146
From this passage Bahr and others have concluded that the Tarshish fleet of King Solomon went to
Ophir; but the inference is incorrect.
147
The Hebrew terms are not easy to render. Most critics have, by a slight alteration, translated them "ivory,
ebony." But Keil and Bahr have shown that this rendering is not sufficiently supported.
148
See Sir Edward Strachey's very thoughtful book on Hebrew Politics in the Times of Sargon and
Sennacherib, p. 200.
149
These shields were made of wood or of twisted material, and covered with gold, the amount of the latter
being calculated for the targets at 91bs., and for the smaller shields at 4_ lbs (Keil).
150
1 Kings 10:14 does not necessarily imply that this was the annual revenue, only that it came to him in one
year. The 666 talents may perhaps be a round sum.
151
Our Authorized Version renders 1 Kings 10:28 "linen yarn," but this is a mistranslation for: "And the
bringing out of horses which was for Solomon from Egypt - and the troop of the merchants of the king
brought a troop (of horses) for a (definite) price." This would imply that there was a regular trading company
which purchased the horses by contract. But the text seems to be here corrupt, and the LXX render, "From
Egypt and from Koa" (doubtfully Thekoa), and that "the royal merchants fetched them from Koa for a
definite price." In this case there would seem to have been annual horse fairs at Koa, at which the royal
merchants bought at a contract price.
152
The price mentioned in 1 Kings 10:29 amounts (according to Keil) for a chariot - of course, complete, with
two or rather three horses, to £78, and for a (cavalry) horse, to £19 10s.
153
Accordingly the story of the descent of the Ethiopian royal line from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
must be dismissed as unhistorical, although Judaism may have spread into Ethiopia from the opposite
shores of Arabia.
154
Without here entering on a detailed criticism of the precise meaning of the Hebrew expression leShem
Jehovah ("to the name of Jehovah"), our inference from it can scarcely be called in question.
155
Our Authorized Version renders "hard questions" - accurately as regards the import, but not the literal
meaning of the word. Josephus relates, on the authority of Dius and Menander, some curious legends about
"problems" propounded by Solomon to Hiram, which the latter could not solve, and had to pay heavy fines
in consequence, - a like fate, however, overtaking Solomon in regard to the problems propounded to him by
Abdemon (Ag. Ap. 1. 17, 18). The love of the Easterns - especially the Arabs - for "riddles" is well known.
156
So literally.
157
So literally.
158
Bahr g ives a number of instances, both from ancient and modern history, of far larger harems than that
ascribed to Solomon.
159
Properly speaking, only Canaanite women were excluded by the Law (Exodus 34:11-16; Deuteronomy 7:1-
3). But alliance with those of other nations was contrary to the spirit of the law, at any rate so long as they
continued idolaters. Comp. Ezra 9:1; Nehemiah 13:23. There is a legend that Solomon married a daughter of
Hiram, king of Tyre.