Bible Commentaries

And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to ^a prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem, with a very great company, and camels that bare spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.

(a) To know whether his wisdom was as great as the report was.

And Solomon told her all her questions: and there was ^b nothing hid from Solomon which he told her not.

(b) There was no question so hard that he did not resolve.

Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his ^c throne, [to be] king for the LORD thy God: because thy God loved Israel, to establish them for ever, therefore made he thee king over them, to do judgment and justice.

(c) Meaning, that the Israelites were God's peculiar people, and that kings are the lieutenants of God, who ought to grant to him the superiority and administer justice to all.

And the servants also of Huram, and the servants of Solomon, which brought gold from Ophir, brought ^d algum trees and precious stones.

(d) Read (2 Chronicles 2:8) , (1 Kings 10:11).

And the king made [of] the algum trees ^e terraces to the house of the LORD, and to the king's palace, and harps and psalteries for singers: and there were none such seen before in the land of Judah.

(e) Or pillars: meaning the garnishing and trimming of the stairs or pillars.

And king Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, ^f beside [that] which she had brought unto the king. So she turned, and went away to her own land, she and her servants.

(f) That is, which the king gave her for recompense of the treasure which she brought.

And king Solomon made two hundred targets [of] beaten gold: ^g six hundred [shekels] of beaten gold went to one target.

(g) Which amounts to 2400 crowns of the sun.

(h) Or pounds, called mina, of which every one seemed to make a hundred shekels.

And [there were] six steps to the throne, with a footstool of gold, [which were] ⁱ fastened to the throne, and stays on each side of the sitting place, and two lions standing by the ^k stays:

(i) That is, the steps and the footstool were fastened to the throne.

(k) Upon the pommels or knops.

For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram: every three years once came the ships of ^l Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.

(l) Which is thought by the best writers to be Cilicia, (1 Kings 10:22).

And Solomon had ^m four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; whom he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.

(m) That is, ten horses in every stable, which in all amounts to 40,000 as in (1 Kings 4:26).

And the king made silver in Jerusalem ⁿ as stones, and cedar trees made he as the sycomore trees that [are] in the low plains in abundance.

(n) The abundance of those temporal treasures in Solomon's kingdom is a figure of the spiritual treasures which the elect will enjoy in the heavens under the true Solomon, Christ.

Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, [are] they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer ^o against Jeroboam the son of Nebat?

(o) That is, who prophesied against him.