2 Chronicles 2:17
Solomon numbered all the foreign men in the land of Israel following the census his father David had conducted, and there were found to be 153,600 in all.
Sermons
Lessons from the LabourersW. Clarkson 2 Chronicles 2:13-18
Naturalisation of ForeignersBibical Museum2 Chronicles 2:17-18
Strangers in the CityT. De Witt Talmage.2 Chronicles 2:17-18














The interesting particulars we have of the labours of building the temple give us a variety of suggestions.

I. THE VALUE OF A WISE INTERMINGLING.

1. Of blood. The principal architect and engineer supplied by King Hiram was a man of mixed blood; his father was a man of Tyro, but his mother was a Jewess (see 1 Kings 7:14), and he appears to have been a man of unusual ability. The mixture of races is proved to be of a very distinct advantage, and we may be very thankful that the discords and contentions of our early history resulted in the mingling of the virtues of Saxon, Celt, and Roman in the English of our own time.

2. Of labour. "I have sent a cunning man.., to find out every device... with thy cunning men" (ver. 14). International exchange and co-operation are of immense value, and will prove to be more and more so as the nations open their doors, and all peoples meet and mingle together (see homily on vers. 2, 3, 7-10).

II. A BENEFICENT APPEAL TO OUR INTELLIGENCE. (Ver. 14.) In the variety of material with which God has supplied us we find a striking instance of his creative kindness. It is conceivable that he might have placed us on a planet which had little elemental variety, and which did not therefore admit of many combinations. But on this earth there is practically no limit to the variety of productions, by the putting forth of our observation, ingenuity, and skill. Herein we have very much more, and very much better, than a provision for our comforts; we have an effective appeal to our intelligence, a constant development of our intellectual powers, an elevation of our manhood. It is a rich and noble home, furnished with everything that meets the needs of our complex nature, in which our heavenly Father has placed us.

III. THE POWER WE POSSESS OVER THE ELEMENTS OF NATURE. (Ver. 16.) At that time and in that country men had learned to hew down the tall trees, to cut and carve them into what size and shape they liked, to carry them across the land, and to employ the sea as a highway. "We will bring it to thee in flotes by sea." The sea, with its depth and breadth, with its swelling billows and its fearful storms, may well have been regarded at first as an impassable barrier between land and land, as a decisive limit put upon our progress. But we have made it a common highway on which to travel, by which to transport our treasures, and we can map our route and calculate our time with nearly as much regularity as on the still and solid land. Indeed, we can rule the elements of nature much more readily and constantly than we can govern the forces within our own breast. These too often baffle our skill and defeat our purpose. Our greatest difficulty and truest triumph is in turning to good account the elements of our own human nature.

IV. AN UNCONSCIOUS ANTICIPATION OF GOSPEL BREADTH. (Vers. 17, 18.) Solomon employed "the strangers" to do the triple work, here specified, in the temple-building. Moreover, he had recourse to the King of Tyre and to his "cunning workmen." So that we have Gentiles as well as Jews engaged in this work which we may regard as the work of the Lord. Between that event and the present time there was to come a long period of exclusiveness which manifested itself in most ungracious forms in the days of our Lord. But this co-operation of those without and those within the sacred pale is predictive of the glorious breadth of these later times, when, in Christ Jesus, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, barbarian nor Soythian, bend nor free. There is an absolutely open way to the kingdom of God, and an equally open gate into the broad field of holy usefulness. - C.

And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel.
Bibical Museum.
I. A GOOD GOVERNMENT WILL TEND TO MAKE A COUNTRY ATTRACTIVE TO FOREIGNERS.

II. FOREIGNERS THUS ATTRACTED ARE AMENABLE TO THE LAWS OF THE STATE.

III. THUS PROTECTED, THEY MAY CONTRIBUTE MATERIALLY TO THE ENRICHMENT OF A STATE BY THE IMPORTATION OF FOREIGN INDUSTRIES. Silk-weavers of Spitalfields.

V. BE KIND TO STRANGERS.

(Bibical Museum.)

I. STRANGERS IN A CITY ARE IN DANGER FROM THE TEMPTATION TO EXPLORE THE UNDERGROUND LIFE OF THE COMMUNITY. I believe that three-fourths of the young men of our cities are ruined for the simple reason that they went to look at iniquity. In 1794, during the Reign of Terror in Paris, there were people who, to hide from their persecutors, got into the sewers under the city, and went on mile after mile amid the stifling atmosphere, poisoned and exhausted, coming out after a while at the river Seine, where they washed and breathed again the pure air. But, alas! that so many men who attempt to explore underground New York life never come to a river Seine, where they can wash, and they die horribly in the sewers. I stand on a mountain of Colorado, six thousand feet high. There is a man standing beneath me who says, "I see a peculiar shelving to this rock," and he bends towards it. I say, "Stop, you will fall." He says, "No danger; I have a steady hand and foot, and see a peculiar kind of moss." I say, "Stand back"; but he says, "I am not afraid"; and he bends farther and farther, and after a while his head whirls and his feet slip — and the eagles know not that it is the macerated flesh of a man they are picking at, but it is. So I have seen men come to the very verge of the life of this city, and they look away down in it. They say, "Don't be cowardly. Let us go down." They look farther and farther. I warn them to stand back; but Satan comes behind them, and while they are swinging over the verge, pushes them off. People say they were naturally bad. They were not? They were engaged in exploration. No man can afford to sail so near the coast of eternal fire for the purpose of discovering how hot it is. Stand off from that exploration. If you are a good swimmer, and you see a man drowning, leap for him and bring him ashore; but if you are merely going to jump in to see him drown, stand back.

II. STRANGERS IN A CITY ARE IN DANGER FROM THE TEMPTATION TO DESECRATE THE SABBATH. There is not one in ten who knows how to keep the Lord's day when he is away from home and absent from all Christian influences.

III. STRANGERS IN A CITY ARE NOT SAFE WITHOUT CHRISTIAN RESTRAINT.

(T. De Witt Talmage.).

People
Abi, Dan, David, Hiram, Huram, Solomon
Places
Jerusalem, Joppa, Lebanon, Tyre
Topics
153, Aliens, 600, Census, David, Fifty, Fifty-three, Foreigners, Hundred, Lands, Numbered, Numbereth, Numbering, Six, Sojourners, Solomon, Strange, Strangers, Thousand, Wherewith
Outline
1. Solomon's laborers for the building of the temple
3. His ambassage to Huram for workmen and provisions
11. Huram sends him a kind answer
17
Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Chronicles 2:17-18

     7467   temple, Solomon's

Library
Hiram, the Inspired Artificer
BY REV. W. J. TOWNSEND, D.D. The Temple of Solomon was the crown of art in the old world. There were temples on a larger scale, and of more massive construction, but the enormous masses of masonry of the oldest nations were not comparable with the artistic grace, the luxurious adornments, and the harmonious proportions of this glorious House of God. David had laid up money and material for the great work, but he was not permitted to carry it out. He was a man of war, and blood-stained hands were
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

Chronicles
The comparative indifference with which Chronicles is regarded in modern times by all but professional scholars seems to have been shared by the ancient Jewish church. Though written by the same hand as wrote Ezra-Nehemiah, and forming, together with these books, a continuous history of Judah, it is placed after them in the Hebrew Bible, of which it forms the concluding book; and this no doubt points to the fact that it attained canonical distinction later than they. Nor is this unnatural. The book
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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