Verses 1–5 are the composition of the Chronicler; for verse 6 compare 1 Kings iii. 4.
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.