What Does 2 Chronicles 1:13 Mean?

(13) **Then Solomon came from his journey to the high place that was at Gibeon to Jerusalem.**—Heb., *And Solomon came to the high place that was in Gibeon to Jerusalem.* Clearly we should read, *“from* the high place,” with the LXX. and Vulgate. The difficulty is as old as the Syriac version, which reads, “And Solomon came to the great high place [reading *bûmsâ*—*i.e., *βῶμος—with Dr. Payne Smith] that is in Gibeon the city, which is on the east of Jerusalem, from before the tabernacle.” **From before the tabernacle of the congregation.**—See 2Chronicles 1:3; 2Chronicles 1:6. Perhaps “to (or *at*) the high place that was at G-ibeon,” was originally a marginal gloss upon this expression. (Comp. 2Chronicles 1:3.) The reading, “And Solomon came to Jerusalem from before the tent of tryst,” would be quite intelligible without this addition. **And reigned over Israel.**—Syr., *over all Israel.* (Comp. 1Kings 4:1.) But the remark, “and he reigned over Israel,” is by no means “superfluous” (Bertheau), inasmuch as it naturally introduces the following sketch of the reign, which carries us on from God’s promise to its fulfilment. The chronicler does not notice the sacrifices which, on his return, Solomon offered before the ark at Jerusalem (1Kings 3:15), nor the story of the king’s wise judgment which there follows (1Kings 3:16-28). It is unreasonable to seek any other ground of such omissions than the free and legitimate exercise of the compiler’s discretion in the choice of his own materials. That he did not depreciate the sanctuary on Mount Zion as a place of sacrifice, is evident from 1Chronicles 21:18 to 1Chronicles 22:1.