Chapter 9 concludes with a list of some of the other projects Solomon carried out during his reign after he finished building the temple and his own palace. Yesterday we learned that he built a separate palace for the Egyptian princess he had married. After he installs her in her new home, he builds the terraces that surrounded the temple complex and the area in which he built his and his Egyptian wife's palaces. "After Pharaoh's daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace Solomon had built for her, he constructed the terraces." (1 Kings 9:24)
We do not know whether Solomon's Egyptian wife was considered his chief wife---his queen---but it appears he may have regarded her as such since she's the only woman for whom the Bible tells us he built a palace. She's also the first woman the Bible mentions him marrying, though some scholars believe he married Naamah first. She was the Ammonite woman who was the mother of his son and successor Rehoboam. Solomon will eventually amass seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines but we are never given the names for any his wives except Naamah. I presume this is because she was the mother of his first (and perhaps only) son. We talked earlier in our study of the kings about the possibility that Solomon had fertility issues because no children other than his son Rehoboam and two daughters named Basemath and Taphath are ever mentioned in the Bible. However, we must keep in mind that it is not necessary for the authors of the Bible to mention any son of Solomon's other than his successor, especially if he had a large number of children to go with his large number of wives. The two daughters named in the Bible may not have been his only daughters but might have been named because they married two of his top officials.
Solomon will not be obedient to the Lord's commandment that kings are not to take many wives, or that Israelite men are not to marry foreign women who don't convert to the God of Israel, or that the Israelites are to have nothing to do with idolatry. We'll find the author of 1 Kings informing us that Solomon's heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God. But in today's passage we find him being obedient to the rules regarding sacrifices and offerings. He is devoted to the Lord in many ways (building the temple, bringing the prescribed offerings) but his love for women will compete with his love for the Lord because his pagan wives will entice him into unlawful religious practices later on. "Three times a year Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord, burning incense before the Lord along with them, and so fulfilled the temple obligations." (1 Kings 9:25)
The book of 2 Chronicles adds this information: "On the altar of the Lord that he had built in front of the portico, Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord, according to the daily requirement for offerings commanded by Moses for the Sabbaths, the New Moons and the three annual festivals---the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. In keeping with the ordinance of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their duties, and the Levites to lead the praise and to assist the priests according to each day's requirement. He also appointed the gatekeepers by divisions for the various gates, because this was what David the man of God had ordered. They did not deviate from the king's commands to the priests or to the Levites in any matter, including that of the treasuries." (2 Chronicles 8:12-15) The divisions of the priests mentioned here can be found in 1 Chronicles 24.
In addition to all his building projects, Solomon engaged in shipbuilding and trading. "King Solomon also built ships at Ezion Geber, which is near Elath in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea. And Hiram sent his men---sailors who knew the sea---to serve in the fleet with Solomon's men. They sailed to Ophir and brought back 420 talents of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon." (1 Kings 9:26-28, 2 Chronicles 8:17-18)
Solomon becomes famous for his wealth and wisdom. In tomorrow's text the Queen of Sheba hears of his fame and pays him a visit.
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