(17, 18) Solomon's levy of Canaanite labourers. (A return to the subject of 2Chronicles 2:2.)

(17) All the strangers.--The indigenous Canaanite population. (Comp. the use of the term in Genesis 23:4; Exodus 22:21; Leviticus 17:8.)

After the numbering.--The word s?phar, "reckoning," "census," occurs here only in the Old Testament.

Wherewith David his father.--The former census of the native Canaanites, which had taken place by order of David, is briefly recorded in 1Chronicles 22:2. (Comp. 2Samuel 20:24, "and Adoram was over the levy," from which it appears that the subject population was liable to forced labour under David; comp. also 1Kings 4:6; 1Kings 5:14; 1Kings 12:4-18.)

And they were found.--The total of the numbers here given is 153,600, which is the sum of the figures assigned in the next verse, viz., 70,000 + 80,000 + 8.600.

Verse 17. - Strangers. By these are meant those of the former inhabitants and possessors of the land, who had not been extirpated or driven out. Special regulations respecting them are recorded in Judges 1:21-28, 33-36. But these had largely lapsed till, as it appears, David revived them rather trenchantly, and David is now followed by Solomon (2 Chronicles 8:7, 8; 1 Kings 9:20, 21). The very much milder enforcement of labour upon the Israelites themselves is evident from 1 Kings 5:13-16. After the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them. Of this transaction on the part of David we do not possess any absolutely distinct statement. But the place of it is sufficiently evident, as indicated in 1 Chronicles 22:2.

2:1-18 Solomon's message to Huram respecting the temple, His treaty with Huram. - Solomon informs Huram of the particular services to be performed in the temple. The mysteries of the true religion, unlike those of the Gentile superstitions, sought not concealment. Solomon endeavoured to possess Huram with great and high thoughts of the God of Israel. We should not be afraid or ashamed to embrace every opportunity to speak of God, and to impress others with a deep sense of the importance of his favour and service. Now that the people of Israel kept close to the law and worship of God, the neighbouring nations were willing to be taught by them in the true religion, as the Israelites had been willing in the days of their apostacy, to be infected with the idolatries and superstitions of their neighbours. A wise and pious king is an evidence of the Lord's special love for his people. How great then was God's love to his believing people, in giving his only-begotten Son to be their Prince and their Saviour.And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel,.... Which, according to Kimchi, were the remains of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Jebusites, see 2 Chronicles 8:8, yet not idolaters, or they would not have been suffered by David and Solomon to have dwelt in the land, but were such as were become proselytes of the gate:

after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; not at the time Israel was numbered by him, but in order to provide workmen for the building of the temple, 1 Chronicles 22:2,

and they were found an hundred and fifty thousand and six hundred; men able to bear burdens, and hew timber.