2 Chronicles 1

1. Chron. 29 :** 23 THEN Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his father, and prospered; and all Israel obeyed him. And all the princes, and the mighty men, and all the sons likewise of king David, submitted themselves unto Solomon the king. And the LORD magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel.

2. Chron. 1 :** 1 And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and the LORD his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly. And Solomon spake unto all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and to the judges, and to every prince in all Israel, the heads of the fathers’ houses.

2. Chron. 1 : 3** So Solomon, and all the congregation with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon ; for there was the tent of meeting of God, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness. But the ark of God had David brought up from Kiriath-jearim to the place that David had prepared for it : for he had pitched a tent for it at Jerusalem. Moreover the brazen altar, that Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, was there before the tabernacle of the LORD : and Solomon and the congregation sought unto it. And Solomon went up thither to the brazen altar before the LORD, which was at the tent of meeting, and offered a thousand burnt-offerings upon it. In that night did God appear unto Solomon, and said unto him, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said unto God, Thou hast shewed great kindness unto David my father, and hast made me king in his stead. Now, O LORD God, let thy promise unto David my father be established : for thou hast made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude. Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people : for who can judge this thy people, that is so great ? And God said to Solomon, Because this was in thine heart, and thou hast not asked riches, wealth, or honor, nor the life of them that hate thee, neither yet hast asked long life ; but hast asked wisdom and knowledge for thyself, that thou mayest judge my people, over whom I have made thee king : wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee ; and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honor, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like. So Solomon came from his journey to the high place that was at Gibeon, from before the tent of meeting, unto Jerusalem ; and he reigned over Israel.

1. K. 3 : 4** And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there ; for that was the great high place : a thousand burnt-offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar. In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night : and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great kindness, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee ; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father : and I am but a little child ; I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give thy servant therefore an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and evil ; for who is able to judge this thy great people ? And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life ; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies ; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment ; behold, I have done according to thy word : lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart ; so that there hath been none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee, all thy days. And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days. And Solomon awoke, and, behold, it was a dream : and he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered up burnt-offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.

1. K. 3 : 16** Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him. And the one woman said, Oh my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house ; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. And it came to pass the third day after I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also ; and we were together ; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. And this woman’s child died in the night ; because she overlaid it. And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead : but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear. And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king. 23 Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and 24 the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. And the king said, 25 Fetch me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, Divide the 26 living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, Oh my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, It shall be 27 neither mine nor thine; divide it. Then the king answered and said, Give her the living 28 child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof. And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.

The comparative scantiness of historical data for a life of Solomon is itself significant. While that of David occupies more than sixty chapters, that of Solomon fills only the first eleven chapters of 1 K. and the first nine of 2 Chron. The writers give extracts only from larger works which were before them, “The Book of the Acts of Solomon;” “the Book of Nathan the prophet, the Book of Ahijah the Shilonite, the visions of Iddo the seer.” Some materials for the life of Solomon exist in the books that bear his name (Canticles; Ecclesiastes; Proverbs), and in the Psalms which are referred, on good grounds, to his time (Ps. 2, 45, 72, 127). Other materials are very scanty. The history of Josephus is, for the most part, only a loose and inaccurate paraphrase of the Old Testament narrative. Dic. B.—Perhaps the following is as probable as any cast of the events of Solomon’s reign: first, three years during which affairs were becoming settled; then seven years of building the temple, and thirteen years while the king’s house was being built, twenty years in all; then the remaining seventeen years. W. J. B.

Solomon, the third king of Israel, is as unlike either of his predecessors as each of them is unlike the other. No person occupies so large a space in Sacred History of whom so few personal incidents are related. That stately and melancholy figure—in some respects the grandest and the saddest in the sacred volume—is, in detail, little more than a mighty shadow. But on the other hand, of his age, of his court, of his works, we know more than of any other. Now, for the first time since the Exodus, we find distinct traces of dates—years, months, days. Now at last we seem to come across monuments, which possibly remain to this day. Of the earlier ages of Jewish history, nothing has lasted to our time except it be the sepulchres and wells,—works of Nature rather than of men. But it is not beyond belief that the massive walls at the reservoirs near Bethlehem, the substructures of the temple at Jerusalem, and at Baalbec, are from the age of Solomon. Now also we come within distinctly noted signs of contemporary history in the outer world. In the reign of Solomon we meet with an Egyptian sovereign, designated by his proper name—Shishak—and in his still-existing portraiture on the walls of Karnac, we have thus the first distinct image of one who beyond question had communicated with the chosen people. Now also the date to which we have attained, the thousandth year before the Christian era, brings us to a level with the beginning of the well-known Classical History of Greece and Italy. But the epoch is remarkable not only for its distinctness, but for its splendor. It is characteristic indeed of the Jewish records that, clearly as Solomon’s greatness is portrayed at the time, it is rarely noticed in them again. Of all the characters of the Sacred History, he is the most purely secular; and merely secular magnificence was an excrescence, not a native growth, of the chosen people. While Moses and David are often mentioned again in the sacred books, Solomon’s name hardly occurs after the close of his reign. To have had many such characters in the Biblical History would have brought it down too nearly to the ordinary level. But to have one such is necessary to show that the interest which we inevitably feel in such events and such men has a place in the designs of Providence, and in the lessons of Revelation. Stanley.

Solomon found himself by his father’s death the sole occupant of the throne. The position to which he succeeded was unique. Never before, and never after, did the kingdom of Israel take its place among the great monarchies of the East. Large treasures accumulated through many years were at his disposal. The people, with the exception of the tolerated worship in high places, were true servants of Jehovah. Knowledge, art, music, poetry had received a new impulse, and were moving on, with rapid steps, to such perfection as the age and the race were capable of attaining. Dic. B.

The epoch of Solomon’s reign marks the climax of the Hebrew monarchy, and, according to the usual law of human greatness, the beginning of its decline. Starting from the vantage-ground on which the kingdom had been placed by the conquests of David, through the favor of Jehovah, he preserved its ascendency by a wisdom which has become proverbial, and prepared its downfall by his luxury and arrogance. Having achieved the greatest work done by any ruler of Israel since Moses, the building of the house of God upon Mount Moriah, and the settlement of His worship, he left to after times the name of

“That uxorious king, whose heart, though large, Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell To idols foul.”

The author and compiler of the richest maxims of wisdom in the literature of the world, he so used up the resources of intellectual as well as sensual pleasure, as to end with the confession “Vanity of vanities! All is emptiness and vexation of spirit!” The life of Solomon presents a striking contrast to his father’s in its uneventful character. His great work was the building of the House of God, commonly called the Temple, at Jerusalem. The rest of the history of his reign is chiefly occupied with the description of his magnificence and wealth, as the sovereign of what was then the greatest monarchy of Western Asia. P. S.

The sacred historians were guided to the preservation of what was of permanent value for the history of the kingdom of God. Mere worldly opulence and splendor has little instructiveness about it. A prolonged narrative of Solomon’s magnificence and power would have had no moral value. Enough is told us to enable us to appreciate God’s bounty to the young man who deliberately preferred wisdom to wealth and power, and to see the powerlessness of mere wisdom and culture, even of the highest kind, when dissevered from the fear and love of God, against human passion and human pride. Under Solomon the star of Israel continues still to rise for a time, and under him the zenith of the nation is reached. Yet his reign is not on that account greater than his father’s, which was a continual growth from first to last. On the contrary, it is the lamentable distinction of Solomon’s reign that with him, and largely in consequence of his faults, begins a decline which was never really arrested and which in the end proved fatal. The lesson of his life is to a large extent that of Samson’s and of Saul’s combined: miraculous powers neutralized by self-indulgence; great natural gifts rendered baneful by desertion of God. Therefore a few scenes of splendor, the canker, and its consequences, are all that are needed to be told. The remainder, however flattering to himself and his age, has little instruction for us. Unlike his father, Solomon had never known the bracing influences of difficulty or adversity. Brought up in the expectation of a glorious crown, we can hardly wonder that his character does not bear the strain of the possession of enormous wealth and power. Plummer.

1. Chron. 29: 23-25. Solomon established and prospered in the kingdom by the favor of Jehovah. A brief summary of much of his reign of forty years. The wide domain conquered and possessed by the father was for a long period wisely governed by the son. The immense riches—in stores of material of every sort, as well as precious metals and stones—gathered by David, were applied in part to the building of God’s house. Another part he put into various channels of commerce. By means of wise compacts with other nations, by the construction of fleets and of broad roadways centring at his capital and traversing all his great cities, he caused this wealth to flow back again with marvellous increase. Beside the Temple, Solomon enlarged and beautified Jerusalem, built many cities, and constructed pools and other useful public works, some of which remain to the present day. In all this outward magnificence, and in the sagacity and justness with which he administered the affairs of his kingdom, we trace the evidence that God “magnified him exceedingly.”

2. Chron. 1: 2, 3; 1 K. 3: 2-6. With a retinue of the nation’s representatives, Solomon offers a national sacrifice upon the altar of Moses, before the Tabernacle at Gibeon. Gibeon was a city of the Levites, situated six miles north of Jerusalem upon the summit of the central ridge running northward. It is called (1 K. 3: 4) the great high-place, since there the Tabernacle and sacrificial altar of Moses were finally placed. Why the Ark of the covenant, which belonged in the interior Holy Place of the Tabernacle, had been separated from the other sacred vessels, does not clearly appear. But, as we read here, David had deposited this in a temporary structure at Jerusalem. The old and now historic brazen altar, however, still remained in its place before the ancient Tabernacle of the wilderness. And to this, in a vast and solemn concourse of all the leaders, and princes, and prominent men of the tribes, Solomon goes to offer formal sacrifice for himself and the people, early (the second year) in his reign. Here, under the king’s direction, with the participation of the nation’s representatives, a thousand burnt-offerings were offered; in recognition of God’s establishment of a new reign, in acknowledgment of need through infirmity and transgression, and in supplication for Divine favor and prosperity upon King and people. By this significant act of national worship the reign began. B.

The situation of Gibeon is noble. Its hill is rounded and distinct, looking down on all sides on fruitful fields and orchards. The limestone rocks lie in horizontal strata, as if terraced by the hand of man, each step being clean cut and from six to ten feet high. Adjoining the village on the south is a broad surface, apparently artificially levelled, now planted with olive trees. We fancied that it was here that the tabernacle stood and the altar, when Solomon offered at a high festival a thousand burnt-offerings. Dulles. (For cut, see p. 92.)

1. K. 3:5.** The sacrificial festival, prolonged according to custom for seven days, was drawing toward the close, when—as we are here definitely told—“in Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream.” But the dream had all the elements of reality, for God spoke to the mind, and quickened the mind to true action. This we are assured, and this Solomon himself perfectly knew. Ask what I shall give thee! is the gracious word by which God presses his munificence upon the youthful monarch. B.—The Lord came to press His gifts upon the acceptance of David’s son; asking him to make his choice of all the gifts his almightiness enabled him to offer—or rather, of all that the man was capable of receiving. Whatever we may think of it—and practically we every day deny most of the things we profess to believe—God daily makes as large and liberal offers to us—ay, offers more liberal by far; and quite as surely will He bestow upon us what we ask, and much more, if that which we seek be well pleasing in his sight. Kit.

The call of God to his children is continually, “Ask what I shall give thee;” “Ask, and it shall be given you;” “All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” And in response to this call of God, the true child of God is continually choosing, yet not choosing—choosing while he will not choose—in the matter of his heart longings, as he looks God-ward in prayer. He knows what he longs for, but he is not sure that he knows what is best for him; so, while his choice is naturally in the direction of his longings, he wants God to choose that which he himself would choose if he saw the case as God sees it. He chooses to take what he craves,—if God sees that it is best for him to have that object of his craving; but he is unwilling to make an absolute choice—however strong are his yearnings in a given direction—while God alone is competent to decide as to the real desirableness of the thing desired. And so the choices of the true-hearted Christian believer are ever by choosing, yet not choosing, as he makes known his requests unto God. S. S. Times.

7-9. Within the sacred city of Gibeon occurred one of those prophetic dreams which had already been the means of Divine communication in the time of Samuel. Thrice in Solomon’s life—at the three epochs of his rise, of his climax, of his fall—is such a warning recorded. This was the first. It was the choice offered to the youthful King on the threshold of life,—the choice, so often imagined in fiction, and actually presented in real life,—“Ask what I shall give thee.” The answer is the ideal answer of such a Prince, burdened with the responsibility of his position. He remembered the high antecedents of his predecessor—“Thou hast showed unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy, according as he walked before Thee in truth, and in uprightness, and in righteousness of heart with thee.” He remembered his own youth and weakness; “I am but a little child—I know not how to go out or to come in.” He remembered the vastness of his charge; “In the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen: a great people which cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude: and who is able to judge this thy people that is so great.” He made the demand for the gift which he of all the heroes of the ancient Church was the first to claim: “Give thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad.” Stanley.

Solomon calls himself a child only in respect to his skill in the management of public affairs, as is signified in the last words, “I know not how to go out,” etc.—that is, how to govern so great a people, for want of experience. Thus Benjamin is called a child (Gen. 44:20), although he was then above thirty years old. Patrick.—Absalom, who was a fool, wished himself a judge; Solomon, who was a wise man, trembles at the undertaking, and suspects his own fitness for it. The more knowing and considerate men are, the better they are acquainted with their own weakness, and the more jealous of themselves. H.

The special type of wisdom which Solomon asked—“an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad” (verse 9); “wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people” (2 Chron. 1 : 10)—was that sagacity, that intuitive apprehension of character and conduct, coupled with an unfailing sense of equity as between man which he needed as the supreme judge of Israel? H. C.—He does not ask that profound spiritual wisdom which would teach him to know God and his own heart : in this he was always far inferior to David. His prayer is for practical sagacity, clear intelligence, quick discernment, to see the right from the wrong amid the mazes of duplicity and doubt which beset the judge, especially among an Oriental people. And this gift he received. His aspirations, if not for the highest spiritual excellence, were for usefulness to his subjects and fellowmen, not for long life, riches, and victory for himself ; and because he had not selfishly asked these things, they were freely granted to him in addition to the gift he had chosen. P. S.

Solomon asked for wisdom to discharge the responsibilities of his kingly office. For this specific and subordinate use he sought it. He did not ask for God’s own indwelling, inworking, and personal fellowship. He did not ask for strength in the will to resist evil, or grace in the heart to walk with God. He did not even seek wisdom to know God and to serve Him, and so obey the charge of David and command of God. Only for his own and his people’s advantage, he asked for the intellectual gift of clear comprehensive perception and of just discriminating judgment. And because his request was comparatively good, far better than the reigning desires in most men’s hearts, God gave him marvellous discernment and judgment, and added also great wealth and power. But it deserves note that no recorded word or prayer of Solomon shows any yearning after inward godliness, any personal consecration to, or habitual communion with, God. In the significant absence of the spirit of piety, we find a distinctive difference in the character of Solomon as compared with that of David. And to this difference we trace the subsequent effects of Solomon’s deeper, more protracted fall. B.—His prayer at Gibeon, high and noble as it was, and “pleasing to the Lord,” was not the highest. It is the prayer of one who seeks to be self-sufficing rather than of one who feels that dependence on God is his only hope and stay. David would have asked, had he had the choice, to be delivered from his transgressions, to have a clean heart and a right spirit, to hold fast by God. The widest range of wisdom without that spirit was worthless, not only in God’s eyes but for bringing peace to the heart. This truth Solomon, with all his varied knowledge, did not know ; and had to learn it through a dreary round of the bitterest disappointments. Plummer.

To pray for a thinking and understanding mind is a most necessary and a most Christian prayer. The gift of wisdom is the subject of almost one whole book of the Bible, the Proverbs. Paul prays, and bids others pray, for an enlightened understanding, for the fulness of wisdom. James says, “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given him.” Without thoughtfulness there can be no goodness, nor any holiness. . . . By asking God to give us a wise and understanding heart, we confess to ourselves that our opinions and judgments are serious things, for we do not bring mere trifles before God’s notice in our prayers ; and that, being serious things, they demand our own serious care ; that duty and sin belong to them ; that as our salvation depends on our lives, so our lives depend upon our thoughts and judgments : for if we act ill because we have judged ill, and have judged ill because we took no pains to judge well, then the sin is not taken away from our act but remains in it : and the act was an act of what Scripture calls folly, the folly which sees not and regards not God. Whatever be our business in life, if we make it a part of our daily prayers to God that He will give us understanding in it ; that He will assist our judgment, so that, seeing what is right and true, we may maintain and follow it both in word and deed ; I do not doubt that such prayers will be answered, and that where we now act blindly and carelessly, according to any prevailing feeling or fancy, there we shall act upon the full persuasion of our minds, and that persuasion will be in general according to the will of God. T. Arnold.

2. Chron. 1 : 11, 12.** Because Solomon hath asked what he should, he shall now receive both what he asked and what he asked not : riches and honor shall be given him into the match. So doth God love a good choice, that he recompenses it with overgiving. Could we but first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these earthly things should be superadded to us. Had Solomon made wealth his boon, he had failed both of riches and wisdom ; now he asks the best, and speeds of all. They are in a fair way of happiness, that can pray well. Bp. H.—He who applies his heart to wisdom, does, at the same time, take the most proper method of gaining long life, riches, and reputation, which are very often not only the rewards, but the effects of wisdom. Addison.

God gave Solomon wisdom. He fitted him for all that great work to which he had called him; gave him such a right understanding of the law which he was to judge by, and the cases he was to judge of, that he was unequalled, for a clear head, a solid judgment, and a piercing eye. Such an insight, and such a foresight, never was prince so blessed with. He gave him riches and honor over and above into the bargain, and it was promised that he should as much exceed his predecessors, his successors, and all his neighbors, in these, as in wisdom. These also are God’s gift, and are promised to all that seek first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof, as far as is good for them (Matt. 6: 23). H.—The wealth and magnificence of Solomon were almost as proverbial as his wisdom (1 K. 10: 23; Matt. 6: 29). God gave Solomon his riches and renown. And all who possess any form of earthly good have likewise received it from Him. These earthly gifts should be received with thankfulness, and used for the glory of their Giver. But when they are withheld from any one, this is no proof of the Divine displeasure; nor is their bestowment a proof that he who receives them is specially approved of God. W. H. G.

1. K. 3: 14. We may notice that while the promises of great wisdom and great wealth were absolute (without conditions), the promise of long life was made upon conditions—viz., of his steadfastness in the ways of his father David. In this point Solomon sadly failed, and consequently failed to realize the long life conditionally promised. He is supposed to have ascended the throne at an age not exceeding twenty. Having reigned forty, he died at the age of sixty—not by any means an old man. H. C.

15. Behold, it was a dream. The vivid impression, the indelible recollection he had of this dream, together with the new and increased energy communicated to his mind, and the flow of worldly prosperity that rushed upon him, gave him assurance that it came by Divine inspiration, and originated in the grace of God. The wisdom, however, that was asked and obtained was not so much of the heart as the head—it was wisdom not for himself personally, but for his office, such as would qualify him for the administration of justice, the government of a kingdom, and for the attainment of general scientific knowledge. Jamieson.

Came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark, and offered. No marvel if Solomon, now returning from the tabernacle to the ark, testified his joy and thankfulness by burnt-offerings, and peace-offerings, and public feastings. The heart that hath found in itself the lively testimonies of God’s presence and favor cannot contain itself from outward expressions. Bp. H.

Two Mothers, with a Dead and a Living Child.

An occasion soon arose to prove his Divine gift of sagacity. Two women appeared before his judgment-seat with a dead and a living infant. The one who appealed to the king for justice alleged that they had both been delivered in the same house, the other woman three days after herself; that the other had overlaid her child in the night, and had exchanged its corpse for the living child of the first while she slept. P. S.—A monarch’s sagacity in the administration of justice was calculated to make the most marked impression upon the popular mind, and likely to be most generally talked about through the land. This quality also came more home to the personal concerns of his subjects than any other, and was for that reason alone the more carefully regarded. The administration of justice was in all ancient monarchies, as it is now in the East, a most important part of the royal duties and functions; and there is no quality more highly prized than that keen discernment in the royal judge which detects the clew of real evidence amid conflicting testimony, or that ready tact which devises a test of truth where the evidence affords not even the clew to any grounds of decision. It was an instance of this kind which supplied to the watchful people the first evidence of the marvellous judicial sagacity with which their king was endowed. Two mothers, one of whom had lost her son, contend for the possession of the living child; and the king, having to decide which of the two has the best claim to it, detects the real mother by the emotion she evinces when he orders the living child to be divided, and half given to each; and by her readiness to abandon her claim rather than see the child perish before her eyes. Kt.

20,22. The impossibility of proof makes the guilty more confident, more impudent. The true mother pleads that her child was taken away at midnight, by the other, but in her sleep; she saw it not; she felt it not; and if all her senses could have witnessed it, yet here was but the affirmation of the one against the denial of the other, which in persons alike credible do but counterpoise. 24, 25. Solomon well saw that when all outward proofs failed there was an inward affection, which, if it could be fetched out, would certainly beway the true mother. He knew that sorrow might more easily be dissembled than natural love: both sorrowed for their own; both could not love one, as theirs: to draw forth then this true proof of motherhood, Solomon calls for a sword, and commands, “Divide the living child in two.”

26,27. This sword has already pierced the breast of the true mother, and divided her heart with fear and grief at so killing a sentence. There needs no other rack to discover nature; and now, while she thinks on the cruelty of such a sentence, she sues to that suspected mercy of her just judge, “O my lord, give her the living child, and in nowise slay it;” as thinking, “If he live, he will but change his mother; if he die, his mother loses a son: it is better he should live to a wrong mother than to neither.” On the contrary, her envious competitor, as holding herself well satisfied that her neighbor should be as childless as herself, can say, “Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.” Well might Solomon and every hearer conclude that either she was no mother, or a monster that could be content with the murder of her child; and that if she could have been the true mother, and yet have desired the blood of her infant, she would have deserved as much to have been stripped of her child for her unnatural disposition, as the other would have deserved to possess him for her honest compassion. Not more justly, therefore, than wisely doth Solomon trace the true mother by the footsteps of love and pity, and adjudge the child to those bowels that had yearned at his danger. Bp. II.

27. The king was pondering the words of the two women. At last he broke forth in the language of the mother who had said, “Give her the living child, and in nowise slay it.” And to that sentence, taken as representative of the person who had spoken it, he adds his own decision, “She is the mother thereof.” Bernard.

28. Solomon’s decision in its results was most important to him; for it evinced, in the judgment of the people, his fitness to fill worthily the high place to which he had been raised. Of this some doubt and misgiving appear to have been previously entertained, on account of his age—too young for experience, yet too old for a regency. But now all this was at an end. He had delivered a judgment which the most riripened experience could not surpass. “They saw that the wisdom of God was with him to do judgment;” and thenceforth they regarded him with the respect and veneration due to riper years. Kit.

The response of Solomon, more fully given in First Kings, is to be studied in connection with the reply of God. The request was for wisdom and knowledge, and this in order to discharge the responsibilities of his kingly office. It was a wise request, and was approved of God. But the terms of His approval show exactly the character of the request and how far that approval went. Because Solomon had not asked riches, wealth, honor, long life, nor revenge upon his enemies, none of those desires which are foremost with men and universally cherished, God gave the desired wisdom, and added great wealth and honor. Yet, it should be carefully noted, that while asking for that which was comparatively excellent, far better than the things men commonly ask in their hearts, Solomon did not ask for the ever-present guidance and grace of the Spirit of God. He showed wisdom, good judgment, in asking for wisdom. But he did not evince the spirit of an inward godliness, or controlling piety, like that which life-long actuated the heart of David. This marked essential difference characterizes the two lives, and distinguishes the inspired writings of father and son. In these writings we trace this difference in the effect upon each of the transgressions of middle and later life. Throughout the Psalms there is an outpouring of the heart in trust and penitence, in love and aspiration. But the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes mainly reveal a sharpened conscience, and a clear, cold, sometimes almost feelingless intellect tracing the courses and effects of good and evil doing in actual life-experience. Were it not for a few Proverbs and for the richly wrought Allegory entitled the Song of Solomon, there would be little relief for our sadness in the retrospect of a life so endowed with all gifts outwardly attractive and intellectually beautiful. Let it be remembered, then, that the choice of Solomon, though comparatively far superior to ordinary human choices, was not the highest and best. Wisdom for his own use, to guide and control his action as ruler, to employ the best means in securing the most desirable ends in his government and care of the people, this was the wish of his heart that God approved and granted. But to the grant, God subjoins the conditional and warning words, “if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father

David did walk; an intimation that strength in the will and grace in the heart must be Divinely added to wisdom of the understanding. That Solomon’s wisdom did not suffice for this needed Divine grace, that his excelling wisdom did not help him to keep God’s statutes and commandments, we read full plainly in his whole after history. B.

When still in his youth, Solomon received from God the gift of wisdom, that he might judge Israel righteously. Is this sufficient reason for laying to God’s account Solomon’s entire life, his luxury, his excesses, even his idolatry? Are we not expressly told, “The Lord was angry with Solomon?” and do not facts confirm this declaration? Further, while the name of David often occurs in the writings of prophets and apostles, not once does the name of Solomon cross their lips. Are not these sufficiently striking signs of the Divine disapprobation of this reign, which was as morally disastrous as it was outwardly brilliant? Godet.

Practically, in view of the youthful vigor normally accorded to virtuous young men, and the possibilities that lie within the grasp of earnest, persevering endeavor, God says to every young man as he said to Solomon—"Ask what I shall give thee!” Make choice of the ends you would accomplish in life. If they are worthy ends my blessing shall be upon you. According to your faith it shall be done. Any young man can choose as Solomon did to “serve his generation according to the will of God"—to do the very duties which God in providence lays before his hand, and to do those duties in the best manner possible to him with his powers and opportunities. This virtuous noble purpose is one of the first and best possibilities of every young man. He can be, in this highest sense, good. He can consecrate to the service of God in the line of labor for human well-being whatever powers God gives him. So doing he may be confident of two things: that his choice will please God, and that God will give him success—most surely of all, success in his endeavors to please God truly and serve him faithfully, than which no other success can be greater or better.

Again, the case as presented here is good both for proof and for illustration of the principle that when men “covet earnestly” and supremely the best gifts, God loves not only to give these best things thus preferably and supremely sought, but to throw in the lesser things as unasked gratuities—in business phrase, “into the bargain.” God gave Solomon not only the wise and understanding heart to rule well—that which he specially sought; but also great wisdom in other directions; immense riches, moreover, and unsurpassed honors. It seems to have been very easy for the Lord to throw in all these lesser things, and make no particular account of them. They were so much extra—a kind of bonus, which signifies the rich munificence of the Giver, and the gushing fulness of his heart toward that unselfish virtue which is so like God, and which he so naturally enjoys when he sees it in his creatures. Moreover, this case suggests the general law as propounded by Jesus in his great sermon: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things,” food, raiment, these lower blessings, “shall be added unto you.” They shall be thrown in, almost without your asking. Give your full heart and chief endeavor to seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and God will see to the filling of your cup with earthly good as may be best for you in his sight. Hence we may conclude that the principle on which God blessed Solomon was not exceptional but general. Anybody can have blessings from God on the same principle, good blessings, the Lord himself being judge as to what is really good for any one of us personally to have. “Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is,” and in no trivial sense. H. C.