1 Kings 9:16

For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon's wife.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) A present—that is, of course, a dowry, on her marriage with Solomon.

Benson Commentary

1 Kings 9:16. For Pharaoh had gone up and taken Gezer, &c., and slain the Canaanites — For the Israelites did not dispossess the Canaanites, but they continued to dwell in Gezer in Joshua’s time and after, Joshua 16:10; Jdg 1:29. And, it seems, neither David nor Solomon expelled them, but only kept them under tribute; till Pharaoh, upon some provocation which is not recorded, extirpated them, and burned their city. This, Sir John Marsham thinks, was the first expedition which the Egyptians made out of their own country.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:15-28 Here is a further account of Solomon's greatness. He began at the right end, for he built God's house first, and finished that before he began his own; then God blessed him, and he prospered in all his other buildings. Let piety begin, and profit follow; leave pleasure to the last. Whatever pains we take for the glory of God, and to profit others, we are likely to have the advantage. Canaan, the holy land, the glory of all lands, had no gold in it; which shows that the best produce is that which is for the present support of life, our own and others; such things did Canaan produce. Solomon got much by his merchandise, and yet has directed us to a better trade, within reach of the poorest. Wisdom is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold, Pr 3:14.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Levy - See the marginal reference note.

Millo - See 2 Samuel 5:9 note. The Septuagint commonly render the word ἡ ἄκρα hē akra, "the citadel," and it may possibly have been the fortress on Mount Zion connected with the Maccabean struggles (1 Macc. 4:41; 13:49-52). Its exact site has not been determined.

And the wall of Jerusalem - David's fortification 2 Samuel 5:9; 1 Chronicles 11:8 had been hasty, and had now - fifty years later - fallen into decay. Solomon therefore had to "repair the breaches of the city of David" 1 Kings 11:27.

Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer were three of the most important sites in the holy land. For the two first places, compare the marginal references and notes.

Gezer was a main city of the south. It was situated on the great maritime plain, and commanded the ordinary line of approach from Egypt, which was along this low region. The importance of Gezer appears from Joshua 10:33; Joshua 12:12, etc. Its site is near Tell Jezer, and marked now by Abu Shusheh. Though within the lot of Ephraim Joshua 16:3, and especially assigned to the Kohathite Levites Joshua 21:21, it had never yet been conquered from the old inhabitants (marginal references), who continued to dwell in it until Solomon's time, and apparently were an independent people 1 Kings 9:16.

Pharaoh took it before the marriage of Solomon with his daughter, and gave it "for a present" - i. e., for a dowry. Though in the East husbands generally pay for their wives, yet dower is given in some cases. Sargon gave Cilicia as a dowry with his daughter when he married her to Ambris king of Tubal: and the Persian kings seem generally to have given satrapial or other high offices as dowries to the husbands of their daughters.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15-24. this is the reason of the levy—A levy refers both to men and money, and the necessity for Solomon making it arose from the many gigantic works he undertook to erect.

Millo—part of the fort of Jerusalem on Mount Zion (2Sa 5:9; 1Ch 11:8), or a row of stone bastions around Mount Zion, Millo being the great corner tower of that fortified wall (1Ki 11:27; 2Ch 32:5).

the wall of Jerusalem—either repairing some breaches in it (1Ki 11:27), or extending it so as to enclose Mount Zion.

Hazor—fortified on account of its importance as a town in the northern boundary of the country.

Megiddo—(now Leijun)—Lying in the great caravan road between Egypt and Damascus, it was the key to the north of Palestine by the western lowlands, and therefore fortified.

Gezer—on the western confines of Ephraim, and, though a Levitical city, occupied by the Canaanites. Having fallen by right of conquest to the king of Egypt, who for some cause attacked it, it was given by him as a dowry to his daughter, and fortified by Solomon.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Not now, but long before this time, and presently after the marriage of his daughter, as is most probable; and it is here mentioned only as the occasion of Solomon’s building it. Possibly the Canaanites of this place had been guilty of some heinous crime; and because Solomon thought not fit to destroy them himself, he desired Pharaoh to do it for him, or Pharaoh might offer his service herein for his daughter’s advantage.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire,.... Egypt lay lower than Canaan, and therefore Pharaoh is said to go up to it; what moved him to it is not certain; whether he went of himself provoked, or was moved to it by Solomon, who had married his daughter; however, so he did, and took the place, and burnt it:

and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city: for though it was given to the tribe of Ephraim, yet they could not drive the Canaanites out of it, who seem to have remained in it to this time; see Joshua 16:10.

and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon's wife; not as a dowry with her, but as a present to her; perhaps some time after marriage.

Geneva Study Bible

For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon's wife.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. For Pharaoh king of Egypt] See above on 1 Kings 3:1.

and taken Gezer] This incursion was probably before Solomon had taken the king’s daughter to wife, though Josephus (Ant. viii. 6, i) says ‘he gave it to his daughter who had been married to Solomon.’ Philippson (die Israelitische Bibel) suggests that Solomon wishing to be rid of these Canaanites asked his father-in-law to undertake their extermination.

and given it for a present] By ‘present’ here is meant ‘a wedding-portion.’ The noun implies ‘a gift on sending away’ and the verb is found Joshua 12:9, where Ibzan the judge is said to have ‘sent abroad’ (i.e. apparently, portioned out in marriage) his thirty daughters and to have taken in thirty others from abroad as wives for his sons. Though it appears to have been the more usual custom in the East for a husband to make presents to his wife’s family, yet we find that Caleb (Jdg 1:15) gave lands with his daughter when she was married to Othniel.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and taken Gezer and burnt it with fire [The total destruction of the place and its inhabitants by fire and sword looks more like an act of vengeance for some grave offence than like ordinary warfare], and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city [Though Gezer was allotted to Ephraim (Joshua 16:3) and designated as a Levitical city (ib., 21:21), the Canaanite inhabitants had never been dispossessed (Joshua 16:10; LXX. "Canaanites and Perizzites;" cf. Judges 1:29), and they would seem to have enjoyed a sort of independence], and given it for a present [שִׁלֻחִים, dotatio, dowry. It is the custom of the East for the husband to purchase his wife by a present (Genesis 29:18; 2 Samuel 3:14, etc.); but in royal marriages a dowry was often given. "Sargon gave Cilicia as a dowry with his daughter .... Antiochus Soter gave his claims on Macedonia as a dowry to his step-daughter Phila, when she married Antigonus Gonatas. Coele-Syria and Palestine were promised as a dowry to Ptolemy Epiphanes, when he married Cleopatra, sister of Antiochus the Great," etc. (Rawlinson). Gezer being a wedding present, its conquest must have taken place years before the date to which the history is now brought down] unto his daughter, Solomon's wife. 1 Kings 9:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

This city had been taken and burned down by the king of Egypt; its Canaanitish inhabitants had been put to death; and the city itself had been given as a marriage portion to his daughter who was married to Solomon. Nothing is known concerning the occasion and object of Pharaoh's warlike expedition against this city. The conjecture of Thenius, that the Canaanitish inhabitants of Gezer had drawn upon themselves the vengeance of Pharaoh, mentioned here, through a piratical raid upon the Egyptian coast, is open to this objection, that according to all accounts concerning its situation, Gezer was not situated near the sea-coast, but very far inland.