002_cudworth_co_498_523 13/02/15 11:26 Pagina 513 THE DIVISION OF ISRAEL’S KINGDOM IN CHRONICLES 513 sert the two important facts that (1) Solomon did not subject Is- raelites to slavery and (2) he did not promote non-Israelites to lead- ership. On the other hand, these verses do not say anything about the majority of Israelites that fell in between these two ranks. Pre- sumably, the Chronicler would still have the reader assume that this larger group performed very difficult work, even if it was not as bad as the forced labor to which Solomon subjected the resident aliens. He perhaps mentions one such servant (db[) in the speech of Abijah, Jeroboam (cf. 2 Chr 13,6) 46. The plea of all Israel in 2 Chronicles 10 can be compatible with such an interpretation of 8,7-10. The people say in v. 4, “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore, lighten the hard service (hdb[) of your father and the heavy yoke that he placed on us, and we will serve (db[, qal) you”. Nothing in this verse resembles the slavery that appeared in 2 Chr 8,9, but describes the work that the people were willing to do. Klein assumes that the text uses the word for “yoke” (l[) in 10,4 with the familiar agricultural and oppressive sense metaphorically to refer to forced labor on state projects, but it makes little sense to assume a definition that already contradicts the passage in 8,7-10 (see the use of “forced labor” [sm] in 8,8) 47. They did not complain that they indeed had work/service (hdb[) at all, but that it had grown to be too strenuous. Their offer to serve (db[, qal) at the end of the verse, together with the counsel of the elders in v. 7 (“If you will be good to this people […] they will be your servants [~ydb[] forever.”), further demonstrates their will- ingness to engage in work as long as the king would simply treat them well. Hence, the statements in 8,9 and 10,4 do make sense to- gether in the Chronicler’s narrative, just as they did in 1 Kings. Yet the question may still remain: even if Solomon did not sub- ject the Israelites to slavery as the text says in 8,9, does the Chron- icler ever allude to any heavy work that would have caused all Israel to plead with Rehoboam as they do in 2 Chr 10,4? As noted above, the Chronicler focuses the entirety of Solomon’s reign on his construction of the temple. Even so, he still has given some at- 46 The fact that the Chronicler inserts this note about Solomon’s servant Jeroboam alerts any interpreter to the wide semantic range of the noun. 47 KLEIN, 2 Chronicles, 158. Along these same lines, see also E.L. CURTIS – A.A. MADSEN, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Books of Chronicles (ICC; Edinburgh 1910) 363.