2 Chronicles 8:7-10 - Homilies By T. Whitelaw

The subjects of Solomon.

I. NON - ISRAELITES .

1 . Their nationalities. Descendants of five of the seven nations in the promised laud anterior to the conquest, remnants of which were left instead of being utterly consumed as enjoined by Moses ( Deuteronomy 7:1 ).

2 . Their condition. Practically bond-servants, paying tribute to Solomon, they had no part in the civil commonwealth or religious theocracy of Israel. They illustrate the relation in which the world's inhabitants stand to the Church. Those have no share in this; yet to this, against their will, they pay tribute and render important service—compelled, not by Christians, but by the King of Christians, who maketh all things on earth subserve the Church according to the counsel of his will ( Ephesians 1:11 , Ephesians 1:22 ; Daniel 7:14 ).

3 . Their occupation. The working-class population of those days, the artisans and labourers, Solomon employed them in the construction of his temple, palaces, and cities, just as the Pharaohs of former times had employed the progenitors of his people in making bricks and erecting store cities in the land of Ham ( Exodus 1:11 ). It was the custom then and long after to subject prisoners of war and the populations of conquered territories to servile work. Thothmes III . of Egypt carried labourers captive to build the temple of his father Amon. The employment of foreign captives in such tasks was an ancient practice in Egypt (Brugsch, 'Egypt,' etc; 1.417). An inscription of Esarhaddon states that the custom prevailed in Assyria, he himself saying of his captives from foreign lands, "I caused crowds of them to work in fetters in making brick" ('Records of the Past,' 3.120). Not even Solomon, and far less the Pharaohs of Egypt or the kings of Assyria, were acquainted with the golden rule.

II. ISRAELITES .

1 . Their ancestry. Descendants of the twelve tribes, whose heads were the sons of Israel, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, their ancestry was honoured as well as ancient.

2 . Their industry. The warriors of the kingdom, they did the fighting needful for the empire's protection and extension. Judged by the Christian standard, war is always an evil and often a sin; but in certain stages of civilization it appears to be inevitable, if neither necessary nor excusable.

3 . Their dignity. From them were chosen the officers of the king's army, the captains of his chariots and of his horsemen, the chiefs of his officers, and the superintendents of his workmen ( 1 Kings 9:22 ).

LESSONS .

1 . The sin of slavery.

2 . The dignity of labour.

3 . The nobility of free men.—W.