85
The provision made was not only for the court and its dependants, but also for the royal stables (1 Kings
4:26-28), In verse 26 the number of his horses is by a clerical error given as 40,000 instead of 4,000 (comp. 2
Chronicles 9:25). If, according to 1 Kings 10:26, 2 Chronicles 1:14, Solomon had 1,400 chariots, each with two
horses, and with, in most of them, a third horse as reserve, we have the number 4,000.
86
It is difficult to give the exact equivalent of the "thirty measures of fine flour and threescore of meal" (in
all, ninety measures), 1 Kings 4:22. According to the calculation of the Rabbis (Bibl. Dict. vol. 3, p, 1742)
they would yield ninety-nine sacks of flour. Thenius (Studien u. Krit. for 1846, p. 73, etc.) calculates that
they would yield two pounds of bread for 14,000 persons. But this computation is exaggerated. On
competent authority I am informed that one bushel of flour makes up fourteen (four pound) loaves of bread;
consequently, one sack (four bushels) fifty-six loaves, or 224 pounds of bread. This for ninety-nine sacks
would give 22,176 pounds of bread, which at two pounds per person would supply 11,088 - or, with waste,
about 11,000 persons. Of this total amount of bread, the thirty-three sacks of "fine flour" - probably for court
use - would yield 1,848 loaves, or 7,392 pounds of bread. The number of persons fed daily at the court of the
kings of Persia is said to have been 15,000 (see Speaker's Comm., p. 502). Thenius further calculates that,
taken on an average, the thirty oxen and one hundred sheep would yield one and a half pounds of meat for
each of the 14,000 persons. At the court of Cyrus, the daily provision seems to have been, 400 sheep, 300
lambs, 100 oxen, 30 horses, 30 deer, 400 fatted geese, 100 young geese, 300 pigeons, 600 small fowls, 3,750
gallons of wine, 75 gallons of new milk, and 75 of sour milk (comp. Bahr in Lange's Bibel W., vol. 7. p. 29).
But here also the computation of Thenius seems too large, bearing in mind that cattle and sheep in the East
are much smaller than in the West.
87
We translate literally.
88
Comp. 1 Chronicles 2:6. Ethan, 1 Chronicles 6:44; 15:17, 19; Psalm 89 (inscr.) Heman, 1 Chronicles 6:33;
25:5; Psalm 88 (inscr.) Chalcol and Darda, sons of Mahol, perhaps "sacras choreas ducendi periti."
89
A hyperbole not uncommon in antiquity. I feel tempted here to quote the similar expression of Horace
(Odes, 1:28): "Te maris et terrae numeroque carentis arenae Mensorem cohibent, Archyta."
90
Of these "Proverbs" only 915 verses have been preserved in the Book of that name; of "the Songs,"
besides the Song of Songs, only Psalm 72 and 127.
91
The word rendered "hyssop" in the Authorized Version is either the mint, the marjoram, the Orthotricum
saxatile, or, according to Tristram (Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 457), the caper (Capparis spinosa).
92
Also written Hirom. (1 Kings 5:10, 18 - in the Hebrew, 4:24, 32), and in 2 Chronicles 2. Hura m.
93
Comp. the quotations in the Speaker's Comment. (2, p. 507a,)and Movers, Phoniz. 2, 1. pp. 86, etc.
94
Our Authorized Version translates wrongly, "stone-squarers" (1 Kings 5:18), where the original has
"Gebalites," i.e., inhabitants of Gebal.
95
There has been much controversy as to the meaning of the word berosh, rendered in the Authorized
Version (1 Kings 5:8, and many other passages) by "fir." Differing from Canon Rawlinson, it seems to me, for
many reasons, most improbable that it was "the junip er," and on the grounds explained in Gesenius'
Thesaurus 1. 946 b, 247 a, I regard it, with almost all authorities, as the cypress. The Targumim and the
Talmud have the words berotha and beratha, with apparently the same signification. Comp. Levy, Chald.
Worterb. 2 d. Targ. p. I I8 b. Canon Tristram, who is always trustworthy (Nat. Hist. of the Bible), speaks of it
with caution.