2 Chronicles 1:2

Solomon’s journey to Gibeon, as reported in 1 Kings 3:4, is explained in more detail here. This important public event was closely linked to Solomon becoming king. Military commanders and clan leaders attended the event. It happened in Gibeon because the tabernacle and the great bronze altar, where sacrifices were often made, were located there.

Here is, I. Solomon's great prosperity, Ch2 1:1. Though he had a contested title, yet, God being with him, he was strengthened in his kingdom; his heart and hands were strengthened, and his interest in the people. God's presence will be our strength.
II. His great piety and devotion. His father was a prophet, a psalmist, and kept mostly to the ark; but Solomon, having read much in his Bible concerning the tabernacle which Moses built and the altars there, paid more respect to them than, it should seem, David had done. Both did well, and let neither be censured. If the zeal of one be carried out most to one instance of religion, and of another to some other instance, let them not judge nor despise each other.
1. All his great men must thus far be good men that they must join with him in worshipping God. He spoke to the captains and judges, the governors and chief of the fathers, to go with him to Gibeon, Ch2 1:2, Ch2 1:3. Authority and interest are well bestowed on those that will thus use them for the glory of God, and the promoting of religion. It is our duty to engage all with whom we have influence in the solemnities of religion, and it is very desirable to have many join with us in those solemnities - the more the better; it is the more like heaven. Solomon began his reign with this public pious visit to God's altar, and it was a very good omen. Magistrates are then likely to do well for themselves and their people when they thus take God along with them at their setting out.
2. He offered abundance of sacrifices to God there (Ch2 1:6): 1000 burnt-offerings, and perhaps a greater number of peace-offerings, on which he and his company feasted before the Lord. Where God sows plentifully he expects to reap accordingly. His father David had left him flocks and herds in abundance (Ch1 27:29, Ch1 27:31), and thus he gave God his dues out of them. The ark was at Jerusalem (Ch2 1:4), but the altar was at Gibeon (Ch2 1:5), and thither he brought his sacrifices; for it is the altar that sanctifieth every gift.
3. He prayed a good prayer to God: this, with the answer to it, we had before, Kg1 3:5, etc. (1.) God bade him ask what he would; not only that he might put him in the right way of obtaining the favours that were intended him (Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full), but that he might try him, how he stood affected, and might discover what was in his heart. Men's characters appear in their choices and desires. What wouldst thou have? tries a man as much as, What wouldst thou do? Thus God tried whether Solomon was one of the children of this world, that say, Who will show us any good, or of the children of light, that say, Lord, lift up the light of thy countenance upon us. As we choose we shall have, and that is likely to be our portion to which we give the preference, whether the wealth and pleasure of this world or spiritual riches or delights. (2.) Like a genuine son of David, he chose spiritual blessings rather than temporal. His petition here is, Give me wisdom and knowledge. He owns those to be desirable gifts, and God to be the giver of them, Pro 2:6. God gave the faculty of understanding, and to him we must apply for the furniture of it. Two things are here pleaded which we had not in Kings: - [1.] Thou hast made me reign in my father's stead, Ch2 1:8. "Lord, thou hast put me into this place, and therefore I can in faith ask of thee grace to enable me to do the duty of it." What service we have reason to believe God calls us to we have reason to hope he will qualify us for. But that is not all. "Lord, thou hast put me into this place in the stead of David, the great and good man that filled it up so well; therefore give me wisdom, that Israel may not suffer damage by the change. Must I reign in my father's stead? Lord, give me my father's spirit." Note, The eminency of those that went before us, and the obligation that lies upon us to keep up and carry on the good work they were engaged in, should provoke us to a gracious emulation, and quicken our prayers to God for wisdom and grace, that we may do the work of God in our day as faithfully and well as they did in theirs. [2.] Let thy promise to David my father be established, Ch2 1:9. He means the promise of concerning his successor. "In performance of that promise, Lord, give me wisdom." We do not find that wisdom was any of the things promised, but it was necessary in order to the accomplishment of what was promised, Sa2 7:13-15. The promise was, He shall build a house for my name, I will establish his throne, he shall be my son, and my mercy shall not depart from him. "Now, Lord, unless thou give me wisdom, thy house will not be built, nor my throne established; I shall behave in a manner unbecoming my relation to thee as a Father, shall forfeit thy mercy, and fool it away; therefore, Lord, give me wisdom." Note, First, God's promises are our best pleas in prayer. Remember thy word unto thy servant. Secondly, Children may take the comfort of the promises of that covenant which their parents, in their baptism, laid claim to, and took hold of, for them. Thirdly, The best way to obtain the benefit of the promises and privileges of the covenant is to be earnest in prayer with God for wisdom and grace to do the duties of it.
4. He received a gracious answer to this prayer, Ch2 1:11, Ch2 1:12. (1.) God gave him the wisdom that he asked for because he asked for it. Wisdom is a gift that God gives as freely and liberally as any gift to those that value it, and wrestle for it; and will resolve to make use of it; and he upbraids not the poor petitioners with their folly, Jam 1:5. God's grace shall never be wanting to those who sincerely desire to know and do their duty. (2.) God gave him the wealth and honour which he did not ask for because he asked not for them. Those that pursue present things most earnestly are most likely to miss of them; while those that refer themselves to the providence of God, if they have not the most of those things, have the most comfort in them. Those that make this world their end come short of the other and are disappointed in this too; but those that make the other world their end shall not only obtain that, and full satisfaction in it, but shall enjoy as much as is convenient of this world in their way.

Then Solomon spake - This is supposed to have taken place in the second year of his reign.

Then Solomon spake unto all Israel,.... To their representatives about going to Gibeon to sacrifice, as the next words show: so Jarchi and Kimchi observe:

to the captains of thousands, and of hundreds, to the judges, and to every governor in all Israel, the chief of the fathers; whom he had convened on this occasion; though some think this is the same congregation gathered by his father, by whom he was anointed and made king, and that he spoke of this to them before they broke up, 1 Chronicles 28:1 which seems not so probable, since it was after the death of his father, after he had been king some time, and even after his marriage with Pharaoh's daughter, that what follows was done, see 1 Kings 3:1.

Then Solomon spake, to wit, concerning his intention of going to Gibeon, and that they should attend him thither, as the next verse shows.

Ch2 1:1-6
The sacrifice at Gibeon, and the theophany. - Ch2 1:1-6. When Solomon had established himself upon his throne, he went with the princes and representatives of the congregation of Israel to Gibeon, to seek for the divine blessing upon his reign by a solemn sacrifice to be offered there before the tabernacle. Ch2 1:1 forms, as it were, the superscription of the account of Solomon's reign which follows. In וגו ויּתחזּק = Solomon established himself in his kingdom, i.e., he became strong and mighty in his kingdom, the older commentators saw a reference to the defeat of Adonijah, the pretender to the crown, and his followers (1 Kings 2). But this view of the words is too narrow; we find the same remark made of other kings whose succession to the throne had not been questioned (cf. Ch2 12:13; Ch2 13:21; Ch2 17:1, and Ch2 21:4), and the remark refers to the whole reign-to all that Solomon undertook in order to establish a firm dominion, not merely to his entry upon it. With this view of the words, the second clause, "his God was with him, and made him very great," coincides. God gave His blessing to all that Solomon did for this end. With the last words cf. Ch1 29:25.
We have an account of the sacrifice at Gibeon (Ch2 1:7-13) in Kg1 3:4-15 also. The two narratives agree in all the main points, but, in so far as their form is concerned, it is at once discernible that they are two independent descriptions of the same thing, but derived from the same sources. In 1 Kings 3 the theophany-in our text, on the contrary, that aspect of the sacrifice which connected it with the public worship-is more circumstantially narrated. While in Kg1 3:4 it is briefly said the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, our historian records that Solomon summoned the princes and representatives of the people to this solemn act, and accompanied by them went to Gibeon. This sacrifice was no mere private sacrifice-it was the religious consecration of the opening of his reign, at which the estates of the kingdom were present as a matter of course. "All Israel" is defined by "the princes over the thousands ..., the judges, and all the honourable;" then לכל־שׂראל is again taken up and explained by the apposition האבות ראשׁי: to all Israel, viz., the heads of the fathers'-houses. ל is to be repeated before ראשׁי. What Solomon said to all Israel through its representatives, is not communicated; but it may be gathered from what succeeds, that he summoned them to accompany him to Gibeon to offer the sacrifice. The reason why he offered his sacrifice at the בּמה, i.e., place of sacrifice, is given in Ch2 1:3. There the Mosaic tabernacle stood, yet without the ark, which David had caused to be brought up from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem (Ch1 13:1-14 and 15). In לו בּהכין the article in ba represents the relative אשׁר = בּאשׁר or לו הכין אשׁר בּמקום; cf. Jdg 5:27; Rut 1:16; Kg1 21:19; see on Ch1 26:28. Although the ark was separated from the tabernacle, yet by the latter at Gibeon was the Mosaic altar of burnt-offering, and on that account the sanctuary at Gibeon was Jahve's dwelling, and the legal place of worship for burnt-offerings of national-theocratic import. "As our historian here brings forward emphatically the fact that Solomon offered his burnt-offering at the legal place of worship, so he points out in Ch1 21:28-30 :1, how David was only brought by extraordinary events, and special signs from God, to sacrifice on the altar of burnt-offering erected by him on the threshing-floor of Ornan, and also states how he was prevented from offering his burnt-offering in Gibeon" (Berth.). As to Bezaleel, the maker of the brazen altar, cf. Exo 31:2 and Exo 37:1. Instead of שׂם, which most manuscripts and many editions have before לפני, and which the Targ. and Syr. also express, there is found in most editions of the 16th century, and also in manuscripts, שׁם, which the lxx and Vulgate also read. The reading שׁם is unquestionably better and more correct, and the Masoretic pointing שׂם, posuit, has arisen by an undue assimilation of it to Exo 40:29. The suffix in ידרשׁהוּ does not refer to the altar, but to the preceding word יהוה; cf. אלהים דּרשׁ, Ch1 21:30; Ch1 15:13, etc.
Ch2 1:7-10
The theophany, cf. Kg1 3:5-15. In that night, i.e., on the night succeeding the day of the sacrifice. The appearance of God by night points to a dream, and in Kg1 3:5-15 we are expressly informed that He appeared in a vision. Solomon's address to God, Ch2 1:8-10, is in Kg1 3:6-10 given more at length. The mode of expression brings to mind Ch1 17:23, and recurs in Ch2 6:17; Kg1 8:26. מדּע, with Pathach in the second syllable, elsewhere מדּע (Ch2 1:11, Ch2 1:12), occurs elsewhere only in Dan 1:4, Dan 1:17; Ecc 10:20.
Ch2 1:11-13
The divine promise. Here עשׁר is strengthened by the addition נכסים, treasures (Jos 22:8; Ecc 5:18; Ecc 6:2). תּשׁפּט אשׁר, ut judicare possis. In general, the mode of expression is briefer than in Kg1 3:11-13, and the conditional promise, "long life" (Kg1 3:14), is omitted, because Solomon did not fulfil the condition, and the promise was not fulfilled. In Ch2 1:13 לבּמה is unintelligible, and has probably come into our text only by a backward glance at Ch2 1:3, instead of מהבּמה, which the contents demand, and as the lxx and Vulgate have rightly translated it. The addition, "from before the tabernacle," which seems superfluous after the preceding "from the Bamah at Gibeon," is inserted in order again to point to the place of sacrifice at Gibeon, and to the legal validity of the sacrifices offered there (Berth.). According to Kg1 3:15, Solomon, on his return to Jerusalem, offered before the ark still other burnt-offerings and thank-offerings, and prepared a meal for his servants. This is omitted by the author of the Chronicle, because these sacrifices had no ultimate import for Solomon's reign, and not, as Then, supposes, because in his view only the sacrifices offered on the ancient brazen altar of burnt-offering belonging to the temple had legal validity. For he narrates at length in Ch1 21:18, Ch1 21:26. how God Himself directed David to sacrifice in Jerusalem, and how the sacrifice offered there was graciously accepted by fire from heaven, and the threshing-floor of Araunah thereby consecrated as a place of sacrifice; and it is only with the purpose of explaining to his readers why Solomon offered the solemn burnt-offering in Gibeon, and not, as we should have expected from 1 Chron 21, in Jerusalem, that he is so circumstantial in his statements as to the tabernacle. The last clause of Ch2 1:13, "and he was king over Israel," does not belong to the section treating of the sacrifice at Gibeon, but corresponds to the remark in Kg1 4:1, and forms the transition to what follows.