In that night did God appear unto Solomon ,.... From hence to the end of 2 Chronicles 1:12 it is the same with 1 Kings 3:5 . See Gill on 1 Kings 3:5 , 1 Kings 3:6 , 1 Kings 3:7 , 1 Kings 3:8 , 1 Kings 3:9 , 1 Kings 3:10 , 1 Kings 3:11 , 1 Kings 3:12 , 1 Kings 3:13 , 1 Kings 3:14 , 1 Kings 3:15 read more
Each highest need of life offers to turn into the first accepted and best rewarded prayer of life. This chapter of seventeen verses might remind us of a picture and its mount and frame, a precious stone and its setting. In this sense it is a unity. The first six verses are used just to prepare us for the contents of the six that follow; and the last five summarily assure us that the fulfilment did not fall short of, nor halt long behind, promise. The now sole reign of Solomon, begun with... read more
The vision and prayer of Solomon, and God ' s answer to that prayer. read more
The Divine responsiveness, etc. From the interesting scene described in these verses (more fully in 1 Kings 3:1-28 .) we may glean some lasting truths. I. THAT WE MAY CONFIDENTLY RECKON ON THE DIVINE RESPONSIVENESS . Solomon went to Gibeon with "all the congregation," in very great state, to seek the Lord there, and there he offered abundant sacrifices ( 2 Chronicles 1:6 ). And God responded to his act of piety by seeking him, by coming to him and making him a... read more
A young king's choice. I. THE PERMISSION GRANTED TO SOLOMON . "Ask what I shall give thee." Granted: 1 . By whom ? God ( Elohim ) , the Giver par excellence, of whom David had said, "All things come of thee" ( 1 Chronicles 29:14 ); "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord" ( Psalms 33:5 ); and whom a New Testament writer describes as "the Father of lights," etc. ( James 1:5 , James 1:17 ). The invitation here accorded to Solomon, after the manner of... read more
Such as none of the kings … before thee, neither … after thee. These words were sadly ominous of the short-lived glory of the kingdom Only two kings had reigned before Solomon in Israel, and the glory of the kingdom too surely culminated in his reign, and even before the end of it ( 2 Chronicles 9:22 , 2 Chronicles 9:23 ; 1 Chronicles 29:25 ; Ecclesiastes 2:9 ). On the other hand, the gratuitous and spontaneous fulness of promise in the Divine reply to a human prayer that "pleased"... read more
The verbal differences between this passage and the corresponding one of Kings 1 Kings 3:5-14 are very considerable, and indicate the general truth that the object of the sacred historians is to give a true account of the real bearing of what was said: not ordinarily to furnish us with all or the exact words that were uttered. The most important point omitted in Chronicles, and supplied by Kings, is the conditional promise of long life made to Solomon 1 Kings 3:14; while the chief point absent... read more
2 Chronicles 1:12. And I will give thee riches and wealth, &c. Those that make this world their end, come short of the other, and frequently of this too. But those who make the other world their end shall not only obtain that, but shall have as much as is convenient of this world in their way. read more
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 2 Chronicles 1:1-12
Here is, I. Solomon's great prosperity, 2 Chron. 1:1. Though he had a contested title, yet, God being with him, he was strengthened in his kingdom; his heart and hands were strengthened, and his interest in the people. God's presence will be our strength. II. His great piety and devotion. His father was a prophet, a psalmist, and kept mostly to the ark; but Solomon, having read much in his Bible concerning the tabernacle which Moses built and the altars there, paid more respect to them than,... read more