2 Chronicles 9:1

Solomon Entertains a Queen

9:1 When the queen of Sheba heard about Solomon, ¹  she came to challenge ²  him ³  with difficult questions. ⁴  She arrived in Jerusalem ⁵  with a great display of pomp, ⁶  bringing with her camels carrying spices, ⁷  a very large quantity of gold, and precious gems. She visited Solomon and discussed with him everything that was on her mind.

2 Chronicles 16:2

16:2 Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace and sent it to King Ben Hadad of Syria, ruler in Damascus, along with this message:

2 Chronicles 28:20-23

28:20 King Tiglath-pileser ⁸  of Assyria came, but he gave him more trouble than support. ⁹  28:21 Ahaz gathered riches ¹⁰  from the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and the officials and gave them to the king of Assyria, but that did not help.

28:22 During his time of trouble King Ahaz was even more unfaithful to the Lord. 28:23 He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus whom he thought had defeated him. ¹¹  He reasoned, ¹²  “Since the gods of the kings of Damascus helped them, I will sacrifice to them so they will help me.” But they caused him and all Israel to stumble.

[9:1]  ¹ tn Heb “the report about Solomon.”

[9:1]  ² tn Or “test.”

[9:1]  ³ tn Heb “Solomon.” The recurrence of the proper name here is redundant in terms of contemporary English style, so the pronoun has been used in the translation instead.

[9:1]  ⁴ tn Or “riddles.”

[9:1]  ⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “with very great strength.” The Hebrew word חַיִל (khayil, “strength”) may refer here to the size of her retinue or to the great wealth she brought with her.

[9:1]  ⁷ tn Or “balsam oil.”

[28:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “Tilgath-pilneser,” a variant spelling of Tiglath-pileser.

[28:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “and he caused him distress and did not strengthen him.”

[28:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “divided up,” but some read חִלֵּץ (khillets, “despoiled”).

[28:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the gods of Damascus, the ones who had defeated him.” The words “he thought” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The perspective is that of Ahaz, not the narrator! Another option is that “the kings” has been accidentally omitted after “gods of.” See v. 23b.

[28:23]  ¹² tn Heb “said.”