Journey Through Kings & Chronicles Part 1Намуна

Rise & Reign of Solomon: Behind the Text

The real problem that Solomon faced was keeping his heart fully devoted to God while his empire building so closely resembled that of their pagan neighbors.

Kingship

Solomon’s Building Projects

And this is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the LORD and his own house and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer.

1 Kings 9:15 (ESV)

We learn in 1 Kings that Solomon was engaged in a number of major building projects besides the Temple and his palace. This carousel takes you through a brief tour of some of those locations. Of special note are the similar gate constructions in Gezer, Megiddo and Hazor, all from Solomon’s era.

Solomon built and fortified three cities on the major trade route. Megiddo and Gezer were extensions of control into areas Israel had struggled to control.

Megiddo was a focal point of Solomon’s construction. Megiddo was very sophisticated: its gate and defenses show some of the “Solomonic Footprint.”

Since the days of Joshua and the settlement of the Promised Land, Hazor was an important site for ancient Israel. This trend continued In Solomon’s day.

Like Gezer and Megiddo, Hazor has been described as exhibiting the “Solomon Footprint,” with a chambered gate and a casemate wall encompassing the city.

At Megiddo, archaeologists found what most consider Solomon’s stables (1 Kings 10:26). The city was a focal point of his building campaigns.

The Bible tells us that Solomon received Gezer as a wedding gift from Pharaoh when he married his daughter. This site shares the “Solomonic footprint.”

Soldiers would hide in chambers behind the outer gates to prepare to repel invaders. To come in, you had to go through three sets of chambers and gates.

A close-up of the so-called “Solomonic Gate” at Gezer. This gate functioned with a casemate wall that encompassed the city.