Sunday Sermonette: Ridiculous boasting

Chapter 8 is absurd. It gives Solomon a vast empire, including numerous tributary kingdoms, a marriage to the daughter of the Pharaoh, and a tribute from Hiram of 50 metric tons of gold. The reality is that Israel at this time was a minor domain consisting of a few villages. There really isn ' t any more to be said about this, it ' s complete bullshit.8 At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built the temple of theLord and his own palace,2 Solomon rebuilt the villages that Hiram[a] had given him, and settled Israelites in them.3 Solomon then went to Hamath Zobah and captured it.4 He also built up Tadmor in the desert and all the store cities he had built in Hamath.5 He rebuilt Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth Horon as fortified cities, with walls and with gates and bars,6 as well as Baalath and all his store cities, and all the cities for his chariots and for his horses[b]—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and throughout all the territory he ruled.7 There were still people left from the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (these people were not Israelites).8 Solomon conscripted the descendants of all these people remaining in the land —whom the Israelites had not destroyed—to serve as slave labor, as it is to this day.9 But Solomon did not make slaves of the Israelites for his work; they were his fighting men, commanders of his captains, and commanders of his chariots and chariot...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs