1 KINGS 9:9 — KING JAMES VERSION 0 0
“And they shall answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil.”
"All the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel—their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel were unable to destroy utterly—these Solomon made a forced levy of slaves, and so they are to this day." — The *remaining Canaanite peoples* (the *'am ha-nothrah*, people left behind) were *conscripted as forced labor* (*mas avod*, labor service). The phrase *'ad ha-yom ha-zeh* (to this day) suggests these *enslaved populations* remained in place throughout Solomon's reign and beyond. The *distinction* is critical: *Israelites* are subject to *rotating* levy (1 Kings 5:13-14), while *foreigners* are subjected to *permanent slavery*.
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