080. LVI. Solomon’s Policy And Fame
§ LVI. SOLOMON’S POLICY AND FAME 1 Kings 2:12-46; 1 Kings 4:1-23; 1 Kings 3:1; 1 Kings 9:16-17; 1 Kings 3:4-23; 1 Kings 10:1-13
1. Adonijah’s solicitations for Abishag. Now Solomon sat upon the throne of David his father and his kingdom was firmly established. Then Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon and bowed before her. And she said, Do you come in a friendly manner? And he replied, Yes, and added, I have something to say to you. And she said, Speak. And he said, You know that the kingdom was mine and that all Israel looked upon me as the coming king, but now the kingdom has been taken away from me and has become my brother’s, for it was his from Jehovah. Now, however, I would ask one thing of you; do not refuse me. And she said to him, Speak. And he said, Then request Solomon the king—he will not refuse you—to give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife. And Bathsheba said, Good, I will speak for you to the king.
2. Solomon’s indignation. Bathsheba went therefore to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her and bowed before her, and sat down on his throne, and a seat was placed for the king’s mother, and she sat on his right. Then she said, I would make a small request of you; do not refuse me. And the king said to her, Make your request, my mother, for I will not refuse you. And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife. Then King Solomon answered and said I to his mother, Why then do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also! for he is my elder brother, and on his side are Abiathar the priest and Joab the son of Zeruiah.
3. Execution of Adonijah. Thereupon King Solomon swore by Jehovah, saying, God do to me whatever he pleaseth, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life. Now therefore as Jehovah liveth, who hath established me and caused me to mount the throne of David my father, and who hath, as he promised, given me posterity, Adonijah shall surely be put to death this day. Then King Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he struck him down, so that he died.
4. Banishment of Abiathar. And to Abiathar the priest the king said, Go to Anathoth to your estate; for you are to-day condemned to die, but I will not put you to death, because you bore the ark of Jehovah before David my father and because you shared all I the afflictions which my father experienced. Thus Solomon sent away Abiathar, so that he was no longer Jehovah’s priest.
5. Joab’s bloody end. But when the report came to Joab—for Joab had upheld Adonijah, and had not upheld Absalom—Joab fled to the tent of Jehovah, and caught hold of the horns of the altar. And it was told King Solomon, Joab has fled to the tent of Jehovah and is there beside the altar. Thereupon Solomon sent to Joab, saying, How comes it that you have fled to the altar? Joab replied, Because I was afraid of you and so I fled to Jehovah. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, strike him down. And Benaiah went to the tent of Jehovah and said to him, The king commands, ‘Come forth.’ But he said, No; I will rather die here. And Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, Thus said Joab and thus he answered me. And the king said to him, Do as he has said: strike him down and bury him, that you may take away the innocent blood which Joab shed from me and from my father’s clan. And Jehovah will requite his bloody act upon his own head, because he struck down two men more honorable and better than he, and slew them with the sword without the knowledge of my father David: Abner the son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah. So shall their blood come back upon the head of Joab and the head of his descendants forever; but to David, and to his descendants, and to his house, and to his throne may there be peace forever from Jehovah. Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and struck him down and slew him; and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness. And the king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his place over the army, and the king put Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar.
6. Shimei’s sentence. Then the king summoned Shimei and said to him, Build a house in Jerusalem, there you may live, but you shall not go forth from there to any place whatever. For as soon as you go away and cross the Brook Kidron, know for certain that you shall surely die; your blood shall be upon your own head. And Shimei said to the king, The statement is fair; Your servant will do as my lord the king has said. And Shimei lived in Jerusalem a long time.
7. Shimei’s fate. But at the end of three years, two of Shimei’s slaves ran away to Achish son of Maacah king of Gath. And when it was reported to Shimei, Your slaves are in Gath, Shimei rose and saddled his ass and went to Gath to Achish to seek his slaves. And Shimei went and brought his slaves from Gath. And it was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had come back again. Then the king summoned Shimei, and said to him, Did I not cause you to take an oath by Jehovah and solemnly admonish you, saying, ‘Know for certain that as soon as you go away to any place whatever, you shall surely die’? And you said to me, ‘The statement is fair.’ Why then have you not kept the oath of Jehovah and the command that I laid upon you? The king also said to Shimei, You are aware of all the wickedness which you yourself alone know, that you did to David my father; now Jehovah hath brought your wickedness upon your own head. But King Solomon shall be blessed and the throne of David shall be established before Jehovah forever. So the king gave command to Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck him down, and thus he died. So the kingdom was brought completely under the control of Solomon.
8. Solomon’s court officials. Now Solomon was king over all Israel. And these were the princes whom he had: Azariah the son of Zadok was priest; Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, were scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was chancellor; and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was the head of the army; and Azariah the son of Nathan was at the head of the officers; and Zabud the son of Nathan was a priest and the king’s friend; and Ahishar was prefect of the palace; and Adoniram the son of Abda was in charge of the forced levy.
9. Commissary officers. And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household: each man had to make provision for a month in the year. And these are their names: Ben-hur, in the hill-country of Ephraim; Ben-deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Bethshemesh, and Elonbeth-hanan; Ben-hesed, in Arubboth; to him belonged Socoh and all the land of Hepher; Ben-abinadab, in all the highland of Dor (he had Tapath the daughter of Solomon as wife); Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo and all Bethshean, which is beside Zarethan, beneath Jezreel, from Bethshean to Abel-meholah, as far as the other side of Jokneam; Ben-geber in Ramoth in Gilead; to him belonged the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and brazen bars; Ahinadab the son of Iddo in Mahanaim; Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also took Basemath the daughter of Solomon as wife); Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth; Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar; Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin; Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gad, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; and one officer was over all the officials who were in the land.
10. Amount of the provisions. And these officers provided food for King Solomon and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, each in his month. They let nothing be lacking. Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds they brought to the proper place—each according to his individual charge. And Solomon’s provision for one day was about six hundred bushels of fine flour, and about one thousand, two hundred bushels of meal, ten fat, and twenty meadow-fed oxen, and a hundred sheep, besides harts, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowls.
11. Alliance with Egypt. And Solomon allied himself by marriage with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had completed the building of his own palace and the temple of Jehovah and the wall around Jerusalem.
12. Capture of Gezer. Then Pharaoh king of Egypt went up, captured Gezer, and burnt it with fire, slew the Canaanites who dwelt in the city, and gave it as a portion to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. And Solomon rebuilt Gezer.
13. Solomon’s sacrifice. And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place; a thousand burnt-offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar.
14. His request for wisdom to rule justly. In Gibeon Jehovah appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said, Thou hast showed to thy servant David my father great kindness. And now, O Jehovah my God, thou hast made thy servant king in the place of David my father, although I am but a child, not knowing how to go out or come in. Give thy servant therefore an understanding mind to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this thy great people ?
15. Jehovah’s promise. And it pleased Jehovah that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said to him, Because thou hast asked this thing and hast not asked for thyself long life nor riches nor the life of thy enemies, but hast asked for thyself insight to discern justice; behold, I have done according to thy request: I have given thee a wise and discerning mind. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked: both riches and honor. And when Solomon awoke, behold it was a dream. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
16. An example of Solomon’s wisdom. Then two harlots came to the king and stood before him. And the one woman said, O, my lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house; and I was delivered of a child in her presence within the house. Now on the third day after I was delivered, this woman was also delivered and we were together, there being no one else with us in the house: we two being alone in the house. And this woman’s child died in the night, because she lay upon it. And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while your maid-servant slept, and laid it in her bosom and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning to nurse my child, there it was dead; but when I looked at it in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I had borne. Then the other woman said, No; but the living is my son, and the dead child is your son. And the first woman was saying, No; but the dead is your son and the living child is my son. Thus they contended before the king.
17. His sagacious decision. Then the king said, This one says, ‘This is my son, the living, and your son is the dead.’ And the other says, ‘No; but your son is the dead, and my son is the living!’ Thereupon the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, Divide the living child in two and give half to the one and half to the other. Then the woman to whom the living child belonged, spoke to the king—for her heart yearned over her son—and she said, O, my lord, give her the living child and on no account put it to death. But the other said, It shall be neither mine nor yours! Divide it! Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and on no account put it to death; she is his mother. And when all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered, they revered the king, for they saw that divine wisdom to execute justice was in him.
18. Impression made upon the queen of Sheba. Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon through the name of Jehovah, she came to test him with riddles. So she came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels that bore spices and very much gold and precious stones. And as soon as she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hid from the king which he could not answer her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his courtiers, the attendance of his waiters, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt-offering which he used to offer at the temple of Jehovah, there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, True was the report that I heard in my own land of your acts and of your wisdom. But I would not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes; the half was not told me; you exceed in wisdom and prosperity the report which I heard. Happy are your wives! Happy are these your courtiers who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom! Blessed be Jehovah your God who delighted in you and hath set you on the throne of Israel! Because Jehovah loved Israel forever, he hath made you king that you may do justice and righteousness. Then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold and a very great store of spices and precious stones; never again came so many spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
19. His gifts to her. And King Solomon gave to the queen all that she wished and asked, aside from that which she had brought to Solomon, according to his royal bounty. So she returned and went to her own land, together with her servants.
I. The Removal of Solomon’s Foes. Solomon’s policy was clearly revealed at the beginning of his reign. The occasion was the request of Adonijah that he be allowed to marry Abishag, the Shunammite, who had attended David in his old age. Bathsheba, to whom he appealed, evidently regarded it as an innocent request, for she at once presented it to her son Solomon. According to the custom of the East, a new monarch on his accession entered into the possession of the harem of his predecessor. Marriage with the wife of a deceased king was regarded as a step toward the throne. Thus Abner’s marriage with Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, was considered an act of treason by Ishbaal. A similar in terpretation was placed on Adonijah’s request. At Solomon’s command, Adonijah was forthwith put to death.
Adonijah’s supporters next became the victims of Solomon’s policy of absolutism. Abiathar, the descendant of Eli, who had shared David’s outlaw life, was deposed from the priesthood and banished from Jerusalem. Zadok and his family were established in that position at the head of the royal priesthood which they continued to hold for the next seven or eight hundred years. Even the right of altar asylum was denied the aged Joab. Beside the altar of Jehovah this aged warrior, who had been so blindly loyal to the interests of David and who had contributed more than any other to the building up of Israel’s prestige, was cut down as a common criminal, and Benaiah, the captain of the body-guard, was placed at the head of the army. Shemei the Benjamite was brought to Jerusalem under pledge that he would remain within the precincts of the city. When, in his eagerness to recover two runaway slaves, he broke his oath, Solomon showed no mercy, but caused to be slain by the sword the last of the foes of his house.
II. The Organization of Solomon’s Kingdom. The readiness with which Solomon, on the least pretext, put to death his foes indicates that he was determined to tolerate no rival. The methods which he employed to establish his absolute authority were those of the ordinary oriental despot. The same policy is apparent in the organization of his court. Few of the officials who had served under his father retained their office. The sons of Nathan, the prophet, who had been so active in securing Solomon’s accession, were assigned to high positions of trust. A prefect of the palace appears now for the first time among the court officials. Elaborate provisions were also made for the collection of the king’s tribute. In that minute description of Solomon’s policy which is placed by the later prophetic narrator of 1 Samuel 8:10-18 in the mouth of Samuel, it is stated that this tribute amounted to one-tenth of the entire product of the fields and vineyards and of the offspring of the flocks. Twelve officials, each charged with the task of collecting sufficient food to supply the royal court for one month, were placed in charge of the different districts of Northern Israel. The old tribal divisions were apparently disregarded. The absence of any reference to the territory of Judah suggests that perhaps this southern tribe, from which came the reigning dynasty, was exempted from taxation. The elaborate provisions, which were thus collected from his subjects, were required for the large and magnificent court which Solomon gathered about him. All this was in striking contrast to the simplicity of Saul, who lived quietly on his own family estates.
Solomon also allied himself by marriage with an Egyptian princess, who received as her marriage dowry the Canaanite town of Gezer, west of Jerusalem on the borders of the Philistine plain. Thus from the first it was evident that Solomon’s ambition was to take his place side by side with the other oriental rulers of southwestern Asia and to rival in magnificence the splendor of their courts. Doubtless, he also desired to open wide the doors of commerce to the civilization of that ancient world and to raise his subjects to a level with the surrounding peoples. In striving to accomplish these ends within the narrow limits of a generation he broke rudely with the traditions of the past, and disregarded those democratic instincts which the Hebrews had brought with them from the desert. In the pursuit of material splendor and power, he also neglected the simpler and nobler Hebrew ideals of the kingship. The result was that he who was called to be the servant of the people became their despotic master.
III. Solomon’s Wisdom. The magnificence of Solomon’s court in part blinded the eyes of his own and succeeding generations. Tradition has preserved the memory of the nobler aspirations of his earlier years. Keenness of observation and insight were regarded as the most desirable qualities that could be possessed by an ancient oriental monarch. A picturesque story has been handed down which illustrates this much-prized gift. To determine who was the actual mother of the child who was brought before him, he appealed to the universal mother instinct. Later oriental tradition has preserved many similar stories regarding Solomon. His reputation for wit and brilliance was in harmony with the magnificence and splendor of his court.
IV. The Wisdom of the Ancient East. The ancient Semitic East always paid a high tribute to native shrewdness and insight. Each town and tribe appears to have had its group of wise men or sages who were keen students of human nature and life. They were the repositories of the accumulative experience of their own and preceding generations. They were the counsellors of tribal chieftains and kings, the advisors of the people in deciding the various questions of life, and the teachers of the youths. Certain cities, and especially those like Teman, bordering on the Arabian desert, which appears to have been the native home of wisdom-teaching, were famous for their sages. The teaching of these ancient sages was ordinarily transmitted in the form of short, picturesque, often epigrammatic, proverbs. Sometimes like the wise woman of Tekoa, they employed the parable or fable. It is probable that they entertained the people at the wedding-feasts and festivals with riddles similar to those found in the thirtieth chapter of Proverbs.
V. Solomon’s Relation to the Hebrew Wisdom Literature. The book of Proverbs is the characteristic literary product of the wise men. A late Hebrew tradition asserts that Solomon was not only wiser than the wisest sages of Arabia and Egypt, but that he also uttered three thousand proverbs and five thousand songs. It is also stated that, not only did the queen of Sheba come from southern Arabia with rich gifts to admire the magnificence and wit of Solomon, but that representatives of many other nations came to hear his wisdom. Closely related to this late tradition is the statement in the superscription to the book of Proverbs which assigns the entire collection to him. Certain older superscriptions within the book of Proverbs—as, for example, Proverbs 22:17 and Proverbs 24:23—plainly indicate that the individual proverbs come from many different sages. The book of Proverbs is in fact a collection of collections. Many of them, such as those which commend monogamy and condemn the tyranny of a ruler, cannot come from Solomon. Most of them are written from the point of view of an ordinary citizen, rather than that of a ruler. It is probable, however, that Solomon did embody certain of the results of his keen observation in the form of proverbs. It is possible that some of these have been preserved to find a place in the Old Testament book of Proverbs. It was also natural that, as Solomon’s reputation for wisdom increased in succeeding generations, he should be regarded as the father of wisdom literature, even as Moses was of the law. In the same way the late Jewish book of Ecclesiastes is attributed to him, and a still later work, coming from not earlier than the first century before Christ, bears the title, Wisdom of Solomon.