8:1 After twenty years, during which Solomon built the Lord’s temple and his royal palace, 8:2 Solomon rebuilt the cities that Huram 1 had given him and settled Israelites there. 8:3 Solomon went to Hamath Zobah and seized it. 8:4 He built up Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage cities he had built in Hamath. 8:5 He made upper Beth Horon and lower Beth Horon fortified cities with walls and barred gates, 2 8:6 and built up Baalath, all the storage cities that belonged to him, 3 and all the cities where chariots and horses were kept. 4 He built whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, 5 Lebanon, and throughout his entire kingdom. 6
8:7 Now several non-Israelite peoples were left in the land after the conquest of Joshua, including the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 7 8:8 Their descendants remained in the land (the Israelites were unable to wipe them out). Solomon conscripted them for his work crews and they continue in that role to this very day. 8 8:9 Solomon did not assign Israelites to these work crews; 9 the Israelites served as his soldiers, officers, charioteers, and commanders of his chariot forces. 10 8:10 These men worked for Solomon as supervisors; there were a total of 250 of them who were in charge of the people. 11
1 tn Heb “Huram” (also in v. 18). Some medieval Hebrew
2 tn Heb “and he built…[as] cities of fortification, [with] walls, doors, and a bar.”
3 tn Heb “Solomon.” The recurrence of the proper name is unexpected in terms of contemporary English style, so the pronoun has been used in the translation instead.
4 tn Heb “the cities of the chariots and the cities of the horses.”
5 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
6 tn Heb “and all the desire of Solomon which he desired to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land of his kingdom.”
7 tn Heb “all the people who were left from the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not from Israel.”
8 tn Heb “from their sons who were left after them in the land, whom the sons of Israel did not wipe out, and Solomon raised them up for a work crew to this day.”
9 tn Heb “and from the sons of Israel which Solomon did not assign to the laborers for his work.”
10 tn Heb “officers of his chariots and his horses.”
11 tn Heb “these [were] the officials of the governors who belonged to the king, Solomon, 250, the ones ruling over the people.”