8 Their men who were still living in the land, and whom the children of Israel had not put an end to, these Solomon put to forced work, as is done to this day;
And the Canaanites who were living in Gezer were not forced out; but the Canaanites have been living among Ephraim, to this day, as servants, doing forced work.
Ahishar was controller of the king's house; Adoniram, the son of Abda, was overseer of the forced work.
And when the children of Israel had become strong, they put the Canaanites to forced work, in place of driving them out.
And the children of Judah did not make the Jebusites who were living in Jerusalem go out; the Jebusites are still living with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem. And the family of Joseph went up against Beth-el, and the Lord was with them. So they sent men to make a search round Beth-el. (Now the name of the town in earlier times was Luz.) And the watchers saw a man coming out of the town, and said to him, If you will make clear to us the way into the town, we will be kind to you. So he made clear to them the way into the town, and they put it to the sword; but they let the man and all his family get away safe. And he went into the land of the Hittites, building a town there and naming it Luz: which is its name to this day. And Manasseh did not take away the land of the people of Beth-shean and its daughter-towns, or of Taanach and its daughter-towns, or of the people of Dor and its daughter-towns, or of the people of Ibleam and its daughter-towns, or of the people of Megiddo and its daughter-towns, driving them out; but the Canaanites would go on living in that land. And whenever Israel became strong, they put the Canaanites to forced work, without driving them out completely. And Ephraim did not make the Canaanites who were living in Gezer go out; but the Canaanites went on living in Gezer among them. Zebulun did not make the people of Kitron or the people of Nahalol go out; but the Canaanites went on living among them and were put to forced work. And Asher did not take the land of the people of Acco, or Zidon, or Ahlab, or Achzib, or Helbah, or Aphik, or Rehob, driving them out; But the Asherites went on living among the Canaanites, the people of the land, without driving them out. Naphtali did not take the land of the people of Beth-shemesh or of Beth-anath, driving them out; but he was living among the Canaanites in the land; however, the people of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath were put to forced work. And the children of Dan were forced into the hill-country by the Amorites, who would not let them come down into the valley; For the Amorites would go on living in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim; but the children of Joseph became stronger than they, and put them to forced work. And the limit of the Edomites went from the slope of Akrabbim from Sela and up.
Then King Solomon got together men for the forced work through all Israel, thirty thousand men in number; And sent them to Lebanon in bands of ten thousand every month: for a month they were working in Lebanon and for two months in their country, and Adoniram was in control of them.
Then Solomon took the number of all the men from strange lands who were living in Israel, as his father David had done; there were a hundred and fifty-three thousand, six hundred. Seventy thousand he put to the work of transport, eighty thousand to cutting stone in the mountains, and three thousand, six hundred as overseers to put the people to work.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 2 Chronicles 8
Commentary on 2 Chronicles 8 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 8
In this chapter we are told,
2Ch 8:1-11
This we had 1 Ki. 9:10-24, and therefore shall only observe here,
2Ch 8:12-18
Here is,