The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 116

her d0ubts resolved, her questions answered, and her anxieties allayed by one who seC'nll'd specially upraised as an embodiment and teacher of wisdom. 4. The grandeur of her trai'.n. Attended by " a great company " of followers, courtiers, and servants, as well as by a numerous cavalcade of camels bearing the products of her country- gold, spices, and precious stones-intended for presents to Solomon (cf. Gen. xliii. 11), this royal lady, setting forth in search of wisdom, accomplished her long and painful journey, and eventually reached Jerusalem. II. HER INTERVIEW WITH SOLOMON. (Vers. 2-8.) 1. The wisdom she heard. "Of all that was in her heart she communed with Solomon; and Solomon told her all her questions." If these did not include gravissimas et sacras qurestiones, i.e. questions relating to the mysteries of relii::ion and the wor$hip of God, one fails to see why they should exclude these, ns has been suggested (Keil). That they concerned not meta- physical problems may be conceded. The story bears upon its surface that the wisdom she chiefly inquired after and Solomon principally discoursed about was that whose beginning is the fear of the Lord, and whose end is the keeping of his commandments (Pa. cxi. 10; Prov. i. 7)-that which concerned the dignity and glory of human life, and promoted the attainment of human happiness (Prov. ii. 2-12; iii. 13-18; iv. 5-13; ix. 9-12). But whatever her queries were, they were all answered. None were too abstruse or recondite for this Heaven-endowed king to explain. 2. The splendour she beheld. She saw the wisdom of Solomon embodied in his works as well as heard it distilling from his lips. "The house that he had built "-not the temple, but the palace, which had occupied thirteen years in construction, and upon which he had lavished all that the architectural and decorating arts of the time, assisted by his enormous wealth, could procure---this royal residence which, in magnificence, rivalled, if it did not eclipse, the dwelling of Jehovah, 1was looked upon with wonder and astonishment. In particular she was fascinated by the splendour of the royal table. (1) "The meat of his table," i.e. the variety and sumptuousness of the fare, perhaps also including the costliness and beauty of the vessels in which it was served (ver. 20; cf. 1 Kings x. 20); "the siiting of his servants," i.e. of his high officials at the royal t.able (Benheau, Bahr), or" the places appointed in the palace for the ministers of the king" (Keil); "the attendance of his ministers," either the standing, i.e. waiting, of his servants at the table (Bertheau, Bahr), or, as above, the places appointed for them in the palace (Thenius, Keil); the apparel of his attendants, which would no doubt be distinguished for its splendour; "the cupbearers also," whose office was to pour out wine for the king (Gen. xL 11; Neh. i. 11; Xen., 'Cyrop.,' i. 3, 8, 9), "and their apparel,'' which would be correspondingly resplendent ;-all these left upon her mind an impres- sion, not so much of Solomon's wealth and power as of his transcendent wisdom. A second thing she witnessed confirmed this, viz. (2) the stair which led from the palace to the temple. The old translators (the Cbaldee, the Syriac, and the Latin as well as the Greek) thought the words in the Hebrew referred to the burnt offerings which he offered in the house of Jehovah-an opinion in which they have been followed by some modem interpreters (Luther, A. Clarke, Bertheau). These, however, he would hardly have shown to one not a proselyte. Besides, had she beheld the magnificence of the temple service, some allusion to this in her address to Solomon would most likely have appeared. Hence the opinion is to be preferred that the reference is to the arched Tiad.uct which led from his palace to the temple (Keil, Bahr, Winer, Ewald, Jamieson), the remains of which, rece!ltly discovered, show it to have been, " for boldness of con- ception, for structure and magnificence, one of the greatest wonders in Jerusalem," That such a eommnnica.tion between the palace on Zion and the temple on Moriah existed seems hinted at in 2 Kings xvi. 18 and in eh. xxiii. 20; while Josephus speaks of a passage from the temple to the king's palace which led over the inter- mediate valley(' Ant.,' xv. 11. 5). If the ruins described by Robinson are those of this bridge, it must have contained five arches, each sixty feet wide and a hundred and thirty feet high. "The whole structure," says Isaa.c Taylor, "when seen from the southern extremity of the Tyropceon, must have had an aspect of grandeur, espe.cially aa connected with the lofty and sumptuous edifices of the temple and of Zion to tho right and to the left " ( quoted by Jamieson, in loc. ). 3. The admiration s'/,,e felt. Sincere and intense. Solomon's wisdom had been (1) in complete accordance with the report she had heard of it in her own country (ver. 5)-rumour had not lied; (2) it on. 1it. 1-31.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 117