1 Kings 10:14-29--Solomon's Great Wealth

1 Kings 10:14-29
English Standard Version

Solomon's Great Wealth
14 Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, 15 besides that which came from the explorers and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of the west and from the governors of the land. 16 King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold; 600 shekels of gold went into each shield. 17 And he made 300 shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. 18 The king also made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold. 19 The throne had six steps, and the throne had a round top, and on each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing beside the armrests, 20 while twelve lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the six steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom. 21 All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. 22 For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

23 Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. 24 And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. 25 Every one of them brought his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year.

​26 And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. 27 And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah. 28 And Solomon's import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king's traders received them from Kue at a price. 29 A chariot could be imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150, and so through the king's traders they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.

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Much gold was paid to Solomon in tribute year after year so that he was easily the richest man in the world.  To put the 666 talents of gold Solomon brought in in one year in perspective, all the gold used to build the original Tabernacle was only 29 talents of gold in Exodus 38:24.  Each talent of gold was approximately 75 pounds or 35 kilograms.  In the New Testament a "talent" is a gold coin that is worth about a year's salary, but is not worth nearly the amount of a talent of gold in weight.  This is in addition to the monies that came from explorers and the business of merchants and the tribute money (money for peace and protection) paid by all the kings of the west and governors of the lands.

To say that Solomon liked to show off his wealth was an understatement.  He made 200 shields of pure gold, each weighing 600 shekels and another 300 shields that were probably gold-plated or much smaller in size because only three minas of gold went into each of them.  These were used as decorations in the House of the Forest of Lebanon (I believe this is the name of Solomon's palace he built for himself).

Solomon also had a great throne made of ivory (I only know a couple ways to get ivory, and it's to kill big animals that have ivory tusks, so this would require the slaughter of many animals) and then he had the throne overlaid in gold.  This was his throne he used in The House of the Forest of Lebanon (his palace).  The throne was so large that it had six steps built to get up to it and had a circular platform that it sat on so that there was space on each side of the throne for a figure of a lion that came up next to each armrest on the throne.  The text says that no throne like it was ever made by any other king in any other kingdom in the world (I'd assume that it true to this day, though it was definitely true at the time the text was written).

Even the cups that Solomon drank out of and the plates that he ate off of were made out of pure gold.  There was gold everywhere within The House of the Forest of Lebanon.  Solomon didn't even have anything made out of silver because silver was considered worthless in his kingdom since he had so much gold.  Solomon had two entire fleets of ships at his command--one stationed in Tarshish (that is Spain) and the other stationed in Syria with Hiram, king of Syria.  While these ships were capable of making war, Solomon had a time of great peace and these ships seemed to mostly be used to bring gold and other precious items from far off lands to Solomon.  The western fleet stationed in Tarshish used to return every three years with items like gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

While Solomon was definitely the richest man in the world, it was the wisdom that the LORD had given him that made him known all around the world.  All the kingdoms of the world brought gifts to him (imagine how hard it was trying to find a gift suitable, yet alone would impress, the man who was the richest man in the world and seemed to already have everything).  They would bring the best they had to offer--articles of silver and gold, garments, myrrh, spices, horses, mules and more.  Each person felt required to bring more and more each year to try to stay on Solomon's good side.  So it was that the Land of Israel which only had an ancestral land between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea that was about the size of New Jersey in the United States of America had become the richest and most powerful nation in the world with direct control it would seem of everything promised to Abraham and his descendants and possibly even a larger area that was allied with him though not he was not a direct sovereign over their lands as seemingly the whole world wanted to be friends with Solomon.  I'm  not exactly sure how large "the whole world" was to Solomon at that point.

Solomon also had a large army that he seemed to never be in need of.  He had 1,400 chariots (each probably holding two men so that one would be responsible for driving while the other was responsible for fighting), and 12,000 horsemen.  The number of foot soldiers aren't given because the strength of an army at this time was counted in their chariots and horsemen since they were the fastest and strongest units.  The book of Psalms even has a verse that makes the point of this, "Some trust in chariots, and some in horsemen, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God." (Psalm 20:7).  While the people of Israel hopefully heeded the words of this psalm and continued to trust not in chariots or horsemen, but in the name of the LORD, the numbers of chariots and horsemen that Solomon had were enough to have "peace through strength" and to let those that would be envious of his wealth and kingdom know to stay away because there would be a high price to pay if they tried to take any of it. 

I'm sure this meant that Solomon also negotiated from a strong position and got whatever he wanted because everyone feared that he had the wealth, resources, manpower and allies to beat any of them in battle if they got on his bad side.  During the days of Solomon, silver was as plentiful and as worthless as stone, and the cypress tree (an expensive tree from far away that would need to be transplanted) became as numerous as the sycamore tree (a native tree that most everyone had in their backyard).

Solomon didn't even have to build his own chariots or breed his own horses for he knew Egypt had the best of both and he simply paid them the price they asked whenever he wanted to buy more....600 shekels of silver for a chariot and 150 shekels of silver for a horse.  Then these chariots and horses were exported to help strengthen the armies of Hiram king of Syria and to the kings of the Hittites that allied themselves with Solomon.  This strengthened Israel's position even more as they had strong friends on every side who would be the first to battle any enemy forces and any foe should probably be defeated by the Syrians and Hittites long before they ever got to Israel.  However, even with all this wealth and military strength, peace will not last forever because Solomon will turn from the LORD starting in the next chapter.  The many women that he marries in order to establish and maintain relations with other kingdoms will turn his heart to foreign gods, just like the LORD warned about in Deuteronomy--the people were warned the the king should not marry foreign women who worshiped other gods for this very reason.  As a result, Israel will eventually face the curses of the Law as the heart of the king will turn the heart of the entire nation.  That's what we'll see in the rest of 1st and 2nd Kings as we continue our study together.