The Tanakh Podcast

If last chapter, Rechavam makes quite a blunder losing the 10 northern tribes and splitting the kingdom, chapter 11 offers many of Rechavam's achievements.

But his success is only going to last as lo…

After Solomon, the kingdom splits into two states - Ephraim and Yehudah.

Today we address the friction between these two factions, going back to Rachel and Leah, and forward to the days of the Messiah…

This chapter discusses the state visits of foreign kings and queens, but more than anything we find it replete with gold (16 mentions) and silver (4 mentions).

Is this good news or bad news?

Today we discuss the contradictions between Sefer MEalkhim and Chronicles. And we discuss the music that has been the soundtrack of our podcast:

Lyrics of the song

Hebrew

English

Versions of the song

Tr…

Solomon has prayed. Will God respond?

He does. Fire descends from heaven.

This is followed by much celebration.

But after it is all over, God appears yet again to Solomon and, on the one hand, asserts …

What was inside the Holy of Holies?

Did Solomon make adjustments to the Ark of the Covenant?

What was inside the Ark of the Covenant?

Today we speak about a whole groups of new additions to the Temple: Bronze pillars, a huge water receptacle called the "Yam", a new altar far larger than Moses' original, 10 tables, 10 basins, ten Me…

Today we discuss 4 topics.

1. The identification of the Temple altar as a historic site of sacrifice.

2. The image of the palm tree as a Judean royal symbol

3. Interesting Hebrew words in ch.2 and 3

4. T…

Solomon wastes no time. He organizes a lobor force and gets to work on the Temple project. He appeals to Hiram, King of Tyre, asking him to provide timber to build the Temple.

In today's podcast we di…

In this chapter, Solomon travels to Gibeon to bring sacrifices there.

What is Gibeon? Why is Solomon sacrificing there?

How does this play a role in Solomon's life? In the story of the Temple?

With this chapter Solomon is crowned and David dies.

The final lines that we hear from David are incorporated into our prayer book. It is a chapter that talks about the participation of the nation, ab…

This is the account of

1. Shelomo's accession to the throne

2. The transmission of the Temple project from David to Shelomo

This chapter moves on from the Temple and itemizes four areas of David's national infrastructure:

1. The army reserves

2. Tribal leaders

3. Stewards of the king

4. David's Cabinet and Advisory

Our chapter continues to delineate the roles of the Levites. Three roles are described:

1. Guards and gatekeepers

2. Treasurers and Officials responsible for the storehouses

3. Magistrates and Law Enfor…

In our chapter, Kind David organizes the musical guilds of the Levites, yet again dividing them into 24 groups. We hear names familiar from Tehillim - Heman, Yedutoun and Assaf.

But we will focus on …

In this chapter we see a list of the twenty-four "orders" or guilds, our "houses" of the priesthood.

What were these groups? How did this division into priestly sub-groups work?

In Chapter 23 David takes a census of the Levites and assigns them to one of four divisions:

1. Management and supervision of the Construction of the Temple

2. Shoftim and Shotrim - Law (and order)

3. G…

In this sweeping story of sin, atonement, sacrifice and atonement, the site of the Temple will be discovered and purchased by David Hamelech.

See also our commentary to Shmuel Bet ch,24