Глава 10

1–13. Visit to the Queen of Sheba. 14–25. The wealth of Solomon, the luxury and splendor of his court and the glory of the kings of the earth. 26–29. Solomon's cavalry. 1 Kings 10:1. The Queen of Sheba, having heard about the glory of Solomon in the name of the Lord, came to test him with riddles. The place of residence and reign of the Queen of Sheba (Heb. Sheba) is usually considered Happy Arabia (Gen. 10:7; 1 Chron. 1:9). According to I. Flavius ​​(Jewish Ancients VIII, 6, 5), on the contrary, she lived and reigned in Ethiopia; opinion of I. Flav. Eusebius - Jerome (Onomast 807) and Blessed Theodoret (question 33) repeat. But the opinion of I. Josephus is based on the mixing of the Sheba tribe (Arab) with the Seba tribe - Cushite (Isa.43:3; Ps.71:10). In the legends of Muslims, the name of the Queen of Sheba is preserved - Bilqis (cf. Koran, sura 27, 29, Russian translation by Prof. G. Sablukov, Kazan, 1877, p. 322). The purpose of the visit to the Queen of Sheba is defined as follows: “she came to test him (Solomon) with riddles”; Competitions in wit are still common among the Arabs, among whom the wise men of one tribe seek an opportunity to compete with the wise men of another friendly tribe (cf. Judges 14:12–19). A similar competition in solving riddles, according to I. Flavius ​​(Jewish Ancients VIII, 5, 3), also took place in the relations of Solomon with Hiram of Tire. In the Gospel, in the words of the Lord (Matthew 12:42; Luke 11:31), the purpose of the coming of the Queen of Sheba indicates the desire to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, as a weak pre-image of the Divine wisdom of the teachings of the Lord, and in this regard, she is the type of all pagans who, in addition to the law, gravitated towards Christ and subsequently turned to Him by the very deed (Blessed Theodoret, question 33). 1 Kings 10:2. And she came to Jerusalem with very great wealth: the camels were loaded with incense and a great quantity of gold and precious stones; and she came to Solomon and talked with him about everything that was in her heart. Among the gifts with which, according to the customs of the East, the Queen of Sheba testified her respect to Solomon (cf. Ps. 71:10), “incense” (Heb. besamim), probably a balsam plant, is mentioned: according to Josephus, the Queen of Sheba originates from the Queen of Sheba, which grows in Palestine, near Jericho, and gives the root of the balsam (Jewish Ancients VIII, 6, 6); This plant undoubtedly comes from Arabia (Prof. Gulyaev, p. 232). “She came to Solomon” - a repeated expression (cf. v. 1), according to the rabbis, supposedly means Solomon’s marriage with the Queen of Sheba. 1 Kings 10:3. And Solomon explained to her all her words, and there was nothing unfamiliar to the king that he did not explain to her. “There was nothing unfamiliar” - (from the Hebrew secret, nelam), famous: “not a word is despised” - a literal translation of the inaccurate Greek. expressions: οὐκ ἤν λόγος παρεωραμένος. 1 Kings 10:4. And the Queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the house that he had built, 1 Kings 10:5. and the food at his table, and the habitation of his servants, and the order of his servants, and their clothing, and his butlers, and his burnt offerings, which he offered in the church of the Lord. And she couldn't resist anymore The wisdom of Solomon was revealed before the Queen of Sheba not only in the words of Solomon, but also in all the institutions, orders and structure of his court. “And she could not hold on any longer,” glav.: “beside herself,” in LXX: ἐαυτῆς ἐγένετο, from Hebrew: there was no spirit in her (Vulg.: non habebat ultra spiritum). 1 Kings 10:6. and she said to the king, “It is true that I heard in my land about your deeds and about your wisdom; 1 Kings 10:7. but I did not believe the words until I came and my eyes saw: and behold, not even half of it was told to me; You have more wisdom and wealth than I heard. 1 Kings 10:8. Blessed are your people and blessed are these your servants, who always stand before you and hear your wisdom! 1 Kings 10:9. Blessed be the Lord your God, Who was pleased to place you on the throne of Israel! The Lord, out of His eternal love for Israel, made you king, to do justice and justice. 1 Kings 10:10. And she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold and a great quantity of spices and precious stones; Never before had such a multitude of incense come as the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. Recognizing that Solomon's fame and wisdom surpassed his fame, the queen considers those around Solomon blessed (vv. 6–8). Instead of “blessed are your people” (from Hebrew), glory. i.e. has (from Greek) “blessed are your wives (αἱ γυναῖκές)”: LXX read in Hebrew. i.e. not anaschim, men, as in the current Masor. t., a naschim, wives; and such a reading (in connection with the subsequent “blessed are these thy servants”) deserves preference over Heb. - Russian Art. 9. From the fact that the queen blesses Jehovah, it does not follow that she became a proselyte, like the similar words of Hiram (1 Kings 5:7), contrary to the opinion of the rabbis, who considered them both proselytes of Judaism. Art. 10 Wed. 13. Gifts from the queen and Solomon to each other are a common expression of respect and reverence in the East (cf. Ps. 71:10; Matt. 2:11). 1 Kings 10:11. And the ship of the Hirams, which brought gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a great abundance of mahogany and precious stones. 1 Kings 10:12. And the king made of this red wood railings for the church of the Lord and for the king's house, and harp and psaltery for the singers; So much mahogany has never come and has not been seen to this day. By association with the story about the rich gifts of the Queen of Sheba (v. 10), it is said again (cf. 1 Kings 9:28) about the treasures brought by the fleet that sailed to Ophir (cf. below v. 22). Here the tree with precious stones is also named almuggim - according to the usual understanding, red sandalwood or black ebony, growing in India and Persia (Gesenius, Thesaurus linguae hebr., p. 23; according to I. Flav., Judean Ancients VIII, 7, 1 - pine or fir). From this expensive wood Solomon made a “railing” or “platform” (Heb. misad), cf. (2 Chronicles 9:11) for the church and palace (according to some - sofas on the walls), as well as musical instruments: harp (Hebrew kinnorot) and psaltery (nevalim), according to LXX: νάβλας καὶ κινύρα, Vulg.: citharas lyrasque, Slav.: “sniffled and harp." Both instruments are stringed (Ps. 70:22,107:3,150:3): the difference between them lay partly in the different structure of the resonating box, partly in the way of playing (cf. Blessed Theodoret, question 34). 1 Kings 10:14. The gold that came to Solomon each year weighed six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, 1 Kings 10:15. in addition to what was received from the peddlers of goods and from the trade of merchants, and from all the kings of Arabia and from the regional leaders. Solomon's income: 666 talents of gold, according to Keil, equaled 17 million thalers, with our money - approx. 20 million rubles. Talent – ​​3000 shekels or 50 minutes (Ex. 38:25). Solomon’s special annual income, of course, consisted of duties from traders and merchants, as well as taxes from the conquered kings of “Arabia” (Heb. ereb, in LXX: τοῦ πέραν, slav.: “strange”). 1 Kings 10:16. And King Solomon made two hundred great shields of beaten gold, six hundred shekels went to each shield; 1 Kings 10:17. and three hundred smaller shields of beaten gold, three minas of gold went to each shield; and the king set them in a house of Lebanon wood. 1 Kings 10:18. And the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold; 1 Kings 10:19. there were six steps to the throne; the top behind the throne was round, and there were armrests on both sides of the seat, and two lions stood at the armrests; 1 Kings 10:20. and twelve more lions stood there on six steps on either side. This has never happened in any kingdom. 1 Kings 10:21. And all the drinking vessels of king Solomon were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of Lebanon were of pure gold; there was nothing made of silver, because silver in the days of Solomon was considered worthless; Of the luxury items in Solomon's palace, St. the writer names: a) two kinds of golden shields: large shields, Heb. Zinna, 600 shekels each shield, covered the entire body, and the smaller one - Heb. magen, 3 minas (180 shekels) or 300 shekels (2 Chronicles 9:16), the shields were placed in the house of the forest of Lebanon; they apparently did not have military significance, but were used in ceremonial royal exits (1 Kings 14:28); b) an ivory throne (vv. 18–20); about its structure according to the Jewish tradition, see the note to (1 Kings 7:7). 1 Kings 10:22. for the king had the ship of Tarshish at sea with the ship of Hiram; Every three years the ship of Tarshish came, bringing gold and silver, and ivory, and monkeys, and peacocks. Tarshish (Heb. Tarshish), according to almost generally accepted opinion, is a Phoenician colony in Spain (cf. Is.23:10; Jer.10:9; Ezek.38:13). But the expression "ship of Tarshish on the sea" does not mean a ship or fleet that went to Tarshish (as is erroneous in (2 Chron. 9:21,20:36-37). Vulg.: ibat in Tharsis): Solomon's fleet went to Ophir (1 Kings 9:28,10:11), and not to Tarshish; this expression has a general meaning: sea ship, long-distance ship, just as there are now epithets for steamships “Greenland” or “East Indian”. I. Flavius, on the contrary, saw here the name of the gulf of the Mediterranean Sea near the famous Cilician city of Tarsus, the birthplace of the Apostle Paul: “Solomon,” says I. Flavius, “had many ships in the so-called Tarsian Sea” (Jewish Ancients VIII, 7, 2). But nothing is known about the latter from the biblical text. Among the goods brought by the fleet are monkeys (Heb. kofim) and peacocks (Heb. tukkiim). I. Flavius ​​considered the last word to be the name of the slaves, the Ethiopians. 1 Kings 10:23. King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in wealth and wisdom. 1 Kings 10:24. And all the [kings] on earth sought to see Solomon in order to listen to his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. 1 Kings 10:25. And they brought him, each from himself, a gift: silver vessels and golden vessels, and clothes, and weapons, and incense, horses and mules, every year. 1 Kings 10:26. And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen; he had one thousand four hundred chariots** and twelve thousand horsemen; and he placed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. The height of Solomon's glory (cf. 2 Chronicles 9:22–34). On chariots and cavalry cf. (1 Kings 4:26,9:19; 2 Chronicles 1:14–16). Repeated repetition of them is meant to note their novelty for Israel and, perhaps, a contradiction with the law of the king (Deut. 17:16). 1 Kings 10:27. And the king made silver in Jerusalem equal in value with simple stones, and cedars, due to their abundance, made them equal in value with sycamore trees growing in low places. A figurative and hyperbolic expression to denote the luxury of Solomon's court life. Sycamore, Heb. shikma, Greek: σικόμορος συκαμινος, Slav.: “blueberry” - the lowest grade of fig tree, a tree of short stature (Is. 9:10). 1 Kings 10:28. Horses were brought to King Solomon from Egypt and from Kuva; royal merchants bought them from Kuva for money. 1 Kings 10:29. The chariot from Egypt was received and delivered for six hundred shekels of silver, and the horse for one hundred and fifty. In the same way, they delivered all this with their own hands to the kings of Hittite and the kings of Aramean. The horses were purchased on the border with Egypt. “From Kuva”, Slav.: “from Fekuy”, LXX: ἐχ Θεκουε, Vulg.: de Coa. The corresponding Hebrew word mikveh is understood in two ways: either as one whole word mikveh (multitude, crowd) (cf. Gen. 1:10; Exod. 7:19; Lev. 11:36), in this case: “caravan (merchants)” or “herd (horses)”; or, according to the translations of LXX, Vulg. etc., the said word is decomposed into two: min-kve (Kue), and the latter is considered the name of a locality or province in Kalikia or on the border of Egypt (Winkler, Bretz, Keil). The latter opinion deserves preference. In Greek translation: forty thousand chariot horses. You might be interested in: