1 Kings 9:21

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹⁵This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon imposed to build the house of the LORD, his own palace, the supporting terraces, and the wall of Jerusalem, as well as Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. ¹⁶Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife. ¹⁷So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon, ¹⁸Baalath, and Tamar in the Wilderness of Judah, ¹⁹as well as all the store cities that Solomon had for his chariots and horses-whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion. ²⁰As for all the people who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (the people who were not Israelites)- ²¹their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to devote to destruction-Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day.²²But Solomon did not consign any of the Israelites to slavery, because they were his men of war, his servants, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and cavalry. ²³They were also the chief officers over Solomon's projects: 550 supervisors over the people who did the work. ²⁴As soon as Pharaoh's daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her, he built the supporting terraces.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

left: Judges 1:21, Judges 1:27-35, Judges 2:20-23, Judges 3:1-4, Psalms 106:34-36

not: Joshua 15:63, Joshua 17:12, Joshua 17:16-18

levy: 1 Kings 9:15, 1 Kings 5:13, Judges 1:28, Judges 1:35

tribute: He made them do the most laborious parts of the public works, the Israelites being exempt from all but the more honourable employments.

bondservice: Genesis 9:25, Genesis 9:26, Ezra 2:55-58, Nehemiah 7:57, Nehemiah 11:3

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 20:11 - tributaries Joshua 9:8 - General Joshua 16:10 - they drave 1 Chronicles 20:3 - with saws 1 Chronicles 22:2 - the strangers 2 Chronicles 2:17 - numbered Ezra 2:58 - Solomon's Nehemiah 5:4 - the king's tribute Psalms 72:9 - They that

Cross-References

Genesis 6:9
This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God.

Genesis 9:3
Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things.

Genesis 9:4
But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.

Genesis 9:15
I will remember My covenant between Me and you and all living creatures: Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.

Genesis 9:16
And whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth."

Proverbs 20:1
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by them is not wise.

Ecclesiastes 7:20
Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

Romans 13:13
Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

1 Corinthians 10:12
So the one who thinks he is standing firm should be careful not to fall.

Galatians 5:21
and envy; drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Their children that were left after them in the land,.... The posterity of those left unsubdued in the times of Joshua:

whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy; in later times, though now it is thought by some it was not for want of power, but because they had made a covenant with them, as the Gibeonites did, and therefore they could not, because it would have been a breach of covenant to have destroyed them; see 2 Chronicles 8:8,

upon these did Solomon levy a tribute of bond service unto this day; not a tribute of money, which being poor they were not able to pay, but of service, and which being once laid on was continued, and even to the time of the writing of this book.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See 1 Kings 5:15 note.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 9:21. A tribute of bond-service — He made them do the most laborious part of the public works, the Israelites being generally exempt. When Sesostris, king of Egypt, returned from his wars, he caused temples to be built in all the cities of Egypt, but did not employ one Egyptian in the work, having built the whole by the hands of the captives which he had taken in his wars. Hence he caused this inscription to be placed upon each temple: -

Ουδεις εγχωριος εις αυτα μεμοχθηκε .

No native has laboured in these.

Diodor. Sic. Bibl., lib. i., c. 56.

It appears that Solomon might with propriety have placed a similar inscription on most of his works.