Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Kings 9:22

"But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondservants; but they were the men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen." — 1 Kings 9:22 (ASV)

No slaves. This exemption, however it may have continued in theory, must virtually have been set aside in the later days of Solomon (See 1 Kings 12:4). They are here described as occupying the position of a dominant race—as warriors, personal attendants to the king, princes, and officers in the army—like the free vassals under a feudal monarchy. But as the absolute power of the king increased, and with it, perhaps, the wealth and arrogance of his favourites and greater officers, the freedom from serfdom for the Israelites as a whole might be more in name than in reality.

Even the subject races might be played off against them, as with the Macedonians in the later years of Alexander the Great, when his rule transformed into something resembling a true Oriental despotism. Certainly, in later times we find, both from history and the prophetic books, that there was such a thing as serfdom of the poor to the princes (Jeremiah 34:8–11; Nehemiah 5:11).