9. and chief of his captains] Read (with 1 Kings ix. 22) and his princes and his captains. The statements of this verse must be read in connection with 1 Kings v. 13 ff., xii. 4 ff., whence it appears that, though Solomon did not actually reduce any Israelite to permanent slavery, yet he imposed upon his own people a corvée which was felt to be very burdensome.
¹⁰And these were the chief officers of king Solomon, even two hundred and fifty, that bare rule over the people.
10. And these were the chief] After this preface (compare 1 Kings ix. 23) we expect both here and in 1 Kings a list of these persons; compare 1 Chronicles xi. 10 ff., xii. 1 ff. Possibly the text of 1 Kings suffered at an early date, and the list was missing when the Chronicler wrote.
two hundred and fifty] According to 1 Kings ix. 23, five hundred and fifty. On the other hand the under-overseers are reckoned at three thousand six hundred in 2 Chronicles ii. 18 as against three thousand three hundred in 1 Kings v. 16. The total number therefore of overseers of all kinds is given both in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles as 3850.
11 (= 1 Kings ix. 24).
The House of Pharaoh’s Daughter.
¹¹And Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David unto the house that he had built for her: for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places[¹] are holy, whereunto the ark of the Lord hath come.
[¹] Hebrew they are.
11. for he said, My wife, etc.] These words are an addition by the Chronicler. In 1 Kings iii. 1 it is said simply that Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter into the city of David until his own house was finished.
My wife shall not dwell] Render, No wife of mine shall dwell.
12–16 (compare 1 Kings ix. 25).
Solomon’s arrangements for the Temple Worship.