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Context No. 199 of 4322 · 2 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

2 Chronicles 8:7-11: in context

7As for all the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel— 8of their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel didn’t consume—of them Solomon conscripted forced labor to this day. 9But of the children of Israel, Solomon made no servants for his work, but they were men of war, chief of his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen. 10These were the chief officers of King Solomon, even two-hundred fifty, who ruled over the people. 11Solomon brought up Pharaoh’s daughter out of David’s city to the house that he had built for her; for he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places where the LORD’s ark has come are holy.”

Chronicles is generally generous to Solomon, and this passage is one of the places where the accounting shows through anyway. It explains his labor policy.

The peoples left in the land, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, whom Israel had not destroyed, were conscripted into forced labor, and remain so to this day. But of the Israelites, Solomon made no slaves for his work. They were soldiers, officers, commanders of chariots and cavalry. The distinction is drawn clearly and presented without embarrassment: one population supplies the labor, the other supplies the command structure.

Then a detail that sits oddly beside it. Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter, his wife, up from the City of David to the house he had built for her, saying my wife shall not live in the house of David king of Israel, because the places the ark has come to are holy. He is scrupulous about where the ark has been and unbothered about a permanent labor caste. Kings tells us the northern tribes eventually broke over the labor. Where am I keeping careful rules in one area while something much larger goes unexamined?

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