2. the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time. Solomon’s royal enterprise is framed by two revelations. Early in his reign, God appears to him at Gibeon and grants him the gift of wisdom (3:5–14). The wisdom is first manifested in the episode of the Judgment of Solomon and in his composing proverbs. His great building projects, now completed, may reflect another kind of wisdom because they consolidate his rule. Now God comes to him to tell him that the sanctity of the Temple is divinely ratified.

4. if you walk before Me, as David your father walked. The legitimacy of the dynasty necessitates this idealized representation of David. In fact, the older—and probing—narrative of David shows him to be deeply flawed—an adulterer, a murderer, and a man beset with weaknesses.

to do as . . . I have charged you, My statutes and My laws to keep. As in Solomon’s speech at the dedication of the temple, the language is emphatically Deuteronomistic.

7. I shall cut Israel off from the land. The invocation of the specter of exile, as earlier, looks like the reflection of a later historical moment.

I will send away from My presence. This is a slightly odd idiom to attach to the Temple. Its usual connotation is divorce, a trope often used by the Prophets for God’s disaffection with Israel.

a byword and a mockery. This phrase is also fairly common in the Prophets to indicate Israel’s national humiliation.

8. this house will turn into ruins. The received text reads, “this house will be exalted.” This translation reads instead of ʿelyon, “exalted” or “high,” ʿiyyim, “ruins,” along with the Syriac and two versions of the Vulgate.

9. Because they forsook the LORD. In keeping with the Deuteronomistic theology, it is cultic infidelity that will cause the catastrophe of exile.

10. the twenty years. That is, seven for the building of the Temple and another thirteen for the palace.

11. gold. This precious substance, which was needed for the furnishings of the Temple and the palace, was not mentioned in the initial negotiations between Solomon and Hiram. Though Tyre did not have its own gold mines, it would have accumulated stockpiles of gold through its flourishing international trade.

Solomon give Hiram twenty towns in the land of the Galilee. In the original agreement, Solomon was to pay for the cedarwood and cypresswood with wheat and olive oil. Perhaps Hiram’s providing gold came afterward and thus required additional payment.

13. What are these towns that you have given me, my brother? Hiram obviously regards these paltry towns on his southern border as poor recompense, but he maintains his diplomatic relationship with Solomon by adding “my brother” to his objection.

the Land of Cabul. No satisfactory explanation for the enigmatic kabul has been offered, although it clearly indicates something quite negative, mirroring Hiram’s disappointment. It could mean “land of the chained one” (the one chained to a bad agreement?). It could also mean “land like the produce” (land offered in payment, like the wheat and oil?). Perhaps an explanatory clause in Hiram’s speech has dropped out of the text.

14. And Hiram had sent to the king a hundred twenty talents of gold. It would make no sense for Hiram to send Solomon gold after his dismissing the twenty towns as poor payment. Thus, though the form of the Hebrew verb does not indicate a pluperfect, one is compelled to understand this as a reference to his earlier shipments of gold to Solomon.

15. And this is the aim of the forced labor. The connection with what precedes is associative: in the great building enterprise in which Hiram was Solomon’s partner, Israelite forced labor was used.

the citadel. The Hebrew milo’ derives from a root that means “to fill,” perhaps suggesting a raised citadel erected on landfill.

Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer. Solomon’s building projects thus extended far beyond Jerusalem, involving fortified towns around the country.

18. Tamor. The Masoretic marginal note (qeri) reads this as “Tadmor,” which is Palmyra in Syria. That would be an improbable place for Solomon to build, so the translation adheres to the consonantal text, indicating a town in the Negeb.

19. in Lebanon. This might mean on the border of Lebanon.

21. Solomon put to forced labor. This notion that the indigenous inhabitants of the land became forced laborers, subject to Israel, is put forth in the Book of Joshua.

22. And of the Israelites Solomon made no slave. The Israelite forced laborers paid what amounted to a tax through their labor for a limited period of time.

for they were men of war. Here, however, a different reason is offered for not enslaving Israelites—their value as warriors.

25. and turned it to smoke. The Masoretic Text adds “with him that,” which is syntactically incoherent and looks like a scribal error.

made the house whole. The verb shilem, which elsewhere means “requite,” derives from a root meaning “whole” and here may refer to an affirmation or restoration of the integrity of the Temple through the act of sacrifice.

26. Eloth. This place-name is evidently identical with Elath.

27. shipmen, adept in the sea. The Phoenicians, of course, were a great seafaring nation, and Solomon could well have used the expertise of his northern ally.

28. Ophir. This location, somewhere to the south by the shore of the Red Sea, is repeatedly identified in the Bible as a source of gold—so much so that in poetry the name “Ophir” alone can mean “fine gold.”