Frederic Farrar - The Expositor's Bible - The First Book of Kings

It was sufficiently sanctioned by Exod. xx. 24, and Jerusalem was not yet chosen (Deut. xii. 13, 14). See Judg. vi. 24, xiii. 19; 1 Sam. ix. 12, etc. This seems to have been the last great sacrifice there. In 1 Kings iii. 5-15 the sacrifice is regarded with approval; in verses 2, 3 it is condemned, but excused by circumstances; in the verses inserted by the chronicler (2 Chron. i. 3-6) it is said that the Tabernacle was there.

See 1 Sam. xxii. 17-19.

Herod., vii. 43. Xerxes offered one thousand at Troy, and Crœsus three thousand at Delphi ( Id. , i. 50).

Hence, perhaps, the LXX. rendering of Δήλωσις καὶ Ἀλήθεια. This view is accepted by Hengstenberg ( Egypt and the Five Books of Moses , chap. vi.), and Kalisch (on Exod. xxviii. 31).

Arist., Eth. Nic. , i. 13: "βελτίω τὰ φαντάσματα τῶν ἐπιεικῶν ἢ τῶν τυχόντων."

Bishop Hall.

"Εὔδουσα γὰρ φρὴν ὄμμασιν λαμπρύνεται." – Æsch., Eum. , 104.

Ecclus. xv. 16, 17.

Emerson.

The phrase "a little child" (comp. Jer. i. 6) hardly bears on his actual age. See Gen. xliii. 8; Exod. xxxiii. 11. It is proverbial like the subsequent phrase, for which see Deut. xxviii. 6; Psalm cxxi. 8, etc.

Heb., "A hearing heart." LXX., "A heart to hear and judge Thy people in righteousness." In 2 Chron. i. 10, "Wisdom and knowledge."

Matt. vi. 33.

Josephus ( Antt. , VIII. vii. 8) makes him die at ninety-four, and become king at fourteen. Perhaps he mistook μ' for π' in the LXX.

Psalm cxxvii. 2 (uncertain).

1 Sam. viii. 6, 20; 2 Sam. xv. 4. "To rule was with the ancients the synonym of to judge." Artemidorus, Oneirocr. , ii. 14. (Bähr, ad loc. ).

Compare the Phœnician's Suffetes (Liv.).

As instances of the lower sense in which the term "wisdom" was applied, see 2 Sam. xiii. 3 (Jonadab); xiv. 2 (the woman of Tekoa); xx. 16 (the woman of Abel of Beth-maachah).

The Rabbis call them "innkeepers," as they call Rahab.

I follow the not improbable additional details given by Josephus from tradition.

יֵלֶד. LXX., παιδίον.

So the Greek version, which represents the clause rightly. Tradition narrates a yet earlier specimen of Solomon's wisdom. Some sheep had strayed into a pasture. The owner of the land demanded reparation. David said that to repay his loss he might keep the sheep. "No," said Solomon, who was but eleven years old, "let him keep them only till their wool, milk, and lambs have repaid the damage; then let him restore them to their owner." David admitted that this was the more equitable judgment, and he adopted it. See The Qur'an, Sura xxi. 79 (Palmer's Qur'an, ii. 52).

The parallel is adduced by Grotius.

Quoted by Bähr.

Suet., Claud. , 15.

For references to animals, etc., see Prov. vi. 6, xxiv. 30-34, xxx. 15-19, 24-31; Josephus, Antt. , VIII. ii. 5; Ecclus. xlvii. 17.

See Isa. xix. 11, xxxi. 2; Acts vii. 22; Herod., ii. 160; Josephus, Antt. , VIII. ii. 5 (Keil).

See 1 Chron. ii. 6, vi. 44, xv. 17, 19, xxv. 5. Titles of Psalms xviii., lxxxviii., lxxxix. "Ezrahite," perhaps, is a transposition of Zerahite.

1 Chron. ii. 6. In Seder Olam they are called "prophets who prophesied in Egypt."

"Sons of Mahol" (comp. Eccles. xii. 4).

Psalms lxxii., cxxvii. The so-called "Psalms of Solomon," fifteen in number, are of the Maccabean age; Josephus calls his songs βίβλια περὶ ὠδῶν καὶ μελῶν, and his proverbs βίβλους παραβολῶν καὶ εἰκόνων.

See Euseb., Præp. Evang. , ix. 34, § 19.

Prov. xi. 22, xxiv. 30-34, xxv. 25, xxvi. 8, xxx. 15.

E.g. , Prov. vi. 10.

1 Kings x. 1; LXX., ἐν αἰνίγμασι. See Wünsche, Die Räthselweisheit , 1883; Grätz, Hist. of the Jews , i. 162. For specimens of her traditional puzzles see the author's Solomon , p. 135 (Men of the Bible).

"And Solomon was David's heir, and said, Ye folk! we have been taught the speech of birds, and we have been given everything: verily this is a Divine grace" (Qur'an, Sura xxvii. 15). For the legend of Solomon and the hoopoes, see Sura 27.

According to Suidas (s.v., Ἐζεκίας) Hezekiah found his (magic?) formulæ for the cure of diseases engraved on the posts of the Temple. See Targum on Esth. i. 2; Eccles. ii. 8.

Job xxviii. 23, 28.

Prov. i. 7.

Ecclus. xlvii. 13-18.

Josephus, Antt. , VIII. vii. 8. According to one tradition he lived to fifty-three (Ewald, iii. 208), and was only twelve when he succeeded David.

2 Chron. viii. 3. Ewald thinks it is confirmed by 2 Kings xiv. 28, where, however, the Hebrew is obscure.

1 Kings x. 26.

1 Kings ix. 18. Here the "Q'rî," the marginal, or "read" text, has Tadmor ( i. e. , Palmyra), as also in 2 Chron. viii. 4. But this Tamar (Ezek. xlvii. 19, xlviii. 28) is " in the land " on the south border. In the Chronicles Tadmor is the right reading, for the chronicler is speaking of Hamath-Zobah and the north. It is not at all unlikely that Solomon also built Tadmor (Josephus, Antt. , VIII. vi. 1) to protect his commerce on the route to the Euphrates.

The forty-fifth psalm is supposed by old interpreters to have been an epithalamium on this occasion, but was probably much later. Perhaps notices like 1 Kings iii. 1-3 (the Egyptian alliance), the admonition in 1 Kings ix. 1-9 and the luxury described in x. 14-29, are meant as warning notes of what follows in xi. 1-8 (the apostasy), 9-13 (the prophecy of disruption), and 14-43 (the concluding disaster).

Gezer is Abu-Shusheh, or Tell-el-Gezer, between Ramleh and Jerusalem (Oliphant, Haifa , p. 253), on the lower border of Ephraim. Ewald identifies it with Geshur, the town of Talmai, Absalom's grandfather. See Lenormant, Hist. anc. de l'Orient. , i. 337-43. The genealogy of this dynasty is thus given by Brugsch-Bey (Gen. Table iv.), Hist. of Egypt , vol. ii.: —