Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Comparing this with 1 Kings 5:13-14, it would seem that a modified service of forced labor for one-third of each year was not regarded as reducing those who were subject to it to the condition of bondmen.

sa40

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen,.... For that was contrary to the law; they might be hired servants, but not bond servants, Leviticus 25:39.

but they were men of war; which he kept in pay, a standing army, maintained even in time of peace, in case of necessity, should an enemy attempt to invade or surprise them:

and his servants; in his family and court, who had offices and employments there:

and his princes; ministers of state, counsellors, governors of cities, &c.

and his captains; officers in his army:

and rulers of his chariots and his horsemen; war chariots and troopers; see 1 Kings 9:19.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

1 Kings 9:22 But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they [were] men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen.

Ver. 22. Did Solomon make no bondmen.] Yet were they discontented at his government: and ten whole tribes at once cast off his son and successor, choosing Jeroboam for their king.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

22.His servants — Holding positions of honourable trust in the court or in the royal service, and so distinguished from bondslaves.

Captains — Shalishim. See note on 2 Samuel 23:8.

Rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen — The word horsemen here, as in 1 Kings 9:19, should be rendered steeds, or cavalry, and the rulers of the chariots and cavalry were the chief officers in these departments of the army.

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Bondmen. Paralipomenon, To serve in the king's works; for they were warriors, &c. The natural subjects performed the more honourable offices. (Haydock) --- Strangers pay tribute, Matthew xvii. 24. Sesostris, king of Egypt, caused many temples to be erected after his expeditions, with this inscription: "No native laboured on them." (Diodorus i.)

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

make no bondmen. According to Leviticus 25:39. The levy, of 1 Kings 5:13; 1 Kings 11:28, was a levy for free service. This was for bondservice (1 Kings 9:21).

and. Note the Figure of speech Polysyndeton (App-6) in this verse.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) No bondmen.—This exemption, however it may have continued in theory, must virtually have been set aside in the later days of Solomon. (See 1 Kings 12:4.) They are here described as occupying the position of a dominant race—as warriors, servants about the person of the king, princes, and officers in the array—like the free vassals under a feudal monarchy. But as the absolute power of the king increased, and with it, perhaps, the wealth and arrogance of his favourites and greater officers, the condition of the Israelites at large might be removed from serfship more in name than in reality. Even the subject races might be played of against them, as against the Macedonians in the later years of Alexander the Great, when his royalty passed into something like a true Oriental despotism. Certainly, in later times we find, both from the history and the prophetical books, that there was such a thing as serf ship of the poor to the princes. (Jeremiah 34:8-11; Nehemiah 5:11.)

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

of the children

Leviticus 25:39

but they were men

4:1-27; 1 Samuel 8:11,12; 2 Chronicles 8:9,10