2 Chronicles 2:17

SOLOMON'S CENSUS OF HIS FORCED LABOR GANGS

"And Solomon numbered all the sojourners that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; and they were found a hundred and fifty thousand and three thousand and six hundred. And he set threescore and ten thousand of them to bear burdens, and fourscore thousand that were hewers in the mountains, and three thousand and six hundred overseers to set the people at work."

"After the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them" (2 Chronicles 2:17). This means that Solomon's numbering was sinful exactly as was David's (1 Chronicles 21:1-17).

There is no device by which this paragraph could be construed as the Chronicler's compliment to king Solomon. In fact, right here we have the clue to what was wrong with David's `numbering Israel' (1 Chronicles 22:2f). Both he and Solomon were actually in the business of enslaving all of the aliens and sojourners in Israel, (descendants of the original Canaanites whom Israel did not drive out), for one purpose only, that of forcing them to labor in the building of the temple. Here is also the explanation of that total number given at the head of this chapter, namely, 150,000 workers and 3,600 overseers. The census came first, and Solomon compelled all those numbered to enter his forced labor gangs.

"To set the people at work" (2 Chronicles 2:18). "This means to compel them to work. Probably like the Egyptian and Assyrian overseers of forced labor, these officers carried whips to quicken the movement of the sluggish."[10]

It was the brutal and heartless wickedness of Solomon in this very particular that precipitated the rebellion of the ten northern tribes in the reign of Solomon's son Rehoboam. It happened, when Rehoboam sent the hated slave-driver Adoram to negotiate with the dissatisfied northern tribes (1 Kings 12:18). (See our further comment on this in 1Kings.)