2 Chronicles 8:1-18

content/bible_journal/2chronicles/8:1-18.md

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+title = "2 Chronicles 8:1–18"
+date = "2024-11-20"
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+
+### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/2Chronicles8.1-18)
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+Because Solomon was not a warrior king like his father David, there is no list of military victories or conquests to put on his list of accomplishements.
+Instead, we get a list of the cities he built and the good relationships he had with the neighboring (and more distant) nations.
+The cities that Hiram, king of Tyre, gave to Solomon had actually been given to Hiram first. ([_1 Kings 9:10–14_](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/1Kings9.10-14))
+In addition to these, whole cities were made to store all of Solomon's chariots, horses, and warehouses for all the wealth he had amassed.
+To build all of these cities, Solomon used slave labor, but not his own people.
+The remnants of the Canaanites still lived in the land after Israel conquered it, but they were allowed to stay as servants and slaves.
+
+Solomon also made an entire house for his wife, the daughter of Pharaoh.
+This was done to remove her from Jerusalem, where the ark of the covenant was placed in the temple, making it holy.
+Many consider Solomon's major failing to be his marriage to so many foreign, and more importantly pagan, women.
+They pulled Solomon's heart away from the worship of the true God with their idols and practices.
+Yet, at this point, Solomon was careful not to let his wife's religion mix with his own.
+
+The Chronicler goes on to say how Solomon was faithful to keep all of the sacrifices and feasts that the Lord had appointed for Israel.
+He continued the schedule of the priestly divisions that David had set up for service in the temple when it was built.
+More detail is given here than in the parallel passage in 1 Kings so that the returning exiles would be reminded of how important it is to worship the Lord in the way He wants.
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+* * *
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+In You alone are life and truth.