge and lavish, like his palace in Jerusalem – then again, it’s more than the kinds of houses a regular Israelite was living in.
12–16	These verses mention the way Solomon made his sacrifices and kept the festivals required by God.	Everything in these verses seems like good news. At this point in Israel’s history the king, the priests, and the people all seem to be doing what they’re supposed to be doing to worship God.
17–18	Solomon and Hiram (king of Tyre) set up a trading partnership whereby Hiram provides boats and experienced sailors, Solomon provides… additional sailors, I guess, and maybe funding for the trips, and start trading with a land called Ophir to bring back large quantities of gold. It says “which they delivered to Solomon,” but I have to believe Hiram got some kind of a cut, too.	I honestly don’t know if this is good or bad; I’m tentatively going to call it good. It sounds like a lucrative trading pact between Israel, Tyre and Ophir.