King James Version · The united kingdom
1 Kings 10
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And when the queen of heard of the fame of concerning the name of , she came to prove him with hard questions. And she came to with a very great train, with camels that spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to , she communed with him of all that was in her . And told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not. And when the queen of had seen all ’s , and the house that he had built, And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the ; there was no more in her. And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy . Howbeit I not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy . be thy , which delighted in thee, to set thee on of Israel: because loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do and justice. And she gave the king an hundred and twenty of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of gave to king . And the navy also of , that brought gold from , brought in from great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones. And the king made of the almug trees pillars for the , and for the king’s house, harps also and psalteries for singers: there came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this day. And king gave unto the queen of all her , whatsoever she asked, beside that which gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants. Now the weight of gold that came to in one year was six hundred threescore and six of gold, Beside that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffick of the spice merchants, and of all the kings of , and of the governors of the country. And king made two hundred targets of beaten gold: six hundred of gold went to one target. And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pound of gold went to one shield: and the king put them in the house of the forest of . Moreover the king made a great of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold. 19 had six steps, and the top of was round behind: and there were stays on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays. And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps: there was not the like made in any kingdom. And all king ’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of were of pure gold; none were of silver: it was nothing accounted of in the days of . For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of : once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks. So king exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for . And all the earth sought to , to hear his , which had put in . And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year. And gathered together chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at . And the king made silver to be in as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycomore trees that are in the vale, for abundance. And had horses brought out of , and linen yarn: the king’s merchants received the linen yarn at a price. And a chariot came up and went out of for six hundred of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty: and so for all the kings of the , and for the kings of , did they bring them out by their means.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The united kingdom, 1050 BC to 931 BC ›
Saul, David, and Solomon. A rare window when both Egypt and Mesopotamia are weak, which is how a small kingdom in the corridor between them could briefly become a regional power.
- The power vacuum
- This is the whole political explanation for the united kingdom. Egypt is fragmented, Assyria is recovering but still local, the Hittites are gone, and nobody is in a position to object to a strong state in the corridor. It lasts about a century, and Israel's golden age fits exactly inside it.
- Phoenicia
- Tyre under Hiram is the commercial power of the coast, and supplies the cedar, the craftsmen, and the shipping for Solomon's building programme. The alliance is trade, not charity: Israel had grain and a land route, Tyre had timber and ships.
- Egypt
- Weak enough that a pharaoh gives a daughter in marriage to an Israelite king, which is the opposite of Egyptian practice in stronger centuries. Late in the era it recovers under a new house, and Shishak will invade within five years of Solomon's death.
- Further afield
- Greece is still in its dark age but beginning to recover, and will adopt the Phoenician alphabet within a century or two. Carthage is founded by settlers from Tyre by tradition in 814 BC. In the Americas the Olmec centre shifts to La Venta.