The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 209

came to Solomon 1n one yea.r [probably one of traders. For the construction, see Ewald partioulo.r and exceptional year, probably 287e], and o! the traffick [it is note- also the yeo.r of the queen's visit, not year worthy that no such word is used before by year (Wordsworth, al.), as the Vulgate tl 171;l:J above] of the spice [not in Heh.] (per singulos annos). One fleet only came home from its voyage after three years, and merchants r',;i:i is akin to ';,~7- Like the the gold would hardly weigh precisely 666 preceding word, the primary meaning is to talents year by year] was eile hundred • go about ('n foot); hence, to trade. It is threescore and eile talents of gold. [The correspondence with the number of the probable that Solomon's great co=ercial beast (Rev. xiii. 18 ; cf. Ezra. ii. 13) is in all enterprises were conducted for bis own probability not altogether accidental. It is benefit, i.e., that the merchants were little possible, i.e., that the number of the beast more than agents, who bought and sold for is a reminiscence of this number of talents. the king. Bach is the custom of E:i.stern For we may surely see in this statement of kings (Kitto)], and of aJl the kings of Solomon's prodigious wealth an indication Arabia [:l:)VQ is very variously interpreted. of bis worldliness, the tw·ning-point, per- According to Gesenius it means foreigners, haps, in his estrangement from God. " The and he would understand " foreign kings love of money" may have been the root of who made an alliance with the Israelites," a.ll bis evil. It is certainly rewarko.ble that and so the Chaldee. Keil: "the kings of the from this time forward his career is one of mixed population" (mentionedExod. xii. 38. steady declension. It is also rema1kable that Cf. Jer. 1. 37; Neh. xiii 3). Perhaps the while he is here represented to ns as a words are best explained by Jer. xxv. 24: "royal merchant," the mark of the beast is " The kings of Arabia (:llt) and . . . of the on the buyers and sellers (Rev. xiii. 17). But mingled people (:l'Jli.) that dwell in the see "Expositor," May, 1881. It is, of course, desert," i.e., the d~sert of Arabia deserta, possible that the number has been corrupted, bordeiing on Palestine. The chronicler but, on the other hand, it may have been re- here gives us :lil,1, i.e., not the Arabia of corded, partly because of the singularity of the sum tota.l. The 666 ta.lents include the the geographers: ·but the tract of country receipts from all sources-taxes, tribute, and south and east of Palestine, as far as the voyo.ges-with the exception ma.de presently Red Sea (Geseniue). No doubt these kings, (ver. 15). Rawlinson quotes Keil (in his who were great eheepmasters, pa.id their earlier edition) as estimating this a.mount tribute in flocks of sheep and goats (2 Chron. at £3,646,350. But in bis later work, Keil xvii. 11 ; 2 Kings iii. 4] , and of the governors puts it in round numbers at two e.nd a. half of the country. [The word nin;J (cI. eh. millions (17,000,000 the.Jere), while Mr. Poole xx. 24) is a foreign word, perhaps Sanskrit, calculates it at about £8,000,000. Theee 11pp,trently borrowed by the Jews from the widely varying figures are instructive, as Persians. It is used of Tatna.i (Ezra. v. 6), showing tbo.t both estimates are little more of Zerubbabel (Haggai i.1), and of Nehemiah than guesswork. We do not know the value (Neh. v. 14). Probably our author, in whose of the Hebrew ta.lent, nor, indeed, ce.n it day it was a. familiar and well-understood ever be rightly appraised until we know its word, substituted it for soma older Hebrew purchasing power. The denarius, e.g., is designation. But the office and character gener~y valued at 8½~- (or 7!d.) because it of these "governors" is more difficult to ~onto.med some 68 gro.ms of pure silver, but define than the nanie. Rawlinson thinks ?ts real value. was nearer three shillings, that, in some parts of the empire, the kings masmuch as it was a. fair wage for a day's -the " empire of Solomon," he observes, work on the land (Matt. xx. 2). In e.ny case, 11 we.a in the main a congeries of email it is clear that this sum should hardly be kingdoms " - " had been superseded by compared with the annual revenue of other governors." But it seems as natural to Orienta.lempires, as by Rawlinson (see above). understand the term of the twelve prefects Ver 15.-Beeide that he had of the mer- mentioned in chap. iv., who were " tho chant.men [The root i~l'l signifies to wander governors of the land," or of similar officers or travel about. In Num. xiii. 16, 17 it is in the different outposts of the kingdom. We used of spies. It ma.y here be a.ppli~d to know that the contributions which passed persona who tro.velled for purposes of trade; through their hands were furnished in kind; but the versions differ very materially in hence, perhaps, it is that this income is their rendering of the word; the LXX. distinguished from the gold of ver. 14. understanding it of tribute (rwv lf>opwv rwv Ver. 16.-And king Solomon made tw:i inro reray µ.ivwv} ; the Chaldee, Syr1ac, and hundred targets [iU~, from a. root which Arabic of artizans; the Vulgate of ambas- ·signifies protect, a' iarge oblong shie!tl 1adora. A.nd the wo1·d is uowhere else used which covered the entire person (Psa. v. 12~  212 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [oB, X, 14-29,