Commentaria in III Regum
Chapter 4. Synopsis of the Chapter
Are recounted, verse 1, the officers and princes of Solomon, and verse 7, the twelve overseers of provisions over the several tribes. Next, verse 20, the peace and happiness of Israel, and Solomon’s daily expenses, the breadth of his kingdom, his opulence and magnificence, especially in horses and chariots. Finally, verse 29, his wisdom, parables, songs and books.
1. And king Solomon reigned over all Israel, 2. and these were the princes which he had: Azarias the son of Sadoc the priest. 3. Elihoreph and Ahia the sons of Sisa, scribes; Josaphat the son of Ahilud, recorder. 4. And Banaias the son of Joiada was over the army; and Sadoc and Abiathar were priests. 5. And Azarias the son of Nathan was over them that were about the king; Zabud the son of Nathan, priest, was the king’s friend; 6. and Ahisar was master of the household, and Adoniram the son of Abda over the tribute. 7. And Solomon had twelve overseers over all Israel, who provided victuals for the king and his household; for each of them provided necessaries for one month in the year. 8. And these Bethsames, and in Elon, and in Bethanan; 10. Benhesed in Aruboth: his was Socho, and all the land of Epher; 11. Benabinadab, who had all Nephathdor, had Taphet the daughter of Solomon to wife; 12. Baana the son of Ahilud ruled Thanac and Mageddo and all Bethsan, which is by Sarthana beneath Jezrael, from Bethsan to Abelmehula, over against Jecmaan; 13. Bengaber in Ramoth Galaad; he had the towns of Jair the son of Manasses in Galaad; he was over all the country of Argob, which is in Basan, threescore great cities walled and with brazen bars; 14. Ahinadab the son of Addo was over Manaim; 15. Achimaas in Nephtali; and he also had Basemath the daughter of Solomon to wife; 16. Baana the son of Husai in Aser and in Baloth; 17. Josaphat the son of Pharue in Issachar; 18. Semei the son of Ela in Benjamin; 19. Gaber the son of Uri in the land of Galaad, in the land of Sehon king of the Amorrhites and of Og king of Basan, over all that were in that land. 20. Juda and Israel were innumerable, as the sand of the sea for multitude, eating and drinking and rejoicing. 21. And Solomon was in his dominion holding all the kingdoms from the river of the land of the Philistines even to the border of Egypt, who brought him presents, and served him all the days of his life. 22. And the provision of Solomon for every day was thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore measures of meal, 23. ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture oxen, and a hundred rams, besides venison of harts, roes, and buffaloes, and fatted fowls. 24. For he had all the country that was beyond the river, from Thaphsa even to Gaza, and all the kings of those countries; and he had peace on all sides round about. 25. And Juda and Israel dwelt without any fear, every one under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan to Bersabee, all the days of Solomon. 26. And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for chariots, and twelve thousand for horsemen. 27. And the aforesaid overseers provided victuals for king Solomon, and for the necessaries of the table of king Solomon, with great care in their season. 28. They brought also barley and straw for the horses and beasts, to the place where the king was, according as it was appointed them. 29. And God gave to Solomon wisdom, and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, as the sand that is on the sea shore. 30. And the wisdom of Solomon surpassed the wisdom of all the Orientals and of the Egyptians, 31. and he was wiser than all men; wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Dorda the sons of Mahol; and he was renowned among all nations round about. 32. Solomon also spoke three thousand parables: and his poems were five and a thousand. 33. And he treated of trees, from the cedar that is in Libanus even unto the hyssop that cometh out of the wall; and he spoke of beasts, and of fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes. 34. And they came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who heard of his wisdom.
4. AND SADOC AND ABIATHAR WERE PRIESTS,—namely high priests, that is pontiffs. You will say: Solomon had already sent Abiathar away and deprived him of the pontificate, chapter 2, verse 27. I answer, all the officers of Solomon are recounted here, whether they were then, or had been, or were to be, as will appear at verses 11 and 15. For Scripture wished to enumerate them all here together. It names Abiathar, then, because he had been Pontiff in the time of David, and David had commended him to Solomon as faithful to himself: but because he conspired with Adonias against Solomon, Solomon therefore deprived him of the pontificate. So Abulensis. Others answer that Abiathar was recalled from exile by Solomon, not to the pontificate but to simple priesthood, as God had foretold by threatening his great-grandfather Heli, 1 Kings 2:36: “It shall come to pass that whosoever shall be left in thy house, etc., shall say: Put me to one part of the priestly office.” So Theodoret and Procopius. Third, Serarius answers that Abiathar is called a priest because he had been a priest.
5. ZABUD THE SON OF NATHAN, PRIEST,—that is, the king’s inmost counsellor, as the Septuagint translate. So the sons of David are called priests, that is princes of the court and nearest to the king, 2 Kings chapter 8, last verse.
11. TAPHET HAD THE DAUGHTER OF SOLOMON TO WIFE.—It is a prolepsis, for he did not yet have her, but afterwards had. For Solomon at this time was only about 20 years old. Whence he could not have a daughter of marriageable age. I say the same of Achimaas, who had another daughter of Solomon, verse 15. For all Solomon’s officers and princes are recounted here together, whether those who then were, or who were afterwards made, as I said at verse 4.
20. JUDA AND ISRAEL WERE INNUMERABLE, AS THE SAND OF THE SEA,—as if to say: In the time of Solomon the tribe of Juda and the other eleven tribes of Israel grew into as it were an innumerable multitude: and there was then the greatest abundance of all things, so that all rejoiced and exulted in their wealth and delights. Allegorically, the happiness of Solomon’s kingdom represented the supreme happiness of the kingdom of Christ in the Church by grace, in heaven by glory.
21. AND SOLOMON WAS IN HIS DOMINION HOLDING ALL THE KINGDOMS FROM THE RIVER OF THE LAND OF THE PHILISTINES EVEN TO THE BORDER OF EGYPT.—You will ask, what is the river of the land of the Philistines? First, Gaspar Sanchez thinks it is the sea of the Philistines, for the Philistines lie beside it. Second, Abulensis thinks it is the brook Rhinocolura, which separates Philistia from the Arabians. Third, others think it is the Jordan, or rather the source of the Jordan in Libanus: where rise the two streams Jor and Dan, which presently flowing together make the Jordan. But I say this river is the Euphrates. For “of the land of the Philistines” is not to be referred to “river,” as is plain from the Hebrew (for in the Hebrew it is nahar in the absolute state, not nehar, as it should be in the construct state if it governed the genitive: of the land) but to “kingdoms,” as if to say: Solomon held all the kingdoms of the land of the Philistines, from the river, that is, those which lie between the river Euphrates and the land of the Philistines inclusive, or Solomon held all the kingdoms of the regions beginning from the river Euphrates to the land of the Philistines. He preferred to say “of the land” rather than “to the land”; both to indicate that Solomon’s kingdom was not ended in the land of the Philistines but extended through it to the borders of Egypt, as if to say: from the river, tending through the land of the Philistines to the borders of Egypt; and because he speaks concisely, and from other places of Scripture as if commonly known concisely assigns the bounds of Solomon’s kingdom promised by God. For Scripture assigns the bounds of the holy land promised to the Jews: the River Euphrates on the east, Philistia on the west, Egypt on the south. For this God had promised Abraham, Genesis 15:18, saying: “To thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt even to the great river Euphrates.” So the author of this book of Kings explains himself presently in verse 24, saying: “For he had all the country that was beyond the river, from Thaphsa even to Gaza,” which is the last satrapy of the Philistines. So St. Augustine clearly not only understands but also reads in the Questions on Josue, question 21: “And he was ruling,” he says, “over all the kings from the river to the land of the Philistines, and to the borders of Egypt. Behold where it is fulfilled what God, speaking to Abraham and promising, had foretold in Genesis. By ‘from the river’ is here understood from the Euphrates.” Nor can it be taken here of the Jordan, since the Israelites already held lands on this side of the Jordan and beyond it even before the kingdom of Solomon. So also the Chaldee: from Perath (that is the Euphrates), he says, of the land of the Philistines, to the borders of Egypt. So also Benedict: From the river of the land, he says, that is, to the land of the Philistines. And Isidore more clearly: From the river to the land of the Philistines. So also Lyranus and Mariana, Vatablus: From the river and the land of the Palestinians to Egypt. For he gives here three bounds of Solomon’s kingdom, namely the Euphrates on the east, the Philistines on the west, and Egypt on the south, as I said.
22. AND THE PROVISION OF SOLOMON (that is of the court, or of the courtiers, namely the princes, followers and servants of Solomon) WAS THIRTY MEASURES OF FINE FLOUR, AND THREESCORE MEASURES OF MEAL, TEN FAT OXEN, AND TWENTY PASTURE OXEN (fed and fattened in the pastures) AND A HUNDRED RAMS.—Hence the multitude of those whom Solomon fed, and his magnificence, is plain. Simila is the flower, or whiter and purer flour of wheat, from which is made the fine and delicate bread, of which Martial, book 13:
You will not be able to count the praises or the uses of fine flour.
And Pliny, book 18, chapter 10: “Similago is made from the most esteemed wheat. From African wheat it is right that from modii there should come back half-modii, and five sextarii of fine flour. For so they call in wheat what in siligo they call the flower.” Whence Seneca, epistle 119: “Whether this bread,” he says, “be plebeian or of fine flour, is nothing to nature.” So the nobles eat fine-flour bread, the common people and peasants wheaten and siligo bread. Furthermore the cor is a measure containing thirty Roman modii. See what was said On Measures, at the end of the Pentateuch.
BESIDES VENISON OF HARTS, ROES AND BUFFALOES.—The bubalus here is not what the common people call the buffalo, a dull animal and the food of the poor, since it is put here among the delicacies of harts and roes taken in the hunt. Whence Oppian, book 2 On Hunting, asserts that the bubalus is of the race of roes. And Pliny, book 8, says: “Africa produces bubali, resembling the calf or rather the stag, while the unskilled common people give the name of bubali to wild oxen.” In Hebrew it is jachmur, which Rabbi Jona translates a great goat; the Zurich version, an ibex; others, a fallow deer; others, a wild he-goat.
24. FOR HE HAD ALL THE COUNTRY BEYOND THE RIVER, FROM THAPHSA TO GAZA.—Thaphsa is here opposed to Gaza; whence it seems to have been situated near the Euphrates. For here it bounded Solomon’s kingdom on the east, as Gaza on the west. Some suspect that Thaphsa is the one called Thapsacus by Ptolemy, Strabo, Xenophon and Stephen. There was another Thaphsa on this side of the Jordan, whose inhabitants Manahem slew, 4 Kings 15:16. Hence Solomon seems to have reigned beyond the river, that is beyond the Euphrates, and to have held part of Mesopotamia, from Thaphsa, that is, to Gaza.
26. AND SOLOMON HAD FORTY THOUSAND STALLS OF HORSES FOR CHARIOTS, AND TWELVE THOUSAND FOR HORSEMEN,—that is, he had 40 thousand horses in stalls. For so it is explained in 2 Paralipomenon, “forty thousand horses in stables, and twelve thousand of chariots and horsemen (both for pomp and for war).” It is a hypallage: “He had stalls of horses,” that is, he had horses in stalls, or in stables. Or certainly by “stalls” understand the enclosures which in a stable are assigned to each horse for eating: for the common manger is divided into various enclosures which are allotted to each horse, so that one horse is separated from another by a small wall or an interposed beam, lest the neighboring horse invade its enclosure and fodder, and fight and kick with it. So Vatablus.
Moreover in 2 Paralipomenon 9:25, in the Hebrew it is now: Solomon had four thousand stalls, because in each stall or stable he had ten horses, so that altogether he had 40 thousand horses for chariots, as our version and the Septuagint translate. For four thousand multiplied by ten make 40 thousand. So Vatablus.
Chariot horses are those that draw chariots, riding horses those that carry a horseman. Solomon needed so many chariot horses to carry his queens, of whom he had 700, and concubines, that is secondary wives, of whom he had three hundred. Also for carrying provisions, water, wood, stones, etc., for the building of the temple and his palaces. Riding horses for soldiers and horsemen, also for princes and honorary servants, who for the sake of honor and magnificence might throng and accompany him on them.
Some think that Solomon sinned in the abundance of so many horses against the law of Deuteronomy 17:16: “When he shall be appointed king, he shall not multiply horses to himself,” but he sinned more in the cause, namely in the multiplication of so many queens and wives, and so great royal pride and pomp, which the people had to maintain. Whence they also murmured against Roboam the son of Solomon, nay revolted from him to Jeroboam, as we shall hear in chapter 12, verse 4. Abulensis, however, excuses Solomon from sin, at least from a graver one, because he did it with a good intention and out of necessity, and in the abundance of all things and the greatest opulence. For God willed to show to the whole world in Solomon His own and Israel’s glory and magnificence.
29. AND GOD GAVE TO SOLOMON WISDOM, AND UNDERSTANDING EXCEEDING MUCH, AND LARGENESS (the Chaldee, enlargement) OF HEART, AS THE SAND THAT IS ON THE SEA SHORE,—“Largeness of heart” he calls magnificence and magnanimity, namely a royal heart, ample, magnificent, magnanimous; to sustain and overcome with great spirit so great a government and such burdens and works, especially of buildings, so that as the sand is very abundant and spreads very widely, so the heart of Solomon would embrace very many, even the smallest, things, and extend itself to carry out in work all that it conceived in mind. For it profits little to conceive and understand many things in the mind, unless there be virtue and strenuousness to carry them out.
31. WISER THAN ETHAN.—This Ethan was a notable poet and musician, as is plain from 1 Paralipomenon 15:19; whence also Psalm 88 is headed with this title: “Understanding of Ethan.”
32. SOLOMON ALSO SPOKE (dictated and caused to be written) THREE THOUSAND PARABLES.—We have part of them in the Proverbs, where from chapter 10 the parables begin, and extend to the end of the book through 658 verses, which contain as many parables, as it were.
AND HIS POEMS WERE FIVE AND A THOUSAND.—Vatablus, five above a thousand. So also the Hebrew, Chaldee and Josephus, as if to say: The Book of Odes of Solomon contained a thousand odes and five. The Septuagint, however, translate, his poems were five thousand. Hence it is plain that Solomon was a Poet. The ancient poetry of the Hebrews has perished: nor do we now notice the measures of verse in the psalms and other songs, except in rhythm.
33. AND HE TREATED OF TREES, FROM THE CEDAR THAT IS IN LIBANUS, EVEN UNTO THE HYSSOP THAT COMETH OUT OF THE WALL,—that is, from the greatest to the least. By “hyssop” understand here the wall plant, which some in Abulensis call origanum or spartum. Levinus Lemnius, chapter 26 On Herbs, and Pineda call it maidenhair, Serarius savory, which is therefore called in Arabic satar.
AND HE SPOKE OF BEASTS, AND OF FOWLS, AND OF CREEPING THINGS, AND OF FISHES.—It is probable that these were once written in books, as of the same Ulysses Aldrovandus, Conrad Gesner, William Rondelet, Julius Scaliger and others have lately written at length. But all these have almost perished through the interval of so many ages, especially because there was then no printing, but only a few manuscript copies, which easily perish. So also all the writings of the Patriarchs and of the wise men of the Hebrews, Egyptians, Chaldeans, Arabs and Greeks before Moses have perished, of whom almost alone books and writings from that ancient age survive. Abulensis adds that by God’s providence they perished, because they contained things too curious, or because we should have been unworthy of so great a light of the sciences, which he himself had received by revelation. The Gloss thinks they were burned by the Chaldeans; Eusebius, however, and from him Glycas, by king Ezechias.
Hence it is plain that Solomon taught Physics and the science of natural things, both privately his own and publicly all; for this is what “he treated and spoke” signifies. For to this end he built a school or academy on Mount Sion, in which Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle themselves drew learning, as Eusebius, St. Ambrose, Clement of Alexandria and others testify.
Psellus adds that Solomon wrote books on gems and on the summoning of demons, fixing them in a certain place, and compelling them to works. And some magicians also put forward the incantations of Solomon, his little key and ring: but these are magical and unworthy of Solomon. See Pineda.
34. WISDOM OF SOLOMON, AND FROM ALL THE KINGS OF THE EARTH WHO HEARD OF HIS WISDOM.—Understand: they were sent from all the kings who had heard something of his supreme wisdom; nay even many kings, besides the queen of Saba, of whom chapter 10, came to see Solomon. So we read in Lie-tse, a Chinese writer, that the Emperor Mou-vang in the year 1001 before Christ visited Sy-vang-mou, whose kingdom, according to another writer, Se-ma-tsien, who wrote about 200 years before Christ, was situated to the west of the Caspian Sea, in Syria or Arabia, and that he brought back from there many skilled craftsmen, and also carried back every kind of knowledge about natural things. (Gaubil, Chinese Chronology.) All this agrees excellently with Solomon.