Bible Commentaries

1 Kings 2:39-46 — died. And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon." "And the throne of David shall be established before Jehovah forever" It is quite likely that the inspired writer of Kings, and especially Solomon himself, appropriated this promise from 2 Samuel 7 as personally applicable to the earthly dynasty of David without realizing the CONDITIONAL NATURE of that promise as it applied to David's temporal dynasty. "And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon" "Indeed it was! But the reader

1 Kings 3:4-9 — child" in the sense of his total inexperience in judging the people, also as a reference to his youth upon coming to the throne. As for his age when he became king, there seems to be quite a mystery. The Septuagint (LXX) gives it at age twelve (1 Kings 2:12); Josephus gave it as age fourteen;Flavius Josephus, Antiquities, p. 256. and a popular scholarly guess is that he was about the age of twenty. There seems to be no way that his age can be dogmatically established. God, in ancient times, often appeared

1 Kings 4:1-6 — over the household was in charge of Solomon's harem; and Adoniram over the men subject to taskwork was in charge of the great gangs of forced labor. The Hebrew here leaves no doubt that "forced labor is meant."The New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 327. These are threatening and ominous words, a sinister note indeed. "One of the great weaknesses of Solomon's administration was his insistence upon wringing the last possible amount of money and other help from his subjects. This policy brought about

1 Kings 8:22-26 — Lord's commandments. Despite this lapse on Solomon's part, however, this dedicatory prayer is rich indeed. "This prayer was most likely written down and preserved in The Book of the Acts of Solomon (1 Kings 11:41) or in The Book of Nathan the Prophet (2 Chronicles 9:20). It was evidently committed to writing at once, and it would no doubt, as a matter of course, have been religiously preserved. As we certainly should have expected, radical "Critics deny the authenticity of this prayer because of its

2 Kings 10:32-36 — of Baal worship, the great lack was that his reforms ended in the revival of the sins of Jeroboam."Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 350. "Jehovah began to cut off from Israel" This is a reference to God's cutting down the size of their kingdom. 2 Kings 10:33 explains what that "cutting off" was. It was the loss of all the Trans-jordanic kingdom of Israel, and also the cutting off of their dominion over Bashan in the land of Edom. The territory lost included that originally settled by the half

2 Kings 16:10-12 — offered thereon." From the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser, we learn that his custom was to hold court in various conquered cities, demanding the appearance (with their tribute) of all the vassal kings throughout the area.Albert Barnes, op. cit., p. 273. It was to such a court in Damascus that king Ahaz was summoned by the king of Assyria. There were three types of altars used in Nineveh, and one was the portable altar which Tiglath-pileser carried with him in his campaigns. It was probably that

2 Kings 5:13-14 — insignificance of what the man of God commanded appears to have been another one of the reasons why he, at first, refused to obey. Alas, this is an attitude often found in mortal sinners on the brink of the grave. This writer vividly remembers an incident in 1932 at the base hospital in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, when the wife of a high-ranking military officer fell ill while visiting her son in that area. She sent word to this young preacher to visit her, and she asked what to do to be saved, since she realized that

2 Kings 9:21-24 — or if Jehu had driven a little slower, the meeting would have taken place somewhere else. But Divine providence so ordered matters that vengeance for the sin of Ahab was exacted upon the very scene of his guilt."The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., p. 192. "What peace? so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many" The designation of idolatry under such a term as whoredoms (or adulteries) was based upon two things. (1) Under the metaphor that God was the husband of Israel,

1 Chronicles 16:39-43 — his house: and David returned to bless his house." "It is here brought into prominence that the ark and the tabernacle were in two separate places. The great ordinary sacrifices, including the morning and evening sacrifices as commanded in Exodus 38:2, were now resumed in the tabernacle, `according to all that is written in the law of the Lord.'"Ibid. The significance of what David accomplished here is great indeed; and the Chronicler has provided in 1 Chr. 15:39, "An explanation of where the tabernacle

2 Chronicles 33:11-13 — accept what is recorded here as authentic history. The Chronicler does not give us the date in Manasseh's reign when this happened; but Ellison placed the event very late in Manasseh's reign. "This explains why Manasseh's repentance and reformation (2 Chronicles 33:12-17) are not mentioned in Kings, and why they left no lasting impression."The New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 32. This also explains why the altars of the host of heaven were apparently not removed by Manasseh. He was a vassal of Assyria

2 Chronicles 9:22-28 — exactly the same way. One thing is certain; namely, that Solomon neither feared God nor honored his commandments. The passage that we have so often cited in Deuteronomy 17:16-17 specifically forbade Israel's kings to multiply unto themselves (1) wives, (2) silver and gold and (3) horses. Solomon wantonly violated all these commandments in the most extravagant manner. "A rate year by year" These words identify all those `gifts' that came to Solomon by those rulers throughout the world of that era, as

Joshua 11:21-23 — only a few in the principal cities of the Philistines. Later in Jewish history, one of the descendants of this race, "Goliath of Gath" confronted David and was destroyed by him with a sling-shot to the forehead. "The land had rest from war" (Joshua 11:23). This is true "in the sense that no more great pitched battles were required."Ibid., p. 145. A long, long time was required to do the mopping up from this conquest; and the wearisome work "became the oft-neglected responsibility of the individual

Joshua 23:12-13 — contingent on Israel's faithfulness to the covenant. Apostasy would mean the turning of all the good they had ever known into terrible evil."Hugh L Blair, The New Bible Commentary, Revised, Joshua (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1972). p. 250. These terrible words are an exact blueprint of what really happened to Israel. They intermarried with the pagan populations they left remaining in the land. Next, they accepted the worship of those pagan gods; even a king named his son after

Joshua 5:6-9 — wanderings. "The reproach of Egypt here is enigmatical. It would seem that the reproach was the non-covenant status of Israel as a mixed multitude, not yet adequately formed into a religious community."William H. Morton, Beacon Bible Commentary, Vol. 2, Joshua (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1970), p. 319. There would also appear to be a possible reference here to the paganism the Jews had encountered in Egypt, and in some degree adopted (See Stephen's speech in Acts 7). There is a stigma that exists

Judges 19:1-3 — that it should be rendered, "she became angry with him," as in the RSV. However, Dalglish rejected this change, affirming that, "There is no need to adopt it, and that the concubine played the harlot against her husband."Beacon Bible Commentary, Vol. 2, p. 456. If the ASV is correct, then this Levite violated the law of God (Leviticus 20:10) in taking back an adulteress as his wife. Although, we cannot dogmatically reject the RSV, the moral climate in which this narrative is set strongly favors retaining

Judges 20:17-18 — THE RELATIVE STRENGTH OF THE OPPOSING ARMIES (Judges 20:17-18) "And the men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew the sword: all these were men of war. And the men of Israel arose, and went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God; and they said, Who shall go for us

Judges 3:19-22 — here is, "Sculptured stones near Gilgal, meaning `graven images' or `carvings' - perhaps the figures carved on the standing stones from which Gilgal received its name."J. A. Soggin's Commentary on Judges, p. 50. The same word is used again in Judges 3:26. "Keep silence" Bruce tells us that this is "An onomatopoeic word,"The New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 260. that is, a word based upon its resemblance to some sound, such as `bow wow,' `splash' or `bang.' In this light, the word here was probably

1 Samuel 18:17-19 — actually "a dowry," but the present which the bridegroom was supposed to give to the bride's father. At any rate, Merab was given to Adriel instead of to David. The Bible records the tragic story of the unhappy death of the sons of Merab and Adriel in 2 Samuel 21:8. Saul's scheme which he supposed might get David killed by the Philistines did not work out. Instead, David's many successful military missions led to his increasing popularity with all the people. Also, David in those excursions against

2 Samuel 2:24-28 — had been thoroughly whipped, and at this time, when it was evident that he had been defeated, Abner began to talk about the sword's devouring and the pursuit of "their brethren." No such thoughts entered the old hypocrite's head when he suggested that 24 young men kill themselves in some kind of a war game; and "the brethren" meant nothing at all to him when he started that vicious civil war. But now, that his troops were defeated and with himself in the front of the charging men of David, he screams

2 Samuel 8:9-12 — and gold which he dedicated from all the nations he subdued, from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, Amalek, and from the spoil of Hadadezer, king of Zobab." "Toi, king of Hamath" Hamath was the northeastern bastion of the Solomonic Empire (2 Kings 14:25). Until the times of David, "It was the principal city of upper Syria, situated in the valley of the Orontes River. The people of Hamath were descendants of Ham and Canaan (Genesis 10:18)."F. N. Peloubet in Peloubet's Bible Dictionary, p.