CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
1 Kings 9:15-19. Solomon fortified the border cities especially open to attacks from foes, and carried out building projects for the public health and advantage. The levy which King Solomon raised—Comp. notes on chap. 1 Kings 5:13.
1 Kings 9:23 shows whom the levy included.
1 Kings 9:22. Men of war עֲבָדָים = officials of the war department. Rulers of his chariots שָׁלִישִׁים—Rather, royal adjutants—the royal body guard. 1 Kings 9:24-25 are inserted here without apparent connection with the narrative, but by referring back to the events which embarrassed Solomon at the beginning of his reign (chap. 1 Kings 3:1-4), they mark the completion of his building projects and hence the fulfilment of “all his desire.”
1 Kings 9:26. Navy of ships—The Sept., Chald.’ and Arab. have the singular ship, both here and 1 Kings 9:27; yet אֳנִי means a fleet. Ezion-geber, a port at the eastern head of the Red Sea. Elioth, Elim, where a grove of terebinth trees still stands at the head of the gulf.
1 Kings 9:28. Gold, four hundred and twenty talents— 2 Chronicles 8:18 states 450, a mere change of the cipher נ (50) into כ (20): calculated to value £2,604,000.—W. H. J.
HOMILETICS OF 1 Kings 9:15-28
THE IMPERATIVE EXIGENCIES OF REGAL MAGNIFICENCE
Solomon had the wisdom to conceive how his little inland kingdom could be raised into greatness and importance; and it excites our admiration to observe the skilful combinations by which he accomplished his aims. His relations with Egypt, Arabia, and Tyre, by which he seemed to open up the resources of the East and the West, tended to the rapid aggrandisement of his empire. One luxury demanded another; and the increase of riches seemed to beget the desire for more. In these verses we have some indications of the manifold exigencies of regal magnificence.
I. There is the demand for architectural display (1 Kings 9:15; 1 Kings 9:17-19). The character of a nation is known by its public buildings. The great nations of antiquity have been famous for the grandeur of their erections. No other Israelitish king ever built so much as Solomon. The sacred narrative would not have given such prominence to his buildings but for their relation to the Theocratic kingdom. They were designed to further the greatness, power, and splendour of the Theocracy of which the Temple—the House of Jehovah—was the ostensible centre. After first building the Temple, his chef-d’æuore’ Solomon erected his own royal palace, fortified Jerusalem, and built cities and fortresses in different parts of his dominions. And yet where are these vast structures to-day? They have succumbed to the violence of dynastic changes, and the relentless ravages of time. From the gorgeous temple of Moriah to the massive and elaborate edifices of Tadmor in the Wilderness, whose ruins now lie “lonely and forsaken, like bleached bones on a long-neglected battle-field,” the same fate has overtaken them. It is not possible to conceive higher ideas of Solomon’s magnificence than these ruins present, nor more humiliating ideas of the vanity and weakness of all human splendour.
II. There is the employment of forced labour (1 Kings 9:15; 1 Kings 9:20-21). The greater portion of the levies of men employed by Solomon in his public works were drawn from the subjugated nations; but still the Israelites were not exempt. This was, perhaps, the first time the Israelites were called upon to perform forced labour. It had been prophesied, when they desired a king, that, if they insisted on having one, he would “take their men-servants and their maid-servants, and their goodliest young men, and put them to work” (1 Samuel 8:16); and David had bound to forced service “the strangers that were in the land of Israel” (1 Chronicles 22:2); but hitherto the Israelites had escaped. Solomon now, in connection with his proposed work of building the Temple, with the honour of God as an excuse, laid this burden upon them. As to the system adopted, see chap. 1 Kings 5:13-14. This, though a light form of task work, was felt by the Israelites to be a great oppression. But the great works of an imperious prince must proceed, and he who will not voluntarily help must be compelled. Every form of human slavery is degrading. Most of the great buildings of antiquity are the work of slaves. Will the works of freemen be more enduring?
III. There is the maintenance of a costly court (1 Kings 9:22-23). The court of Solomon was on a scale of magnificence never attempted in Israel before or since his day. The great officers are now for the first time called by one general name—Princes. The union of priestly and secular functions still continued. The Palace was next in point of splendour to the Temple, and the Porch of the Palace was the gem and centre of the whole empire. The royal banquets were of the most superb kind. All the plate and drinking vessels were of gold. There was a constant succession of guests. The train of servants was such as had never been seen before. There were some who sat in the king’s presence, others who always stood, others who were his cup-bearers, others musicians. His stables were on the most splendid scale. In the midst of this gorgeous array was the sovereign himself. The king is fair, with superhuman beauty; his sword is on his thigh; he rides in his chariot, or on his war-horse; his archers are behind him, his guards are round him; his robes are so scented with the perfumes of India or Arabia that they seem to be nothing but a mass of myrrh, aloes, and cassia. The queen, probably from Egypt, the chief of all his vast establishment of wives and concubines, themselves the daughters of kings, was by his side, glittering in the gold of Ophir—one blaze of glory, as she sat by him in the interior of the palace; her attendants, gorgeously arrayed, are behind her; she has left her father and her father’s house; her reward is to be in the greatness of her descendants. Such is the splendour of Solomon’s court, which, even down to the outward texture of their royal robes, lived in the traditions of Israel (Stanley in loco). The dignity of royalty should be maintained in accordance with the wealth and resources of the nation.
IV. There is the call for elaborate defence.
1. A standing army must be maintained (1 Kings 9:22-23). The three military bodies remain as in the days of David. The commander of the host is the priestly warrior, Benaiah, who succeeded the murdered Joab. The six hundred heroes of David’s early life only once pass across the scene. Sixty of them attended Solomon’s litter, to guard him from banditti on his way to Lebanon. The guard appear only as household troops, employed on state occasions.
2. Strong fortifications must be erected (1 Kings 9:15; 1 Kings 9:19). Jerusalem, the capital, is surrounded by massive walls and strengthened with a huge tower. Garrison cities are built in various parts of the country to keep the insurrectionary inhabitants in check, and to protect the nation against invaders. As a people grows in riches and in power, every necessary preparation is made at least to defend its possessions. The wealth of a nation tempts the cupidity of greedy and ambitious marauders.
V. There is the burden of an oppressive taxation (1 Kings 9:15, comp. with chap. 1 Kings 12:1-4). The vast levies of men raised by Solomon to build the Temple, the palace, and the fortifications of Jerusalem and other cities, must have severely taxed the people, and this grievous yoke perhaps grew heavier with Solomon’s advance of years. The people who once clamoured for a king, that they might be like the nations around them, now began to realize the truth of Samuel’s prediction as to the cost of maintaining a king and court (1 Samuel 8:11-18). This taxation was so heavy that it appears to have been the principal cause of the revolt of the ten tribes on the death of Solomon. “The government of the wise king was rapidly becoming as odious to the Israelites as that of the race of Tarquin, in spite of all their splendid works, to the patricians of Rome. Matterings of the coming storm were already heard, both abroad and at home.” No government can long flourish that rests on the tyranny and oppression of the people. An excessive taxation drains the fountain of a nation’s productive power.
VI. There is the necessity for extended commerce (1 Kings 9:26-28). The exhaustion of the ample means left by his father, and the inadequacy of the ordinary sources of revenue to cover his vast expenses in sacred and regal building, as well us to sustain the great expense of his magnificent court and numerous household, led Solomon to turn his attention to commerce. His sagacity taught him that the Phœnicians, with whom he had become acquainted, had risen to extraordinary prosperity and great wealth solely as the result of commerce. He therefore joined Hiram in building and equipping a fleet of ships which sailed from the Red Sea, and brought in the rich productions from the far East. Necessity is the mother of invention for nations as for individuals. The grandest commercial ventures have sprung out of the pressing necessity of the hour. The increase of commerce is the increase of fresh necessities: commerce begets commerce. It is the life of national prosperity.
LESSONS:—
1. Royalty has its undoubted rights and privileges.
2. The glory of royalty is to promote the best welfare of the people.
3. The government that suppresses commerce beggars itself.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1 Kings 9:15-19. National architecture.
1. Is an evidence of the wealth and genius of a nation.
2. Has a powerful influence in the culture of the national taste and character.
3. May remain when the true greatness of a nation has passed away.
1 Kings 9:15-23. The plans and arrangements of Solomon for the benefit and protection of the land.
1. He built the house of the Lord, forth from which would come all salvation for Israel; then he built the store-houses for times of need and famine, and as protection against the enemies of the kingdom. A wise prince cares alike for the religious and spiritual, and for the material and temporal well-being of his people, and in times of peace does his utmost to provide against every danger which may assail the land, either from without or within. For this a nation can never be grateful enough, and should uphold him with readiness and might, instead of murmuring and complaining, as is often the case.
2. Solomon’s plan was, in his undertaking, to spare his nation all servile labour as far as possible. Therefore for all compulsory service he employed the conquered enemy, who, as such, were slaves. A wise prince will never impose burdensome taxes or heavy labour upon his people, and reigns much more willingly over freemen than over slaves; but a good and loyal people does not make freedom a pretext for villainy, and ever follows the king’s call for arms when the defence of “Fatherland” is concerned. For Israel can no more say with truth, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer” (Psalms 18:3), if all the nation does not aid in its defences and fortifications. In the kingdom of the true and eternal Prince of Peace bondage will cease, and all men shall obtain the freedom of the children of God.—Lange.
1 Kings 9:16. Though in the East husbands generally pay for their wives, yet dower is given in some cases. Sargon gave Cilicia as a dowry with his daughter when he married her to Ambris, king of Tubal. Antiochus Soter gave his claims on Macedonia as a dowry to his stepdaughter Phila, when she married Antigonus Gonatas. Cœle-Syria and Palestine were promised as dowry to Ptolemy Epiphanes when he married Cleopatra, sister of Antiochus the Great. The Persian kings seem generally to have given satrapial or other high offices as dowries to the husbands of their daughters.—Rawlinson.
1 Kings 9:20-21. The curse of slavery.
1. It is personally degrading. It robs man of his self-respect, poisons his sense of rectitude and honour, demoralizes his sensibilities, imbrutes his entire nature, and brands him with unutterable infamy.
2. It is degrading to the oppressor. It is an insult to his own manhood, it lowers his estimate of humanity, it blunts his sympathies for the race, and leads him to the shameless commission of other wrongs. The hideous character of oppressors is depicted in a few words by Wordsworth—
The good old rule
Sufficeth them, the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can.
3. It is an element of weakness and decay in the nation. The nations of antiquity in which slavery was maintained have come to ruin. It blights the fairest country, spoils its chivalry, and saps its strongest foundations.
1 Kings 9:25. The public worship of God.
1. Is the duty of all—king and subjects.
2. Cannot be neglected without mischievous results (chap. 1 Kings 3:2-4).
3. Should be observed with regularity and solemnity.
4. Is the secret of national prosperity and greatness.
5. Is fraught with blessing to the individual worshipper.
—A king must make religion the rule of government, and not to balance the scale; for he that casteth in religion only to make the scales even, his own weight is contained in those characters—Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin; he is found too light; his kingdom shall be taken from him.—Bacon.
1 Kings 9:26. A wise government seeks not only to preserve existing prosperity, but also to discover new sources thereof. Many there are who travel over land and sea to seek gold and to become rich, and forget that the Lord hath said, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich” (Revelation 3:18). Expeditions into far countries must serve not only to obtain gold and treasure, but also to carry thither the treasure which neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal (Matthew 6:19). Commerce may become a rich blessing for a nation, but a greedy thirst for gold often leads to extreme luxury and neglect of God, as is many times exemplified in the history of Israel.—Lange.
1 Kings 9:26-28. Commerce.
1. Taxes the ingenuity of a people.
2. Stimulates travel and discovery.
3. Is the source of a nation’s wealth.
4. Promotes international amity and brotherhood.
1 Kings 9:28. The controversy concerning the locality of Ophir will probably never be settled. It has been placed in Arabia, in India, in the Burmese Peninsula, at Ceylon, on the East coast of Africa, in Armenia, in Phrygia, in Iberia, and in South America, where it has been identified with Peru! Among these various opinions three predominate, all moderns, except a very few, being in favour either of Arabia, India, or Eastern Africa. Africa has comparatively few advocates, but M. Quartremere and Dean Milman are among them. India is preferred by Lassen, Thenius, Ewald, and Berthau. Arabia’s claims are supported by the greatest number, among whom are Winer, Keil, Kalisch, and Mr. Twistleton. The grand argument in favour of Arabia is derived from the occurrence of Ophir in the manifestly Arabian list of names in Genesis 10:25-29. To the objection that Arabia could not produce either gold or almug trees, it is replied—
1. It has not yet been proved that she could not produce them; and
2. At any rate she might have furnished them to the Jews from an emporium.—Speaker’s Comm. We do not contend that Ophir was a place on the Indian coast. Nay, more, we do not insist that it was any particular place. It seems to us that Heeren is quite right in his remark that Ophir, like the name of all other distant places or regions of antiquity—as Thule, Tartessus, and others—denotes no particular spot, but only a certain region or part of the world, such as the East or West Indies in modern geography. Hence Ophir was a general name for all the countries lying on the African, Arabian, or Indian seas, so far as at that time known.—Kitto.
—Even the gold of Ophir perishes in the using; but the treasures of grace never wax old nor decay. He that is possessed of these hath that fine gold which constitutes the true riches (Revelation 3:18).