²that the cities which Huram had given to Solomon, Solomon built them, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there.
2. the cities which Huram had given to Solomon] According to 1 Kings ix. 12, 13 it was Solomon who gave Huram cities. Huram however was not pleased with them (1 Kings ix. 12, 13), and from this fact the English translators of 1611 concluded that Huram rejected them and “restored” them. No reconciliation of these different versions is tenable; and it is to be supposed that the Chronicler’s tradition is unhistorical—the idea that the wealthy Solomon could not or did not purchase what he required from Huram except by parting with a portion of the territories of Israel was repugnant, if not incredible, in the Chronicler’s day.
built them] i.e. fortified them.
³And Solomon went to Hamath-zobah, and prevailed against it.
3. Hamath-zobah] The two kingdoms of Hamath and Zobah are distinguished from one another (1 Chronicles xviii. 3, 9 = 2 Samuel viii. 3, 9), Hamath apparently being north of Zobah. It is probable however that Hamath as the name of a city belonged to more than one place, and Hamath-zobah may be a southern namesake of the well-known Hamath the great (Amos vi. 2).
prevailed against it] No mention of this campaign is made elsewhere. It may be a genuine tradition preserved only in Chronicles. On the other hand, this statement and the reference to the store-cities built in Hamath (verse 4) may be due to nothing except the mention of Tadmor in the wilderness (itself an error, see following note). If Solomon built far-off Tadmor, then (the Chronicler thinks) he must also have subdued the region of Hamath.
⁴And he built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the store cities, which he built in Hamath.
4. Tadmor in the wilderness] Palmyra (Bädeker, Palestine⁵, p. 344) is meant, a city on an oasis north-east of Damascus half-way between Damascus and the Euphrates. Apart from this passage of Chronicles it first appears in history in B.C. 34, when it was threatened with attack by Mark Antony. This silence of history for a thousand years casts a doubt on the belief that Tadmor (Palmyra) is as old as the time of Solomon, and the doubt is strengthened by a reference to the parallel passage (1 Kings ix. 18), for there (1) the text (Kethīb) has “Tamar,” with “Tadmor” as marginal reading (Ḳerī), and (2) Tamar (Tadmor) is associated with Gezer, Beth-horon, and Baalath, cities either in Judah or on its borders. Probably therefore the marginal reading “Tadmor” in 1 Kings is due to the influence of 2 Chronicles, and the text of 1 Kings (“Tamar”) is correct. The city built by Solomon was a Tamar in the south of Judah.
⁵Also he built Beth-horon the upper, and Beth-horon the nether, fenced cities, with walls, gates, and bars;
5. Beth-horon the upper] Not mentioned in the parallel passage (1 Kings ix. 17) which however has Gezer. The site of Gezer has recently been explored with extremely interesting results (see e.g. Macalister, Bible Side-lights from the Mound of Gezer). The Chronicler probably omits the name of Gezer, because he had no liking for the tradition that Solomon married a daughter of Pharaoh (a heinous sin in the eyes of the Chronicler’s contemporaries), and according to 1 Kings ix. 16 Gezer was presented to Solomon by the Pharaoh as the dowry of his daughter.