Solomon
(peaceful). I. Early life and occasion to the throne .—Solomon was the child of David’s old age, the last born of all his
sons. (1 Chronicles 3:5) The yearnings of the “man of war” led him to give to the new-horn infant the name of Solomon (Shelomoth, the peaceful one).
Nathan, with a marked reference to the meaning of the king’s own name (David, the darling, the beloved one), calls the infant
Jedidiah (Jedid’yah), that is, the darling of the Lord. (2 Samuel 11:24,25) He was placed under the care of Nathan from his earliest infancy. At first, apparently, there was no distinct purpose to
make him the heir. Absalom was still the king’s favorite son, (2 Samuel 13:37; 18:33) and was looked on by the people as the destined successor. (2 Samuel 14:13; 15:1-6) The death of Absalom when Solomon was about ten years old left the place vacant, and David pledged his word in secret to
Bath-sheba that he, and no other, should be the heir. (1 Kings 1:13) The words which were spoken somewhat later express, doubtless, the purpose which guided him throughout. (1 Chronicles 28:9; 20) His son’s life should not he as his own had been, one of hardships and wars, dark crimes and passionate repentance, but,
from first to last, be pure, blameless, peaceful, fulfilling the ideal of glory and of righteousness after which he himself
had vainly striven. The glorious visions of (Psalms 72:1) ... may be looked on as the prophetic expansion of these hopes of his old age. So far, all was well. Apparently his influence
over his son’s character was one exclusively for good. Nothing that we know of Bath-sheba lends us to think of her as likely
to mould her son’s mind and heart to the higher forms of goodness. Under these influences the boy grew up. At the age of ten
or eleven he must have passed through the revolt of Absalom, and shared his father’s exile. (2 Samuel 15:16) He would be taught all that priests or Levites or prophets had to teach. When David was old and feeble, Adonijah, Solomon’s
older brother attempted to gain possession of the throne; but he was defeated, and Solomon went down to Gihon and was proclaimed
and anointed king. A few months more and Solomon found himself, by his father’s death, the sole occupant of the throne. The
position to which he succeeded was unique. Never before, and never after, did the kingdom of Israel take its place among the
great monarchies of the East. Large treasures, accumulated through many years, were at his disposal. II. Personal appearance
.—Of Solomon’s personal appearance we have no direct description, as we have of the earlier kings. There are, however, materials
for filling up the gap. Whatever higher mystic meaning may be latent in (Psalms 45:1) ... or the Song of Songs, we are all but compelled to think of them us having had at least a historical starting-point.
They tell of one who was, in the eyes of the men of his own time, “fairer than the children of men,” the face “bright, and
ruddy” as his father’s, (Song of Solomon 5:10; 1 Samuel 17:42) bushy locks, dark as the raven’s wing, yet not without a golden glow, the eyes soft as “the eyes of cloves,” the “countenance
as Lebanon excellent as the cedars,” “the chiefest among ten thousand, the altogether lovely.” (Song of Solomon 5:13-18) Add
to this all gifts of a noble, far-reaching intellect large and ready sympathies, a playful and genial humor, the lips “full
of grace,” and the soul “anointed” as “with the oil of gladness,” (Psalms 45:1) ... and we may form some notion of what the king was like in that dawn of his golden prime. III. Reign .—All the data for
a continuous history that we have of Solomon’s reign are— (a) The duration of the reign, forty sears, B.C. 1015-975. (1 Kings 11:4) (b) The commencement of the temple in the fourth, its completion in the eleventh, year of his reign. (1 Kings 6:1,37,38) (c) The commencement of his own palace in the seventh, its completion in the twentieth, year. (1 Kings 7:1; 2 Chronicles 8:1) (d) The conquest of Hamath-zobah, and the consequent foundation of cities in the region of north Palestine after the twentieth
year. (2 Chronicles 8:1-6) IV. Foreign policy .—
- Egypt. The first act of the foreign policy of the new reign must have been to most Israelites a very startling one. He made
affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, by marrying his daughter (1 Kings 3:1) The immediate results were probably favorable enough. The new queen brought with her as a dowry the frontier city of Gezer.
But the ultimate issue of alliance showed that it was hollow and impolitic.
- Tyre. The alliance with the Phoenician king rested on a somewhat different footing. It had been a part of David’s policy from
the beginning of his reign. Hiram had been “ever a lover of David.” As soon as he heard of Solomon’s accession he sent ambassadors
to salute him. A correspondence passed between the two kings, which ended in a treaty of commerce. The opening of Joppa as
a port created a new coasting-trade, and the materials from Tyre were conveyed to that city on floats, and thence to Jerusalem.
(2 Chronicles 2:16) In return for these exports, the Phoenicians were only too glad to receive the corn and oil of Solomon’s territory. The
results of the alliance did not end here. Now, for the first time in the history of the Jews, they entered on a career as
a commercial people.
- The foregoing were the two most important to Babylon alliances. The absence of any reference to Babylon and Assyria, and the
fact that the Euphrates was recognized as the boundary of Solomon’s kingdom, (2 Chronicles 9:26) suggests the inference that the Mesopotamian monarchies were at this time comparatively feeble. Other neighboring nations
were content to pay annual tribute in the form of gifts. (2 Chronicles 9:28)
- The survey of the influence exercised by Solomon on surrounding nations would be incomplete if we were to pass over that which
was more directly personal the fame of his glory and his wisdom. Wherever the ships of Tarshish went, they carried with them
the report, losing nothing in its passage, of what their crews had seen and heard. The journey of the queen of Sheba, though
from its circumstances the most conspicuous, did not stand alone. V. Internal history .—
- The first prominent scene in Solomon’s reign is one which presents his character in its noblest aspect. God in a vision having
offered him the choice of good things he would have, he chose wisdom in preference to riches or honor or long life. The wisdom
asked for was given in large measure, and took a varied range. The wide world of nature, animate and inanimate, the lives
and characters of men, lay before him, and he took cognizance of all but the highest wisdom was that wanted for the highest
work, for governing and guiding, and the historian hastens to give an illustration of it. The pattern-instance is, in all
its circumstances, thoroughly Oriental. (1 Kings 3:16-28)
- In reference to the king’s finances, the first impression of the facts given us is that of abounding plenty. Large quantities
of the precious metals were imported from Ophir and Tarshish. (1 Kings 9:28) All the kings and princes of the subject provinces paid tribute in the form of gifts, in money and in kind, “at a fixed
rate year by year.” (1 Kings 10:25) Monopolies of trade contributed to the king’s treasury. (1 Kings 10:28,29) The total amount thus brought into the treasury in gold, exclusive of all payments in kind, amounted to 666 talents. (1 Kings 10:14)
- It was hardly possible, however, that any financial system could bear the strain of the king’s passion for magnificence. The
cost of the temple was, it is true, provided for by David’s savings and the offerings of the people; but even while that was
building, yet more when it was finished one structure followed on another with ruinous rapidity. All the equipment of his
court, the “apparel” of his servants was on the same scale. A body-guard attended him, “threescore valiant men,” tallest and
handsomest of the sons of Israel. Forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen made up the
measure of his magnificence. (1 Kings 4:26) As the treasury became empty, taxes multiplied and monopolies became more irksome.
- A description of the temple erected by Solomon is given elsewhere. After seven years and the work was completed and the day
came to which all Israelites looked back as the culminating glory of their nation.
- We cannot ignore the fact that even now there were some darker shades in the picture. He reduced the “strangers” in the land,
the remnant of the Canaanite races, to the state of helots, and made their life “bitter with all hard bondage.” One hundred
and fifty-three thousand, with wives and children in proportion, were torn from their homes and sent off to the quarries and
the forests of Lebanon. (1 Kings 5:15; 2 Chronicles 2:17,18) And the king soon fell from the loftiest height of his religious life to the lowest depth. Before long the priests and prophets
had to grieve over rival temples to Molech, Chemosh, Ashtaroth and forms of ritual not idolatrous only, but cruel, dark, impure.
This evil came as the penalty of another. (1 Kings 11:1-8) He gave himself to “strange women.” He found himself involved in a fascination which led to the worship of strange gods.
Something there was perhaps in his very “largeness of heart,” so far in advance of the traditional knowledge of his age, rising
to higher and wider thoughts of God, which predisposed him to it. In recognizing what was true in other forms of faith, he
might lose his horror at what was false. With this there may have mingled political motives. He may have hoped, by a policy
of toleration, to conciliate neighboring princes, to attract larger traffic. But probably also there was another influence
less commonly taken into account. The widespread belief of the East in the magic arts of Solomon is not, it is believed, without
its foundation of truth. Disasters followed before long as the natural consequence of what was politically a blunder as well
as religiously a sin. VI. His literary works.—little remains out of the songs, proverbs, treatises, of which the historian
speaks. (1 Kings 4:32,33) Excerpts only are given from the three thousand proverbs. Of the thousand and five songs we know absolutely nothing. His
books represent the three stages of his life. The Song of Songs brings before us the brightness of his -youth. Then comes
in the book of Proverbs, the stage of practical, prudential thought. The poet has become the philosopher, the mystic has passed
into the moralist; but the man passed through both stages without being permanently the better for either. They were to him
but phases of his life which he had known and exhausted, (Ecclesiastes 1:1; Ecclesiastes 2:1) ... and therefore there came, its in the confessions of the preacher, the great retribution.