This Series is intended to provide text-books abreast of 
 the scholarship of the day, but moderate enough in size 
 and price to fit them for general use among young people 
 under religious instruction at week-day and Sunday 
 schools, and in Bible classes. It is meant not to conflict 
 with any existing series, but to serve as a preparation for 
 larger and costlier manuals. The volumes will be written 
 by competent scholars, known for their interest in the 
 young, and belonging to various branches of the Church 
 of the Reformation. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE SERIES. 
 
 “ For fulness of information, clearness of consideration, and 
 for a complete and comprehensive view of the subject of which 
 they treat, they are, as far as we know, unique. They need 
 only to be better known to command a wide circulation in Eng¬ 
 land as well as Scotland. Teachers of the senior classes in our 
 Sunday schools could have no better preparation for their 
 work, and if they would put them in the hands of the scholars 
 and examine upon them, meanwhile giving such further ex¬ 
 planatory remarks as their own more extended reading might 
 suggest, the training would be much more satisfactory than it 
 is at present.”— Congregationalist. 
 
 “ The cheapness and adequate scholarship of these Bible 
 Class Primers are calculated to secure for them a most useful 
 sphere of influence. The name of the editor. Professor Sal- 
 mond, at once guarantees their high quality and evangelical 
 character. ”— Christian. 
 
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 DOMINIONS OF 
 
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Bible Claes primers. 
 
 EDITED BY PROFESSOR" SALMOND, D.D., ABERDEEN. 
 
 LIFE AND KEIGN 
 
 OF 
 
 SOLOMON 
 
 BY THE 
 
 kev. kaynerKvinterbotham, 
 
 M.A., LL.B., B.Sc. 
 
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PREFATOEY NOTE. 
 
 This Series is intended to provide text-books, abreast 
 of the scholarship of the day, but moderate enough 
 in size and price to fit them for general use among 
 young people under religious instruction at week¬ 
 day and Sunday schools, and in Bible classes. It 
 is meant not to conflict with any existing series, 
 but to serve as a preparation for larger and costlier 
 manuals. The. volumes will be written by com¬ 
 petent scholars, known for their interest in the 
 young, and belonging to various branches of the 
 Church of the Reformation. No effort shall be 
 spared^ to make the Primers attractive in style, and 
 thoroughly up to date, so that youthful learners, in 
 their earliest studies in God's Word, may have the 
 benefit of the best results of devout inquiry. May 
 the God of the families of Israel bless tho humble 
 effort to help young minds to a reverent a^d intelli¬ 
 gent acquaintance with His truth. 
 
 S. I). F. Salmond. 
 
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CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter I. —Parentage, Birth, and Training, . 9 
 
 1. The Son of David—2. The Son of Bathsheba—3. The 
 Beloved of his Father—4. The Beloved of God—5. Solo¬ 
 mon’s Names—6. Solomon’s Boyhood 
 
 Chapter II.— Solomon’s Accession, .... 16 
 
 7. The Pretensions of Adonijah—8. The Supporters of 
 Adonijah—9. The Conspiracy of Adonijah—10. The In¬ 
 tervention of Nathan and Bathsheba—11. The Anointing 
 of Solomon—12. Solomon’s Instructions in the Kingdom 
 —13. Solomon’s Enemies cut off. 
 
 Chapter III.— The Early Years of Solomon’s 
 
 Keign,.26 
 
 14. Marriage Alliance with Egypt—15. Solomon’s Piety 
 —16. Solomon’s Dream—17. Solomon’s Judgment—18. 
 The Extent of his Doihinions—19. The Government of 
 his Dominions—20. The State of his Dominions—21. 
 The Alliance with Hiram. 
 
 Chapter IV.— Solomon’s Temple, .... 87 
 
 22. Preparations for the Building—23. Tlie Levy—24. 
 The Building of the Temple—25. The Dimensions and 
 Divisions of the Temple—26. The Ornamentation of the 
 Temple—27. The Sacred Furniture—28. Hiram, the 
 Brassfounder—29. The Works of Hiram--30. The Com¬ 
 pletion of the Temple—31. The Dedication of the Temple 
 —32. Solomon’s Prayer—33. Solomon’s Sacrifice and 
 Feast. 
 
8 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter V.— Solomon’s other Buildings, , . 58 
 
 34. The great Builder of his Age—35. Solomon’s Palaces 
 —36. Solomon’s Throne-Eoom and Throne—37. Solo¬ 
 mon s Public Works—38. Solomon’s Private Resorts— 
 39. The Fortification of Jerusalem—40. Fortified Cities 
 and Military Posts—41. Store-Cities and Barracks. 
 
 Chapter VI. — The Golden Age op Israel, . . 67 
 
 42. Solomon’s Commerce—43. Solomon’s Fleets—44. 
 Solomon’s Revenues—45. Solomon’s Wisdom—46. Solo¬ 
 mon’s Religious Worship—47. Visit of the Queen of 
 Sheba. 
 
 Chapter VII.— The'Fall of Solomon, ... 79 
 
 48. Sources of Decay—49. Solomon’s Harem—50. Solo¬ 
 mon’s Idolatry—51. Solomon’s Punishment—52. Hadad 
 53. Eeyon—54. Jeroboam—55. Solomon’s Death. 
 
LIFE AND REIGN OF SOLOMON. 
 
 - 0 - 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PARENTAGE, BIRTH, AND TRAINING. 
 
 1. THE SON OF DAVID. Solomon was the son 
 of David. In more senses than he himself perhaps 
 ever knew, that was his most distinguishing title. He 
 did not make his own fortunes (humanly speaking) 
 as his father had made his. He had not to fight his 
 own battle. Neither the good nor the evil which 
 comes of having to struggle against many difficulties 
 and powerful enemies fell to the lot of Solomon. He 
 was not the son of Jesse, the plain citizen of Bethle¬ 
 hem : he was the son of David, the great hero-king 
 of Israel. And he was by eminence the son of David. 
 David, indeed, had many sons. As many as six were 
 born to him by various wives during the years in 
 which he lived (more or less constantly) at Hebron.^ 
 But at that time David was not yet King of Israel. 
 He was indeed far from being the homeless fugitive 
 he had been ; but he was equally far from being the 
 accepted head of God’s people, as he afterwards be¬ 
 came. Now in the east the law of inheritance 
 was less definite than with us. Absalom, who 
 was born at Hebron, even if he was the eldest 
 surviving son,6 was not certain to succeed to the 
 kingship of Israel. The same was the case with 
 
 a 2 Sam. iii. 2-5 ; 1 Chron. iii. 1-3. 
 
 b Amnon was dead, but nothing is said as to the fate of the second 
 son Chileab, or Daniel. The history is equally silent as to the younger 
 
10 
 
 Adonijah." Solomon, on the other hand, was born 
 at Jerusalem. He was born in that new capital,' 
 which was the seat and symbol of the new kingdom, 
 the kingdom of God in Israel, the only kingdom 
 which ever really existed by Divine right, because its 
 head was by direct appointment the viceroy of 
 Jehovah, the covenant God.^ Solomon therefore, as 
 the eldest ^ surviving ^ son born to the King of Israel 
 in Jerusalem—born (as we may say) in the purple— 
 and soon showing rare gifts, may have been marked 
 out from the first as the probable heir of all his 
 father’s greatness. 
 
 2. THE SON OF BATHSHEBA (or Bathshua«). 
 It was one of the most grievous faults of those days 
 that rich men, and great men, and especially kings, 
 thought themselves at liberty to take as many wives 
 as they pleased. If the Mosaic law did not absolutely 
 forbid it, it was because God knew the hardness 
 of their hearts,/ and because He was gradually pre¬ 
 paring them for a higher moral life ; but it was con¬ 
 trary to God’s original institution,^' and it was the 
 cause of constant misery and trouble. David’s last 
 wife (so far as we know ^), and certainly the one 
 whom he loved the best, was Bathsheba, the mother 
 of Solomon. But David had committed a fearful sin 
 in taking Bathsheba to be his wife, because she was 
 the wife of another, whom he craftily put out of the 
 way in order to get her. David indeed repented very 
 earnestly of his wickedness, but we have no know- 
 
 sons born at Hebron, Shephatlah and Ithream, Probably they were 
 taken into the priestly guilds which David established in connection 
 with the new ceremonial set up at Jerusalem (2 Sam. vlii. 18). 
 a See below, ch. ii. 7. b Compare 2 Sam. vii. 11-16, and Psalm ii. 
 c Both in 2 Sam. v. 14 and in 1 Chron. iii. 5 he is mentioned last 
 among the four sons of his mother. The histoiy, however, in 2 Sam. 
 xii. leaves no room for doubt that Solomon Avas the eldest. 
 d The first born died (2 Sam. xii. 18). 
 
 e The name is Bathshua in 1 Chron. lii. 6. The same name occurs 
 in Gen. xxxviii. 12 ; 1 Chron. ii. 3 (“ daughter of Shua”). 
 f St Mark x. 5. g Gen. ii. 24; Mark x. 6. 
 
 h David had other sons born at Jerusalem, but Ave do not know who 
 their mothers were (2 Sam. v. 15,16; 1 Chron. iii. 6-8). 
 
11 
 
 ledge wlietlier Bathsheba ever repented. "We may 
 well fear that she had little real sense of religion, and 
 that she found herself in too false a position for that 
 as the favourite wife of the great king. However, 
 her first child was taken from her, and if she felt the 
 blow as deeply as David did, sorrow may have 
 brought her sin home to her. But we cannot think 
 that Solomon owed much that was good either in his 
 disposition or in his early training to the weak and 
 erring woman whom he honoured as his mother. 
 
 3. THE BELOVED OF HIS FATHER. That 
 Solomon was the beloved of his mother we may be 
 sure, because he was her eldest child that lived, and 
 because all the grief which she had felt for the child 
 that died went to increase her love for the child that 
 lived. But he was also the beloved of his father. 
 David was full of affection towards his sons, an affec¬ 
 tion which not even the wicked and unnatural 
 conduct of some among them could destroy." But 
 David seems to have regarded Solomon from the 
 first with peculiar affection as the child of his royal 
 state, as the child of his favourite wife, most of all 
 as the child of promise—the child whom God had 
 given him to carry out the Divine purpose, and the 
 most cherished ambition of his own heart.* 
 
 4. THE BELOVED OF GOD. All the circum¬ 
 stances which attended Solomon’s birth conspired to 
 point him out for future dignity ; yet all these ad¬ 
 vantages might have been set aside by the course of 
 events, and Solomon might have changed places in 
 history with Nathan c or another of his brothers. 
 One thing, however, could never be set aside; one 
 thing in his favour was absolutely decisive, “ The 
 Lord loved him.’V The Lord, who was the supreme 
 
 a 2 Sam. xiii. 36, 39 ; xviii. 32, 33. 
 
 b 2 Sam. vii. 13; 1 Chron. xxii. 7-10. 
 
 c Nathan makes no figure in the history of Israel. Yet in the secret 
 counsels of God he was reseiwed for higher honour than Solomon 
 himself, for the Messiah traced his earthly pedigree from liim (Luke 
 iii. 31). Comp. Zech. xii. 12. 
 
 d 2 Sam. xii. 24. 
 
12 
 
 invisible monarch of Israel, whose viceroy and ser¬ 
 vant David was, set His love and His choice upon 
 the child of Bathsheba, and called him from his 
 earliest infancy to be the ruler of [^His people Israel. 
 Some years before Solomon was born, David had 
 been very anxious to begin building a Temple for 
 the Ark of God. Nathan the prophet, however, had 
 brought him a message from God that it was not for 
 him to build this Temple ; that a son should be born 
 to him whose life should have no ups and downs like 
 his father’s ; that God would adopt him as His own 
 child, and give to him a sure kingdom ; and that he 
 should build the Temple which David had proposed. 
 That this prophecy did in part look on beyond 
 Solomon to the greater and truer Son of David we 
 know,a but as far as the present time was concerned 
 Solomon was clearly pointed out as the child in 
 whom this glorious promise should be fulfilled. 
 Thus was he called to the highest fortunes, not only 
 by the circumstpces of his birth, not only by the 
 affection and wish of his father, but also by the 
 counsel and election of God. 
 
 5. SOLOMON’S NAMES. The child whose birth 
 was so full of comfort and of promise was called by 
 his father Solomon,^ “the Peaceful.” This name 
 itself seems to have come indirectly from God ;c but 
 we may certainly take it as expressing his father’s 
 liopG and. faith that this child should havG a happier 
 and a holier, because a more peaceful life than he 
 had led. David knew by experience the dangers and 
 drawbacks which a career of strife had brought to 
 his own spiritual life. Perhaps he did not suffi¬ 
 ciently estimate those other dangers and drawbacks 
 j prosperity and peace. At any rate, 
 
 he did but express one of the best instincts of man¬ 
 kind in praying that his son’s triumphs might be 
 a Heb. i. 5. Comp. Luke i. 32. 
 
 6 In Hebrew, Sh’lomoh; in the Greek Version of the Seventy, 
 Salomon; in N.T.,S51Smon. ocvemy, 
 
 c X Chron. xxii. 9. 
 
13 
 
 those of peace, not those of war. More directly, 
 as it seems, this child of promise received from the 
 Lord" the name of Jedidiah, “the Beloved of 
 Jehovah.” This name, like “Emmanuel,”^ and cer¬ 
 tain others, was too sacred to be used in common life ; 
 but no doubt it was treasured up in the hearts of 
 those that loved him, and afterwards in his own, as 
 the choicest of all the gifts with which that favoured 
 life began. It was “ by the hand of Nathan,” the 
 faithful prophet who had secured the life-long con¬ 
 fidence of David by rebuking his crimes, that this 
 pledge of the Divine favour was sent to David’s child. 
 
 6. SOLOMON’S BOYHOOD. Of Solomon’s early 
 life we only know that, unlike the early life of his 
 elder brothers, it was spent in the king’s court at 
 Jerusalem. Eor one brief period, indeed, the peace¬ 
 ful ease of his young life had to be abandoned for 
 the dangers and terrors of sudden flight and hurried 
 wandering. When his father fled from the face of 
 Absalom, there can be little doubt that Bathsheba 
 and her child accompanied him j ^ and the sorrows 
 of those evil days must have fallen still more hardly 
 upon the women and children than upon the war¬ 
 riors. Solomon was quite old enough at this time^^ 
 to share the sufferings and anxieties of those around 
 him, and to remember the fierce excitement of 
 that flight and that return to his dying day. With 
 this exception we must think of him as growing up 
 to manhood amidst such state and luxury as belonged 
 to David’s court. The state, indeed, was of a very 
 simple kind, and the luxury was more in the way of 
 
 a 2 Sam. xii. 25. 
 
 6 Isaiah vii. 14; Matt. i. 23. Comp. Isaiah ix. 6; Hosea i. 4, &c.; 
 Zech. VI. 12. Some think that the name Jedidiah is alluded to in Psa. 
 cxxvii. 2. 
 
 c 2 Sam. xv. 16. There can be little doubt that jealousy of the 
 favourite child Solomon prompted the rebellion of Absalom, and that 
 Absalom would have slain him if he had found him. 
 
 d The rebellion of Absalom was at least nine years after the crime 
 of Amnon, and therefore more than nine years after Solomon's birth. 
 2 Sam. xiii. 23, 38; xiv. 28; xv. 7; where we should read “four” 
 instead of “ forty.” 
 
14 
 
 rude profusion than of refinement; still we must 
 always remember that Solomon was brought up in a 
 king’s court, and wore “ soft clothing,” and “ fared 
 sumptuously every day,” after the fashion of the time. 
 Three persons had more to do with him, and with 
 his training, than any others : his father, his mother, 
 the prophet Nathan ; and it is not difficult to trace 
 the strong influence of each in the character which 
 he afterwards displayed. In his father he had the 
 noblest of all examples, for he would learn to recog¬ 
 nise in him that union of fervent piety with rnanly 
 strength and royal power of command which is so 
 rare and so excellent. With his father he would go 
 continually to the Tabernacle,'* and learn both to 
 value the routine of sacrifice and to love the freer 
 service of psalmody and prayer. From his father 
 he would catch that enthusiasm for the House of 
 God, and that ambition to build Him a Temple which 
 David had vainly cherished. All the grand ideals 
 which the father had been compelled by his faults or 
 his misfortunes to leave unattempted, would be care¬ 
 fully impressed upon the mind of the son. But the 
 boy would be also with his mother—in his childhood 
 almost entirely so ; and that must have been a very 
 different influence. The mother’s influence in an 
 eastern court is almost always bad, for she is not 
 trained to think of anything higher for her child than 
 the merest self-indulgence. We shall not wrong 
 Bathsheba if we make sure that her ambition was to 
 make her son’s life as pleasant and as soft as possible, 
 and to see his every wish gratified.*' Ha,ppily for 
 Solomon, there was one man about David’s court 
 who had great influence both with his father and 
 with his mother, and who used that influence for the 
 best interests of the child. Nathan the prophet had 
 
 a i.e., the temporary sanctuary which David had made for the Ark 
 within the city of Zion (2 Sam. vl. 17). 
 
 b The fact that almost all the good kings of Judah had wicked sons 
 is readily accounted for by the preponderating influence of the mother 
 under the domestic system of the east. 
 
15 
 
 always been devoted to the cause of the young prince, 
 and to him was entrusted the care of his education. 
 He occupied a position at court not unlike that of 
 the chancellor and keeper of the king’s conscience in 
 mediaeval Europe. He kept the state papers ” 
 (such as they were) and wrote the annals of the 
 kingdom.® From the learning which Solomon after¬ 
 wards displayed, we may be sure that he had been 
 taught much in his early years—much which his 
 father knew nothing about—much that was quite 
 unusual for princes of that day to learn. No doubt 
 he was of a singularly quick disposition, eager to pick 
 up all sorts of information, ready to turn his mind to 
 all manner of different subjects. And no doubt he 
 had excellent instructors in Nathan, and in others of 
 whom we know nothing. 
 
 Questions and Points for Inquiry. 
 
 1. What right did the public opinion of the east 
 recognise in a son to succeed to Ms father ? 
 
 2. What advantage belonged to Solomon in this 
 respect over his brothers 
 
 3. What was the great distinction between his birth 
 and training, and that, e.g., of Absalom? 
 
 4. What was the Divine promise to which Solomon 
 was heir ? 
 
 5. What duty and privilege came to him before he 
 was born ? 
 
 6. What names did he receive ? what did they mean ? 
 and how are they distinguished? 
 
 7. What event disturbed the peace of his early years ? 
 
 8. What three persons had most to do with his train¬ 
 ing ? 
 
 9. What sort of influence would each of these have 
 
 upon him ? . ^ ^ 
 
 10. What kind of ofice did Nathan hold in David's 
 court ? 
 
 a 1 Chron. xxlx. 29; 2 Chron, ix. 29. His position in the court may¬ 
 be seen from the narratives in 2 Sara, vii.; 1 Kings i. That Gad, and 
 not Nathan, was sent to rebuke David in the matter of the census 
 was probably due to the fact that the latter held an official position 
 
16 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Solomon’s accession. 
 
 7. THE PRETENSIONS OF ADONIJAH. The 
 
 right of Bathsheba’s son to succeed to the undisputed 
 throne and enlarged kingdom of David was founded, 
 not only upon the natural expectation of the people, 
 but also upon the Divine decree,« and upon his father’s 
 solemn promise given to his mother at the time of his 
 birth. ^ This right had once been rudely challenged, 
 and for a while set aside, by the rebellion of Absalom. 
 It was again to be challenged with some appearance 
 of success by another of his elder brothers. Ammon 
 and Absalom had come to a violent end some years 
 before : Chileab (or Daniel) was either dead or was 
 otherwise withdrawn from public life : whatever 
 rights might be supposed to belong to the first-born 
 had descended upon Adonijah, the son of Haggith. 
 Those rights indeed were of small account according 
 to the ideas of that age, and could never have been 
 fairly pressed against the claims of Solomon ; but 
 Solomon was young, and was knowm from his very 
 name to be unwarlike: David, who had always 
 shown himself excessively indulgent towards Adoni¬ 
 jah,c had now apparently fallen into second child¬ 
 hood, and might be expected to give way without 
 much difficulty. Where Absalom had only just 
 failed, Adonijah might well hope to succeed. So he 
 plotted for the throne of Israel just as his elder 
 brother had plotted. Like him Adonijah was strik¬ 
 ingly handsome, and like him he covered a vain and 
 headstrong character with a popular manner and a 
 pleasing address. He assumed therefore a state which 
 was unmistakably intended to set forth the claims 
 he made upon the throne. His chariots, such as only 
 
 a 1 Chroii. xvii. 12. h 1 Kings i. 17. c 1 Kings i 6 
 
17 
 
 kings used, « his mounted body-guard, his fifty men 
 who ran before him * when he made his public ap¬ 
 pearances, all declared as plainly as his words that 
 he intended to be king. 
 
 8. THE SUPPORTERS OF ADONIJAH. Nor 
 
 did Adonijah fail to support his claims by something 
 more substantial than mere parade. Warned by the 
 failure of Absalom he succeeded in gaining over to 
 his side two of the most conspicuous of the public 
 servants of David, the very two who had done more 
 than any others to set David on his throne, and to 
 keep him there. The first of these was Joab, the 
 nephew of David, the rough warrior who had been 
 the captain of David’s host for so many years. By 
 fair means or by foul, with his master’s sanction or 
 without it, this man had cut olF every domestic 
 enemy, and subdued every foreign enemy that could 
 be counted dangerous to the house of David. With 
 all his insolence—an insolence due partly to old 
 companionship, partly to a certain partnership in 
 crime —he had been faithful to his master at the 
 most critical times, and had followed him through all 
 his wanderings for forty years. Why he should have 
 fallen from his loyalty now we do not know. No 
 doubt the peaceful character of the young prince was 
 not as much to his taste as the rougher and more 
 soldier-like character of the elder brother. Probably 
 too he felt that he would have no claims upon Solo¬ 
 mon, and moreover despised him as the child of 
 Bathsheba. ^ As to David, he may well have said to 
 himself, that the aged king was really king no longer, 
 
 a 1 Kings x. 29. Absalom had done the same (2 Sam. xv. 1) 
 Otherwise the use of chariots by private persons seems to have been 
 unknown at that time, 
 
 b These forerunners were a striking feature of a royal progress. 
 When Elijah wished to show especial honour to King Ahab, he ran 
 before his chariot to the gate of the royal city (1 Kings xviii. 46). 
 
 c 2 Sam. xi. 14-21. 
 
 d To such an one as Joab the religious sanctions which consecrated 
 Solomon from his birth would be unintelligible; the crimes which pre¬ 
 ceded it would be matter for bitter scorn. 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 and that it was best for all concerned that the govern- 
 ment should be placed in younger and more vigorous 
 hands. The second of the two who lent their support 
 to Adonijah’s schemes was Abiathar, the priest. 
 This man, even more than Joab, had been bound up 
 with the lowest fortunes of David, and had done 
 more than any one else to save him from destruction 
 and despair. The great-great-grandson of Eli," and 
 head of the priestly line descended from Ithamar, the 
 son of Aaron,^ he had escaped from Nob when Doeg 
 had slain the priests by command of Saul.*^ Taking 
 refuge with David he had remained at his side, 
 visibly representing the favour of the national reli- 
 gk)n and of the national priesthood. He it was, no 
 doubt, who had anointed David by the will of the 
 people at Hebron.<^ In after years, however, David 
 had exercised that supreme power which the anointed 
 kings of Israel claimed from the first as vicegerents 
 of God, not only over the State but over the Church 
 of Israel. He had associated with his old friend and 
 companion in affliction another priest who represented 
 a rival interest, and who was destined first to take 
 precedence of him,/ and finally to supersede him alto- 
 gether.fl' Abiathar remained faithful to David at the 
 time of Absalom’s rebellion, and did him good ser¬ 
 vice : it was only natural, however, that his mind 
 should be to some extent alienated, and when a 
 change seemed imminent he did not feel himself 
 bound by David’s choice of a successor. 
 
 a 1 Sam. xiv. 3; xxii. 20. 
 
 * 1 Chron. xxiv. 3, where for “ Aliimelech ” it is usual to read “Abia¬ 
 thar.” _ There is, however, no other reference to the descent of Abiathar 
 and Eli from Ithamar, and it is a question how much is meant by the 
 distinction between the “sons of Phinehas,” and the “sons of 
 Ithamar.” c 1 Sam. xxii. 18-23. d2 Sam ii. 4. 
 
 « Zadok does not appear until after the union of the whole kingdom 
 (2 Sam. viii. 17). He may have been connected with the nortliern 
 portion, and have been associated with Abiathar for political reasons. 
 According to the genealogies he represented the elder priestly line de¬ 
 scended from Eleazar (1 Chron. vi. 4-8). 
 
 /Zadok is always mentioned first, as in 2 Sam. xv. 
 g 1 Kings ii. 35. In Ezekiel the “ sons of Zadok ” only are recog- 
 pized as priests (Ezek. xliii. 19; xliv. 16, <fcc.) 
 
19 
 
 9. THE CONSPIRACY OF ADONIJAH. These 
 two supporters might well seem to Adonijah to 
 secure the success of his enterprise, and accordingly 
 he went on to proclaim himself king in the royal city 
 itself. In the narrow valley of the brook Kedron, 
 to the east of the city of David, and to the south of 
 the hill on which the Temple afterwards stood, there 
 is a natural spring—the only one in the neighbour¬ 
 hood of Jerusalem. It went by the name of En 
 Rogel (“ The Fuller’s Spring ”). A little way to the 
 east, overhanging the narrow valley, was a large flat 
 rock called Zoheleth. Here Adonijah held a sacri¬ 
 ficial feast, slaying the sheep and oxen upon the rock 
 Zoheleth. To this feast he invited all the king’s sons « 
 —in themselves a numerous company—and all the 
 men of Judah who had been in the service of the 
 king. Adonijah, representing the elder family born 
 at Hebron, claimed especially the allegiance of Judah, 
 and appealed to that tribal jealousy which was so 
 easily aroused.^ As the guests ate the flesh and 
 drank the wine provided by Adonijah, they felt 
 themselves pledged to support his claims; nothing 
 seemed to stand in the way of immediate success; 
 David and Solomon were forgotten; they shouted, 
 “ Long life to King Adonijah.” 
 
 10. THE INTERVENTION OF NATHAN AND 
 BATHSHEBA. Adonijah did not know that there 
 was a mightier power in Israel than that of soldier 
 or of priest. The prophetic ofiice in the person of 
 Nathan then, as in that of Samuel before, and of so 
 many others afterwards, asserted itself as the most 
 direct representative of the Divine will. At every 
 turning-point of the national history a prophet of 
 the Lord was found to say to prince and people, 
 “ This is the way, walk ye in it.” Nathan had not, 
 indeed, on this occasion the unhesitating boldness 
 
 a The king’s younger sons born in Jerusalem of his numerous wives 
 are probably intended (1 Chron. iii. 6-9). The other sons of Bathsheba 
 may have been included. b 2 Sam. xix. 42, 43. 
 
20 
 
 which marked the conduct of the other prophets, 
 ^n&had marked his own.® He did not venture to 
 force his way into the presence of King David. 
 Perhaps he had become too much of the courtier; 
 perhaps he rightly judged that he could secure his 
 object more surely in a more roundabout way. He 
 sought out Bathsheba, told her of the pressing danger, 
 and bade her go at once to David and remind him of 
 the oath he had sworn to her in favour of her son. 
 Bathsheba had not seen the king for a long time, for 
 he was to all appearance in his dotage, and was 
 ministered to by other hands. She entered the king’s 
 chamber, however, as a suppliant, and told him in 
 simple words what had happened, and how all men 
 looked to him to regulate the succession to his throne. 
 While she was speaking Nathan entered, according 
 to previous agreement, and confirmed her tale, adding 
 that he himself, and Zadok, and Benaiah, the captain 
 of the bodyguard,^ and Solomon had not been invited 
 to Adonijah’s banquet; in conclusion, he demanded 
 whether David had really sanctioned these proceed¬ 
 ings without letting him know. 
 
 11. THE ANOINTING OF SOLOMON. These 
 startling tidings aroused the old monarch once more 
 to all his former energy. Calling for Bathsheba, 
 who had retired, he renewed his solemn oath in 
 favour of her son. Then sending for Zadok, Nathan, 
 and Benaiah, he bade them place Solomon on the 
 royal mule, and take him down to Gihon,<^ a place at 
 
 a 2 Sam. xii. 1, 7. 
 
 b 2 Sam. xxiii. 23. The king’s guard consisted of Cherethites and 
 Peletliites, foreign mercenaries (2 Sam. xx. 23). The former were 
 recruited from one of the tribes of the Philistine coast (1 Sam. xxx. 
 14; Ezek. XXV. 16; Zeph. ii. 5). In the two latter places the name is 
 rendered “ Cretans " by the Greek Version of the Seventy. They may 
 have been settlers from Crete. The Pelethites were probably Philis¬ 
 tines, the one name being perhaps a contraction for the other. 
 
 c The site of Gihon is quite uncertain. It was a fountain; but thei’e 
 is now no other fountain near Jerusalem but that identified with En 
 Ilogel. Gihon was evidently at a distance from En Kogel, and must 
 now have ceased to fiow. Its waters were subsequently convej'ed by 
 an underground channel into the city of David (2 Chron. xxxii. 30), 
 and the upper part of its valley was included within the walls of 
 Jerusalem (2 Chron. xxxiii. 14, but the translation is doubtful). 
 
21 
 
 that time outside the city, proclaim him kin^, and 
 anoint him publicly as the successor of David 
 Denaiah having reverently and heartily expressed 
 nis assent, the king s orders were immediately carried 
 out. ihe foreign mercenaries could be trusted ti 
 obey their commander implicitly, and the people of 
 Jerusalem were too deeply attached to David to 
 dispute his will. Zadok fetched an horn of holy oil 
 from the Tabernacle," and anointed Solomon ; the 
 blowing of trumpets, and the shouts of the people 
 whom the spectacle had attracted to the spot, gave 
 notice that the ceremony was completed. At this 
 very monient the feast which Adonijah and his 
 friends had made was coming to an end,' and in the 
 pause which followed, the unusual sounds of music 
 and of shouting reached their ears from the city. 
 They had not long to wait for an explanation. 
 Jonathan, the son of Abiathar, who had himself 
 once helped to save the king’s life at the risk of his 
 own and was no doubt familiar with many inmates 
 of the palace, reported to them fully not only the 
 public events which had caused the rejoicing in the 
 city, but also the private words of David and of his 
 men. So the conspirators, finding themselves com¬ 
 pletely outwitted, gave up at once all thought of 
 success in their enterprise, and hastened to consult 
 their own safety. Adonijah fled to the Tabernacle 
 tor sanctuary, appealing to the young king only to 
 spare his life. Solomon readily granted his prayer 
 on condition of his good behaviour, and, after receiv¬ 
 ing his submission in person, dismissed him to his 
 own house. 
 
 12. SOLOMON’S INSTRUCTIONS IN THE 
 
 XXIX.). The young king was now, for all practical 
 purposes, the monarch of Israel, although the govern¬ 
 ment was still carried on in David’s name. But on 
 
 a The Tabernacle here and elsewhprp in tnio 
 the tent which David pitched for the Ai-k on\lount Zion^® “^rrative is 
 
22 
 
 a certain day, not long before he died, David was 
 able to rouse himself from the lethargy into which 
 he had fallen, and to speak in his old firm tones 
 of counsel and command to Solomon, and to the 
 assembled heads of the people. In this charge he 
 rehearsed the Divine intimations which had pointed 
 out Solomon as his successor, and as the future 
 builder of the Temple for which he had made such 
 costly preparation," besought him earnestly to walk 
 in the way of the Lord, and charged the princes and 
 people to aid and support him therein. At the same 
 time, he gave to Solomon the plans of the future 
 Temple, and of its ritual, as they had shaped them¬ 
 selves in his pious ’meditations; and made over to 
 his care the masses of gold and silver provided for 
 the Temple furniture. He then invited ofiferings 
 from the chiefs and princes for the house of God, 
 and having received them, offered them to God with 
 prayer and thanksgiving and blessing. All that were 
 present then united in one solemn act of adoration, ^ 
 in which the old king was included as the visible 
 vicegerent and representative of God upon earth. 
 Sacrifices were offered in great profusion, and amidst 
 the feast that followed, Solomon was again and more 
 publicly instituted to the kingdom of his father 
 David, which was also “ the throne of the Lord.” ^ 
 David, however, had yet some more private instruc¬ 
 tions for his son and heir. He charged him to show 
 kindness to the sons of Barzillai,^^ and also to execute 
 deserved justice upon Joab and upon Shimei. Shortly 
 afterwards, as it appears, the old man died, and 
 Solomon was left to reign without any external 
 
 a The figures given in 1 Chron. xxii. 14 amount to something like 
 twelve hundred million pounds of our money. A mistake seems to 
 have got into the text, but we have no means of knowing how it arose. 
 The numbers given in the Books of Chronicles have to be compared 
 with those given in the Books of Kings. 
 
 b 1 Chron. xxix. 20, compare Ps. xlv. 11. The same expression is 
 used of Mephibosheth (2 Sara. ix. 6) and Bathsheba (1 Kings i. 31) 
 before David, and of the Persians before Haman (Esther iii. 2-6). 
 
 c 1 Chron. xxix. 23; xxviii. 6. d 2 Sam. xvii. 27; xix. 37. 
 
23 
 
 restraint, and without any rival in the affectionate 
 loyalty of the nation.® 
 
 13. SOLOMON’S ENEMIES CUT OFF (1 Kings 
 ii.). It is the sad necessity of eastern despotisms 
 that they can only be made secure by the violent 
 death of all who seem dangerous to their peace. The 
 kingdom of Israel was on its human side such a 
 despotism,^ and had to rely for its safety upon the 
 same stern measures of precaution and repression as 
 were usual elsewhere. Solomon, therefore, was jus¬ 
 tified by the ideas of the day, and perhaps by the 
 necessities of the case, in putting to death his un¬ 
 happy brother Adonijah, when he began to intrigue 
 with people about the court. Adonijah had gone in 
 a very humble way to Solomon’s mother, and had 
 begged of her to procure him the hand of Abishag, 
 who had ministered to the late king in his old age. 
 Bathsheba had foolishly consented to lay his request 
 before Solomon. Solomon, however, was very 
 angry:« he thought he saw in this apparently harm¬ 
 less request a plot against his own throne, and he 
 felt certain that Joab and Abiathar, the former con¬ 
 federates of Adonijah, had some hand in it too. So 
 he sent Benaiah, the captain of the guard, and the 
 unhappy man was slain at once. Of the two others 
 who had awaked the royal suspicion, Abiathar was 
 
 a Solomon’s age at his accession is uncertain. The expressions used 
 about him (1 Chron. xxii. 5; xxix. 1) are also used of Rehoboam (2 
 Clu'on. xiii. 7) at a time when he was more than forty. It is evident 
 that he was not bom until the residence and government of David 
 had been for some time established in Jerusalem. On the other hand, 
 1 Kings xiv. 21; 2 Chron. xii. 13, compared with 1 Kings xi. 42; 2 
 Chron. ix. 30, show that Rehoboam was born before his father’s acces¬ 
 sion. The historian Josephus asserts (Ant. viii. 7) that Solomon came to 
 the throne at the age of fourteen, but his statements on matters of history 
 are not to be relied on. It was, however, not unlikely that Solomon, 
 brought up as he was, was married at a veiy early age. We may suppose 
 liim to have been between sixteen and twenty when liis father died. 
 
 6 The fact that foreign mercenaries supported the throne speaks for 
 itself. 
 
 c It has been supposed that Solomon had some personal feeling in 
 favour of Abishag, and she has been identified witli “ the Shulamite ” 
 of Solomon’s Song (vi. 13). But this is not at all probable. 
 
24 
 
 spared for the sake of old associations and his 
 sacred office, but he was banished to Anathoth 
 where his family property lay, a few miles north of 
 Jerusalem. He now ceased to share with Zadok the 
 priestly office about the Ark, and in this degradation 
 men thought they saw a fresh fulfilment of the terrible 
 judgment which had been threatened against the 
 house of Eli.<* Joab was more hardly dealt with, as 
 indeed he deserved, for he had committed more than 
 one coward^ly murder,6 and only the weakness of the 
 late had permitted him to escape punishment. 
 By the law of Moses an unpunished murder was a 
 standing offence against the God of Israel,® and 
 feolonion would have been guilty of a veritable crime 
 ^requited his evil deeds. Joab, hearing 
 of the fate of Adonijah, fled for refuge to the Altar, 
 and would not quit it. The Altar of the Lord, how- 
 ever, afforded no protection to a murderer Benaiah 
 slew him at the king’s command, and succeeded to 
 his post as captain over all the host of Israel. One 
 more remained of those who had been marked down 
 for vengeance, as opportunity should arise. Shimei 
 still troubled the conscience of the young king, for 
 he had uttered words of cursing and blasphemy 
 against that kingdom which was a part of the Divine 
 rale upon earth.® This was an offence not only against 
 David as an individual, but also against the God of 
 Israel whose representative David was. Solomon, 
 therefore, felt himself^ bound by piety towards God, 
 and by respect for his father’s injunctions, to deal 
 severely with Shimei. Nor, as always happens in 
 such cases, was an excuse long wanting for taking 
 his life also. He was ordered to live in Jerusalem 
 under the eye of the king’s servants, on pain of death 
 1 e quitted it. He did quit it after three years, in 
 
 d 1 Stini, ii. 31-35 j xxii, 16-19. h 2 Ssm lii 97 * w 
 
 c Niimh vvYTr Qn 90 « j..,. o ^ sam. m. 27 ; xx. 10. 
 
 t iMimo. xxxy. 30-33. ^ Exodus xxi. 14 
 
 1 kingdom of Ahabto “blaspheme 
 
25 
 
 pursuit of some runaway slaves. On the fact being 
 notified to the king, he was summoned into Solomon’s 
 presence, reproached, condemned, and slain. Solo¬ 
 mon herein showed no generosity and no mercy ; but 
 he would have said that generosity was out of place 
 towards his father’s enemy, and mercy out of place 
 towards the enemy of God. He was the minister of 
 the Divine vengeance, which cannot sleep. 
 
 Questions and Points foe, Inquiry. 
 
 1. What claim had Adonijah on the throne of 
 Israel ? 
 
 2. Whom did he gain over to his enterprise ? 
 
 3. What reason had Joab, what reason had Ahiathar, 
 to be discontented ? 
 
 4. What steps did Adonijah take to make himself 
 king ? 
 
 5. IIow was his scheme frustrated ? 
 
 6. Who were the leaders of the party devoted to 
 Solomon ? 
 
 7. What effect did these events have on David? 
 
 8. What was the nature (a) of David's public charge, 
 (b) of his private instructions to Solomon ? 
 
 9. What teas the ofence of Adonijah which brought 
 about his death ? 
 
 10. What was the sin and what the fate (a) of Joab, 
 (b) of Shimei, (c) of Abiathar ? 
 
 11. What prophecy was called to mind by the dis¬ 
 grace of the last ? 
 
 12. Who were the king's guards? and what does 
 their employment serve to show ? 
 
26 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE EARLY YEARS OF SOLOMON’s REIGN. 
 
 14. MARRIAGE ALLIANCE WITH EGYPT (1 
 Kings iii.). Solomon was now free from all uneasiness 
 at home, and was undisputed master of the large terri¬ 
 tories which his father’s victories had reduced to 
 obedience and to order. He now looked abroad, and 
 resolved to strengthen his position amongst princes by 
 seeking in marriage the daughter of Pharaoh. Egypt 
 was at this time the most powerful, because the most 
 civilised and wealthy, country in the world ; but it 
 was not always united under one crown, and the 
 Pharaoh whose daughter became Solomon’s queen 
 was perhaps ruler only over the northern division. « 
 This marriage, then, was a political marriage, of a 
 kind quite different from anything that had been 
 known in Israel before. Je wish leaders from the time 
 of Moses downwards ^ had had no scruples in marry¬ 
 ing foreigners, but their marriages had had no poli¬ 
 tical significance. Solomon’s union with Pharaoh’s 
 daughter meant that he was more or less the equal of 
 Pharaoh ; that he belonged to the order of kings ; and 
 that he was prepared to deal with neighbouring king¬ 
 doms as they were used to deal with one another. 
 The relations of neighbouring countries then, as now, 
 were governed by a strange mixture of policy and 
 force, of open friendship and of secret suspicion ; and 
 Israel had to pay the penalty of its rise to greatness 
 
 a As far as can be ascertained at present, it was a Pharaoh of the 
 twenty-first or Tanitic dynasty whose daughter Solomon married. 
 Tliat dynasty reigned from b.c. 1110 to b.c. 980, and was succeeded by 
 another hostile dynasty of Assyrian origin nine years before Solomon’s 
 death. 
 
 b Numb. xii. 1 ; Matt. i. 5 ; Ruth iv. 10 ; 2 Sam. iii. 3. The Israelites 
 were forbidden in the law to many Canaanites (Deut. 711. 3), but the 
 prohibition seems to have been disregarded in the cases of Rahab and 
 Maachah. 
 
27 
 
 by becoming entangled in these relations. It was no 
 doubt a wonderful advance for the little inland state 
 of Israel, so lately recovered from utter feebleness and 
 anarchy, to have made. The alliance of its king with 
 the daughter of Pharaoh must have seemed to confer 
 upon it an immense importance for the present, and a 
 most valuable security for the future. When the 
 heads of the people welcomed the foreign princess to 
 her new home in Jerusalem, they felt that their 
 fathers had been more than justified in demanding 
 from God a king who would put them on a level with 
 other countries. In point of fact, however, it is 
 doubtful whether this alliance brought any happiness 
 to Solomon, or any advantage to his country beyond 
 the possession of the ruined frontier town of Gezer, 
 which Pharaoh had taken from the Philistines and 
 now restored to Israel. The foreign princess, accus¬ 
 tomed to live in great pomp, maintained her separate 
 establishment, first in the city of David," and after¬ 
 wards in the palace which Solomon built for her. 
 Surrounded by her own servants,^ and probably 
 practising her own religious rites, she remained an 
 alien in the midst of Israel,*^ and marred the ideal 
 unity of the chosen race in its most representative 
 household. Nor did the worldly policy which 
 prompted the alliance justify itself by success. Before 
 the end of Solomon’s life the reigning Pharaoh held 
 himself perfectly free to treat him with hostility. In 
 attracting the notice of Egypt, and in entering into 
 political relations with her, Israel gained nothing but 
 a powerful neighbour always jealous and generally 
 hostile. 
 
 15. SOLOMON’S PIETY. Whatever seeds of 
 future trouble may have lain in the young king’s 
 policy, he was himself at this time sincerely and pro- 
 
 a 1 Kings iii. 1; 2 Chron. vii. 11. b Psalm xlv. 14. 
 
 c 2 CUron. vii. 11 shows dearly that she was regarded as an alien in 
 a religious sense. She could not, as a heathen, he allowed to enter the 
 lalacc of David, which had been sanctified hy the presence of the Ark. 
 
28 
 
 foundly religious. He loved the Lord,® and he loved 
 to worship the Lord with all the outward profusion 
 and variety which could express the fervour of his in¬ 
 ward devotion. At this time, as for many long years 
 afterwards, men still sacrificed in “ high places,” i.e., 
 in spots which for some reason or other had come to 
 be looked upon as sacred. The law which is em¬ 
 bodied in the Book of Deuteronomy restricted the 
 sacrificial worship of Jehovah to one place. ^ But 
 the practice had been—and that with the Divine 
 sanction*^ —to offer also at other places than a single 
 centre. Solomon frequented these high places, which 
 the religious associations of many generations had 
 sanctified, with offerings of sacrifices and of incense. 
 The most popular and esteemed of the “ high places ” 
 at that time was at Gibeon, a place seven miles north- 
 north-west of Jerusalem where the Tabernacle erected 
 by Moses,and the brazen altar of sacrifice still re¬ 
 mained. According to 1 Chron. xvi. 39-42, sacrificial 
 and choral service had been maintained here during 
 the later years of David. Hither Solomon came and 
 offered no less than a thousand victims at one time 
 upon the brazen altar. 
 
 16. SOLOMON’S DREAM (1 Kings iii ; 2 Chron. 
 i.).^ In the night after the great sacrifice Solomon 
 enjoyed a blessed revelation of the favour of God. 
 The Lord appeared to him in a dream, and bade him 
 ask whatever he most desired. He, pleading the 
 greatness of the charge and of the responsibility laid 
 upon him, and his own youth and inexperience, 
 asked for that practical wisdom which he needed so 
 much if he was to do justice and judgment as a good 
 king ought. Such practical wisdom is, ordinarily 
 speaking, out of the reach of a young monarch, 
 
 Cl 1 Kings iii. 3. 6 Deut. xii. 2-14; cf. Lev. xvii. 3-6 
 
 cAs e g in the case of Gideon, Judg. vi. 26; Samuel, 1 Sam', vii. 9; 
 David, 2 Sam. xxiv. 25. 
 
 d It is not necessary to suppose that the identical curtains and 
 Doaids lemained; many, if not all, of the materials must in any case 
 have been renewed in the course of five hundred years. 
 
29 
 
 because it only springs from a combination of shrewd 
 good sense with much experience of men and matters. 
 This request was very pleasing to God, because it 
 showed that Solomon thought first and foremost of 
 his duty towards his people. Therefore God com¬ 
 mended his choice, and promised him not only the 
 practical wisdom he had asked for, but the riches 
 and honour which he had not asked for, and long 
 life too provided he spent it well. In thankful re¬ 
 membrance of this revelation Solomon returned to 
 Jerusalem and worshipped before the Ark, offering 
 many sacrifices, and making a great feast. 
 
 17. SOLOMON’S JUDGMENT (1 Kings iii.). It 
 was not long before a case came before the king 
 which illustrated in a remarkable way the practical 
 wisdom which he had asked of God, and which made 
 a very deep impression upon the people. One day 
 when he was sitting as usual to hear any difficult 
 cases that were brought to him for judgment, there 
 came two poor women and stood before him. One 
 had a living infant in her arms, and the other a dead 
 infant. The latter accused the former of having 
 accidentally killed her own child and then stolen the 
 other child, putting the dead child in its place while 
 its own mother slept. This the other woman denied, 
 asserting that the infant which she carried was 
 really her own. There were no witnesses who could 
 speak to the truth of the facts. A modern judge 
 must have dismissed the case for want of evidence, 
 and so have inflicted a cruel wrong upon the true 
 mother. Solomon however was shrewd enough to 
 see a way of getting at the truth. He ordered that 
 the child in dispute should be cut in two and divided 
 between the women. The stratagem succeeded, for 
 the true mother pleaded that the child’s life might 
 be spared at any cost to herself, while the pretended 
 mother was content that it should be killed. Such 
 insight into human nature, and such readiness of 
 resource, so successfully displayed, touched the 
 
30 
 
 imagination of Israel wonderfully. It was just on 
 a level with the tenderest and keenest feelings of 
 their every-day life. It was just what they liked, and 
 what they wanted, in “ the Judge of Israel.’^® As the 
 incident was repeated and applauded in a thousand 
 villages, men felt sure that their young monarch had 
 indeed the wisdom which is from above. 
 
 18. THE EXTENT OF HIS DOMINIONS, It 
 had been the glory of David that he fought suc¬ 
 cessfully with all the enemies of Israel on every side, 
 and subdued them. It was the greater glory of 
 Solomon (as his name foretold) that he reigned 
 peaceably and without dispute over a wide territory 
 inhabited by many tribes, whose chiefs and princes 
 all acknowledged him as their over lord. Thus the 
 benefits of his peaceful sway, and of the civilisation 
 it fostered, were extended to all the nations between 
 the Mediterranean and the Euphrates, and the 
 ancient promise made to Abraham was fulfilled. ^ The 
 Philistines, the Edomites, the Moabites, the Am¬ 
 monites, who had inflicted so many injuries upon 
 Israel, were for the present either thoroughly crushed 
 or reduced to a condition of humble dependence. 
 The Hittites, so far as they dwelt among the nations 
 of Canaan, had shared the same fate, and were reduced 
 to bondage ; so far as they formed petty states out¬ 
 side the proper borders of Israel,^ to the north and 
 north-east, they retained their separate existence, but 
 paid homage and tribute to Solomon. The same was 
 the case with the Syrian principalities which David 
 had overthrown in more than one campaign ^ Damas¬ 
 cus indeed, the most ancient of all the Syrian cities, 
 does not seem ever to have been occupied by the 
 
 a Micah v. 1. 
 
 b Gen. xv. 18. 
 
 c The head-quarters of the Hittites, or Kheta as they are called in the 
 Egyptian inscriptions, seem to have been on the upper Orontes—the 
 land of Hamath. The “kings of the Hittites ” (1 Kings x. 29) must 
 be looked for in the mountain valleys of this district. 
 
 d 2 Sam. viii. 
 
31 
 
 forces of Israel;« if it ever was, it was lost a^ain 
 almost immediately.6 With this exception the whole 
 region of Palestine and Syria obeyed King Solomon 
 and was kept in easy subjection by the military and 
 commercial posts which he established in outlying 
 places. It does not seem that he ever needed to 
 undertake any warlike enterprise. The only one 
 ever ascribed to him^ was connected with one of the 
 Syrian dependencies in the far north, and was pro¬ 
 bably in the nature of a royal progress to receive the 
 submission of tribes which had threatened to rebel. 
 What David had reduced by force of arms it was the 
 part of Solomon to strengthen and consolidate by the 
 arts of peace and the blessings of good govern- 
 
 government of HIS DOMINIONS 
 (1 Kings IV.). Solomon’s rule was at the best—^e., as 
 it was felt by his own people in the mid-day of his 
 prosperity—an absolutism ; and it shared of neces- 
 ^ty all the drawbacks of such a form of government. 
 Everything depended upon his will, and was made 
 to minister to his greatness. Independence of any 
 ind was checked, and all political virtue 'was turned 
 into the one channel of obedience to the kino-.t^ This 
 was something very different from the natfonal life 
 which the invisible King of Israel had chosen for 
 His people at the first. Had the national life de¬ 
 veloped upon the lines laid down in the law of Moses 
 Israel would have remained a confederacy of inde- 
 pendeiit tribes united by a common religion, and 
 guided by the authority of a single priesthood. Such 
 a system, however impracticable it might be con¬ 
 sidered, would have preserved the largest possible 
 amount of local and tribal liberty. But the nation 
 scouted the Divine ideal, and demanded to be organ- 
 
 a 2 Sam viii. 5, 6, seems careful not to state that Damascus itself was 
 taken; and this is more plain in the Greek Version of the Seventy. 
 
 ® ^ Chron. viii. 3. 
 
 rhis IS abundantly shown in the Book of Proverbs (xvi. 14 15 
 
 12: xxiv. 21; xxx. 31). Compare also Ecclesiastes (viii. 2,4; x. 20). 
 
32 
 
 ized as a monarchy, like the nations of this world.” 
 Since a despotism was inevitable, God Himself 
 accepted the necessity, and in His mercy made it as 
 beneficent as a despotism could be. He gave to 
 David and Solomon such gifts and graces as are most 
 needful for the rulers of men, and as long as they 
 were really wise and loyal to their Master in heaven, 
 their despotism served the interests of Israel better 
 than any other form of government then possible. 
 David’s authority indeed had always been limited by 
 the necessities of war, and by his own relations with 
 his old companions in arms. In his later years, 
 however, the government of his dominions had been 
 greatly centralized and organized after the fashion of 
 oriental monarchs. Solomon had nothing to do but 
 to complete the political organization of the kingdom 
 he inherited, and to bring every part and every 
 corner of it under the direct control of his own chieC 
 officers. For this purpose he ventured to set aside 
 the old tribal divisions,^ and mapped out Israel and 
 Judah into twelve districts which only partially cor¬ 
 responded to the ancient boundaries. Over these 
 districts he set twelve officers, whose principal duty 
 was to gather tribute in kind for the support of the 
 court and following of the king, and of the workmen 
 employed in public works. Each district supplied 
 provision for one month ; and while men were pro¬ 
 tected in the peaceful enjoyments of their lauds, and 
 no other burden was laid upon them, this tax was 
 light and reasonable. No doubt these twelve officers 
 exercised other functions in their respective districts, 
 and represented the royal authority for all political 
 purposes.c The general control over all these officers 
 was entrusted to Azariah, the son of Nathan, while 
 
 a 1 Sam. viii. 5-19; Hosea xiii. 9-11. 
 
 6 These had been to a great .extent obliterated by time; the one 
 division which did exist in popular sentiment was that between tlie 
 south under the name and headship of Judah, and the north under tlie 
 headship of Ephraim (Q Sam. ii. 4; v. 3; xix. 41; xxiv. 9). 
 
 c Two of them were married to daughters of Solomon (1 Kings iv 
 11,15). 
 
33 
 
 his brother Zabud held the offices of “principal officer’^" 
 and of “ king’s friend.” If this Nathan was the pro¬ 
 phet who had done so much to secure the throne for 
 Solomon, we can well understand why his sons were 
 promoted to great honour, both for their father’s 
 sake, and for their own, as having been the com¬ 
 panions of Solomon’s youth. The title of “ king’s 
 friend” had been given to Hushaic in David’s life¬ 
 time, and points clearly to that system of private 
 influence in affairs of state which must always exist 
 in a despotism, and is least harmful when most 
 openly recognised. We do not know exactly what 
 was intended by the title conferred upon Zabud, and 
 upon another Azariah.c^ It seems to have carried 
 with it ecclesiastical dignity, and we know that 
 Solomon looked upon himself as being in every 
 sense the head of the Jewish Church by virtue 
 of the Divine choice and consecration. Amongst 
 other principal officials who presided over various 
 departments of state were two “ scribes ” or secre¬ 
 taries,« a “recorder” or chancellor, and a super¬ 
 intendent of levies ; the two last had held the same 
 offices in the later years of David’s reign./ All these 
 were officers of peace, and their very titles mark the 
 character of Solomon’s reign ; they belong to an era 
 of centralisation and of material prosperity, when all 
 things in Church and State are done well, but are 
 done from the palace and for the palace. 
 
 20. THE STATE OF HIS DOMINIONS. The 
 
 a Translated so in our version. The Hebrew word, however, is the 
 usual term for “ priest.” 
 
 6 So Rehohoam preferred the counsel of the younj? men his com¬ 
 panions (1 Kings xii. 8). It is disputed, however, whether this Nathan 
 is the prophet or David's son. 
 
 c 2 Sam. XV. 37; 1 Chron. xxvii. 33. 
 
 dl Kings iv. 2. “The priest” does not belong grammatically to 
 “ Zadok,” but to Azariah. The Greek Version omits the word “ priest ” 
 here, and in ver. 5, in order to avoid the difficulty. 
 
 e These two secretaries seem to have been sons of David’s secretary 
 (2 Sam. viii. 17; xx. 25). 
 
 /2 Sam. XX. 24. Adoniram seems to be the same name as Adorara 
 (1 Kings xii. 18). • 
 
 C 
 
34 
 
 immediate effect of the peaceful and vigorous govern¬ 
 ment of Solomon upon the land and people of Israel 
 was to produce an extraordinary outburst of pros¬ 
 perity. When peace comes to a people naturally 
 industrious, but harassed by long wars, it is always 
 marked by a great advance in wealth ; but when 
 peace is accompanied by victory, and victory by the 
 opening up of an extensive commerce and the under- 
 taking%f great public works, wealth advances with 
 incredible swiftness. The later years of David had 
 sufficed to repair the ravages of war, famine, and 
 pestilence. The early years of_ Solomon witnessed 
 an immense increase of population.^ If population 
 increased fast, wealth increased faster still. Enor¬ 
 mous sums drawn from subject races, or earned by 
 commercial enterprise, were spent among the people, 
 and money became very plentiful amongst all classes. 
 Trade-routes were occupied with caravans. Posts of 
 profit were filled by Israelites at home and abroad. 
 The extraordinary capacity for making money which 
 had hitherto lain dormant in the race now ripened 
 all at once in the stimulating atmosphere of national 
 security and success. The very profusion of Solo¬ 
 mon’s undertakings, and the systematic vigour with 
 which he drained the wealth of the country, tended 
 at first to increase the general prosperity. It pro¬ 
 vided employment, created large demands, and 
 aroused ambitions not known before. It set before 
 the eyes of the people those spectacles of splendour 
 and of lavish enjoyment which give ardour and 
 purpose to the pursuits of industry. For the first 
 time all Israel dwelt in peace and plenty, every man 
 in his portion, in a land which flowed with milk 
 and honey. Whether the fulfilment of the Divine 
 promise,^ so long delayed, came at last in the way 
 and in the sense which God intended, may well be 
 
 a From the figures given in 2 Sam. xxiv. 9, the population of all 
 Israel may he set down as more than four millions. It may well have 
 doubled itself in the next thirty years. 
 
 * 6 Gen. xxii. 17; Deut. viii. 8 9; xxviii. 11-13 
 
35 
 
 doubted ; but at the time men saw in it the manifest 
 hand of God, and they praised God and the king. 
 
 21. THE ALLIANCE WITH HIRAM. If David 
 and Solomon had held themselves bound by the 
 strictness of the Mosaic law, they must have waged 
 war against the Phoenicians, who occupied a most 
 important part of the territory originally assigned to 
 Israel." They did not, however, hold themselves 
 bound to attack Tyre and Sidon ; on the contrary, 
 they made it part of their policy to cultivate the most 
 friendly relations with them. Here again we may 
 doubt whether Solomon’s policy was wise in the 
 highest sense, because it paved the way for the sub¬ 
 sequent connection between the reigning houses of 
 Tyre and Israel, and for the introduction of the 
 foul idolatries of Baal. At the time, however, and 
 as a part of the worldly wisdom of Solomon, a close 
 alliance with these wealthy ports seemed of incalcul¬ 
 able advantage to both peoples. Then, as ever,& the 
 Phoenicians depended for their supplies of food upon 
 the country behind them, while the trade-routes 
 taken by their caravans could at any time have been 
 blocked by the outposts of the King of Israel. On 
 the other hand, Israel had no outlet for her agri¬ 
 cultural produce, and scarcely any access to the 
 sea,<: except through the cities of Phoenice. More¬ 
 over, King Hiram of Tyre could supply his neighbour 
 with what he most eagerly desired at that time, viz., 
 excellent timber for building, and skilled labour to 
 use it. When, therefore, Hiram sent an embassy to 
 congratulate Solomon on his accession, the young 
 king met his advances with eagerness, and bespoke 
 his active assistance for the great project of which 
 his mind was full, asking for cedar trees from Leba¬ 
 non, and promising to pay for the skilled labour 
 
 a Numb, xxxiv. G-8; Judges i. 31. 
 
 6 Acts xii. 20. 
 
 c The only sea-port possessed by Israel was Joppa, and this, 
 although available for certain pui-poses (2 Chron. ii; 16; Jonah 
 i. 3), could never be made a convenient port or station for ships. 
 
36 
 
 which Hiram could place at his disposal. Hiram 
 was very glad when he received this message, and 
 sent back word that he would do all that Solomon 
 wanted in the hewing and transporting of timber, if 
 Solomon on his side would supply him with food. 
 So they made a treaty : Hiram gave as many cedar 
 and fir trees as were wanted, and Solomon gave 
 some 20,000 quarters of wheat and a certain quantity 
 of the finest oil." The two sovereigns remained on 
 the most friendly terms ^ throughout their lives. 
 
 Questions and Points of Inquiry. 
 
 1. What was the nature of Solomon's marriage with 
 the daughter of Pharaoh ? 
 
 2. What was the actual result of the alliance? 
 
 3. Where did Pharoah's daughter reside ? 
 
 4. Where did Solomon ofer sacrifices ? What author¬ 
 ity had he for doing so ? 
 
 5. What was there to give sanctity to Qiheon ? 
 
 6. Wha.t did Solomon desire to receive from God ? 
 and what did God 'promise him? 
 
 7. What difiicult case was brought to him for de¬ 
 cision ? and with what result ? 
 
 8. How far did Solomon's empire extend? and how 
 was it kept together ? 
 
 9. What were Solomon's chief officers of state? 
 
 10. What was the efect of his government on the con¬ 
 dition of the people ? 
 
 11. How did Solomon regard the Phoenicians ? 
 
 12. \yhat were the terms of the treaty between him 
 and Hiram ? 
 
 a In 1 Kings v. 11 it is stated at 20 “ cor ” (about 1200 gallons), 
 winch may seem small in comparison with the quantity of wheat. It 
 was, however, to be “ beaten " oil—oil of the purest quality. The Greek 
 Version has 20,000 “baths” (about 120,000 gallons). 
 
 6 Ps. xlv. 12 apparently refers to an embassy bearing presents at 
 the time of Solomon’s marriage. 
 
37 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Solomon’s temple. 
 
 22. PREPARATIONS FOR THE BUILDING (1 
 Chron. xxii., xxviii., xxix.). “ But Solomon built him 
 an house.”® Thus spake the martyr Stephen of Him 
 who needed no house, and yet was willing (for His 
 people’s sake) to dwell in one. This was the glory 
 of Solomon, more than all his riches, power, pomp 
 and wisdom. The Scripture narrative of his reign is 
 mainly taken up with the Temple, and this does 
 really correspond to the truth of things, for the 
 Temple which Solomon built became more and more 
 the fixed centre of the national religious life of Israel 
 and that national religious life was the germ which 
 has expanded into the spiritual life of Christendom. 
 In building that TGiuplc Solomoii was doing far more 
 than he had any idea of himself; he was providing 
 an outward shrine for the worship of the living God ; 
 and that worship, transfigured and spiritualized, but 
 yet retaining its conscious identity, was to become 
 ^e universal religion of the world. It was the 
 Temple which made Jerusalem “ the joy of the whole 
 earth : it was the Temple which gave to Jerusalem 
 an everlasting name, a name which has passed over to 
 the future abode of the saints.^ The idea of building 
 a permanent abode for the presence of the Lord God 
 of Israel for the Ark and the other sacred symbols of 
 Judaism—was David’s. Before him none thought of 
 such a thing.^ The Ark of God, in charge of a priestly 
 family ^or guild, had seemed both safer and more use¬ 
 ful while it could be moved about from place to place 
 as the troubles of those times demanded. But the 
 misfortunes which befell the Ark ^ caused men to 
 
 a Acts vU. 47. 6 Pa. xItUL 2 
 
 c Rev. xxi. 2, d 1 Sam. iv. 11; vi. 1 
 
38 
 
 tremble for its safety, and the new stability which 
 came with the possession of Jerusalem invited them 
 to enshrine there the chief symbol of their faith. 
 David accordingly ventured after long delay to fetch 
 the Ark into Jerusalem and to place it in a temporary 
 tabernacle or tent,® whilst he collected means and 
 materials for a splendid and permanent Temple. He 
 indeed was himself forbidden to build, on moral 
 grounds and moreover we may easily perceive that 
 David had not the advantages which made Solomon 
 the great builder of his age. He employed himself 
 in collecting great stores of gold and silver, of brass 
 and iron, and of other things which would be needed 
 to make the future Temple exceeding magnificaL<^ 
 Solomon, however, did not find himself at once in a 
 position to build. Whatever David may have pro¬ 
 vided in the way of hewn stone and timber,'^ Solo¬ 
 mon’s ideas went far beyond his father’s. ^ Moreover, 
 the Hebrews had no practice and no skill in architec¬ 
 ture. They have indeed never built anything which 
 has a distinctively Hebrew character. The glorious 
 Temple upon which our Lord Himself gazed with 
 melancholy admiration was the work of a foreigner,^ 
 and owed nothing to Jewish ideas but its internal 
 arrangements. And so far as Solomon’s Temple was 
 a work of art, and an object of beauty, it was due to 
 the influence of Phoenician taste, and the skill of 
 Phoenician workmen./ Accordingly the king’s great 
 object in renewing the alliance with Tyre and in 
 cultivating the friendship of Hiram, was to obtain 
 what he wanted in material and in skill for the build¬ 
 ings which he had projected, and chiefly for the 
 Temple. To this end he strained all the resources of 
 his kingdom. 
 
 a 2 Sara. vi. 2,17 61 Chron. xxii. 8. cl Chron. xxii. 6 ; xxix. 2. 
 
 d 1 Chron. xxii. 2, 4. e Herod 
 
 /The “ patterns” mentioned in 1 Chron. xxviii. must have fixed the 
 dimensions only cf the various pai-ts of the Temple, which were 
 adapted from the sacred dimensions of the Tabernacle. 
 
39 
 
 23. THE LEVY (1 Kings V.; 2 Chron. ii.). Solomon 
 luid agreed with Hiram that he should send a number 
 of his own servants into Mount Lebanon to cut timber 
 there together with the workmen sent from Tyre." 
 These latter were in all probability slaves,^ who 
 worked in gangs under Phoenician overseers, who 
 directed and combined their labours. In order to get 
 his part of the work carried out, Solomon had recourse 
 to a system of forced labour, which was little better 
 than wholesale slavery. First he drafted off the rem¬ 
 nants of the old Canaanite tribes, to the number of 
 150,000,^^ and made them to serve, apparently with¬ 
 out respite, on the roads and in the quarries of 
 Lebanon. The enormous fatigue of hewing and trans¬ 
 porting, almost entirely by manual labour, vast trunks 
 of trees and blocks of stone wore out the lives of 
 these wretched men. Their work was superintended 
 by overseers of their own race,^^ as the work of the 
 Israelites themselves had been in Egypt.« Over these 
 again there were Israelitish officers of a higher rank. / 
 But the burden of forced service did not fall only 
 upon the remnant of the heathen. Either from the 
 first, or else at a later date when fatigue and disease 
 had thinned the ranks of his labourers, Solomon 
 raised a levy out of all Israel.^ Certain classes were 
 no doubt exempt, but the rest had to take their 
 chance. ^ For the first time the free-born Israelite 
 found himself torn away from his home and his farm, 
 not by an enemy, or a foreigner, but by his own 
 rulers, to do hard and unaccustomed labour in the 
 
 maritime and commercial 
 they carried on in slaves 
 
 a 1 Kinjfs v. 6. 
 
 6 The Phoenicians -were essentially a 
 people, and were famous for the traffic 
 (Ezek. xxvii. 13; Amos i. 9; Joel iii. 6). 
 c 1 Kings V. 1,5. 2 Chron. ii. 2. 
 d 2 Chron. ii. 18. These were evidently Canaanites, as a reference to 
 
 show. The same men are apparently numbered 
 as 3300 m 1 Kings v. 16. 
 
 e Ex. v. 6,15. /I Kings ix. 23 ; 2 Chron. viii. 10. 
 
 . statement in 1 Kings ix. 22 (which is omitted 
 
 by the Gi eek V ersion) and in 2 Chron. viii. 9 must he understood to 
 mean that Solomon did not make actual slaves of his own people. 
 
40 
 
 northern mountains. No doubt the Israelites were 
 spared as much as was consistent with the nature of 
 the work, and out of the 30,000 conscripts only one- 
 third laboured for a month at a time. Nothing, how¬ 
 ever, could prevent the service being felt as a grievous 
 hardship ; and thus it came to pass that the very 
 foundations of the Temple of the Most Merciful were 
 laid in the liberties of the Israelites, and in the lives 
 of their wretched vassals. The Phoenician workmen 
 as well as his own were fed by King Solomon,“and 
 the transport of such immense quantities of corn and 
 wine and oil into the mountains added very greatly 
 to the expense and labour of the undertaking. 
 Together with the servants of Hiram and Solomon 
 were the Giblites, men of a neighbouring tribe cele¬ 
 brated for their skill in carpentry.^ By this reckless 
 expenditure of labour both timber and stones of the 
 finest quality and largest size were conveyed to 
 Jerusalem ; the timber came chiefly by sea as far as 
 Joppa, the stones were transported all the way by 
 land. 
 
 24. THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE (1 Kings 
 vi,; 2 Chron. iii.). In the second month of the four 
 hundred and eightieth year after the Exodus, in the 
 fourth year of Solomon’s reign, the work of prepara¬ 
 tion was so far advanced*^ that an actual commence¬ 
 ment was made with the building. The site on 
 which it was to stand had been fixed years before 
 by the appearance of the Lord to David at the time 
 of the great plague. Where he had seen the angel 
 standing between heaven and earth, with the drawn 
 sword in his hand, there he had built an altar, and 
 
 a 2 Chron. ii. 10. The present value of these quantities would be 
 about £120,000. 
 
 b 1 Kings V. 18. For “ stone squarers ” read Giblites or Gebalites, 
 inhabitants of Gebal (Josh, xiii. 5 Ezek, xxvii. 9). 
 
 c The Greek Version adds to 1 Kings v,, “and they prepared the 
 stones and the timber for three years.” The date of the commence¬ 
 ment of the Temple is given by the best authorities as 1007 b.c. ; but 
 it is not certain d 2 Chron. iii. 1. 
 
41 
 
 determined that the future Temple should be built. 
 It might seem as if the memory of so terrible a 
 visitation were not a pleasant association for the 
 national sanctuary. But the commanding nature of 
 the site, coupled with the fact that it was a holy 
 place, put any other choice out of the question. 
 Whether the Mount Moriah on which the Temple 
 was built was the mountain on which Abraham’s 
 sacrifice was ofiered is very doubtful,® but it was, at 
 any rate, the one place close by the city of David 
 which was holy, and which afibrded abundance of 
 room for building. Separated by a broad shallow 
 depression^ from the two hills upon which the upper 
 and lower parts of the city of David were built, there 
 was a third hill of almost equal height,*^ sharply 
 bounded on the further (or eastern) side by the 
 ravine of Kedron. To the north it was connected 
 with the somewhat higher slope, at that time un¬ 
 occupied, on which a new quarter was afterwards 
 built. To the south it fell away, narrowing as it 
 fell, into the deep valley which carries the surface 
 drainage of the neighbourhood down to the Dead 
 Sea. ^ Upon the knoll of this hill, in full view of the 
 old city, and very near it, yet so far separated as to 
 require a distinct descent and ascent in order to 
 reach it, the foundations of Solomon’s Temple were 
 laid. The rough uneven surface was made plain. 
 Where necessary substructures of huge stones raised 
 the summit to the required level. The supply of 
 water, so necessary and naturally so uncertain, was 
 provided for by breaking through the hard crust of 
 rock on which the buildings stood, and excavating 
 cisterns in the softer rock beneath. At a subsequent 
 
 a 2 Chron. iil. 1 is the only place where the Temple-hill is called 
 Mount Moriah, and no allusion is made there to Abraham. If the 
 chronicler had identified it with that mount of sacrifice, he would 
 surely have mentioned it. 
 
 b Afterwards called the Tyropaean valley, now filled with rubbish 
 
 c 2432 feet, as compared with the 2535 feet of the summit of Zion. 
 
 d Bezetha. 
 
42 
 
 period these rock-cisterns, and others of more arti- 
 licial construction, were supplied by numerous aque¬ 
 ducts; at first they may probably have depended 
 upon the rainfall carefully collected and husbanded. 
 At the same time, the drainage of the Temple area 
 was effected by means of tunnels in the rock which 
 opened upon the steep sides of the ravine of Kedron." 
 Upon the foundations thus carefully laid, the house 
 itself was raised in the space of seven years. All the 
 stones and the timbers were squared and shaped at a 
 distance, and only needed to be fitted together on the 
 spot. ^ The oldest walls of the Temple buildings may 
 be seen to-day to consist of massive stones fitted 
 together without mortar, yet so accurately that a 
 knife-blade cannot be inserted between them. We 
 must not, however, suppose that the Temple really 
 arose in silence like a thing that grew of itself. The 
 huge stones could not have been swung into place 
 without some rude machinery. Those multitudes of 
 labourers could not have been directed without noise 
 and shouting. Yet we may be sure that before the 
 admiring eyes of Jerusalem the Temple arose as a 
 tiling of wonder and of mystery. The white walls 
 grew slowly to their height; the vast beams filled in 
 the spaces; walls and beams clothed themselves with 
 shining gold; and all without a pause, without visible 
 effort, without apparent difficulty. That multitudes 
 laboured without reward, suffered without redress, 
 and perished without pity, might be true enough ; 
 but it was not seen. Only the costly product of all 
 this grew to its perfect beauty bqfore their eyes from 
 month to month. 
 
 25. THE DIMENSIONS AND DIVISIONS OF 
 
 a The elaborate system of solidly-constructed drains recently dis¬ 
 covered may he due to a later age; but that some system was in 
 operation from the first is evident when we consider what rivers of 
 blood, what accumulations of “filth and offscouring” must have 
 resulted from the huge profusion of animals sacrificed by Solomon. 
 Between Solomon and Herod, at any rate, it is hard to think of any one 
 to whom such great works can be attributed. 6 1 Kings 
 
43 
 
 THE TEMPLE. If we compare Solomon’s Temple 
 with the public buildings of modern times it was 
 small. We do unconscious injustice to it because 
 we rank it along with the religious edifices of Chris¬ 
 tendom. But these are meant to accommodate the 
 mass of worshippers, and therefore demand size. The 
 Temple proper was never entered by any common 
 foot. It was a shrine, not in our sense a church. It 
 was a House for the Lord, that He might dwell there 
 in the midst of Israel. No Israelite ever thought of 
 entering this House, except the anointed ones and 
 their attendants. The anointed priest and his subor¬ 
 dinate ministers ; the anointed king (in the case of 
 Solomon himself at the dedication) and his guards ; 
 these alone were free to enter, because they were the 
 chosen representatives who stood at once for the 
 people before God, and for God before the people. 
 Therefore the Temple was in itself a small building; it 
 was a casket made as exquisite and as costly as pos¬ 
 sible to enclose the priceless jewel of the supernatural 
 presence of the God of Israel. The plan of the 
 Temple was taken from that of the Tabernacle 
 by doubling the dimensions all round. The inner 
 Sanctuary was 30 feet® square, and the outer Sanctu¬ 
 ary 30 feet broad by 60 feet long. The height of the 
 whole was 45 feet, and the roof was probably flat,^ but 
 the inner Sanctuary was ceiled at a height of 30 feet, 
 so that it formed a perfect cube.® These two rooms 
 made up the House of God in the strictest sense. 
 They were, however, surrounded by buildings which 
 served either for ornament or for use. In front stood 
 a porch, which with its belougiugs was doubtless in- 
 
 a In all these measm’ements the cubit has been taken at 1‘5 feet. 
 
 ft 1 Kings vi. 2. If the lidge-pole of the Tabernacle was 7§ feet 
 above the inner covering of the Holy Place, as seems probable, then 
 the total height of the Tabernacle was 22^ feet, and this dimension also 
 was doubled by Solomon. The “upper chambers” of 2 Chron. iii. 9 
 may have been some wooden erection built upon the flat roof of the 
 Temple. 
 
 c So in the vision of St John, the new Jerusalem forms a perfect 
 cube (Rev. xxi. 16). 
 
44 
 
 tended to be the most striking feature of the whole 
 edifice. It was 15 feet« deep, and extended the 
 whole breadth of the Temple, opening towards the 
 east. It is uncertain what the height may have 
 been,^ but as it was intended to add external dignity 
 to the edifice, it probably rose above the Sanctuary 
 roof into some kind of pinnacle or fa 9 ade. Around 
 the other sides of the Temple ran a stone wall rising 
 nearly to the roof. Between the two walls were en¬ 
 closed three tiers of small chambers; the lowest tier 7^ 
 feet broad from wall to wall, the middle tier 9 feet, 
 and the highest 10^. The difference in breadth 
 was due to the fact that the walls of the Sanctuary 
 diminished in thickness as they rose, leaving three 
 ledges of feet broad on which the ceiling beams of 
 the chambers rested. These small rooms were in¬ 
 tended partly for store-chambers, and partly for 
 sleeping-places, and were the more solid and con¬ 
 venient counterparts of what had already existed in 
 connection with the Tabernacle.*^ Winding stair¬ 
 cases^ led from one tier of chambers to another. Above 
 
 a The curtains which covered the Tabernacle were 15 feet longer than 
 the Tabernacle (Ex. xxvi. 1,2, compared with 16,18). They thei’efore 
 in all probability reached 7^ feet beyond th« building both in front and 
 behind; doubling this we get the 15 feet depth of the porch. 
 
 b 2 Chron. tii. 4 gives the height of the porch as 180 feet, and 
 Josephus extended this to the whole Temple. This, however, must be 
 due to some mistake of figures. The Alexandrine text of the Greek 
 version has 20 cubits (30 feet) instead of 120. 
 
 c In Herod's Temple the front which faced the great court rose into 
 a “wing” or pinnacle. Compare Matt. iv. 5; Luke iv. 9. 
 
 d If the ridge-pole of the Tabernacle was 22^ feet from the ground, 
 as supposed, then the curtains being 42 feet long (Ex. xxvi. 2) would 
 cover over a space of 7^ feet on either side the Tabernacle. Doubling 
 this, and allowing 7^ feet for the thicknesses of the two walls, we have 
 the 7^ feet of the lower tier of chambers left. The narrative of the 
 wanderings almost obliges us to suppose that the space thus covered 
 over outside the Tabemacle was enclosed in some temporary way for 
 the use of the priests and Levites. In the time of Samuel these en¬ 
 closures were no doubt of a more substantial nature in keeping with 
 the stationaiy chai'acter of the Sanctuary (1 Sam. iii. 3, 16), If the 
 chambers, as seems to be intended, were carried roimd the west end of 
 the Temple, we have every single dimension of the Tabernacle exactly 
 doubled. 
 
 e One only is mentioned, with one external door (1 Brings vi. 8), but 
 here must have been two at least. 
 
45 
 
 the upper tier the walls of the Temple were pierced 
 
 toards. These excluded the rain and the glare of 
 
 hgirand iff ‘hey admitted fresh air and a subdued 
 lignt, and afforded an escape for the fumes of in¬ 
 cense and of the lamps. The inner Sanctuary was 
 apparently without any light or ventilation. ^ 
 
 T^ of the 
 
 TEMPLE. Within the double Sanctuary neither 
 stone nor wood was visible. It was indeed both 
 ceiled and lined with cedar, and floored with fir,« and 
 the cedar was carved with simple shapes of fruits and 
 flowers ; but floor, and walls, and ceiling were alike 
 overlaid with thin gold plates which were hammered 
 in so as to reproduce on their surface the carvings 
 beneath. Thus the whole House within had the ap- 
 
 been carved out of a solid mass 
 
 o^ter Sanctuaries were 
 separated by a wall of cedar, with doors of olive-wood, 
 and here the carving was more elaborate, for it repre- 
 
 Thl^ton ^ cherubim as well as flowLs. 
 
 partition was 
 doors by 
 
 which the Temple was entered beneath the porch 
 were of fir, carved and gilded like the inner doors. 
 Ihe strangest and most startling of all the interior 
 orpaments of the Temple we?e the two ^fgantic 
 dierubim which Solomon placed in the Holy of 
 
 olive-wood, and overlaid with 
 gold, they were each of them 15 feet high, and 
 measured 15 feet across their outstretched^ wings 
 tlius covering the whole breadth of the western wall’ 
 as they stood upon their feet facing towards the 
 outer Sanctuary.c _ What they were like can never 
 be known for certain, but they were probably com- 
 
 h ^ypress is meant, but the word is doubtful 
 
 c ?Simf disposed is uncertain, 
 
 outer roim ' ’ ^he house,” i.e., the 
 
posite creature-forms, such as are described in Ezek. 
 i. They might have seemed contrary to the letter 
 of the second commandment; « but similar figures 
 had been made for the Tabernacle by Divine com¬ 
 mand, and they were afterwards adopted into the 
 
 imagery of heaven.^ , 
 
 27. THE SACRED FURNITURE (1 Kings vii. ; 
 
 1 Chron. xxviii.; 2 Chron. iv.). The “ holy instru¬ 
 ments'’ of the Temple, like the Temple buildings, 
 were copied from those of the Tabernacle, only on a 
 scale of greater magnificence. Immediately m front 
 of the oracle stood the altar of incense, made of cedar 
 and plated with gold. Instead of the one lamp-stand 
 and the one table of shewbread which stood in the 
 Tabernacle, Solomon made ten lamp-stands of gold 
 after the same pattern, and as many tables also of 
 gold. The lamp-stands were disposed five on one 
 side and five on the other side of the outer Sanctuary, 
 and the tables were arranged amongst them. In 
 after days, and perhaps from the first, only one table 
 was used for the shewbread, and only one lamp- 
 stand was lighted ; ^ and this was no doubt more in 
 keepino- with the intention and the meaning of the 
 ordinance given to JMoses. ^ For the various purposes 
 connected with the service of the Temple, either in¬ 
 side or outside, Solomon made an hundred basons ot 
 gold, and all the smaller^ instruments, pans, snuffers, 
 tongs, &c., in corresponding numbers, and all of gold. 
 Thus was there within the Temple, with all its pro¬ 
 fusion of ornament and of furniture, nothing for the 
 eye to rest on but gold, excepting perhaps the 
 
 a The shape of the cherubim must liave been known at the time 
 they were made, and may have suggested the » calves ” of Jeroboam. 
 
 Comp. Ezek, i. 7, 10; Rev. iv. 7. , 
 
 b Ezek ii.- Rev. iv.; Ps. xcix, 1; Is. xxxvii. IG. 
 c Chron. xiii. 11; 2 Chron. xxix. 18. In 1 Kings vii. 48 only one 
 
 TheTymboli^ra of the one candelabrum giving its sevenfold light, 
 and of theC. table bearing the twelve “ loaves of faces ” before God, 
 is obvious. 
 
47 
 
 coloured veil which hung in front of the inner Sanc¬ 
 tuary. 
 
 28. HIRAM, THE BRASSFOUNDER. The 
 
 golden furniture for use inside the Temple, however 
 profuse in quantity, was moderate in size, and was 
 made after ancient patterns. The brazen objects, 
 which were to stand either for use or ornament out¬ 
 side the House, were to be more novel and more am¬ 
 bitious in size and make, and demanded a skill in 
 metal-working which Solomon’s servants did not 
 possess. Accordingly he procured from the King of 
 Tyre a certain Hiram, a Phoenician and Jewish lialf- 
 breed, who possessed exactly the skill and resource 
 which the business required. Hiram’s foundry was 
 at some distance from Jerusalem, near Succoth, in 
 the plain of Jordan, ^ where abundance of clay was 
 to be found for the requisite beds and moulds. That 
 he was able, with the scanty appliances and rude 
 means of transport of those days, to cast very large 
 and elaborate masses of metal-work, and to convey 
 them some forty miles up country to Jerusalem, 
 marks as well as anything else both his own mechani¬ 
 cal genius and the amount of labour placed at his 
 disposal by Solomon. 
 
 29. THE WORKS OF HIRAM (1 Kings vii. * 
 2 Chron. iii. ; Jer. lii.). The most characteristic 
 works sent out from the foundry of Hiram, and those 
 which testified most clearly to their semi-heathen 
 and semi-barbarous origin, were the two huge brazen 
 pillars or obelisks which were erected in front of the 
 House, c The hollow shafts of these pillars were 
 some 27 feet in height and 6 feet in diameter. On 
 the top of each shaft was a kind of capital, feet 
 
 a The veil is not mentioned in Kings, nor anywhere but in 2 Chron 
 iii. 4. It hung perhaps inside the partition-wall, and if so it was in¬ 
 visible. 
 
 b Succoth appears from Gen. xxxiii. 17, Judg. viii. 5, to have been 
 on the fuithei side of Jordan, not far from Jabbok. Zarthan was also 
 on the Jordan (Josh. iii. 16). 
 
 c That these pillars stood in front of the House, and were no structu¬ 
 ral part of the porch, is evident from the whole narrative. 
 
48 
 
 in height, profusely ornamented with a sevenfold 
 arrangement of metallic net-work and chain-work, 
 intermingled with pomegranates and lilies. The 
 pomegranate had long ago been adopted as the 
 sacred fruit of Judaism,"but the lily seems to have 
 belonged to a different order of symbolism, and its 
 introduction may have been due to the poetic taste 
 of Solomon himself. & To these pillars names were 
 given, as though they were the stedfast guardians of 
 the Sanctuary before which they stood. The one on 
 the right was called “ Jachin,” an old family name in 
 Israel,c which had the sense of “founding” or 
 “establishing.” The other received the name of 
 “Boaz,” a name well-known as that of Solomon’s 
 great-great-grandfather, the husband of Ruth. ^ 
 These two pillars were the great triumphs of Hiram’s 
 skill, but there were many other wonderful works, more 
 useful if less startling. Foremost amongst these was 
 a circular “molten sea,” 15 feet across, 7^ feet high, 
 ornamented with conventional fruits and lilies,« and 
 supported on the backs of twelve oxen, which aced 
 the four points of the compass, all of solid metal. 
 This was ;the obvious counterpart, in greater glory, 
 of the laver which Moses had made,/ and was placed 
 in the court before the House for the use of the 
 priests. For less honourable purposes connected 
 with the offering of sacrifices ten smaller lavers were 
 made, 6 feet across at top. These were set in as 
 many “bases,” hollow chests, 6 feet square by feet 
 high, very much enriched with ledges and festoons, 
 and having figures of cherubim, lions, and palm-trees 
 engraven on the panels between. The lavers fitted 
 into circular openings in these “bases,” and were 
 
 a Ex. xxriii. 33; xxxix. 25. . , , r, 
 
 6 The lily is only elsewhere mentioned m Solomon s Song eight 
 
 times, and once in Ilosea xiv. 5. 
 c Numb. xxvi. 12; 1 Chron. xxiv. 17; Neh. xi. 10. 
 d Ruth iv. 13. 
 
 e 2 Chron .'iv. 3 adds to the ornamentation figm-es of oxen. 
 
 /Ex. xxxviii. 8. 
 
49 
 
 further steadied by ornamental supports rising from 
 the four corners. The “ bases ” were provided with 
 wheels, and were therefore moveable according to 
 convenience, but when in their usual place they 
 stood five on either side of the court. The great 
 height of these lavers from the ground makes it 
 probable that the sacrificing priests and their at¬ 
 tendants habitually stood upon raised platforms 
 when at work, and that the lavers were wheeled up 
 to them as they were wanted. Besides these larger 
 masses of metal«there were also of the same material 
 pots and shovels and basons in great profusion for 
 the service of the altar of sacrifice. This altar 
 strange to say, was not the ancient altar still pre¬ 
 served at Gibeon, but a new and very much larger 
 one, measuring 30 feet by 30, and standing 15 feet 
 rom the ground. It was probably constructed in 
 the ancient fashion of a metal frame enclosing a 
 centre of earth and stones : it was either approached 
 by a sloping ascent on one side,* or else it rose in 
 steps dminishing to a size of 18 feet square at top.c 
 COMPLETION OF THE TEMPLE. 
 All that now remained to make the House of the 
 . ®id complete was to enclose the sacred area around 
 It. An inner court, no doubt surrounding the house, 
 but enclosing a large space only in front towards the 
 east, was walled in with three courses of hewn stone, 
 and a row of cedar beams laid upon the top of these, 
 ihis was afterwards called the court of the priests. 
 Outside of this, and on a lower level,<^ was an outer 
 court with brass - lined gates. The size of these 
 courts IS not stated, but must have depended very 
 much upon the slope of the ground. In Solomon’s 
 time, at any rate, the arrangements must have 
 
 appears to have been known as copper (Dent. viii. 
 
 ), hut It was almost certainly alloyed in such a way as to give it the 
 
 in the rhoenician foundries. 5 Ex. yx. 26 
 
 c So the altar is described by Ezekiel (xliii. 13-16) 
 a Jer. xxxvi. 10. 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 allowed a vast concourse of people to see and hear 
 what went on in the sacred area before the Temple. 
 In the autumn of the eleventh year of his reign, seven 
 and a half years after he commenced the great work 
 of his life, Solomon was permitted to see it finished. 
 While the work was still going on he had received 
 an assurance that if he were faithful God would be 
 faithful too, and would dwell for ever in the midst of 
 His people." And now the House stood perfect in 
 its beauty of stone and of gold, and there ^ was 
 nothing to hinder Solomon from claiming the Divine 
 promise, as far as the edifice on Mount Moriah was 
 concerned. As a fact, the promise was not claimed 
 for thirteen years to come : for thirteen years the 
 Temple stood silent and unused before it was dedi- 
 cated.^ There may have been other reasons for this 
 strange delay, of which we know nothing. The one 
 reason of which we know is that Solomon was gu- 
 o-aged in the meanwhile in completing other build¬ 
 ings which he deemed essential to the full magnifi¬ 
 cence of the ceremonial with which the Temple was 
 to be inaugurated. Probably these palaces took much 
 longer to build than he had anticipated, foi we may 
 be sure that the ideas and designs of the monarch 
 grew more ambitious with each passing year. ^ If we 
 wonder that he should have deferred the dedication 
 of the Temple at all for such a reason, Ave must 
 
 a 1 Kincs vi. 11-13. 
 
 b 1 Kliiffs vi. 38, as compared witli vii. 1, 51; via 1; ix-b seems 
 decisive, although the interval is overlooked in Cln-onicles. The Greek 
 Version inserts 1 Kings vi. 28, after the first verse of the chapter, and 
 transposes vii. 1-12 to the end of tlie chapter, thus simplifying the nar¬ 
 rative. In viii. 1 it inserts the words, “ And it came to pass when 
 Solomon had finished huilding the house of the Lord and his own house 
 after twenty years.” [The dates here are very difficult to determine. 
 The dedication of the Temple has been very generally supposed to 
 have followed the completion of the building at a brief interval, ni the 
 seventh month of the next year, i-e. the twelfth year. Some take it to 
 have preceded the completion by a month. Not a few, looking speciady 
 to the statement in 1 Kings ix. 1-10, hold that it did not take place ti.l 
 after an interval of twenty years from the commencement of the 
 building or thirteen after the completion, and when the palace also was 
 just finished.—E ditor.] 
 
61 
 
 remember that it was to be, not only the Sanctuary 
 of the nation, but also the chapel of the king and of 
 his court. Solomon occupied, as the chosen seed of 
 David and vicegerent of God, a position altogether 
 new m Israel except so far as it had been partially 
 anticipated by his father. The glory of the God of 
 Israel and of His House was so bound up with the 
 glory of the King of Israel, that they could not at 
 tiiat day ne dissevered. It would not be fitting it 
 would not express the true ideal of things as t4n 
 constituted, if Solomon had gone up in less than his 
 own proper majesty to dedicate the Temple which 
 was m so many senses his. The piety which makes 
 nothing of personal considerations," which enables the 
 greatest of men to ignore themselves in the presence 
 ot God, had no part in Solomon, nor would he have 
 understood it. So he bestowed what was left of his 
 father s accumulated treasures in the store-chambers 
 of the new^ Temple,^ and went on with his own 
 palaces until they were finished, in the twenty-fourth 
 year of his reign. 
 
 31. THE DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE. At 
 
 last all was ready. The great day was come which 
 should crown and consecrate with Divine acceptance 
 all this labour and expense, and inaugurate anew 
 era in the religions life of God’s people. Solomon’s 
 lemplewas indeed Solomon’s; it was his creation 
 and his possession; he remained himself its chief 
 minister, as well as its patron and guardian. But 
 because it was the king’s, it was also his people’s. 
 It attracted to itself from the first the largest and 
 rnost constant share of the religious regard and affec¬ 
 tion of Israel. The reverence which clung from 
 ancient times to the old sanctuaries, or which was 
 claimed for political purposes in behalf of newer 
 
 a Because Moses had this piety in perfection (Numb. xii. 3; xiv. 12. 
 theiefore he was as a man unspeakably nobler than Solomon* 
 
 He too was ‘ king in Jeshurun ” (Deut. xxxiii, 6), yet he affected mi 
 state and founded no family. • ue anectea no 
 
 b 1 Kings vii. 51. 
 
52 
 
 shrines, was, in the course of time, more or less 
 violently uprooted, and transferred itself to the site 
 of Solomon’s choice. Evil days did indeed come fast 
 upon it; its golden splendour faded, its pomp decayed. 
 But the national religious sentiment once firmly 
 rooted, once fairly taught to twine about that visible 
 Sanctuary, never relaxed its hold, never ceased to 
 grow in strength and in endurance ; until at last the 
 Saviour Himself gently and tenderly disentangled 
 it from the ruins to which it clung. The Feast of 
 Dedication was made to coincide with the most 
 popular of all the annual festivals, the Feast of 
 Tabernacles, in the middle of the month Ethanim, 
 September. On the 10th day of this month, the 
 solemn and mournful ceremonies of the Great Day of 
 Atonement were to be observed.^* On the 15th the 
 joyous assemblies of the Feast of Tabernacles began. ^ 
 In the interval between, the Temple was dedicated 
 by the king, the priests, and all Israel—i.e., by every 
 one who had any representative character in the old 
 patriarchal life of the nation or in the newer organisa¬ 
 tion introduced by David and Solomon. The first 
 and most important of the ceremonies was the carry¬ 
 ing of the Ark—the symbol of the Covenant—from 
 the tent which David had provided for it into the 
 splendid shrine which awaited it. The priests 
 fetched out the Ark and carried it by its staves, other 
 priests and Levites following with the remnants of 
 the old fabric from Gibeon, and with such of the 
 sacred vessels as had escaped the ravages of time. 
 These were probably laid up reverently in some of the 
 Temple chambers, perhaps in the space above the 
 ceiling of the inner Sanctuary. The Ark itself 
 was subjected to no such rude treatment as it had 
 met with before.'^ Even on its way from the city of 
 
 a Lev. xxiii. 27. 6 Lev. xxiii. 34. 
 
 c The high-priest at this time would seem to have been Azariah the 
 son of Ahimaaz, son of Zadok (1 Chron. vi. 10), but the succession of 
 high-priests is extremely uncertain. 
 
 d 1 Sam. vi. 19; 2 Sam. vi. 3, 6. 
 
53 
 
 David to the Temple-hill it was honoured with a 
 profusion of sacrifices. Arrived at the Temple it was 
 carried in within the veil, and placed beneath the 
 sheltering wings of the cherubim. Apparently there 
 was nothing in the Ark at that time except the two 
 tables of stone.« As the priests retired from the most 
 Holy Place they drew out the staves of the Ark in such 
 a way that the ends of them were visible from the 
 outer Sanctuary.& Thus although the Ark itself was 
 never seen, the fact of its presence there could be 
 ascertained at any time i and thus, at the very 
 moment when all its wanderings seemed to be at an 
 end for evermore, it was still declared that nothing, 
 however sacred, can find permanent rest in this world. 
 The Ark in its place, the priests withdrew—perhaps 
 in order to prepare an incense-otFering for the golden 
 altan At the same moment, the Levitical choirs, 
 clad in white linen garments,® broke out into singing 
 chanting the well-known refrain: “ For He is good’ 
 for His mercy endureth for ever,” to the sound of 
 harps, of trumpets, and of other musical instruments. 
 No doubt the strain of expectation upon king and 
 people was intense. Was all this ceremony, this 
 lavish expenditure, this outward devotion, founded 
 upon anything real ? Would the visible Presence of 
 the Lord, so long absent, really return to Israel ? 
 The answer was not long in coming. The priests, 
 returning to the house, were forced back by the same 
 thick cloud which had driven Moses from the Taber¬ 
 nacle on the day of its dedication.® There could be 
 no doubt now. Solomon called to mind the thick 
 
 a The pot of manna and Aaron’s rod (Heb. ix. 4) had doubtless dis¬ 
 appeared. It is noteworthy that no mention is made of any “ book of 
 the Law*’ (Deut. xxxi. 26). Possibly it was stowed away in one of 
 the chambers among other relics of the Tabernacle (2 Chron. xxxiii. 
 14). 
 
 6 It is impossible to say how this was managed since a solid parti¬ 
 tion screened off the inner Sanctuary. Possibly openings were made 
 through which the ends of the staves could be seen, 
 c Rev. xix. 8. U Ps. cxxxvi. and others. 1 Chron. xvi 41 
 
 e Ex. xl. 35. ■ 
 
54 
 
 darkness in which the Lord had descended upon 
 Sinai,^ the cloud in which He had promised to speak 
 with Aaron ; ^ he uttered aloud the joy of his heart 
 that it had been given to him to build an enduring 
 home for the God of Israel: then he turned and 
 blessed the people, reciting briefly the hopes and 
 purposes which had been fulfilled that day. 
 
 32. SOLOiyiON’S PRAYER (1 Kings viii.; 2 
 Chron. vi., vii.). Solomon had not so far taken the 
 lead in the ceremonial of the day. He had been 
 waiting for an unmistakeable sign of acceptance, 
 such as had now been given. From this moment he 
 himself conducted the worship of the chosen people 
 in his character as anointed head of that people. 
 In that character he was supreme alike over prince 
 and priest: he assumed without hesitation and with¬ 
 out contradiction the position of the Moses and 
 the Aaron of the new Israel. In front of the altar 
 of burnt-offering a brazen platform had been erected. 
 Upon this, in full view of the assembled multitudes, 
 audible to many thousands of them, visible even to 
 the women and children upon the crowded housetops 
 of the older city, the king of Israel knelt, lifted his 
 hands to heaven, and poured forth his heart in prayer. 
 The prayer was worthy of the king, and of the occa¬ 
 sion. It showed in the very best way that largeness 
 of heart, that unselfish concern for all his people, 
 great and small, near and far, which distinguished 
 Solomon at his best. It showed how religious 
 worship had changed in some ways since the time 
 of Moses. In the books of Moses almost no one 
 prays : Moses talks with God, as Mediator,® as 
 Abraham had done before him.^* The Tabernacle 
 had been a place of sacrifice and holy rites, not of 
 prayer.® But Solomon not only interceded himself 
 for his people, but the very substance of his prayer 
 
 a Ex. xix. 9-16. 6 Lev. xvi. 2. 
 
 c Num. xiv. 13. d Gen. xviii. 23. 
 
 e Hannah is the only private person who is mentioned as resorting 
 to the Tabernacle for prayer (1 Sam. i. 10,12) 
 
55 
 
 was that that house might become a house of prayer 
 for them; that the Lord would be a sympathetic 
 observer of every suppliant that came before Him 
 there, whether ih person or in spirit; that prayer, 
 sincere and humble, might never be made in vain, 
 without any reference to sacrifices and ordered rites. 
 Solomon cannot be accused of neglecting the outward 
 and visible in religion, yet in this prayer he rose 
 clear above the formalism which was possible 
 enough under the Mosaic dispensation. Solo¬ 
 mon cannot be accused of any want of patriotism, 
 yet in his prayer he was moved to recognise 
 the fact that his own people might be defeated 
 and exiled, and that other people, not his, might 
 learn to seek the Lord. The one thing outward and 
 visible which was to serve as the necessary link 
 between earth and heaven, between the prayer of 
 the suppliant and the sinner and the answer of God, 
 was that House which he had built. This most 
 solemn supplication ended, Solomon arose from his 
 knees, and turning towards the congregation, he 
 blessed them again, invoking on their behalf the 
 faithfulness and goodness of God, and charging them 
 on their part to be ever faithful to Him. As soon 
 as the king had finished speaking, or, it may be, 
 before he rose from his knees, another sign from 
 heaven was vouchsafed—a sign which was visible to 
 the multitudes far and wide. The fire from heaven 
 fell upon the sacrifices “ which lay upon the great 
 brazen altar. At the same time the dark cloud 
 which filled the house was lighted up by the glory of 
 the Lord. Through the open doors below, and 
 through the lattices above, the glory flashed upon 
 the eyes of the people, and told them that the Lord 
 Jehovah had indeed come to dwell among them. 
 They fell upon their faces and worshipped, taking up 
 the refrain sung by the choirs, “ For He is good, for 
 His mercy endureth for ever.” 
 
 a Lev. ix. 24: 1 Kings xviii. 38, 
 
56 
 
 33. SOLOMON’S SACRIFICE AND FEAST. It 
 
 remained to commence the ordinary worship of 
 e completed and dedicated Temple with sacritices 
 
 offered by Solomon, 
 with the assistance of all the priests, to the enormous 
 nuin er of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep, provided 
 by the royal munificence. In order to find room for 
 such a multitude of victims, the centre of the court 
 was sanctified, and temporary altars erected to receive 
 the blood of sprinkling and to consume what had to 
 be burnt. The flesh of these sacrifices was distributed 
 among the attendants of the king, and then amongst 
 the mass of the people. Thus they were enabled 
 to keep not only the Feast of Dedication for seven 
 Feast of Tabernacles which followed, 
 with that profusion of animal food which an eastern 
 people enjoy so thoroughly because so rarely. All 
 Israel was represented at this feast, and no doubt a 
 arge majority of the adult male population was 
 actually present, from the northern pass beyond 
 Mount Hermon^ to the southern wady which formed 
 the frontier towards Egypt. For once all tribal and 
 sectional jealousies were forgotten : a common ioy, a 
 common enthusiasm for their one God and for His 
 one anointed, silenced at least for the time the 
 quarrels of the past and the discontents of the 
 present. On the eighth day of the Feast of Taber¬ 
 nacles, cthe king dismissed them, and they departed 
 to their own homes full of wonder and of satisfaction, 
 it was, we may suppose, in the quiet which succeeded 
 to all this excitement that Solomon received from 
 
 ff it LnliS th J bo'^'ever, a considerable difficulty, 
 
 EthaZ‘^w?,S „toer?S »■> ‘"x day of 
 
 through 
 
 Numb, xxix, 12, the first day of the 
 davfen on^tli^^ 9 ^i Ethanim, and therefore the eighth 
 
 SSn^to 9 r w (1 Kings viii. 66) was the 23rd 
 
 thfww J Kither the text is uncertain, or else 
 
 he letter of the commandment was not obseiwed. 
 
57 
 
 God another and more private answer to his prayer 
 of dedication. It was in a dream, as at Gibeon, that 
 this answer reached the mind of the king ; and the 
 tone of it must have harmonised perfectly with that 
 reaction of spirit which always follows a time of re¬ 
 ligious exaltation. It was indeed in strange contrast 
 to the unclouded splendour, the unreserved accept¬ 
 ance, which had crowned the public festival. God 
 had heard his prayer for the House, and had granted 
 it. God would indeed hear the prayers made in that 
 holy House by any sad or sinful children of His. 
 And God would keep His promises to Solomon, if 
 Solomon would keep the commandments of God. 
 But if—and this formed the bulk of the message—if 
 he or his house turned away from God, their fall 
 would be as great as their rise, and that House itself 
 should serve to point the melancholy moral of human 
 sin and of Divine vengeance. With these foreboding 
 tones the triumph and applause of that high festival 
 sank to rest. 
 
 Questions and Points op Inquiry. 
 
 1. What was the greatest work of Solomon^s reign? 
 
 2. What did he find ready to his hand ? ' 
 
 3. What was his object in raising a levy ? 
 
 4. How did the levy hear upon (1) the Canaanites, 
 (2) the Israelites ? 
 
 5. What part was taJcen by Hiram and the Phoe¬ 
 nicians ? 
 
 6. What was the nature of the work in the moun¬ 
 tains ? 
 
 7. What was the date of the beginning of the 
 Temple ? 
 
 8. Where was it built ? and what event fixed the site ? 
 
 9. What had to be done before the walls were raised? 
 
 10. What was unusual about the method of building? 
 
 11. How did the dimensions of the Temple difer 
 from those oj the Tabernacle ? 
 
68 
 
 12. What suggested the side-chambers of the Temple? 
 and how had they been anticipated in the Tabernacle 
 at Shiloh ? 
 
 13. How was the inner Sanctuary separated from the 
 outer ? 
 
 14. What was used to cover the Temple inside? 
 What appearance did it present to the eye ? 
 
 15. How did the Temple furniture differ from that 
 of the Tabernacle in respect (1) of the cherubim, (2) of 
 the candlesticks, (3) of the tables ? What remained 
 the same ? 
 
 16. Who was Solomon^ brass-founder ? Where did 
 he work ? 
 
 17. What were the largest of his works ? 
 
 18. What else did he make for the Temple service ? 
 
 19. How long was the Temple in building ? and how 
 long did it stand waiting for dedication f 
 
 20. What was the first thing to be done when it was 
 dedicated ? 
 
 21. What sign did God vouchsafe? 
 
 22. What position did'Solomon then take up ? 
 
 23. What was the one great thing he prayed for ? 
 
 24. What sign did God vouchsafe again ? 
 
 25. How did the ceremony continue ? With what 
 did it end ? 
 
 26. What feast was kept, and how long ? 
 
 27. What did God tell Solomon afterwards in answer 
 to his prayer ? 
 
 CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 Solomon’s other buildings. 
 
 34. THE GREAT BUILDER OF HIS AGE. 
 
 Solomon was the great builder of his nation. Those 
 who came before him did not build at all, and those 
 who came after him did little but repair or finish. 
 
69 
 
 The era of building is almost always a marked one in 
 the life of a state. In a country like ours, indeed, in 
 which buildings are constantly being erected, this is 
 the case only in particular departments. But in a 
 country like Palestine where private habitations are 
 all mean, and public buildings comparatively few, 
 they are for ever associated with the men who raised 
 them up, with the days of peace and wealth which 
 made their building possible. Solomon’s buildings 
 were small compared with the huge erections of 
 modern days, or even of ancient Egypt and Assyria. 
 But to the eyes of pastoral Israel which had ever 
 dwelt in cottages, and had never had so much as a 
 town of its own until David took Jerusalem, they 
 seemed marvels of magnificence. If Solomon had 
 done nothing else, and had left nothing behind him 
 but his buildings, they would have stamped him as a 
 man of singular genius, resource, and perseverance. 
 
 35. SOLOMON’S PALACES (1 Kings vii. 1-12). 
 In the interval of thirteen years between the comple¬ 
 tion of the Temple and its dedication, Solomon was 
 employed in building palaces in the city of David. 
 From the time consumed in their erection, and from 
 the admiration they excited, we may certainly con¬ 
 clude that they were very grand. Nothing in the 
 least resembling them had been seen before in Israel, 
 where the houses had all been of the humble char¬ 
 acter which still prevails in Palestine. The few 
 details, however, which have come down to us do 
 not give us much idea of their actual appearance. 
 The king’s palace included an edifice called the House 
 of the Forest of Lebanon, because the roof was sup¬ 
 ported by a multitude of cedar pillars, recalling to 
 mind one of the small but stately cedar groves of 
 Lebanon.® Cedar beams rested upon these pillars, 
 and supported some kind of chambers. The whole 
 
 a Perhaps the nearest approach in general idea to this house of 
 pillars is to he seen in the great mosque at Kairovan, and in other works 
 of Arab art. These latter are indeed far larger and richer, hut the 
 forest-like appearance is common to both. 
 
60 
 
 150 feet by 75, and 45 feet high. It was used partly 
 as an armoury,® where the 500 golden shields used 
 on grand occasions by the body-gaard were kept. 
 We may think of them as hung upon the pillars, 
 ^nd filling the hall with flashings of light as the sun¬ 
 beams fell upon them through the triple line of 
 windows above. No doubt the hall was also used 
 for many purposes of ceremony, and for feasts, for 
 which purpose a great number of vessels of pure 
 gold were kept there. <5 Attached to this part of the 
 palace-buildings, and perhaps forming the public ap¬ 
 proach to it, was a smaller pillar-hall, 75 feet by 45. 
 In front of this again was a portico adorned with 
 pillars, and other architectural features. These halls 
 and courts formed the more public department of the 
 palace. Behind them, opening upon a more private 
 court, were the apartments of the king himself, 
 and the separate palace of the queen. All these 
 buildings were in the same massive and costly style ; 
 the walls and pavings of great stones accurately sawn, 
 some of them measuring 15 feet; the pillars and 
 floors and ceilings all of cedar. Even Pharoah's 
 daughter must have been satisfied with the grandeur 
 of her surroundings. 
 
 36. SOLOMON’S THRONE-ROOM AND 
 THRONE (1 Kingsvii.7; x. 18-20; 2 Chron. ix. 
 17-19). Between the more public and the more pri¬ 
 vate portions of the palace, Solomon had a Hall of 
 Judgment built, to which his subjects might come for 
 justice and for counsel. Like the rest it was enclosed 
 in cedar. In it stood the throne upon which Solomon 
 sat in state as king and judge. It was overlaid with 
 fine gold, and inlaid with ivory, so as to be the cost- 
 
 a 1 Kings x. 17; 2 Chron. ix. 16. 
 
 b Taking the 3 pounds of 1 Kings x, 17, as containing 100 ounces, 
 the value of the gold in each smaller shield was nearly £400, and 
 therefore (according to 2 Chron. ix. 15, 16) the value on each larger 
 shield was nearly £800. If so, the total value would he a quarter of a 
 mUlion sterling. But the value of the shekel is very uncertain. 
 
 1 Kings xi. 21. 
 
61 
 
 liest of all the works of art which filled the palace. 
 Six steps led up to the seat, and on either side of 
 each step stood a lion.® Two other lions stood beside 
 the arms which enclosed the seat. The back of the 
 throne rose into some sort of canopy-work, and a 
 golden footstool^ formed a distinct feature of this 
 magnificent structure which was one of the great 
 sights of Jerusalem. 
 
 37. SOLOMON’S PUBLIC WORKS. Some miles 
 to the south of Bethlehem, and a little to the east¬ 
 ward of the high road to Hebron, on the border land 
 between the cultivated fields and the desert wherein 
 David wandered, is a little valley around the head 
 of which are several springs of water. These springs 
 have been carefully trapped and conducted by under¬ 
 ground channels into three great reservoirs, which 
 occupy the upper part of the valley. They were 
 made partly by excavating the rock, partly by build¬ 
 ing embankments, and when in perfect order must 
 have held a vast supply of water. They are called 
 Solomon’s Pools, and in all probability were really 
 his. The water supply of a rapidly growing city like 
 Jerusalem could not be left by a really great ruler 
 to the precarious and scanty sources provided by 
 nature. We may well believe the tradition that 
 Solomon not only made these pools, but brought the 
 water by means of aqueducts into Jerusalem, thus 
 bestowing upon its inhabitants what was of more 
 value even than gold and silver. Buins indeed of 
 aqueducts are to be seen all over the Holy Land, and 
 many of these works were made, no doubt, under the 
 directions of Solomon. A system of irrigation is in 
 most parts of that land the one thing which will turn 
 a dreary wilderness into a flowering garden. 
 
 38. SOLOMON’S PRIVATE RESORTS (Ecclesi¬ 
 astes ii. 4-6). The aqueducts, reservoirs, and other 
 
 a The lions had perhaps some reference to the lion of the tribe of 
 Judah (Gen. xlix. 9; Numb. ii. 3). 
 
 b The footstool had an important symbolic meaning (Ps. cx. 1 
 Lam. ii. 1). 
 
62 
 
 public works of Solomon were of the highest utility ; 
 but he also spent vast sums and a great amount of 
 labour on objects which were purely selfish. Near 
 the Pools of Solomon are pointed out the ruins of 
 Ptam, where he is said to have made his gardens, 
 watered from these pools, and enriched with everything 
 which could render them delightful to the senses. 
 Hither we may think of the luxurious monarch as 
 being driven in his golden palanquin® along a smooth 
 causeway, arrayed in ‘‘all his glory,escorted by a 
 crowd of gaily dressed attendants, and accompanied 
 by the favourites of the day, male and female.^ 
 Besides the gardens at Etam, he had no doubt other 
 country retreats or paradises, and one in particular 
 amongst the northern mountains,^ where the beauties 
 of nature were improved, or at least made more en¬ 
 joyable by extensive and costly works. 
 
 39. THE FORTIFICATION OF JERUSALEM 
 (1 Kings ix. 15-24 ; xi. 27). David had done some¬ 
 thing towards fortifying the old stronghold which 
 he had made his capital. The desperate resistance 
 which Jerusalem has so often made to the attacks 
 of the most powerful armies in the world shows how 
 very strong the position is by nature, if that position 
 is made the most of by skill and valour. David had 
 enlarged the old fortifications of Zion by erecting 
 some kind of defences upon the slightly lower emin¬ 
 ence of Millo or Acra« (as it was afterwards called), 
 which fronted Mount Zion to the north across the 
 head of the shallow Tyropaean valley. Solomon 
 completed the line of ramparts round the growing 
 enclosing the new quarter of Acra, and perhaps 
 enclosing also the Temple-hill to the west. Those 
 
 a Sol. Songiii. 9, “ chariot; ” the description suits a litter or palan¬ 
 quin, and so the Greek Version puts it. 
 b Matt. Vi. 29. c Eccles. ii. 8. 
 
 d Sol. Song iv. 8, 16, etc.; 1 Kings ix. 19. 
 
 1 T' -Pr • word “ Millo ” is uniformly rendered “ Acra ” 
 
 by the Greek Version and Josephus. 
 
 Kings xi. 27. Instead of “repaired the breaches” the Greek 
 Version has “completed the fortification.” 
 
63 
 
 vast fragments of masonry, huge and close, which 
 are now being brought to light from beneath the 
 rubbish of centuries may well be ascribed to the 
 great builder who alone among the kings of Judah 
 had the genius to devise and the means to complete 
 them. For Solomon employed in these works the 
 same forced labour which enabled him to erect the 
 Temple on Mount Moriah and the palace on Mount 
 Zion. Upon the remnant of the Canaanites especi¬ 
 ally" the heavy tribute of service was laid, and they 
 were made to wear out their lives in raising the 
 fortifications, which destroyed their last chance of 
 rebellion.^ Henceforward they not only ceased to be 
 dangerous ; they ceased, apparently, to exist. 
 
 40. FORTIFIED CITIES AND MILITARY 
 POSTS (1 Kings ix. 15-19; 2 Chron. viii. 2-6). 
 The works at Jerusalem, which made it practically 
 impregnable when properly defended, were followed 
 up by a series of other fortifications all over the 
 enlarged realm of Israel. The strong posts of Lower 
 Bethhoron and Upper Bethhoron, some twelve miles 
 north-west of the Holy City, in the north-west corner 
 of Benjamin, were made more strong. The old 
 Philistine city of Gezer, which had been allotted to 
 Ephraim,^ but never occupied,^ had been taken and 
 burnt by the King of Egypt,« and afterwards given 
 by him to Solomon as part of his daughter’s dowry. 
 It was high time that a place so far within the 
 borders of Israel should be secured, and this was 
 done: the place was rebuilt and fortified, and 
 doubtless colonised by a Jewish settlement. Baal- 
 ath, in the old territory of Dan,/ not far from Gezer, 
 was also made a stronghold. Next in order of dis- 
 
 a But not exclusively; see 1 Kings xi. 28. 
 
 h 2 Chron. viii. 8. Afterl Kings x. 22the Greek Version inserts the sub¬ 
 stance of 1 Kings ix. 15-23, and adds as the reason of these fortifica¬ 
 tions being built, “ in order that none of the people should get the 
 upper hand of him that were left of the Hittite and the Amoiite, etc , 
 who were not of the children of Israel.” 
 
 c Josh, xvi 3. d Josh xvi. 10; Judg. i. 29. e I Kings ix. 16. 
 
 ^ Josh. xLx 44. 
 
I 
 
 64 
 
 tance came Megiddo, a place of note on the edge of 
 the great plain which separates the highlands of 
 Judea from those of Galilee, and therefore in the 
 heart of what was afterwards the northern kingdom. 
 Much further to the north, above the waters of 
 Merom, Hazar, famous in the wars of Joshua,® was 
 fortified. To the south-west of this last post, upon 
 the slopes which descended to the Phoenician coast¬ 
 line, Solomon planted a Jewish settlement and a 
 Jewish garrison in a number of villages lying closely 
 together. These villages had had a singular history. 
 At the time when the Temple and the Palace at 
 Jerusalem were finished, when the bargain made be¬ 
 tween Solomon and Hiram was completed, it seemed 
 good to each of the kings, in token of their mutual 
 satisfaction, to make some valuable present to the 
 other. Solomon may have thought that Hiram 
 wanted nothing so much as corn-lands and vine¬ 
 yards ; or he may have exhausted even his enormous 
 revenues in vast undertakings ; anyhow, it came to 
 pass that, instead of sending Hiram a present of money, 
 he made over to him the district of Cabul, on the 
 borders of Asher and Zebulon,^ containing twenty 
 villages. These villages had no doubt been held up 
 to this time by some remnants of the Canaanites. 
 Hiram came out to see them, but, accustomed as he 
 was to the grandeur of his own merchant cities, he 
 was disgusted with these squalid villages, and de¬ 
 clined them, making some contemptuous jest in his 
 own language upon the name of the most important 
 among them.c Hiram, however, could not afford to 
 quarrel with the monarch of Israel, so he sent him 
 an immense sum of money as a final present.<^ Solo- 
 
 a Josh. xi. 1. There was, however, another place of the same name 
 in the extreme south (Josh. xv. 23). 
 
 h Josh. xix. 27. It still exists as Kabul, nine miles east of Akka, the 
 ancient Accho. 
 
 c It is impossible to understand the point of the jest now. The 
 language of Tyre was akin to that of the Jews, hut Hiram’s play upon 
 words would not be intelligible in Hebrew. 
 
 d 1 Kings ix. 14. Somewhere about half a million of our money. 
 
65 
 
 mon was more wise than Hiram, for he did not 
 despise these villages, but seized the opportunity of 
 strengthening his frontier on one of its weakest 
 points. Lastly, far beyond the limits of his propei 
 kingdom, Solomon seized upon a site equally valu¬ 
 able as a military post and as a commercial depot. 
 Some two hundred and fifty miles north-east of Jeru¬ 
 salem, half way between Damascus and the Euphrates, 
 lies an oasis in the desert, now wholly ruined and 
 desolate, once filled with a large and flourishing 
 population. ^ Its ruins still go by the name of Tad- 
 mor, which it bore in Solomon’s time, although it is 
 better known in history as Palmyra. The garrison 
 which Solomon placed here enabled him to overawe 
 the desert tribes, to keep a watch upon further Syria, 
 and to secure his communications with the outlying 
 post of Tiphsah or Thapsacus on the Euphrates. 
 
 41. STORE-CITIES AND BARRACKS. Tadmor 
 was not only a stronghold, but also one of the royal 
 store-cities in which Solomon erected buildings for 
 the storage of the necessaries of war, of provisions, 
 and of exchangeable goods, for the supply of the 
 king’s troops and of the king’s merchants. Other 
 store-cities he had in the land of Hamath, ^.e., in the 
 upper valley of the Leontes,® which no doubt served 
 the same double purpose as Tadmor itself. In these 
 and many other places, wherever the needs of the new 
 commerce demanded it, the royal buildings erected 
 by Solomon formed so many centres, round which 
 population and trade gathered. Besides the fortifica¬ 
 tions and the stores, the king built extensive barracks 
 all over his kingdom, for the cavalry and the fight¬ 
 ing chariots which he maintained.^ Both these forces 
 
 a This upper valley foimed a part of the teixitory of Hamath. 
 Hamath itself was never occupied by the Israelites. 
 
 6 1 Kings iv. 26; ix. 19; x. 26; 2 Chron. ix. 25. The statement that 
 Solomon had 40,000 chariot horses is omitted hy the Greek Version 
 and is supposed to be due to a copyist’s error. Instead of 1400 chariots 
 in 1 Kings x. 26, the Greek Version has 4000 mares. The Egyptians 
 used mares for chariots (Sol. Song i. 9). 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 were new in Israel, and were contrary to all the 
 national ideas of warfare." Nor do they seem ever to 
 have been of any use. But it was a part of Solo¬ 
 mon’s magnificence to surround himself with all the 
 warlike apparatus which was known in Egypt and in 
 otW neighbouring lands. Like the royal guards, 
 the horsemen and charioteers were no doubt in the 
 king’s pay, and formed a force altogether different 
 from the old militia of the tribes. They were, how¬ 
 ever, Israelites,^ and not foreigners. Some were 
 quartered in Jerusalem, and the rest dispersed in 
 the various cities where the necessary accommoda¬ 
 tion had been provided for them. 
 
 Questions and Points of Inquiry. 
 
 1. V^hat monuments of his genius did Solomon leave 
 behind him ? 
 
 2. What was (1) the general appearance, and (2) the 
 known use of the “ house of the forest of Lebanon” ? 
 
 3. What position did the Judgment Hall hold in the 
 palace buildings ? 
 
 4. What great work of art adorned it? 
 
 5. What works did Solomon construct to the south of 
 Bethlehem ? 
 
 6. What did he make at Etham and at other places ? 
 
 7. What did he do in the way of fortifying Jerusa- 
 lem ? 
 
 8. What is the later name of Millo, and where did it 
 lie ? 
 
 9. What other places were fortified ? Give the respec¬ 
 tive positions of Bethhoron, Hazor, Tadmor. 
 
 10. What circumstances led to the fortifying of 
 Gezer ? 
 
 11. What incident occurred in connection with the 
 district of Cabul ? 
 
 12. What was the use of the barracks which Solo¬ 
 mon built in Jerusalem and elsewhere ? 
 
 a Deut. xvii. 16; xx. 1; Josh. xi. 6; 2 Sam. viii. 4; Ps. xx. 7., 
 
 2 Chron. viii. 9. 
 
67 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISRAEL. 
 
 42. SOLOMON’S COMMERCE. Palestine, under 
 such a government as Solomon’s, was admirably 
 situated for the purposes of commerce. It shared 
 with Egypt the advantage of standing between the 
 east and the west, so that it could trade with 
 both, and exchange the commodities of the one for 
 those of the other. Egypt does not seem to have 
 been a commercial country at this time ; and the 
 Phoenicians, although the leading nation at sea, 
 were closely hemmed in on land by the subjects and 
 vassals of Solomon. Stretching from the Great Sea 
 on the west to the Euphrates and the Eed Sea on 
 the east, from the frontier of Egypt on the south to 
 the regions of Hamath and Antioch« on the north, 
 the kingdom of Solomon became for the time the 
 centre of trade and of wealth. Caravan routes, well 
 kept and well guarded, crossed it in every direction. 
 
 The products of Spain met with those of utmost 
 Arabia or even of more distant India, possibly of 
 southern Africa. The chariots and horses of Egypt ' 
 were in great demand, not only for the king and his 
 court, but for the Hittite and Syrian chieftains in 
 the north, who copied the fashion set them at 
 Jerusalem. Each horse, we are told, cost about 
 £25,^ and each chariot with its team about £100. 
 This trade, like most of the trade of those days, was 
 in the hands of the king himself. So also was the 
 trade in linen yarn, of which his agents had the 
 monopoly.c No doubt the natural products of the 
 
 a Not, of course, then knovra as Antioch. 
 
 6 1 Kings X. 29. Taking the shekel as worth 3s. 4d. 
 
 c The rendering “ linen yarn ” is, however, very doubtful. The 
 Greek Version had originally “from Thekue” or “from Kue,” and 
 there is reason to believe that there was a place called Coa on the 
 frontier of Egypt. If this is right, we should read “from Coa” in¬ 
 stead of “ linen yarn ” 
 
68 
 
 Holy Land, the corn, the wine, the olive-oil, the 
 honey, the dried fruits, which it is capable of pro¬ 
 ducing in such abundance, were exported freely in 
 exchange for the precious metals, the valuable 
 timber, and other prized commodities of east and 
 west.« 
 
 43. SOLOMON’S FLEETS (1 Kings ix. 26-28; 
 X. 11, 12; 2 Chron. viii. 17, 18; ix. 21). The 
 Hebrew peasant did not love the sea. Neither in 
 his old home beyond the river, nor in the southern 
 land of his sojourn had he known it; neither in his 
 own land did he make much acquaintance with it. 
 The Phoenicians to the north, and the Philistines to 
 the south, cut him off from his own coasts ; and 
 even when the Philistines were subdued the lack of 
 harbours, as well habit and prejudice, forbad him 
 to venture forth. It was very characteristic of 
 Solomon that he broke away from all the traditions 
 of his country and his race, and embarked in distant 
 maritime enterprises in which large profits were 
 balanced by great dangers. He could not have done 
 this, however, if he had been obliged to look for 
 native ship-builders or native sailors. No Israelite 
 who held to the religious ideas of his fathers would 
 have sailed for hire upon a distant sea and no 
 Bezaleel would have arisen to fashion a thing so 
 alien to the life of Israel as a ship. Solonion’s navy, 
 therefore, was rather a private speculation of his 
 own than a national or public concern. By means 
 of his friendly alliance with the Phoenicians he was 
 able to buy or to build ships, and to man them 
 partly with Phoenician seamen and partly with his 
 own “servants,” i.e., with officers and soldiers in his 
 own pay. These vessels he sent to share in the 
 most distant and most lucrative enterprises of that 
 day. Solomon’s principal trading station was at 
 
 a 1 Kings x. 27, 
 
 b The sailors of the ship in which Jonah sailed from Joppa were ah 
 foreigners. Jonah i. 9. 
 
69 
 
 Ezion-geber,« near to Elath, at the head of the 
 eastern arm of the Eed Sea. Through the rugged 
 wilderness which lay between this place and the 
 south of Judah he made a road over which Hiram’s 
 men transported the necessary materials for building 
 a fleets which they afterwards helped to navigate. 
 This fleet went to Ophir, and brought back an enor¬ 
 mous weight of gold and a great quantity of costly 
 wood,c which the king had made into balustrades for 
 the Temple and the palace, and into musical instru¬ 
 ments for the choirs.The situation of Ophir is dis¬ 
 puted, but we may probably look for it in the south 
 of Arabia,« a land which was famous for the quantity 
 of gold it produced, Solomon must have freighted 
 this fleet himself for its outward voyage, and he was 
 so much interested in its fortunes that he went him¬ 
 self to Ezion-geber in order to visit it./ This, how¬ 
 ever, was not the only fleet which Solomon had at 
 sea. The Mediterranean, whoso blue waters he saw 
 from all his western hills, invited him to seek the 
 wealth which its distant shores yielded richly. The 
 Phoenicians carried on an active commerce with 
 Tarshish or Tartessus, an old colony of theirs in Spain. 
 To this place the products not only of the Mediter¬ 
 ranean coasts, but also of the Atlantic coasts of 
 Europe and Africa, were brought in order to be 
 bartered or sold in its fairs. Solomon sent his ships 
 along with those of Hiram to Tarshish. They coasted 
 slowly thither, staid there trafficking a long time, and 
 coasted slowly back, returning with enormous profits, 
 and with a great store of valuable and curious 
 
 a The name Ezion-geber means “ giant’s backbone.” It was pro¬ 
 bably due either to some reef in the sea, or to some peculiar ridge on 
 shore. 
 
 b 2 Chron. viii. 18. There is no timber fit for use near Elath. 
 
 c The almug trees were probably sandal wood brought from further 
 India by the Arabian traders. 
 
 d 1 Kings X. 12. For “ pillars ” we should read “ banisters ” or 
 “balustrades.” For “harps and psalteries” we might better say 
 “guitars and harps.” 
 
 e Gen, x. 29; Job xxii. 24. 
 
 / 2 Chron. viii. 17. 
 
70 
 
 things« once in three years. Solomon’s maritime 
 enterprises probably lasted as long as his own power 
 remained unbroken. It is evident that from Ezion- 
 geber his fleets could only sail as long as there was 
 peace in Edom ; and whether from Ezion-geber or 
 from Joppa they could only sail as long as the King 
 of Tyre gave his active assistance. 
 
 44. SOLOMON’S REVENUES. The wealth which 
 flowed in to King Solomon year by year was certainly 
 very great indeed, though it is impossible to know 
 how great. It came to a great extent in kind rather 
 than in money or in precious metal. From his own 
 people no tax was demanded except the stated con¬ 
 tributions of food and provender which the officers 
 of the twelve districts collected, and forwarded each 
 in his own month. The daily provision for the 
 court was nearly 90 quarters of meal, 30 oxen, 100 
 sheep, and a quantity of game, both four-footed and 
 winged.^ Something like 10,000 people may have 
 been fed by the king in one capacity or another, 
 courtiers, guests, retainers, employes, slaves. The 
 provender of barley and straw required for the 
 cavalry and chariot horses, and for the king’s own 
 stud, and for the thorough-bred horses'^ which carried 
 the royal despatches was collected in the same manner. 
 The revenues, however, properly so called, of Solo- 
 rnon were drawn chiefly from strangers. They con¬ 
 sisted largely of “ gifts ” from tributary princes, and 
 from foreigners who found it their interest to culti¬ 
 vate the friendship of so powerful a neighbour. ^ 
 Added to this were the profits derived from the 
 
 a The ivory and the apes would naturally find their way to Tartessus 
 from AMca. Apes are still found in the rock of Gibraltar. How pea¬ 
 cocks shonld get there is not so evident, unless they were bred by the 
 Phoenician colonists. The X'endering peacocks ” is however doubt¬ 
 ful, and the Greek Version omits it. 
 
 Estimated at Australian prices for the sake of fau’er comparison, 
 the value of a month’s provision would be about £11,000. 
 
 ^ word rendered dromedary means a “swift 
 
 S' horse bred and trained for speed. 
 
 1 Kings iv. 21; x. 25 ; 2 Chron. ix. 24, 26; Psalm Ixxii. ii. 8-11,15 
 
71 
 
 voyages of the fleets, and from the trade carried on 
 by the king’s merchants,® and from the management 
 of the various farms and domains which the king had 
 inherited from his father.^ Most of the new com¬ 
 merce which had sprung into such sudden and 
 vigorous life was in the hands of men who were en¬ 
 rolled among the royal servants, and who paid heavy 
 royalties in kind upon all they bought and sold. 
 The pastoral tribes of Northern Arabia acknowledged 
 Solomon’s rule by annual tribute, paid no doubt in 
 kindjC and presents of all descriptions poured in 
 from those who wished to secure his favour, or 
 to avert his anger. But the amount of gold and 
 silver actually received by Solomon was enormous. 
 From what particular sources this plenty of the 
 precious metals was derived we do not know, but 
 we may well suppose that the era of Solomon was 
 marked by one of those sudden increases in the 
 annual find of gold which have left such unmistak¬ 
 able marks upon the history of civilisation. What 
 South America did for the seventeenth century, 
 California and Australia for the nineteenth, some 
 unknown region of Southern Asia, or of Eastern 
 Africa, or of the Iberian Peninsula, or of all these, 
 did for the “golden age” of Israel under the son 
 of David. It so happened that gold and silver were 
 very plentiful, and therefore very cheap, in the lands 
 within the reach of Solomon’s arms, or of Solomon’s 
 commerce; and it so happened that the moveme t 
 of the age caused the rising stream of wealth to set 
 fast and strong upon the coasts of Israel. In one 
 voyage the fleet from Ophir is said to have brought 
 back more than £2,000,000 in gold.^^ On two occa¬ 
 sions« Solomon received presents of more than half- 
 a-million each from the rulers of other kingdoms. 
 It is not surprising therefore that his annual revenue 
 in gold alone is stated at the round sum of 666 
 
 a 1 Kings, x. 15; 2 Chron,, ix. 14. 
 
 b 1 Chron. xxvii. 25-31. c Compare 2 Chron. xvii. 11. 
 
 d 1 Kings ix. 28. e 1 Kings ix. 14; 2 Chron. ix 9. 
 
72 
 
 * 
 
 talents, more than £3,000,000 of our moneySuch 
 wealth was indeed within the experience of Israel 
 something wholly astonishing and unexampled. 
 
 45. SOLOMON’S WISDOM. At Gibeon God had 
 promised to His anointed intelligence and very much 
 wisdom and a great breadth of sympathy for diverse 
 subjects and characters.^ And this promise was as 
 amply fulfilled as the other promise of riches and 
 greatness, so that the golden age under Solomon was 
 not an epoch of material prosperity only, but was 
 quite as much a time of intellectual activity. The 
 King of Israel became as widely renowned, and as 
 greatly admired, for the cleverness of his sayings, 
 and for his sharp insight into the nature of men and 
 things, as for the magnificence of his surroundings, 
 or the vigour of his rule. To the men of those days 
 and of those realms, intellectual greatness seemed 
 more truly great, more distinctly and directly of God, 
 than any other kind of greatness. The fame of Solo¬ 
 mon’s wisdom spread abroad, and took a deeper root 
 in the imagination of men than even the story of his 
 wealth, or the terror of his great power. What this 
 fame was is seen in the books which are connected 
 with his name. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of 
 Songs. Men knew that a wisdom (as it seemed) more 
 than human was to be found at Jerusalem in the person 
 of the king: a wisdom higher than that of the Magi, or 
 of the priests of Egypt, or of any of those schools of 
 learning in which ambition and imposture were 
 mingled with traditional knowledge and some ac¬ 
 quaintance with science. Three thousand “proverbs ” 
 were ascribed to Solomon, and one thousand and five 
 “ songs.” The proverb of those days was not simply 
 
 a A larger sum is annually raised by very light taxation from a 
 pastoral mining, and agricultural community of less than a million 
 souls in New South Wales. 
 
 b This is the meaning of the Hebrew “ largeness of heart ” (1 Kings 
 iv. 29). The “ heart ” was for the Jews rather the seat of undei’standifig 
 than affection. 
 
 c 1 Kings iv. 32. An excellent instance of the “ mashal" (proverb 
 or parable) is found in Ezek. xvii. 2-10. 
 
73 
 
 what we mean by the name, bnt rather a poetical and 
 allegorical utterance full of point, complete in itself, 
 and for the most part founded on similitudes drawn 
 from nature. The wide experience and shrewd insight 
 of the king, his keen observation of outward nature, 
 and his many-sided sympathies with very diverse 
 types of character, furnished him with the substance 
 of these “mashals.” His literary education and an 
 extensive acquaintance with the poetry of surround¬ 
 ing nations, added to abundance of leisure and an 
 original genius, enabled him to clothe the substance 
 in the elaborate forms which gave them popularity, 
 and caused them to be remembered. The “ songs ” 
 were doubtless intended for singing in musical cadence 
 and with musical accompaniment. They were pro* 
 bably both sacred and secular. The outburst of song 
 which David had so largely directed 'to the service 
 and glory of God was thoroughly national; the songs 
 of Israel were the flowers which sprang of themselves 
 amidst the cultivated harvests of peace and plenty. 
 Some of Solomon’s songs were no doubt chanted by 
 the Temple choirs : but others were sung by the 
 hearth and the watch-fire and the well, mere bubbles 
 on the stream of poetry, which vanished with the 
 age that gave them birth.« Solomon also spoke of 
 trees and beasts and birds and fishes and reptiles, 
 and these sayings also went abroad. What he spoke 
 about these things was not at all in the way of natural 
 history, for that was quite apart from the knowledge 
 of his day. It was no doubt in the way of “ parables 
 from nature,”—shrewd sayings, full of practical 
 wisdom or sarcasm, which men could verify for them¬ 
 selves by ordinary observation of natural facts. The 
 lizard,^ the ant,^ the hyrax/ could all be made to 
 teach a lesson, as well as the lion « and the bear./ The 
 
 a In Amos vi. 3-6 we have a picture of idle and selfish men amusing 
 themselves with songs such as those of Solomon. 
 
 h Prov. XXX. 28; a kind of house-lizard is probably the animal in¬ 
 tended. 
 
 c Prov. XXX. 25. d Prov. xxx. 26. 
 
 e Prov. xxvi. 13; Eccles. ix. 4. /Prov. xvii. 12; xxviii. 15. 
 
74 
 
 bramble® and the thistle^ had their antitypes among 
 mankind as well as the cedar c and the oak.<* Solo¬ 
 mon, therefore, was the leader of his people in the 
 new intellectual life, full of eagerness and wonder, 
 which had sprung up under the genial influences of 
 prosperity and comfort. They delighted to think that 
 their prince was more than a match for all his con¬ 
 temporaries, whether in the friendly contest of wit, « 
 or in the higher effort to solve some of the trouble¬ 
 some problems of life./ How great an impression 
 this wisdom of Solomon made upon his age is strik- 
 ipgly shown by the fabulous stories which are be¬ 
 lieved of him even to this day, especially by the 
 Arabs. Worthless as these stories are, they testify 
 clearly to the extraordinary wonder and admiration 
 which his intellectual gifts excited in the minds of 
 men. 
 
 46. SOLOMON’S RELIGIOUS WORSHIP. Dur¬ 
 ing the golden age of Israel, men’s eyes were drawn 
 not only to the vast wealth of the king, not only to his 
 wondeiful wisdom, but also to the pomp and outward 
 fervour of his worship. The gorgeous shrine which 
 had been erected by his genius and munificence was 
 maintained after a fashion worthy of its beginning. 
 It does not appear that the Temple had any revenues 
 from popular sources. It was the king’s chapel, and 
 it was he who ordered its services and supplied its 
 needs in general conformity with the Law of Moses. 
 The daily offeringsi>' were from his flocks and herds ; 
 and the choral service in which David had trained 
 the Levites was continued upon a larger and more 
 permanent scale,* at his expense and under his direc¬ 
 tions, But the king reserved his own ceremonial 
 and official appearances in the Temple for the three 
 great festivals of the Jewish calendar.* From his 
 
 a Judges ix. 14. 
 c Ezek. xxxi. 3. 
 
 e Such a contest is related to have 
 Huam. 
 
 /I Kings iv. 34; x. 1. 
 h 2 Chron. viii. i4, 16. 
 
 h 2 Kings xiv. 9. 
 d Amos ii. 9. 
 
 occurred between Solomon and 
 
 g 2 Chron. viii. 12-13. 
 i 1 Kings ix. 25. 
 
75 
 
 palace upon Mount Zion an “ ascent or viaduct 
 led up to the Temple platform, crossing the valley 
 which lay between, upon arches built of huge stones. 
 Over this “ ascent ” the royal procession passed with 
 all the splendour and pomp which that magnificent 
 court could supply. The king’s body-guard of foreign 
 mercenaries took down their golden shields from the 
 great pillar-hall on such occasions as these. Such 
 men—uncircumcised heathens as they were—must 
 have seemed strangely out of place around the Lord’s 
 anointed, and still more so within the precincts of 
 the Lord’s House. Yet, as being responsible for the 
 personal safety of that king who was also a priest 
 upon his throne,^ their presence was required wher¬ 
 ever the king went, nor does it seem to have shocked 
 the religious sense of that generation, although it 
 was afterwards looked upon as a great impiety. In 
 strange contrast to these heathenish warriors, with 
 their glittering arms and uncouth gestures,^^ were the 
 trained singers who went up with the king, or came 
 forth to meet him chanting psalms and sacred choruses, 
 with clashing of cymbals, blowing of trumpets, and 
 striking of strings. Amidst these the king himself, 
 arrayed in all his glory, his long hair dyed and 
 sprinkled with gold dust, a gorgeous canopy carried 
 over his head by the officers of his household. Be¬ 
 hind him a great concourse of courtiers, dependants, 
 and guests, who followed in his train. The “ palace ” 
 of suck a monarch was in itself a town, in which all 
 the arts of life and most of its business were repre¬ 
 sented. When Solomon went up in state to offer 
 sacrifices there would be no lack of worshippers to 
 fill the outer courts, even apart from the general con¬ 
 gregation of Israel. Arrived at the Temple, he 
 would find the priests with their attendants waiting 
 for him, and with their assistance he would offer the 
 
 a 1 Kings x. 5; 2 Chron. ix. 4. 
 b Ps. cx. 4; Zecli. vi. 13. 
 d Zepli, i. 9 compared Avith 1 Sam. v. 5. 
 
 c Ezech. xliv. 7-9. 
 
76 
 
 prescribed sacrifices upon the great altar before 
 the porch. If he himself took the part of chief 
 celebrant, he did not think that he violated the 
 Divine law in doing so. The anointed king stood 
 to a certain extent outside the Law of Moses, and 
 the Divine decree which appointed him visible 
 representative of the invisible majesty of necessity 
 modified the foregoing revelation, without, how¬ 
 ever, really contravening it. It was only when 
 the splendour of the anointed king had almost 
 faded out in the degenerate seed of Solomon that 
 the old strictness of the Law revived in the religi¬ 
 ous ideas of men." 
 
 47. VISIT OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA (1 
 Kings X. ; 2 Chron. ix.). About the middle of 
 Solomon’s reign there happened a thing which showed 
 better than anything else could have shown the 
 wonderful impression made upon the minds of men 
 by Solomon’s greatness, by his magnificence, his 
 wisdom, and his religion. The Queen of Sheba 
 came, as our Lord says,^ “ from the uttermost parts 
 of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.” Those 
 “ uttermost parts ” were indeed not far away accord¬ 
 ing to our ideas, being in all probability in the 
 southernmost portion of Arabia ; but they were the 
 remotest parts from which any traveller could reach 
 Jerusalem by land « in those days. Solomon’s com¬ 
 merce with the neighbouring region of Ophir had 
 probably made the Queen of Sheba acquainted with 
 the fame of the great king, the favourite of Jehovah, 
 who had built the most glorious Temple in the world, 
 and who seemed to know all the secrets of nature 
 
 a 2 Chron. xxvi. 16-20 compared with the account in Kings, and 
 with 2 Kings xvi. 12, 13. h Matt. xii. 42. 
 
 c That she came all the way by land is evident from the mention of 
 camels. 
 
 d Sheba—in the Greek Version Saba—is almost certainly identical 
 with the land of the Joktanite Sabeans (Gen. x. 28), a Semitic race 
 dwelling in Arabia (Job i. 15). There was a Cushite Sheba (Gen. x. 7) 
 whose descendants were also known as Sabeans (Isa. xlv. 14). 
 
77 
 
 and of life. So she did what was indeed a most 
 unusual and courageous thing she left her country 
 and travelled to Jerusalem, through ^ the deserts ^ of 
 Arabia and Syria, with a great retinue and with 
 great store of precious things. She wanted to prove 
 Solomon with hard questions, i.e., with difficulties 
 such as perplexed the minds of thinking people in 
 those days, and such as she never got answered by 
 any one else. Probably if these hard questions were 
 put to us we should think many of them very 
 childish, and many of Solomon’s answers would 
 seem little better than plays upon words; but 
 amidst all that belonged to the infancy of the world 
 we should recognise many of the lasting puzzles of 
 life, with which every age in turn will perplex it¬ 
 self Solomon could not really have solved these 
 hard problems, but he had reflected on them more 
 wisely than any one else had done, and he was 
 able to satisfy the queen, at least for the time. 
 ind-GGcl, was (juitc ovGrconiG with all shG saw and. 
 heard. ’ She took note of the stately pageantry of 
 the court, so different from the coarse profusion of 
 uncivilized countries. She took note also of the 
 splendour in which he went up, on some great festi¬ 
 val, to worship in the House of the Lord. She 
 witnessed a part at least of the costly and careful 
 ceremonial which at once expressed what was good, 
 and concealed what was wanting, in the devotion of 
 the king and of his people. She rightly felt that 
 there was nothing like it to be found on earth. She 
 praised and blessed the king, his people who served 
 him and his God who had raised him up; and so 
 she departed to her own land, taking with her some 
 presents to remind her of all she had seen, but leav¬ 
 ing behind gifts of enormous value"in precious gold, 
 and almost more precious spices. Solomon had no 
 scruples in accepting such gifts. They were due to 
 him as the earthly representative of the true God, 
 a More than half-a-million in gold alone. 
 
78 
 
 whose glorj and honour were inextricably bound up 
 with his own. 
 
 Questions and Points of Inquiry. 
 
 1. What were some of the principal impo 7 'ts from 
 Egypt ? 
 
 2. What post did Solomon occupy, and for what 
 purpose ? 
 
 3. How did he collect a fleet ? 
 
 4. What did the fleet bring hack ? 
 
 5. What other fleet had Solomon, and whither did i , 
 
 sail ? ^ 
 
 6. What were the sow'ces of Solomon’s revenues ? 
 
 f. What was about the annual value (1) of the 
 tribute raised in hind, (2) of the gold from various 
 sources ? 
 
 8. What was the character of Solomon’s “ pro¬ 
 verbs ” ? ^ 
 
 9. Where were his songs sung ? 
 
 10. What were {humanly speaking) the sources or 
 his wisdom” ? 
 
 11. How were the Temple services maintained? 
 
 12. On what occasions was Solomon always present ? 
 
 13. How did he reach the Temple? 
 
 14. Who went with him ? 
 
 15. Why did he take the chief part in the sacrifices ? 
 
 16. What had the Queen of Sheba heard of Solo¬ 
 mon ? 
 
 17. What did she come to do ? 
 
 18. What was the efect of what she saw and heard 
 upon her ? 
 
 19. What did she give to Solomon ? 
 
79 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FALL OF SOLOMON. 
 
 48. SOURCES OF DECAY. That Solomon’s 
 kingdom contained in itself the seeds of disorder 
 and destruction cannot be doubted. A throne sup¬ 
 ported by foreign mercenaries is never safe. Great * 
 public works carried out by forced labour cost more 
 than they are worth in the discontent which they 
 produce. A despotism like Solomon’s however 
 beneficent in intention becomes inevitably oppressive 
 in fact. Even when the king was young, and when 
 all his wisdom was devoted to the service of his 
 people, he could not possibly right every wrong that 
 was done in his name. When he grew older, and 
 when his time was taken up with pleasure and the 
 pageantry of state, and the management of com¬ 
 mercial enterprises, we may be certain that all manner 
 of violence and fraud was practised by his officers 
 and servants, high and low. The elaborate organisa¬ 
 tion of his government, and the enormous increase of 
 wealth, added at once to the opportunities and to the 
 temptations for oppression. In such an age the in¬ 
 dividual citizen becomes insignificant, except he be 
 one of the governing caste ; in such an age, wealth 
 appears to be the one thing desirable to be attained 
 by any means. Solomon had an exceptionally keen 
 eye for what was going on within his dominions, and 
 he saw plainly enough the evils which he had not the 
 unselfish earnestness to grapple with." To the end 
 of his reign the outward splendour of his kingdom 
 remained but little impaired, but there came to be 
 more and more of misery and disorder beneath the 
 surface. The king’s peace was rarely broken by 
 sound of open war, but lawlessness and discontent 
 
 a Prov. xxviii. 15,16; Eccles. iii. 16 ; v. 8; viii. 11; x. o-7. 
 
80 
 
 gathered head in private.® Amidst the magnificence 
 of the palace, the luxurious idleness of Etam, the 
 stateliness of the temple worship, the sharp ear of 
 the wise king caught the murmurs of the rising 
 storm, but he did nothing to avert it.* A man of 
 gre^ uprightness, and of strong determination, 
 might have crushed the evil before it was too late ; 
 but Solomon was no longer upright, and no longei- 
 ^ stpng for the highest duty of a king. The very 
 wisdom which God had given him became to him a 
 source of weakness, for it made him more keenly 
 alive to all the evils of life, and to the apparent im¬ 
 possibility of curing them..<^ 
 
 49. SOLOMON’S HAREM. It was no doubt 
 policy which^ at first induced the king to multiply 
 wives unto himself, a policy unhappily sanctioned by 
 the example of his father,although condemned by 
 the better feelings of the people.® The same desire 
 to secure by peaceful means the friendship of his 
 neighbours which induced him to make a daughter 
 of Pharaoh his queen, induced him to ask in mar- 
 iiage the daughters of all the princes round about. 
 It provided a luxurious home for them j it was felt 
 as a compliment by their relatives, and it gave to 
 ^rael a certain security against hostile combinations. 
 The fathers and brothers of Solomon’s wives were 
 not likely to make plots against his throne. What 
 began in policy was continued from lower motives, 
 until 1000 women, with all their idle and mis¬ 
 chievous attendants, filled the palaces and pleasure- 
 houses which he had built./ Most of these, like 
 Pharaoh s daughter, were heathens, and most of 
 them were much more heathenish than she, for the 
 Yeligion of the Egyptian court had much about il 
 which was grand and impressive. 
 
 a 1 Kings xii, 4,16. 
 
 h Eccles.i, 15, compared with Prov. x. 16, 17: xx 26. 
 c Eccles. ii. 17,18, &c. > . • 
 
 d 2 Sam. iii. 2-5; v. 13. 
 e Dcut. xvii. 17. 
 
 fl Kings xi. 3. 
 
81 
 
 50. SOLOMON’S IDOLATRY. As Solomon grew 
 older he spent more and more of his time among 
 his favourites. The idle king living among these 
 idle women learnt first to tolerate, and then to 
 imitate their heathenish ways. He did not indeed 
 cease to believe in the God of Israel with his 
 mind. He did not cease to offer the usual sacri¬ 
 fices in the Temple at the great feasts. But his 
 heart was not right with God, his worship became 
 merely formal; his soul left empty by the dying 
 out of true religious fervour, sought to be filled 
 with any religious excitement which offered itself. 
 No doubt the devotions of these Canaanitish women 
 must have seemed folly to the wise king ; but their 
 folly was more in earnest than his wisdom, and there¬ 
 fore got the better of it. And now for the first time 
 a worship was publicly set up amongst the people of 
 the Lord, which was not simply irregular or forbidden 
 (like that of Gideon® or the Danites ^ ), but was down¬ 
 right idolatrous. Three altars at least were built by 
 Solomon himself upon the conspicuous hill to the 
 east of Jerusalem which forms the southern peak of 
 the Mount of Olives, and therefore right over against 
 the Temple itself. Attached to these altars seem to 
 have been courts, chapels, dwellings for the priests 
 who served them, and other necessary buildings.^ One 
 of the altars was for the worship of Ashtoreth, the 
 favourite female deity of the Canaanitish tribes, but 
 especially of the Zidonians*. In the prominence as¬ 
 signed to this idolatry we may see the results of the 
 close alliance and intercourse with Tyre. Another 
 was dedicated to Milcom or Molech, the national 
 god of the Ammonites. The third was in honour of 
 Chemosh, the fierce sun-god of Moab, who was wor¬ 
 shipped as the lord of blood and fire. Chemosh and 
 
 a Judges vill. 27, h Judges xviii, 30, 31. 
 
 c 1 Kings xi. 7; 2 Kings xxiii. 13. It has been commonly kno'.vn as 
 he “ Mount of Corruption." 
 
 d The Sanctuary of Baal at Samaria had a " vestry ” (2 Kings x. -22). 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 Milcom were originally only varieties of the same 
 deity, who under the name of Baal was honoured by 
 all the old Canaanite stock. Other altars were set 
 up for other of Solomon’s wives in less conspicuous 
 places, but these three would suffice, not only for the 
 great majority of the strange women, but also for 
 many of their countrymen who might be staying from 
 time to time in Jerusalem." 
 
 51. SOLOMON’S PUNISHMENT (1 Kings xi. 
 9-13). Godwasveryangrywith His anointed. He who 
 had been made much greater in all outward things 
 than David, and had enjoyed personal revelations 
 from God which David had never enjoyed, had not 
 walked in David’s ways. David had indeed com¬ 
 mitted sins great and grievous, but he had repented, 
 and he had walked in faith and piety to the last. 
 Solomon had not publicly offended against the moral 
 law as then revealed,^ but he had violated the very 
 first obligation laid upon him as vicegerent of God : 
 he had permitted, encouraged, and practised the 
 worship of other and rival deities. This was high 
 treason. He had used his entirely exceptional posi¬ 
 tion to establish and glorify the worship of the true 
 God j but he had also used it to encourage the wor¬ 
 ship of devils, of false and foul divinities. Better 
 not to have concerned himself with the Lord at all 
 than to have placed Him upon the same level with 
 the filthy Ashtoreth and the cruel Chemosh. It was, 
 we may suppose, in a dre^m that the Lord spake to 
 him once more, and told him what He would do. 
 He would put out his glory and cast his crown down 
 to the ground : the kingdom should be rent from 
 him and given to one of his servants : nevertheless, 
 for the sake of his father, and because of the Divine 
 promise which had yet to be fulfilled, the break-up 
 should be postponed : the kingdom should not be 
 
 a They seem to have remained in use until Josiah’s time. 
 f, T-j ® commandment which Solomon transgressed by his marriaces 
 (1 Kings XI. 2) was a religious one. “'"ages 
 
83 
 
 tom until after his death, and even then one tribe 
 should be left to the house of David. Meanwhile 
 troubles and anxieties began to increase upon the 
 guilty and suspicious king. He had some enemies 
 from the first, who were formerly unable to do him 
 any serious mischief, but now took advantage of the 
 growing weakness and disorder of his government to 
 make themselves very troublesome. So men recog¬ 
 nised the fact that they had been allowed to remain 
 by the providence of God, in order that they might 
 become instruments of chastisement in His hands. 
 
 52. HADAD (1 Kings xi. 14-22). One of these 
 enemies was Hadad, of the royal family of Edom. 
 He was a child when David and Joab had done their 
 best to exterminate the Edomites," but he had 
 escaped into Egypt. The King of Egypt had received 
 him and pensioned him, thinking he might some 
 day be useful for political purposes. As he grew up 
 he became a favourite at court, and received the 
 sister of the queen in marriage. His son by this 
 marriage was brought up as a member of the royal 
 family. When Hadad, however, heard of the death 
 of David, and of the fierce old captain who had so 
 nearly destroyed his people, he insisted on returning 
 to Edom, and would not be persuaded to stay. 
 Amidst the mountain fastnesses of Edom he gathered 
 together the remnants of his people, and gratified 
 his natural hatred of Israel by making sudden forays 
 into the outlying districts of the south. 
 
 53. REZON (1 Kings xi. 23-25). On the opposite 
 side, in the far north, was another of Solomon’s per¬ 
 sistent enemies. This man, Eezon by name, was a 
 Syrian adventurer, who had been driven out of the 
 town of Zobah, and had lived the life of a freebooter 
 in the deserts to the north-east of Palestine. When 
 David overran these districts, and broke the power of 
 the Syrian chieftians,* Eezon took advantage of the 
 confusion to seize upon the ancient and beautifully situ- 
 
 a 2 Sam. viii. 14. b 2 Sam. viii. 3-13. 
 
84 
 
 ated city of Damascus,« and here he was able to estab¬ 
 lish himself firmly. Solomon’s dominions indeed ex¬ 
 tended far beyond Damascus, and his fortified posts 
 were planted on all sides of the fertile oasis in which 
 the city lies; but of Damascus itself Solomon was 
 never able to obtain possession, and Dezon remained 
 as a thorn in his side all his days : indeed he founded 
 a kingdom which grew to be very powerful and very 
 dangerous both to Israel and to Judah.^ 
 
 64. JEROBOAM (1 Kings xi. 26-40). A more 
 dangerous foe than either the Edomite prince or the 
 Syrian adventurer was growing up beneath the eye 
 of Solomon himself. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, 
 was not a person whose enmity the king would either 
 have expected or feared. An orphan of the house of 
 Ephraim, he was taken into the king’s employment, 
 and was acting as one of the foremen who super¬ 
 intended the forced labour of the Canaanites upon 
 the new fortifications of Jerusalem. The king when 
 he visited the works took note of his activity, and 
 promoted him to be overseer of the heavy work 
 which had to be done by his tribesmen of Ephraim, 
 either in fortifying towns, or in making roads, or in 
 building barracks. The choice was not a wise one, 
 because Jeroboam’s sympathies were naturally with 
 his brethren. Like them he resented the increasing 
 burdens laid upon the free-born Israelites ; and like 
 them he could not forget the pre-eminence which 
 had once belonged to Ephraim and Shiloh, but had 
 now passed to Judah and Jerusalem. Something 
 like patriotism,and some righteous indignation at 
 oppression mingled no doubt with the dreams of a 
 selfish ambition in the active mind of the youno- 
 ruler ; but he would hardly have ventured upon any 
 action had it not been for a most unexpected en- 
 
 a Gen. xv. 2; 2 Kings v. 12. b I Kings xv. 20; Isaiah vii 1 8 
 
 c The northern tribes undoubtedly felt the rule of the house’of 
 David to be the rule of strangers (1 Kings xii. 16), and this feelintr 
 was never discouraged by their own pi ophets. 
 
85 
 
 couragement. One aay, as he left Jerusalem on his 
 way northwards, he met a man well known to him 
 as belonging to Shiloh, the ancient sanctuary of 
 Ephraim, where the ark had rested so long.® This 
 was the prophet Ahijah, one of those men who since 
 the days of Samuel had been regarded as the mes¬ 
 sengers of the Lord, commissioned to make known 
 His will to the prince and the people of the Lord. 
 Connected as he was with Ephraim and with Shiloh 
 we cannot doubt that his personal sympathies did 
 not go with that political and religious revolution 
 which had crowned Mount Moriah with the Temple; 
 of the Lord, and Mount Zion with the palace of Hisj 
 anointed. But when he met Jeroboam alone in the 
 open country on this day he did not speak out of his 
 own heart, but by Divine revelation. He had on 
 him a new upper garment.^ Suddenly he threw it 
 off, tore it into twelve pieces, and gave ten of them 
 to Jeroboam.c Then he declared to him in God’s 
 name that in like manner should ten out of the 
 twelve tribes of Israel be torn away from Solomon 
 and given to J eroboam because of the apostasies and 
 idolatries of the king and of his court. Nevertheless 
 he declared that one tribe should remain for David’s 
 sake and for the sake of Jerusalem, and further that 
 the great division should not be made in Solomon’s 
 time but in that of his son. Lastly, he told him that 
 his dreams should be fulfilled, and that he should be 
 king, and he bade him know that if he would serve 
 the Lord faithfully the Lord would be with him and 
 would establish his dynasty upon the throne. It is 
 
 a Joshua xviii. 32, 33; xxiv. 32, 33; Psalm Ixxviii. 60, 67, 68. 
 
 6 This garment was loursquai’e and folded like a plaid. 
 
 c The number of pieces did not correspond exactly to the facts of 
 the case. In reality three tribes—Judah, Benjamin, Simeon—remained 
 to the house of David, as well as a large part of Levi. Ten tribes went 
 to Jeroboam if we count the two halves cf Manasseh. The three 
 southern tribes, however, fonned only one territory for all practical 
 purposes. Thus the prophet’s action was accommodated to the 
 original twelve-fold division of the nation, while his wordi expressed 
 the actual facts. 
 
86 
 
 not likely that Solomon heard of this interview.® 
 More probably Jeroboam, inflamed by ambition, 
 made some premature attempt to hasten the disrup¬ 
 tion. Solomon suspected Jeroboam, and sought to 
 put him to death, but in vain. Jeroboam escaped 
 into Egypt and took refuge with Shishak,^ the youno- 
 Pharaoh, who entertained no friendly feelings to* 
 wards the new monarchy, and was ready enough to 
 protect him from the vengeance of Solomon.^^ Here 
 he remained awaiting a chance to return, and foment¬ 
 ing, as far as he could, the discontent of his fellow- 
 tribesmen. 
 
 65. SOLOMON’S DEATH. Amidst these clouds 
 and gathering storms, the sun of that long summer 
 day sank below the horizon. For forty years Solo¬ 
 mon reigned, and even then he must have died com¬ 
 paratively yoiing.^^ But if he was not old in years, 
 he was very old in that knowledge of good and evil 
 which he had so eagerly pursued. He was very old 
 weariness of life which comes of unrestrained 
 indulgence of body and of mind. He was very old 
 in that worst sadness which comes to him who has 
 outlived at once his usefulness and his religion. He 
 was buried in the city of David, i.e., within the old 
 quarter of Jerusalem where his father’s residence had 
 been, and where his father’s tomb was. With him 
 was buried the short-lived glory and unity of Israel. 
 With him was buried, too, that ideal son of David, 
 
 Cl Ahijah seems to have remained undisturbed at 
 
 bniion 1 Kings xiv. 2. 
 
 6 1 Kings xi 40; 2 Chron. xii. 2. Shishak or Shashank I. was 
 the son of an Assyrian prince who made himself master of Ecvnt 
 and commenced a neiv dynasty—the 22nd, 
 c The Greek Version adds many details concerning Jeroboam which 
 do not, however, seem worthy of credit. According to these his mother’s 
 name of the town in Mount Ephraim which he fortified 
 fiist for Solomon and afterwards for himself, was Sarira. His wife was 
 Ano, the eldest sister of Pharaoh’s queen and of the wife of Hadad 
 Inmediately upon the death of Solomon he^-etumed to Sarira. 
 
 • states that Solomon lived ninety-four years and reisned 
 
 "I *“'■ “s haWt^S ekaggcSn 
 
 The date of his death may be taken approximately as b.c. 971. 
 
87 
 
 who was to reign over the people of God, clothed 
 with majesty and glory ; who, being gifted with 
 wisdom from above, was to do judgment and justice 
 in the earth, and was to attract the homage of all 
 nations for himself and for the Lord ; who, being 
 the chosen and peculiar type of that Divine son of 
 David who was to come, should occupy the promises 
 of God for the time being, and represent, as far 
 as fallen man could represent, the glories of the 
 Messiah. 
 
 Questions and Points of Inquiry. 
 
 1. What was {humanly speaking) the weakness of 
 Solomon^s government f 
 
 2. WhoLt law did he transgress from motives of 
 policy f 
 
 3. What still greater sin did this lead him into f 
 
 4. What altars were built near Jerusalem^ and 
 where f 
 
 5. What sentence did God pronounce upon Solo¬ 
 mon f 
 
 6. What was the history (1) of Hadad, (2) of Rezon, 
 (3) of Jeroboam f 
 
 7 . What was the feeling in the house of Ephraim 
 upon which Jeroboam worked? 
 
 8. What did Ahijah do and say ? Why did he^ tear 
 the garment into twelve pieces ? How were the thirteen 
 tribal territories really divided ? 
 
 9. Who was Pharaoh in the latter years of Solomon ? 
 
 10. What was Solomon designed by God to be? 
 How far did he succeed ? How far did he fail ? 
 

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 and his learning is shown more by the amount of informa¬ 
 tion he imparts than by his manner of doing iV—Kelso 
 Chronicle. 
 
 Ga ^ accurate condensation.”— Nonconformist 
 
 132 PRINCES STREET, EDINBURGH. 
 
^tbi£ CiasB Primers. 
 
 EDITED BY PEOPESSOE SALMOND, D.D. 
 
 BIBLE WORDS AND PHRASES 
 
 EXPLAINED AND ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 By Charles Michie, M.A., Aberdeen. 
 
 2nd Thousand. lS>mo, Cloth, Is. 
 
 “Small as the book is, it yet has a more extensive range 
 than any of its predecessors. The book will be found inter¬ 
 esting and instructive, and of the greatest value to young 
 students and teachers.”— Athenceum. 
 
 ‘ ‘ Cannot fail to be of service. With such helps as these, 
 to be an inefficient teacher is to be blameworthy.”— Sivord 
 and Trowel. 
 
 ‘ ‘ A perfect mine of knowledge. ”— CongregatioiialUt. 
 
 “A manual of great accuracy, completeness, usefulness, 
 and cheapness.”— Literary World. 
 
 “The compiler has performed his task in a most satis¬ 
 factory manner, producing a manual that ought to be in the 
 hands of every reader of the English Bible.”— Glasgow Daily 
 Mail. 
 
 ‘ ‘ A boon not only to the young people in Bible classes, 
 but also to Sunday-school teachers, and even to ministers. 
 There is no reader of the English Bible who may not derive 
 profit from a careful study of this little hand-book.”— 
 Christian Leader. 
 
 “A highly commendable work, and cannot fail to prove 
 very valuable to readers of the Authorised Version of the 
 Bible. He has embodied the result of his investigations 
 briefly, clearly, and pointedly.”— Dundee Advertiser. 
 
 “A little book of cpiite extraordinary merit. We venture 
 to say that it will take its place as the book on the subject 
 of which it treats. It is a book which ought to be in the 
 hands of all students of the English Bible, and will no doubt 
 retain its place for many years as the best book on Bible 
 Words and Phrases. Every one who reads the English 
 Bible ought to have this book ever close at hand.”— Ahei'deen 
 Free Press. 
 
 132 PEINCES STEEET, EDINBUEGH. 
 
(Elass pi-jmers. 
 
 EDITED BY PROFESSOR SALMOND, D.D. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 By the Eev. Professor Witherow, Londonderry. 
 
 %tli Thousand. Cloth 8c?., 'paper 6c?. 
 
 “ Gives a certain sound upon the doctrines of the Reforma¬ 
 tion, and it tells the story of the Reformation in an interest¬ 
 ing and able manner. ”—Christian Treasury. 
 
 “A remarkably clear and compact sketch, touching upon 
 all the chief points in the history, and explaining the various 
 issues raised in such form so as to make them plain even to 
 very young readers. Will easily be understood and mastered 
 by the pupils themselves .”—British Messenger. 
 
 “The best sixpence worth we have read for some time. 
 How Professor Witherow has compressed so much into 
 ninety-six pages, and in such a lucid and pleasing style, 
 almost surpasses our comprehension .”—Belfast Witness. 
 
 ‘ ‘ A vast amount of information set forth in a clear and 
 concise manner.”—?7. P. Magazine. 
 
 “ As a bird’s-eye view of the whole vast field it is singu¬ 
 larly complete and vivid. Even adults who teach Bible 
 classes, as well as their pupils, may reap profit from its per¬ 
 usal. ”—Christian Leader. 
 
 132 PRINCES STREET, EDINBURGH. 
 
i H f Cl a s s ip r i m t r s. 
 
 EDITED BY PROFESSOR SALMOND, D.D. 
 
 JOSHUA AND THE CONQUEST. 
 
 By the Eev. Professor Croskery, Londonderry. 
 With Map. bth Thousand. Cloth, Qd., paper, 6d. 
 
 “ This carefully-written manual will be much appreciated. ” 
 —Daily Review. 
 
 “Those who attentively read this little volume ought to 
 have a good understanding and conception of the wonderful 
 facts related in the book of Joshua.”— Methodist. 
 
 In Preparation. 
 
 ABRAHAM AND THE PATRIARCHAL AGE— 
 
 By the Rev. Professor A. B. Bruce, D.D., Glasgow. 
 
 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH— 
 
 By the Rev. James Dodds, D.D., Edinburgh. 
 
 THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES— 
 
 By the Rev. Professor Paterson, M.A., Edinburgh, 
 THE EXILE AND THE RETURN— 
 
 By the Rev. Professor A. B. Davidson, D.D., Edinburgh, 
 THE PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY— 
 By the Rev. W. Robertson Smith, LL.D. 
 
 THE TABERNACLE AND THE TEMPLE— 
 
 By James Burgess, LL.D., F.R.G.S. 
 
 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY LAND— 
 By the Rev. S. R. Macphail, M.A., Liverpool. 
 
 HISTORICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN THE OLD 
 AND NEW TESTAMENTS— 
 
 By the Rev. Professor J. Gibb, M.A,, London. 
 
 THE GOSPEL PARABLES— 
 
 By the Rev. David Somerville, M.A., Rothesay. 
 OUTLINES OF EARLY CHURCH HISTORY— 
 
 By the Rev. H. Wallis Smith, D.D,, Kirknewton. 
 
 SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY— 
 
 By the Rev. G. Johnstone, B.D., Liverpool. 
 

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