2 Chronicles 9:14

2Ch 9:14 Beside [that which] chapmen and merchants brought. And all the kings of Arabia and governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon.

Ver. 14. See 1Ki 10:15-17, &c.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 14. The kings of Arabia] "The kings of Sistevantha." - Targum.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(14) Besides that which chapmen and merchants brought.—The Hebrew is difficult, and probably corrupt. Literally it seems to run, besides the men of the itinerants (a strange phrase), and that which the merchants were bringing; or, perhaps, apart from the men of the itinerants and the merchants bringing. The last word may be a clerical error, as it occurs again directly. The conjecture of Thenius on 1Ki_10:15 seems to be borne out by the ancient Versions. He would read instead of ’anshê ha-târîm, “men of the travellers,” ‘onshê ha-r’dûyîm, “fines or tributes of the subjects.” The Syriac of Chronicles has “tributes of the cities.” Perhaps, therefore, the true original reading was ‘onshê he‘arîm. The Vulg. renders “envoys of divers peoples;” but the LXX., “men of the subjected (states).”

For the second half of the phrase Kings has, “and the merchandise of the pedlars.”

The kings of Arabia.—Kings, “the kings of the mixed tribes;” that is, the Bêdâwîs, bordering on and mingling with Israel. (Comp. Exo_12:38.) The difference depends on the vowel pointing only. (Comp. Jer_25:24, where both words occur; and Eze_30:5.)

Governors.—Pachôth, i.e., pashas. Thenius is wrong in supposing this word to be a token of the “later composition of the section.” (See Note on 2Ki_18:24.)

Brought.—Were bringing = used to bring. (Comp. 2Ch_9:23-24.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. chapmen] R.V. the chapmen. The English word means “merchant”; cp. the verb, “to chaffer” and the German “Kaufmann.” The Heb. word means “those who go about” as merchants.

governors] Heb. Paḥoth, a word applied specially to governors of provinces of the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian empires. Probably here governors outside the land of Israel are meant.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Beside. Hebrew, "besides that which chapmen and merchants brought." (Protestants) The deputies appear to be the tax-gatherers, 3 Kings x. 15. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Beside, etc. The preposition (In.) left both here and in the parallel, before the words "men of," etc., in the compound English word chapmen (Authorized Version), shows clearly the construction of this and the following sentence; from the previous verse needs to come the words, after our "beside," "the weight of gold which came," etc. This gold probably came by way of tax payments from the merchant travellers, and as tribute money from the kings of the part of Arabia where the blood was mingled, Jewish and Arabian, and not exclusively and independently Arabian (see the word used in place of our Arabian in the parallel, and, (Jer_25:24) and from those governors (perhaps in some cases superseding older kings) of adjacent countries, that had become in some part tributary to Solomon. Governors. For this unusual and un-Hebrew word (twOjp) see Ezr_5:6; Hag_1:1; Neh_5:14.

Gesenius mentions Turkish, Persian, and Sanscrit derivations that would well suit it. It is very noticeable that it is employed also by the writer of Kings. It is used of a ruler in the Assyrian empire (2Ki_18:24; Isa_36:9) in the Chaldean (Eze_23:6, Eze_23:23; Jer_51:23) in the Persian, (Est_8:9 Est_9:3) specially of the Persian governor of Judaea (Hag_1:1, 14 2:2, 21; Neh_5:14, 18 12:26; Mal_1:8) while Gesenius reads this passage in our present text and its parallel, to speak of governors of Judaea (the country). See also 1Ki_20:24, where the word is translated (Authorized Version) "captains," and is in the Syrian king"s mouth. The word is not used before Kings. It is used by the writer of Kings three times; of Chronicles, once; by Ezra, six times; in Nehemiah, eight times; in Esther, three times; in Daniel, four times; and in the remaining prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Haggai, Malachi, ten times in all. The Authorized Version, out of the whole number of these occurrences of the word, has rendered it "captains" thirteen times; "deputies," twice; and "governors," twenty times.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Aside from that which the guides - Heb. הַתָּרִים. They were afraid to pass from province to province or from kingdom to kingdom without a guide, and they would give him the guide’s fee.

and the merchants would bring They would bring him [gold] on a pretext in order to see his wisdom.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.