SuperJubilee

Peter J. Leithart, October 09, 2004

Jerome Walsh notes that the temple and palace of Solomon were completed 500 years after the exodus (480 years in 1 Ki 6:1 + 20 years for completion, 9:10). Walsh suggests that the 500 year total alludes to the Jubilee; this would have been the 10th Jubilee since the exodus, and might be seen as a kind of "SuperJubilee."

If so, then it is an ironic one. At the Jubilee, land returned to its original owners, its original JEWISH owners; but after Solomon has completed the temple and the palace, he sells a portion of Galilee to Hiram of Tyre. Gentiles (even Canaanites �ESidon is the first son of Canaan, and Tyre is the twin of Sidon) take over part of the holy land. Ahab, a perverse Solomon, is merely carrying Solomon's policies forward several degrees when he enters a marriage alliance with Sidon, and pursues a re-Canaanitization of the land. Throughout Kings, the chipping away of the holy land is increasingly a theme, particularly the chipping away of the land from the house of David. Eventually, they lose the land entirely. But the process begins under Solomon.