Commentaria in III Regum
Chapter 3. Synopsis of the Chapter
Solomon, asking wisdom of God, obtains it. Next, verse 16, he settles with wonderful sagacity the dispute of two women who had borne children, litigating over a living son, and so wins for himself the highest authority and favor among all.
1. So the kingdom was confirmed in the hand of Solomon, and he made affinity with Pharao king of Egypt: for he took his daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about. 2. But the people sacrificed in the high places: for there was no temple built to the name of the Lord until that day. 3. And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the precepts of David his father, only he sacrificed in the high places, and burnt incense. 4. He went therefore to Gabaon to sacrifice there: for that was the great high place: a thousand victims for holocausts did Solomon offer upon that altar in Gabaon. 5. And the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, saying: Ask what thou wilt that I should give thee. 6. And Solomon said: Thou hast shown great mercy to thy servant David my father, as he walked before thee in truth, and justice, and an upright heart with thee: and thou hast kept for him thy great mercy, and hast given him a son sitting on his throne, as it is this day. 7. And now, O Lord God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am a little child, and know not how to go out and come in. 8. And thy servant is in the midst of the people which thou hast chosen, an immense people, which cannot be numbered nor reckoned for multitude. 9. Give therefore to thy servant an understanding heart, to judge thy people, and discern between good and evil. For who shall be able to judge this people, thy people, which is so numerous? 10. And the word was pleasing to the Lord, that Solomon had asked such a thing. 11. And the Lord said to Solomon: Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself many days, nor riches, nor the lives of thy enemies, but hast asked for thyself wisdom to discern judgment, 12. behold I have done for thee according to thy words, and have given thee a wise and understanding heart, so that there hath been no one like thee before thee, nor shall arise after thee. 13. Yea, and the things also which thou didst not ask, I have given thee: to wit, riches and glory, so that no one hath been like thee among the kings in all days heretofore. 14. And if thou wilt walk in my ways, and keep my precepts and my commandments, as thy father walked, I will lengthen thy days. 15. And Solomon awaked, and perceived that it was a dream; and when he was come to Jerusalem, he stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered holocausts, and sacrificed peace offerings, and made a great feast for all his servants. 16. Then there came two women that were harlots to the king, and stood before him; 17. and one of them said: I beseech thee, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house, and I was delivered of a child with her in the chamber. 18. And the third day after that I was delivered, she also was delivered; and we were together, and no other with us in the house, only we two. 19. And this woman’s child died in the night: for in her sleep she overlaid him. 20. And rising in the dead time of the night, she took my child from my side, while I thy handmaid was asleep, and laid it in her bosom; and laid her dead child in my bosom. 21. And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold it was dead: but considering him more diligently, when it was clear day, I found that it was not mine which I had borne. 22. And the other woman answered: It is not so as thou sayest, but thy child is dead, and mine is alive. On the contrary she said: Thou liest; for my child liveth, and thy child is dead. And in this manner they contended before the king. 23. Then said the king: This woman saith: My child liveth, and thy child is dead. And this answereth: Nay, but thy child is dead, and mine liveth. 24. The king therefore said: Bring me a sword. And when they had brought a sword before the king, 25. Divide, said he, the living child in two, and give half of it to the one, and half of it to the other. 26. But the woman whose child was alive said to the king (for her bowels were moved upon her child): I beseech thee, my lord, give her the child alive, and do not kill it. But the other said: Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. 27. The king answered, and said: Give the living child to this woman, and let it not be killed: for she is the mother thereof. 28. And all Israel heard the judgment which the king had judged, and they feared the king, seeing the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment.
1. HE MADE AFFINITY WITH PHARAO KING OF EGYPT: FOR HE TOOK HIS DAUGHTER,—to wife. Eupolemus in Eusebius, book 9 On the Preparation, last chapter, asserts that this Pharao was the one surnamed Vaphres, who is different from, and long before, Pharao Vaphres, or Ephree, or Apries, who was the grandson of Pharao Nechao, the slayer of Josias king of Juda, and the last of the Pharaos, being conquered and subdued by Nabuchodonosor, as I said at Jeremias 44:30.
Solomon wished by this marriage to bind Pharao to himself, as a neighboring and powerful king, by whose help he might establish his kingdom, and defend it against the force and power of the Chaldeans, Assyrians, Medes, etc.
Furthermore this marriage of a believer with an unbeliever was lawful, both because God had expressly forbidden the Jews only to take as wives the daughters of the Chanaanites, from whom there was greater danger of perversion and idolatry, and not those of the other nations, although He also showed sufficiently that this too displeased Him on account of a like danger, as will appear at chapter 11, verse 4; and because it is probable that this Egyptian bride of Solomon was converted to Judaism: which being done, it was lawful to marry her; for God permits this in Deuteronomy 21:10 and following. For so Solomon had already taken Naama the Ammonitess, and David the daughter of Tholmai king of Gessur, and Booz Ruth the Moabitess, and Salmon Rahab of Jericho, and Joseph the daughter of Putiphare the Egyptian, and Moses the daughter of Jethro the Madianite. So Abulensis, Pineda, Serarius, Salianus, Sanchez and others. Less rightly, therefore, do the Hebrews in the Seder Olam, Theodoret and Procopius hold that Solomon sinned by taking a foreigner, because God had forbidden it in Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy 7:3.
The Hebrews think that the epithalamium of these nuptials of Solomon with the daughter of Pharao is sung in the Canticle of Canticles; but they err, as I showed in the Canticle. I confess, however, that there are allusions to them there, as when it says in Canticle 1:8: “To my company of horsemen, in Pharao’s chariots, have I likened thee,” and 3:11: “Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and see king Solomon in the diadem wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals”; which, though literally they apply to the nuptials of Christ with the Church, yet allude to the marriage of Solomon with the Egyptian, which was a type of them.
Finally, Josephus, Serarius and Sanchez are of opinion that Solomon married this Egyptian in the first year of his reign, while David was still living, though Abulensis, Cedrenus and Salianus put it in the third year.
UNTIL HE MADE AN END OF BUILDING HIS OWN HOUSE.—For Solomon, after the temple was built, built a house of his own for the daughter of Pharao, of which chapter 7, verse 8: meanwhile he assigned her a place in his palace, which was in the citadel of Sion.
2. BUT THE PEOPLE SACRIFICED IN THE HIGH PLACES: FOR THERE WAS NO TEMPLE BUILT.—You will ask, what were these high places, of which mention is so frequent in the books of Kings and of the Prophets? I answer that the high places were groves, or woods and thickets planted on high mountains, hills and shady retreats, in which most nations were accustomed to erect shrines and altars, as Homer, Virgil and others testify, who teach that the ancients built tombs for their dead in groves, in which at first they celebrated funeral rites, or performed rites to the heroes of the people, and soon began to sacrifice to them as to gods. They did this, both because high places are loftier than the rest and nearer to heaven, and therefore obtain more veneration among the rude people. Whence altar (altare) is so called from height (altitudo), as if alta ara, on which sacrifice is offered to the most high God: and the Greek bomos, that is altar, is so called from the Hebrew bamah, that is a high place; though the altar was not properly a high place. For Scripture, 4 Kings 23:15, distinguishes between the altar and the high place, but rather the altar was on a high place, namely a hill or mountain. Again, groves, because dense and silent, inspired in the Gentiles a certain sacred awe, who superstitiously thought that gods dwelt there, whom they call Satyrs and Fauns, as gods of the woods. Whence temples were called fana from the Fauns; unless you prefer that they took their name from fari, that is from giving oracles. Third, woods supply abundant timber for building shrines, altars and heaps of wood for pyres on which victims are burned; therefore they erected high places in them.