1 Kings 9:15

SOLOMON'S BUILDING OF MANY CITIES

"And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised, to build the house of Jehovah, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Meggido, and Gezer. Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a portion unto his daughter, Solomon's wife. And Solomon built Gezer, and Beth-horon the nether, and Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land, and all the store-cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion."

"And this is the reason of the levy" (1 Kings 9:15). The `reason' mentioned here was rather complex. First, his indebtedness to Hiram king of Tyre for all that gold; and secondly, that immense building program involving many cities, not merely these specifically mentioned. but many, many others! To all of those suggested here, we must also add those twenty cities that Solomon unsuccessfully tried to unload on Hiram king of Tyre (2 Chronicles 8:1-2).

Our narrator here offers this immense building program as "the reason" why Solomon raised a levy, that, of course, being a reference to the slaves of all Canaanites and the forced labor battalions of the Israelites themselves.

It is rather strange that the daughter of Pharaoh is repeatedly mentioned as "Solomon's wife," a distinction that she shared with 699 other women! It is not clear whether "her house" was a separate palace, or if it was the residence of the whole harem.

"And (the) Millo" (1 Kings 9:15). "The Millo, always with the definite article, is supposed to be some mound, or the filling up of a ravine in Jerusalem."[7]

This writer cannot think of any compelling reason why a Christian should have the slightest interest in any detailed knowledge of all these cities that Solomon built and in those houses that he built for his pleasure, and for his horsemen, and for his chariots!

SOLOMON'S ENSLAVEMENT OF THE REMAINING CANAANITES

In our Commentary on Judges, we gave a great deal of attention to the gross sin of the Israelites in their greedy and unscrupulous enslavement of the Canaanites, instead of putting them to death as God had commanded them; and here we find that Solomon terminated that shameful procedure by enslaving the final remnants of any Canaanites left in Palestine.