1 Kings 10:28

And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt,.... To mount his horsemen with, and draw his chariots; which seems contrary to the command in Deuteronomy 17:16 and linen yarn; the king's merchants

Horses and linen yarn; the two chief commodities of Egypt. See . The king’ s merchants received the linen yarn for a price; Solomon received them from Pharaoh at a certain price agreed between them, and gave this privilege to his merchants, for a tribute to be paid to him out of it.

1 Kings 10:28 And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king’ s merchants received the linen yarn at a price.Ver. 28. And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt.] Which abounded with these commodities. Received the linen yarn at a price.] And so got the trade and monopoly thereof, and of horses, into their own hand, for the king’ s behoof and benefit.

(28) Linen yarn.—The introduction of this seems to be an error. If the reading of the Hebrew text is to stand, the sense appears to be, “And Solomon’s horses were brought from Egypt; a troop of the king’s merchants obtained a troop (of horses) at a fixed price.” The horses were brought up (that is) in caravans from the plains of Egypt, where they abounded (see Genesis 47:17; Exodus 9:3; Exodus 14:9; Deuteronomy 17:17; Isaiah 31:1; Isaiah 36:9), although from their not being represented on the monuments before the eighteenth dynasty it is thought they were introduced from abroad, perhaps by the Hyksos, or shepherd kings. But the LXX. has a remarkable various reading “and from Tekoa” (from which the Vulg. et de Coa, probably comes), according to which the passage runs very simply: “And Solomon’s horses were brought from Egypt; and from Tekoa the king’s merchants,” &c. Tekoa lay on the hills to the east of Hebron, not far from Bethlehem, and might well be an emporium for caravans from Egypt. The parallel passages of 2 Chronicles 1:16-17; 2 Chronicles 9:28, give us no help, for the former is exactly the same as this, and the latter runs thus: “And they brought unto Solomon horses out of Egypt and out of all lands.”

Verse 28. Horses brought out of Egypt] It is thought that the first people who used horses in war were the Egyptians; and it is well known that the nations who knew the use of this creature in battle had greatly the advantage of those who did not. God had absolutely prohibited horses to be imported or used; but in many things Solomon paid little attention to the Divine command. And linen yarn] The original word, מקוה mikveh, is hard to be understood, if it be not indeed a corruption. The versions are all puzzled with it: the Vulgate and Septuagint make it a proper name: "And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and from Coa, or Tekoa." Some think it signifies a tribute, thus Bochart: "They brought horses to Solomon out of Egypt; and as to the tribute, the farmers of this prince received it at a price." They farmed the tribute, gave so much annually for it, taking the different kinds to themselves, and giving a round sum for the whole. Some suppose that MIKVEH signifies the string or cord by which one horse's head is tied to the tail of another; and that the meaning is, Solomon brought droves of horses, thus tied, out of Egypt. Rabbi Solomon Jarchi, in his comment on the parallel place, 2 Chronicles 1:14, says that מקוה mikveh signifies a collection or drove of horses, or what the Germans call stutte, a stud. He observes on that place, "That he has heard that there was a company of merchants in Egypt, who bought horses from the Egyptians at a certain price, on condition that no person should be permitted to bring a horse out of Egypt but through them." Houbigant supposes the place to be corrupt, and that for מקוה mikveh we should read mercabah, chariots: "And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and chariots; and the king's merchants received the chariots at a price: and a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver," c. This makes a very good and consistent sense but none of the versions acknowledged it, nor is there any various reading here in any of the MSS. yet collated. If we understand it of thread, it may refer to the byssus or fine flax for which Egypt was famous; but I do not see on what authority we translate it linen thread. Bochart's opinion appears to me the most probable, as the text now stands; but the charge contended for by Houbigant makes the text far more simple and intelligible.

28. And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt] The first clause of the verse ends here according to the Hebrew punctuation, and this appears to be a general statement, of which the particulars are given in what follows. But the literal rendering is ‘and the export of horses which was to Solomon (was) from Egypt;’ and this the R.V. represents by And the horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt.and linen yarn] The word (ξχεδ) mikveh so translated, is derived from a verb which implies ‘a stringing together,’ and a kindred noun (ϊχεδ) tikvah, is used (Joshua 2:18) for the line of scarlet cord which Rahab was ordered to bind in her window. From this connexion the rendering of the A.V. is derived. But the word in the text is used for gathering together in other senses, and here seems to be intended for ‘a string of horses,’ which sense the R.V. has represented by ‘a drove.’ The word occurs twice over and must have the same sense in both places of the same verse. The whole is rendered in R.V. and the king’s merchants received them in droves, each drove at a price. The Hebrew pointing represents the word ξχεδ in a form which may be considered in construction, though it need not necessarily be so. Hence some have given a double meaning to the word, referringit in the first place to the caravan of merchants, and only in the second place to the string of horses. The rendering then would be ‘And a company of the king’s merchants received a (each) drove of horses at a price.’ But it appears harsh to give two senses to the same word in the same verse. What appears to be meant is that the king’s representatives dealt wholesale with the Egyptian breeders, contracting to take so many horses for a stipulated sum; afterwards they brought the droves away, and disposed of them, as retailers, and hence secured for king Solomon a considerable revenue by the profits. The Vulgate takes the word ‘Mikveh’ ‘a drove’ as being a proper name preceded by a preposition, and renders ‘and from Coa.’ The LXX. has done something of the same kind, but has taken the word as ‘Tekoa’ καὶἐκΘεκουέ.

The word translated “linen yarn” is thought now by Hebraists to mean “a troop” or “company.” If the present reading is retained, they would translate the passage - “As for the bringing up of

28. Solomon had horses brought — More literally, As to the bringing of the horses of Solomon out of Egypt. In importing horses from Egypt Solomon further broke the Divine commandment. Deuteronomy 17:16.