CHAPTER IV

An account of Solomon's chief officers, 1-6. Names of the twelve officers that were over twelve districts, to provide victuals for the king's household monthly, 7-19. Judah and Israel are very populous; and Solomon reigns over many provinces, 20, 21. The daily provision for his family, 22, 23. The extent and peace of his dominions, 24, 25. His horses, chariots, and dromedaries; with the provision made for them, 26-28. His wisdom and understanding, 29-31. The number of his proverbs and songs; and his knowledge in natural history, 32, 33. People from all nations come to hear his wisdom, 34.

NOTES ON CHAP. IV

Verse 2. These were the princes which he had; Azariah the son of Zadok the priest.] These were his great, chief, or principal men. None of them were princes in the common acceptation of the word.

Verse 3. Elihoreph and Ahiah-scribes] Secretaries to the king.

Jehoshaphat-recorder] Historiographer to the king, who chronicled the affairs of the kingdom. He was in this office under David see 2 Sam. xx. 24.

Verse 5. Azariah-was over the officers] He had the superintendence of the twelve officers mentioned below; see 1 Kings iv. 7.

Zabud-was principal officer] Perhaps what we call premier, or prime minister.

The king's friend] His chief favourite-his confidant.

Verse 6. Ahishar was over the household] the king's chamberlain.

Adoniram-was over the tribute.] What we call chancellor of the exchequer.

He received and brought into the treasury all the proceeds of taxes and tributes. He was in this office under David; see 2 Samuel xx. 24.

Verse 7. Twelve officers] The business of these twelve officers was to provide daily, each for a month, those provisions which were consumed in the king's household; see ver. 22, 23. And the task for such a daily provision was not an easy one.

Verse 13. Threescore great cities with walls and brazen bars] These were fortified cities: their gates and bars covered with plates of brass. Such were the gates in Priam's palace:- Ipse inter primos correpta dura bipenni Limina perrumpit, POSTES que a cardine vellit AERATOS. VIRG. AEn., lib. ii. ver. 479.

Fierce Pyrrhus in the front, with forceful sway, Plied the huge axe, and hew'd the beams away; The solid timbers from the portal tore, And rent from every hinge the BRAZEN door. PITT.

Verse 20. Eating and drinking, and making merry.] They were very comfortable, very rich, very merry, and very corrupt. And this full feeding and dissipation led to a total corruption of manners.

Verse 21. Solomon reigned over all kingdoms] The meaning of this verse appears to be, that Solomon reigned over all the provinces from the river Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, even to the frontiers of Egypt.

The Euphrates was on the east of Solomon's dominions; the Philistines were westward on the Mediterranean sea; and Egypt was on the south.

Solomon had, therefore, as tributaries, the kingdoms of Syria, Damascus, Moab, and Ammon, which lay between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. See Calmet. Thus he appears to have possessed all the land that God covenanted with Abraham to give to his posterity.

Verse 22. Solomon's provision for one day:- Of fine flour . . . . . . 30 measures, or cors.

Of meal . . . . . . . . . . 60 ditto.

Stall-fed oxen. . . . . . 10 Ditto from the pasture. . 20 Sheep . . . . . . . . . . . . 100; with harts, roebucks, fallow deer, and fat fowls.

The rk cor was the same as the homer, and contained nearly seventy-six gallons, wine measure, according to Bishop Cumberland.

Sheep] ax tson, comprehending both sheep and goats.

Harts] lyam meaiyal, the deer.

Roebucks] ybx tsebi, the gazal, antelope, or wild goat.

Fallow deer] rwmjy yachmur, the buffalo. See the notes on Deut. xii. 15; xiv. 5.

Fatted fowl.] ╡yswba ╡yrbrb barburim abusim, I suppose, means all the wild fowls in season during each month. Michaelis derives ╡yrbrb barburim from arb bara, which in Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, signifies a field, a desert; all that is without the cities and habitations of men: hence arb twyj cheyvath bara, wild beasts, Dan. ii. 38, rb rwt tor bar, wild bull; and therefore barburim may signify creatures living in the fields, woods, and deserts, which are taken by hunting, and opposed to those which are domesticated; and, consequently, may include beasts as well as fowls. Many have translated the word capons; but, query, was any such thing known among the ancient Jews? Solomon's table, therefore, was spread with all the necessaries and delicacies which the house or the field could afford.

But how immense must the number of men have been who were fed daily at the palace of the Israelitish king! Vilalpandus computes the number to be not less than forty-eight thousand, six hundred; and Calvisius makes, by estimation from the consumption of food, fifty-four thousand! These must have included all his guards, each of whom received a ration from the king's store.

Verse 25. Every man under his vine] They were no longer obliged to dwell in fortified cities for fear of their enemies; they spread themselves over all the country, which they everywhere cultivated; and had always the privilege of eating the fruits of their own labours. This is the meaning of the phrase.

Verse 26. Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses-and twelve thousand horsemen.] In 2 Chron. ix. 25, instead of forty thousand stalls, we read four thousand; and even this number might be quite sufficient to hold horses for twelve thousand horsemen; for stalls and stables may be here synonymous. In 1 Kings x. 26; it is said he had one thousand four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; and this is the reading in 2 Chron. i. 14. In 2 Chron. ix. 25, already quoted, instead of forty thousand stalls for horses, the Septuagint has tessarev ciliadev qhleiai ippoi, four thousand mares; and in this place the whole verse is omitted both by the Syriac and Arabic. In the Targum of Rabbi Joseph on this book we have ham [bra arba meah, four hundred, instead of the four thousand in Chronicles, and the forty thousand in the text. From this collation of parallel places we may rest satisfied that there is a corruption in the numbers somewhere; and as a sort of medium, we may take for the whole four thousand stalls, one thousand four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.

Verse 28. And dromedaries] The word ìkr rechesh, which we translate thus, is rendered beasts, or beasts of burden, by the Vulgate; mares by the Syriac and Arabic; chariots by the Septuagint; and race-horses by the Chaldee. The original word seems to signify a very swift kind of horse, and race-horse or post-horse is probably its true meaning. To communicate with so many distant provinces, Solomon had need of many animals of this kind.

Verse 29. God gave Solomon wisdom, &c.] He gave him a capacious mind, and furnished him with extraordinary assistance to cultivate it.

Even as the sand that is on the sea-shore.] Lord Bacon observes on this: "As the sand on the sea-shore encloses a great body of waters, so Solomon's mind contained an ocean of knowledge." This is a happy and correct illustration.

Verse 30. The children of the east country] That is the Chaldeans, Persians, and Arabians, who, with the Egyptians, were famed for wisdom and knowledge through all the world.

Verse 31. He was wiser than all men] He was wiser than any of those who were most celebrated in his time, among whom were the four after mentioned, viz., Ethan, Heman, Chalcol, and Darda. Ethan was probably the same as is mentioned in some of the Psalms, particularly Psa. lxxxix. 1, title; and among the singers in 1 Chron. vi. 42. There is a Heman mentioned in the title to Psalm lxxxviii. 1. In 1 Chron. ii. 6 we have all the four names, but they are probably not the same persons, for they are there said to be the sons of Zerah, and he flourished long before Solomon's time.

Some suppose that lwjm ynb beney machol should be rendered masters of dancing or music, as lwjm machol signifies not only a dance or choir, but also an instrument of music of the pipe kind. Perhaps a reference is here made to Solomon's skill in music and poetry, as he is compared to persons who appear to have been eminent poets and musicians.

Verse 32. He spake three thousand proverbs] The book of Proverbs, attributed to Solomon, contain only about nine hundred or nine hundred and twenty-three distinct proverbs; and if we grant with some that the first nine chapters are not the work of Solomon, then all that can be attributed to him is only about six hundred and fifty.

Of all his one thousand and five songs or poems we have only one, the book of Canticles, remaining, unless we include Psalm cxxvii. 1-5, Except the Lord build the house, &c., which in the title is said to be by or for him, though it appears more properly to be a psalm of direction, left him by his father David, relative to the building of the temple.

Verse 33. He spake of trees-beasts-fowl-creeping things, and of fishes.] This is a complete system of natural history, as far as relates to the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and the first intimation we have of any thing of the kind: Solomon was probably the first natural historian in the world.

O, how must the heart of Tournefort, Ray, Linne, Buffon, Cuvier, Swammerdam, Blosch, and other naturalists, be wrung, to know that these works of Solomon are all and for ever lost! What light should we have thrown on the animal and vegetable kingdoms, had these works been preserved! But the providence of God has not thought fit to preserve them, and succeeding naturalists are left to invent the system which he probably left perfect. If there be any remains of his wisdom, they must be sought among the orientals, among whom his character is well known, and rates as high as it does with either Jews or Christians. I shall give some extracts from their works relative to Solomon when I come to consider his character at the end of chap. xi. 43.

Verse 34. There came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon] We learn from chap. 10, that the queen of Sheba was one of those visitants, and perhaps the most remarkable, as we have the particulars of her visit, but not of the others.