A Description Of King Solomon's Toys (1 Kings 10:14-22).
With the wealth that was pouring into his country Solomon made himself some ostentatious ‘toys. These included both large and small shields of covered with solid gold for display purposes, a splendid and unique gold and ivory throne, and all his golden drinking and other vessels within his palace complex. Indeed such was the quantity of gold available in his kingdom that silver was accounted of little worth, at least within the capital city.
Analysis.
a Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold, besides what the agents brought, and the traffic of the merchants, and of all the kings of the mingled people, and of the governors of the country (1 Kings 10:14-15).
b And king Solomon made two hundred larger shields of beaten gold, six hundred shekels of gold went to one large shield. And he made three hundred smaller shields of beaten gold, three pounds of gold went to one shield, and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon (1 Kings 10:16-17).
c Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the finest gold. There were six steps to the throne, and the top of the throne was round behind, and there were stays on either side by the place of the seat, and two lions standing beside the stays. And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other on the six steps. There was not the like made in any kingdom (1 Kings 10:18-20).
b And all king Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold: none were of silver. It was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon (1 Kings 10:21).
a For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram. Once every three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks (1 Kings 10:22).
It will be noted that in ‘a' we have described the gold coming in from tribute and trade, and in the parallel the gold and other items coming in from the sea trade. In ‘b' we have described Solomon's ornamental golden shields, and in the parallel the golden vessels in his house. Central in ‘c' is his golden throne.
‘ Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold, besides what the agents brought, and the trading of the merchants, and of all the kings of the assorted people, and of the governors of the country.'
Gold poured into Solomon's coffers from every quarter. Some was brought by his agents, some was in respect of trading activity by the merchants, some came in tribute from the petty kings round about, including parts of Arabia, and some from the governors of the country. These may have been the officers appointed by Solomon in 1 Kings 4:1-19.
While this amount of gold (around twenty tons) might appear enormous, it is not really over-enormous in the light of what we learn elsewhere, although we need not doubt that someone possibly selected one of the best years for the obtaining of his example. As we have seen above, the Queen of Sheba brought 120 talents of gold in one particular year, while Ophir despatched 420 talents of gold over a period. We can compare how five centuries after the death of Solomon, one province alone in ‘India' (the Indus basin) gave to the Persian emperors annually 360 talents of gold (Herodotus iii, 94), while within ten years of Solomon's death and stretching over a period of four years Osorkon I of Egypt presented a total of two million deben weight of silver (a staggering 220 tons) and another 2,300,000 deben weight of silver and gold (some 250 tons) to the gods, largely in the form of precious objects (vessels, statuary, etc.). This grand total of 470 tons of precious metal, although admittedly some was in silver, outstrips Solomon's reputed weight of gold by twenty times, and the Egyptian record is not only detailed but is undoubtedly firsthand.
‘ And king Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold, six hundred shekels of gold went to one large shield. And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold, three minas of gold went to one shield, and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.'
Gold was pouring into Solomon's treasury in such abundance that Solomon made two hundred large golden shields, each containing six hundred shekels of gold, and a further three hundred smaller shields, each containing three minas of gold. These would be for ceremonial purposes (1 Kings 14:28), and were designed in order to further bring out Solomon's glory. They were stored on the House of the Forest of Lebanon (so-named because of its multiplicity of pillars of cedar) which was part of the palace complex in Jerusalem, and were brought out whenever Solomon wanted to make an impression.
“Beaten gold.” This is literally ‘slain gold', the verb presumably being a technical term signifying some production process.
The prophet might well have had a wry smile on his face when he wrote these words, for he would know that in the not too distant future he would be deliberately pointing out that these shields would be appropriated by the Pharaoh, and would be carried off to Egypt (1 Kings 14:26). Solomon's glory would thus not be long lasting. It was a fading glory because of his arrogance and disobedience. What YHWH supplied, YHWH could take away.
‘ Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the finest gold. There were six steps to the throne, and the top of the throne was round behind, and there were stays on either side by the place of the seat, and two lions standing beside the stays. And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other on the six steps. There was not the like made in any kingdom.'
The king also had made for him his own unique throne. This was a throne inlaid with ivory, and overlaid with the finest gold. Six steps led up to the throne, and the rearward curving back is paralleled in Egyptian thrones. The purpose of the throne was to lift Solomon above his minions. The six steps led up to the dais on which the throne was placed which was the seventh level. Such designs elsewhere indicated the supreme power of the gods. In Babylon the seven-staged ziggurats led up to the gods. At Ugarit seven steps led up to inmost shrine of the Temple of Baal. Here it may well have been intended to indicate that Solomon was priest-king after the order of Melchizedek (Psalms 110:4), and therefore the Intercessor of the nations. It was therefore intended to indicate his supreme power over the nations. We may compare the attitude behind it with that of the King of Babylon in Isaiah 14:13-14. Solomon did not yet realise it, but he was on the way down.
On either side of the throne seat were stays, with two lions standing by the stays, providing protection (in a similar way to the Cherubim) and indicating Solomon's power and fearsomeness. They may well also have symbolised the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:9-10) over his lion people (Numbers 23:24; Numbers 24:9) and surrounded by his pride. A lion also stood at each side of each step leading up to the throne. These may have represented the leaders of the tribes of Israel, seen as young lions. Here then was the lion king. When he roared the earth shook. No other parallel to this throne could be found anywhere. It was unique. Thus is Solomon's glory emphasised.
‘ And all king Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold: none were of silver. It was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.'
Furthermore all the drinking and other vessels in the palace complex were made of gold. Silver vessels could not be found anywhere, because they were seen as too inferior. Silver counted for nothing in the court of Solomon. Such was his fading splendour. The writer leaves us to meditate on the fact without comment, aware that it will all soon come tumbling down.
‘ For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram. Once every three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes (qopim), and peacocks (tukkiyim).'
Furthermore Solomon had formed a joint fleet along with Hiram. A ‘navy of Tarshish' was a navy of large sea-going vessels of the type used on long distance voyages bringing back ore from far distant places. These may have been constructed by Hiram's and Solomon's men at Ezion-geber, or it is even possible that vessels had been taken to pieces in Tyre and then carried to Ezion-geber where they would be reconstructed. This was common practise in the ancient world.
These large ships regularly set off on their voyages, and would be away ‘three years' (one full year and two part years). This does not necessarily signify long voyages. Ships in those days did not just sail away into the sunset and return. They would visit different ports to trade and gather water and provisions, they would often hug the coast, they would be laid up at times because of unseasonal weather, they might remain in some ports for a long time until they had disposed of their produce and filled up with the goods they received in return. Thus it is difficult to know how much actual sailing time was included in the ‘calculation'.
They then returned with exotic goods such as gold, silver, ivory, and possibly apes and peacocks (the meaning of the nouns is uncertain, especially the latter, but they are presumably exotic creatures), which were a wonder to all who beheld them. These may not all, of course, have been obtained from their original home-lands. They may have been traded on by other vessels which had come from those places. Thus we have no real idea how far Solomon's fleet was able to penetrate. But to Israelites, unused to the sea, it would all have seemed wonderful, and added greatly to Solomon's glory.
The Tyrian large long-distance vessels were called ‘ships of Tarshish'. It has been conjectured that tarshish refers to iron smelteries. Thus they may have derived their name from the ores that they carried, or from the destinations that they reached (smelteries in different part of the ancient world, such as Spanish Tartessus and Sardinia). It may not have indicated a particular place. ‘Tarshish' may well have described their purpose rather than their destination, and the name have gradually come to signify large, long-distance vessels, with Tarshish being a description of the mysterious places that they visited in the search for ores.