The Queen of Sheba

What the Lord said here is much like what 2 Chronicles says he told Solomon after the house was dedicated. He had heard Solomon’s prayer and made the house holy, to put his name there forever. If Solomon lived his life in the Lord’s sight with an honest heart, as his father David had, and kept the Lord’s commands, then his throne over Israel would last forever. But if Solomon or his children turned away to serve other gods, the Lord would cut Israel off from the land he had given them and reject this house. Everyone passing by would be shocked and ask why the Lord had done this. And the answer would be: because they turned away from the Lord their God, who led their ancestors out of the land of Egypt. They served other gods instead.

Hiram came out from Tyre to look at the towns Solomon had given him, and they didn’t please him. “What sort of towns have you given me, my brother?” he said. He called them the land of Cabul, a name that sounds like the Hebrew for “good for nothing,” and that is their name to this day.

Hiram sent the king a hundred twenty talents of gold. A talent is about sixty-six pounds, so that was about four tons.

2 Chronicles calls the king of Tyre Huram. It says instead that Huram had given towns to Solomon, and that Solomon built them up and had Israelites live in them.

Pharaoh king of Egypt had marched against Gezer and captured it. He burned it down, killed the Canaanites living in the city, and gave it to his daughter, Solomon’s wife, as a wedding gift.

Solomon built up Gezer, Lower Beth Horon, Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness. He built all his storage cities, and cities for his chariots and for his horsemen. He built whatever he wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and all through the land he ruled.

2 Chronicles adds that Solomon went to Hamath Zobah and overpowered it, and that he built Tadmor in the wilderness and the storage cities in Hamath. It also says he built both Upper and Lower Beth Horon, as strong cities with walls and with gates that could be barred shut.

Some of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites were still left, peoples who did not belong to Israel. Their descendants were still living in the land. The Israelites had not been able to destroy them completely. Solomon made them slaves who did forced labor, and they still are to this day.

But Solomon made none of the Israelites slaves. They were his fighting men, his officials, his leaders and captains, and the men in charge of his chariots and his horsemen.

Five hundred fifty chief officers ran Solomon’s work and were in charge of the people who did the labor. 2 Chronicles counts two hundred fifty.

Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he built for the Lord, and burned incense with them on the altar in the Lord’s presence. So he finished the house.

2 Chronicles tells more. Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the Lord’s altar, which he had built in front of the porch. He offered what each day required, as Moses had commanded: on the Sabbaths, at the new moons, and at the three yearly feasts of Unleavened Bread, of Weeks and of Booths.

Solomon followed the rules his father David had laid down. He gave the priests their work, group by group, and gave the Levites their duties: to give praise, and to help the priests as each day required. He put the gatekeepers, group by group, at every gate, because David, the man of God, had commanded it. No one went against the king’s orders to the priests and Levites about anything, including the treasuries.

All Solomon’s work was now done, from the day the foundation of the Lord’s house was laid to the day it was finished. The Lord’s house was complete.

They went to Ophir and brought gold from there for King Solomon: four hundred twenty talents, about fourteen tons.

2 Chronicles says that Solomon went to Ezion Geber and Eloth, on the seashore, and that Huram had his men bring him ships, with sailors who knew the sea. They went with Solomon’s men to Ophir and brought back four hundred fifty talents of gold, about fifteen tons.

She came to Jerusalem with a very large caravan, with camels that carried spices, a great deal of gold, and precious stones. When she reached Solomon, she talked with him about all that was in her heart.

Solomon answered all her questions. Nothing she asked about was hidden from the king; he told her everything.

The queen of Sheba saw all of Solomon’s wisdom. She saw the house he had built, the food on his table, where his servants sat, how his officials served him and the clothes they wore, his cupbearers, and the way up that he took to the Lord’s house. She was left breathless.

“How happy your men are! How happy these officials of yours, who stand before you day after day and hear your wisdom!

“Praise the Lord your God, who delighted in you and set you on Israel’s throne. Because the Lord’s love for Israel lasts forever, he made you king, to do what is just and right.”

In 2 Chronicles she says that God set Solomon on God’s own throne, to be king for the Lord his God. God did this because he loved Israel, and to make them secure forever.

Hiram’s fleet, the ships that brought gold from Ophir, also brought great loads of almug wood and precious stones from Ophir. The king made pillars out of the almug wood for the Lord’s house and for the palace, and harps and other stringed instruments for the singers. No almug wood like it has come in or been seen to this day. (2 Chronicles calls it algum wood, says he made terraces of it, and says nothing like these had been seen before in the land of Judah.)

King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she wanted, whatever she asked, as well as what he gave her out of his royal generosity. 2 Chronicles says it was more than she had brought to the king. Then she and her servants went back to her own land.

King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold, with six hundred shekels of gold in each. A shekel is about a third of an ounce, so that was about thirteen pounds of gold to a shield. He also made three hundred shields of beaten gold, each with three minas of gold, about four pounds. (2 Chronicles says three hundred shekels, about six and a half pounds.) The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

The king also made a great throne of ivory and covered it with the finest gold. It had six steps, and its back was rounded at the top. The seat had armrests on either side, and two lions stood beside them. Twelve lions stood on the six steps, on both sides. No other kingdom ever made anything like it. 2 Chronicles adds a footstool of gold, fastened to the throne.

Every cup King Solomon drank from was gold, and all the dishes in the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were silver, because in Solomon’s day silver was thought to be worth little. That was because the king had a fleet of Tarshish ships at sea with Hiram’s fleet. Once every three years the Tarshish ships came in, bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks. (2 Chronicles says the king’s ships went to Tarshish with Huram’s servants.)

Year after year, each of them brought tribute: dishes of silver and of gold, clothing, armor, spices, horses and mules.

Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen. He had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, and he kept them in the chariot cities and with him in Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles speaks of four thousand stalls for horses and chariots.

2 Chronicles adds that he ruled over all the kings from the River to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt.

The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, and cedar wood as common as the sycamore trees of the lowland.

Solomon’s horses were brought out of Egypt. The king’s merchants bought them in herds, paying a price for each herd. A chariot was brought in from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, about thirteen pounds, and a horse for a hundred fifty, about three pounds. In this way they sold them on to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Syria. 2 Chronicles says his horses came out of Egypt and out of all lands.