When Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire (v. 1) — the twenty years of 9:10 seem to be in view, though the LORD's first words, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication (v. 3), answer the dedication. Whether the vision came soon after the prayer or years later, readers differ, and the text does not settle it. The LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon. The narrator counts; in 11:9 he will remind the reader that the LORD had appeared unto him twice. Greater gifts bring greater accountability.

I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually (v. 3). Solomon had prayed that God's eyes may be open toward this house night and day (8:29); the answer goes further — eyes and heart. The study notes the tenderness of it: God gives not only attention but affection to the place where His people call on Him. For ever and perpetually are strong words, and verse 7 will show they are no guarantee against judgment; the promise of presence is given within the covenant, not apart from it.

If thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness... Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever (vv. 4-5). The condition of 2:4, 3:14, 6:12 and 8:25 comes again, now that the house is built. David is the measure — not because he was sinless (15:5 names the matter of Uriah the Hittite), but because his heart did not turn after other gods (11:4). There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel is the promise David quoted to Solomon in 2:4.

The study keeps the tension named at 2:4. 2 Samuel 7:14-16 promised that sin would bring the rod, but God's mercy would not depart away from David's son, and his throne would stand for ever. Here for ever is joined to an if. Many read the two together: each king's enjoyment of the throne, and the extent of the kingdom, hung on obedience, while the promise itself was not withdrawn — as chapter 11 will show, when ten tribes are torn away and a lamp is left in Jerusalem (11:36). Psalm 89:30-37 holds both: chastening for sin, and My covenant will I not break.

But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children (v. 6). The pronoun widens from thou to ye: the king's choices will carry the people with him. The warning names the sin — go and serve other gods, and worship them — and the cost: Israel cut off from the land, the house cast out of my sight, and Israel a proverb and a byword among all people. The words echo Deuteronomy 28:37, an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations. The house just hallowed can be cast off; holiness of place does not outlast unfaithfulness of heart.

At this house, which is high (v. 8) — the Hebrew is difficult, and some ancient versions read that the house will become a ruin; the study notes it without deciding. Passers-by shall be astonished, and shall hiss, and ask, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house? The answer: Because they forsook the LORD their God... and have taken hold upon other gods (v. 9). Deuteronomy 29:24-25 and Jeremiah 22:8-9 use the same question and answer. Readers may hear it as mercy before judgment: God says plainly, on the day of glory, what would bring the ruin.

At the end of twenty years (v. 10) Solomon settles with Hiram, who had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire (v. 11): he gives him twenty cities in the land of Galilee. Hiram comes to see them, and they pleased him not (v. 12). My brother is the language of treaty partners. What Cabul means is uncertain: some take it as as nothing or good for nothing, and Josephus gave it a Phoenician sense, not pleasing. A town of that name lay on Asher's border (Joshua 19:27).

Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold (v. 14) — whether as payment for the cities or as the gold verse 11 mentions, the text leaves unclear. The parallel in 2 Chronicles 8:2 speaks instead of the cities which Huram had restored to Solomon, which Solomon then built and settled. Some suggest Hiram handed back the cities that displeased him; the study notes the difference and the suggestion. Some readers also ask how a king of Israel could give away part of the land (cf. Leviticus 25:23); the narrator does not comment. The friendship of chapter 5 ends on a note of disappointment.

Millo seems to have been a terrace or filled-in structure in the city of David; its exact nature is uncertain. Hazor in the north, Megiddo guarding a great pass, and Gezer toward the coast were towns of strategic value. Archaeologists have found similar gate complexes at the three sites, long linked with Solomon on the strength of this verse; their dating is now debated, and the study rests nothing on it. The verse itself is about labour: the levy of 5:13 built them all, along with the house of the LORD and the king's own house.

For 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 present unto his daughter, Solomon's wife (v. 16). Gezer was a Canaanite city Israel had not taken (Joshua 16:10); now it comes to Israel as a dowry. The text does not name this Pharaoh. The thread of 3:1 continues: Pharaoh's daughter brings a city with her. Solomon then builds Gezer, Bethhoron the nether, Baalath, Tadmor in the wilderness, and cities for store, chariots and horsemen (vv. 17-19).

The remnant of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites — peoples the children of Israel were not able utterly to destroy — Solomon put to a tribute of bondservice unto this day (vv. 20-21), as earlier generations had done in part (Joshua 17:13; Judges 1:28). But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: Israelites served as soldiers, servants, princes, captains and rulers of chariots, while the permanent bond-service fell on others. The chief officers over the work numbered five hundred and fifty (v. 23).

The study keeps the tension named at 5:13. There king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel, thirty thousand men in rotation; here of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen. Some distinguish a temporary rotating levy of Israelites from the permanent bond-service laid on the Canaanite remnant; others see the two passages as not fully agreeing. Either way, the yoke was felt: 11:28 sets Jeroboam over the charge of the house of Joseph, and 12:4 records Thy father made our yoke grievous. The 550 officers here differ from the 250 of 2 Chronicles 8:10, though with 5:16 and 2 Chronicles 2:18 the totals agree.

Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Millo (v. 24). 2 Chronicles 8:11 gives Solomon's reason: My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy, whereunto the ark of the LORD hath come. Then verse 25: offerings three times in a year... upon the altar which he built unto the LORD. The three feasts of the Law (Exodus 23:14-17; Deuteronomy 16:16) are kept, and the offerings are now made on the temple altar — a change from the high places of 3:3.

And he burnt incense upon the altar that was before the LORD. Some readers ask whether a king might burn incense, since that belonged to the priests (Numbers 16:40; 2 Chronicles 26:18); many take the phrase to mean that Solomon provided the offerings and the priests made them, as kings are often said to do what they command. The study notes the question. So he finished the house closes the building story that began in 6:1. Faithful worship at the appointed times is the right end of a great building work.

King Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom (v. 26) — at the head of the gulf of Aqaba, in the land David had subdued (2 Samuel 8:14). Israel had little tradition of the sea, so Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea (v. 27). The friendship that had brought cedar now brings sailors. A later king, Jehoshaphat, would send ships to Ophir for gold: but they went not; for the ships were broken at Eziongeber (22:48).

They came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents. The parallel gives four hundred and fifty talents (2 Chronicles 8:18); the study names the difference, which may come from copying or from counting different things. Where Ophir lay is not known. Genesis 10:29 lists an Ophir among the sons of Joktan beside Sheba and Havilah, which points many to Arabia; others suggest east Africa; Josephus placed it in India. Its gold became proverbial (Job 28:16; Psalm 45:9). Readers may recall that the king shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold (Deuteronomy 17:17).