Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

On the arrangement of the statute labour, see on Kg1 9:20-23. - This note is in Chr. abruptly introduced immediately after the preceding. Ch2 8:7 is an absolute clause: "as regards the whole people, those." מן־בּניהם (Ch2 8:8) is not partitive: some of their sons; but is only placed before the אשׁר: those of their sons (i.e., of the descendants of the whole Canaanite people) who had remained in the land, whom the Israelites had not exterminated; Solomon made a levy of these for statute labourers. The מן is wanting in 1 Kings, but is not to be struck out here on that account. Much more surprising is the אשׁר after שׂראל מן־בּני, Ch2 8:9, which is likewise not found in 1 Kings, since the following verb נתן לא is not to be taken relatively, but contains the predicate of the subject contained in the words ישׂ מן־בּני. This אשׁר cannot be otherwise justified than by supposing that it is placed after ישׂ בני מן, as in Psa 69:27 it is placed after the subject of the relative clause, and so stands for ישׂ בני מן בן אשׂר: those who were of the sons of Israel (i.e., Israelites) Solomon did not make ... The preplacing of בּניהם מן in Ch2 8:8 would naturally suggest that ישׂ בני מן should also precede, in order to bring out sharply the contrast between the sons of the Canaanites and the sons of Israel.