1. K. 9 : 10 And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, wherein Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king’s house, (now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him ; and they pleased him not. And he said, What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother ? And he called them the Land of Cabul, unto this day. And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold.

2. Chron. 8 : 1 And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, wherein Solomon had built the house of the LORD, and his own house, that the cities which Hiram had given to Solomon, Solomon built them, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there. 3, 4 And Solomon went to Hamath-zobah, and prevailed against it. And he built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the store cities, which he built in Hamath. Also he built Beth-horon the upper, and Beth-horon the nether, fenced cities, with walls, gates, and bars ; and Baalath, and all the store cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

1. K. 9 : 15 And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised ; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer. Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a portion unto his daughter, 17, 18 Solomon’s wife. And Solomon built Gezer, and Beth-horon the nether, and Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land, and all the store cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. As for all the people that were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and

21 the Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel; their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel were not able utterly to destroy, of them did 22 Solomon raise a levy of bondservants, unto this day. But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondservants: but they were the men of war, and his servants, and his princes, 23 and his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen. These were the chief officers that were over Solomon’s work, five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work.

1. K. 4: 1, 2 And king Solomon was king over all Israel. And these were the princes 3 which he had; Azariah the son of Zadok, the priest; Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of 4 Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder; and Benaiah the son of Je- 5 hoiada was over the host; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests; and Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers; and Zabud the son of Nathan was priest, and the king’s friend; 6 and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the levy. 7 And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, which provided victuals for the king and his 8 household: each man had to make provision for a month in the year. And these are their 9 names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim: Ben-deker, in Makaz, and in Shaalbim, and 10 Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan: Ben-hesed, in Arubboth; to him pertained Sooch, and 11 all the land of Hepher: Ben-abinadab, in all the height of Dor; he had Taphath the daughter 12 of Solomon to wife: Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is beside Zarethan, beneath Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as beyond 13 Jokmeam: Ben-geber, in Ramoth gilead; to him pertained the towns of Jair the son of Man- asseh, which are in Gilead; even to him pertained the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, 14 threescore great cities with walls and brazen bars: Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim: 15, 16 Ahimaaz, in Naphtali; he also took Basemath the daughter of Solomon to wife: Baana the 17, 18 son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth: Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar: Shimei 19 the son of Ela, in Benjamin: Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; and he was the only officer which was in the 22 land. And Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore 23 measures of meal; ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and an hundred sheep, beside harts, and gazelles, and roebucks, and fatted fowl.

2. Chron. 1: 14 And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, which he placed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.

1. K. 4: 26, 27 And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots. And those officers provided victual for king Solomon, and for all that came unto king Solomon’s 28 table, every man in his month: they let nothing be lacking. Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds brought they unto the place where the officers were, every man according to his charge. 2 Chron. 1: 16 And the horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt; the 17 king’s merchants received them in droves, each drove at a price. And they fetched up, and brought out of Egypt a chariot for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty: and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means.

Solomon’s buildings and undertakings. So far the historian has spoken exclusively of the two greatest works of Solomon’s reign, the Temple and the Palace, and principally of the former. Even the message just related was, as we have seen, the response to the prayer offered when the temple was consecrated. But he now proceeds to mention other proofs of Solomon’s greatness, and of the prosperity of his reign—doubtless because the glory of Israel then reached its climax, and the author would be tempted to linger over these details because of the dark contrast which his own time supplied

—and this leads him to speak of the means by which all these enterprises were accomplished. The particulars here given are but fragmentary, and are grouped together in a somewhat irregular manner. It would seem as if both this account and that of the chronicler had been compiled from much more copious histories, each writer having cited those particulars which appeared to him to be the most interesting and important. But the design of the historian in either case is evident—viz., to recount the principal undertakings of this illustrious king, and to indicate the resources which enabled him to accomplish such extensive designs. Hammond.

1. K. 9 : 10-13.** The great works connected with the establishment of God’s house, and of his own royal state at Jerusalem, to which city they added an entirely new quarter, occupied the first half of Solomon’s reign, a period of twenty years, 1015-996 B.C. The services of the King of Tyre were acknowledged by the cession of twenty cities along the sea-coast of Galilee, a gift at which Hiram expressed his discontent by a play upon the name of one of them, C-bul, a word signifying dirt in the Phœnician dialect. P. 8.—It appears that, besides furnishing him with wood, Hiram had also advanced gold to Solomon (verse 11), amounting, if we may connect with this the notice in verse 14, to 120 talents of gold. We suppose it was in repayment of this sum that Solomon ceded to Hiram twenty cities in Northern Galilee, adjoining the possessions of Tyre. With these he might the more readily part, since the district was partially “Gentile.” But Hiram, who probably coveted a strip of land along the coast, was dissatisfied with his new acquisition, and gave it the contemptuous designation of “the land of Cabul.” The district seems, however, to have been afterward restored to Solomon, no doubt on repayment of the loan and other compensation. (See next paragraph of text, 2 Chron. 8 : 1, 2.)

2. Chron. 8 : 3-6 ; 1 K. 9 : 15-26.** The great Palace, the Temple, and the enlargement of Millo and of the city wall, were not the only architectural undertakings of King Solomon. Remembering that there were watchful foes on all sides, he either built or repaired a number of strong places. In the north, as defence against Syria, rose the ancient stronghold of Hazor. The plain of Jezreel, the traditional battle-field of, as well as the highway into Palestine from the west and the north, was protected by Megiddo ; while the southern approach from Egypt and the Philistine plain was guarded by Gezer, which Pharaoh had before this taken from the Canaanites and burned, but afterward given to his daughter as dowry on her marriage with Solomon. Not far from Gezer, and serving a similar defensive purpose, rose the fortress of Baalath, in the possession of Dan. The eastern and northeastern parts of Solomon’s dominions were protected by Tamar or Tadmor, probably the Palmyra of the ancients, and by Hamath-Zobah, while access to Jerusalem and irruptions from the northwestern plain were barred by the fortification of Upper and Nether Bethhoron. Besides these fortresses, the king provided magazine-cities, and others where his chariots and cavalry were stationed—most of them, probably, toward the north. In all such undertakings Solomon employed the forced labor of the descendants of the ancient Canaanite inhabitants of Palestine, his Jewish subjects being chiefly engaged as overseers and officers in various departments. But even thus, the diversion of so much labor and the taxation which his undertakings must have involved were felt as a “grievous service” and “heavy yoke” (1 K. 12 : 4), all the more that Solomon’s love of building and of Oriental splendor seems to have rapidly grown upon him. Thus, once more by a natural process of causation, the inner decay marked by luxury led to the weakening of the kingdom of Solomon, and scattered the seeds of that disaffection which, in the days of his degenerate son, ripened into open rebellion. So true is it, that in the history of Israel the inner and the outer always keep pace. A. E.

16. The mention of Gezer leads to a parenthesis of considerable length (verses 16-19). The question of the levy is put aside for the time, while the historian explains how it was that the king came to build Gezer. He then proceeds to mention the other towns built during the same reign. Hammond.

In the north and northeast, Hamath, which apparently had thrown off the yoke on David’s death, was recovered. Fortresses were established along the heights of Lebanon, and stations along the desert toward the Euphrates. Of these establishments two remain, which, partly by tradition, partly by resemblance of name, are connected with Solomon. One is Baalbec or Baalath (verse 17) ; the great sanctuary, which commanded the valley of Coolesyria, on the way to Hamath, and of which the enormous substructions appear to date from an age far anterior to the Syro-Greek or Syro-Roman temples built upon them. Eastward his dominion extended to Thapsacus, and on the way to this is the other probable memorial of his greatness, “Tadmor in the wilderness ;” if we may trust the native name which has clung to the famous city of Zenobia, in spite of its Roman appellation, by which it has been translated. Its situation, in what must then have been a palm-grove, at the point where the wide, barren valley, enclosed between two parallel ranges of hills, opens on the still wider desert, and where the abundant springs gather round it a circle of vegetation, would naturally have pointed it out to Solomon as a site for a city, and a halting-place for caravans half-way between Damascus and Babylon. Stanley.

2. Chron. 8 : 4. Tadmor in the wil-**

derness. There is no reasonable doubt that this city, said to have been built by Solomon, is the same as Palmyra. The identity of the two cities is thus established: Josephus mentions the same city as bearing in his time the name of Tadmor among the Syrians, and Palmyra among the Greeks; and Jerome translates Tadmor by Palmyra. The modern Arabic name of Palmyra is substantially the same as the Hebrew word, being Tadmor or Tathmor. The word Tadmor has nearly the same meaning as Palmyra, signifying probably the City of Palms, from Heb. tāmār = a palm. The name Tadmor or Tadmōr actually occurs as the name of the city in Aramaic and Greek inscriptions found there. In 2 Chron. 8, the city is mentioned as built by Solomon after his conquest of Hamath-Zobah, and is named with “all the store-cities which he built in Hamath.” This accords fully with the situation of Palmyra; and there is no other known city, either in the desert or not in the desert, which can lay claim to the name of Tadmor. Dic. B.

As Solomon held the fortress of Thapsacus at the place where the caravans crossed the Euphrates, he could afford an escort of troops thence to Tadmor, and thence again to the western coast, if required; and for this, as well as for the aid and assistance at Tadmor, and for the advantages of its stores and khans, a toll might reasonably be required; and this would cheerfully be paid, as a return for actual benefits, and as a most gratifying exchange for the harassing, irregular, inordinate, and greedy exactions of the Arab tribes. But we apprehend that Tadmor was more than a watering and resting station; that it became under Solomon what we know it was in later times, an actual emporium for the products of the East, where the caravans terminated their journey, deposited their ladings, transacted their sales with the factors from the West, who then took charge of the commodities, and bore them away thence to the western markets at their leisure, or whither the dealers repaired to purchase such of those commodities as they required from the consignees. This is the usual mode in which the goods brought by distant caravans are disposed of in the East, almost always at some border town, and rarely at the ultimate market. More than this, we see little room to doubt that Solomon himself took up, by his agents, the greater part, if not the whole, of the goods thus brought into his territories, and kept them in his stores, eventually selling them at a profit to such of the western merchants as required them. This would, in fact, amount to a monopoly of the

Eastern trade. But such is the custom of Eastern kings when they take any interest in commercial undertakings. And not only so, but such royal merchants are very much in the habit of taking such commodities from the caravans at their own price, which the merchant dare not refuse to accept. This, however, has a practical limit, and must especially have had such in the case of Solomon, for the result might have been to direct the traffic into some other channel, which might have been found by crossing the Euphrates more to the north, and so proceeding westward. But this expensive and fatiguing course would not be adopted without more serious cause than so prudent a king as Solomon would be likely to give. That this, in substance, was the course taken by Solomon, seems to us to be proved by the fact, that it was really the policy on which he conducted his trade with Egypt; and from the fact that we read of “store cities” which he built, and as this is mentioned in connection with his building of Tadmor, it is obviously suggested that these towns were intended to be places for the deposit and sale of the products of this great eastern land trade—so ancient, so important—and which now seems to have been chiefly in the hands of Solomon. Kit.

Tadmor was a very famous city, known among the Greeks by the name of Palmyra, situated in the wilderness of Syria, on the borders of Arabia Deserta, inclining toward the Euphrates. Josephus places it two days’ journey from Upper Syria, one day’s journey from the Euphrates, and six days’ journey from Babylon. If we may guess by the ruins which later travellers describe of this city, it was one of the finest and most magnificent in the East; and it is somewhat surprising that history should give us so little account when or by whom it was reduced to the sad condition in which it now appears. The reason of Solomon’s building this city in so desolate a place, was probably the commodiousness of its situation, to cut off all commerce between the Syrians and Mesopotamians, and to prevent their caballing and conspiring against him, as they had done against his father David. Stackhouse.

From the earliest times there seems to have been some communication between Mesopotamia and other provinces on the banks of the Euphrates, and those parts of Syria and Palestine which lay near the Mediterranean. The migration of Abram from Ur of the Chaldees to Sichem in the land of Canaan, is an instance of this. The journey through the desert which separated these countries, was much facilitated by its affording one station abounding with water and capable of cultivation. As the intercourse increased, the possession of this station became an object of so much importance, that Solomon, when he turned his attention toward the extension of commerce among his subjects, built a fenced city there. Its Syrian name of “Tadmor in the wilderness,” and its Greek name of Palmyra, are both descriptive of its situation, in a spot adorned with palm-trees. This is not only plentifully supplied with water, but surrounded by a portion of fertile land which, though of no great extent, renders it a delightful habitation in the midst of barren sands and an inhospitable desert. Its happy position, at the distance, according to Major Rennell, of 85 miles from the Euphrates, and about 117 from the nearest coast of the Mediterranean, induced its inhabitants to enter with ardor into the trade of conveying commodities from one of these to the other. Its opulence and power increased rapidly; and, from the peculiar advantages of its situation, as well as the spirit of its inhabitants, it long maintained its independence, though surrounded by powerful and ambitious neighbors. Toward the close of the seventeenth century, some gentlemen of the English factory at Aleppo, incited by what they heard in the East concerning the wonderful ruins of Palmyra, ventured, notwithstanding the danger and fatigue of a journey through the desert, to visit them. To their astonishment they beheld a fertile spot of some miles in extent, arising like an island out of a vast plain of sand, covered with the remains of temples, porticoes, aqueducts, and other public works, which in magnificence and splendor, and some of them in elegance, were not unworthy of Athens or of Rome, in their most prosperous state. Palmyra owed its aggrandizement to the opulence acquired by extensive commerce. After its conquest by Aurelian trade never revived there. At present a few miserable huts of Arabs are scattered in the courts of its stately temples, or deform its elegant porticoes. Dr. Robertson.

It became a Roman colony under Caracalla (A.D. 211-217). Subsequently, in the reign of Gallienus, the Roman senate invested Odenathus, a senator of Palmyra, with the regal dignity, on account of his services in defeating Sāpor, king of Persia. On the assassination of Odenathus, his celebrated wife Zenobia seems to have conceived the design of erecting Palmyra into an independent monarchy; and, in prosecution of this object, she, for a while, successfully resisted the Roman arms. She was at length defeated and taken captive by the Emperor Aurelian (A.D. 273). In 1172 Benjamin of Tudela found 4000 Jews there, and at a later period Abulfeda mentioned it as full of splendid ruins. The long lines of Corinthian columns at Palmyra, as seen at a distance, are peculiarly imposing; and in their general effect and apparent vastness they seem to surpass all other ruins of the same kind. The principal ruin is the great temple of the sun, the great colonnade supposed to have consisted of 1500 columns, and the tombs, which are tower-like buildings, two, three, or four stories high. Dic. B.

Neither Greece nor Italy could exhibit antiquities which in point of splendor could rival those of Palmyra. The examinations of travellers show that the ruins are of two kinds. The one class must have originated in very remote times, and consists of rude, unshapen hillocks of ruin and rubbish, covered with soil and herbage, such as now alone mark the site of the most ancient cities of Mesopotamia and Babylonia, and among which it would be reasonable to seek any traces of the more ancient city of Solomon. The other, to which the most gorgeous monuments belong, bears the impress of later ages. It is clear from the style of architecture that the later buildings belong to the three centuries preceding Diocletian, in which the Corinthian order of pillars was preferred to any other. Kit. Enc.

1. K. 9 : 19. There was another class of public works, which Solomon found it necessary to undertake. “Cities of store, cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen.” The phrase, “store cities” or “temple cities,” is borrowed from the Book of Exodus. What Pithom and Raamses were to Pharaoh, these store cities were to Solomon—at once magazines for the garrisons which held the fortresses of the empire; and warehouses, in which goods were stored, when they were purchased by the king’s merchants, or received in consignment from abroad. Both ideas are involved in the words. And both meanings may be specially applicable to “all the store cities which he built in Hamath.” Sime.

23. Five hundred and fifty. At 2 Chron. 8 : 10, the number is stated at 250. The most probable solution is, that there were 250 set over those who wrought in the temple; and the rest had the superintendence of public works in other places. Bp. Patrick.

1. K. 4 : 1-19. That this list belongs not to the beginning but to the later period of Solomon’s reign, appears certain from the fact that two of the twelve officers were married to daughters of Solomon. The list appears accordingly to contain a collection of the most distinguished officers of the kingdom during the whole of Solomon’s reign, which is inserted here for substantial reasons to give an idea of the power and glory of the kingdom of Israel under Solomon. To this both the commencement and close of the chapter point. Keil.

The prosperity of Solomon’s reign was commensurate with the fact that it was based upon the Divine promises, and typical of far greater blessings to come. The notices in 1 K. 4 and 5 are strung together to indicate that prosperity by presenting to our view the condition of the Israelitish monarchy in the high-day of its glory. Wise and respected councillors surrounded the king. The administration of the country was orderly, and the taxation not arbitrary but regulated. The land was divided, not according to the geographical boundaries of the “tribes,” but according to population and resources, into twelve provinces, over each of which a governor was appointed. Among their number we find two sons-in-law of the king (verses 11, 15), and other names well known in the land. Had this policy of rearranging the country into provinces been sufficiently consolidated, many of the tribal jealousies would have ceased. On the other hand, the financial administration, intrusted to these governors, was of the simplest kind. Apparently, no direct taxes were levied, but all that was requisite for the royal court and government had to be provided, each province supplying in turn what was required for one month. Such a system could not, indeed, press heavily so long as the country continued prosperous; but with a luxurious court, in hard times, or under harsh governors, it might easily become an instrument of oppression and a source of discontent. From 1 K. 12 : 4 we gather that such was ultimately the case. It need scarcely be added, that in each province the supreme civil government was in the hands of these royal officials; and such was the general quiet prevailing, that even in the extensive district east of the Jordan, which bordered on so many turbulent tributary nations, “one sole officer” (verse 19) was sufficient to preserve the peace of the country. Quite in accordance with these notices are the references both to the prosperity of Israel and to the extent of Solomon’s dominions. They almost read like an initial fulfilment of that promise to Abraham: “Multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.” And if, compared with the simplicity of Saul’s and even of

David’s court, that of Solomon seems luxurious in its appointments, we must remember that it was intended to show the altered state of the Israelitish monarchy, and that even so the daily consumption was far smaller than at the court of the Persian monarchs in the high-day of their power and glory. A. E.

22,23. The daily consumption of the royal household is now related to show the grandeur and luxury of the court. And it agreed well with the greatness of the kingdom. The lavish provision of Oriental palaces was evidently a subject of wonder and of boasting to the ancients, as the inscriptions and monuments show. Hammond.

2. Chron. 1 : 14.** He established a new species of military force, strongly discouraged by the law of Moses, and from which all previous rulers of this people had abstained—that of chariots and horses. Of the former he had 1400, and of the latter 12,000. Apart even from the prohibition, this was an extreme and perilous extravagance for such a country as that over which this king reigned. The country was mountainous and unsuited for cavalry. It was also a time of peace; and all the great victories of his father and other conquerors had been won in reliance upon the strength of the Lord’s arm, without any such force, and over those who possessed it. However proper, such a number of horses and chariots was wholly disproportionated to so small a country; and it is likely that no act of royal extravagance was so unpopular among the people, under whose eyes it was continually present. This kind of expenditure, in the keeping of animals not for manifest use, is always more offensive to a people, and especially to an agricultural people, than any other form of expenditure, because it is a living expense. The people soon fail to reckoning that each horse consumes the food of so many persons, the produce of so much land; and when, to support such extravagance, they are oppressed with special burdens, the grievance becomes intolerable. We do not call to mind any deep popular complaint against the extravagance of a sovereign which had not its origin in some such form of living expenditure,—that is, in the really or apparently unprofitable maintenance of persons or animals—horses, servants, functionaries, soldiers, women. Indeed, a popular complaint against even a war will, when examined, generally resolve itself into a discontent at the cost of maintaining the army—of so many consumers of food not employed in reproductive labor. Kit.

1. K. 4 : 26.** The numeral “forty” rests on an old error in transcription for four, as the older expositors have observed. These chariots and saddle horses Solomon kept partly in Jerusalem, partly in several towns, which he pitched upon for this purpose. Kell.

From the coming out of Egypt to the end of David’s reign, the people of Israel never suffered for want of force and strength in war. Troops, few in number, and seemingly unfit for action, supported neither by chariots nor by horsemen, proved an overmatch for royal armies. This may be verified in the instances of Gideon, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel, and of all others called forth by God to save his people. During this period, also, the kingdom of Israel was carried to its utmost height by David. He held the kings about him, how gallantly soever they and their troops were mounted, under tribute and subjection, though he himself rode on a mule, and provided no better equipage for his son on his coronation day. When David looked back and meditated on this state of things, he might well say, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God” (Ps. 20 : 7). In the reign of Solomon things quickly changed. He married the daughter of the king of Egypt, and opened a commerce between that country and his own: and the next news we hear of him is, that he “had four thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.” They who succeeded him followed his example; and from his time the kings of Judah and Israel had, whenever they were able to keep them, a strength of chariots and horsemen. Let us now see what they got by this change: Solomon came to a kingdom firmly established, the princes round him were tributary to him, and those at a distance feared and admired him: but troubles soon overtook him: the Edomite on one side, the king of Damascus on the other, insulted him; nor was he able, with all his new forces, to quell these upstart enemies. But the most remarkable event, and that which seems designed by Providence to humble the pride of Israel, was the division of the kingdom upon the death of Solomon, which produced a war of many years’ continuance between Israel and Judah, wherein their forces were employed, with various success, in weakening and destroying one another. During this time the king of Egypt, the country which had furnished Solomon with all his horses, came up against Jerusalem, and took it, and carried away all the treasures of the temple, and of the royal palace, which had been long gathering by David and Solomon: and Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, became servant to the king of Egypt (2 Chron. 12 : 8, 9). Thus did Solomon and his house prosper with their great strength of chariots and horses. Indeed, we may from this time date the ruin of Israel. Bp. Sherlock.

2. Chron. 1 : 16.** Friendly intercourse began to be held under Solomon with Egypt. Nearly five hundred years had now elapsed from the Exodus, and during that long period there had been no intercourse between the two countries. Many memorable events had happened in Egypt during the interval. There had been revolutions in the throne,—“stranger kings,” who had forcibly introduced the worship of the sun, and expelled the old Egyptian deities, but had not long maintained their dominion; there had been times of grand conquests, when Egyptian arms subdued the greater part of Asia, and victorious Pharaohs—the Sethis and Rameses of their history—blazoned their great exploits in the glorious temples of Karnak and Luxor; the arts had risen, some two hundred years after the Exodus, to the highest degree of excellence of which they were there capable, but had now begun somewhat to decline. Not only did Solomon marry a daughter of Pharaoh, but “he had horses brought out of Egypt. And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for one hundred and fifty.” But this introduction of chariots and horses was in disobedience of the Divine command (De. 17 : 16). W. G. B.

2. Chron. 1 : 17.** We are informed of the articles which Solomon imported from Egypt through his factors, but not of the commodities he gave in exchange. This, however, it is not difficult to discover, seeing that there are certain products of Palestine which were not produced, or not adequately produced, in Egypt, and which must in all times have found a welcome in the markets there. Of the staple productions of Palestine, corn was one that Egypt did not want; but in regard to oil and wine the case was different. Of all oils, that of the olive is most valued, and the tree that afforded it did not flourish in Egypt, but was native to Palestine, and grew there to its utmost perfection, shooting even from the crevices of the rocks, where scarcely any soil appears. Hence “oil out of the flinty rock” (De. 32 : 13) was among the blessings of the land promised to the chosen people. So of wine. It is not true that the vine did not grow in Egypt, or that wine was not made there. This old notion is overset by the evidence of the mural paintings. Yet the nature of the climate—as unfavorable to the vine from heat as our own climate is from cold—shows that it must there have been rather an object of amateur culture, than a natural and extensive production. The wine also, although made in some limited degree, was probably of inferior quality, and not greatly prized. But in Palestine the vine attained its perfection, affording excellent grapes, which yielded the finest wine.

This wine was prized even by the Phœnicians, who had access to the vines of Lebanon. Much more, therefore, must it have been valued by the Egyptians; and these two commodities, olive oil and wine, alone, must have afforded Solomon ample means of return for whatever he required. Kit.

IMMENSE REVENUE OF GOLD FROM COMMERCE WITH OPHIR AND TARSHISH FROM MERCHANTS AND FROM TRIBUTARY KINGS AND GOVERNORS. THE MAGNIFICENCE OF SOLOMON’S COURT. HIS GREAT IVORY THRONE.

1. K. 4 : 21 AND Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt : they brought presents, and served Solomon all the 24 days of his life. For he had dominion over all the region on this side the River, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings on this side the River : and he had peace on all sides round 25 about him. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig- 20 tree, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon. Judah and Israel were many as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry.

This is a most alluring picture of the state of Israel in these days. It might be called the Augustan age of their nation—the age of greatest prosperity and peace, yet with all the efflorescence of that most brilliant period in their annals, the age, like that of Augustus in Rome, of commencing degeneracy. David and Samuel were to Solomon what the older Romans were even to the best of Rome’s imperial sovereigns; and in respect even to sacred literature, the Psalms occupy a far higher and more prominent place in the Bible than do the Proverbs and other works of Solomon. It is not said that Solomon’s kingdom reached to the Euphrates; but all the kingdoms between his own and the Euphrates were tributary and subservient to him. The daily consumption here recorded indicates a prodigious court and immense household establishment. But far the most interesting feature in this description is the peace and plenty and safety enjoyed by the general population—each man under his own vine and his own fig-tree. T. C.

Much of the prosperity of Solomon’s reign was owing to the extraordinary glory of the reign of David. Such a rule as David’s sowed seeds of blessing in the land, which it was Solomon’s privilege to reap. David united the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, and Solomon came into quiet possession of the completed commonwealth. David laid the foundation, Solomon developed the fabric and adorned it. Rowland.

The empire ascribed to David and Solomon is an empire of exactly that kind which alone Western Asia was capable of producing, and did produce, about the period in question. The modern system of centralized organization, by which the various provinces of a vast empire are cemented into a compact mass, was unknown to the ancient world, and has never been practised by Asiatics. The satrapial system of government, or that in which the provinces retain their individuality, but are administered on a common plan by officers appointed by the crown—which has prevailed generally through the East since the time of its first introduction—was the invention of Darius Hystaspis. Before his time the greatest monarchies had a slighter and weaker organization. They were in all cases composed of a number of separate kingdoms, each under its own native king; and the sole link uniting them together and constituting them an empire, was the subjection of these petty monarchs to a single suzerain. The Babylonian, Assyrian, Median, and Lydian, were all empires of this type—monarchies wherein a sovereign prince at the head of a powerful kingdom was acknowledged as suzerain by a number of inferior princes, each in his own right sole ruler of his own country. And the subjection of the inferior princes consisted chiefly, if not solely, in two points; they were bound to render homage to their suzerain, and to pay him annually a certain stated tribute. Thus, when we hear that “Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the river (Euphrates) unto the land of the Philistines and unto the border of Egypt”—or, again, that “he had dominion over all the region on this side the river, from Tiphsah (or Thapsacus on the Euphrates) to Azzah (or Gaza, the most southern of the Philistine towns), over all the kings on this side the river” (verse 24)—and that “they brought presents” (verse 21)—“a rate year by year”—and “served Solomon all the days of his life” (verse 21), we recognize at once a condition of things with which we are perfectly familiar from profane sources; and we feel that at any rate this account is in entire harmony with the political notions and practices of the day. G. R.

21. From the river unto the land of the Philistines.** The boundaries of Solomon’s kingdom were, the Euphrates to the east (that river being here, as in other places of Scripture, called the river, by way of eminence, without any addition); the country of the Philistines which bordered on the Mediterranean Sea to the west and Egypt to the south; so that he had tributary to him the kingdoms of Syria, Damascus, Moab, and Ammon, which lay between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean Sea. Stackhouse.

25. Every man under his vine and fig-tree.** This is a common and beautiful metaphor for peace and security (Mic. 4 : 4 ; Zech. 3 : 10), founded on the practice, still common in modern Syria, of training these fruit-trees up the walls and stairs of houses, so as to make a shady arbor, beneath which the people sit and recreate themselves. Jamieson.—It suggests the quiet enjoyment of the good of life, the fruit of honest labor, under the protection of impartial law, which is the result of peace. It is the reign of peace that fosters the industries that enrich the life of a people, and the beneficent activities that beautify it. And in the happy condition here described, we have a prophecy of the reign of David’s “greater Son.” Ps. 72 has its partial fulfilment in the days of Solomon; but the grandeur of its prophetic meaning is realized only in the surpassing glory of His kingdom who is the true “Prince of righteousness and peace.” Waite.

Now the Church of Israel was in its highest external glory. Now Israel was multiplied exceedingly, so that they seemed to have become like the sand on the sea-shore. Now the kingdom of Israel was firmly established in the right family, the family of which Christ was to come. Now God had chosen the city where he would place his name. Now God had fully given his people the possession of the promised land; and they now possessed the dominion of it all in quietness and peace, even from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates; all those nations that had formerly been their enemies, quietly submitted to them; none pretended to rebel against them. Now the Jewish worship in all its ordinances was fully settled. Now, instead of a movable tent and tabernacle, they had a glorious temple; the most magnificent, beautiful, and costly structure that there was then, ever had been, or ever has been since. Now the people enjoyed peace and plenty, and sat every man under his vine and fig-tree, eating and drinking, and making merry. Now they were in the highest pitch of earthly prosperity, silver being as plenty as stones, and the land full of gold and precious stones, and other precious foreign commodities, which were brought by Solomon’s ships from Ophir, and which came from other parts of the world. Now they had a king reigning over them that was the wisest of men, and probably the greatest earthly prince that ever was. Now their fame went abroad into all the earth, so that they came from the utmost parts of the earth to see their glory and their happiness.

Thus God was pleased, in one of the ancestors of Christ, remarkably to shadow forth the kingdom of Christ reigning in his glory. David, that was a man of war, a man who had shed much blood, and whose life was full of troubles and conflicts, was more of a representation of Christ in his state of humiliation, his militant state, wherein he was conflicting with his enemies. But Solomon, that was a man of peace, was a representation more especially of Christ exalted, triumphing, and reigning in his kingdom of peace. And the happy, glorious state of the Jewish Church at that time, did remarkably represent two things: (1) That glorious state of the Church on earth, that shall be in the latter ages of the world; those days of peace, when nation shall not lift sword against nation, nor learn war any more. (2) The future glorified state of the Church in heaven. The earthly Canaan never was so lively a type of the heavenly Canaan, as it was then, when the happy people of Israel did indeed enjoy it as a land flowing with milk and honey. Elwards.

Jerusalem in her Glory under David and Solomon.

And now, like the modern city of Berlin under the hands of the Great Frederick, Jerusalem bloomed into sudden glory. All the successes of the new monarch, and all the extending prosperity of the nation, were reflected in the rising splendors of the capital. Especially was Jerusalem dignified, nay consecrated, by being made the abode of the Ark of the Covenant, the chief though not exclusive seat of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the great resort for national worship. On Mount Zion a place was prepared for the shrine of the sanctuary, which for a long time had been in exile, and with high rejoicings it was set therein; Mount Zion becoming henceforth, even after the building of the Temple on Moriah and the transference of the ark thither, the symbol of God’s kingdom in His Church. Yet conspicuous and mighty as Jerusalem became, under the thirty-three years of David’s residence in it as his capital, the full height of its glory was not attained until King

Solomon had endowed it with the imperial magnificence characteristic of his reign. The reign of Solomon is much celebrated in the Scriptures, yet perhaps we seldom attain to a just conception of its grandeur. Solomon inherited the fruits of David’s vast conquests. He came into receipt of untold accumulated resources. And it was for him to realize and exhibit the glory which had been prepared for him. N. C. B.

After this the glory of the Jewish Church gradually declined more and more till Christ came; yet not so but that the work of redemption still went on. Whatever failed or declined, God still carried on this work from age to age; this building was still advancing higher and higher. Things still went on, during the decline of the Jewish Church, toward a further preparation of things for the coming of Christ, as well as during its increase; for so wonderfully were things ordered by the infinitely wise Governor of the world, that whatever happened was ordered for good to this general design, and made a means of promoting it. When the people of the Jews flourished, and were in prosperity, he made that to contribute to the promoting this design; and when they were in adversity, God made that also to contribute to the carrying on of the same design. While the Jewish Church was in its increasing state, the work of redemption was carried on by their increase; and when they came to their declining state, which they were in from Solomon’s time till Christ, God carried on the work of redemption by the decline itself, which was one thing that God made use of as a further preparation for Christ’s coming. Edwards.

Brief, indeed, was the period of Israel’s glory; but for the moment it seemed that there were but three empires to divide the old civilized world—Egypt, Assyria, and Israel, for Israel and Phœnicia were practically one. Solomon reigned over all lands from the Euphrates to the Nile, from the mountains of Armenia to the Arabian Desert; and he ruled them in peace. Yet it was but a fleeting gleam of splendor. The central land of Israel was girdled round with tributaries, not colonists; fear was the only bond of union. There was no germ of any sentiment which might develop into a common sympathy. There was no missionary spirit in the garrisons of Solomon. The very last idea to cross the mind of the Jew was to include the Gentile tributary in the religious or civil privileges of his people. Meantime, Hebrew life, private and public, was becoming leavened with foreign influences, Assyrian, Egyptian, and especially

Phœnician. The sudden accumulation of riches developed luxury; palaces, horses, harems, were not of Abraham or of Moses. No. The casket and shrine in which truth was to be conserved until the fulness of time should come, could never be kept safely in charge of a wealthy and a conquering empire. For God’s purposes, as a symbol and a lesson, that empire was won by David, and held by his typical son. In God’s providence it passed away, “till the Ancient of days shall come,” and “his kingdom shall not be destroyed.” H. B. T.

Jerusalem To-day.

It is tantalizing for the traveller who wishes to recognize in his walks the site of particular buildings, or the scenes of memorable events, that the greater part of the objects mentioned in the description, both of the inspired and of the Jewish historian, are entirely razed from their foundation, without leaving a single trace or name behind to point out where they stood. Not an ancient tower, or gate, or wall, or hardly even a stone remains. The foundations are not only broken up, but every fragment of which they were composed is swept away, and the spectator looks upon the bare rock with hardly a sprinkling of earth to point out her gardens of pleasure, or groves of idolatrous devotion. A few gardens still remain on the sloping base of Mount Zion, watered from the pool of Siloam: the gardens of Gethsemane are still in a sort of ruined cultivation; the fences are broken down and the olive-trees decaying, as if the hand which dressed and fed them were withdrawn: the Mount of Olives still retains a languishing verdure, and nourishes a few of those trees from which it derives its name; but all round about Jerusalem the general aspect is blighted and barren; the grass is withered; the bare rock looks through the scanty sward, and the grain itself, like the starving progeny of famine, seems in doubt whether to come to maturity or die in the ear. Jerusalem has heard the voice of David and Solomon, of prophets and apostles; and He who spake as man never spake has taught in her synagogues and in her streets. Before her legislators, her poets, and her apostles, those of all other countries became dumb, and cast down their crowns, as unworthy to stand in their presence. Once she was very rich in every blessing, victorious over all her enemies, and resting in peace, with every man sitting under his own vine, and under his own fig tree, with none to disturb or to make him afraid. Jerusalem was the brightest of all the cities of the east, and fortified above all other towns; so strong that the Roman conqueror thereof, and the master of the whole world besides, exclaimed, on entering the city of David, and looking up at the towers which the Jews had abandoned, “Surely, we have had God for our assistance in the war; for what could human hands or human machines do against these towers? It is no other than God who has expelled the Jews from their fortifications.” It is impossible for the Christian traveller to look upon Jerusalem with the same feelings with which he would set himself to contemplate the ruins of Thebes, of Athens, or of Rome, or of any other city which the world ever saw. There is in all the doings of the Jews, their virtues and their vices, their wisdom and their folly, a height and a depth, a breadth and a length that angels cannot fathom; their whole history is a history of miracles; the precepts of their sacred book are the most profound, and the best adapted to every station in which man can be placed; they moderate him in prosperity, sustain him in adversity, guide him in health, console him in sickness, support him at the close of life, travel on with him through death, live with him throughout endless ages of eternity, and Jerusalem lends its name to the eternal mansions of the blessed in heaven which man is admitted to enjoy through the atonement of Christ Jesus, who was born of a descendant of Judah. Richardson’s Travels.

It is evident that, during the period of Solomon, the state of social life among the Jewish people underwent a very great change. An immense flow of wealth into the country took place. Through intercourse with other countries, many new habits and fashions were undoubtedly introduced. The people must have lost not a little of their early simplicity of character and life. A splendid court had been set up and a splendid capital built. Commercial relations had been established with remote parts of the world. A great stride had been taken in the direction of luxury and refinement. There was now a standing army, a large staff of civil officers, and a vast number of menial servants in the country. Besides the ass the horse and the mule were now introduced as beasts of burden; chariots and splendid equipages were set up; and many persons assumed the style and bearing of princes. Private dwellings must have undergone a corresponding change, and all the luxuries of Egypt and Nineveh would bebecome familiar to the Hebrews. But was all this for good? It appears as if the nation, or its leaders, now struck out a new path for themselves, in which God rather followed than preceded them, giving them, indeed, at first, a large measure of prosperity, but leaving them more to their own ways and to the fruits of these ways than before. This, at least, was plainly the case under Solomon. The vast wealth circulated in his time over the country, did not bring any proportional addition, either to the material comfort, or to the moral beauty, or to the spiritual riches of the nation. There can be no doubt that “haste to be rich” brought all the evils and sins which always flow from it in an age of progress toward worldly show and magnificence.

It appears from the Proverbs that many new vices were introduced. Many of the counsels of that book would have been quite inapplicable to a simple, patriarchal, agricultural people; but they were eminently adapted to a people surrounded by the snares of wealth and the temptations of commerce, and very liable to forget or despise the good old ways and counsels of their fathers. The Proverbs will be read with far greater interest, if it be borne in mind that this change had just taken place among the Hebrews, and that, as Solomon had been instrumental in giving the nation its wealth, so, perhaps, he was led by the Spirit to write this book, and that of Ecclesiastes, to guard against the fatal abuse of his own gift.

In literary and scientific culture the nation must have made a great advance during this period. In a merely literary point of view, the Psalms of David and the writings of Solomon possess extraordinary merits; and we cannot doubt that two literary kings, whose reigns embraced eighty years, or nearly three generations, would exercise a very great influence, and have their example very largely followed among their people. David’s talents as a musician, and the extraordinary pains he took to improve the musical services of the sanctuary, must have greatly stimulated the cultivation of that delightful art. What David did for music, Solomon did for natural history. It need not surprise us that all the uninspired literary compositions of that period have perished. If Homer flourished (according to the account of Herodotus) 884 years before Christ, Solomon must have been a century in his tomb before the “Iliad” was written. And if it be considered what difficulty there was in preserving the “Iliad,” and how uncertain it is whether we have it as Homer wrote it, it cannot be surprising that all the Hebrew poems and writings of this period have been lost, except such as were contained in the inspired canon of Scripture.

There were, also, great religious changes during this period of the history. Evidently, under Samuel, a great revival of true religion took place; and the schools of the prophets which he established seem to have been attended with a marked blessing from Heaven. Under David the change was confirmed. In the first place, the coming Messiah was more clearly revealed. It was expressly announced to David, as has been already remarked, that the great Deliverer was to be a member of his race. David, too, as a type of Christ, conveyed a more full and clear idea of the person and character of Christ than any typical person that had gone before him. Further, the Psalms of David must have served very wonderfully to give precision, and force, and richness to devotional feelings among godly people. Then, too, the distribution of the Levites and the remodelling of the temple service must have secured at least much more attention to the ordinary services of religion. The writings of Solomon show how much more clear, full, and rich views prevailed now than formerly, regarding Christ’s person and qualities, and his relation to his people. The lyrical compositions of the two royal authors corresponded to the typical character of each. As David’s reign was a warlike reign, and Solomon’s a reign of peace, so David was the psalmist of storms and struggles, Solomon of tranquillity and rest. The great preponderance in number of David’s inspired songs over Solomon’s, shows how much more frequently in this world Christians need to be directed and encouraged to struggle with enemies than to enjoy and improve the sweets of repose.

It is interesting to inquire how far a religious spirit pervaded the people at large. The question cannot receive a satisfactory answer. It is plain that even in David’s time the mass of the people were not truly godly. The success of Absalom’s movement is a proof of this. Had there been a large number of really godly persons in the tribe of Judah, they would not only not have joined the insurrection, but their influence would have had a great effect in hindering its success. The real state of matters seems to have been, that both in good times and in bad there were some persons, more or less numerous, of earnest piety and spiritual feeling, who worshipped God in spirit, not only because it was their duty, but also because it was their delight; while the mass of the people either worshipped idols, or worshipped God according to the will, example, or command of their rulers. But the constant tendency was to idolatry; and the intercourse with foreign nations which Solomon maintained, as well as his own example, greatly increased the tendency. Under Solomon, indeed, idolatry struck its roots so deep, that all the zeal of the reforming kings that followed him failed to eradicate them. It was not till the seventy years’ captivity of Babylon that the soil of Palestine was thoroughly purged of the roots of that noxious weed. W. G. B.

1. K. 4 : 29 AND God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and 30 largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore. And Solomon’s wisdom excelled 31 the wisdom of all the children of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol : 32 and his fame was in all the nations round about. And he spake three thousand proverbs : 33 and his songs were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall : he spake also of beasts, and of 34 fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. And there came of all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom.

1. K. 10 : 1 And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the 2 name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones : and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. 3 And Solomon told her all her questions : there was not anything hid from the king which he 4 told her not. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, and the 5 house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the at- tendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he 6 went up unto the house of the LORD : there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thine acts, and of thy wisdom. 7 Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it : and, behold, the 8 half was not told me : thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear 9 thy wisdom. Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel to be king for the LORD thy God : because the LORD loved Israel to establish them 10 forever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice. And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones : there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solo- 13 mon. And king Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, be- side that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned, and went to her own land, she and her servants.

1. K. 4 : 29-34.** Wisdom he asked of God, and obtained a wise and understanding heart. He seems to have had a singularly comprehensive mind, that could take pleasure in many studies, a very wide power of observation and reflection, a strong grasp of all the great problems of human life, and “largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore.” He was the first man of science in his nation, and though his works on natural history have not been preserved, because they were foreign to the purposes of the Bible, yet all wise and reverent astronomers, botanists, and zoologists may fairly be reckoned as followers of Solomon. On the gravest themes that occupy the mind, “he was wiser than all men,” even the famous Idumeans of the East, and the equally famed scholars of Egypt. Like all men of a full mind, he delighted to communicate, and poured himself out in three thousand proverbs, and songs a thousand and five. He also excelled in witty and piercing conversation, and such was the reputation of the royal sage, that “there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom.” D. F.

The wonderful impression which he made upon all who came near him may well lead us to believe that with him as with Saul and David, Absalom and Adonijah, as with most other favorite princes of Eastern peoples, there must have been the fascination and the grace of a noble presence. Add to this, all gifts of a noble, far-reaching intellect, large and ready sympathies, a playful and genial humor, the lips “full of grace,” the soul “anointed” as “with the oil of gladness,” and we may form some notion of what the king was like in his golden prime. He used these gifts not only for the government of his people, but for the acquisition and the embodiment in writing of all the learning of the age. P. S.

29-31. Solomon’s wisdom was more his glory than his wealth ; a general account of that we have here. The fountain of his wisdom. God gave it him (verse 29). He owns it himself (Prov. 2 : 6). The Lord giveth wisdom. He gives the powers of reason, preserves and improves them. The ordinary advances of them are owing to his providence, and sanctification of them, to his grace ; and this extraordinary pitch at which they arrived in Solomon, to a special grant of his favor to him, in answer to prayer.

The fulness of it. He had wisdom and understanding, exceeding much ; great knowledge of distant countries, and the histories of former times ; a quickness of thought, strength of memory, and clearness of judgment, such as never any man had. It is called largeness of heart, for the heart is put for the intellectual powers. He had a vast compass of knowledge, could take things entire, and had an admirable faculty of laying things together. He was very free and communicative of his knowledge ; had the gift of utterance, as well as wisdom ; was as free of his learning as he was of his meat ; and grudged neither to any that were about him. Those who have large gifts of any kind should have large hearts to use them for the good of others ; and this is from the hand of God (Ec. 3 : 24). He shall enlarge the heart (Ps. 119 : 32).

The greatness of Solomon’s wisdom is illustrated by comparison. Chaldea and Egypt were nations famous for learning ; thence the Greeks borrowed theirs; but the greatest scholars of these nations came short of Solomon (verse 30). If nature excels art, much more does grace. The knowledge which God gives by special favor, goes beyond that which man gets by his own labor. Some wise men there were in Solomon’s time who were in great repute; particularly, Heman, and others who were Levites, and employed by David in the temple music (1 Chron. 15: 19). Heman was his seer in the Word of God (1 Chron. 25: 5). Chalcol and Darda were own brothers, and they also were noted for learning and wisdom, but Solomon excelled them all; his counsel was much more valuable.

The fame of it. It was talked of in all nations round about (verse 31). His great wealth and glory made his wisdom much more illustrious, and gave him those opportunities of showing it, which they cannot have, that live in poverty and obscurity. The jewel of wisdom may receive great advantage by the setting of it. H.

30. The wisdom of all the children of the East.** The nations east of Canaan were famous for wisdom and erudition; the Chaldeans beyond the Euphrates, the Persians beyond the Tigris, and the Arabians on the nearer side of the Euphrates, a little toward the south. Which of these nations was most celebrated for learning in Solomon’s time is much doubted by commentators: the Book of Job, however, sufficiently shows that the Arabians were famous for their learning in ancient times.

And all the wisdom of Egypt. It appears from Acts 7: 22 that Egypt was celebrated for wisdom in the time of Moses. This country has been called “the mother of the arts.” There have been great disputes respecting the claims of the Egyptians and Chaldeans to the earliest advances in learning. Bp. Patrick.

32, 33. “Largeness of heart” (verse 29) is breadth of understanding—a wide range of knowledge; treasures of science and wisdom, at once minute and comprehensive, covering many spacious fields of human thought. The specifications which appear in the record lead us definitely toward two departments of human knowledge: (1) Natural history, of both animals and plants; for “he spake of trees; he spake also of beast and of fowl, and of creeping things and of fishes.” And (2) a department which we have no precisely equivalent term to indicate, but which may be defined as human knowledge expressed in proverbs and cultivated in the framing and solving of “hard questions.” It made itself at home in the science of ethics, but was free to go abroad quite beyond this territory. H. C.

The truly wise are truly great; “great”—that is, in the sense of being fairly entitled to confidence and homage. Our knowledge of Solomon is scanty, yet sufficient to show him a man of great accomplishments. He had “largeness of heart.” His large intercourse with other peoples had brought breadth of view and deliberateness. His utterances are neither provincial nor ephemeral; they are the fruit of judgment, not of passion, and so belong to all men of all times. He had a rare acquaintance with the facts of nature, with “trees” and “herbs” and “fowls” and “creeping things” and “fishes.” The accuracy of his information concerning some of these is truly wonderful—his statement as to the habits of harvesting ants, for instance, long disputed, being just now thoroughly vindicated. He “knew” better than most “what was in man.” His writings show ample knowledge of affairs and of the subtler agencies by which men are affected. His counsels betray the ripe judgment of an experienced man of the world, and vindicate their sagacity in current experience. Thomas.

Solomon’s natural science, like that of Oriental philosophers in general, consisted rather in the observation of the more obvious facts in the common life and habits of God’s creatures, with an especial view to use them for the poetical illustration of moral lessons: and in this way we find such knowledge used, not only in the Proverbs ascribed to him, but in many of the Psalms, and throughout the Book of Job. The discourses in the latter part of that book about Behemoth and Leviathan are probably a type of the manner in which “Solomon spake of beasts.” It clearly follows that we ought not to suppose that Solomon wrote elaborate treatises on these subjects which are now lost. Such forms of communicating knowledge do not belong to his age or country. His three thousand proverbs and one thousand and five songs probably contained nearly all that he wrote upon such matters in the form of poetical illustration. For the rest, it should be remembered that instruction, in his time and long after, was chiefly oral. The tents of the patriarchs and the abodes of their descendants witnessed many an hour when the ancient father would discourse to his descendants on the lessons of his experience and the traditions handed down by his fathers; and such we conceive to have been the converse held by Solomon in the midst of his splendid court, only on a much grander scale, and covering a much wider field. P. S.

As the sacred lyric poetry of Israel is connected with the name of David, so Solomon, whose peaceful times invited the Israelitish mind to self-introspection, was the father of the Hebrew proverbial poetry, and thus the founder of the Old Testament Hhokuama, or Wisdom. From his time onward there appeared a special class of men under the name of “the wise,” who applied themselves to the consideration of the moral relations of life and the manner in which the world is ordered. It cannot, however, be inferred from verse 33 that they were addicted to physical science, nor that Solomon commenced a complete natural history. For when it is there said that “Solomon spake of trees, of beasts, and of fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes,” it is that ethical contemplation of nature of which we have specimens in Ps. 104, and in the Book of Job, especially ch. 39-41 - that relative knowledge which enabled Solomon in his proverbs to draw comparisons and parables from natural objects, which is intended, and which does not presuppose a scientific knowledge of botany and zoology. O.

The growth of his knowledge was from study. Solomon did not have all the mysteries of nature unveiled to him by revelation. No “royal road to learning” existed then, or ever. His studiousness as a youth may be fairly inferred from his strenuous exhortations to diligence and his frequent rebukes of sloth. Out of the depths of personal experience he declared that the “hand of the diligent maketh rich”-in thought, as well as in purse. The reference here is not so much to scientific treatises and orderly classifications as to the ethical use he made of the phenomena of nature. This may be inferred, partly from the fact that in those days, and in Eastern lands, this rather than that would be accounted “wisdom;” and partly from such writings of his as are still extant-certain of the Psalms, the Canticles, and the Proverbs. In the light thrown by these books, it will be seen that through Solomon’s wisdom the voice of Nature spoke to his people for God, in the same fashion as in far nobler tones it spoke afterward through Him who made the lilies whisper of God’s care, and the fallow fields speak of Christian duty. Inanimate things and dumb creatures spoke to Solomon’s people through him, and should speak to us. Rowland.

In the Book of Proverbs, of the greater part of which Solomon was undoubtedly the author, there is an amount of wisdom, knowledge of men and manners, sound sense and practical sagacity, such as no other work presents. An. - It abounds in allusions, now found for the first time and precisely applicable to the age of Solomon-to gold and silver and precious stones; to the duties and power of kings; to commerce. In them appears the first idea of fixed education and discipline, the first description of the diversities of human character. In them the instincts of the animal creation are first made to give lessons to men. The Book of Proverbs is not on a level with the Prophets or the Psalms. It approaches human things and things Divine from quite another side. It has even something of a worldly prudential look, unlike the rest of the Bible. But this is the very reason why its recognition as a sacred book is so useful. It is the philosophy of practical life. It is the sign to us that the Bible does not despise common sense and discretion. It impresses upon us, in the most forcible manner, the value of intelligence and prudence, and of a good education. It deals, too, in that refined, discriminating, careful view of the finer shades of human character so necessary to any true estimate of human life. “The heart knoweth its own bitterness, and the stranger doth not intermeddle with its joy.” How much is there, in that single sentence, of consolation, of love, of forethought. And, above all, it insists, over and over again, upon the doctrine that goodness is “wisdom,” and that wickedness and vice are “folly.” Stanley.

The Book of Proverbs deals with industry, frugality, foresight, integrity, sobriety, purity. It shows that Solomon loved wisdom, lived for it, and strove to endear it to others, and that wisdom was not only his pursuit, but his delight. The Proverbs prove him to have been a shrewd observer of men in all stations; reading their motives, and predicting results; glancing at their weaknesses and detecting their hollowness, painting wisdom in all phases, and folly in all disguises, bearing hard on talebearing, slander, and domestic brawls. One would think that he had lived freely and mingled familiarly with all classes, that he had rioted and vaunted with the rich, and sighed and suffered with the poor, that he had entered into the bosom of the fool and sluggard, and had been partner of all their silly acts and excuses; that he had been lounging amid the chafferings of the bazaar, that he had felt the gripe of the usurer, had been at a feast where the guest spoke daggers, and at a rustic repast where love revelled with roots and herbs. J. Eadie.

We need not ascribe all these proverbs to Solomon as their first author. He was collector as well as inventor. Sententious sayings were common long before his day, as we see even from the proverb quoted by his father, David, “From the wicked goeth wickedness” (1 S.

24 : 13). Amid the darkness which covered those distant ages, and in their brief memorials of men’s lives and works, we can thus see clearly a large body of thinkers and writers, a people who enjoyed literature, and took means for diffusing knowledge. “To write” had even come to be used with a figurative meaning in the ordinary language of Hebrews, an indication of great advances made by them in acquaintance with the art: “Write them upon the table of thine heart” (Prov. 3 : 3 ; 7 : 3), where the reference to the two tables of stone is unmistakable. Familiarity with writing and with books is implied in this proverbial use of the word far more than in the Greek poet’s “mindful tablets of the soul,” coined for the Athenian theatre by Æschylus five centuries afterward. A book of proverbs is less intended for private reading than as a means of verifying what is said, or of refreshing a learner’s memory. Proverbs—“the wit of one man and the wisdom of many”—are the ready money of thought, passing rapidly from man to man in the interchanges of life. Books may be used for handing them down to future ages, but movement and fire can be given to them only in spoken application to the actings of men. Proverbs are not for lonely reading by the learned; they are rather for use in the homeliest as well as in the weightiest business of the world. To find a book of this kind in circulation among any people implies, therefore, great advances in literature. Gathering wisdom from the sayings of others, coining of it into words from observing their doings or the results, and committing the whole to writing, are three stages of progress all brought together in the book. Sime.

34. The attention of the world was arrested by this glare of Judean sunshine. Kings, too great to come in person, sent shrewd observers, who should discover, if they were able, the secret of this unexampled weal. Philosophers journeyed far to commune with one who could speak of trees, and discourse of beasts and fowl, of creeping things and fishes. Literary men had a desire to perfect their art under a royal penman whose writings were so prolific, who spake three thousand proverbs, and whose songs were a thousand and five; and sages would love to commune with him who was, confessedly, wiser than all living men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. The wisdom of Solomon was the gift of God, but it was improved by continual observation and persevering study. Though, Atlas-like, the king had to bear a state burden which would have crushed other men, he yet remained an eager student to the last; he still “sought to acquaint his heart with wisdom.” Outram.

Between the reigns of Saul and Solomon a great development took place in the literature of the Hebrew people. It is seen in the arrangements of the king’s court, in the writing of national records, in the proverbs which circulated among the people, and in the numerous hymns of the national worship. Of Saul’s chief officers only one is mentioned in the history—Abner, the commander-in-chief. David, on the other hand, appears surrounded by a body of able men, to whom the various branches of the public service were entrusted. Of these one was book writer, or, as we should call him, secretary of State, while another was recorder or historian. But in Solomon’s reign, the writing of public books or State papers had largely increased. Instead of one secretary, he had two, and also a recorder. Besides them, others were engaged in writing the history of the king. Nathan the prophet, Iddo the seer, and Abijah the Shilonite were of the number. To these six writers must be added the king himself. Seven writers of history, poetry, and philosophy are thus mentioned during the life of Solomon. It is a large list to be found in a record so brief. But it indicates an increasing familiarity in the nation with all sorts of literature. And the short review given of the king’s own works discovers to us at a glance a book reading people. Sime.

With Solomon a new world of thought was opened to the Israelites. The curtain which divided them from the surrounding nations was suddenly rent asunder. The wonders of Egypt, the commerce of Tyre, the romance of Arabia, nay, it is even possible, the Homeric age of Greece, became visible. Of this the first and most obvious result was the growth of architecture. But the general effects on the whole mind of the people must have been deeper still. A new direction seems to have been given to Israelite thought. In Solomon we find the first beginnings of that wider view which ended at last in the expansion of Judaism into Christianity. His reign contains the first historical record of the contact between Western Europe and Eastern India. In his writings and in the literature which sprung from them, is the only Hebrew counterpart to the philosophy of Greece. Stanley.

This is recounted chiefly to deepen the impression of the surpassing greatness of the King.

and the incomparable magnificence of his court. For a very brief period God exalted this small nation of Israel to an equal or superior place among the great monarchies of the East. He endowed Solomon with a never-equalled wisdom, with the honoring admiration of kings, princes, and people of the world, on account of his mastery of all knowledge, and of his unheard of success in every earthly attainment that could impart grandeur or gratify desire. As if to show how boundless would be His favor, and how rich and unnumbered His gifts, God’s prospering hand was upon everything for a time. He made the land to yield according to its highest measure. He blessed all Solomon’s plans and undertakings, so that a world-wide traffic in every branch was made exceedingly lucrative for this merchant-sovereign. The cities which he built, or rebuilt, in the wilderness, on the Gulf or the Euphrates, all were made to subserve his purposes and extend his kingdom. So were the splendid structures by which he adorned Jerusalem and augmented the fame of his personal administration; among them his own immense palace, requiring thirteen years in building, the Queen’s palace, his private porch and his public one for administering justice. A fuller detail of what he did for personal gratification and display, we read in Ecclesiastes. It was at this period, when his sway was widest and his fame most extended, when the brilliancy of his court was at its height, when the wisdom of his administration and his obedient regard to the word and worship of God had not yet begun to fail, that the Queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem. B.

Probability unites with ecclesiastical history, and with the Jewish traditions and Mohammedan accounts, in describing her as queen of the Sabæan kingdom of Yemen, and Mariaba or Saba, as the seat of its government. This point is so well established by Bochart and others, that it may be received as an ascertained fact. It is, besides, verified by the terms employed by our Saviour in alluding to this pilgrimage. He calls her the “Queen of the South,” or Yemen, which is in Hebrew, as in Arabic, the proper word for South; and he speaks of her as having come “from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon,” which exactly corresponds to the Joktanite kingdom of Sheba, Saba, or Sabæ, which is terminated only by the Indian Ocean, whose waters, blending with those of the Atlantic, divide Asia from Africa. It may be added, that all the precious commodities which the queen brought to Jerusalem, were such as the region thus assigned to her was in old time famous for producing. Kit.

Far to the south, on the shores of the Arabian Gulf, the country of Sheba (probably the modern Yemen) was ruled by a queen, who seems to have enjoyed among the tribes of Arabia a reputation like Solomon’s for wisdom. His fame reached her ears, and she determined to judge for herself. With an immense caravan of camels, bearing gold and precious stones and spices, she came to Jerusalem, to try Solomon with those “hard questions,” which have always formed the favorite exercise of Oriental ingenuity. “She communed with him of all that was in her heart.” The perfect wisdom of the king’s replies in this conflict of wit and learning, the magnificence of his buildings, the splendor of his royal State, the order of his court, completely overwhelmed the queen: “there was no more spirit in her.” She confessed that all was true which she had heard, and refused to believe, in her own country; nay, the half had not been told her; and she blessed Jehovah, and the people to whom He had given such a king. Having given and received magnificent presents, she departed to her own country; and the odor of her visit was long preserved by such an abundance of spices as was never known at Jerusalem before or since. Whether she went back a convert to the true faith, as her praises of Jehovah seem partly to imply, and how far her visit tended to the planting of the numerous proselytes whom we afterward find in Arabia, can only be matter of conjecture; and the traditions, by which the simple narrative of her visit is overlaid, scarcely deserve notice. But the zeal with which she journeyed from the ends of the earth, to prove for herself the wisdom of which she had heard so much, stands recorded by “One greater than Solomon” for the eternal shame of those who neglect to hear Him, when he stands in their very midst; Him who is the incarnate Wisdom that formed the noblest subject of Solomon’s discourse. The visit of the Queen of Sheba marks the culminating point of Solomon’s glory. P. S.

Whatever may have specially influenced her to undertake so novel a pilgrimage, three things in regard to it are beyond question. She was attracted by the fame of Solomon’s wisdom; she viewed that wisdom in connection with “the Name of Jehovah:” and she came to learn. What the higher import of this “wisdom” was, is explained by Solomon himself in Prov. 3:14-18, while its source is indicated in Prov. 2:4-6. Thus viewing it, no event could have been more important, alike typically and in its present bearing on the ancient world. The Queen had come scarcely daring to hope that

Eastern exaggeration had not led her to expect more than she would find. It proved the contrary. Whatever difficulty, doubt, or question she propounded, in the favorite Oriental form of “riddles,” “whatever was with her heart,” “Solomon showed (disclosed to) her all her words” (the spoken and unspoken). And here she would learn chiefly this: that all the prosperity she witnessed, all the intellectual culture and civilization with which she was brought into contact, had their spring above, with “the Father of lights.” A. E.

1-3. The object of the Queen’s visit, how accomplished. The whole incident shows that she came to prove the truth of what she had heard, with respect to Solomon’s wisdom, his greatness and splendor, and with regard to the house, the character, and worship of Jehovah. Christ’s implied commendation intimates that she had an honest purpose and desire to obtain wisdom, and to know more of God. Her kingdom was probably in the angle of Arabia, and her visit may have been partly occasioned by commercial intercourse begun by Solomon. Of the gold, spices, and precious stones which she brought, she gave the chief part to Solomon (verse 10), according to Oriental custom. On reaching Solomon’s presence, at once she sought the solution of questions that had caused her doubt and trouble of heart. So much is implied, but no hint is given of any particular. All that is needed we know, that her heart-questions were satisfactorily answered, and it was the marvelous wisdom evinced in those answers, far more than anything she afterward saw of Solomon’s regal state, that overcame her spirit and prompted her words of eulogy.

4, 5. Other visible evidences of his surpassing wisdom witnessed by the Queen. Beside the wise and efficient economy of his entire government in its grand outlines of plan and detail, particular reference is here made to the admirable ordering of his court; the gorgeous apparelling of his ministers and other high officers; the sumptuous provision of his table, and the elegant appointments of its service; and the exceeding strength and beauty of his great architectural structures. Special notice is taken of the “ascent” or upbuilt pathway which Solomon had constructed from his own palace to the temple area; an arched viaduct whose remains, recently discovered, have been reasonably identified. All these things, added to the previous and vastly superior proofs of a superhuman guidance and help, filled her with amazement. B.

According to the Scripture narrative, the queen of Sheba found evidence of the wisdom of Solomon not only in his words, but in his works. His magnificent palace, “the house of the forest of Lebanon,” the manner in which meat was provided for, and served at his table; the ordering of his courts and audiences, with his ministers and high officers standing according to their rank, in their gorgeous apparel; his cup-bearers, with their precious goblets; and, above all, the viaduct whereby he crossed the valley which separated his palace from the temple of the Lord; all these things were objects of special admiration to this foreign princess, and drew from her the striking declaration: —“It was a true report that I heard in my own country of thy acts and thy wisdom. Howbeit, I believed not the words until I came, and mine eyes have seen it; and, behold the half was not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.” There is a general belief among the Jewish writers, that the queen was turned from her dumb idols to worship the living God, under the instructions of Solomon. There is nothing unlikely in this. Indeed, the words which connect “the name of the Lord” with the wisdom of Solomon, give much sanction to the opinion that the search for religious truth, the true “wisdom,” was the main object of her journey,—as are the words which closed her address to Solomon:—“Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand by and hear thy wisdom. Blessed be Jehovah thy God, which delighteth in thee to set thee on the throne of Israel; because Jehovah loved Israel forever, therefore hath He made thee king, to do judgment and justice.” Kit.

6-10. Her acknowledgment, eulogy, benediction, and gift. “Thy wisdom and prosperity,” she said, “exceedeth the report which I heard.” Congratulating his subjects, she continues, “Happy thy servants who continually hear thy wisdom.” Then she magnifies the God of Israel, because of his goodness toward Solomon and his love toward Israel in establishing the throne of David’s son. She spake out her heart, and her words were partly occasioned by her experience among her people. When we apply these words in their higher and more appropriate connection with that Sovereign, also Son of David, “a greater than Solomon,” and that wider, richer kingdom, with a nobler, more enduring City, Temple, and palaces, we can better appreciate their true beauty and breadth of significance. We can understand a second and better reason for embodying this unimportant incident in the Inspired history. So, indeed, it is with Solomon’s own history, apart from the use which God made of the man and his experience in the writing of the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. We can fully account for all the distinctions providentially showered upon him, and for the rich ancestral promises centring upon his person and reign, only by the typical relation he bore to that “Branch of Jesse,” whose name is “The Lord our Righteousness,” in whose days it is declared “Israel shall dwell safely.” And this is precisely the use which the prophets make of Solomon and of his reign. Christ is the true Solomon, Prince of Peace. His is the everlasting kingdom. To Him “the kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him. He shall have dominion from the river to the ends of the earth.” And “blessed are they that dwell in His house!” B.

David was active strength, Solomon, wisdom and peace; Christ is both power and wisdom, mighty Conqueror and Prince of Peace. He is the King, reigning in righteousness, to the gates of whose Jerusalem the resources of all nations must be brought. All nations shall call Him blessed. Happy they who come to Him now and hear His wisdom! A Greater than Solomon is here. In our “Prince of Peace” are hid “all treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” D. F.

Our blessed Lord has honored this story of the queen of Sheba’s visit by drawing one of its lessons with his own hand. He has reminded us that she came “from the ends of the earth,” and that her purpose was to “hear the wisdom of Solomon.” Sheba, or Yemen, was some fifteen hundred miles distant from Jerusalem. But ancient journeys are not to be measured by miles, but by hours. Now both the queen and her company travelled by camels, and the camel can only go, with any degree of comfort, at a walking pace, and, like other beasts of burden, must have occasional rests. Even if they had some “swift dromedaries” for the queen, the pace must have been regulated by the sumpter camels. We may be pretty sure, therefore, that the party would not travel, on the average, more than twenty miles a day, which would give something like seventy-five days for the journey to Jerusalem, and the same for the return. And she endured the hardships of this long journey to hear wisdom. It is clear that to her “wisdom” was “the principal thing,” and she brought gold and rubies to obtain it. She is like the “merchantman seeking goodly pearls.” She has found one pearl of great price, and she will give all that she has to possess it. True, she saw the wonders of Solomon’s court, but she came to hear his wisdom. She envied his courcourtiers, not because of their places or palaces, but because they stood before him and heard his words. And our Saviour has said that this conduct will condemn the men of His generation. Much more it may condemn the men of our own time. Hammond.

Indomitable earnestness in inquiring is impliedly commended, and the high merit of Solomonic wisdom recognized by the Divine Teacher. But the narrative is treated, not as something to be looked at only, but rather to be looked through in search of “some better thing” beyond. Good was the quest of the earnest queen, and great was Solomon, whose wisdom she sought to hear; but far better the yearning for the “wisdom from above,” as the Son of God is “greater” than the earthly son of David.

On our Lord’s authority, therefore, we may fairly assert that Wisdom is worthy of diligent pursuit. The Queen of Sheba lived in the intellectual dawn of the world, and her country was in the shadows behind the dawn; but she was among them “that watch for the morning,” and that “come to the light” when its first beams appear. She was not content to “hear of” the wisdom of Solomon, but must “hear” it also. When we remember that the breadth of the earth interposed in vain, we are reminded that

Wisdom does not come unsought. The Balearic mothers hang their children’s food on the limbs of trees, and they must go hungry until they can bring it down with the bow. So God lets the vein of gold look through, but not lie open upon the rock. He puts the star-depths within reach of the telescope, but not of the naked eye. The secrets of nature are given up to the wit and not to the listlessness of men. “The clouds may drop down titles and estates,” but “wisdom must be bought.” In vain, however, is “the price of wisdom in the hand of a fool,” if he have “no heart to it.”

“Wisdom is the principal thing.” All else is appendage. In Solomon’s prayer at Gibeon he “showed his wisdom in asking for wisdom;” for in getting the fountain-head he got the stream. Our success in life depends not only on a right perspective—that is, seeing great things as great—but on a right order—that is, seeking first things first. In vain does the rich man “lay up much goods for many years” for his “soul,” if he has not first made certain that he will have a “soul” beyond to-night. Wisdom “held (even) in her left hand riches and honor” for Solomon. She, and not they, made him known in “the uttermost parts of the earth.”

Wisdom is akin to piety. It is the righteousness of the mind as that is the righteousness of heart and life. The wise man knows the truth, the religious man does the truth. And this is practical wisdom; for all sin is folly. The sinner breaks himself upon or grinds himself to powder under the rock which is always in the way, and on which the wise man builds. True science is no more at right angles with true religion than the multiplication table with honest dealing. Thomas.

Happy are we, that a wiser, holier, better counsellor is accessible to us, every day, every hour. Whoever enters His council chamber, stands in heavenly sunbeams; the true light shines round about him. Whoever comes to Him in his ordinances, and proves Him with hard questions, will find the shadows of ignorance depart. But learn a lesson from the resolute Queen of Sheba. Have we any equivalent to show for her long and wearisome journey? any labors in prayer and waiting, any gift of the heart’s true treasures? The value of her offering was truly great. She was a queen, it is true, but she queened it in her lavish generosity. And if we would please the Giver of wisdom, we, too, must be prepared to give. He has in His household, the Church, many poor and needy members, and many, not of the fold, are to be brought in. If we would profit by His wisdom, we must be cheerful givers; we must bring presents and come into His courts. Every picture drawn by the pencil of inspiration is marvellously instructive. The figure of Solomon dispensing wisdom points us irresistibly to One who is wisdom and redemption, and whom, with His Father, truly to know is everlasting life. The pilgrimage of the Queen of Sheba to Jerusalem, that she might acquire wisdom, is a voice to the wise in heart. Outram.

“A Greater than Solomon is here.” Christ leads men to wisdom of a higher order. Solomon is the most secular of the inspired writers of the Old Testament. Divine things are approached by him, as it were, on the lower, earthly side. A prudential tone is given to the counsels of religion, and vice is set forth not so much as wickedness but as “folly.” Think of the marked difference between the utterances of Solomon’s wisdom and the sublime spiritual elevation of David’s psalms. And when we come to Christ’s teaching, what immeasurably loftier heights and deeper depths of Divine truth are here! Redemption, holiness, immortality, are His themes—the deeper “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven;” “in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Solomon, too, was but a learner, not a master. His were but guesses at truth. Christ’s were the authoritative utterances of the incarnate “Word,” Solomon spoke according to the limited measure of the spirit of truth in him. Christ spoke out of His own infinite fulness. “God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.” Whence, indeed, did Solomon’s wisdom come but from Him, the true fontal “Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world?” The words that the wise in every age have spoken were but dim, dawning rays of the light that broke in a glorious day upon the world when He, the Sun of Righteousness, arose. Waite.

It is a spirited and glowing description which the historian here gives of Solomon’s wisdom. We may believe that it was not without a pardonable pride that he recounted the rich endowments and the widespread fame of Israel’s greatest monarch. But it is really one of the saddest chapters in the whole of Scripture—and one of the most instructive. Manifold as were his gifts, marvellous as was his wisdom, they did not preserve him from falling. It is a strange, shuddering contrast, the record of his singular powers and faculties, and the story of his shameful end. How came it to pass that a man so highly gifted and blessed of God made such complete shipwreck of faith and good conscience; that over the grave of the very greatest and wisest of men must be written, “Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen from his high estate?” Hammond.—Alas for him, who had dispensed wisdom as the sun dispenses his beams! Alas for him, and for the glory of human nature in him! He experienced a distressing, a perplexing change. His many wives, the women of neighboring idolatrous countries, turned away his heart after other gods, and their impure and inhuman rites were connived at. And when Solomon died he left his kingdom on the verge of ruin. The mischief which began under him, had the sanction of his great name, and spread its poisonous fibres over the land, so that vile lusts were introduced as portions of man’s “reasonable service,” and altars were found “on every high hill and under every green tree.” Outram.