1 Kings 9

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1 Kings 9

1 And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do,

2 That the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon.

3 And the Lord said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.

4 And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments:

5 Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.

6 But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye 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:

7 Then 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:

8 And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and to this house?

9 And 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 hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil.

10 And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord, and the king's house,

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.

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

13 And he said, What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day.

14 And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold.

15 And 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.

16 For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon's wife.

17 And Solomon built Gezer, and Bethhoron the nether,

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

19 And 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.

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

21 Their children that 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.

22 But 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.

23 These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon's work, five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work.

24 But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Millo.

25 And three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar which he built unto the Lord, and he burnt incense upon the altar that was before the Lord. So he finished the house.

26 And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom.

27 And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

28 And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.

Notes

Cross Reference

Commentary

Rashi

Verse 3

<html>And My eyes and My heart will be. [Targum] Yonoson rendered, “and My Divine Presence will dwell there if My will is done.” And My eyes and My heart will be there. If My heart and My will are there.¹I.e., if My desire and My will is being followed, My Divine Presence will be there.²Even after the Beis Hamikdosh was destroyed, the Divine Presence remained on the Western Wall [כותל המערבי] of the Beis Hamikdosh. See Shir Hashirim 2:9 and Midrash Rabboh there.</html>

Verse 7

<html>And the House that I have sanctified for My Name. There is a condition between Me and you, [that] “If you heed not heed, etc.,” what is stated there? “I will bring your Sanctuaries into desolation.”³Vayikra 26:31. And a mockery. As the Targum [Yonoson rendered], ולשועי, [i.e.,] they will tell about the evils that have befallen them and will scoff at them, as in, “ויספר [=and he told,” which the Targum rendered] ואשתעי. The expression “שנינה” is also an expression of speech as it is written [in Scriptures], “and you shall repeat them [ושננתם] to your children.”</html>

Verse 8

<html>And this Beis Hamikdosh will be most high. So long as you have not sinned; but once you sin, every passerby will be astounded and will hiss.⁴Rashi understands that יהיה is the future tense, meaning “will be” most high. Alternatively, יהיה can also be interpreted in the present tense, “is” most high—Ralbag. Or, יהיה עליון is interpreted as “will be destroyed.”—Radak And similarly it is written in Divrei Hayomim, “And this Beis [Hamikdosh] that was exalted, all who pass by it, etc.,”⁵II Divrei Hayomim 7:41. and this is its interpretation, “and this house that was exalted and revered even by the gentiles,” as is stated above, “And even to the stranger who is not of Your people, etc.,”⁶I Melochim 8:21. But, now in its destruction, everyone who passes by it, even the gentiles, will be astounded and hiss, and will say that the Jews’ sins were the cause. Will be astounded. [ישם means] “will wonder,” as in, “and your enemies will be astonished [ושממו] about it,”⁷Vayikra 26:32. [and as in,] “Concerning his day, the later ones will wonder [נשמו].”⁸Iyov 18:20. And whistle. Siffler, in O.F. The habit of anyone who suddenly sees desolation, is to hiss.⁹When people are amazed at what they see, they often whistle.</html>

Verse 10

<html>Twenty years. I.e., seven years [to build] the Beis Hamikdosh, and thirteen years [to build] his own palace, as mentioned above.¹⁰Above 6:38, and 7:1.</html>

Verse 11

<html>Provided Shlomo. An expression of bearing, [i.e.,] he bore his burden in this matter.</html>

Verse 13

<html>The land of Kovul. A land of chains, [i.e.,] a marshland into which the foot sinks and is entrapped.¹¹It was as troublesome to walk on, as it is difficult for a man who is chained in shackles to walk, i.e., the foot is trapped as if it were in a chain [=כבל]—Radak. The land was not fertile. Alternatively, the people of כבל wore chains of silver and gold, i.e., they were wealthy and spoiled, and Chirom did not want to deal with them. See Maseches Shabbos 54a and Rashi there.</html>

Verse 15

<html>And this is the review of the tax. Described at the end of this topic, “All the people that remained, etc.,¹²Below v. 20. Shlomo levied a tax of labor.”¹³Below v. 21. The tax levy was to build all these [structures]. The Millo. [Millo was] a place in Yerusholayim, in the City of Dovid, that was called Millo, because it was enclosed by a low wall and it was filled [ומלאו] with dirt.¹⁴Alternatively, it was a large open plaza without any buildings, where people gathered [=מלא]—Ralbag.</html>

Verse 16

<html>Present. A dowry.</html>

Verse 18

<html>And Tadmor in the desert of the land. [I.e., it was located] near a settlement.¹⁵The expression במדבר בארץ [=in the desert in the land] is somewhat ambiguous. Therefore Rashi suggests that the desert was located near a civilized area. Alternatively, the city was bordered by a desert on one side, and by arable land on the other side.—Ralbag</html>

Verse 19

<html>The store cities. [Targum Yonoson rendered,] “cities used for storage.”</html>

Verse 23

<html>Supervising officers. Commanders over the officers. Five hundred fifty. Three hundred of them were proselytes in charge of 70,000 who bore burdens, 80,000 hewers in the mountains, and 3,300 who controlled the people who did the work, as stated above, “These were in addition to Shlomo’s chief officers, etc., three thousand three hundred [officers].” But in Divrei Hayomim it states, “six hundred.”¹⁶II Divrei Hayomim 2:17. These three hundred that are missing here, he counted there, for they were appointed over all of them. The two hundred fifty remaining were Bnei Yisroel appointed over the other laborers. In Divrei Hayomim¹⁷Divrei Hayomim 8:10. they were counted separately, [as it states,] “and these were Shlomo’s supervising officers, two hundred fifty, who controlled “the people who did the work,” the laborers.</html>

Verse 24

<html>Only then did the daughter of Pharaoh. Who was originally in the city of Dovid, as it is stated in the beginning of the book, “and he brought her to the City of Dovid.”¹⁸Above 3:1. Came up from the city of Dovid, etc. In Divrei Hayomim it explains, “for he said, ‘I should not have a wife live with me in [the City of] Dovid because they are holy [places], for the Ark of Adonoy was brought there.’”¹⁹II Divrei Hayomim 8:11. The text there reads, “in the house of Dovid.” Then he built up. [I.e.,] Shlomo. The Millo. To build within it houses for her menservants and maidservants. Concerning this Yerovom admonished him [saying], “Your father left it open for the festival pilgrims, and you closed it up to make a labor force for Pharaoh’s daughter.”²⁰Paraphrasing below 11:27. See Maseches Sanhedrin 101b and Rashi there. And this “but” mentioned here [means,] but in this Shlomo sinned, that he had built for her the Millo. So have I heard, but I say, “But then did the daughter of Pharaoh, etc.,” I.e., the above mentioned cities were necessary to build for store cities, chariots, riders, and greatness; but, the Millo he did not build for any greatness, for his father had left it for the festival pilgrims to pitch their tents there, but since Pharaoh’s daughter had gone up to her house, and the Millo was adjacent to that house, then he built up the Millo.²¹Alternatively, the house of Pharaoh’s daughter was built on the area of the Millo.—Radak</html>

Verse 25

<html>On the altar. I.e., the altar of the Beis Hamikdosh. And he burnt incense [offerings] with it. And [he burnt the incense on] the incense altar that was before God for the burning of incense.²²See Shemos 30:1-10. </html>

Verse 26

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Table of Contents

1 Kings 9

1 Kings 9

Notes

Cross Reference

Commentary

Rashi

Verse 3

Verse 7

Verse 8

Verse 10

Verse 11

Verse 13

Verse 15

Verse 16

Verse 18

Verse 19

Verse 23

Verse 24

Verse 25

Verse 26