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Topic:
Persons Of The Bible -- Solomon
The name "Solomon" is from the Hebrew
name שְׁלֹמֹה (Shelomoh)
which was derived from Hebrew
שָׁלוֹם (shalom)
"peace" or "peaceful".
The account of Solomon's life taken from Easton's Bible
Dictionary.
David's second son by Bathsheba, i.e., the first after their legal
marriage (2 Sam. 12). He was probably born about B.C. 1035 (1 Chr. 22:5;
29:1). He succeeded his father on the throne in early manhood, probably
about sixteen or eighteen years of age. Nathan, to whom his education
was intrusted, called him Jedidiah, i.e., "beloved of the
Lord" (2 Sam. 12:24, 25). He was the first king of Israel
"born in the purple." His father chose him as his successor,
passing over the claims of his elder sons: "Assuredly Solomon my
son shall reign after me." His history is recorded in 1 Kings 1-11
and 2 Chr. 1-9. His elevation to the throne took place before his
father's death, and was hastened on mainly by Nathan and Bathsheba, in
consequence of the rebellion of Adonijah (1 Kings 1:5-40). During his
long reign of forty years the Hebrew monarchy gained its highest
splendour. This period has well been called the "Augustan age"
of the Jewish annals. The first half of his reign was, however, by far
the brighter and more prosperous; the latter half was clouded by the
idolatries into which he fell, mainly from his heathen intermarriages (1
Kings 11:1-8; 14:21, 31). Before his death David gave parting
instructions to his son (1 Kings 2:1-9; 1 Chr. 22:7-16; 28). As soon as
he had settled himself in his kingdom, and arranged the affairs of his
extensive empire, he entered into an alliance with Egypt by the marriage
of the daughter of Pharaoh (1 Kings 3:1), of whom, however, nothing
further is recorded. He surrounded himself with all the luxuries and the
external grandeur of an Eastern monarch, and his government prospered.
He entered into an alliance with Hiram, king of Tyre, who in many ways
greatly assisted him in his numerous undertakings. For some years before
his death David was engaged in the active work of collecting materials
(1 Chr. 29:6-9; 2 Chr. 2:3-7) for building a temple in Jerusalem as a
permanent abode for the ark of the covenant. He was not permitted to
build the house of God (1 Chr. 22:8); that honour was reserved to his
son Solomon. After the completion of the temple, Solomon engaged in the
erection of many other buildings of importance in Jerusalem and in other
parts of his kingdom. For the long space of thirteen years he was
engaged in the erection of a royal palace on Ophel (1 Kings 7:1-12). It
was 100 cubits long, 50 broad, and 30 high. Its lofty roof was supported
by forty-five cedar pillars, so that the hall was like a forest of cedar
wood, and hence probably it received the name of "The House of the
Forest of Lebanon." In front of this "house" was another
building, which was called the Porch of Pillars, and in front of this
again was the "Hall of Judgment," or Throne-room (1 Kings 7:7;
10:18-20; 2 Chr. 9:17-19), "the King's Gate," where he
administered justice and gave audience to his people. This palace was a
building of great magnificence and beauty. A portion of it was set apart
as the residence of the queen consort, the daughter of Pharaoh. From the
palace there was a private staircase of red and scented sandal wood
which led up to the temple. Solomon also constructed great works for the
purpose of securing a plentiful supply of water for the city (Eccl.
2:4-6). He then built Millo (LXX., "Acra") for the defence of
the city, completing a line of ramparts around it (1 Kings 9:15, 24;
11:27). He erected also many other fortifications for the defence of his
kingdom at various points where it was exposed to the assault of enemies
(1 Kings 9:15-19; 2 Chr. 8:2-6). Among his great undertakings must also
be mentioned the building of Tadmor (q.v.) in the wilderness as a
commercial depot, as well as a military outpost. During his reign
Palestine enjoyed great commercial prosperity. Extensive traffic was
carried on by land with Tyre and Egypt and Arabia, and by sea with Spain
and India and the coasts of Africa, by which Solomon accumulated vast
stores of wealth and of the produce of all nations (1 Kings 9:26-28;
10:11, 12; 2 Chr. 8:17, 18; 9:21). This was the "golden age"
of Israel. The royal magnificence and splendour of Solomon's court were
unrivalled. He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, an
evidence at once of his pride, his wealth, and his sensuality. The
maintenance of his household involved immense expenditure. The provision
required for one day was "thirty measures of fine flour, and
threescore measures of meal, ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the
pastures, and an hundred sheep, beside harts, and roebucks, and
fallow-deer, and fatted fowl" (1 Kings 4:22, 23). Solomon's reign
was not only a period of great material prosperity, but was equally
remarkable for its intellectual activity. He was the leader of his
people also in this uprising amongst them of new intellectual life.
"He spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand
and five. And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon
even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of
beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes" (1
Kings 4:32, 33). His fame was spread abroad through all lands, and men
came from far and near "to hear the wisdom of Solomon." Among
others thus attracted to Jerusalem was "the queen of the
south" (Matt. 12:42), the queen of Sheba, a country in Arabia
Felix. "Deep, indeed, must have been her yearning, and great his
fame, which induced a secluded Arabian queen to break through the
immemorial custom of her dreamy land, and to put forth the energy
required for braving the burdens and perils of so long a journey across
a wilderness. Yet this she undertook, and carried it out with
safety." (1 Kings 10:1-13; 2 Chr. 9:1-12.) She was filled with
amazement by all she saw and heard: "there was no more spirit in
her." After an interchange of presents she returned to her native
land. But that golden age of Jewish history passed away. The bright day
of Solomon's glory ended in clouds and darkness. His decline and fall
from his high estate is a sad record. Chief among the causes of his
decline were his polygamy and his great wealth. "As he grew older
he spent more of his time among his favourites. The idle king living
among these idle women, for 1,000 women, with all their idle and
mischievous attendants, filled the palaces and pleasure-houses which he
had built (1 Kings 11:3), learned 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 sacrifices
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. 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 (Judg. 8:27), or the Danites
(Judg. 18:30, 31), but was downright idolatrous." (1 Kings 11:7; 2
Kings 23:13.) This brought upon him the divine displeasure. His enemies
prevailed against him (1 Kings 11:14-22, 23-25, 26-40), and one judgment
after another fell upon the land. And now the end of all came, and he
died, after a reign of forty years, and was buried in the city of David,
and "with him was buried the short-lived glory and unity of
Israel." "He leaves behind him but one weak and worthless son,
to dismember his kingdom and disgrace his name." "The kingdom
of Solomon," says Rawlinson, "is one of the most striking
facts in the Biblical history. A petty nation, which for hundreds of
years has with difficulty maintained a separate existence in the midst
of warlike tribes, each of which has in turn exercised dominion over it
and oppressed it, is suddenly raised by the genius of a soldier-monarch
to glory and greatness. An empire is established which extends from the
Euphrates to the borders of Egypt, a distance of 450 miles; and this
empire, rapidly constructed, enters almost immediately on a period of
peace which lasts for half a century. Wealth, grandeur, architectural
magnificence, artistic excellence, commercial enterprise, a position of
dignity among the great nations of the earth, are enjoyed during this
space, at the end of which there is a sudden collapse. The ruling nation
is split in twain, the subject-races fall off, the pre-eminence lately
gained being wholly lost, the scene of struggle, strife, oppression,
recovery, inglorious submission, and desperate effort,
re-commences.", Historical Illustrations.
The account of Solomon's life taken from Smith's
Bible Dictionary.
I.
Early life and occasion to the throne.--Solomon was the
child of David's old age, the last born of all his sons. (1 Chronicles
3:5) The yearnings of the "man of war" led him to give to the
new-horn infant the name of Solomon (Shelomoth, the peaceful one).
Nathan, with a marked reference to the meaning of the king's own name
(David, the darling, the beloved one), calls the infant Jedidiah (Jedid'yah),
that is, the darling of the Lord. (2 Samuel 11:24,25) He was placed
under the care of Nathan from his earliest infancy. At first,
apparently, there was no distinct purpose to make him the heir. Absalom
was still the king's favorite son, (2 Samuel 13:37; 18:33) and was
looked on by the people as the destined successor. (2 Samuel 14:13;
15:1-6) The death of Absalom when Solomon was about ten years old left
the place vacant, and David pledged his word in secret to Bath-sheba
that he, and no other, should be the heir. (1 Kings 1:13) The words
which were spoken somewhat later express, doubtless, the purpose which
guided him throughout. (1 Chronicles 28:9; 20) His son's life should not
he as his own had been, one of hardships and wars, dark crimes and
passionate repentance, but, from first to last, be pure, blameless,
peaceful, fulfilling the ideal of glory and of righteousness after which
he himself had vainly striven. The glorious visions of (Psalms 72:1)...
may be looked on as the prophetic expansion of these hopes of his old
age. So far,all was well. Apparently his influence over his son's
character was one exclusively for good. Nothing that we know of Bath-sheba
lends us to think of her as likely to mould her son's mind and heart to
the higher forms of goodness. Under these influences the boy grew up. At
the age of ten or eleven he must have passed through the revolt of
Absalom, and shared his father's exile. (2 Samuel 15:16) He would be
taught all that priests or Levites or prophets had to teach. When David
was old and feeble, Adonijah, Solomon's older brother attempted to gain
possession of the throne; but he was defeated, and Solomon went down to
Gihon and was proclaimed and anointed king. A few months more and
Solomon found himself, by his father's death, the sole occupant of the
throne. The position to which he succeeded was unique. Never before, and
never after, did the
kingdom
of
Israel
take its place among the great monarchies of the East. Large treasures,
accumulated through many years, were at his disposal.
II.
Personal appearance.--Of Solomon's personal appearance we
have no direct description, as we have of the earlier kings. There are,
however, materials for filling up the gap. Whatever higher mystic
meaning may be latent in (Psalms 45:1)... or the Song of Songs, we are
all but compelled to think of them as having had at least a historical
starting-point. They tell of one who was, in the eyes of the men of his
own time, "fairer than the children of men," the face
"bright, and ruddy" as his father's, (Song of Solomon 5:10; 1
Samuel 17:42) bushy locks, dark as the raven's wing, yet not without a
golden glow, the eyes soft as "the eyes of cloves," the
"countenance as Lebanon excellent as the cedars," "the
chiefest among ten thousand, the altogether lovely." (Song of
Solomon 5:13-18) Add to this all gifts of a noble, far-reaching
intellect large and ready sympathies, a playful and genial humor, the
lips "full of grace," and the soul "anointed" as
"with the oil of gladness," (Psalms 45:1)... and we may form
some notion of what the king was like in that dawn of his golden prime.
III.
Reign.--All the data for a continuous history that we have
of Solomon's reign are-- (a) The duration of the reign, forty sears,
B.C. 1015-975. (1 Kings 11:4) (b) The commencement of the temple in the
fourth, its completion in the eleventh, year of his reign. (1 Kings
6:1,37,38) (c) The commencement of his own palace in the seventh, its
completion in the twentieth, year. (1 Kings 7:1; 2 Chronicles 8:1) (d)
The conquest of Hamath-zobah, and the consequent foundation of cities in
the region of north
Palestine
after the twentieth year. (2 Chronicles 8:1-6)
IV.
Foreign policy.--
Egypt
. The first act of the foreign policy of the new reign must have been to
most Israelites a very startling one. He made affinity with Pharaoh,
king of
Egypt
, by marrying his daughter (1 Kings 3:1) The immediate results were
probably favorable enough. The new queen brought with her as a dowry the
frontier city of
Gezer
. But the ultimate issue of alliance showed that it was hollow and
impolitic.
Tyre
. The alliance with the Phoenician king rested on a somewhat different
footing. It had been a part of David's policy from the beginning of his
reign. Hiram had been "ever a lover of David." As soon as he
heard of Solomon's accession he sent ambassadors to salute him. A
correspondence passed between the two kings, which ended in a treaty of
commerce. The opening of Joppa as a port created a new coasting-trade,
and the materials from
Tyre
were conveyed to that city on floats, and thence to
Jerusalem
. (2 Chronicles 2:16) In return for these exports, the Phoenicians were
only too glad to receive the corn and oil of Solomon's territory. The
results of the alliance did not end here. Now, for the first time in the
history of the Jews, they entered on a career as a commercial people.
The foregoing were the two most important to
Babylon
alliances. The absence of any reference to
Babylon
and Assyria, and the fact that the
Euphrates
was recognized as the boundary of Solomon's kingdom, (2 Chronicles 9:26)
suggests the inference that the Mesopotamian monarchies were at this
time comparatively feeble. Other neighboring nations were content to pay
annual tribute in the form of gifts. (2 Chronicles 9:28) The survey of
the influence exercised by Solomon on surrounding nations would be
incomplete if we were to pass over that which was more directly personal
the fame of his glory and his wisdom. Wherever the ships of Tarshish
went, they carried with them the report, losing nothing in its passage,
of what their crews had seen and heard. The journey of the queen of
Sheba
, though from its circumstances the most conspicuous, did not stand
alone.
V.
Internal history.-- The first prominent scene in Solomon's
reign is one which presents his character in its noblest aspect. God in
a vision having offered him the choice of good things he would have, he
chose wisdom in preference to riches or honor or long life. The wisdom
asked for was given in large measure, and took a varied range. The wide
world of nature, animate and inanimate, the lives and characters of men,
lay before him, and he took cognizance of all but the highest wisdom was
that wanted for the highest work, for governing and guiding, and the
historian hastens to give an illustration of it. The pattern-instance
is, in all its circumstances, thoroughly Oriental. (1 Kings 3:16-28) In
reference to the king's finances, the first impression of the facts
given us is that of abounding plenty. Large quantities of the precious
metals were imported from Ophir and Tarshish. (1 Kings 9:28) All the
kings and princes of the subject provinces paid tribute in the form of
gifts, in money and in kind, "at a fixed rate year by year."
(1 Kings 10:25) Monopolies of trade contributed to the king's treasury.
(1 Kings 10:28,29) The total amount thus brought into the treasury in
gold, exclusive of all payments in kind, amounted to 666 talents. (1
Kings 10:14) It was hardly possible, however, that any financial system
could bear the strain of the king's passion for magnificence. The cost
of the temple was, it is true, provided for by David's savings and the
offerings of the people; but even while that was building, yet more when
it was finished one structure followed on another with ruinous rapidity.
All the equipment of his court, the "apparel" of his servants
was on the same scale. A body-guard attended him, "threescore
valiant men," tallest and handsomest of the sons of
Israel
. Forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand
horsemen made up the measure of his magnificence. (1 Kings 4:26) As the
treasury became empty, taxes multiplied and monopolies became more
irksome. A description of the temple erected by Solomon is given
elsewhere. After seven years and the work was completed and the day came
to which all Israelites looked back as the culminating glory of their
nation. We cannot ignore the fact that even now there were some darker
shades in the picture. He reduced the "strangers" in the land,
the remnant of the Canaanite races, to the state of helots, and made
their life "bitter with all hard bondage." One hundred and
fifty-three thousand, with wives and children in proportion, were torn
from their homes and sent off to the quarries and the forests of
Lebanon
. (1 Kings 5:15; 2 Chronicles 2:17,18) And the king soon fell from the
loftiest height of his religious life to the lowest depth. Before long
the priests and prophets had to grieve over rival temples to Molech,
Chemosh, Ashtaroth and forms of ritual not idolatrous only, but cruel,
dark, impure. This evil came as the penalty of another. (1 Kings 11:1-8)
He gave himself to "strange women." He found himself involved
in a fascination which led to the worship of strange gods. Something
there was perhaps in his very "largeness of heart," so far in
advance of the traditional knowledge of his age, rising to higher and
wider thoughts of God, which predisposed him to it. In recognizing what
was true in other forms of faith, he might lose his horror at what was
false. With this there may have mingled political motives. He may have
hoped, by a policy of toleration, to conciliate neighboring princes, to
attract larger traffic. But probably also there was another influence
less commonly taken into account. The widespread belief of the East in
the magic arts of Solomon is not, it is believed, without its foundation
of truth. Disasters followed before long as the natural consequence of
what was politically a blunder as well as religiously a sin.
VI.
His literary works.--Little remains out of the songs,
proverbs, treatises, of which the historian speaks. (1 Kings 4:32,33)
Excerpts only are given from the three thousand proverbs. Of the
thousand and five songs we know absolutely nothing. His books represent
the three stages of his life. The Song of Songs brings before us the
brightness of his -youth. Then comes in the book of Proverbs, the stage
of practical, prudential thought. The poet has become the philosopher,
the mystic has passed into the moralist; but the man passed through both
stages without being permanently the better for either. They were to him
but phases of his life which he had known and exhausted, (Ecclesiastes
1:1; Ecclesiastes 2:1)...and therefore there came, its in the
confessions of the preacher, the great retribution.
Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries
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