1 Kings 10:22-29

B. SOLOMON'S OTHER WEALTH 10:22-29

TRANSLATION

(22) For the king had a Tarshish fleet in the sea with the fleet of Hiram; once in three years the Tarshish fleet came, bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes and baboons. (23) So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for wealth and wisdom. (24) And all the earth sought the face of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart. (25) And each one brought his presentvessels of silver and vessels of gold, garments, and myrrh and spices, horses and mules at an annual rate. (26) And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen, and he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen; and he stationed[283] them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. (27) And the king made silver in Jerusalem like stones, and cedar trees he made abundant to be like sycamore trees which are in the lowland. (28) And the horses which Solomon had were exported from Egypt and from Keveh; the king's traders got them from Kevah at a certain price. (29) And a chariot came up and went out from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver and a horse for a hundred fifty shekels; and thus for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Aram by their hand they were brought out.

[283] The Hebrew text reads literally, and he led them. The reading and he stationed them is supported by Chronicles and by the ancient versions.

COMMENTS

The term Tarshish fleet used by the author of Kings is explained by the Chronicler as meaning ships going to Tarshish (2 Chronicles 9:21). Tarshish in several Old Testament texts is a place far from Palestine, probably on the Atlantic coast of Spain.[284] It was to Tarshish that Jonah was attempting to flee when he first rejected the divine commission to preach in Nineveh (Jonah 1:3; Jonah 4:2). Just as Ophir was the gold-land of the Bible, the land of Tarshish was noted for its silver. According to Ezekiel the Phoenicians traded with Tarshish and secured from thence silver, iron, tin and lead (Ezekiel 27:12). Jeremiah also alludes to silver from Tarshish (Jeremiah 10:9). The Tarshish fleet operated on a lengthy schedule away from its home port. On its three-year trips to distant lands, this fleet, like the Ophir fleet, brought back various exotic products. The gold and silver were secured in Tarshish; the apes, baboons[285] and ivory were available through the trading colonies along the coast of Africa.

[284] Stieglitz, MAAI, p. 75.
[285] Commentaries frequently assert that the words translated apes and baboons are of Indian origin. W. E. Clarke, an acknowledged expert in Sanskrit, has serious reservations about this assertion. See AJSL, XXXVI (1920), pp. 103ff. W. F. Albright argues for the Egyptian origin of these words. See ARI, p. 212.

This Tarshish fleet is probably to be distinguished from the Ophir fleet of 1 Kings 9:26-28 and 1 Kings 10:11. The cargo and schedule of the two fleets are different.[286] It is not clear which port this Tarshish fleet used as home base. If this fleet was based at Ezion-geber, then it could have sailed to Tarshish by circumnavigating Africa.[287] It seems best, however, to think of the Tarshish fleet as being based at some Mediterranean port.

[286] Keil and most commentators insist that the fleet mentioned in 1 Kings 10:22 is the same as the fleet mentioned in 1 Kings 9:26-28. The term Tarshish fleet is then taken to be a general name for all large, ocean-going ships or merchant vessels. That the term can have this meaning is clear from 1 Kings 22:48, Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir. However, 2 Chronicles 9:21 proves that Tarshish in reference to Solomon'S-' fleet is a geographical designation. Tuck (FTK, p. 146) and William Smith (OTH, p. 525) support the view that Solomon had two fleets.

[287] Circumnavigation of Africa, while not demonstrable for the tenth century, was certainly not technically impossible at that time. Cf. Stieglitz, MAAI, p. 156.

Solomon's Tarshish fleet is said to have been with the fleet of Hiram (1 Kings 10:22). This expression might be taken to mean that both Solomon and Hiram had navies sailing the Mediterranean Sea. On the other hand, the fleet of Hiram may refer to those ships which sailed out of the port of Ezion-geber bound for Ophir. The Red Sea fleet was Hiram's in the sense that he had supplied the ships to Solomon as well as the crews to man them (2 Chronicles 8:18). Interpreted in this way, the phrase with the fleet of Hiram confirms the opinion already advanced that Solomon had two naval operationsone on the Red Sea and one on the Mediterranean Sea. Primarily because of this extensive maritime activity Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in wealth as well as wisdom (1 Kings 10:23).

The fame of Solomon spread throughout the ancient Near East. Dignitaries from all over the civilized world came to Jerusalem to hear the wisdom of the man so richly endowed of God (1 Kings 10:24). These visitors bestowed upon Solomon luxurious presents including gold and silver vessels, garments, arms, spices and riding animals. The concluding phrase of 1 Kings 10:25 is difficult. The annual rate (lit., the matter of a year in his year) suggests that at least some of those who visited Solomon were tributaries who brought with them their annual assessment.

The closing verses of chapter 10 continue to offer convincing evidence of Solomon's glory. In contravention of Deuteronomy 17:16 Solomon multiplied to himself horses. His force of fourteen hundred chariots would appear to have been maintained largely for the sake of pomp and display. The chariot is of little tactical value in the hilly terrain of Palestine and, furthermore, Solomon's reign was peaceful and hence did not necessitate such a large force. Even in time of war, David only retained for himself a tenth of the thousand chariots he captured from a Syrian king (1 Chronicles 18:4). Solomon was determined in every way and at any cost to rival and surpass all contemporary kings. The maintenance of twelve thousand cavalry troops is further indication of Solomon's materialistic disposition. The various chariot and cavalry units were stationed throughout the land (cf. 1 Kings 9:19) as well as in Jerusalem, the royal residence (1 Kings 10:26).

In an obvious hyperbole the author declares that during the reign of Solomon, silver became as common as ordinary stones which cover the environs of Jerusalem. The highly valued cedar wood, imported from Phoenicia, became as common as the much less prestigious sycamore wood which heretofore, it would appear, had been used for building purposes. These trees grew profusely in the Shephelah, that region of rolling hills which separates the mountains of Judah from the coastal plains (1 Kings 10:27). The sycamore is a large, well-rooted spreading tree which bears an inferior kind of fig. The sycamore tree was considered so important under the reign of David that a royal supervisor was appointed over the olive trees and the sycamore trees in the Shephelah (1 Chronicles 27:28). The prophet Amos was engaged in cultivating these trees for their fruit at the time God called him to the prophetic office (Amos 7:14).

The last two verses of chapter 10 describe still another source of revenue for Solomon's coffershis monopolistic control of chariot and horse trading. Solomon secured horses from Egypt[288] and from Keveh[289] (Kue, NASB), the Hebrew name for Cilicia in Asia Minor. Cilicia in ancient times was the source of good horses for foreign countries. It is also known that the Egyptians, during this period, imported wood from Syria in order to manufacture chariots.[290] Since Solomon controlled all the important trade routes from Cilicia and Egypt to Syria, he seems to have held a virtual monopoly on the horse and chariot trade in this region of the world. Thus, the Neo-Hittite[291] and Aramean kings to the north depended upon Solomon for Egyptian chariots, while the Egyptians and others depended on him for Cilician horses. Solomon, as the middleman in this lucrative trade, no doubt made a handsome profit for himself. It is not known what the original prices were, but the established rate of exchange was a hundred fifty shekels ($100 BV) for one Cilician horse, and for one Egyptian chariot six hundred shekels ($400 BV).

[288] Many modern scholars think that a northern Egypt in Anatolia is intended. This theory, however, has been convincingly refuted by H. Tadmor, IEJ, II (1961), 143ff.

[289] Not linen yarn as in KJV. A few older commentators and all modern ones recognize the Hebrew word as a proper noun. Both the Septuagint and the Vulgate versions rendered it as a proper noun.

[290] Finley, BBC, p. 389.
[291] The term Hittite probably denotes the descendants of the great feudal lords who ruled districts there during the Hittite ascendancy and who had asserted their independence on the collapse of the Hittite empire about 1200 B.C. Gray, OTL, p. 250.