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Solomon's Public Buildings and Serfs
v. 1. And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, wherein Solomon had built the house of the Lord, the building of the Temple taking seven years, and his own house, whose erection took thirteen years,
v. 2. that the cities which Huram had restored to Solomon, those in Northwestern Galilee, which had been granted to Huram by Solomon, but refused by the Phenician king as unsuitable for the purposes of his chief industries, 1Ki_9:11, Solomon built them, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there, he colonized these cities with people of his own nation.
v. 3. And Solomon went to Hamath-zobah, probably a confederacy of two Syrian kingdoms on, and east of, the Orontes, and prevailed against it, he overcame the forces of the confederacy whose rulers had in some way provoked his resentment.
v. 4. And he built Tadmor in the wilderness, later the famous Palmyra of Queen Zenobia, and all the store cities, which he built in Hamath, the fortified towns along the northern frontier, either to further his commercial enterprises or to secure himself against an attack from the north.
v. 5. Also he built Beth-horon the Upper and Beth-horon the Nether, on the Philistine frontier, fenced cities, with walls, gates, and bars;
v. 6. and Baalath, in the same territory, and all the store cities that Solomon had, and all the chariot cities, some of which were situated in the rich grazing lands in the south, and the cities of the horsemen, where his cavalry was stationed, and all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon, where he is believed to have had a summer home, and throughout all the land of his dominion.
v. 7. As for all the people that were left of the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which were not of Israel, descendants of the Canaanite nations that occupied the land before the conquest,
v. 8. but of their children, who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel, contrary to the original command of the Lord, consumed not, whom the Lord, therefore, left in the country as a perpetual snare to Israel, Jdg_2:1-3, them did Solomon make to pay tribute until this day, reduced them to the condition of serfs.
v. 9. But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no servants for his work, they were not forced to perform menial tasks; but they were men of war and chief of his captains and captains of his chariots and horsemen, they held positions of honor in the army.
v. 10. And these were the chief of King Solomon's officers, the overseers belonging to Israel only, even two hundred and fifty, that bare rule over the people. So Solomon showed himself a wise administrator in all the affairs of his kingdom, interested in the welfare and security of his people. His kingdom is a type of the kingdom of Christ with its spiritual, heavenly, eternal blessings.