nations were content to pay annual tribute in the form | our experience, though there was there no personal cen of gifts (ix, iM ). The kings of the Hittites and of Syria " " ' ' ' ' ' i --i --
welcomed the opening of a new line of commerce which enabled them to find in Jerusalem an emporium where they might get the chariots and horses of Kgypt (1 Kings X, 29). This, however, was obviously but a small part of the trathc organized by Solomon. The founda- tion of cities like Tadmor in the wilderness, and Tiph- sah (Thapsacus) on the Euphrates; of others on the route, each with it-s own special market for chariots or horses or stores (2 Chron. viii, 3-0); the erection of lofty towers on Lebanon (2 Chrou. Inc. cit. ; Cant, vii, 4), jMtinted to a more distant commerce, opening out the resources of Central Asia, reaching, as that of Tyre did afterwanls (availing itself of this very route), to the iiomnd tribes of the Caspian and the IJlack seas, to Togarmah ami Meshech and Tubal (Ezek. xxvii, 13, 14: comp. Milmaii, //Lit, of the Jews, i, 270).
With the few exceptions above noted, the reign of .Solomon verified his name. It was a time of peace: '• he had peace on all sides round about him, and Judah and Israel dwelt safely" (1 Kings iv, 24, 25). The arras of David had won the ein|iire which Solomon now en- Joyed. It was an empire in the Oriental sense, ex- tending from the Eujilirates to the jMediterranean. from Thapsacus to (iaza. The outlying territories paid trib- ute to their suzerain; "they that dwell in the wilder- ness bowed before him ; the kings of Tarshish and of the isles brought presents; the kings of Slieba and Seba offereil gifts;" the Syrian tribes beyond Lebanon and as far as Damascus, with Moab, Ammon, and Edom, the Arabian clans, the surviving aborigines, and the Philis- tines, di<l homage and |)aiil tribute — "they brought presents, and served .Solomon all the days of his life." At the same time proper measures or precautions were taken to preserve peace. Fortresses seem to have been built along the ridges of Lebanon, and on the frontiers •' were churiot-cities, and cities of horsemen." The two lieth-horons, on the boundary-line of the great and un- easy tribe of Ephraim, and on the high-road between .Jerusalem ami the sea-coast, as well from the east as from Philistia au<l Egypt, were strongly fortified — be- came "fenced cities, with walls, bars, and gates" (2 Chron. viii, .")). For a siiniljir reason the ol<l citv of Gezer, on the Philistine bonier, was rebuilt and garri- soned; and lla/.or and Megi<ldo, guarding the plain of Ewlraelon from Syrian or Assyrian attack, rose into great fortilications. No doubt, also, on the south, and fronting Idum:ea and the desert, similar military sta- tions were placed at intervals. Surh a congeries of kingrjoms has but a loose coherence, and continues united only HO long as the central conirolling power maintains it.s predominance, so that Silomon's empire, made up »( those heterogeneous materials, fell to pieces at his death and the revolution that so closely Odlowed it.
4. The Hiirvey of the intlnence exercised by Solomon on surrounding nations woidd be incotnplcte if we were to paw* over thai whicli was more direclly personal — the fame of his glory ami his wis<loin. The legends which (wrvade the East are probably not merely the expansion of the scanty iii>lices of iheOld I'est., biit (as suggested above), like those which gather round the names of Nimrod and Alexander, the result ol the im- pression made by the perstjiial [iresence of one of the
tre round which the admiration could gather itself. The journey of the queen of .Sheba, though from its circum- stances the most conspicuous, did not stand alone. The inhabitants of Jerusalem, of the whole line of country between it and the Gulf of Akaba, saw with amazement the "great train;" the men with their swarthy faces, the camels bearing spices and gold and gems, of a queen who had come from the far South, because she had heard of the wisdom of Solomon, and connected with it " tbc name of Jehovah" (1 Kings x, 1). She came with hard questions to test that wisdom, and the words just quoted may throw light upon their nature. Not riddles and enigmas only, such as the sportive fancy of the East delights in, but the ever-old, ever-new, problems of life, such as, even in that age and country, were vex- iiiir the hearts of the speakers in the book of Job, were stirring in her mind when she communed with Solomon of " all that was in her heart" (2 Chron. x, 2). She meets us the representative of a body whom the dedica- tion-prayer shows to have been numerous, the strangers "coming from a far country" because of the "great name" of Jehovah (1 Kings viii, 41), many of them princes themselves, or the messengers of kings (2 Chron. ix, 23). The historians of Israel delighted to dwell on her confession that the reality surpassed the fame, "the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me" (ver. 6 ; Ewald, iii, 353). (See Schramm, Be Fama Sdlom. [Herb. 1745].)
The territory of .Sheba, according to Strabo, reached so far north as to meet that of the Nabath.-eans, al- though its proper seat was at the southernmost angle of Arabia. The very rich presents made by the queen show the extreme value of her commerce with the He- brew monarch ; and this early interchange of hospitality derives a peculiar interest from the fact that in much later ages^those of the ^laccabees and downward — the intercourse of the Jews with Sheba became so intimate, and their infiucnce, and even power, so great. Jewish circumcision took root there, and princes held sway who were called Jewish. The language of Sheba is be- lieved to have been strongly different from the literate Arabic; yet, like the Etliiopic, it belonged to the great Syro-Arabian family, and was not alien to the Hebrew in the same sense that the Egyptian was; and the great ease with wliich the pure monotheism of the IMac- cabees propagated itself in Sheba gives plausibility to the opinion that even at the time of Solomon the people of Sheba had much religious superiority over the Arabs and Syrians in general. If so. it becomes clear how the curiosity of the southern queen would be worked upon by seeing tlie riches of the distant monarch, whose purer creed must have been carried everywhere witli them by his sailors and servants. See Siikha.