Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

There is neither adversary - שטן אין eyn satan, there is no satan - no opposer, nor any kind of evil; all is peace and quiet, both without and within. God has given me this quiet that I may build his temple. Deus nobis haec otia fecit.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

The contrast is not between different periods of Solomon‘s reign, but between his reign and that of his father.

Evil occurrent - Rather, evil occurrence.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

But now the Lord my God hath given me rest on every side,.... From foreign enemies; for Solomon had no wars with any:

so that there is neither adversary; or Satan, no internal enemy in his kingdom, as well as no external ones, Adonijah, Joab, and other ill-designing persons, being cut off:

nor evil occurrent; nothing that rose up, and met him, to discourage or hinder the prosecution of the good work he had in view.

Geneva Study Bible

(a) He declares that he was bound to set forth God's glory for as much as the Lord had sent him rest and peace.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

1 Kings 5:4 But now the LORD my God hath given me rest on every side, [so that there is] neither adversary nor evil occurrent.

Ver. 4. So that there is neither adversary.] The Vulgate hath it, Non est Satan. We use to say, Seldom lieth the devil dead in a ditch. He is the troublous one, (a) and delighteth to hinder anything that is good; but at this time God had chained him up, and Solomon had nothing to hinder him. "The Lord is with you, whilst ye are with him," saith one prophet. [2 Chronicles 15:2] And, "The Lord will be with the good," saith another. [2 Chronicles 19:11]

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

“But now YHWH my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary, nor evil occurring.”

Solomon then basically cited the promise made to David as per 1 Chronicles 22:9. YHWH had given him rest on every side from the start, with the result that there was peace and quietness in his day. For he had at the time no known adversaries (they had all been dealt with, and others had not yet arisen) and nothing physically ‘evil’ was threatening. Thus the building of YHWH’s house would take place as a celebration of peace and prosperity, rather than as a memorial of blood and death.

Solomon could have cited in his support Deuteronomy 12:19, (although as far as we know he did not), but that had strictly already been seen as fulfilled in Joshua 23:1, where again the emphasis was on the establishment of a holy people.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

4.Neither adversary nor evil occurrent — No adversary like the Philistines or Moabites, who were formerly anxious to reduce Israel to a state of subjection; no evil incident like the rebellion of Absalom, or the curse of famine or plague.

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Adversary. Literally, "Satan." Adad of Idumea, and another of Syria, and Jeroboam, began to molest Solomon, only towards the end of his reign, chap. xi. 25.

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

adversary. Hebrew. satan.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

hath given

4:24; 1 Chronicles 22:9; Psalms 72:7; Isaiah 9:7; Acts 9:31