¹AND Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and the LORD his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly. =1.= _was strengthened_] or, _strengthened himself_, a favourite expression of the Chronicler; compare xii. 13, xiii. 21 (_waxed mighty_), xvii. 1, xxiii. 1, etc. _magnified_] compare 1 Chronicles xxix. 25. ²And Solomon spake unto all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and to the judges, and to every prince in all Israel, the heads of the fathers’ _houses_. =2.= _unto all Israel_] The impression, conveyed in the preceding chapter, that Solomon’s accession was marred by no internal discord in the nation, is again emphasised. ³So Solomon, and all the congregation with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for there was the tent of meeting of God, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness. =3.= _the high place ... at Gibeon_] Compare 1 Chronicles xvi. 39, xxi. 29; 1 Kings iii. 4. The passage in Kings naïvely states that Solomon offered his sacrifice at Gibeon (6 miles north-west of Jerusalem) _because that was the great high place_. The Chronicler regarded the worship of the high-places as an illegal act, and sought to justify Solomon’s action in this undeniable instance by the theory that the tent of meeting and the brasen altar (verse 5) were at the high-place of Gibeon (see the head-note to 1 Chronicles xiii.). Without doubt the high-place at Gibeon had been used by the Canaanites for worship from a very early date. _in the wilderness_] See Exodus xxv. 1 ff., xxxv. 4 ff. ⁴But the ark of God had David brought up from Kiriath-jearim to _the place_ that David had prepared for it: for he had pitched a tent for it at Jerusalem. =4.= =Kiriath-jearim=] Compare 1 Chronicles xiii. 5. _pitched a tent_] compare 1 Chronicles xv. 1. ⁵Moreover the brasen altar, that Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, was there¹ before the tabernacle of the LORD: and Solomon and the congregation sought unto it. ¹ Or, as otherwise read, _he had put_. =5.= _Bezalel_] See Exodus xxxi. 2, xxxviii. 1‒7, and compare 1 Chronicles ii. 20. _was there_] margin _he had put_. In the Hebrew the position of a point makes the difference between these two translations. _sought unto it_] See 1 Chronicles xxviii. 8, note. ⁶And Solomon went¹ up thither to the brasen altar before the LORD, which was at the tent of meeting, and offered a thousand burnt offerings upon it. ¹ Or, _offered there, upon ... yea, he offered_. =6.= _went up thither_] or, as margin, _offered there, upon_. It is to be noted that the Chronicler does not ignore the exercise of priestly functions by Solomon, although such exercise must have seemed wrong in his eyes, but follows his authority (1 Kings iii. 4) without adding any explanation. =7‒13= (= 1 Kings iii. 5‒15). SOLOMON’S VISION, AND RETURN TO JERUSALEM.