1 Kings 10:1

1 Kings 10:1-13. The Queen of Sheba's visit to King Solomon (2 Chronicles 9:1-12)

1. Now when the queen of Sheba heard The -Sheba", of which the queen is here mentioned, was that part of Arabia spoken of in the note on the last verse of the preceding chapter. It embraced the greater part of Arabia Felix. Josephus and many Jewish writers represent her as the queen of Egypt and Ethiopia, making שׁבא (Sheba) the same as סבא (Seba), and this tradition is firmly rooted among the Abyssinians (i.e. Ethiopians), but there is no ground at all for identifying Sheba with the Ethiopian kingdom of Seba. Moreover the presents which the queen brought with her bespeak the land from which she came. They are Arabian, certainly not African.

concerning the name of the Lord From the expressions so frequent in chap. 8. about -a house built for the nameof the Lord God of Israel" (see 1 Kings 8:17-20; 1Ki 8:29; 1 Kings 8:35; 1 Kings 8:43-44; 1 Kings 8:48) we may be sure that wherever the grand building was mentioned, there would be heard something about the name of Him to whose honour it was built. In like manner, at an earlier date, the people of Israel were known among other nations -because of the name of the Lord." See Joshua 9:9, where the Gibeonites say -we have heard the fame of Him, and all that He did in Egypt." Through caravans travelling hither and thither there can be little doubt that knowledge of Solomon's works was widely spread, and communication with the Sabæans was a matter of no great difficulty. In the parallel passage (2 Chronicles 9:1) there is nothing said about -the name of the Lord"; the LXX. has -she had heard the name of Solomon andthe name of the Lord."

Some interpreters take the expression -concerning the name of the Lord" to signify that the wisdom which Solomon had was derived from the Lord, and this made him famous. Some countenance is given to this opinion by the questions wherewith the queen essayed to test his wisdom, but it does not so well connect itself with -the name."

she came to prove him with hard questions Josephus (Ant. viii. 6. 5) says -she could not trust to hearsay, for the report might have been built upon false judgement, and might change, as it depended solely upon the persons who brought it." The -proving with hard questions" recalls the story of Samson's riddle (Judges 14:12). The giving of such riddles was not an uncommon pastime among the ancients, and we have specimens among the Greeks, who called them γρῖφοι. Cf. Aristoph. Vesp. 20, and especially Athenæus 10. 69 78, where the author gives an account of the various kinds of riddles, and later in chap. 83 gives specimens of them. The Arabs were specially given to this kind of amusement, and we find in Josephus (Ant. viii. 5. 3) an account of a contest of wit of this nature between Hiram and Solomon, and he reports, on the authority of Dios, that a reason for Hiram's large payments to Solomon was that he had been beaten in the encounter and unable to solve the riddles propounded. The queen of Sheba came prepared with a series of such difficulties. Josephus says she came λῦσαι τὸ ἄπορον τῆς διανοίας δεηθεῖσα, which would indicate more than mere subtle questions among the inquiries which she made. It does not follow, however, that her difficulties were of a religious character, though this has been inferred from Matthew 12:42.