And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year
after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt
The Tyrian writers F11 make it five hundred sixty years from hence; but this no doubt is tightest, which Junius reckons thus; forty years Israel were in the wilderness, seventeen under Joshua, two hundred ninety nine under the judges, eighty under Eli, Samuel, and Saul, forty under David, add to which the four years of Solomon, and they make four hundred eighty F12; they are somewhat differently reckoned by others
in the, fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel;
when he was clear of all disturbers of his government, and had got all things ready for the building of the temple, and had gathered together gold and silver enough of his own to defray the expenses; for, as for what David gave him, he put that into the treasury of the Lord's house, see ( 1 Kings 7:51 ) ;
in the month Zif, which [is] the second month;
and so must be Jiar, for Abib or Nisan was the first, and Jiar was the second, which answered to part of our April and part of May; called Zif either from the splendour of the sun, being now higher, and so the greater; or from the trees and flowers of the field being in all their glory; and so the Targum here calls it, the month of splendour of flowers: and it was on the second day of it,
that he began to build the house of the Lord:
and a very fit and proper season of the year it was to begin it in, see ( 2 Chronicles 3:2 ) .
F11 Apud Theophil. ad Autolyc. l. 3. p. 131.
F12 So Gerard. Voss. Chron. Sacr. Isagoge, dissert. 8. c. 7. p. 128.
F13 Vid. Vitring. Hypotypos. Hist. Sacr. p. 43.