Bible Commentaries

6. The Queen of Sheba, Solomon’s Riches and Honors, and Solomon’s Death

CHAPTER 9

1. The visit of the Queen (2 Chronicles 9:1-12)

2. The riches of Solomon (2 Chronicles 9:13-16)

3. The ivory throne (2 Chronicles 9:17-19)

4. Further riches and honors of Solomon (2 Chronicles 9:20-29)

5. The death of Solomon (2 Chronicles 9:30-31)

The account of the visit of the Queen of Sheba is the same as it appears in 1 Kings 10. The fame of Solomon had spread far and wide, and the Queen of Sheba comes to bring her tribute to admire and praise his wisdom and to give him presents of glorious things and of great value. And more than that. “King Solomon passed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.” A type of the coming King who will be head of all. “And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom that God had put in his heart. And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and raiment, harness and spices, horses and mules, a rate year by year” (verses 23-24). In annotations on 1 Kings 10, we have pointed out how all this glory and the wealth of Solomon and Jerusalem foreshadows the fulfillment of many prophecies concerning the glorious reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. Greater splendor and glory will rest upon Him and come to Jerusalem than in Solomon’s reign. Many beautiful descriptions of that coming glory, foreshadowed in this chapter, we find in different parts of the prophetic Word (Isaiah 60:3-14; Isaiah 66:10-13; Psalm 72).

As nothing is said in the first part of Chronicles on David’s sin, so the sin and failure of Solomon is passed over in this part of Chronicles. His reign is described as unmarred by failure, a reign of undimmed glory. Such will be the reign of Him who is greater than Solomon. Solomon’s failure, however, is indicated in this chapter. The horses out of Egypt mentioned in verse 28, and the fact that he multiplied horses and sought the gold of Ophir, shows that he became lifted up.

Solomon enjoyed the sure promises of God. He sins in the means by which he seeks to satisfy his own lusts; and although the result was the accomplishment of the promise, yet he bears the consequences of so doing. Outwardly only the fulfillment of the promise was seen. In fact there was something else. Without sending for horses from Egypt, and gold from Ophir, Solomon would have been rich and glorious, for God had promised it. By doing this he enriched himself, but he departs from God and from His word. Having given himself up to his desires after riches and glory, he had multiplied the number of his wives, and in his old age they turned away his heart. This neglect of the word, which at first appeared to have no bad effect (for he grew rich, as though it had been but the fulfillment of God’s promise), soon led to a departure more serious in its nature and in its consequences, to influence more powerful, and more immediately opposed to the commands of God’s word, and at last to flagrant disobedience of its most positive and essential requirements. The slippery path of sin is always trodden with accelerated steps, because the first sin tends to weaken in the soul the authority and power of that which alone can prevent our committing still greater sins--that is, the word of God, as well as the consciousness of His presence, which imparts to the word all its practical power over us (Synopsis of the Bible).