and on the wall of Ophel he built much] The statement is made only in Chronicles Like similar notices of building activity, etc.—a subject of great interest to the Chronicler—it may possibly have some basis in fact; compare xxvi. 9 f., xxxii. 30, xxxiii. 14.
Ophel] compare xxxiii. 14; Nehemiah iii. 26, 27. It was a southern spur of the Temple Hill. Bädeker, Palestine⁵, p. 31; and Smith, Jerusalem, i. 152 ff.
⁴Moreover he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers.
4. castles] compare xvii. 12 (note).
⁵He fought also with the king of the children of Ammon, and prevailed against them. And the children of Ammon gave him the same year an hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures[¹] of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of Ammon render unto him, in the second year also, and in the third.
[¹] Hebrew cors.
5. the children of Ammon] Compare xx. 1 ff., xxvi. 8.
an hundred talents of silver] Compare 2 Kings xxiii. 33.
measures] Hebrew kōrīm. A kōr (= a ḥōmer, Ezekiel xlv. 14, Revised Version) was a dry measure holding about 11 bushels.
⁶So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God.