2Ch 8:7-11 | KD | STEP | On the arrangement of the statute labour, see on 1Ki 9:20-23. - This note is in Chr. abruptly introduced immediately after the preceding. is an absolute clause: “as regards the whole people, those.” מן־בּניהם ( ) is not partitive: some of their sons; but is only placed before the אשׁר: those of their sons (i.e., of the descendants of the whole Canaanite people) who had remained in the land, whom the Israelites had not exterminated; Solomon made a levy of these for statute labourers. The מן is wanting in 1 Kings, but is not to be struck out here on that account. Much more surprising is the אשׁר after שׂראל מן־בּני, , which is likewise not found in 1 Kings, since the following verb נתן לא is not to be taken relatively, but contains the predicate of the subject contained in the words ישׂ מן־בּני. This אשׁר cannot be otherwise justified than by supposing that it is placed after ישׂ בני מן, as in it is placed after the subject of the relative clause, and so stands for ישׂ בני מן בן אשׂר: those who were of the sons of Israel (i.e., Israelites) Solomon did not make ... The preplacing of בּניהם מן in would naturally suggest that ישׂ בני מן should also precede, in order to bring out sharply the contrast between the sons of the Canaanites and the sons of Israel.

‏ 2 Chronicles 8:7-11

2Ch 8:7-8 On the arrangement of the statute labour, see on 1Ki 9:20-23. - This note is in Chr. abruptly introduced immediately after the preceding. 2Ch 8:7 is an absolute clause: “as regards the whole people, those.” מן־בּניהם (2Ch 8:8) is not partitive: some of their sons; but is only placed before the אשׁר: those of their sons (i.e., of the descendants of the whole Canaanite people) who had remained in the land, whom the Israelites had not exterminated; Solomon made a levy of these for statute labourers. The מן is wanting in 1 Kings, but is not to be struck out here on that account. Much more surprising is the אשׁר after שׂראל מן־בּני, 2Ch 8:9, which is likewise not found in 1 Kings, since the following verb נתן לא is not to be taken relatively, but contains the predicate of the subject contained in the words ישׂ מן־בּני. This אשׁר cannot be otherwise justified than by supposing that it is placed after ישׂ בני מן, as in Psa 69:27 it is placed after the subject of the relative clause, and so stands for ישׂ בני מן בן אשׂר: those who were of the sons of Israel (i.e., Israelites) Solomon did not make ... The preplacing of בּניהם מן in 2Ch 8:8 would naturally suggest that ישׂ בני מן should also precede, in order to bring out sharply the contrast between the sons of the Canaanites and the sons of Israel. 2Ch 8:9-10 שׁלישׁיו ושׁרי should be altered into ושׁלישׁיו שׂריו as in 1Ki 9:22, for שׁלישׁים are not chariot combatants, but royal adjutants; see on Exo 14:7 and 2Sa 23:8. Over the statute labourers 250 upper overseers were placed. נציבים שׂרי, chief of the superiors, i.e., chief overseer. The Keth. נציבים, praefecti, is the true reading; cf. 1Ch 18:13; 2Ch 17:2. The Keri has arisen out of 1Ki 9:23. These overseers were Israelites, while in the number 550 (1Ki 9:23) the Israelite and Canaanite upper overseers are both included; see on 2Ch 2:17. בּעם refers to כּל־העם, 2Ch 8:7, and denotes the Canaanite people who remained. 2Ch 8:11

The remark that Solomon caused Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married (1Ki 3:1), to remove from the city of David into the house which he had built her, i.e., into that part of his newly-built palace which was appointed for the queen, is introduced here, as in 1Ki 9:24, because it belongs to the history of Solomon’s buildings, although in the Chronicle it comes in very abruptly, the author not having mentioned Solomon’s marriage to the daughter of Pharaoh (1Ki 3:1). The reason given for this change of residence on the part of the Egyptian princess is, that Solomon could not allow her, an Egyptian, to dwell in the palace of King David, which had been sanctified by the reception of the ark, and consequently assigned to her a dwelling in the city of David until he should have finished the building of his palace, in which she might dwell along with him. המּה is, as neuter, used instead of the singular; cf. Ew. §318, b. See also on 1Ki 3:1 and 1Ki 9:24.