Solomon and Hiram.

king sixscore talents of gold.

(12) The cities are said to have been in "the land of Galilee." The name Galilee, signifying properly a "circle" or "ring" of territory, is used twice in the Book of Joshua for a region round Kedesh-Naphtali (Josh. xx. 7, xxi. 32), lying to the north-west of the Lake of Gennesareth, and extending to the Waters of Merom. (See also 2 Kings xv. 29.) The western portion of this territory would lie nearly on the frontiers of Tyre, and so would suit well the purpose both of Hiram and of Solomon. The discontent of Hiram probably referred to the condition of the cities (which afterwards had to be rebuilt), not to their geographical position.

(13) Cabul.-The derivation of this word is uncertain. Josephus evidently did not know it as a Hebrew word; for he expressly says, that in the Phoenician language it signifies "what is unpleasing." (Ant. viii. c. 5, sect. 3). A city Cabul is mentioned in Josh. xix. 27, in the territory of Asher, evidently on the Tyrian frontier, and in the neighbourhood in question. Hiram, it is thought, takes up this name, and applies it to the whole territory, and by a play of words on it signifies his discontent with Solomon's gift. Ewald supposes a Hebrew derivation for the word ("as nought"); others take it to be "like that which vanishes." Either would suit the sense indicated in the text well; but unless these derivations represent something cognate in the Tyrian language, they hardly accord with the requirements of this passage, which (as Josephus says) implies a Phoenician origin for the word.

(14) Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold. The payment, on any calculation, was a large one, though little more than a sixth of Solomon's yearly revenue. (See chap. x. 14.) How it is connected with the previous verses is matter of conjecture. It may possibly be a note referring back to verse 11, and explaining the amount of gold which Hiram had sent. If this is not so, it would then seem to be a payment in acknowledgment of the cession of the cities, as being of greater value than the debt which it was meant to discharge. Hiram's depreciation of the cities need not imply that he did not care to keep them. "It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth." (Prov. xx. 14). Josephus (Ant. viii. 5, 3), has a quaint story in connection with this intercourse between Hiram and Solomon (quoted from Dios), declaring that a contest in riddles took place between these kings, and that, when Hiram could not solve the riddles of Solomon, he "paid a large sum of money for his fine," but adds that he afterwards retaliated on Solomon, by aid of Abdemon of Tyre. It appears by 2 Chron. vii. 2, that the cities were afterwards restored to Israel-how, and why, we know not.

(15-28) The rest of the chapter consists of brief his torical notes, partly referring back to the previous records. Thus, verse 15 refers back to chap. v. 13; verses 20-22 to chap. v. 15; verse 24 to chap. vii. 8; verse 25 is a note connected with the history of the dedication of the Temple. The style is markedly dif ferent from the graphic and picturesque style of the passages preceding and following it.

(15) The levy.-This (see chap. v. 13, 15) was both of Israelites and of the subject races, first originated for the building of the Temple, afterwards extended to the other great building works.

The building works enumerated are, first in Jerusalem, then in various parts of the country of critical importance, either for war or for commerce.

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Millo, or (as it always has the definite article)," the Millo." The Hebrew word seems to signify "piling up," or heaping up," and its most simple meaning would be a fortified mound." From the mention, however, in Judges ix. 6, 20, of the "house of Millo," in connection with the men of Shechem, it has been supposed to be a Canaanitish word; and it is possible that "the Millo" of Jerusalem may have been the name of a quarter of the old Jebusite city, especially as it is first used in connection with the narrative of its capture (2 Sam. v. 9; 1 Chron. xi. 8). That it was a part of the fortification of "the city of David" is clear by this passage, by verse 24 and chap. xi. 27, and by 2 Chron. xxxii. 5; and the LXX. invariably renders it Acra," or "the citadel," a name always applied in the later history to the fortification on Mount Zion. Josephus, in describing the works of Solomon, merely says that he made the walls of David higher and stronger, and built towers on them. From the deriva. tion of the word it is possible that the work was the raising a high fortification of earth crowned with a wall, where the hill of Zion slopes down unto the valley known subsequently as the Tyropæon.

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Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.-These cities were all of important geographical positions, and all had belonged to the subject races.

Hazor was in the north, on high ground near the waters of Merom. It had been the city of Jabin, head of the northern confederacy (Josh. xi. 1). After the great victory over this confederacy, Joshua burnt Hazor (Josh. xi. 13), and the territory was assigned to Naphtali (chap. xix. 36). But it must have been regained by its old possessors, and rebuilt, for it appears again under another Jabin in Judges iv. It was evidently important, as commanding the great line of invasion through Hamath from the north. Hence it was fortified by Solomon, and probably the native inhabitants were dispossessed.

Megiddo lay in the great plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon, the battle-field of Northern Palestine, commanding some of the passes from it into the hill country of Manasseh, to which tribe it was assigned after the conquest (Josh. xvii. 11). But it was not subdued by them (Josh. xvii. 12, 13; Judges i. 27, 28), and, with Taanach, appears as a hostile city in the Song of Deborah (Judges v. 19). Now it was fortified, and is named subsequently as an Israelite city (2 Kings ix. 27, xxiii. 29). In later times the Romans seem to have occupied it, and their name for it, Legio (now el-Lejjûr), superseded the old title.

Gezer or Gazer, was near Bethlehem, close to the maritime plain. Its king was conquered by Joshua (Josh. x. 33, xii. 12), and the city was allotted to the Levites in the territory of Ephraim (Josh. xxi. 17), but it remained unsubdued (Judges i. 29). From the notice in the next verse, it must have been in rebellion

Works.

desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his

against Israel, perhaps in the early and more troubled days of Solomon; and was accordingly taken by the Egyptian army (which could easily march up the plain, and attack it therefrom). The passes here were of critical importance, as appears in the Philistine wars (1 Chron. xx. 4; 2 Sam. v. 25), in relation to any advance from the plain.

(16) A present-that is, of course, a dowry, on her marriage with Solomon.

(17) Beth-horon the nether.-The name "Bethhoron " ("the house of caves,") was given to two small towns or villages (still called Beit-ûr), near Gezer, commanding the steep and rugged pass from the maritime plain, celebrated for three great victories of Israel-the great victory of Joshua (Josh. x.), the victory of Judas Maccabæus (1 Macc. iii. 13-24), and the last victory of the Jews over the Roman army of Cestius Gallus, before the fall of Jerusalem (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, ii. 19). The lower Beth-horon stands on a low eminence on the edge of the plain.

(18) Baalath is said by Josephus to have been in the same neighbourhood; and this agrees with the mention of it in Josh. xix. 44, as lying in the region assigned to Dan, on the edge of the Philistine country. The three, Gezer, Beth-horon, and Baalath, evidently form a group of fortified places commanding the passes from the sea-coast.

Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land.-The Hebrew text here has Tamar (with, however, Tadmor as a marginal reading). From this fact, and from the peculiar expression "in the land," which certainly seems to designate the land of Israel, and from the juxtaposition of the name in this passage with the names of places situated in the southern part of Palestine, it has been thought that the place meant is the Tamar of Ezek. xlvii. 19, xlviii. 28), or, perhaps, Hazazon-Tamar, the old name of En-gedi; and that the marginal reading, and the reading of the old versions, have arisen from a mistaken identification of this place with the Tadmor of 2 Chron. ix. 4. But, on the whole, these considerations are not sufficient to counterbalance the invariable reference of this passage, by all the ancient versions and by the narrative of Josephus, to the celebrated Tadmor, the name of which is a local variety of the Hebrew name Tamar (or "the palm-tree,") preserved in the later name of Palmyra. If this be meant, it is indeed difficult to suppose that there is not some omission after the words " in the land."

Tadmor, or Palmyra, is described by Josephus as "in the desert above Syria, a day's journey from the

(20) And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel, (21) their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto this day. (22) But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes,

a

Euphrates, and six long days' journey from Babylon the Great." Its foundation is described in 2 Chron. ix. 4, as connected with a subjugation of Hamathzobah, and it may have had a military purpose. But situated on a well-watered oasis, in the midst of the desert, south-west of Tiphsah or Thapsacus on the Euphrates, also occupied by Solomon (see chap. iv. 24), and about 120 miles from Damascus, it would be eminently fitted for trade both with Damascus and with Babylon and the north. Its importance is indicated by its long existence as a great city, and by its splendour (still traceable in its ruins), in Greek and Roman times, down to, at least, the age of Diocletian.

(19) That which Solomon desired to build.See, in Eccl. ii. 4-10, the description of the vineyards, and gardens, and orchards, in Jerusalem, with trees of all manner of fruits and pools of water, "whatsoever mine eyes desired;" and in Cant. ii. 10-13, iv. 8, vii. 11-13, the vivid pictures of the pleasure-gardens of Lebanon. The text seems evidently to refer to these, in contradistinction from the cities of commercial and military importance previously mentioned.

(20) A tribute of bond service. This was probably not originated, but simply enforced and organised, by Solomon. It dated, in theory at least, from the Conquest. The most notable example of it is the case of the Gibeonites (Josh. ix. 21-27); but there are incidental notices of similar imposition of serfship in Judges i. 28, 30, 33, 35. Many of the dangers of the stormy age of the Judges were due to the uprising of these subject races; as in the revival of the northern confederacy at Hazor under Sisera (Judges iv.), and the usurpation of Abimelech by aid of the Shechemites (Judges ix.). Probably their subordination to Israel varied according to the strength or weakness of each age; but, when the monarchy became organised under David and Solomon, it was fixed definitely and permanently, although, like the serfship of the Middle Ages, it might vary in its severity in different times and in different regions.

(22) No bondmen.-This exemption, however it may have continued in theory, must virtually have been set aside in the later days of Solomon. (See chap. xii. 4.) They are here described as occupying the position of a dominant race-as warriors, servants about the person of the king, princes, and officers in the army-like the free vassals under a feudal monarchy. But as the absolute power of the king increased, and with it, perhaps, the wealth and arrogance of his favourites and greater officers, the condi

tion of the Israelites at large might be removed from serfship more in name than in reality. Even the subject races might be played off against them, as against the Macedonians in the later years of Alexander the Great, when his royalty passed into something like a true Oriental despotism. Certainly, in later times we find, both from the history and the prophetical books, that there was such a thing as serfship of the poor to the princes. (Jer. xxxiv. 8-11; Neh. v. 11.)

(23) Five hundred and fifty.-In chap. v. 16 we read of just six times as many officers as those here mentioned over the workers for the Temple. But in that passage there would seem to be reference to the special levy then raised; here the description is apparently of a regularly established system.

(24) Pharaoh's daughter came up . . .-In 2 Chron. viii. 11 a reason is assigned for this removal: My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy whereunto the ark of the Lord hath come." In this passage the notice of her withdrawal is evidently connected with the building of "the Millo" described in verse 15, which perhaps trenched on her former quarters in the city of David.

(25) And three times in a year. This verse seems by the last words to be a kind of note or postscript to the description of the completion and consecration of the Temple. To the record of the great inaugural sacrifice it adds a notice of the solemn renewal of the royal offering, both of victims and of incense, three times in a year-no doubt at the three great feasts, the Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. As has been already said (see Note on chap. viii. 63), there is no reason to suppose that on these occasions, or on any others, Solomon personally usurped the priest's office.

Its very

(26) Ezion-geber.-This place is first noticed in Num. xxxiii. 35 and Deut. ii. 8 as a station in the wanderings of the Israelites, reached not long before their entrance into Canaan. It lies at the head of the Gulf of Akabah, the nearest point of the Red Sea, on the edge of the mountain country of Edom. name ("the giant's backbone") indicates the nature of the country around it, which (it has been noted) could hardly have itself supplied timber for ship-building. But from 2 Chron. viii. 18 it appears that the ships, or the materials from which they were built, were sent from Tyre.

(27) Shipmen that had knowledge of the sea. -The Tyrians were known far and wide as the great sailors both of the Mediterranean and the seas beyond it, till they were rivalled and superseded by their own colonists in Carthage and by the Greeks. How greatly their seamanship, their commerce, and their civilisation impressed the imagination of Israel, is shown in the mag

His Navy.

offerings upon the altar which he built unto the LORD, and he burnt incense 1 upon the altar that was before the LORD. So he finished the house.

(26) And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the 2 shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom. (27) And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. (28) And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold,

nificent chapters of Ezekiel on the fate of Tyre (Ezek. xxvi.-xxviii.). The Israelites, on the contrary, had but little care for the sea, and little knowledge of seamanship. The coast line of Palestine is but scantily furnished with harbours; and even at the height of their power they were content to use the maritime skill of the Tyrians, without encroaching upon their commerce or attempting to seize their famous ports. This was natural; for their call to be a peculiar and separate people was absolutely incompatible with maritime enterprise and commerce. Even in this attempt at maritime expedition under Tyrian guidance, Solomon's action was, as in other points, exceptional, departing from Israelite tradition; and we hear of no similar enterprise, except in the age of Ahab and Jehoshaphat, when the intermarriage of the royal houses of Israel and Phoenicia renewed the close connection with Tyre (1 Kings xxii. 48; 2 Chron. xx. 35). We observe, accordingly, that the sea is mostly regarded in the Old Testament in its terrible power of wave and storm, restrained from destroying only by the Almighty hand of God; and even the one psalm (Ps. cvii. 23-31), which describes the seafarer's experience, dwells with awe on “God's wonders in the deep." In the description of the glory of the new heaven and earth" of the hereafter, it is declared with emphasis that there was no more sea" (Rev. xxi. 1).

(28) Ophir.-All that can be certainly gathered from the mention of Ophir in the Old Testament is, first, that it was situated to the east of Palestine and approached by the Red Sea (as is clear from this passage, from chap. xxii. 48, and from 2 Chron. viii. 18, ix. 10), and next, that so famous was the gold imported from it, that the "gold of Ophir" became proverbial (Job xxii. 24, xxviii, 16; Ps. xlv. 10; Isa. xiii. 12; 1 Chron. xxix. 4). All else is matter of speculation and tradition. Setting aside merely fanciful conjectures, substantial reasons have been given for fixing it geographically in Africa, Arabia, and India; and of these three positions, evidence strongly preponderates for the second or third. Tradition is in favour of India; the LXX. renders the name as Soufir, or Sofir, which is the Coptic word for "India; "the Arabic versions actually render it "India; and Josephus (Ant. viii. 6, 4) states unhesitatingly that Ophir was in his day called "The Golden Chersonesus," which is the Malay peninsula. On the other hand, it is urged that "Ophir," in the ethnological list of Gen. x. 29, is placed among the sons of Joktan, clearly indicating an Arabian position; and that the mention of Ophir (here and in chap. x. 11), stands in close connection with the visit of the Queen of Sheba and the gold brought from Arabia. But neither of these considerations is conclusive. Looking to the products described as brought from Ophir, the

The Queen of Sheba

visits Solomon.

a

heart. (3) And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not. (4) And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built, (5) and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his

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"gold and precious stones" would suit either, but India better than Arabia (although, indeed, so far as gold is concerned, Western Africa would have better claim than either); while the "almug," or algum wood is certainly the "sandal wood" found almost exclusively on the Malabar coast, and the very word "algum" appears to be a corruption of its Sanscrit name valguka. If the other imports mentioned in chap. x. 22 were also from Ophir, this latter argument would be greatly strengthened. (See Note there.) But putting this aside as doubtful, the preponderance of evidence still appears to be in favour of India. The Tyrians, it may be added, are known to have had trading settlements on the Persian Gulf, and to have rivalled in the trade of the East the Egyptians, to whom it would more naturally have belonged. Various places have been named conjecturally as identical with Ophir as in Arabia, Zaphar or Saphar, Doffir, and Zafari; in Africa, Sofala; and in India, Abhira, at the mouth of the Indus, and a Soupara mentioned by ancient Greek geographers, not far from Goa.

X.

In verses 1-18, the visit of the queen of Sheba is described graphically and with some detail; the remainder of the chapter returns to a series of brief notes on the government and wealth of Solomon.

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(1) The queen of Sheba.-The name "Sheba " must be distinguished from Seba, or Saba (which begins with a different Hebrew letter). (a) The name Seba denotes a Cushite race (Gen. x. 7), connected, in Isa. xliii. 3, xlv. 14, with Egypt and Cush, and named with Sheba ("the kings of Sheba and Seba") in the Psalm of Solomon (Ps. lxxii. 10). Seba is, indeed, with great probability identified (see Jos. Ant. ii. 10, 2) with the Ethiopian city and island of Meroë. It is probably from confusion between Sheba and Saba that Josephus (Ant. viii. 6, 5) represents the queen of Sheba as a queen of Egypt and Ethiopia." (b) The name "Sheba" is found in the ethnological lists of Gen. x. 7, among the descendants of Cush of the Hamite race, in Gen. x. 28, among the Semitic Joktanites, and in Gen. xxv. 3, among the Abrahamic children of Keturah. The kingdom of Sheba referred to in this passage must certainly be placed in Arabia Felix, the habitation of the Joktanite race (in which the Keturahites appear to have been merged), for the Cushite Sheba is probably to be found elsewhere on the Persian Gulf. The queen of Sheba would therefore be of Semitic race, not wholly an alien from the stock of Abraham.

The fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord.-If the reading of the text be correct, the phrase "concerning the name of the Lord" (to

ministers, and their apparel, and his 3 cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the LORD;

which there is nothing to correspond in 2 Chron. ix. 1) must refer to the constant connection of the fame of Solomon-especially in relation to his wisdom, which is here mainly referred to-with the name of Jehovah, as the God to whom, in the erection of the Temple, he devoted both his treasure and himself.

Hard questions or, riddles. The Arabian legends preserved in the Koran enumerate a list of questions and puzzles, propounded by the queen and answered by Solomon, too puerile to be worth mention. The "hard questions" (in which Solomon is said by Josephus to have had a contest with Hiram also) must surely have been rather those enigmatic and metaphorical sayings, so familiar to Eastern philosophy, in which the results of speculation, metaphysical or religious, are tersely embodied. The writings representing the age of Solomon-Job, Proverbs, and (whatever be its actual date) Ecclesiastes-are all concerned with these great problems, moral and speculative, which belong to humanity as such, especially in its relation to God. In solving these problems, rather than the merely fantastic ingenuity of what we call riddles, the wisdom of Solomon would be worthily employed.

(2) Spices.-The "spices "of Arabia were famous in all ages. Sheba is mentioned in Ezek. xxvii. 22 as trafficking with Tyre "in chief of all spices, and precious stones, and gold." The spices of "the incensebearing sands of Arabia are constantly dwelt upon

both in Greek and Roman literature. Frankincense especially was imported from Arabia into Palestine (see Isa. lx. 6; Jer. vi. 20), although now it comes chiefly from India. Myrrh also was in ancient times drawn chiefly from Arabia. Cassia is a product of Arabia and India. Of all spices, the frankincense for sacrifice and the myrrh for embalming the dead would be most in request.

Gold, and precious stones.-These may have been native products of Sheba, or have been brought from the farther East. Gold is not now known to exist in Arabia, nor any precious stones except the onyx and the emerald. But in ancient times it was commonly believed to produce both gold and precious stones largely.

(4, 5) And when the queen of Sheba had seen. There is something curiously inartificial and true to nature in the accumulation of different impressions as made upon the imagination of the queen. First of all comes the primary impression of Solomon's wisdom, known by his answering all her questions, and "seen" in the various ordinances of his court and his government. Then the magnificence of the palace and all the arrangements of its service are referred to in detail, as especially likely to tell on one whose own splendour was probably of a simpler and more barbaric