Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/263

Rh Solomon built them, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there. And Solomon went to Hamath-zobah, and prevailed against it. And he built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the store cities, which he built in Hamath. Also he built Beth-horon the upper, and Beth-horon the nether, fenced

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.

3. Hamath-zobah] The two kingdoms of Hamath and Zobah are distinguished from one another (1 Chr. xviii. 3, 9 = 2 Sam. 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 Chron. On the other hand, this statement and the reference to the store-cities built in Hamath (ver. 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.

4. Tadmor in the wilderness] Palmyra (Bädeker, Pal.$5$, p. 344) is meant, a city on an oasis N.E. of Damascus half-way between Damascus and the Euphrates. Apart from this passage of Chron. it first appears in history in 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 Kin. 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 Kin. is due to the influence of 2 Chr., and the text of 1 Kin. ("Tamar") is correct. The city built by Solomon was a Tamar in the south of Judah.

5. Beth-horon the upper] Not mentioned in the parallel passage (1 Kin. 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