The Queen of Sheba

In context

When the building is done, the Lord appears to Solomon a second time, with a promise and a warning: if Solomon walks before him “as David your father walked,” his throne will last; if he or his children turn to other gods, Israel will be cut off from the land (1 Kings 9:1–9). Solomon gives Hiram twenty towns in Galilee, which Hiram calls Cabul, a name that sounds like “good-for-nothing” (9:10–13); 2 Chronicles says instead that Huram gave Solomon towns (2 Chronicles 8:2). Solomon builds cities, puts the peoples left in the land to forced labor, and sends ships from the Red Sea to Ophir for gold (1 Kings 9:15–28).

The queen of Sheba comes with camels carrying spices, gold and precious stones, “to test him with hard questions” (10:1–2). Seeing it all, she says, “not even half was told me,” and blesses the Lord, who “loved Israel forever” (10:7, 9). Jesus later calls her the Queen of the South, who “came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon” (Matthew 12:42).

Gold pours in, 666 talents a year (about 20 metric tons), besides trade and tribute. Solomon makes shields of beaten gold and an ivory throne with twelve lions on its six steps, and silver is “as common as stones in Jerusalem” (1 Kings 10:14–27).