Matthew Henry on 2 Chronicles 8:1-11
This we had Kg1 9:10-24, and therefore shall only observe here,
I. Though Solomon was a man of great learning and knowledge, yet he spent his days, not in contemplation, but in action, not in his study, but in his country, in building cities and fortifying them, in a time of peace preparing for a time of war, which is as much a man's business as it is in summer to provide food for winter.
II. As he was a man of business himself, and did not consult his own ease, so he employed a great many hands, kept abundance of people to work. It is the interest of a state by all means possible to promote and encourage industry, and to keep its subjects from idleness. A great many strangers there were in…
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At the end of twenty years - He employed seven years and a half in building the temple, and twelve and a half, or thirteen, in building his own house. - Compare this with Kg1 7:1.
John Gill on 2 Chronicles 8:1
And it came to pass at the end of twenty years,.... See Gill on 1 Kings 9:10.
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Chronicles 8:1-6
The city-building. - Ch2 8:1. The date, "at the end of twenty years, when Solomon ... had built," agrees with that in Kg1 9:10. The twenty years are to be reckoned from the commencement of the building of the temple, for he had spent seven years in the building of the temple, and thirteen years in that of his palace (Kg1 6:38; Kg1 7:1).
Ch2 8:2-4
Ch2 8:2 must be regarded as the apodosis of Ch2 8:1, notwithstanding that the object, the cities which ... precedes. The unusual position of the words is the result of the aphoristic character of the notice. As to its relation to the statement Kg1 9:10-13, see the discussion on that passage. בּנה, Ch2 8:2, is not to be understood of the fortificatio…
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