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Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah. See 1 Chron. xxi. 1.

After God was appeased for his former displeasure, and had taken away the famine from Israel, God was again moved to anger, by the sins of Israel; and thereupon he left David to himself; and gave power unto Satan, to suggest unto David thoughts of presumption, stirring him up to number the people of Israel and Judah; that he might raise unto his own heart a proud confidence in his own strength.

XXIV. 16. The LORD repented him of the evil, &c.

The Lord did, as men do when they repent them of what they have done, inhibit any further proceedings of that plague. XXIV. 23. All these did Araunah, as a king give.

All these did Araunah, in a bountiful and royal manner, offer to give unto king David.

I. KINGS.

I. 11. That Adonijah doth reign.

That Adonijah hath plotted for the kingdom; and hath, in a sort, possessed himself of it.

1. 50. And Adonijah arose and went, and caught hold on the horns of the altar.

And Adonijah, which had not the grace to consult with God in his challenge of the crown of Israel, now, through fear, had recourse to the altar of God; as thinking, under the protection thereof, to avoid that death, which by his usurpation he had deserved.

II. 5. And shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet.

How, in a profession of peace, he did, after a hostile manner, shed the blood of two noble captains, Abner and Amasa; and put up his sword, all bloody, into his sheath; and walked with his feet distained with innocent blood, in a bold and careless fashion, thinking to bear out his hateful murder.

II. 9. Hold him not guiltless.

Take thou all advantages, to let him feel how heinously he hath offended; and proceed against him, upon any other just pretence.

II. 22. Ask for him the kingdom also; for he is mine elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Jacob the son of Zeruiah.

Adonijah hath already the advantage of age, for he is my elder brother; and of the guard and strength of soldiery, for Joab is joined to him; and of the countenance of the priesthood, for

Abiathar is for him; and now, what wants hę but a match with the king's own bed-fellow? yield him this, and I, by that wisdom, wherewith God hath endued me, know well, that his next step will be into the throne.

II. 31. Do as he hath said, and full upon him, &c.

Since he will needs die there, there let him die; for the Law of God doth not allow any protection for wilful murder, from his own tabernacle or altar: rather he defiles the altar, than the altar can assure him.

III. 1. And took Pharaoh's daughter, &c.

And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and took Pharaoh's daughter to wife, upon her yielded conformity to that holy religion, which he professed.

III. 2. Only the people sacrificed in high places because there was no house built unto the name of the LORD, until those days.

In the mean time, till the house of God was finished, wise and holy Solomon would not allow the people to sacrifice any other where, than in those high places, which his father had consecrated; that is, in Gibeon, where was the Tabernacle, and in Jerusalem, where the ark was.

IV. 21. From the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt.

From the famous river Euphrates, unto the land of the Philistines, and from thence, unto the borders of Egypt.

IV. 30. And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt.

Whereas, those of the East and of Egypt were famous above all the world, for the fame of their wisdom, and knowledge of all the secrets of nature, of the motions of the heavens, and of the virtues and operations of all plants, and of the qualities of all sensitive creatures; Solomon exceeded them all, in all these kinds.

IV. 32. He spake three thousand proverbs.

He spake three thousand wise sentences; out of which are collected those, which, in the book of his Proverbs, are reserved to the use of posterity, as the sacred monuments of a divine wisdom.

IV. 33. And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall.

Out of that divine illumination, which was given to him from above, he discoursed of all plants, from the tallest cedar to the very hyssop, or moss, that grows upon the wall.

V. 4. There is neither adversary nor evil occurrent.

There is neither any public enemy, nor any cross accident,

that might hinder this holy work of building a temple to the Lord.

VI. 1. In the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month.

So great a work could not be suddenly done: there must be a just time for the gathering of all the materials; for felling, hewing, seasoning of the timber. In the fourth year therefore of his reign, did Solomon begin this magnificent structure of the Temple; and in the second month, which, by God's own computation, was the month of April.

VI. 4. And for the house he made windows of narrow lights.

And for the Temple he made windows, narrow without and large within, for the more clear transmitting of the light into all the parts of the house.

VI. 30. And the floor of the house he overlaid with gold, within and without.

And the floor of the Temple he overlaid with gold; not only in that part which was within the partition of the oracle or Holy of Holies, but in the outer part thereof also.

VI. 38. In the month Bul.

In the month of October.

VII. 21. And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz.

To figure out the firmness and stability of his Church for ever, he erected two brazen pillars in the porch of the Temple; and called the one, God shall establish, and the other, In it is strength, implying, both what invincible strength the Church of God should have, and whence it should be received.

VII. 23. And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other.

And he made a large and vast vessel of brass, for the use of their manifold washings, which seemed like to some spacious pond or sea, for the quantity of water which it contained: the wideness whereof was ten cubits, from the one side to the other. VII. 26. It contained two thousand baths.

It contained two thousand of those measures, whereof every one held six gallons of our account.

VIII. 9. There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of

stone.

Within the ark under the cover thereof, there was nothing but the two tables of the Law; but on the verge of the ark, were Aaron's blossomed rod and the pot of manna reserved.

VIII. 12. The LORD said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

The Lord hath said, that the thick cloud in his most Holy Place should be the testimony of his presence there.

VIII. 31. If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house.

If in a case of some great trespass against a man's life, good name, estate, there cannot be other evidences brought forth, so as the matter must necessarily be determined by the oath of the party accused; and that oath shall be solemnly required of him before thy presence, at thy holy altar.

VIII. 64. The same day did the king hallow the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD, &c. because the brazen altar was too little, &c.

And Solomon, by command and instinct from God, required the priests to sanctify the pavement of the outer court, which was called the Court of the Priests, to the use of the sacrifices; for that the brazen altar, how great soever it was, could not be capable of these many offerings.

VIII. 65. A great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt.

A great congregation of all the subjects of Solomon, from the eastern borders of his dominions, to the western that reach unto that arm of Nilus, which runs towards Palestine.

IX. 13. What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day.

How mean and base are these towns, which thou hast given me, in lieu of those great things, wherewith I have furnished thee! And he called them, The displeasing land, to this day; being twenty cities in that upper Galilee, which was after called Galilee of the Gentiles.

X. 5. There was no more spirit in her.

She was so astonished at the exceeding wisdom of Solomon, that she was even transported from herself with admiration. X. 11. Great plenty of almug trees.

Great plenty of the trees of Heben wood; which, for the solidness and shining brightness, were fit for the use and ornament of his building, and for instruments.

X. 29. And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty: and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means.

And Solomon, through the favour of his father-in-law, the king of Egypt, had the benefit of all the trade of Egypt, for chariots and horses (wherewith that country had wont to furnish the neighbour regions) to pass through the hands of his merchants, to his behoof; so as, if the kings of the Hittites or of Syria

would have either chariots or horses, they must obtain them by the means of Solomon's merchants, at a set rate; their chariots must cost them six hundred shekels, their horses a hundred and fifty.

XI. 1. But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, &c.

But Solomon, after he had holily and happily reigned five or six and twenty years, at last gave himself over to his inordinate lusts; and added to the daughter of Pharaoh his lawful wife, a number of women that were strangers, both in nation and religion.

XI. 5. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, &c.

For Solomon gave way and countenance to the idolatry of his wives, whom he willingly admitted to build houses and altars to Ashtoreth.

XI. 7. Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem.

Then did Solomon consent to the building of a high place for Chemosh, the abominable Idol of the Moabites; and that, in the very face of the Temple, on a hill over against Jerusalem.

XI. 36. That David my servant may have a light alway before me, &c.

That David my servant may have one of his seed, eminent in honour and authority, always, &c.

XII. 10. My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins. The easiest impositions, that I shall lay upon you, shall be more grievous than the heaviest that you complain of, from my father.

XII. 24. For this thing is from me.

I have ordered and contrived this business, for the just punishment of thy father's defection from me.

XII. 28. Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Behold, O Israel, the remembrances and representations of that God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: in and by these, mayest thou recal and worship that deity.

XII. 31. And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people.

Instead of God's Temple at Jerusalem, he set up houses of pretended devotion, wherein he appointed God to be worshipped in his own idolatrous fashion; and ordained priests accordingly, men that were of other tribes, besides the sacred tribe of Levi, and men of base condition, fit for the idols he had set up.

XII. 33. He offered, &c. on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised, &c.

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