The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 213

Ver. 26.-And Solomon gathered together scribes H as '' consisting of low hills, about Ills cha.riots and horsemen, and he had a five hundred feet above the sea, of whit~ thousand and Your hundred chariots [these soft limestone," and adds that II the broad words have an important bee.ring on cb. valleys among these hills . . . produce fine iv. 26, where see note], a.nd twelYe thousand crops of corn, and on the hills the long horsemen. [The question may suggest itself olive groves flourish better than in other here, why did Solomon, who was a " man of districts "-an incidental and valuable con- peace," maintain such o. formidable array of firmation of the text. 11 The name Sul.a, chariots and horsemen? For not only we.a or Bhephelah, still exists in four or fi.e it in contravention of Dent. xvii. 16 (cf. places round Beit Jibrin" (Eleutheropolis), 1 Sam. viii. 11), but it was entirely un- ib. p. 276] for abundance. necessary, especially for a nation inhabiting Ver. 28. - And Solomon had horses a hilly country like that of Israel. We find, brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn : the consequently, that David, when he took a king's merchants received the linen ya.rn at thousand chariots from He.de.rezer (1 Chron. a price. lThis ie a difficult passage, and xviii. 4), only reserved for his own use one the difficulty lies in the word i1l~t;l, here ren- hundred of them, though he was at the time dered II linen yam." Elsewhere the word engaged in war. It may perhaps be said signifies, a congregation, or gathering, as of that this force we.a necessary to keep the water (Gen. i. 10; Exod. vii. 19; Levit. xi. tributary kings in due subjection. But it 36). Consequently, Gesenius (with Vata- seems quite as likely that it was maintained blus, al.) would here interpret, "company." largely for the sake of pomp and display. "And the company of kings' merchants took Solomon seems to have determined in every the company (of horses) at a price." The way, and at any cost, to rival and surpass great di.fliculty in the way of this inter- all contemporary-kings. The mo.intenance pretation is perhaps the paronomasia, of this large force of cavalry is another which, though not altogether without pre- token of declension], whom he bestowed in cedent, would be formal and unusual in the cities for chariots (eh. ix. 19), and with grave history. Somewhat similarly Bahr: the king at Jerusalem_ 11 and as to horses ... and their collection, Ver. 27.-And the king made silver to be the merchants of the king made a collec- 1n Jerusalem as stones [an obviously hyper- tion for a certain price," but this again is bolical expression], and ceda.r trees made strained ll.nd artificial. Perhaps it is safer he to be as the sycamore tree11 [the ;ir,i~~ to· see in the word the no.me of a place. is the 11vrr:oµwpea of the New Testament The LXX. (similarly the Vulgate) renders, (Luke xix. 4), i.e., as the no.me imports, 11 from Egypt and from Thekoa," rr:ai irr: the fig-mulberry-the "sycamine tree" of flErr:ovE, which Keil, however, contends is Luke xvii. 6 would seem to denote the mul- manifestly a variation of an older reading, berry proper. Though now but compara- rai Ire Kovl, 11 and from Kova." As to Koa tively rare in Palestine, H is clear that or Kove., it is objected that no such place is formerly it was very common (see, e.g., Isa. mentioned elsewhere, and it is e.lleged that ix. 10, whence it appears that it was used if it were a market for horses, or even if it for building purposes, and where it is also were a frontier station, where the duties on contrasted with the cedars). It wo.s esteemed horses were collected, we should surely have both for its fruit and its wood, so much so beard of it again. But this is by no me11,I1S that David appointed a steward to have certain. Koa may well have been o.n in- the supervision both of " the olive-trees significant post on the frontier which it and the sycamore trees in the Shefelah " wns ol).1.y necessary to mention in this con- (1 Chron. xxvii. 28). The sycamores of Egypt, nexion. 0o:ovl certainly looks like an emen- which were used for the coffins of mummies dation, but it is to be remembered that (Diet. Bib. iii. p. 1394), are referred to in although Tekoa (Amos i. 1 ; 2 Chron. xi.. 6; Psa. lxxviii. 47, in a way which bespeaks xx. 20) was apparently an insignific11I1t their great value. There is e. good description village, still it gave its name to II district; of the tree in Thomson," Land and Book," i. it was no great distance from the Egyptian 23-25] that are in the vale [Se.me word as frontier- it was some six Roman miles in 1 Chron. l.c. The Shefelo.h is a "broad south of Bethlehem, according to Jerome swelling tract of mo.ny hundred miles in (in Amos, Proem.), and it may have been area, which sweeps gently down from the the rendezvous of the Egyptian and Hebrew mountains of Judah 'to mingle with the horse-dealers. The text would thus yield bounding main ' of the Mediterranean'' the following meaning: "And as for the (Grove,Diot. Bib. iii. p.1611). This LowII export of Solomon's horses from Egypt and Country" extended from Joppa to Gaza. from Koo. (or Tekoo.), the king's merchants 'J'i..ie translation "vale" is altogether mis- took tliem from Koa (or Tekoa) at a price." leo.Jiug. Conder ( Tent-work," p. 5) de- • 11 Yer. 29. --And a. chariot [inclnd.i.J.1g  21& THE FIRST BOOK OF KlNGS. (olI, X, 14-29.