Commentaria in III Regum
These gifts kings offered to Solomon on account of his divine wisdom and virtue, wishing to be instructed and directed by him; nay, says Severus Sulpicius, they offered themselves and their kingdoms to Solomon to be ruled; and this is sufficiently hinted in verse 23.
This Solomon was a type of Christ, of whom David sang, Psalm 71:9: “Before him the Ethiopians shall fall down.” And: “The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents; the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts. And all kings of the earth shall adore him: all nations shall serve him.”
16. KING SOLOMON ALSO MADE TWO HUNDRED SPEARS,—for in 2 Paralipomenon 9:15, “spears” are put for “shields,” but spears are called shields sharpened like spears; so even now there are spear-shields, that is, having a boss and a point, and as useful for protecting the body as for piercing the enemy. Villalpandus shows the same, page 527, from Polybius who says that “the more violent blows of enemies can be turned aside by the boss,” and from Suetonius, who in Julius Caesar, chapter 68, says that with the same “the enemy can be pushed,” nay “laid low,” as Livy says, book 10. And this is what Hebrew tsinnah signifies, from the root tsanan, that is, to sharpen and be sharp. Whence our version translates tsinnah now as shield, now spear, now breastplate, now pike. So also the Septuagint. See Pineda, book 5 On Solomon, chapter 6.
SIX HUNDRED SICLES OF GOLD WENT TO EVERY SPEAR (shield).—A sicle is a half-ounce; six hundred sicles are therefore six hundred half-ounces, which make 25 pounds.
Wherefore these shields, like the targets, were made not so much for fighting (for what soldier with his arms would carry a shield of 25 pounds?) as for magnificence and display. Whence Solomon laid them up in the house of the forest of Libanus, as follows.
Allegorically, the throne also signifies Christ’s glorious throne, on which he will sit in the day of judgment, and will judge “all the tribes of the earth.” So Rupert, Eucherius and Angelomus. Hear Eucherius: “The ivory throne without doubt bore the figure of the power of eternal judgment, shining with the gold of the divinity, which the Lord as man received from the Father. The six steps of this throne typically showed every creature, visible and invisible, which was made in six days and subjected to Christ the Lord by the Father. But that the throne itself is described as round in its hinder part, this without doubt is given to be understood, because the present world, which rolls on through the bounds of times, is to be judged by the Lord at its end. And the twelve little lions standing two by two on the six steps outlined the power of the holy Apostles, to whom it was said by the Lord: You shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
17. THREE HUNDRED TARGETS.—A shield is a great buckler covering almost the whole man; a target is a shorter buckler, having the form of a crescent moon. Whence Virgil, book 1 of the Aeneid:
“She leads the ranks of the Amazons with crescent targets.”
THREE HUNDRED POUNDS OF GOLD WENT TO COVER ONE TARGET.—The Hebrew mina contains 60 sicles, that is, 30 ounces, namely two and a half pounds; “three hundred pounds of gold” therefore make 750 pounds.
But because this weight seems enormous in a target, hence some understand here by mina a sicle, of which mention was made in the preceding verse, for in this verse in the Hebrew the language is exactly similar: for as there he said that each shield was of six hundred pieces of gold, namely sicles (for the weight of the sicle was most in use among the Hebrews), so here he says that each target was of three hundred pieces of gold, namely sicles. So also Josephus uses mina for sicle, when he says that Joseph was sold by his brothers for twenty minas, that is, sicles of silver. Hence the Septuagint and the Chaldees for three hundred sicles translate three minas (whence one might suspect that our version, which usually follows the Septuagint, translated “three,” not “three hundred”); moreover the Roman mina, like the Attic, contained 25 sicles, that is, 100 drachmas, namely a hundred gold pieces. For a gold piece has the weight of one drachma: wherefore three Attic minas weigh and are worth three hundred gold pieces. Better, as I said, by three hundred gold pieces understand sicles, each of which weighed and was worth four drachmas, that is, four gold pieces.
18. THE KING ALSO MADE A GREAT THRONE OF IVORY, AND OVERLAID IT WITH THE FINEST GOLD,—both that he might sit on it magnificently as a king on a royal seat; and that on it he might decide the disputes and causes of his people as a judge (for it is the part of judges to sit on thrones), to give ear and answers to all who desired to see, hear and consult him.
Allegorically, Solomon here represented the judicial power given by God to Christ, by which, made man, he assumed flesh from the Virgin, and in her as in his throne, purer than ivory, stronger than lions, and brighter than gold through charity, he sat for nine months: whence she herself is called and invoked by the Church in the litanies “the throne of Solomon.” So Lyranus. Here Blessed Peter Damian gave an excellent sermon on this throne of Solomon on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, where he elegantly applies it to the Virgin and adds: “He made,” he says, “a throne, namely the womb of the undefiled Virgin, in which that Majesty sat. This sitting of the Son the Father both approved and acknowledged, himself saying: “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.” And: “His throne as the sun in my sight.” And after a few words: “And a voice came out of the throne, saying: Give praise to our God, all ye his saints.” And from the throne, he says, that is, from the Virgin, the praise of Angels and of men bursts forth, because while man is here restored, the angel is repaired, both owe devotion of thanks. Dost thou know what he says who sitteth on the throne? Behold, I make all things new. Happy throne, on which the Lord and Ruler sat, in which and through which not only all men but all things are renewed.” And after some words: “What is greater than the Virgin Mary, who enclosed the greatness of the highest Godhead within the secret of her womb? Look at the Seraphim, and fly above the dignity of that higher nature, and thou shalt see that whatever is greater is less than the Virgin, and that only the Maker surpasses this work.” See more in the same, where he applies each detail of this throne to the Blessed Virgin.
19. AND TWO LIONS STOOD.—For the lion was the emblem of the tribe of Juda, of David and Solomon, for strength and kingship, Genesis chapter 49, verse 9. So also of Christ their antitype, Apocalypse chapter 5, verse 5. See what is said there. Symbolically, the lion denotes vigilance (for the lion sleeps with open eyes) and the fortitude which a king and judge ought to have, to blunt and break the strength of the wicked. See Ecclesiasticus chapter 7, verse 6: “Seek not,” he says, “to be made a judge, unless thou have strength enough to extirpate iniquities, lest thou fear the person of the powerful, and lay a stumbling block for thy integrity.” See what is said there.
21. THERE WAS NO SILVER (namely in the vessels and furniture of Solomon, because these were all of gold: or rather, “there was none,” namely in esteem. Whence, explaining, he adds): NEITHER WAS ANY ACCOUNT MADE OF IT—for otherwise verse 22 adds that from Tharsis silver as well as gold was brought to Solomon.
22. BECAUSE THE KING’S NAVY ONCE IN THREE YEARS WENT WITH THE NAVY OF HIRAM TO THARSIS, AND BROUGHT FROM THENCE GOLD AND SILVER, AND ELEPHANTS’ TEETH (ivory), AND APES AND PEACOCKS.