1 Kings 9 (WEB)
Dr. House speaks about the important site of Hazor in Upper Galilee, one of the three important military cities of King Solomon.
I'm standing here among the gates at Hazor, sometimes called Hatzor, found in the Galilee.
And the importance of this site, which is the largest archaeological site in Israel, is that it confirms something that we know from the Scriptures.
Archaeologists in times past claim that there was no Solomon, even as they have said there was no David, his father.
But what we find in the text of 1 Kings, the author says…
Now, the importance of what we're looking at here is that we have three chariot cities of Solomon, as it's spoken about in Scripture.
Again, Megiddo, which guarded the passes that came from the coastal area.
Gezer, over more toward the coast, in the area of what we think of as the Philistines.
And then we have Hazor.
Now, if you'll notice here, the gates.
What's so significant?
Well, it says that Megiddo and Gezer and Hazor are in fact cities of Solomon.
And what we discovered is that when they began to use the biblical text in acknowledging that these are cities of Solomon, they were noticing, the architects, that this is actually the identical structure to what you observe at Megiddo and Gezer.
Matter of fact, they even anticipated where to dig for the walls, because they said, if this is in fact done by the same architect of Solomon in the 10th century,
what we're observing then is identical layout.
Thus the Bible is substantiated: the three cities, the three chariot cities of King Solomon, here at Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer.
There is a little difference, though, and it's not bad.
It's just interesting, because here at Hazor we also have the representation of towers as they enter into the gate period that we don't see at Megiddo.
But nonetheless, the Bible once again has received a substantiation.
If we follow Scripture, then we're likely to find evidence standing before us.
History and Scripture are not at variance.
The Bible is not a book of just nice stories that are told in Sunday school.
The Bible is a record of God, of His workings in the world that He created, His workings in human history, His deeds among His people.
And so when we read the Bible and we take them as being from God and historically accurate, then what we discover is that as we do our work, it will in fact be shown to be true.
And here at Hazor is evidence of that.
1When Solomon had finished the building of Yahweh’s house, the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he was pleased to do, 2Yahweh appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3Yahweh said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before me. I have made this house holy, which you have built, to put my name there forever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually. 4As for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances, 5then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised to David your father, saying, ‘There shall not fail from you a man on the throne of Israel.’ 6But if you turn away from following me, you or your children, and not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7then I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have made holy for my name, out of my sight; and Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8Though this house is so high, yet everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this land and to this house?’ 9and they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned Yahweh their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them, and served them. Therefore Yahweh has brought all this evil on them.’”
10At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, Yahweh’s house and the king’s house 11(now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and cypress trees, and with gold, according to all his desire), King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 12Hiram came out of Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they didn’t please him. 13He said, “What cities are these which you have given me, my brother?” He called them the land of Cabul to this day. 14Hiram sent to the king one hundred twenty talents of gold.
15This is the reason of the forced labor which King Solomon conscripted: to build Yahweh’s house, his own house, Millo, Jerusalem’s wall, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. 16Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, taken Gezer, burned it with fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it for a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. 17Solomon built in the land Gezer, Beth Horon the lower, 18Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness, 19all the storage cities that Solomon had, the cities for his chariots, the cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 20As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel— 21their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel were not able utterly to destroy—of them Solomon raised a levy of bondservants to this day. 22But of the children of Israel Solomon made no bondservants; but they were the men of war, his servants, his princes, his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen. 23These were the five hundred fifty chief officers who were over Solomon’s work, who ruled over the people who labored in the work.
24But Pharaoh’s daughter came up out of David’s city to her house which Solomon had built for her. Then he built Millo.
25Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he built to Yahweh three times per year, burning incense with them on the altar that was before Yahweh. So he finished the house.
26King Solomon made a fleet of ships in Ezion Geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. 27Hiram sent in the fleet his servants, sailors who had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. 28They came to Ophir, and fetched from there gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon.