V. Internid llwtoi-y. — 1. Admiiiistratire Capacity. — We can now enter upon the reign of Solomon, in its bearing upon the history of Israel, without the necessity of a digression. The first prominent scene is one which presents his character in its noblest aspect. 'I'here were two holy places which divided the reverence of the people — the ark and its provisional tabernacle at .leru- salein, and the original tabernacle of the congregation, which, after many wanderings, was now pitched at (iib- eon. It was thought right that the new king sliould
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offer solemn sacrifices at both. After those at Giheon there came that vision of the night which has in all ages borne its noble witness to the hearts of rulers. Not for riches, or long life, or victory over enemies, would the son of Daviil, then at least true to his high calling, feeling himself as "a little child" in comparison with the vastness of his work, offer his supplications, but for a "wise and understanding heart," that he might judge the people. The " speech pleased the Lord." There came in answer the promise of a wisdom "like which there had been none before; like which tliere should be none after" (1 Kings iii, 5-15). So far all was well. The prayer was a right and noble one. Yet there is also a contrast between it and the prayers of David which accounts for many other contrasts. The desire of David's heart is not chiefly for wisdom, but for holi- ness. He is conscious of an oppressing evil, and seeks to be delivered from it. He repents, and falls, and re- pents again. Solomon asks only for wisdom. He has a lofty ideal before him, and seeks to accomplish it; but he is as yet haunted by no deeper yearnings, and speaks as one who has "no need of repentance."
The wisdom asked for was given in large measure, and took a varied range. The wide world of nature, animate and inanimate, which the enterprises of his subjects were throwing open to him, the lives and char- acters of men, in all their surface-weaknesses, in all their inner depths, lay before him, and he took cognizance of all. But the highest wisdom was that wanted for the liighest work, for governing and guiding, and the his- torian hastens to give an illustration of it. The pat- tern-instance is in all its circumstances thoroughly Ori- ental. The king sits in the gate of the city, at the early dawn, to settle any disputes, however strange, between any litigants, however humble. In the rough-and-ready test which turns the scales of evidence, before so evenly balanced, there is a kind of rough humor as well as sa- gacity specially attractive to the Eastern mind, then and at all times (1 Kings iii, 16-28).
But the power to rule showed itself not in judging only, but in organizing. The system of government which he inherited from David received a fuller expan- sion. Prominent among the " princes" of his kingdom, i. e. officers of his own appointment, were members of the priestly order : Azariah the son of Zadok, Zadok himself the high-priest, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada as captain of the host, another Azariah and Zabud, the sons of Nathan — one over the officers (Ni/stsabim) who acted as purvej'ors to the king's household (1 Kings iv, 2-5), the other in the more confidential character of " king's friend." In addition to these, there were the two scribes (^Sopherim), the king's secretaries, drawing up his edicts and the like [see Sckibe], Elihoreph and Ahiah, the recorder or annalist of the king's reign {Maz- ki?-'), the superintendent of the king's house and house- hold expenses (Isa. xxii, 15), including probably the harem. The last in order, at once the most indispensa- ble and the most hated, was Adoniram, who presided " over the tribute," that word including probablj' the personal service of forced labor (comp. Keil, Cumm. ad loc, and Ewald, Gesch. Isr. iii, 334).
2. Exchequer. — The last name leads us to the king's finances. The first impression of the facts given us is that of abounding plenty. That all the drinking-ves- sels of the two palaces should be of pure gold was a small thing, " nothing accounted of in the days of S<ilo- mon" (1 Kings x, 21). "Silver was in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as the sycamore-trees in the vale" (x, 27). The people were "eating and drinking and making merry" (iv, 20). The treasures left by David for building the Temple might well seem almost inex- haustible (1 Chron. xxix, 1-7). (We labor, however, under a twofold uncertainty, [1] as to the accuracy of the numbers, [2] as to the value of the terms. Pri- deaux, followed by Lewis, estimates the amoimt at £833,000,000, yet the savings of the later years of Da- vid's life, for one special purpose, could hardly have
surpassed the national debt of England [comp. Milman, f/iitori/ of the Jeirs, i, 267].) The large quantities of the precious metals imported from Ophir and Tarshish woidd speak, to a people who had not learned the les- sons of a long experience, of a boundless source of wealth (1 Kings ix, 28). All the kings and princes of the sub- ject provinces j)aid tribute in the form of gifts, in mon- ey and in kind, " at a fixed rate year by year" (x, 25). Monopolies of trade, then, as at all times in the East, contributed to the king's treasury, and the trade in the fine linen and chariots and horses of Egypt must have brought in large profits (ver. 28,29). The king's domain- lands were apparently let out, as vineyards or for other purposes, at a fixed aimual rental (Cant, viii, 1 1 ). Upon the Israelites (probably not till the later period of his reign) there was levied a tax of ten per cent, on their produce (1 Sam. viii, 15). All the provinces of his own kingdom, grouped apparently in a special order for this purpose, were bound each in turn to supply the king's enormous household with provisions (1 Kings iv, 21-23). The total amount thus brought into the treasury in gold, exclusive of all payments in kind, amounted to 666 talents (x, 14). See Tax.