Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 4:1-19
Here we have,
I. Solomon upon his throne (Kg1 4:1): So king Solomon was king, that is, he was confirmed and established king over all Israel, and not, as his successors, only over two tribes. He was a king, that is, he did the work and duty of a king, with the wisdom God had given him. Those preserve the name and honour of their place that mind the business of it and make conscience of it.
II. The great officers of his court, in the choice of whom, no doubt, his wisdom much appeared. It is observable, 1. That several of them are the same that were in his father's time. Zadok and Abiathar were then priests (Sa2 20:25), so they were now; only then Abiathar had the precedency, now Zadok. Jehosh…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Kings 4:8
The son of Hur--or, as the Margin has it, Benhur, Bendekar. In the rural parts of Syria, and among the Arabs, it is still common to designate persons not by their own names, but as the sons of their fathers.
Adam Clarke on 1 Kings 4:13
Threescore great cities with walls and brazen bars - These were fortified cities: their gates and bars covered with plates of brass. Such were the gates in Priam's palace: -
Ipse inter primos correpta dura bipenni
Limina perrumpit, Postes que a cardine vellit
Aeratos. Virg. Aen., lib. ii. ver. 479.
Fierce Pyrrhus in the front, with forceful sway,
Plied the huge axe, and hew'd the beams away;
The solid timbers from the portal tore,
And rent from every hinge the Brazen door.
Pitt.
John Gill on 1 Kings 4:18
Shimei the son of Elah in Benjamin. So described, to distinguish him from that Shimei that cursed David, who was of the same tribe; See Gill on 2 Samuel 16:5.
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Kings 4:7-19
Solomon's Official Persons and Their Districts. - Kg1 4:7. Solomon had (appointed) twelve נצּבים over all Israel, who provided (כּלכּלוּ) for the king and his house, i.e., supplied provisions for the necessities of the court. These prefects are not to be regarded as "chamberlains," or administrators of the royal domains (Michaelis and Ewald), for these are mentioned in Ch1 27:25. under a different title. They are "general receivers of taxes," or "chief tax-collectors," as Rosenmller expresses it, who levied the king's duties or taxes, which consisted in the East, as they still do to the present time, for the most part of natural productions, or the produce of the land, and not of money payme…
