1 Kings 9:26

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

made a navy: 2 Chronicles 8:12, 2 Chronicles 8:17, 18-11:4

Eziongeber: 1 Kings 22:48, Numbers 33:35, Deuteronomy 2:8

Eloth: 2 Kings 14:22

shore: Heb. lip

Reciprocal: Genesis 22:17 - shore 2 Kings 2:13 - bank 2 Kings 16:6 - Elath 2 Chronicles 20:36 - Eziongaber Proverbs 31:14 - General Ezekiel 47:7 - bank

Cross-References

Genesis 9:1
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

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 9:10
and with every living creature that was with you-the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth-every living thing that came out of the ark.

Genesis 9:23
Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it across their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father's nakedness.

Genesis 9:26
He also declared: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the servant of Shem.

Genesis 27:37
But Isaac answered Esau: "Look, I have made him your master and given him all his relatives as servants; I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?"

Genesis 27:40
You shall live by the sword, and serve your brother. But when you rebel, you will tear his yoke from your neck."

Deuteronomy 33:26
There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to your aid, and the clouds in His majesty.

Psalms 144:15
Blessed are the people of whom this is so; blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.

Romans 9:5
Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ, who is God over all, forever worthy of praise! Amen.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And King Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber,.... Which was one of the stations of the Israelites, near the wilderness of Sin, or Paran, Numbers 33:35, it signifies the backbone of a man; and it is said w the ridge of rocks before this port were in that form, covered by the sea at high water, and sticking up with various points in a line when it was low. Josephus says x in his time it was called Berenice, which is placed by Mela y between the Heroopolitic bay, and the promontory Strobilus, or Pharan. It is thought probable z to be the same with that which is called by the Arabs Meenah-el-Dsahab, the port of gold, called Dizahab, Deuteronomy 1:1, which stands upon the shore of the Arabic gulf, about two or three days' distance from Mount Sinai; though by others a thought to be the same the Arabs call Calzem, where was a great quantity of wood fit for building ships. It is further described,

which is beside Elath, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom; and when Edom was subdued by David, this port fell into his hands, and so was in the possession of Solomon; and there being plenty of timber in the parts adjacent, and this being a port in the Red sea, Solomon chose it as proper place to build ships in. Elath, near to which was, is the same the Elanitic bay had its name from; or which

Deuteronomy 1:1- :. Trajan, the Roman emperor, formed a navy in the Red sea b, that by it he might ravage and waste the borders of India; and here it seems Solomon's navy went; see 1 Kings 9:28.

w Harris's Voyages, vol. 1. B. 1. ch. 2. sect. 3. p. 377. x Antiqu. l. 8. c. 6. sect. 4. y De Situ Orbis, l. 3. c. 8. z Clayton's Chronology, &c. p. 407. a Vossius in Melam ut supra, (Harris's Voyages, vol. 1. B. 1. ch. 2. sect. 3.) p. 386. b Eutrop. Rom. Hist. l. 8. Ruti Fest. Breviar.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

On Ezion-geber and Eloth, see the notes to marginal references. As the entire tract about Elath (Akaba) is destitute of trees, it is conjectured that the wood of which Solomon built his fleet was cut in Lebanon, floated to Gaza by sea, and thence conveyed across to Ezion-geber, at the head of the E anitic Gulf, by land carriage. (Compare 2 Chronicles 2:16.)

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 9:26. A navy of ships — Literally, אני oni, a ship: in the parallel place, 2 Chronicles 8:17, it is said that Hiram sent him אניות oniyoth, ships; but it does not appear that Solomon in this case built more than one ship, and this was manned principally by the Tyrians.