1 Kings 9 · a question people ask
Why does 2 Chronicles tell some of this differently?
2 Chronicles 8 tells the same years ("At the end of twenty years", 2 Chronicles 8:1; 9:10), and in places its words differ. 1 Kings says "King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee" (9:11); 2 Chronicles says "Solomon built the cities which Huram had given to Solomon, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there" (2 Chronicles 8:2). 1 Kings has "Tamar in the wilderness" (9:18); 2 Chronicles has "He built Tadmor in the wilderness" (2 Chronicles 8:4). In the Hebrew of 9:18 the name is written with the letters of Tamar and marked to be read as Tadmor, the name in 2 Chronicles. 1 Kings counts "the five hundred fifty chief officers who were over Solomon’s work" (9:23); 2 Chronicles, "These were the chief officers of King Solomon, even two-hundred fifty, who ruled over the people" (2 Chronicles 8:10). From Ophir 1 Kings has "gold, four hundred and twenty talents" (9:28); 2 Chronicles has "four hundred fifty talents of gold" (2 Chronicles 8:18). The Bible doesn't explain the differences, and these notes set the verses side by side without joining them.
The verses
“At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the LORD’s house and the king’s house (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.”
“At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the LORD’s house and his own house, Solomon built the cities which Huram had given to Solomon, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there.”
“Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness,”
“He built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the storage cities, which he built in Hamath.”