1 Kings 10:15

Besides that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffic of the spice merchants,.... What they paid him as a duty or custom for the importation of their goods: and of all the kings of Arabia; who

Beside that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffick of the spice merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the country. Governors - [ pachowt (H6346). The Septuagint renders it by: satrapoon].

Of the merchantmen, Heb. of the searchers, or spies, i.e. either merchants, who use to inquire and search out commodities, and all advantages of trade; or rather, the publicans or gatherers of the king’ s revenues, who used to search narrowly into all wares and dealings, that the king might not be defrauded of his rights. Of the spice merchants, or rather, of the merchants in general, as that word is oft used in Ezekiel 27, and elsewhere. So this and the former particular contain both the branches of the king’ s revenue, what he had from the land and fruits thereof, and what he had from the merchants and traders in other commodities. Of all the kings of Arabia, to wit, of those parts of Arabia which were next to Canaan, which were either conquered by David, or submitted to pay tribute to Solomon. But we must not think all these to be kings of large dominions, but many of them only governors of cities, and the territories belonging to them, such as were formerly in Canaan, and were anciently called kings. Of the country, or, of the land, or, of that land, for there is an article in the Hebrew; i.e. either of the land of Canaan; or rather, of the land of Arabia; whereof some parts were so far conquered, that he had governors of his own over them, who were each of them to take care of the king’ s revenue in his jurisdiction; and part only so far that they still had kings of their own, but such as were tributaries to him.

1 Kings 10:15 Beside [that he had] of the merchantmen, and of the traffick of the spice merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the country.Ver. 15. Besides that he had of the merchantmen] Or, Of the publicans and custom takers; Heb., Men that searched, or spied their opportunities of making the best of their commodities. And of the traffic of the spice merchants.] Far sweeter matter to make gain of than e lotio, as Vespasian; to whom dulcis erat odor lucri ex re qualibet.

(15) The governors of the country.—The word “governor” (pechah) is supposed to be of foreign origin—possibly cognate to the Sanscrit word paksha “friend.” It is used constantly of foreign officers, or satraps: as in 1 Kings 20:24, of the Syrian officers; in 2 Kings 18:24 and Isaiah 36:9, of the Assyrians; in Jeremiah 51:23, of the Babylonians; in Esther 8:9, Nehemiah 5:14; Nehemiah 5:18; Nehemiah 12:26, &c., of the Persians. Hence it would seem to be used here, not for the officers in the land of Israel described in 1 Kings 4, but for governors (Israelite or foreign) in tributary countries: and it may possibly be a word of later origin than the age of Solomon, introduced by the compiler of the book.

15. beside that he had of the merchantmen] There are two kinds of traders specified in this verse, and the participle here used to describe the first signifies ‘those who go about’ with their goods, hawkers of their wares, which is a general characteristic of Oriental traffickers. Hence in R.V. the word chapmen has been adopted, and the clause a little differently worded. Literally it is, ‘beside (what came) from the men of the hawkers,’ and this is represented by ‘beside that which the chapmen brought,’ though the literal rendering shews that ‘brought’ might fairly have been printed in Roman and not in italics. The LXX. gives, apparently having read some other words in the original, ‘from the tribute of the subject people.’ and of the traffick of the spice merchants] A mistaken identification of the word descriptive of this second class of traders with a Syrian noun which means ‘a dealer in aromatic herbs’ has led to the rendering ‘spice merchants.’ The word merely implies another class of merchants, but whether more or less dignified than the former it is not easy to make out. The LXX. renders by ἒμπορος here and elsewhere, and gives here ‘the taxes on the merchants’. Render (as there is no preposition with this clause) and the traffick of the merchants. and of all the kings of Arabia] R.V. ‘and of all the kings of the mingled people.’ The word in the original, though it has the same consonants, has not the same vowels as the proper name. In this text we have δָ ?ςֶ ?ψֶ ?α, while the other word is ςֲ ?ψַ ?α = Arabia. That the two are distinct designations is proved by Jeremiah 25:24, where both occur in the same verse, ‘all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mingled people.’ The word in our text is used very early in the history of Israel (Exodus 12:38) of ‘the mixed multitude’ which came up with the Israelites out of Egypt, and afterwards of people who were in a sort of loose attachment to the kingdom. (Cf. Jeremiah 1:3-7.) In the parallel passage (2 Chronicles 9:14) the Hebrew text has the ‘kings of Arabia,’ but the form of the sentence is somewhat altered, and the close connexion of the two sets of persons in the verse already quoted from Jeremiah makes it not unlikely that both were under a sort of tribute to Solomon. The LXX. has τῶνβασιλέωντοῦπέραν, but the Vulgate ‘reges Arabiζ.’ and of the governors of the country] Most likely those officers are meant whose positions were described 1 Kings 4:7-19. After the Oriental fashion such persons would pay for their posts by regular tribute to the king.

There is no mention in the original of “spice merchants.” Two classes of traders are spoken of; but both expressions are general. Kings of Arabia - Rather, “kings of the mingled people” (compare Jeremiah 25:24).

15. Merchantmen… spice merchants — The difference between the two is difficult to determine. The rendering, spice merchant is unauthorized by any thing in the original word.