The Expositor's Bible: The First Book of Kings

81

Duncker, Meyer, Wellhausen, Stade, regard Solomon's accession as due to a mere palace intrigue of Nathan and Bathsheba, and David's dying injunctions as only intended to excuse Solomon. They treat 1 Kings ii. 1-12 as a Deuteronomic interpolation. Dillmann, Kittel, Kuenen, Budde, rightly reject this view. Stade says, "Nach menschlichen Gefühl, ein Unrecht war die Salbung Salomos." He thinks that "the aged David was over-influenced by the intrigues of the harem and the court" (i. 292).

82

She said that they would be counted as "offenders" (chattaim) Comp. 1 Kings i. 12, where Nathan assumes that they will both be put to death. Thus Cassander put to death Roxana, the widow of Alexander the Great, and her son Alexander (Justin., xv. 2).

83

Reuss, Hist. des Israelites, i. 409.

84

Comp. 2 Sam. iv. 9; Psalm xix. 14.

85

"The servants of your Lord." Comp. 2 Sam. xx. 6, 7.

86

Comp. Gen. xli. 43; 1 Kings i. 33; Esth. vi. 8.

87

2 Chron. xxxii. 30, xxxiii. 14. It was apparently "the Virgin's Fountain," east of Jerusalem, in the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

88

Comp. 2 Kings ix. 13.

89

1 Chron. xxvii. 5, where the true rendering is not "Benaiah the chief priest," as in A.V., nor "principal officer," as in the margin: but "Benaiah the priest, as chief."

90

1 Sam. xxx. 14; Josephus, σωματοφύλακες. The Targum calls them "archers and slingers" (which is unlikely), or "nobles and common soldiers." This body-guard is also said to be composed of Gittites (2 Sam. xv. 18, xviii. 2); but some suppose that they were so called not by nationality, but because they had served under David at Gath. The question is further complicated by the appearance of "Carians" (A.V., captains) in 2 Kings xi. 4, 15, and also in 2 Sam. xx. 23 (Heb.). The Carians were universal mercenaries (Herod., ii. 152; Liv., xxxvii. 40). That there was an early intercourse between Palestine and the West is shown by the fact that such words as peribolory, machaera, macaina, lesche, pellex, have found their way into Hebrew (see Renan, Hist. du Peuple Israel, ii. 33).

91

2 Sam. xxiii. 8-39; 1 Chron. xi. 10-47; 1 Kings i. 8. The Gibborim are by some supposed to be a different body from the Krêthi and Plêthi (2 Sam. xv. 18, xx. 7); but from 1 Kings i. 8, 10, 38 they seem to be the same (Stade, i. 275). The thirty heroes at their head furnish, as Renan says, the first germ of a sort of "Legion of Honour."

92

Saul (1 Sam. x. 1), David (1 Sam. xvi. 13, and twice afterwards, 2 Sam. ii. 4, v. 3), Jehu (1 Kings xix. 16), Joash (2 Chron. xxiii. 11).

93

1 Kings i. 39. "Tent," not "tabernacle," as in A.V. It has generally been supposed that Zadok took it from the tabernacle at Gibeon (1 Chron. xvi. 39), but there would have been no time to send so far. Zadok is called a "Seer" in the A.V. (2 Sam. xv. 27); but the true version may be "Seeth thou?" The LXX. and Vulgate omit the words.

94

Morier, quoted by Stanley, p. 172, says that the Mustched, or chief priest, and the Munajem, or prophet, are always present at a Persian coronation.

95

LXX., ἐῤῥάγη, ἤχησεν; Vulg., insonuit. Comp. Josephus, Antt., VII. xiv. 3, 5.

96

2 Sam. xv. 27, xvii. 17.

97

2 Sam. xviii. 27. Heb., אִשׁחַי; LXX., ἀνὴρ δυνάμεως; Vulg., vir fortis. It is rather "virtuous," as in Prov. xii. 4.

98

It is true that Solomon's adherents had wasted no time over a feast.

99

1 Kings i. 50.

100

Psalm cxviii. 27, and Exod. xxvii. 2 ff., xxix. 12, xxx. 10. Comp. Exod. xxi. 14.

101

Exod. xxi. 14. It protected the homicide, but not the wilful murderer.

102

1 Kings i. 51. The words "this day" should be "first of all," i. e., before I leave the sanctuary. Many must have been reminded of this scene when Eutropius, the eunuch-minister of Arcadius, under the protection of St. Chrysostom, cowered in front of the high altar at Constantinople.

103

"There shall not a hair of him fall." Comp. 1 Sam. xiv. 45; 2 Sam. xiv. 11.

104

"Bowed himself." Comp. 1 Kings i. 47.

105

Grätz, i. 138 (E. T.).

106

2 Sam. xxiii. 1-7. It is no part of my duty here to enter into the extent of David's share in the Psalms; but I think that it is an exaggerated inference (of Wellhausen and others) from Amos vi. 5, 6 to suppose that he only wrote festal and warlike songs.

107

Apparently an allusion to Deut. xvii. 18-20. We read of no such exhortation having been addressed to Saul, or to David.

108

Chimham accompanied David to Jerusalem (2 Sam. xvii. 27, xix. 37-40), and perhaps inherited his property at Bethlehem, where he founded the Khan (Jer. xli. 17), in the cavern stable of which it may be that Christ was born.

109

Wellhausen, Stade, and others venture on the conjecture that David never gave these injunctions at all, but that they were invented afterwards to excuse Solomon for his acts of severity towards Adonijah's conspirators. I cannot see any valid ground for such arbitrary re-writing of the history. Shimei had taken no part in Adonijah's rebellion.

110

Zeruiah was "a sister of the sons of Jesse" (1 Chron. ii. 16), and was therefore a sister of Abigail, mother of Amasa; but she is called "the daughter of Nahash" (2 Sam. xvii. 25).

111

1 Chron. ii. 17. "Jether (i. e., Jethro, 'pre-eminence') the Ishmaelite" has been altered in 2 Sam. xvii. 25 into Ithra, an Israelite (see 2 Sam. xix. 13). The way in which names have been tampered with is an interesting study, and often conceals Masoretic secrets.

112

David's enemies thought but little of the fact that David had spared Mephibosheth. They may have supposed that David spared him, not only because he was the son of the beloved Jonathan, but because being lame he could never become king. David's relations to him do not seem to have been very cordial.

113

2 Sam. xvi. 14 (Heb.). For Bahurim, see 2 Sam. xvi. 5, xvii. 18.

114

Acts xvii. 30.

115

Matt. v. 43, 44.

116

There is something analogous to protection granted only for a lifetime in the fact that the homicide at a refuge city could not be slain there while the high priest lived. See Num. xxxv. 28.

117

Comp. Josh. xxiii. 14; Keil, ad loc.

118

Acts ii. 29. Josephus says that both Hyrcanus and Herod opened it to find the treasures which legend asserted to have been buried there (Antt., VII. xv. 3. Comp. XIII. viii. 4, XVI. vii.). The kings alone were buried in Jerusalem; but legend says that an exception was made in favour of Huldah the prophetess.

119

These events – like almost everything derogatory to David and Solomon – are omitted by the chronicler.

120

Luke iii. 31. Salathiel, son of Neri (Luke iii. 27), of Nathan's house, was probably adopted by Jeconiah, who was childless; or if he had a son Assir (captive), the son had died. 1 Chron. iii. 17; Isa. xxii. 3.

121

2 Sam. xii. 8. Comp. 1 Kings xx. 7; 2 Kings xxiv. 15. We only know, however, of one wife of Saul, and one concubine.

122

Herod., iii. 68; Justin., x. 2.

123

Comp. 1 Kings xv. 13; 2 Kings xi. 1. The queen-mother, like the Sultana Walidé, is always more powerful than even the favourite wife.

124

Cant. iii. 11.

125

Psalm xlv. 9. Some little mystery evidently hangs over the name of Bathsheba. In 2 Sam. xi. 3 she is called "Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite"; but in 1 Chron. iii. 5 she is called "Bathshua, the daughter of Ammiel." Now Shua was a Canaanite name (Gen. xxxviii. 12; 1 Chron. ii. 3), and it is at least remarkable that Bathsheba should be married to a Hittite. Further, the chronicler disguises "Ahithophel the Gilonite (the father of Eliam) into Ahijah the Pelonite," who is one of David's Gibborim in 1 Chron. xi. 36. Pelonite means nescio qius; in Spanish, Don Fulano, – Signor So-and-so. And how are we to account for the strange name Ahithophel ("brother of foolishness?")?

126

Comp. Cant. vii. 1. It has been assumed that Solomon had already married Naamah the Ammonitess, and that Rehoboam was already born (see 1 Kings xiv. 21), but this is uncertain. Rehoboam, if he had reached the age of forty-one, could hardly have been called "young and tender-hearted" (2 Chron. xiii. 7).

127

Shunem (Sulem, Euseb., Jer.) is now Solam (Robinson, Researches, iii. 402).

128

1 Sam. xxii. 23.

129

2 Sam. xv. 18 (LXX.).

130

Anata, Robinson, Researches, ii, 319; Josh. xxi. 18; 1 Chron. vi. 60. It was the native town of Jeremiah (Jer. i. 1).

131

It should be remembered that, as Ewald points out, imprisonment for life was a thing unknown.

132

This interesting addition is found in the Septuagint version.

133

2 Sam. xxiii. 20. Ewald, Thenius, and most other critics, followed by the R.V., adopt the LXX. reading, "Slew the two sons of Ariel of Moab."

134

Comp. 2 Kings xi. 15.

135

See Deut. xix. 13.

136

2 Sam. iii. 28, 29.

137

אָנֶה וָאָנָה (1 Kings ii. 36).

138

It should be remembered that when Shimei came to meet David on his return, he managed to muster one thousand of his Benjamite kinsmen. Such local influence might prove troublesome.

139

Achish seems to have been the dynastic name of the kings of Gath (1 Sam. xxi. 10, xxvii. 2). If this was the Achish, son of Maoch, with whom David had taken refuge fifty years before, he must now have been a very old man.

140

Esth. ii. 5.

141

Prov. xix. 11, xx. 2, 8, 26.

142

1 Kings ii. 7; Jer. xli. 17.

143

Lev. x. 1-20; Num. iii. 4, xxvi. 61. This has been not unnaturally inferred from the prohibition to the priests to drink wine while serving the tabernacle lest they die, which occurs immediately after the catastrophe of the two priests (Lev. x. 9-11).

144

Num. xxv. 13.

145

2 Chron. xxxiii. 6; 2 Kings xxi. 6. "His children."

146

2 Chron. xxviii. 3; 2 Kings xvi. 3. "His son."

147

1 Sam. ii. 27-36. For eight centuries there was no other instance of a high priest's deposition.

148

Isa. iii. 10.

149

See 1 Sam. xxi. 6, compared with 1 Chron. xvi. 39, 40; 2 Chron. i. 3.

150

An old Hivite capital (Josh. xviii. 21-25), now El Jib. Josephus alters it to "Hebron."

151

See 1 Chron. xvi. 39, 40, xxi. 29; 2 Chron. i. 3. The annals of Solomon fall into three divisions: first, his secure establishment upon the throne (1 Kings i, ii.); next, his wisdom, wealth, glory, and great buildings, especially the building of the Temple (iii. – x.); lastly, his fall and death (xi.).

152

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.

153

See 1 Sam. xxii. 17-19.

154

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

155

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).

156

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

157

Bishop Hall.

158

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

159

Ecclus. xv. 16, 17.

160

Emerson.

161

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.

162

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

163

Matt. vi. 33.

164

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.

165

Psalm cxxvii. 2 (uncertain).

166

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.).

167

Compare the Phœnician's Suffetes (Liv.).

168

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).

169

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

170

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

171

יֵלֶד. LXX., παιδίον.

172

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).

173

The parallel is adduced by Grotius.

174

Quoted by Bähr.

175

Suet., Claud., 15.

176

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.

177

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

178

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.

179

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

180

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

181

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.

182

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

183

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

184

E.g., Prov. vi. 10.

185

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).

186

"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.

187

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.

188

Job xxviii. 23, 28.

189

Prov. i. 7.

190

Ecclus. xlvii. 13-18.

191

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.

192

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

193

1 Kings x. 26.

194

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.

195

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).

196

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.: —

197

See Deut. xxiii. 7, 8.

198

Schwab's Berakhoth, p. 252; Hershon, Treasures of the Talmud, p. 25. In Sanhedrin, ff. 21, 22, there is another trace of the dislike with which the marriage (though not forbidden, Deut. xxiii. 7, 8) was regarded: "When Solomon married the daughter of Pharaoh, Gabriel descended and fixed a reed in the sea. A sandbank formed around it on which Rome was subsequently built." In Shabbath, ff. 51, 52, we are told that "the princess brought with her one thousand different kinds of musical instruments, and taught Solomon the chants to his various idols."

199

No trace of any such misgiving is found in the Book of Kings.

200

"Seine Liebhaberei sind kostbare Bauten, fremde Weiber, reiche Prachtentfaltung" (Kittel, ii. 160).

201

Perhaps rather "the grandson." He was the son of Ahimaaz (comp. Gen. xxix. 5; Ezra v. 1, where son = grandson).

202

Shisha and Shavsha are perhaps corruptions of Seraiah (2 Sam. viii. 17).

203

Comp. Esth. vi. 1. LXX., Isa. xxxvi. 3, ὁ ὑπομνηματογράφος 2 Sam. viii. 17, ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν ὑπομνημάτων. Jerome, "a commentariis." Comp. Suet., Aug. 79, "qui e memoria Augusti."

204

It is a somewhat ominous fact that netsib means properly an ἐπιτειχισμός, a garrison in a hostile country.

205

The king's friend (2 Sam. xv. 37) seems to have been a sort of confidential privy councillor (Prov. xxii. 11).

206

Isa. xxii. 21.

207

2 Sam. xx. 24.

208

Possibly this clause is an interpolation.

209

2 Sam. viii. 18. Even "Ira the Jairite" is called "a priest" (2 Sam. xx. 26). An attempt has been made to explain the word away because it obviously clashes with Levitic ordinances; but the word "priest" could not be used in two different senses in two consecutive lines. Dogmatic considerations have tampered with the obvious meaning of the word. The LXX. omits it, and in the case of David's sons calls them αὐλάρχαι. The A.V. renders it "chief officer." The Vulgate wrongly refers it to Zadok (filius Sadoc sacerdotis). Movers (Krit. Unters., 301 ff.) renders it "court chaplains." Already in 1 Chron. xviii. 17 we find that the title gave offence, and we read instead, "And the sons of David were at the hand of the king" (see Ewald, Alterthumsk, p. 276). Compare the title "Bishop of Osnaburg," borne by Frederick, Duke of York, son of George III.

210

2 Sam. v. 14; Zech. xii. 12; Luke iii. 31.

211

The degraded and ominous apparitions of Sarisim (eunuchs) probably began at the court of Solomon on a large scale, though the name occurs in the days of David (1 Sam. viii. 15; 1 Chron. xxviii. 1). In the Northern Kingdom we first hear of them in the harem of the polygamous Ahab.

212

2 Kings xviii. 18; Isa. xxii. 15.

213

2 Sam. xx. 24. He is not mentioned in 1 Chron. xxvii. 25-31.

214

This use of patronymics only is common among the Arabs, but not in Scripture (Reuss, Hist. d. Isr., i. 423).

215

If he was the son of David's elder brother (1 Sam. xvi. 8, xvii. 13) he was Solomon's first cousin. The materialistic or non-religious element in Solomon seems to come out in the names of his only known children. The element "Jehovah," afterwards so universal, does not occur in them. Basmath, characteristically, means "fragrant"; Taphath is perhaps connected with טָפַת, to go mincingly; Rehoboam means "enlarger of the people."