Книга третья. Соломон и его время

Chapter 19. Palestine in the time of Solomon The reign of David, thanks to which Israel rose from insignificance and disorder to the greatness and splendor of a powerful monarchy, was inevitably bound to give a strong impetus to the entire national life. Hitherto he could be proud of his ancestors, the exploits of Joshua and his heroic judges, but now his self-consciousness rose to the highest degree, due to his unprecedented strength and glory. Just as Greece reached its most magnificent state after the Persian Wars, that struggle which affected the deepest interests of the whole people and awakened in hitherto disunited parts sublime feelings of mutual assistance and national unity, so among the Israelites the wars of David led to a great upsurge of national life in all directions. Israel had now achieved its highest aspirations as a people, the cessation of rivalries and strife between the tribes, a worthy place and honorable position among the surrounding nations, and high external prosperity. He came, moreover, to the noble and exalting conviction that all these great feats were performed in fulfillment of the divinely predicted purpose for him. He looked at the wars he undertook not as political wars, or those arising from national ambition, but as those committed in obedience to the will of God - which conviction inevitably bound everyone together with a common consciousness of the sublimity of their own purpose. But such religious and mental excitement naturally expressed itself in various forms. By the way, it was manifested in the development and flowering of writing, in which David took such an important and famous part with his widely circulated and highly inspired psalms, and this lyricism led in subsequent times, under Solomon, to wider activity in the same direction. Following religious poetry, civil poetry flourished magnificently, and historians immortalized the legends and deeds of past times in their chronicles. But the bright sides of this historical period were inextricably linked with other, so to speak, shadow sides, which could threaten the future of the people if due attention was not paid to them in due time. The religious ideas of even the noblest of the people were still in some respects much lower than the pure and sublime ideal required by the law of God. The sharp exclusivity and contemptuous pride with which the Israelites looked at other nations prevented Judaism from immediately becoming the gospel of peace and love for humanity in general. He lacked that gentle, philanthropic spirit that could have been a counterbalance to the dark vindictiveness and heartless cruelty that was sometimes revealed even in such a man as David was. External forms of religion, moreover, were still so dominant in worship that because of them the inner, deeper side of religious life was often missed, as a result of which the people were not far from the danger of falling into soulless ritualism, which, under darker historical circumstances, could serve as an easy transition to outright idolatry. Few of the more exalted minds could clearly see the great religious ideal of the Old Testament economy, but the concepts of the mass of the people continued to remain base and crude. The sun of true religion could illuminate, so to speak, the mountain peaks, but its rays had not yet fully penetrated with their life-giving light deep into the valleys. Even if a queen, like Michal, had her own household god, then the common people were even more likely to adhere to their superstitious customs and willingly succumb to corrupting influences from outside. The new political situation of the country, despite all the external greatness, also contained considerable dangers. The establishment of the Israeli monarchy may have had its benefits, but it remained to be seen how such a change might affect the spirit of the theocracy. The throne could become despotic, like the thrones of the surrounding pagan peoples, and thus come into conflict with the spirit and freedom of the chosen people. The kings could forget the true calling of Israel and devote themselves entirely to the higher interests of civil politics and plans of conquest. The high priest and the public establishment of religion could in fact become completely dependent on the king, as they had apparently already become so dependent. Zadok was appointed and Abiathar deposed by one word of the king, and the center of public worship was in Jerusalem, where also the highest classes of the priesthood lived under the shadow of the palace. That ardor and sublime spiritual character that characterized the reign of such a king as David could easily have turned into cold formalism and lifeless hypocrisy under another less worthy and more devoted monarch. And if the royal power, no longer paying attention to the people, had given itself over to the desire for external splendor, political power and self-aggrandizement, then the simple religion of Israel could easily have been neglected in comparison with the faith and morality of the great pagan peoples of the surrounding world. Under David, the people of Israel grew into a huge state. Having occupied such an important position among the surrounding peoples and having entered a critical moment in their historical life, the chosen people, of necessity, had to strain all their strength to retain this important position. Until then, each tribe lived its own closed life and had almost nothing in common with each other, and had little contact with the surrounding peoples. Only the northern and northwestern tribes, namely Dan, Issachar, Asir, Zebulun and Nephalimov, came into contact with the surrounding external pagan world, the representatives of which were then the Phoenicians in Palestine. To a large extent, they even lived among these people and, together with them, were engaged in small trades, working as farmers and agricultural workers, caravan drivers, sailors, boatmen, and conducting other similar occupations. The middle, southern and eastern tribes, among which Judah and Ephraim formed the main focus of national strength, however, retained an arrogant and unyielding independence, rejecting any communication with the pagan world, and limited themselves to their hereditary occupation, which consisted of cattle breeding and agriculture. Under David these various tribes, almost against their will, came into closer relationship with the surrounding nations. From the time of Saul, the struggle against their eastern enemies, the Ammonites, expanded more and more. It brought the people, during the reign of David, into conflict with the surrounding Syrian kingdoms and forced the Israelites to exert all their strength in defending themselves against a powerful hostile alliance. The result of this was a series of victories and the conquest of many foreign peoples, the transition from political insignificance to the degree of a great ruling power. Through the conquest of Edom, the Israelites came into direct contact with the Egyptian monarchy. Through the defeat of the Syrians, they came into contact with the banks of the Euphrates and seized control of the caravan routes leading from the east to Phenicia and Egypt. The former alienation from foreign peoples has now become impossible; in order to retain the conquests made, it was inevitably necessary to abandon the previous reluctance to enter into relations with the pagans. This situation, moreover, entailed an important change in the military system of Israel itself. Although the former infantry still represented the main strength of the people, however, in view of distant campaigns and expeditions, horses and chariots became necessary for military purposes. Ancient simplicity could not withstand the temptations and seductions of national wealth and foreign example, and the general upsurge of popular life was naturally followed by art and literature. The influences of the surrounding civilization, unfortunately, turned out to be in absolute opposition to the spirit of the pure religion of Moses. Art, culture and morality among pagan peoples were based exclusively on the idolization of the forces of nature, which was associated with gross immorality. Hence, from the very beginning, a lively struggle arose between the conservative element in Israel and the progressive party, and this struggle continued throughout the subsequent history of the people until the fall of Jerusalem. On the one side stood the royal throne, which too often tended to imitate the institutions and culture of pagan peoples, even trying to surpass them in its splendor; on the other, the prophets who fearlessly and persistently denounced such a departure from the spirit of theocracy - and as a result of this, a stubborn struggle began, the inevitable result of which should have been the complete destruction of the people, since any reconciliation of these parties turned out to be impossible. When paganism finally triumphed and ended with the resettlement of the Israelites to Babylon, a fierce reaction against everything pagan began among the captives. But the dead ritualism adopted by the people at that time contained within itself the seeds of its own decay, and thus unwittingly prepared the way for the destruction of the mediastinum between the pagan world and the Jewish, through spiritual freedom and the all-embracing love of the gospel. The country with which the Israelites, upon the accession of Solomon to the throne, came into the closest relationship and to whose influence they were most subject was Phenicia, although at the same time they stood too dangerously close to Egypt. Large trade roads were now in the hands of Israel and the king, and since the Phoenician cities were large storage areas for trade in Palestine and Western Asia, these two peoples inevitably had to enter into close relationships with each other. The result of this rapprochement was revealed very quickly. Even under David, court life, with the innovation made in it in the form of a harem, was largely structured according to Phoenician models 119. Until this time, the relations of the Israelites to the Canaanites were completely different and were characterized for the most part by alienation and mutual distrust. But now friendly relations were rapidly increasing in all directions, and the influences of these relations were soon revealed in all areas of public and private life. The religion, politics, social and civil institutions and customs of the Israeli people were henceforth more or less influenced by this powerful neighbor. Therefore, it is not superfluous to consider what were the characteristics of the people who had such a wide and strong influence on the future of the people of God. Phenicia, the “land of palm trees,” was only a narrow coastal strip northwest of Palestine. Thanks to its climate, it was extremely fertile. Lying under the shadow of Lebanon, it abounded in springs, streams and rivers, the latter of which were then navigable at some distance from the sea, since the primeval forests that at that time covered the neighboring mountains provided a greater influx of water than they provide now. Particularly fertile were the areas that contained the famous trading centers of Berit (now Beirut) and Tripolis (now Trablus) in the north, and the valleys of Sidon and Acre in the south. Encountering a barrier to further expansion to the west from the sea, the first settlers of this country soon abandoned their former nomadic life and devoted themselves to agriculture. But their genius could not be satisfied with harvests or pastures on fields or mountain slopes. Having an innate inclination towards trade and industry, they soon became involved in commercial enterprises and began to look at the sea that washed their shores as a broad path to unknown countries where they could hope for great benefits. Providence, settling such an energetic and enterprising tribe in this place, also took care of providing it with all the natural means that were only necessary to fulfill its great mission, namely the mission of spreading the culture and ideas of the East to the countries of the then still barbaric West. In all of Palestine, only Phenicia alone possessed a rich abundance of good timber for shipbuilding; Lebanese cedars and cypresses represented such an extensive supply of such wood that there was every opportunity to export this wood to other countries. The mountains abounded in iron, so necessary for ships, and the neighboring plains produced excellent hemp and flax for ropes and sails. Devoid of any bays, backwaters and piers in the south, the Mediterranean coast abounded in them within the Phoenician borders. In many parts the reefs, running parallel to the shore, formed natural harbors, protected from the storms that often swept with terrible fury from the southwest. Small islands, with their rocky surface, also provided convenient places of refuge from the mainland during the war, and could serve as trading warehouses for goods, safe from unexpected attacks. In addition to these advantages, Phenicia lay at the center of the ancient world, and was thus a natural hub for trade between east and west. Trade roads from all over Asia converged on the shores of Phenicia; from the centers of trade on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, goods were sent to the banks of the Nile, to Arabia and to the west by a route leading through the city of Tire, and on the other hand, the products of the vast countries lying along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, during their movement to the centers of the eastern world, also passed through this Phoenician capital. This situation was the natural reason why many flourishing cities and settlements appeared on the Phoenician shores. At the southern tip lay: the ancient royal city of Sidon 120, the famous Tire 121 and Arad. Further, to the north, were Byblos, Beritus, Sin, Smyrna and Acre, and at some distance from the sea, on the shores of the Orontes, among the Hittite population, lay the famous trading center of Imath, which was also partly a Phoenician city. From the time of the capture of Sidon by the Philistines, Tire became the head of all these cities, and therefore it came closest to the history of the Israelite people. His position was extremely favorable. He stood, as the prophet Ezekiel says, “on ledges in the sea, he traded with the peoples of many islands, his borders were in the heart of the seas,” because he stood partly on an island, and “its builders perfected its beauty” (Ezek. 27:1, 4). “Tyre,” adds the prophet, “you say: I am the perfection of beauty, I am God, I sit on the seat of God, in the heart of the seas” (Ezek. 27:3; 28:2). He might well compare himself with one of his own great merchant or Tarsian ships, which were then one of the wonders of the world. The island itself was the site of a national sanctuary, the Church of Melqart, and subsequently became a great center of trade. On the land side, the city was surrounded, except on the western side, by a vast, incomparably fertile plain, watered by rich springs in all directions. This area was famous especially for its fruits and grapes, and even sugar cane grew luxuriously on it. Such was the ancient Tire, famous for its palaces and its ancient churches. Its population can be judged by the sheer size of the city, which occupied at least 30 miles. Gradually, however, the island, due to its security from external attacks, became an important rival to the mainland city in its buildings and splendor. To expand the space, nearby islands were attached to it; the surrounding shallows were filled with embankments, and through this they were brought into contact with the city, and on the thus expanded area, huge docks and warehouses, which were necessary for the gigantic trade turnover carried out in the city, spread along and in breadth. These wonderful works on the expansion of the island mark the most brilliant period in the history of Tire, which at the same time was also the heyday of the monarchy of the Israeli people 122. But even then, the Phoenicians looked with envy at their distant past. “It began,” says the prophet Isaiah, “from the days of old” (Is. 23:7). And indeed, according to Herodotus, Tire was founded 2700 years BC. 123. Before the Israelites entered Palestine, Sidon occupied the first place among the cities of Phenicia, and its religion and culture were then widespread among other Canaanite tribes. He already had numerous colonies before, but now they have multiplied and strengthened even more. Cyprus, Crete, the islands of the Aegean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia were dotted with trading posts and populations, and there were also a number of Phoenician cities on the coast of northern Africa. Calling on the way to these cities, huge merchant ships from Phenicia sailed beyond the Strait of Gibraltar to Tarshish (Tartes), to this California of that time, where Gades ("stronghold"), the present Cadiz, was founded at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, as a larger seaport. The shock produced by the Israeli invasion of Palestine forced the Canaanite tribes to move to the very shore, or even completely move out of the country, which, apparently, led to this widespread development of colonization. Around the time of Samuel 125, however, the cities of Phenicia were still strong enough to resist the Israelites and even bring the northern tribes into more or less complete subjection. But around 1200 BC. Sidon fell under the pressure of the Philistines, and from that time Tire, having taken a dominant position, began to increase more and more in power and wealth, so that by the time of David and Solomon it had become the greatest, richest and most influential city in the country (1 Kings 5:18; 16:31). Under King Hiram I, a contemporary of these Israelite kings, he reached the highest degree of his glory and power. Under his father, an important change took place in the political structure of Tire. Instead of the previous government through suffets, who were something like Israeli shofetim or judges, a monarchy was founded, which elevated the city to a supreme position. Hiram entered into this royal dignity when he was about 20 years old. The decoration of the capital became the greatest object of his ambition. It was he who undertook the work of filling up the coastal shoals in order to expand the habitable area of ​​the island, and on this artificial soil he built a great church and palaces, like those that his architects and workers subsequently built for Solomon in Jerusalem. Under his generous patronage, local idolatry also received extraordinary brilliance. He was no stranger to external wars, because he conquered and annexed the island of Cyprus to his possessions, perhaps attracting it with its rich copper mines 126. The victories and conquests of David, which enveloped Phenicia on all sides with the newly conquered Judean possessions and gave control of trade routes from the east and to Arabia into the hands of their ruler, naturally forced Hiram to maintain friendly relations with him and Solomon, since their enmity would lead to serious harm to the regularity and safety of trade turnover. That is why Hiram “was David’s friend all his life” (1 Kings 5:1), and remained on equally friendly terms with his son, although in his attitude towards David, personal respect for such a famous person was undoubtedly largely associated with a simple calculation of politics. He was the first to congratulate David after his conquest of Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:11), and willingly provided him with both materials and skilled workers to build him a palace, and subsequently also provided extensive assistance in collecting materials for the construction of the proposed church (1 Chronicles 22:4). One might even think that all this assistance and all the materials sent to David were, as it were, a simple gift on the part of Hiram, with the aim of acquiring David’s friendship, since the biblical narrative does not mention that the king of Israel paid for all this with anything on his part. Such a close relationship between the people of Israel and the rich and influential pagan state could not but entail very significant consequences. And indeed, from this time on, the life of the Israelites, both public and private, succumbed to a significant degree to Phoenician influence. The enormous wealth and widespread trading activities of this Canaanite state made themselves felt in all directions. The accumulation of wealth, both from world trade and from the plunder of helpless foreign shores, led to a marvelous development of luxury in Phenicia. The houses and palaces of Tire were distinguished by everything that could please the taste and eye. The most important representatives of the city lived like kings, and did not know any desires that they could not satisfy. But along with the refinement of life, gross licentiousness also developed in her to a terrifying degree; only the tireless activity and vitality of the people prevented their development to a dangerous degree The discovery of Tartess or Tarshish in Spain had a particularly great influence on the state of Phenicia. All ancient writers unanimously testify to the enormous wealth that the Phoenicians extracted from this colony. In exchange for oil and other items of little value, the first sailors who landed on this shore received more silver than their ship could carry, so they, leaving the old ship, built themselves a new one, making all its accessories, even the anchors, from precious metals. Greek poets, praising the Tartessus River, said that it originates in a silver mountain. Strabo testifies that no other country surpassed Tarshish in the abundance and wealth of all gifts of land and sea. Nowhere else has gold and silver, copper and iron been found so pure, or in such quantities, as in this Phoenician colony. Gold was obtained both from mines and from sand washing in rivers and streams, and huge ingots were often found. The area also abounded in mountain salt. Cattle and sheep provided the finest wool, and grazed in huge herds on excellent mountain pastures. The main local products were bread and wine. The shores abounded with a huge variety of sea snails, which produced the famous Tyrian purple, and fishing of all kinds was inexhaustible. Wax, honey, resin and cinnabar (local red sulfurous mercury) were also mined in huge quantities. Attracted by such a rich country, the Phoenicians soon covered the southern and western coasts of Spain with their settlements, and between them, even in the time of Strabo 127, Cadiz, although founded on a small and poor island, was not inferior to any other city in wealth, and only inferior to Rome in population. Penetrating further to the north on their ships, the Phoenicians added to the Spanish trade the trade in tin mined in the British Isles. On the shores of the eastern sea they mined ambergris or amber, from which already in the 10th century BC. they prepared expensive neck ornaments, beads and all kinds of jewelry, all the more expensive since amber at that time was valued almost on a par with gold. From the mines of the island of Fasa, south of Thrace, they extracted gold worth from 200 to 300 talents annually 128. Such extensive trade naturally developed great activity in the arts and manufactures of Phenicia. Its population stood in the same relation to the natives of Thrace, Greece, Sicily, Libya and Spain, in which the Portuguese and Spaniards 2,600 years later stood to the wild natives of the two Indies. The richest treasures that the heroes of the Iliad and Odyssey were proud of and admired, bronze and silver drinking vessels that amazed with their pretentiousness, and “magnificently patterned vestments” that shone like bright stars were the product of Sidonian industry. But the Phoenicians did not trade only in their own manufactures or in the works of their own art; their cities were trading ports for such centers of world life as Babylon and Nineveh. The trade of the entire ancient world from the Persian Gulf to the pillars of Hercules was concentrated in the warehouses of Tire. Land trade with the east and southeast was no less extensive than sea trade. At the most important points along the main caravan roads there were a number of Phoenician colonies. Of these routes, one went through Baal Bek, Emesa and Imath to Topsak, on the banks of the Euphrates, and from there, through Harran and Nizibia, to the banks of the Tigris in Armenia and Assyria, as well as down the river to Babylon. Another route went east, through Tadmor or Palmyra and Circesium (Carchemish), to the same regions, running through the plain of Ezdrilon, and from there, along the Philistine coast, to Gaza, towards Egypt. Lais was also a Phoenician colony in the north of Palestine, at the intersection of roads from Syria through Damascus. We find traces of Phoenician trading posts even on the shores of the Persian Gulf, where they controlled the trade of India, Africa and southern Arabia. The delta in Egypt was dotted with so many Phoenician settlements that, as a result, it was even called Great Phenicia. The constant flow of trade caravans moving in different directions made the name of Tire a familiar and current word in all countries of the then world. The prophet Ezekiel paints an extremely vivid picture of this tireless and wonderful activity with his bright brush. Comparing Tire with one of his own ships, the prophet says that “he built all his platforms from Senir cypresses 129; He built his masts from the cedars of Lebanon, his oars from the oaks of Bashan, and even his benches were made from beech wood, framed with ivory from the islands of Chittim." The simple fabric was too simple for his sails, and so he used patterned expensive fabrics from Egypt on them, which also served as a flag for him. The actual cover for the deck was blue and purple fabric from the Elisa Islands 131. The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were his rowers, and the Tyrians themselves, as the best experts in navigation, were helmsmen. All the surrounding nations supplied him with workers to repair ships and do other menial tasks. Leaving then the allegorical language, the prophet moves on to a more accurate and literal description of the features of the great city. All sea ships, with their crews, came to his harbors to receive or deliver their cargo. His army consisted of mercenaries recruited from the most diverse nations in all corners of the earth: from Persia, in the east, and from Lydia, the most remote part of Africa, in the southwest. The sons of Arvad and other brave warriors guarded its walls and hung their shields on its watchtowers. Tire traded with Tarshish, who paid him for goods in silver, iron, lead and tin. Javan, Tubal and Meshech, that is, the countries that included Greece and Scythia, exchanged his goods “for human souls and copper utensils”; Fogarma, in Armenia, supplied him with horses, combat horses and hinnies. On the distant shores of Africa, its traders mined ivory and expensive ebony. Syria, in its broadest sense, sold its merchants purple fabrics, clothes of all kinds of colors, beautiful linens, pearls from the Indian Ocean, precious stones from the distant East. Judah and the land of Israel paid him for goods in wheat, sweets, honey, wood oil and balm. From Damascus came Helbon wine (the only wine that the Persian kings drank) and white wool from the vast herds of eastern Palestine. Southern Arabia and the Syro-Arabian desert supplied excellent iron, cassia and fragrant herbs, which were used to prepare mura and incense. Precious horse blankets were obtained from remote parts of Arabia. Huge herds of lambs, sheep and goats were also driven from there, heading to the Tyrian markets. Merchants from Sheba and Rayema, on the same vast peninsula, brought their perfumes, precious stones and gold, and from many now unknown places in Mesopotamia and Babylonia came huge caravans, loaded with bales of expensive dyed fabrics, purple-trimmed cloaks, carpets and tent materials, in a word, everything that Western Asia was famous for. The political and social state of Phenicia was extremely unique. Various cities had their own special kings, who were famous for their large harems and were constantly surrounded by singers and dancers. Their courts presented a splendor that Solomon later imitated in his own capital. But, as in the Israeli state, next to the king, the destinies of the people were in charge of the council of elders, which served as a limit on the royal power. The tsar was elected, at least by law, by this very council, and the election was confirmed by the general consent of the citizens. With such a type of government, eastern despotism could never develop in Phenicia, and therefore Phenicia, in its form of government, came closest to Israel. The government was attended by citizens, divided into various trade guilds. In certain cases, the council of elders and the people acted together with the king; in the most important cases the decision practically belonged to the latter. Under ordinary circumstances, however, the king and the people were oppressed by the nobility, who held public positions in their hands and, thus, had the main power. This rich and powerful nobility was especially arrogant and cruel towards the peasants of the Phoenician region, both foreign and native. The land was the property of either the king and the priesthood, or the nobility, so that the farmers were in reality serfs. Such advantages on the one hand and a dependent position on the other led to constant turmoil in the cities, the population of which, having achieved significant mental development as a result of their trading enterprises, did not easily submit to tyrannical oppression. This whole social structure cannot be compared with the social structure of Israel, in which only the remnants of the Canaanites were enslaved, and all Israelites enjoyed the same rights before the law, as free owners of land and as citizens. But, unfortunately, these ancient liberties were subsequently subjected to serious restrictions, and the people increasingly approached the social level of the surrounding population, and a sharp contrast was gradually established between the rich and the poor, the noble and the low, the noble and the simple. In Phenicia, as in the land of Israel, religion was under the supreme authority of the high priest and constituted a kind of theocracy, the king of which was considered the god Melkart; but the high priest was in reality under the authority of the reigning king. His influence was at first very great, because he was the head of the aristocracy, in charge of all the wealth of the priestly class and in charge of all religious affairs. But since the high priest was generally the brother of the king, this eliminated the possibility of any political rivalry with the royal power, and the king concentrated real power in his own hands, disposing at his own discretion in matters of both politics and religion. The Phoenician religion, as stated above 132, was originally based on faith in the one supreme God, but subsequently this original faith was subjected to extreme distortion and turned into a crude and sensual idolization of heaven and earth. Their gods, who, according to the beliefs of the Phoenicians, manifested themselves and their activities in the greenery of trees, in the beauty of flowers, in the movements of animal life, in devouring fire, in the murmur of streams and streams, in the hills, in the sultry deadly simoom, in fact, in everything that was life-giving or killing in nature - had the heavenly bodies as their symbols and representatives. Thus the mystery of the universe was reinterpreted by the Eastern imagination of these sons of the ancient world. The Persian worship of the Magi maintained its simplicity until later times, admitting no symbol for the deity except the sacred fire, and worshiping the sun or stars only in the open air or on the roof of their dwellings. But the Phoenicians gradually personified the forces of nature which they originally attributed to the stars, and symbolized them by idols, in connection with which an extremely crude, cruel and sensual idolatry developed. With such and such a people, who had an extremely outrageous religion in its uncleanness and cruelty, the people of Israel, who were representatives of the pure worship of Jehovah, came into close contact. This bringing them closer to each other was, as it were, deliberately arranged by Providence so that humanity could better understand the contrast between these two religious systems. Between them lay the deepest abyss, and when they came into contact with each other, a struggle for life and death should have occurred, because they could not exist together. And no other spectacle has a more sublime interest for the history of mankind than that which supported this struggle between light and darkness, which continued for entire centuries even after Solomon. During these centuries, true religion continued to hold its banner against the vile idolatry of paganism, and guarded its purity with amazing persistence and inexhaustible enthusiasm, under the most unfavorable circumstances, until at last it not only gained victory, but also expelled from its midst everything that could remind of the disgusting idolatry. Chapter 20. The first years of Solomon's reign Solomon inherited from his great father a huge state, the management of which required an extensive statesmanship. This state occupied the entire richest area of ​​Western Asia, from the borders of Egypt to the Euphrates River, with many tribes and peoples included in it, conquered by David either by force of arms, or by the charm of his greatness. Occupying precisely the middle position in the ancient historical world and now in direct contact with the greatest and most famous representatives of ancient pagan culture, the Israeli people were experiencing at that time one of the most important crises in their history. They were no longer a closed and alienated people. By his very position, he entered the arena of world historical life, when his influence should have been felt on the surrounding peoples and when the surrounding peoples should inevitably exert their influence on him. At this stage of development, the Israeli people were like a young man who was leaving the calm hearth of his family for the everyday life of the world; time was to show whether he would be able to resist or submit to the harmful influences of his environment; will he develop courageous strength of character, or will he turn out to be weak; will he grow in strength and nobility, or will he fall into the temptations of evil or vice. Israel could no longer remain a people of shepherds and farmers. He, of necessity, had to enter the cycle of contemporary civilization and engage in trade and crafts. But such a transition from self-imprisonment to a life filled with new interests and a new movement is always unsafe for the people. It endangers the simplicity of his sincere faith and easily leads to a disdain for his original principles of life and for his ancient virtues, for old morals and customs. Everything new and alien becomes attractive, and everything old and one’s own is subjected to undeserved neglect; family life - the basis of a healthy social life - loses its former sacred character, and in general the simplicity and severity of morals quickly disappear if the new direction of life does not find a sufficiently courageous and wise leader. This is precisely the situation in which the people of Israel found themselves during the period of Solomon’s accession to the throne of David. The king himself was young, no more than twenty years old. Under his rule there were many peoples and tribes who were not averse, at any opportunity, to rise up to fight for their independence and autonomy. Adjacent to all the borders of his state were such famous countries as Egypt, Phenicia and Babylonia, the richest culture of which, for the sole reason that the main routes of trade and industry passed through the Israeli state, necessarily had to exert a strong influence on it and permeate it with its spirit, which, unfortunately, was entirely idolatrous and, therefore, was in decisive contradiction with the spirit of the Israeli people. Truly, the crown of David must have weighed heavily on Solomon’s young head, especially at first. This burden increased even more because the throne itself was not completely strengthened for Solomon. Despite the unsuccessful outcome of Adonijah's conspiracy, the latter still had a very strong party at court, and while it existed, Solomon could not feel calm on the throne and could not devote himself entirely to the improvement of the state. It was necessary to break and destroy this party. He decided, no doubt on the advice of his father’s wisest advisers, to first of all turn his attention to this important matter. And soon the opportunity presented itself. The restless Adonijah, having failed, did not stop there and did not abandon his dream of the kingdom. Obsequiously flattering his young brother in the eyes, he at the same time, in order to gain adherents for himself, continued to conduct intrigues in absentia and achieved that he again formed a significant party around himself. But, not daring now to embark on an open conspiracy, he wanted to achieve his goal indirectly, namely, by declaring a desire to marry the beautiful Shunammite Abishag, in order to thereby acquire, so to speak, a thread through which he could subsequently reach the throne. For this purpose, he turned to the assistance of Solomon's mother, Bathsheba, hoping to take advantage of her influence on his son. The latter, apparently, was even alarmed by Adonijah’s visit to her. “Is your arrival in peace?” she turned to him with a question that sounded somewhat apprehensive. “In peace,” he answered and asked permission to make a special request to her. “Speak,” she said. Adonijah reminded her that the kingdom, in essence, belonged to him and all Israel once turned their eyes to him as to the future king; but since the kingdom, by the will of God, departed from him and went to his brother, now he would like to be satisfied with a little, namely her petition to Solomon for permission to marry Abishag the Shunammite. It is surprising that Bathsheba did not understand the real meaning of this request. Perhaps, as a woman, she partly pitied the prince, who almost already had the royal throne in his hands, and perhaps also thought that Abishag’s position was completely different from that occupied by David’s other wives, who, according to the established view, by their marriage connections gave or elevated the right to the throne. “Okay,” Bathsheba answered, “I’ll talk about you to the king.” She apparently lost no time in fulfilling her promise and went to Solomon. The royal son received her with every possible expression of love and respect: he stood up to meet her, bowed to her and ordered another throne to be placed for her on his right side. She laid out her “small request” before him and asked him not to refuse her. “And the king said to her: Ask my mother; I will not refuse you" 133. Then she, in few but fatal words, made a request that inevitably led Adonijah to death. “Give Abishag the Shunammite your brother Adonijah as a wife,” she said to her royal son. But with what horror she must have been struck when this small request immediately led Solomon into an incomprehensible rage! Quickly realizing with his young, insightful mind Adonijah’s secret thought, Solomon cried out: “Why are you asking Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? ask him also for the kingdom; for he is my elder brother, and Abiathar the priest is his friend, and Joab the son of Zerui the captain of the army is his friend!” This immediately sealed the fate of Adonijah. Solomon saw that the intrigues of his elder brother could be stopped only with his life, and he immediately exclaimed: “Now the Lord lives, who strengthened me and set me on the throne of David my father, and built a house for me, as He said, “now Adonijah must die”! And the sentence was soon carried out. The terrible news of Adonijah's death quickly reached his secret followers. They also now had to suffer for their seditious spirit. Since the priest Abiathar was apparently again involved in this conspiracy, he was removed from the priesthood; The dangerous Joab was also deprived of his life, despite the fact that he sought refuge in the tabernacle. At the same time, Shimei suffered the same fate, who, although he was forgiven by David for his evil mockery and slander of him, at the same time revealed such hatred for David that it was by no means possible for the young king to tolerate him with him. All this was to show everyone that David’s successor was by no means a weak and timid young man. He immediately showed a deep understanding of the true needs of his throne, and subsequently in his parables we find echoes of these events, which gave rise to some wise sayings, as if representing the ideal of the kingdom. “The king who sits on the throne of judgment drives away with his eyes all evil.” “A wise king will drive out the wicked and turn the wheel on them.” “A king’s wrath is the harbinger of death, but a wise man will appease it.” “The troublemaker seeks only evil; therefore a cruel angel will be sent against him.” “The king’s thunder is like the roar of a lion; whoever irritates him sins against himself.” “Remove the unrighteous from the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness.” But on the other hand, “life is in the mercy of the king.” Having eliminated his enemies, Solomon naturally had to show special favors to his followers, and among them Barzillai, who at one time provided invaluable services to David, was especially dear to him. Kimgam, the youngest son of an elderly Gileadite, was numbered at court and was admitted to the royal table and, apparently, received a plot of land from David's hereditary estates as a gift. He was the founder of a house whose descendants occupied a prominent position even in the time of Ezra. He founded an inn or caravanserai in Bethlehem, which was known by his name centuries later. The establishment of this caravanserai may have been caused by Solomon's trading enterprises, but, centuries later, it also served a higher purpose: in the manger of this particular inn the divine “Son of David” - Christ was born. Then Solomon had only to strengthen his power over all subordinate peoples, and having achieved this after minor efforts, he finally appeared in his true dignity - a peaceful king, whose glory lay mainly in the internal well-being of the state, which reached its highest splendor, greatness and wealth. The troubles he had just experienced, however, should have shown Solomon what difficulties he had to fight with during his reign and how insufficient his own mind would be to rule the great state. Therefore, he, brought up under the beneficial influence of the prophet Nathan, naturally had to turn to higher help, and decided to thank the Lord God with a solemn sacrifice. For this purpose, he went in a solemn procession to Gibeon, which was located about ten miles from Jerusalem, and there, on the altar at the old tabernacle, he offered a huge sacrifice of a thousand burnt offerings. And at this time in Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. At this time, we no longer see God’s will being asked through the Urim and Thummim. Therefore, communication with God took place either through the prophets or through a dream vision. Since the prophetic activity of the famous prophets Nathan and Gad at this time, apparently, had already ended, and no new prophets appeared, dreams remained the only means of communication with God. And in one such dream, God invited Solomon to ask Him for whatever he needed. Solomon, in accordance with the whole direction of his character, asked for what he especially needed, namely wisdom in governing the kingdom. He was only a “little child” and could not at all be equal to his father David - the famous warrior, singer, statesman and king, brought up during the long and varied trials of life. Israel grew into a powerful and countless people, and therefore Solomon asked for reason in order to be able, in his judicial cases, to distinguish between good and evil. This request turned out to be pleasing to God, since it was noble and alien to any selfishness. A man of less exalted mind might ask for wealth, fame, success in war, or longevity; but Solomon stood above this, and therefore God, as a reward for this noble mood, promised him to an extraordinary degree the gift of a wise and reasonable heart, and at the same time gave him what he did not ask for, namely wealth and glory. The young king, thus, solemnly acted as a man who sought first of all the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and therefore everything else was added to him. “And God said to him: But you asked for this, and did not ask for a long life, did not ask for wealth, did not ask for the souls of your enemies, but asked for reason to be able to judge - so I will do according to your word. Behold, I give you a heart that is wise and understanding, so that there was no one like you before you and no one like you will arise after you. And what you did not ask, I give you - both wealth and glory, so that there will be no one like you among kings all your days, and if you walk in My way, keeping My statutes, as your father David walked, I will continue your days.” Out of joyful excitement, the young king woke up and saw that it was just a dream, but a deeply significant dream that revived his entire spiritual life. In gratitude for this wonderful vision, Solomon, returning from Gibeon to the altar on Mount Zion, brought a new sacrifice and thanksgiving and made a great feast for all his associates and servants. Soon afterwards he had the opportunity to prove his wisdom in court decisions. When, according to the custom of his time, he was engaged in the analysis of court cases at the city gates, two women came to him, who brought with them two babies: one alive, and the other dead, and each of them tried to prove that the living one belonged to her. The case was obviously complicated, and it was difficult to solve it by a simple judicial investigation. But Solomon immediately solved it with his wisdom. He ordered one of the soldiers to cut the living child in two and give half to each of the women. Then one of the women cried out with a tearing heart: “Oh, my lord! give her this child alive and do not kill him.” This exclamation in itself decided the question of who exactly the child belonged to; The king immediately made a decision: “Give this living child and do not kill him; she is his mother." But the glory of Solomon's wisdom was also based on richer and more extensive gifts than this quick practical acumen. God gave him wisdom in the highest sense of the word. The surrounding countries were also famous for their wisdom: Egypt, Arabia and Chaldea, but none of these countries produced people who could equal Solomon in learning and insight. He was superior to all the sons of the east, and the sacred historian, describing the reign of Solomon, hardly finds enough words to depict this wisdom. “And God gave Solomon,” he says, “wisdom and very great intelligence, and a vast mind, like the sand on the seashore; and the wisdom of Solomon was greater than the wisdom of all the children of the east and all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was wiser than all the people and his name was in glory among all the surrounding nations.” From his father he inherited the gift of poetic inspiration, which, together with his personal wisdom, was manifested in the fact that he spoke three thousand parables and one thousand and five songs. At the same time, his inquisitive mind devoted itself to the study of nature, so that in the field of natural science, he amazed his contemporaries with the breadth and depth of his knowledge: “and he spoke about trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows from the wall; spoke about animals, and birds, and reptiles, and fish,” that is, in a word, he had knowledge in all departments of natural science - knowledge that he obviously shared with those around him, constantly talking with them about these subjects. The combination of such extraordinary talents and extensive knowledge in the young king naturally made him a miracle of his age. “And they came from all nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.” Having thus strengthened the throne for himself, Solomon, following the usual policy of eastern kings, had to take care of strengthening his position through marriage ties with the royal families of the surrounding states. He was already in extremely friendly relations with Phenicia, passed on to him, so to speak, by inheritance from David, and these relations did not require any special concerns, since they were provided by the mutual essential needs of these two countries, and the Israeli state, as an agricultural state, served as a granary for Phenicia, and Phenicia, as an industrial trading country, could supply both the Israelis and the king with their highest products of civilization. It therefore remained to establish a similar attitude towards Egypt, since the pharaohs of this country were not averse to making invasions of neighboring countries and, thus, could expose the kingdom of Israel not only to disturbances, but also to danger. To eliminate this danger, Solomon found it possible to become related to Egypt by marrying the daughter of Pharaoh, who, having himself appeared with an army in Joppa, took the important city of Gazer and gave it to his son-in-law, as if as a dowry for his daughter. This marriage apparently took place in the first years of the reign, and legend detailed the details of this wedding, stating, among other things, that the queen mother with her own hands laid the wedding crown on the head of her still young son. This magnificent relationship, the like of which no other Israeli ruler or king had ever concluded, gave Solomon even more greatness and glory in the eyes of the surrounding nations. His father-in-law was probably the pharaoh of the twenty-first, so-called Tanit, dynasty, which, however, by that time was already in decline of its power, since by the end of the reign of Solomon, power had already passed into the hands of a new dynasty, the founder of which was Shishak or Susakim I. Therefore, Solomon's father-in-law, in all likelihood, was one of the last two kings of the Tanit dynasty, or Pinotem I, or his son Pisevkhan - most likely the first, since Pisevkhan reigned only for fourteen years and the Tanit dynasty ended with him. We know very little about the pharaoh's daughter. It is only known that Solomon had no children from her, and she probably died before his shameful increase in his harem. Whether she became a proselyte of Judaism, we do not know, but in any case, she did not persuade Solomon to build a church for any Egyptian deity. However, the popular conscience has never been completely reconciled with this deviation from ancient theocratic traditions. “When Solomon married Pharaoh’s daughter,” says the Talmud, “the Archangel Gabriel came down from heaven and placed a reed in the sea. A sandbank formed near it, and the city of Rome was subsequently built on it.” The meaning of this legend is obviously that at the moment of this particular marriage, a series of events began that subsequently, several centuries later, led the Israeli people to death from the Romans, who turned Jerusalem and the church into a heap of ruins. But more important than external greatness was the direction in which the new king would lead his state. The activity of conquest was alien to the spirit of the people, so that its great acquisitions were the result of defensive rather than offensive wars. The new situation of the people, however, made it impossible for them to preserve the simplicity of the old time. Born in purple and therefore accustomed to royal grandeur from childhood; gifted with high mental abilities; being a man of fiery and impressionable nature; loving splendor and splendor and at the same time caring for the development of the welfare of his people; Reverently treating God, although not having the deep spiritual trials of his father, Solomon naturally had to perfect what David had begun; but at the same time, of course, he could not help but discover such actions that should have constituted a personal feature of his reign. Having no inclination towards aggressive activity, in which he would not have found sympathy among his subjects, Solomon turned to less loud, but much more lasting victories of the world. First of all, however, he had to take care of strengthening his state, and this required a lot of work and time. Not only Jerusalem, but the whole earth, with its twelve inheritances, was protected by many fortresses, and one fortress was even built in Lebanon in order to command the trade and military road to Damascus. At the same time, the king did not limit himself to simple external fortifications. Contrary to all previous customs, he introduced into his army chariots and cavalry, hitherto almost completely unknown to the Israeli people. At that time, Egypt was especially famous for horse breeding, and this circumstance, as well as Solomon’s marriage, naturally directed his thoughts to the country of his father-in-law. And so, in Jerusalem itself, Egyptian chariots appeared, which became famous throughout the earth. 1,400 chariots were taken from Egypt, with full harness and horses, and, in addition, 12,000 cavalry horses, and this core of cavalry was distributed in the form of separate detachments, partly in the capital, partly in other fortified cities of the country. Even huge stables with purely royal splendor were built for them. But although Solomon could think that he was thus strengthening the state, such imitation of pagan institutions was not slow to cause protest from the prophets and representatives of the ancient principles of theocracy, although their voice, in view of the general welfare of the people, at first did not have much influence. Hitherto the Israelis did not have any foreign trade, and in general they engaged in very little of it even within the country; but the new relationship in which the state became with Phenicia soon gave Solomon a reason to take care of the creation and development of trading activities in his possessions, and not only for his own personal interests, but also for his entire people. And so, it was thanks to him that the trading spirit was born in the Israeli people, which later became its distinctive feature, and Solomon began to develop in this people that industry, resourcefulness and practical wisdom with which they began to be distinguished from that time. Hitherto, the Israelites were mainly an agricultural people, although even in the time of Deborah there were already signs of the appearance of luxury in the homes of those few people who began to engage in commercial affairs. The measures taken by Solomon were extremely wise and generous. Since the large military and trade roads to Babylon and Assyria were in his hands, so that he was able to control all the trade movements that took place between the Euphrates and the Nile, he built cities in the most advantageous places, which became centers of trade and storage points for goods for sale, obviously resorting to a system that had long existed in Egypt. These cities were mainly located in the northern part of the state, where especially lively relations with other peoples took place, as well as in the new region conquered from Imath. In order to join his people in the great trading movement and, so to speak, to take over the trade of Egypt and Phenicia in Western Asia, Solomon founded Fadmor, later known as Palmyra, in a well-chosen oasis in the desert, about 200 miles from the Mediterranean Sea, on the same line with Tripolis, in Syria, where this colony continued to flourish for more than a millennium, precisely due to its advantageous position and numerous sources around. It is difficult to say exactly what the trade carried out this way consisted of, but in any case it was very lively. Egypt at that time was famous for the production of horses, distinguished by their extraordinary height and strength, and these horses were in great demand in the surrounding countries among the Hittite and Syrian kings. But since the key to this trade was in the hands of Solomon, so long as he remained on friendly terms with Egypt, he, while granting special benefits to his people, at the same time received rich income from the duties levied on every horse and chariot sold. But trading posts and cities would be of little use if there were no convenient routes of communication between them. Therefore, the king took care of building new roads that were drawn from Jerusalem to the north and south, so that convenient communications could be carried out along these roads from every part of Palestine with neighboring countries. Josephus says that these roads were carefully paved with black basalt; but since the biblical chronicle does not report anything about this, one can think that these roads were simply paths cleared of stones, which of course made movement along them relatively convenient and easy. Simple overland trade, however, could not satisfy Solomon's enterprising spirit. Spurred on by the example of the Phoenicians, he decided to begin foreign trade by sea. Trade on the waters of the Mediterranean Sea was in the hands of Phenicia, which, even centuries later, so zealously opposed all attempts to break its monopoly in this regard, that this subsequently even led to a terrible clash with the Romans, which resulted in the destruction of the famous Phoenician column of Carthage. The First Punic War was caused precisely by the determination of the Phoenicians not to allow Rome to participate in their trade on the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Considering themselves complete masters of this sea, Phoenician sailors from Tire and Sidon sailed freely along all its shores and islands, penetrating all the way to the extreme port of Tarsis, a famous flourishing Phoenician colony in Spain, located, as said above, not far from the mouth of Tartessus or Guadalquivir. To reach this port, they even had to sail through the Strait of Gibraltar, i.e. go beyond the famous pillars of Hercules, and bravely penetrate the mysterious region of the Atlantic Ocean. As a result of such voyage, Phoenician merchant ships were known as the ships of "Tarsis", although they often sailed beyond this point, skirting the entire coast of Spain, boldly penetrating the dangerous Bay of Biscay and even reaching the southern shores of Britain. But with such jealous guarding of the monopoly of their maritime trade, how could they admit Solomon as a rival in this respect? The book of Kings reports that Solomon had “the ship of Tarshish,” along with the ship of Hiram; but this name could simply refer to its Black Sea trade, since the name “Tarshish ship” was generally applied to ships of a known form. Those goods that were brought on this Tarshish ship, apparently, did not come from Spain, and, moreover, its voyage usually lasted three years, while reaching Tartessus required much less time. The book of Chronicles says that "the king's ships went to Tarshish with Hiram's servants and brought gold and silver, ivory, monkeys and peacocks." These imported items again indicate that this is, of course, not a Spanish colony. In general, it is difficult to imagine that such an exclusively maritime trading people as the Phoenicians allowed such a powerful and dangerous rival to themselves in the Mediterranean Sea. Moreover, it seems completely impossible that Solomon could have his own special fleet, which he, of necessity, would have to maintain in Tire or Sidon, since he did not have his own harbors on the Palestinian coast of the Mediterranean Sea due to the unsuitability of the coast for such a purpose. From this we can assume that this refers to a trade voyage on the Red Sea, where Solomon had the port of Ezion Geber, on the northern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba, probably on the very spot where the miserable village of Aqaba now stands. Ezion Geber was the harbor of the city of Elath, which continued to exist during the time of Abulfeda (1300). Hiram and his Tyrians could hardly have felt any particular jealousy regarding trading enterprises from a port that was completely away from them, especially since the voyage itself could only be made to countries that were essentially inaccessible to them. But at the same time, the Phoenicians were not averse to taking the best possible advantage of the benefits that Solomon provided them with his trade on the Red Sea, and supplied him with experienced sailors. Solomon was so deeply interested in this enterprise that he personally visited Elath, perhaps in order to be present at the launching of the ships. Unfortunately, we have no information about the general nature and scope of this voyage, but during the time of Solomon, Israeli and Phoenician sailors penetrated to distant Ophir. It would be boring and useless to list the various opinions regarding the location of this famous point. Most researchers think that it was located in southern Arabia. But, on the other hand, scientific researchers are now generally beginning to lean toward the opinion that identifies Ophir with Abir, i.e. country of shepherds, at the mouth of the Indus. This country was inhabited by people who spoke one of the Sanskrit dialects, and this fact finds remarkable confirmation in the fact that the goods brought on Solomon's ships were all of Indian origin and the very names that were given to them were Sanskrit words, although modified in pronunciation. It is easy to imagine how the inhabitants of the regenerating East were filled with amazement when they first saw the use of magnificent ivory for furniture and precious and rare trees for various expensive buildings. Some have suggested that Solomon's Tarshish ships sailed from Jaffa, circumnavigated Africa, and then entered the islands close to the coast of India. But if at all they penetrated to Fr. Ceylon, then it is more correct to assume that they were heading straight from Ezion-Gever through the Babelmandeb Strait. The Phoenician ships would hardly have dared to sail around the dangerous "Capo tormentoso", to which only the happy optimism of King John of Portugal gave the name "Cape of Good Hope". But the three-year period of time used by Solomon’s ships for this voyage from the Red Sea represented absolutely sufficient time for these ships to visit the shores of India, and although it is certainly not impossible that the mentioned works could have been obtained from closer places, in any case there is sufficient probability in favor of the fact that Solomon’s ships with their Phoenician and Israeli sailors penetrated to the mouth of the Indus, to which gold and jewelry were brought from the north, and sandalwood tree, monkeys and peacocks are from southern and central India. In this very place we find a place that Ptolemy calls “Abyria”, and Indian geographers - “Abiroy”, and where the newest travelers also find a tribe of “Agirs” - in all likelihood, the descendants of the people who traded with Hiram and Solomon with their precious goods. This opinion is very ancient. Translated as “seventy,” Ophir is called “Sofir,” and Sophir is the Coptic name for India. Arabic translations also render the word "Ophir" as "India" 134 . AND. Josephus also identifies it with the golden Chersonese, that is, the Malay Peninsula. These data sufficiently determine the direction of Solomon's merchant fleet. In any case, this is a remote point, and the Solomonov sailors had to experience all the dangers and horrors of ocean navigation. Echoes of it can be found in those psalms that describe the dangers of the ocean, such as. in the following: "Those who go on ships to sea, Producing business on the great waters, They see the works of the Lord and His miracles in the depths. He speaks and a stormy wind arises, And lifts its waves high; Ascends to heaven, descends to the abyss; Their soul melts away in distress. They spin and stagger like drunks, And all their wisdom disappears. But they cried out to the Lord in their sorrow, And He brought them out of their distress. He turns the storm into silence And they are glad that it has calmed down, And He leads them to the desired pier" 135 But this maritime trade was not the only source of income and prosperity for Solomon and his people. The peoples and tribes subordinate to him, from the Egyptian River to the Euphrates, and from Syria to the Red Sea, paid a certain tribute annually, and their kings and leaders, in accordance with Eastern custom, annually sent rich gifts to Jerusalem as an expression of their respect, vessels and vases made of silver and gold, rich clothes and cloaks, precious weapons and armor, incense, the most magnificent horses and mules. Such wealth had never been seen in Israel, and it never returned after Solomon. Silver, according to the testimony of the sacred chronicler, became as common in Jerusalem as stones, and expensive cedar wood replaced the common sycamore, although previously it was used only for the construction of magnificent palaces. Finally, and most importantly, peace reigned throughout the country; every citizen lived in contentment and security under his fig tree, throughout the entire length of the country from Dan to Beersheba. Thanks to this, the population quickly multiplied, became like the sand of the sea and spent their days in contentment and joy. In this state, the king had every opportunity to begin to fulfill the main will of his great father, i.e. to build a church, which he did in the fourth year of his reign. Being completely secure from all external dangers and possessing enormous wealth, both as a result of inheriting his father’s savings and his own acquisitions, Solomon decided at the very beginning of his reign to fulfill David’s main testament, namely to build a church to the Most High God. There were absolutely enough funds for this. David left Solomon, as 1 Chron. 22:14, 29:4, a hundred thousand talents of gold and a thousand thousand talents of silver. Given the real value of these metals (1889), this would amount to about 15 billion rubles. This huge amount, however, is obtained if we take into account the actual Jewish talent. But the book of Chronicles, in which these figures are given, was written after the Babylonian captivity, and some researchers consider it probable that the Chaldean talent is meant here. In view of this, the indicated amount must be reduced by half. But if the sacred writer, of course, has Syrian talent, then in this case the indicated amount should be reduced even lower. In 3 books. Tsar. 10:14 says that Solomon received an income in one year, in addition to income from internal trade, 666 talents, which would be about 25 million rubles; of these, the fleet that sailed to Ophir brought, after one voyage, 450 talents, which would amount to about 18 million rubles; after another voyage he brought him 420 talents, which would be about 15 million. Then a gift of 120 talents was received from the Queen of Sheba, i.e. about 4½ million rubles, and Solomon received the same amount from the Tyrian king Hiram. These sums give only an approximate idea of ​​the wealth at Solomon's disposal; but they clearly show that Solomon had very sufficient means to carry out the enterprise bequeathed to him by David. Jewish tradition subsequently adopted many of the most exaggerated ideas regarding Solomon's temple. But even if we adhere only to the most sober and reliable evidence, they will prove to us that, although this church was small in size, it nevertheless constituted some kind of miracle for its age. Some of the basement buildings deserve to be placed next to the famous Cloaca Maxima in Rome and other of the greatest structures of antiquity. Mount Moriah was chosen as the site of construction, which was considered sacred due to the fact that tradition considered it to be the mountain on which Abraham intended to sacrifice Isaac. It lay northeast of Mount Zion. Recently, it has received even more sacred character due to David's vision of an angel, who from this very mountain stretched out his destroying sword against Jerusalem during the raging plague. The altar erected by David in commemoration of the deliverance of Jerusalem from the plague marked the very site of the future church, which might otherwise have been built on the more prominent heights of the Mount of Olives. But there were great difficulties in choosing this place. The slopes of the hill were very steep, its top was rocky and did not have sufficient volume for the front courtyards of the church. The entire sanctuary with its two front courtyards was supposed to be made in the form of a large square, which, as can be judged from the comments of the prophet Ezekiel, was supposed to be five hundred paces in length and width (Ezek. 42:15–20, 45:2). These courtyards had to be supported by huge walls, which have been partially preserved to this day, despite the devastating military storms that swept over the holy city. The earliest of these, namely those on the eastern side, are undoubtedly the work of Solomon himself, although large additions were made by Joash and other later kings until all four sides were completed, as a result of which the original area of ​​​​the summit was very significantly expanded. Enormous blocks of smooth and carved stone, some of which reach 30 feet in length and 7 feet in height and weigh more than 100 tons, were worked in the most beautiful style of Cyclopean architecture and form an object of amazement for every traveler. These walls were of amazing height. Part of the ancient wall still rises 30 feet, but the latest explorer (Captain Warren) has discovered that an even more significant part of it lies closed under centuries-old debris, under the soil of a city that was attacked nineteen times. The stone was partly cut from those deep quarries and caves over which Jerusalem was built. The extremely voluminous cisterns and underground passages that were required also had to be carved out of solid rock, and they served to drain and carry water, which was necessary to cleanse the church courtyards of the blood that had accumulated there as a result of numerous sacrifices. At the very beginning of his preparations, Solomon received an embassy from Hiram, king of Tyre, who had always been on friendly terms with David and whose daughter Solomon, according to legend, was married to. Hiram, as we learn from one testimony of Menander of Ephesus, preserved by I. Flavius, was the son of King Abivaal and inherited the throne from his father in his early youth, in 1001 BC. Chr. He had already reigned for eleven years when Solomon, who had been king for only three years, entered into a close relationship with him. His alliance was extremely important for the future trade of the Israeli people, and it only made possible those magnificent buildings with which Jerusalem was now beginning to be decorated. He reigned for 34 years and died at the age of 53. He was succeeded by his son Baleazar and his grandson Abdastarte, and then, after various bloody coups, the throne was seized by Ethbaal, priest of Ashtoreth, father of the famous Jezebel. The text of the Greek translators says that he sent his servants to "anoint" Solomon, which obviously indicates Hiram's desire to do special honor to his neighbor, Solomon, and in any case, this fact shows what a close alliance existed between the kings who first raised Tire and Jerusalem to the pinnacle of their glory and splendor. Solomon, having cordially accepted the friendship of the Tyrian king offered to him, took advantage of this opportunity to find a useful assistant in the accomplishment of a great undertaking. Solomon asked him to allow his workers to cut down cedar and cypress trees in Lebanon, and Hiram, in return for the annual free supply of 20,000 cows of wheat and barley and 20,000 baht of oil, agreed to provide him with all assistance. The work ahead was enormous. The beams had to be moved from the heights of Lebanon, using a special technical method, to the river and from there floated down the river to the sea. From here, huge rafts of precious beams were floated by sea to Jopia over a space of 160 versts, and then, with extremely great difficulty, they had to be dragged over a space of 55 versts along steep and rocky roads to Jerusalem. This work required a special tribute, namely a “tribute of people” from all of Israel in the amount of 30,000, who worked in batches of 10,000 for three months, with one month spent by them in Lebanon and two at home. This entire army of forced laborers was placed under the command of Adoniram. But besides them there were at least 70,000 porters and 80,000 stone breakers, who were under the supervision of 3,600 officials. These last workers, according to the writer of the books Paralip., were serf slaves from the unexterminated remnants of the Canaanite tribes. In reality, they were like the helots of Palestine. Having been torn away from their families to serve for a king alien to them and to work in favor of a divine service alien to them, they, as one might think, did not work with enthusiasm; on the contrary, a stupid murmur of indignation should often be heard among them, which, of course, died away for the most part in their dissatisfied chest. One random hint shows that such serf work was introduced at this time as some kind of innovation and, however, was retained for subsequent times; Thus, it was precisely the lowest of the captives who returned from Babylon - even lower than the Nefinim, descendants of the Gibeonites, who were once condemned to the position of “woodcutters and water-carriers” - were 392 hieroduls or lowly servants, who were called “sons of Solomon’s servants” - and they, obviously, represented the pitiful remnant of those serfs who, without any remuneration, carried out hard work during building a church. As for more skillful work, the king in this regard had to resort to the help of Sidonian artists, among whom the Gevlites, inhabitants of Ebal or Byblos, located north of Berith and closest to the cedar forest of Lebanon, are especially mentioned. The prophet Ezekiel, several centuries later, speaks with delight about the wisdom and artistic genius of this Phoenician population (Ezek. 27:9). Even in Homer's poem, the Sidonians were famous for their preparation of embroidery work and general skill in crafts. And Solomon asked Hiram to send him workers skilled in working gold and copper, in carving, engraving and dyeing. In addition to such a large number of workers, there were also other workers and artists involved in casting bronze in clay molds. This was made from the clayey soil of the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Tzartan. The polishing and working of bronze was beyond the skill of the Israelites, and for all the ornamental work the king had to employ the services of a special Tyrian artist, named Hiram, who, although born in Tire, was the son of a woman of the tribe of Naphtali, and his art, like that of Michel Angelo, was apparently so varied that it embraced all branches of artistic labor. But before this elegant work could be begun, three whole years were required to process the actual material prepared for the purpose. As for the external character of the architecture adopted for the church, there can hardly be any doubt that it (with the exception, of course, of the main plan corresponding to the structure of the tabernacle) was Phoenician. As in the known buildings of Tyre, so in the church and palaces of Solomon, the characteristic features were walls made of huge stones, covered with cedar, wooden plates also covered with gold, simplicity of outline, massive structure of the building, rooms like cubes, cedar beams and upper floors of light wooden crafts. The use of curtains dyed in the purple juice of the bekasta fish was also borrowed from Tyre, as well as paints obtained from the scarlet snail, namely crimson, purple, violet and amethyst, which were very expensive, because in order to color, for example. 50 pounds of wool, at least 300 pounds of these snails were required. Whole volumes have been written regarding the temples of Solomon and Herod, but the very diversity of views among competent researchers positively proves that the data we have are insufficient to enable us to form a more or less accurate idea of ​​them. General measurements, however, are quite reliable, and they immediately show us that the church itself was a very small building in size. The walls were very thick, and the space between them was 60 cubits or 105 feet long (counting a cubit as 21 inches) from east to west and 20 cubits or 36 feet wide from north to south. The height of the main part of the building was 30 cubits or 52½ feet. These numbers prove that the size of the church was intended to be exactly double the size of the ancient tabernacle, the general plan of which was carefully followed. True, there were special rooms on the roof, which, apparently, constitute a complete departure from the ancient model, but they could occupy (by analogy) the space that was located in the ancient tabernacle between its flat roof and the tent-like cover of the outer curtain that protected it. The porch also represented the space between the actual entrance to the church and the place overshadowed by the outer cover of skins. This porch occupied the entire width of the building and was 10 cubits deep from east to west. If the figures given by the author of the books of Chronicles are correct, then it rose to an amazing and completely disproportionate height of 120 cubits or 210 feet. Thus, it was four times higher than the very frame of the church. These figures are not mentioned in the book of Kings, which does not say at all how high the porch was. Such an amazing disproportion is not presented to us by any of the temples known in antiquity, and since the temple of Zerubbabel was 60 cubits high and the temple of Herod 120 cubits high, it is possible that this number represents some mistake made by scribes in later times. The actual height of the porch was, in all likelihood, 30 cubits or 52½ feet, i.e. the same height as the church itself. This is exactly what should be expected, because this is exactly what happened in the tabernacle. It may seem incredible that the author of the books is Paralip. could make up his own figure from 30 cubits on each side of the porch, as a result of which he formed a figure of 120 cubits; but there is some reason to suspect him of this particular extraordinary technique. This is exactly what he does when identifying the wings of cherubs. He first says that the wings were 20 cubits long, and then he himself explains that each wing was 5 cubits long (2 Chron. 3:11). The Holy of Holies was completely overlaid with pure gold, which cost an amazing amount of 600 talents. As in the tabernacle, it was a perfect cube and everything was immersed in mysterious darkness. Actually, there was no architectural need to deprive this room of light, since it was 20 cubits in height, and the three floors of rooms built on its sides were only 15 cubits in height. This left room for windows in the last five feet of the topmost part of the building. But this light would have violated the mystery of the room itself, which served as the terrible place of Jehovah’s stay. Yes, light was not needed for this part of the church, since the high priest entered the Holy of Holies only once a year and then only for a few moments. On the other hand, in the sanctuary, where incense was offered daily on the golden table and where the priests, in turn, had to light and extinguish the lamps and place and put away the showbread, windows were necessary both for light and for ventilation. They were made here with narrow openings, i.e. with cross-shaped grilles on the space of 15 feet of wall, rising above the church annexes. The two sides of the church were surrounded by three floors of rooms. They are called “side chambers” (1 Kings 6:5) and apparently ran along the entire length of both the sanctuary and the holy of holies. Whether they also surrounded the end of the Holy of Holies seems doubtful. Each floor was five cubits high. The lowest floor was five cubits wide, the second six and the third seven. The greater width of the upper floor was possible due to the fact that the wall was strong enough only to allow projections one or two cubits wide, on which rested the cedar floor of the rooms without any openings for beams in the sacred building. A spiral staircase led to the middle room of the middle floor and from there to the upper floor. These rooms communicated with each other, and, according to the testimony of I. Flavius, there were thirty of them. They were useful for all sorts of purposes. Apparently, they never served as a place of residence, but were, as it were, spare storerooms for priestly clothes and for storing countless church accessories. The curtains and coverings of the ancient tabernacle (about which we no longer hear anything more) were probably stored in one of those that were not empty, dark closets, but apparently also had windows to the outside. We are not told exactly anywhere about the number or length of these rooms, which are not even mentioned at all in Book 2. Paralip. The Prophet Ezekiel says: “There were three side rooms, one above the other, and thirty in order.” This seems to mean that there were only thirty of them on the sides of the church building, except for the rooms (if there were any) at the end of the holy of holies. I. Flavius ​​apparently understood the expression “thirty in order” in the sense that it means three times thirty, since he says that there were ninety such rooms. It is much more likely that there were three floors with five rooms on each side, so if there were rooms at the end of the church, then there could be thirty-nine in total. The splendor of the church lay in the preciousness of the materials itself. Every effort was made to build a dwelling worthy of Jehovah, as far as the sources and architectural knowledge of the time allowed. But the art of that time was not yet high, and the sources of the Israeli state were, of course, very limited in comparison, for example, with the sources of wealth of the Roman or Byzantine Empire. It is known that Justinian, having built the church of St. Sophia, proudly exclaimed: “I defeated you, Solomon!” and Caliph Omar with the same pride pointed to the mosque he had built in Jerusalem, known as the “house of the rock,” saying: “Behold, I am greater here than Solomon”; but besides them, other, less powerful sovereigns could boast in the same way. In order to more clearly imagine the very plan and general character of the church, let us imagine what would appear to the eyes of a visitor who would be allowed to enter the sacred courts and premises of this most famous of earthly sanctuaries. After passing through the closely knit Levitical houses and porches, the visitor had to enter the church precincts through one of the many gates mentioned in the book of Paralipps. and in other places. Standing in the outer courtyard, he would have seen on one side of the church square a grove of trees: olives, palms, cedars and cypresses, which enhanced the beauty of the building, but were subsequently abused for idolatrous purposes. The chambers of assembly in this courtyard have already been built recently. There were no permanent buildings in the outer court itself, but in the morning and evening it was crowded with pilgrims and Levites walking to and fro at the demands of their daily service. In order to pass from the outer court to the court which the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 36:10) calls the "upper court," and which is commonly known as the "court of the priests," the visitor had to ascend several steps into an enclosure built of three rows of cut stones, surmounted by a cornice of cedar beams. Here a great copper altar opened before his eyes, which, however, was visible through the mediastinum and from the outer courtyard. With this arrangement, it was meant that the people standing in the outer court could see the entire order of daily and holiday services and sacrifices that were performed for them by the sons of Aaron. It was a large structure covered with copper and filled with earth and stones inside. It was forbidden to fasten these stones together with iron, because, as the Talmud says, iron has the property of shortening life, but the altar should lengthen life. It was ten cubits high and twenty cubits long and wide. Then on the southeast side the visitor would see a huge laver for the constant ablutions of the priests, and it was considered one of the finest examples of the art of the artist Hiram of Naphtali. It was made of copper and was known as the "copper" or "foundry sea". It was thirty cubits long and thirty cubits wide, and, being five cubits high, stood on the backs of twelve copper oxen of the same height, which, in threes, had their heads turned towards the four parts of the sky. It contained up to 2,000 baht (buckets) of water. Its edges had the shape of a blooming lily, and below the edges hung bronze decorations in the form of wild pumpkins, up to three hundred in number, hung in two rows. This laver served as a large reservoir for all purification needs, and smaller quantities of clean water could be brought, wherever they were needed, in ten copper cauldrons on wheels, of which five stood on the right side of the church and five on the left. These cauldrons were also decorated with all kinds of emblems and hanging garlands. It can be noted that there were no oxen at all under the laver of the tabernacle (Ex. 38:8). If an astonished visitor had asked whether these twelve copper oxen constituted a violation of the strict meaning of the second commandment and whether the admission of such images into the house of God was not in clear contradiction with the expressive law of God, then he would probably have been told that Moses himself allowed the image of cherubim, which were symbols of divine co-presence, and that the idea of ​​cherubim presupposed the fourfold form of ox, eagle, lion and man. However, such an answer was not considered completely satisfactory by strict Jews. I. Josephus says that Solomon “sinned and fell into error regarding the observance of the laws” by making a cast sea on oxen and erecting lions on the steps of his throne. We have four lengthy descriptions of Solomon's temple. The most ancient and reliable is in the third book of Kings (5-7). Later, but undoubtedly based on earlier descriptions and documents, is the description in 2 books. Paralip. Then follows the description of I. Josephus 136, but it already reveals an admixture of all kinds of rabbinic and apocryphal exaggerations. The fourth description is preserved by Eusebius of Caesarea from the Greek history of Eupolemos. We are not able to judge the meaning of this evidence more or less thoroughly, since we do not know from what source it was borrowed. It is probable, however, that the temple really stood on a special elevation; it still rises 16 feet above the level of the soil, in the center of which lies the Sahara rock, which gave the name to the “house of the rock” of the Mosque of Omar. Herod's church, according to the mishna, was completely built on erected arches. There can be no reasonable doubt that the roof of the ancient tabernacle rose in a ridge-like manner, since otherwise the outer skins would have dropped down and overlapped the curtains, which, in the event of a rain shower, could have been completely torn through. The church, it is true, was covered with beams and cedar planks, but if they had not been inclined in both directions or supported by pillars, it would have been difficult to protect the beams themselves, more than 30 feet long, from settling and bending. We know that when approaching the church, a three-story building was imagined, above which rose the wall of the church itself, dotted with bars; but apart from the uncertainty regarding the roof, we do not even know whether this outer surface was made of stone, or whether it was lined with cedar wood or precious metals, as the author of Paralipus seems to want to say; We also don’t know whether it was decorated or left simply. Moreover, it seems a matter of positive dispute whether the general character of the church was suited to the Greek, Egyptian or Phoenician style, although the use of cedar beams and large blocks of stone, cut in squares and joined together without mortar, together with the whole history of the building, seems to decisively prove that the style of architecture was borrowed from neighboring Tire. Approaching the porch, the visitor first of all saw before him two magnificent columns, which were considered at that time a miracle of art and which, for reasons unknown to us, were named Jachin (the name of Simeon’s son in Numbers 26:12) and Boaz (the name of Solomon’s ancestor). These columns were gigantic in thickness, each 12 cubits (21 feet) in circumference, and were cast in bronze. The columns themselves were only 18 cubits (32½ feet) high. Their capitals, which were 5 cubits (8 2/3 feet) high, represented an opening lotus flower and around the cup of each flower there was a mass of decoration, to which was attached a double wreath of bronze garnets, up to 200 in number. At the very top of the columns was a special abacus, decorated with elegant work in the form of lilies. And yet, it is strange to say that there is still a dispute between learned researchers about whether these two columns stood in front of the vestibule, or represented a decoration inside it, whether they constituted the necessary support for it, or, finally, as many people now think, they belonged to the gate located in front of the vestibule itself. Four centuries later they were broken and taken away by the king of Babylon. The porch was probably hung inside with gilded shields, which were the war booty of David, who took them from the brilliantly equipped warriors of Adraazar the Syrian; perhaps also other types of weapons, like the sword of Goliath. It was apparently decorated with the kind of circular carving that is precisely described in the form of a lily and was a common type of decoration in Persian buildings. Having passed through this porch, the priests approached the large double door of the sanctuary, made of four squares. This door was made of cypress, overlaid with the best gold, the so-called Provaim gold, and rotated on gold hinges. The ceiling and walls were also covered with gold, along which were various decorations made of flowers, apples and palm branches. In the sanctuary there was a golden altar of incense and a golden table on which the showbread was placed daily - the bread offered into the presence of God. According to the testimony of the writer of the book of Chronicles, instead of one table of showbread in the tabernacle, there were ten of them in the church: five on the south side and five on the north side. We are not told anything about what happened to the ancient golden seven-branched lamp. It undoubtedly survived to that time, but Solomon apparently installed ten new lamps in its place, five on each side of the door leading to the Holy of Holies (1 Kings 7:49). In the Holy of Holies nothing was visible from the sanctuary except the protruding ends of the golden poles used to carry the Ark of the Covenant. The door leading to the Holy of Holies, which was probably much smaller than the door of the sanctuary, was made of wild olive and, apparently, also had double doors. The purpose of this arrangement was obviously that when entering the Holy of Holies, as small a hole as possible would be opened, allowing the uninitiated eye to penetrate there. The wooden doors of this small door, like the doors of the sanctuary, were decorated with various cherubs, palm trees and other flowers and overlaid with gold. This door to the sanctuary was always open, but its interior was hidden from view by a curtain of blue, purple and crimson material, embroidered with cherubs, in front of which hung festoons of golden splinters. The mediastinum in which the door stood was made of cedar wood. The floors of the entire building were made of cypress and overlaid with gold. One cannot help but wonder whether this entire building was supported by internal pillars or not. They are not mentioned at all, but it seems almost certain that they must have existed in order to support the cedar beams. If so, then in all likelihood there were four on each side of the sanctuary and two on each side of the Holy of Holies. The tables in the sanctuary in this case should have stood, at least in the intermediate space between these pillars. The Holy of Holies was plunged into constant and mysterious darkness. There was nothing in it except the ark of the covenant and one or two precious monuments from the time of Moses, among which were probably the pot of manna, the rod of Aaron and the book of the law, although these are not mentioned at all. There is no doubt that here was the greatest shrine, namely the stone tablets of the Mosaic Law, which, after being transferred to the temple of Solomon, were laid on the sacred rock on which the threshing floor of Orna was located and which, by Jewish tradition, was identified with the rock where Abraham intended to sacrifice his son Isaac. But although the ark and its original “seat of propitiation” (kapporet) remained without any change, Solomon, however, erected a new and magnificent cover over it. It consisted of two cherubim, ten cubits high, whose outstretched wings were five cubits long, reaching the wall on both sides and touching each other above the very center of the ark. These cherubim represented the highest forms of created intelligence. Located above the “seat of mercy,” these cherubim seemed to always be looking at the tablets of the moral law, as a direct revelation of the will of God. In the tabernacle, these cherubim faced each other (Ex. 37:9). In the church they looked towards the sanctuary. It is not known what exact form these cherubs were, but one can think that they were not like those four-faced cherubs that the prophet Ezekiel saw. There is no need to add that worship in the church required countless gold, silver and bronze vessels, which were all made under the supervision of the Tyrian artist. Even the most ordinary utensils for serving in the sanctuary and holy of holies, such as censers, bowls, plates and even tools for dressing lamps, were all made of pure gold (1 Kings 7:48–51). The entire building was completed in sacred silence. The terrible shrine of the church would have been violated if its construction had been accompanied by noise and thunder, inseparable during ordinary stone construction. Therefore, every stone and every beam was carefully prepared in advance and was directly demolished and placed in its place, “so that neither a hammer, nor a cleaver, nor any other iron tool was heard in the church during its construction.” The construction was obviously good, since repairs turned out to be necessary only during the reign of Joash, around 856, i.e. a century and a half after the dedication of the church, and again two centuries later during the time of King Josiah. The church stood for four centuries until it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Despite the insignificance of the volume of the church in the proper sense of the word, its construction continued for seven and a half years (from the fourth to the eleventh year of the reign of Solomon). The volume, however, did not represent the outstanding aspect of this church, since it was much smaller than many churches in Russia. But we must remember that it was not intended for either priests or pilgrims. In ancient times in the East, worship was mainly performed in the open air; the church itself was only a symbol of the co-presence of God. But even if we assume that all the countless preparations were made earlier, the time elapsed for the construction itself will turn out to be relatively insignificant. The Church of Artemis of Ephesus took 200 years to build and 400 years to repair; one pyramid required the labor of 360,000 people over 20 years. Finally, Cologne Cathedral took on its present size and appearance only after many centuries. But no building in the world enjoyed greater fame than the Temple of Solomon. The name of the Jewish capital had no connection either with the church or with Solomon, but it became so identified with the king and with the city in the minds of mankind that the word “Jerusalem” was significantly modified into “Hierosolima,” as if the word were of Greek origin and meant “the church of Salem.” Israel had a great and glorious earthly king, but the individual tribes had not yet forgotten that their ideal was theocratic government, that in the highest sense of the word their king was the Lord God, and that His dwelling place was in Jerusalem and in this church erected to Him. The church henceforth became the center of their entire national life, and this center was not some church, not any material image, but the church of Him, full of sublime symbols, whom neither heaven nor the heaven of heavens could contain. Among people was now God's dwelling place. He will live and dwell with them, although they will not see anything material: no similarity should have obscured their pure concept of God, who is spirit. This circumstance especially amazed the pagans, and they were extremely surprised at such a religion. When Pompey's sacrilegious foot entered the Holy of Holies, he was positively lost in amazement, finding absolutely nothing there 137 . As a result, the Greeks and Romans had a common view of the Jews, that they did not have any visible object of worship and worshiped clouds 138. It must be remembered that a real church in those days was not intended to be a house of prayer. Not a single pilgrim, with the exception of priests and Levites, entered its gilded chambers, and no one except the high priest ever entered the dark room of the holy of holies, and he entered only once a year. The church was the visible house of God, the place where He dwelt, a house for Him rather than for those who worshiped Him. And public worship within the church premises consisted only of chants and sacrifices, although there is also news of prayers offered both publicly and privately in the large open courtyard of the church. Upon completion of the construction of the church, its solemn consecration took place. The time chosen for him was the most joyful Feast of Tabernacles, in the seventh month (Tisri, September-October) of the holy year. Having finished all their field work and harvested the grapes, the people gathered in Jerusalem from all over the vast state of Solomon. Representatives of all the tribes of the people and the entire tribe of Levi appeared in their entirety. Around the great altar in the courtyard, priests were placed in rows for sacrifice and next to them were Levites, singers in fine linen, with cymbals, psalters and harps, and 120 priests with trumpets. The old tabernacle, which in its austere simplicity presented an extraordinary contrast with the magnificent luxury of the new church and served as a striking proof of the great strides the people had made in artistic terms in recent centuries, was brought to Jerusalem in a solemn procession of priests and Levites from Gibeon, where it had hitherto been located. Together with it, everything that remained in it from the ancient vessels and accessories was brought, especially the golden altar of incense and the golden table of showbread. This transfer was undoubtedly accompanied by sacrifices. But the transfer of the Ark of the Covenant from its temporary sanctuary on Mount Zion, where it was placed 40 years ago, took place even more solemnly. When the Levites with the ark approached the gates of the porch, a large choir of singers rang out the last verses of the twenty-first psalm: “Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O eternal doors, and the King of glory will enter.” Part of the choir asked: “Who is this King of glory?” and the whole choir again answered: “The Lord of hosts - He is the King of glory.” The Ark of the Covenant was placed in the Holy of Holies, under the shadow of the wings of the cherubim. At that moment, everything resounded with the sounds of triumph: “and they were like one trumpeting and singing, uttering one voice to praise and glorify the Lord - and when the sound of trumpets, and cymbals, and musical instruments thundered, and they praised the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever, then the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not stand at the service because of the cloud, because the glory of the Lord filled the house God" (1 Kings 8:11). When the ark of the covenant was placed in its appointed place in the Holy of Holies, under the shadow of the wings of the golden cherubim, the king took his place, in the presence of all the assembled people, on a throne of bronze, three cubits high, five in breadth, and five in length, which had been erected for him in the middle of the court of the priests directly before the altar. From this place he was visible to all the people gathered in the church courtyard, since he was separated from them only by a low wall of separation and, moreover, was located on an elevated place. The steps of the huge altar were occupied by close groups of priests and Levites, musicians dressed in white robes and holding in their hands harps and cymbals and psaltery, shining in the sun, in red trimmings of precious wood. And so, when such proof of the co-presence of God appeared publicly, the king rose from his exaltation and blessed the people: having told the story of the construction of the church, he knelt down and, raising his hands to heaven, said a great dedicatory prayer, in which he asked for the favor and mercy of God in the future destinies of Israel. “O Lord God of Israel,” Solomon prayed, “if heaven and the heavens of heavens cannot contain Thee, how much less this church which I have built; but consider the prayer of Your servant and his petition. May Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to prayer in place seven. May Your priests, O Lord, be clothed with salvation, and may Your saints enjoy blessings. Lord my God, do not turn away Your face; remember your mercy toward David Your servant.” During prayer, the cloud became brighter and lighter and, as a sign of special favor, “fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offerings and sacrifices, and filled the house with the glory of the Lord.” “And all the children of Israel fell on their faces to the ground, and praised the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever.” The festival that followed lasted two weeks (twice the usual Feast of Tabernacles), and during this time 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep were sacrificed, both the king and the whole people competing in the generosity of the offerings. It is difficult for us to imagine the possibility of such enormous sacrifices, but history has no shortage of similar examples. Thus, Julian’s sacrifices were so numerous that those around him mockingly said that he would soon destroy all pure animals. I. Josephus tells that in Jerusalem in one year 256,500 Passover lambs were slain. And in modern times there is a known case of how in Mecca Caliph Moktaver sacrificed 40,000 camels and 50,000 sheep. It must be remembered that, excluding the so-called burnt offerings, most of the animals sacrificed were eaten by the offerors, and only one fat was burned on the altar, i.e. fat parts. Since the copper altar, despite its majestic size, was completely insufficient for such unprecedentedly numerous sacrifices, on this occasion Solomon dedicated the entire church courtyard to this task. When the entire celebration of consecration was over - a triumph that David had once dreamed of and sang about (see Ps. 131), - the king dismissed the people, and everyone, “blessing the king, went to their tents, rejoicing and having fun in their hearts about all the good that the Lord had done to his servant David and to his people Israel.” In the entire history of Israel there was no greater triumph than this, and its memory continued throughout subsequent centuries. At the same time, attention is drawn to the remarkable fact that both during the celebration itself and subsequently, Solomon spoke in the fullness of the sacred rights that belonged to him, as the king and anointed of God, and not only personally made sacrifices three times a year on the brass altar, but he was even allowed to enter the sanctuary and offer incense on the golden altar. This circumstance was completely exceptional, since such a privilege belonged only to priests, and when in later times King Uzziah allowed himself to appropriate such priestly duties, as a punishment for this he was stricken with leprosy. The sign of God’s special favor towards Solomon was not only the cloud of glory and the fire coming from heaven, but also a new dream that happened to Solomon. God appeared to him in a dream and said that He had accepted his prayer, and, under the condition of his faithfulness to the covenant of God, He would establish the kingdom in his house and would not cease to pour out blessings on his people. To understand the depth of delight and love that the church and its worship aroused in the hearts of the Israeli believers, it is enough to read, for example, the following verses of Psalm 81: “How desirable are Your dwellings, O Lord of hosts! My soul is weary, longing for the courts of the Lord! Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they will continually praise You. One day in Your courts is better than a thousand! I would rather be at the threshold of the house of God than to live in the tents of wickedness.” Ps. also points to the same delight. 121: “I rejoiced when they said to me: Let us go to the house of the Lord. For the sake of my brothers and my neighbors, I say: peace be with you! For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I wish good things for you." Many other psalms breathe similar feelings. The people's love for this great sanctuary never ceased. He called it “the house of the sanctuary,” “the house of centuries.” In the Talmud there is a special kind of riddle: “Let the beloved son of the beloved come; may he build the beloved for the beloved in the land of the beloved, in which the beloved may find remission of sins.” This mysterious saying, when translated into simple language, meant: “let Solomon (2 Sam. 12:25), the son of Abraham (Jer. 11:15), build a church (Ps. 83:1) to God (Isa. 5:1) in the inheritance of Benjamin (Deut. 33:12) for the redemption of Israel (Jer. 12:7).” During all other centuries, the church remained the main asset and pride of the people, for which the Israelis were ready to lay down their heads. During its last destruction by the legions of Titus, a massacre took place near it, which, in terms of the fierceness of the defenders, was unprecedented in history, since here the Jews certainly decided to perish rather than give up their shrine to the desecration of the pagans, and indeed everyone perished. From that time on, every Jew, upon entering Jerusalem for the first time in his life, certainly tears his clothes and exclaims: “our holy and magnificent house, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire.” “Since the destruction of the church,” said Rabbi Simon ben Gamaliel, “not a day passed that did not bring some kind of disaster and curse, the dew did not descend with blessing and the fruits lost all taste.” The completion of the church served as a natural reason for the implementation of that transformation of the entire priesthood under it, which, as is known from the book of Chronicles, was established by David and which became essential due to the extraordinary multitude of priests and Levites. The Levites, divided into three main families: the sons of Kohath, Gerson and Merar, represented a large class, numbering at least 38,000 souls. Now they were all called to serve in various departments of the increasingly complex priesthood at the church. They were divided in this way: the general care of the church service was entrusted to 24,000 of them; 6,000 were ministers and judges; 4,000 gatekeepers; 4,000 musicians. How the musical ministry was developed can be judged by the fact that in addition to the singers there was an orchestra of no less than 288 people, skilled in performing sacred hymns on various musical instruments; There were 3,700 singers and they were divided into 24 rows. The antiphonal service at the church was obviously as majestic and impressive as was possible with the musical means of that age, and the music, majestic in its very simplicity, made an extraordinary impression on the masses of the assembled people and increased their love for the great and sacred house of God. The two families of priests were also divided into 24 orders, which were obliged to support worship in the church from week to week. In addition to the priests, there were many so-called “nefinim”, simple church servants, whose duties were to perform various services of a lower kind, such as cutting wood, carrying water, etc. All the worship of the people was thus concentrated around one church, which was supposed to serve as a symbol of the actual presence of Jehovah among his people. That is why no treasure of gold and precious stones was considered too expensive, no art was too elegant to be used in the sanctuary, where, according to the belief of all the people, God himself dwelt above the ark of the covenant between the outstretched wings of the cherubim. Chapter 22. The Glory and Wisdom of Solomon The happy management of the people unusually increased the glory of Solomon, not only in his own state, but also in the surrounding countries. He was truly considered the most glorious and wisest of the kings of the east, and he himself, aware of this, strove in all respects to surpass the kings of his time. First of all, this affected the very pomp and number of his court retinue and servants. One of the necessary accessories of royal dignity in the East has always been considered the possession of many wives. Even in Egypt, contrary to the ancient law prohibiting polygamy, the pharaohs had many wives and concubines; the same was true for the kings of Palestine and Western Asia, who also had large harems. David himself had sixteen wives, but this was still nothing in comparison with the domestic order of the kings in Phenicia and other neighboring countries. True to his character and considering himself the model of a great eastern monarch, Solomon decided in this regard to outshine them all, partly, undoubtedly, in order to secure for himself the friendly ties of neighboring princes through marriage, but even more so to exalt his royal greatness. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines, who by their very number testified together to his royal greatness, his wealth and his sensuality. His first wife, the mother of Rehoboam, whom David perhaps took for him, was Naamah, the “beautiful” daughter of the king of Ammon. Then other wives were taken from the courts of Moab and Syria, and to them were even added Edomite, Phoenician and Hittite beauties, undoubtedly from royal or noble houses, although such marriages were in direct contradiction to the law. All life at court was furnished with the same pomp, requiring extraordinary expenses; the royal feasts were amazingly luxurious, and at the same time, of course, extremely expensive. All dishes and all wine vessels were made of gold, since silver was considered too poor a metal for use at court. A large staff of servants, whole crowds of officials and butlers, royal favorites and guests, like Kimgam and his brothers, envoys from subordinate kings and from distant peoples, a thousand inhabitants of the harem - all this required very large expenses for its maintenance every day. At court, 10 fattened oxen and 20 from pastures were consumed daily; 100 sheep, except deer and chamois, saigas and fattened birds; 30 measures (cows) of excellent flour and 60 measures of honey, which amount was enough to satisfy the needs of at least 14,000 people. Since the court estates themselves could not supply such a huge amount of provisions, the whole country had to supply it. For this purpose, the whole country was divided into twelve regions, each of which was placed under the command of a special steward, known as the “superintendent,” and of these two were Solomon’s sons-in-law. These dignitaries, among their other duties, had to take care of the supply of provisions for the royal table and in general for the maintenance of the court, and they alternated this duty one month a year. In general, they seem to have been the rulers of these regions and had to carry out the will of the king in all respects. This was a very important innovation, since it partially abolished the ancient division into tribes. The tribe of Benjamin was left in its original position, since it was too small to divide; but significant areas were cut off from the tribe of Ephraim on the Jordan and on the western borders, and the western half-tribe of Manasseh was divided into three regions. The northern tribes were also divided, and the three tribes on the east side of the Jordan were divided into two regions. Only the tribe of Judah, like the tribe of Solomon himself and hence enjoying special favor, remained within its former borders and, apparently, was even completely exempted from obligatory taxes. This little-thought-out measure among a people who valued antiquity like the Israelites was the first step towards the future disintegration of the kingdom, due to the irritation that it caused. In addition to the twelve rulers of these newly delimited regions, there were twelve other high dignitaries called princes, although this word is usually translated by the word “chief.” These latter, apparently, constituted the state council, as far as such could exist under Solomon himself. They, however, held different positions. Some were scribes, having in their duties the recording of all commands relating to taxes and the civil life of the people, the consolidation of royal decrees, the preparation of tax sheets and much more related to the purely administrative field. Jehoshaphat, who held the position of scribe or chronicler at the court of David, retained this post under Solomon, and he in reality was, as it were, the chancellor of the state. The Hebrew word by which he is called (matskir) means “reminder”, who, as the “mouth of the king,” reported to him all the most important matters, such as complaints, petitions and desires of both subjects and foreigners. He also wrote papers for the king's leadership and prepared all the documents that served as an expression of the royal will and were copied by scribes. All treaties were under his supervision and it was his responsibility to protect the national archives and chronicles, to which he, as a court historiographer, like the same court dignitaries in Assyria and Egypt, added the current chronicles of the kingdom. Benaiah, who was first the commander of 600 Gibborim under David, after the death of Joab, took the high post of commander-in-chief over the army. After the removal of Abiathar, only Zadok remained the high priest, and his high priestly dignity was strengthened. One of the most important positions was that of commander of the royal household, a position established apparently in imitation of the customs that existed in the courts of Egypt and Assyria. This was a highly influential position, since this courtier had the right to represent persons, as well as affairs, to the king, and in many cases even replaced the person of the king. Before such a dignitary, even the royal chronicler gradually had to fade into insignificance, and he finally took the most prominent position in the state. Under David, during the constant wars, the most prominent person was the commander-in-chief Joab. Under Solomon, the king of the world, at least in the first years, the high priest enjoyed this honor. But as the state fell during subsequent reigns, the head of the palace became the chief minister, since, along with his own position, he also combined the position of custodian of the royal treasures and royal armor, and was distinguished from others by his magnificent court suit and belt; the gigantic key to the house of David, like a state sword, was constantly on his shoulders, wherever he appeared. During the reign of Solomon, there were no great abuses on the part of such dignitaries, but in subsequent times we already hear denunciations of them from the prophets, who complained about the arrogance, luxury and tyranny of such dignitaries. Only Israelis were the king's closest dignitaries, but later foreigners were also admitted to higher positions. Eunuchs, as commanders of the harem, were unknown before the division of the kingdom, but subsequently they received a very large influence on the general course of state affairs. There was another dignitary - the sleeping man, whose duty was to prepare the king’s bedrooms and carry all the accessories of the royal toilet everywhere for him. At first Solomon was content to appear among the people, like David, on a mule, but soon such an appearance began to seem too modest. Therefore, he began to make royal exits on a magnificent stretcher, guarded by a detachment of 60 tall Gibborim and accompanied by chariots and couriers. The person who had the greatest authority at court, besides the mentioned dignitaries, was the king's mother, since, due to polygamy, the queen naturally could not have the proper influence. The power of the mother was so great that subsequently Athaliah, contrary to all customs among the Israeli people, could even seize the royal throne for herself. The crown was the most prominent sign of royalty in ancient times, but Saul still wore only a royal veil, and David used the crown of the king of Ammon. Solomon himself, apparently, did not wear a crown until his marriage to an Egyptian princess, but from that time on it became a distinctive sign of royalty for him. In keeping with such a large staff of court dignitaries was the splendor of the palace itself. In the first years of his reign, even before the construction of the temple, Solomon lived in that relatively modest cedar house that David built for himself; but soon it ceased to satisfy his inclinations towards royal pomp. Therefore, he erected for himself a new magnificent palace, the site for which was apparently chosen to be the southern slope of the Church Mount, known as Ophel. The palace consisted of a number of buildings rather than one large structure; their volume and splendor can be judged simply because it took thirteen years to build them - more than it took to build the church itself. And indeed, they constituted a magnificent monument to his glory, no less famous than the church itself. As with the construction of the temple, Solomon used Syrian and Phoenician architects, artists and workers, since the Israelites themselves could not have built such a palace without the help of their more educated neighbors. The main building, 175 feet long, 87¼ wide and 52½ high, had three floors with a magnificent porch of fifteen slender columns in three rows, made of the most precious and tallest cedars, which gave the house itself the name “Forest of Lebanon” (1 Kings 7). Next to this building rose the tower of the House of David, famous for the shields hanging on its walls (this was the custom in ancient times to decorate the walls of palaces and fortresses). The walls in the palaces of Tire were also hung with shields. Weapons hung on the walls of the second temple in Jerusalem. In Rome, the church of Bellona was decorated with shields, and in Athens, round signs of shields that once hung on the walls of the Parthenon can still be seen today. The Tower of David with its splendor surpassed all other fortresses in the number and variety of these magnificent decorations. Around her hung a thousand shields, and the shields were all brave men. 500 of them were made by Solomon for his bodyguards, but the other 500 were captured by David during the Syrian wars from King Hadazar. Jewish poets compared this tower, with its glittering decorations, to the neck of a bride, covered, according to Eastern custom, with rows of strings of gold coins. The quarters of the king and his wives were in separate buildings, and apart from them was the great court chamber, built, like the others, of a stone slab and lined with cedar. Here stood a throne, famous for its grace and splendor, made of ivory and overlaid with pure gold. He stood at the height of six steps, on which were twelve lions - no doubt a sign that the lion was the banner of Judah. There was also a lion on each side of the throne itself. Its back ended in a semicircle at the top. The seat itself was a golden ox with its head thrown over its shoulders; it was probably the ox of Ephraim - the symbol of this tribe. This was the “throne of the house of David”—the “seat of judgment.” Since he stood in the vestibule, this preserved the ancient custom of holding court at the gate, as David usually did and as had been done before him since ancient times. Other buildings, resting, like the palace itself, on stone foundations, were required for wives, for various ranks of courtiers, and also for receiving noble visitors. A special palace was also erected for Solomon’s Egyptian wife, since the pride of Pharaoh’s daughter did not allow her to live with the king’s other wives. But all these palaces, despite all their splendor, could not be considered complete, especially in the east, without luxurious gardens, representing all the wealth of the plant kingdom. Subsequently, the kings of the ten tribes could easily create such pleasures for themselves in the fertile surroundings of Samaria and Jezreel, but Solomon had to create for himself a royal garden among the naked hills of Judah. For this purpose, from distant places, through covered water pipes, streams of clean water were brought to Jerusalem, which was collected in large ponds to supply the church and the city, and from these pools, through special canals, water was distributed for irrigating gardens and greenery. One of these ponds was made just under the walls of Jerusalem, at the junction of the valleys of Ginnom and Kidron. The second, on a much larger scale, was probably located on the quadrangular top of a hill known as El Fureidis, i.e. "Paradise Mountain", about ten miles south of the capital. It was there that the great king “planted vineyards for himself, built himself gardens and groves and planted all kinds of fruitful trees in them,” supporting all this vegetation under the scorching eastern sky with streams of artificial streams from artificial pools. Here he and his yard could enjoy the coolness on hot summer days, collect lilies and relax under the shade of spreading trees. In these artificial gardens there were pomegranate apple trees, with excellent fruits, keeper with spikenard, spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all sorts of incense trees, myrrh and scarlet, with all sorts of the best aromas. The murmur of artificial springs gave freshness to all this vegetation, the aroma of which, at the slightest breeze, delighted all those present. Surrounding himself with all this external splendor, Solomon, according to the testimony of I. Flavius, took every possible care to elevate his own personality. He always wore a white robe, which distinguished him from everyone around him, and rode out in a magnificent chariot drawn by horses of unparalleled speed and beauty; at the same time, he was always accompanied by a detachment of mounted riflemen, who were all recruited from young men who were particularly slender and beautiful, dressed in suits of Syrian purple and hung with brilliant weapons; their long black hair, sparkling with the golden powder that was sprinkled on their heads every day, fluttered beautifully in the wind during their brave races, arranged for the delight of the king. But the summer heat of Judea was too great to bear when it could be avoided by a temporary removal to the cool heights of Lebanon. For this purpose, a special summer palace was built there. The royal vineyard in Baal-Hermon was especially famous for its wealth and luxury. From the majestic slopes of the mountains far down one could see the black tents of the Arabs, presenting such a sharp contrast with the curtains of the pavilions in which the king and his court temporarily lived. The rocks of Amon, Shemir and Hermon, which had hitherto been an impregnable refuge for lions and leopards, at this time became places of festive entertainment. The very approach of Solomon and his retinue to these summer mountainous quarters was announced by special guards watching from the mountain heights. “Who is this who rises from the desert like columns of smoke, fumigated with myrrh and incense, with all sorts of powders of the world brewer?”, as was always done before famous kings. “Here is his bed - Solomon! Sixty mighty men were around him, and of the mighty men of Israel. They all wield a sword and are experienced in combat; Every one has a sword on his thigh for the fear of the night. King Solomon made himself a carrying bed from Lebanese trees; its columns are made of silver, its elbows are of gold, its seat is of purple cloth, its interior is decorated with love by the daughters of Jerusalem” (Song. 3:6-10). In such splendor he moved from one room to another. The whole life of the king was furnished with exquisite ceremoniality. At all exits, he appeared with a crown on his head, which the Queen Mother placed on him on his wedding day. The king's robes were so saturated with the richest aromas of India and Arabia that they themselves were made as if from myrrh and aloes. The solemn music of stringed instruments was heard in palaces decorated with ivory. He was surrounded by a bouquet of beautiful women, his wives and concubines, most of whom were daughters of kings. The Queen Mother sat on his right hand, in clothes shining with Ophir gold. Singers and singers delighted his ears, and his whole life was earthly bliss. But Solomon was not only the richest and most glorious of kings in the outward splendor of his court life, but also the wisest of kings, surpassing all his contemporaries in his wisdom, i.e. that spiritual wealth, which in the person of the theocratic monarch had much more significance than external splendor. The reign of Solomon was the century of the highest flowering of Jewish literature and wisdom. The wise king was, as it were, the Aristotle of his people. There is a rabbinical tradition, which, although it sounds fabulous, is nevertheless characteristic in some respects, namely, that when Alexander the Great took Jerusalem, he seized all the works of Solomon and sent them to Aristotle, who borrowed from them all that is good that is in his philosophy. Jewish literature had already begun to develop in a systematic form from the very beginning of the monarchy. Music and poetry especially were developed and developed in the prophetic schools of Samuel, and to the early outbursts of the warlike poetic spirit of the people were added the most precious works of David, the first founder of the sacred poetry of Judah and of the whole world, and in the remarks and lost writings of Samuel, Gad and Nathan are the first clear indications of the historical narrative. But with the rise of Solomon, a new world of thought opened up for the Israelites. The curtain that separated them from the surrounding nations was, as we have seen, completely drawn back. The wonders of Egypt, the trade and industry of Tire, the romantic life of Arabia, and even, perhaps, the Homeric age of Greece became visible to them. The first and most tangible result of this was the development of architecture. But the general influence on the entire spirit of the people was even deeper. Israeli thought, apparently, was given a new direction. The prophets and psalmists recede into the background, and their place is taken by a new power known as “wisdom.” Its two most famous examples in ancient times were the “wisdom of Egypt” and the “wisdom of the sons of the east,” that is, the Idumean Arabs. Its exponents are four famous sages: Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Chalkola and Darda, the sons of Mahol (1 Kings 4:31). One might even think that for this special purpose a whole college was founded, as it were, “a house of wisdom on seven pillars” (Proverbs 9:1). A whole class of people arose who, in contrast to priests and prophets, began to be called sages 139. Their teaching, their way of life were equally unlike the teaching and way of life of these two powerful classes among the people. The very subject of their teaching and the name were almost unknown before. In a limited sense, this word is used about the architects of the tabernacle (Ex. 31:3, 6) and, in a somewhat broader sense, about two or three remarkable individuals during the reign of David (2 Sam. 14:2; 20:16). But, from this time on, this word appears in the sacred narrative at least three hundred times. What it meant can best be seen in the greatest representative of wisdom. Already thanks to this newly opening world, a profound change was about to occur among the people, but it was even more strengthened by the great spirit who was the exponent of the new direction. This wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sages of his time. Its embryos were noticeable from a very early time. Perhaps there was something hereditary even in this gift. “Prudence” (1 Sam. 18:5, 14, 15, 30) was one of the outstanding qualities of David and his two cousins, the sons of Semyon. The almost supernatural wisdom of Ahithophel, perhaps, had its source in the family of his mother and (if the advice given to King Lemuel by his mother 140 can be attributed specifically to Solomon, Bathsheba herself was probably worthy of her husband and her son. “Do according to your wisdom, for you are a wise man and you know what you should do with him” (1 Kings 2:6, 9), such, by the way, were his instructions father in his youth. “The Lord gave David a wise son,” in these words Hiram congratulated Solomon (1 Kings 5:7). If we take the writing in the book of Proverbs literally, then David foresaw the importance of this gift for his son and repeatedly insisted on this: “get wisdom, gain understanding,” he said; “do not forget this, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth, and she will protect you; love her, and she will protect you. The main thing is wisdom: acquire wisdom, and with all your possessions acquire understanding. Treasure her highly, and she will exalt you; she will glorify you if you cleave to her; He will place a beautiful wreath on your head; bring you a splendid crown” (Prov. 4:5–9). The first characteristic feature of this wisdom was precisely defined by Solomon himself in a vision that he had in Gibeon: “Give me,” he prayed, an understanding heart to judge Your people and discern what is good and what is evil.” This was the original meaning of this word. It was a calm, reasonable prudence, which was supposed to replace the passionate, incorrect, impetuous impulses of the previous century. The poor administration of justice by the sons of Samuel was one of the reasons for the establishment of the monarchy. During the reign of Solomon, this change was to be fully justified. The first example of this far-sighted wisdom appeared, as we saw above, in a bold appeal to the instinct of nature, precisely in the famous trial between two arguing mothers. In a similar way, one Eastern tradition describes how Solomon peacefully resolved a dispute between two persons claiming the same treasure, deciding that the son of one of the litigants should marry the daughter of the other. With his highest justice, he was a constant defender of the poor, the needy, the oppressed, the helpless, suffering from violence and deceit, and the deliverance of such persons from want and external oppression was for him the most precious thing in life (Ps. 72:2, 4, 12, 13, 14). There is evidence of similar justice every now and then in the book of Proverbs: “the king establishes the earth with justice”; “If a king judges the poor with justice, his throne will be established forever” (Prov. 29:4, 14). In later times this image was either obscured by his more brilliant qualities, or was overshadowed by the darkness of his later years. But in the best years of his reign, he was the basis of his greatness. “All Israel heard of the judgment by which the king judged, and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to execute judgment.” And not only in his own century, but long after, the memory of this glorious reign supported the idea of ​​​​a just king in the eyes of the people and gave them the opportunity to understand how, at the end of their history, Someone, an even greater son of David, should appear again. When the prophet describes that this new King of the house of Jesse will be endowed, like Solomon, with “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of light and strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness,” then the special manifestation of this spirit of His will be that He “will not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor decide matters by the hearing of his ears, but will judge the poor in righteousness, and decide the affairs of the afflicted of the earth in truth, and with the rod of his lips He will smite the earth with his own, and with the breath of his mouth he will slay the wicked, and righteousness will be the girdle of His loins, and truth will be the girdle of His thighs” (Ex. 11:1-5). When we think how slowly the Christian world came to understand the full importance of such wisdom, how many centuries must have passed before it began to be applied to all matters of religion, how even now we are reluctant to recognize it as the crown of beauty of Christian civilization, how reluctantly we are to admit this rule especially in polemics, then we will see how ahead of its time this high view of wisdom in the biblical narrative was. Next to this wisdom, as an expression of a truly rational and responsive heart, there was another side of it, namely the one that related to the vastness of knowledge in the field of the surrounding world. Solomon, in the words of the later sage, Jesus son of Sirach, “was wise in his youth, and his mind was full like a river. His soul covered the earth, and he filled it with mysterious parables. His name spread to the distant islands, and he was loved for his peace. Countries marveled at him for his songs and sayings, for his parables and explanations” (Sir. 47:16–19). Of all these manifestations of wisdom, the wisdom of questions and answers, that is, the explanation of difficult questions and riddles, enjoyed especially wide fame in his time. The highest definition of wisdom was “understanding of parables and intricate speech, the words of wise men and their riddles” (Prov. 1:6). The courtiers around him were apparently encouraged by his example, or perhaps their example encouraged him to engage in a kind of Socratic dialogue among themselves. Examples of these dialogues appear to be found in the book of Proverbs, especially in the words of Agur. “What six things does God hate? What are the three daughters of insatiability? What three things are incomprehensible? What three things make the earth shake? What three things are small, but wiser than the wise? Who three have a slender gait? 141 Historians of Tire testify that such riddles were constantly exchanged between Solomon and Hiram, and for each unsolved riddle a certain agreed sum of money had to be paid. Solomon was more successful in demonstrating wisdom than Hiram, until the latter resorted to the help of one Tyrian boy, the youngest son of Abdemon, who not only solved Solomon's riddles, but also asked riddles that Solomon could not answer 142. But the most remarkable example was an incident that left traces not only in the biblical narrative, but also in the boundless wealth of imagination of later times. Widespread stories about the wisdom of Solomon aroused curiosity in one queen of a certain distant country, and she wanted to personally verify the truth of these stories and offer him her own riddles. In the memories of the Israelis, legends about the large caravans accompanying her lived for a long time, on which she brought gifts of gold, precious stones and balsam to the wisest king. According to popular legend, the balsam gardens in Jericho remain a monument to her visit. But the story of her visit in the biblical narrative is described briefly, and therefore it is not surprising that in subsequent times there was a desire to fill these stories with additional information. Hence many legends have been created in this regard. Legends are divided into two classes. Legends of Abyssinia, supported by the Arabic translation of the title of the queen Sheba Queen of the South, state that she came from Meroe. Some confirmation of this is the fact that I. Flavius ​​calls her the queen of Egypt and Ethiopia 143, and Meroe was undoubtedly ruled by queens. This story gives her the name Makeda, and according to it she gave birth to Solomon (Melimelek) a son, from whom the current sovereigns (Negus) of Abyssinia trace their ancestry, and together with this story are associated the legends about Solomon and about those Jewish rites, traces of which are so clearly visible in the Abyssinian church. It is a very curious fact that one of the most abandoned and unenlightened Christian churches thus lays claim to representing the highest and most civilized period of the Church of Israel. Arabic traditions, perhaps, rest on a more stable foundation. The very name of the Queen of Sheba naturally points to the Arabian Sabea, as well as the gifts she brought, and also, perhaps, the fact that she could hear stories about the wisdom of Solomon thanks to his fleet heading to Ophir. Her name, according to Arabian tradition, was Balkisa. During her visit to Solomon, many curious experiences of wisdom occurred between them. One of the spirits, by order of the courtier Solomon, transferred the throne of Balkisa to Jerusalem, and Solomon changed it so as to put the wise queen in difficulty in discovering its identity. The Queen of Sheba approached, and they asked her: “Isn’t this your throne?” She immediately, with her quick mind, penetrated into the meaning of the question and gave an answer that amazed everyone with its insight and courtesy: “apparently, this is the same one,” she said. For her part, she sent to Solomon two detachments of boys dressed as girls and girls dressed as boys, bouquets of artificial flowers that had to be distinguished at a glance from real ones, as well as a diamond through which a thread had to be passed, and a vessel that had to be filled with water from neither the clouds nor the earth. Solomon distinguished boys from girls by their different ways of washing; He distinguished artificial flowers from real ones by letting bees fly on them; He passed a silk thread through the diamond using a special worm, which penetrated through its pores, and as a reward for all this, the king received a mulberry tree for his future home. As for filling the vessel with water, Solomon ordered a huge slave to gallop back and forth on a hot horse, and from the streams of his perspiration the vessel was filled. Solomon then married the Queen of Sheba and, although she returned to Arabia, he spent three months each year in her company. After her death, special spirits, at his command, carried her body to Fadmor, where her tomb is still kept under the ruins of Palmyra. Despite the elementary nature of the external forms of such wisdom, however, the spirit of these questions and the solution of dark riddles is the very essence of true philosophy. “Giving correct questions,” said Bacon, “is half of knowledge.” “Life without cross-research is not life at all,” said Socrates. And Solomon was precisely the first example of this thought-stimulating process, this living interrogation, this extraction of new meanings from old words. When we explore, when we restlessly ask questions in search of truth and try to find it in unexpected areas, then we follow only in the footsteps of the wise king of Israel and the wise queen of Sheba. But Solomon, moreover, was the founder and sole representative not only of Israeli wisdom, but also of Israeli science. Just as the conquests of Alexander the Great provided material for the first natural history of Greece, so the trading enterprises of Solomon had the same significance for the first natural history of Israel. His own inquisitive mind was devoted to the study of nature, so that in the field of natural science he amazed his contemporaries with the breadth and depth of his knowledge. “And he spoke of the trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon, to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; spoke about animals, and birds, and reptiles, and fish,” that is, in a word, in all departments of natural science. Consequently, we must look upon him as the first great naturalist of the world, engaged in the study of strange animals - monkeys and peacocks, which he brought from India, rare plants in the gardens among the rich springs of Etham, or in the hollow of a deep stream under the wall of the newly erected temple of Jerusalem, where undoubtedly one could see a transplanted cedar, replacing the humble sycamore of Palestine - in gardens where there were special nurseries “with pomegranates with excellent fruit, keeper with spikenard, spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all kinds of fragrant trees, myrrh and aloes, with all kinds of the best aromas” (Song. 4:13,14). Arab legends based their fantastic tales on this feature of Solomon about his conversation with the birds, with whom “he spoke, both because of their excellent language, which he knew, as well as his own, and because of those beautiful parables that were in circulation between them.” His special favorites were the pigolitsa, the rooster and the tattoo. Flocks of birds formed the canopy of his throne and his bed. Pigeons lived in his church. They seemed to multiply so quickly from the blow of his hand that he could walk to the church from the market quarter of the city under the cover of their wings. The more prosaic mind of I. Josephus was inclined to see in the biblical narrative of Solomon's natural history his tendency to extract parables from all forms of plant and animal life - which assumption was most likely suggested by Solomon's reference to the example of the ant 144 . But on one point the sane Jew and the fantastic Arab quite agree with each other. Both legends depict Solomon's knowledge as extending beyond the natural realm into the realm of magic and demonic powers. According to Arab legends, Solomon had a special mysterious ring, which he controlled the geniuses with unconditional power. At his command, they built the church and the walls of Tadmor and Baal-Bek; on their wings he traveled in different directions, had breakfast in Persepolis, lunched in Baal Bek and dined in Jerusalem. Under his throne he buried their magic books. According to I. Flavius, lamentations for the healing of physical and mental disorders, spells for driving out demons were allegedly discovered by Solomon, and from that time on were used in Palestine even in his time 145. It is remarkable that there is not the slightest mention of these hidden powers in St. Scripture. It says nothing about Solomon's magical power. But it speaks enough about his knowledge to show us that in the development of this great science we are his true followers, that the geologist, the astronomer, and especially the botanist and natural scientist can well consider him their first mentor. The biblical narrator, reporting this, does not talk about anything else, in order to instill in us the truth that science is not the subject of the Bible, since it deals with other, much more important subjects. Bacon, in one striking place, in his “New Atlantis,” puts into the mouth of the ruler of this island a speech to strangers about the treasures of Solomon, “books about all plants and about all objects that have life and movement” - books that are lost to us, but are supposedly preserved there. This is a happy thought, but, unfortunately, not based on reality. If the purpose of revelation had been to teach us the wonders of natural creation, to warn Linnaeus and Cuvier, then at this very time there would have been the most reasons for including the results of Israeli science in the canon of St. Scriptures. But that was not the case. All these works were lost. We have the opportunity to use the example of Solomon, but we no longer have the opportunity and advantage to read the authenticity of his speculation and his discovery. The main manifestation of Solomon's written wisdom was parables - what in Hebrew is called mashal. The inner spirit of his philosophy (if one can call ancient Jewish wisdom as it approaches Western thought) was questions about the end of life, questions and answers about the difficulties presented by human experience. Its form was either similarities or short expressive formulas. Parables, in the newest sense of the word, indicate folk and national origin and, according to the famous definition of one of the most remarkable thinkers, signify not only “the wit of one person, but the wisdom of many people.” It was different, however, with the parables of Solomon. They bear the stamp of a personal, not a national work. It is precisely because they represent not the wisdom of many people, but the famous wit of one person, that they make such a deep impression. They were a gift to the people, not a product of the people. “The words of the wise are like needles,” stimulating with their wit to acquire further knowledge. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, they are like “driven nails” that penetrate into the very depths of the heart, and “they were compiled by the one Shepherd (Eccl. 12:11).” A pointed form is given to them in order to make them especially sensitive to the heart and memory, and they are driven, so to speak, into the soul with the full weight of authority, in order to give stability and firmness to the entire system. Although parables are mentioned twice in the time of David (1 Sam. 10:12; 24:13), and poems called parables are mentioned even during the conquest of Palestine (Num. 21:27), but parables, in the sense of wisdom, relate only to the time of Solomon. Two reasons can be pointed out that contributed to the turning of both his own mind and that of his people in this direction. One of them was the predominance of this method of mental activity among the Arabian tribes with which the king and his people now came into contact. The sublime prophecies of the Mesopotamian sorcerer Balaam are also called by this word. Another reason was the adoption of this style by Solomonov’s friend and teacher, Nathan. The well-known parable of the poor man's sheep, although not called a parable in the proper sense of the word in the narrative, is, however, the first example of its application to moral and religious subjects, and even in this form it closely resembles one parable contained in the book of Ecclesiastes (Eccl. 9:13-15). The volume of this literature was much greater than what has reached us. “And Solomon spoke three thousand proverbs” (1 Kings 4:32). Much of it is actually preserved in the book of Proverbs 146. The entire book is completely imbued with the spirit of his wisdom and bears the deep stamp of his broad, comprehensive experience. In their simplest form, parables are short and generally consist of two parts that clarify and reinforce the point being made, or present an instructive contrast. In their form, parables are a collection of moral teachings and thoughts aimed at the benefit of all classes of that and every age. Here are examples of these parables: “Someone pretends to be rich, but he has nothing; Another pretends to be poor, but he has a lot of wealth” 147. “Hope that does not come true for a long time languishes the heart, And a fulfilled desire is like a tree of life” 148. “A gift is a precious stone in the eyes of the one who owns it; Wherever he turns, he will be in time” 149. “Whoever withholds grain from himself is cursed by the people; And on the head of the seller there is a blessing” 150. The monarchy gave rise to many parables, which have either a commendable or an opposite character, depending on the state of the king. Thus, the parables describe the highest ideal of the king as follows: “In the mouth of the king is an inspired word, His lips must not sin in judgment. Faithful scales and weighing bowls are from the Lord; All the weights in the bag come from Him. An abomination to kings is a lawless deed, Because the throne is established by righteousness. Truthful lips are pleasing to the king, And he loves the one who speaks the truth. Royal wrath is the harbinger of death; But a wise man will appease him. In the bright gaze of the king there is life, And his favor is like the cloud of the latter rain." 151 A number of parables are dedicated to the responsibilities of a woman. The wife in Israel occupied a higher position compared to the position of her sex among other eastern peoples. She was her husband's assistant and manager of all household affairs, reigning like a queen in her family. In case of worthlessness and unworthiness, she ruined her husband and brought shame and dishonor on her children. The book of Proverbs assumes that a man has only one wife and praises or condemns her according to her merits. “A well-behaved wife gains glory for her husband, And a wife who hates the truth is the height of dishonor” 152. “A wise woman will build her house, And the stupid one will destroy it with her own hands” 153. “House and estate are inheritance from parents, But a wise woman is from the Lord." 154 “Whoever finds a good wife has found good, And he received grace from the Lord" 155. “It’s better to live in a corner on the roof, Than with a grumpy wife in a spacious house" 156. “It’s better to live in a desert land, Than with a grumpy and angry wife" 157. "Continuous drops on a rainy day And a grumpy wife are equal; He wants to hide the wind and the suit in his right hand, Letting you know about yourself" 158. “The eyes of the Lord are in every place; They see the evil and the good" 159. The parables, however, as it should be, attached special importance to religious and moral life, the ideal of which is extremely high and pure. Indications in parables of this kind on God to belong to the most exalted in all of St. Scripture. "All man's ways are pure in His sight, But the Lord weighs souls" 160. "The heart of man ponders its path, But the Lord controls his procession" 161. “An abomination to the Lord is the way of the wicked, But He loves the one who walks the path of righteousness” 162. "Who can say: I have cleansed my heart, Am I clean from my sin? 163 “Different scales - unequal measure, Both are an abomination to the Lord." 164 Parables relating to private conduct in life are especially numerous, and they constitute a code of pure wisdom, which we would seek in vain in any other literature. The main idea of ​​all of them is that “he who walks in integrity walks safely” 165 . On this basis rest all the advice given regarding the management of our lives and the abstinence of our inclinations and passions. "He who is long-suffering is better than the brave, And he who controls himself is better than the conqueror of a city." “Prudence makes a man slow to anger, And glory for him is to be lenient towards misdeeds” 166. “Like a city destroyed without walls, That is a man who does not control his spirit" 167. “A little with the truth is better, Than many profits from untruth" 168. “Better is a piece of bread and peace with it, Than a house full of slaughtered cattle with discord" 169. In the parables, diligence and activity are especially instilled and all laziness is bitterly reproached: "He who tills his land He will be satisfied with bread; And who follows in the footsteps of idle lovers, "Sloppy in his work “The lazy man puts his hand into the cup, And he doesn’t want to bring it to his mouth” 172. “Do not like to sleep, lest you become poor; Keep your eyes open And you will eat bread to your fill" 173. But here is a parable that is truly amazing in its simplicity and at the same time in the depth of everyday experience, which has become worldwide and has been worked on more than once by poets of various nations, who best understand the secret of a healthy and contented life of the people: “I passed by the field of a lazy man, And past the vineyard of a feeble-minded man. And now, all this is overgrown with thorns, Its surface was covered with nettles, And its stone fence collapsed. And I looked and turned my heart, And I looked and learned a lesson: You'll sleep a little, take a little nap. You lie down for a while with your hands folded; And your poverty will come like a passerby And your need is like an armed man" 174. In all these parables, which serve as an image of the wisdom of King Solomon in various periods of his much-tested life, a truly wise monarch is depicted, who was worthy in his years of the throne of the chosen people and with greater willpower could become an inexhaustible source of moral elevation and revival of mankind. Being the greatest sage of the Israeli people, Solomon was also a worthy heir to his father in poetic talent. The biblical historian credits him with composing many songs, namely one thousand and five songs. Among these songs are several psalms included in the general composition of the Psalter of David (for example, Ps. 126). But besides the psalms, the most remarkable expression of this side of the great king’s talents is the famous book called “Song of Songs,” that is, the best of songs. This book truly poured out the sweetest stream of that sublime, cheerful inspiration that only a king who had experienced in his life the fullness of joy, in its deepest manifestation - love, could have possessed. In the history of world literature there have been many enthusiastic hymns of love, and great poets and thinkers have glorified this purest, noblest, truly divine feeling; but all these hymns pale before the divinely inspired creation of Solomon, who in his “Song of Songs” poured out all the fullness of love that the deepest and fullest human heart is capable of feeling, perceiving and expressing. By its nature and content, the Song of Songs occupies a completely exceptional position among other books of St. Scriptures. It is the same mystery in the Old Testament as the Apocalypse is in the New Testament, as a result of which, since ancient times, many different opinions about it have been expressed by various interpreters and researchers. In appearance, it is like a completely secular poem, so secular that it never mentions the name of God, who usually serves as the seal of every page of other books of St. Scriptures. As a result, there have been many attempts to suspect and reject its canonical character. But in this regard there is no sufficient reason to doubt. The Song of Songs has long been an indispensable part of the Jewish canon and from there it passed into the Christian Church. Both in the Jewish synagogue and in the primitive Christian church, she constantly enjoyed general recognition and high respect. According to the famous Rabbi Akiba, “no one in Israel has ever doubted the canonicity of the Song of Songs, for the passage of centuries cannot compete with the antiquity when this song was given to Israel; all ketuvim (teaching books) are sacred, but the Song of Songs is the holiest of holies” 175. The most ancient Christian interpreters express themselves in a similar way, testifying to the recognition of its canonicity by the primitive church. The father of Christian exegesis, Origen, listing the various songs found in St. Scripture, like the song at the crossing of the Red Sea, the song of Moses, Deborah and others, concludes with: “When you go through all these songs, then you must rise even higher in order to sing the Song of Songs with the bridegroom.” In the book of Proverbs, according to Bl. Jerome, young people are taught the duties of life, in the book of Ecclesiastes, middle-aged people comprehend the vanity of all earthly things, and in the Song of Songs, perfect people, with the world lying under their feet, are accepted into the arms of the heavenly bridegroom” 176. But with the recognition of the canonical nature of the book, the difficulties associated with it are not eliminated. Its very form was and is the greatest stumbling block for interpreters - a true “cross” for exegetical science. The Song of Songs could be called a lyric-dramatic poem, but in reality this name does not fully suit it: it is the most original expression of a unique genius that does not fit into the current literary framework. In it one can distinguish individual characters, but they speak and act so differently from the rules of artificial drama that to apply this last name to it is to abuse the term. This is truly a free work of free creative genius, an enthusiastic outpouring from the fullness of the sweetest feeling of love, which found expression in the colors of that enthusiastic joy of life that Solomon experienced in the best period of his most blessed life. In its content, the Song of Songs has a two-sided character. On the one hand, it represents a simple historical fact that took place in the life history of Solomon, who sang it in this wondrous song. In this regard, this book is truly a lyric-dramatic poem, which sets out in poetic colors the feelings and deeds of persons operating within certain boundaries of space and time. But there is another, deeper and more mysterious side to it, which casts a shadow on the distant future. The love depicted in it is so pure and divine, so deep and sublime, that no human heart is capable of serving as the organ of its complete embodiment. Such love in all its fullness is possible only for the divine heart, and that is why truly deep insight was shown by those great Christian interpreters who saw in this book a prophetic reflection of the love of Christ for the Church, the divine groom for the earthly bride. And those who read this most holy book in this very sublime sense receive immeasurably more inspiring pleasure than those narrow-minded critics who want to bring this divine book down to the same level with the love dramas of our perverted age. The origin of the book dates back to the period of Solomon's highest prosperity, when he, surrounded by all his glory, enjoyed inviolably all the blessings, not yet overshadowed by any of those moral and religious ailments to which he fell in later years. At that time he was the happiest man in the world, and his pure, sublime heart was capable of beating in response to any pure, genuine love, even if it came from the heart not of a magnificent princess, but of a simple daughter of nature, untouched by the artificiality of court life - a shepherdess. And the Song of Songs is precisely an enthusiastic poem in honor of Solomon’s such love. During the summer heat, Solomon used to move to the north of the country, so that there, under the cool shade of the mountains and cedars of Lebanon, he could enjoy the benefits of his royal position. There, one shepherdess, the beautiful Shulamite, captivates the magnificent king, surrounded by unattainable greatness, and the latter, preferring love to everything that is most precious on earth, descends from the height of his greatness and bestows his royal love on the poor daughter of nature, whose entire dignity lay in the beauty of her body and the purity of her heart. The book begins with a chorus of praise from the court singers, the “daughters of Jerusalem,” enthusiastically welcoming the one whom the king’s heart has chosen. Brought to the royal pavilion, the beautiful shepherdess, seeing herself in an unusual environment, among the magnificently dressed court ladies, shining with the delicate whiteness of their faces, feels extremely embarrassed and turns to them with an exculpatory speech: My mother's sons were angry with me, They put me in charge of the vineyards 177. But then the king himself appears. Looking at his bride, Solomon admires her charming beauty and exclaims to her: Oh, you are beautiful, my beloved! You are beautiful! Your eyes are dove! The embarrassed shepherdess does not know what to answer to this greeting of the great gift and limits herself to repeating his words in the appendix to himself, with the addition of what her simple-minded heart could come up with: Oh you are beautiful my love Addressing the daughters of Jerusalem, Shulamita explains to them the story of her meeting with Solomon, whom she could have mistaken for a simple young man and only later learned about his royal dignity. Her innocent story delights Solomon even more and he, turning to her, sings of her in enthusiastic verse: Oh you are beautiful my love Your eyes are dove under your curls; Your hair is like a herd of goats, Coming down from Mount Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep, Of which each has a pair of lambs, And there is no barrenness among them; Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon, Like halves of a pomegranate apple - Your cheeks are under your curls; Your neck is like a pillar of David, A thousand shields hang on it - Your two breasts are like the twins of a young chamois, You are all beautiful, my beloved, Then the king makes a formal proposal to her and invites her to leave her native Lebanon and exchange its wild wilds for the splendor and luxury of the royal palace: With me from Lebanon, my bride; From the top of Senir and Hermon, The king can no longer live without her: You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride: With one glance of your eyes, One necklace around your neck. Oh, how kind are your caresses, my sister, my bride! Oh, how much your caresses are better than wine, And the fragrance of your ointments is better than all aromas! Honeycomb drips from your lips, bride; Honey and milk under your tongue, And the fragrance of your clothes is like the fragrance of Lebanon! 178 The Shulamite herself fully responds to the love of the royal groom with all the ardor of her kind, enthusiastically virgin heart. She tells the court ladies how, when it was still unknown whether the king would honor her with his love, she yearned for him, how she even saw him in a dream and grieved, not finding him anywhere. But now she's happy. Her beloved is with her, and he is more beautiful than all the sons of men. My beloved is white and rosy, Better than ten thousand others. His head is pure gold; His curls are wavy, black as a raven, His eyes are like doves by streams of water, His cheeks are like a fragrant flower garden, Rows of fragrant plants; His hands are golden rounds, His belly is like an ivory statue, His legs are like marble pillars, Placed on golden sockets; This is my beloved, The marriage takes place. The majestic king bows before the power of love, which is more powerful than anything in the world and is equally the mistress of both ordinary people and kings. The most beautiful Shulamite, as the king's wife, turns from a poor shepherdess into a queen. She loves the king with all sincerity, with a heart full of fire, and feels bliss from the knowledge that the king also loves her. In the ecstasy of the bliss of love, she exclaims enthusiastically: I belong to my beloved After marriage, a happy family life begins. Newlyweds love each other with all the fervor of sincere, unspoiled, all-captivating love. The king had never experienced such marital pleasure before, and he, turning to his beloved wife, expresses to her his feelings aroused in him by her beauty and character: You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my beloved, Formidable as regiments with banners. Because they excite me. And eighty concubines and maidens without number; My blueberry, my pure one; She is the only one with her mother, Distinguished from her parent. The Shulamite also enjoys life; She is also pleased with the bliss of married life with the king in his brilliant mansions in Jerusalem. But her soul was raised among the free wilds of the Lebanese mountains, under the ever-cool shadow of gray-haired Hermon, with its murmuring streams, fragrant gardens and pictures of simple rural life. After the ebb of the first sensations of new bliss, she begins to feel a certain languor in her heart: she feels stuffy in the gilded palace, her soul asks for rural space, where the starry sky would be a canopy for her, music would be the ever-talkative nature itself, a bed would be velvet-soft greenery. She is sad and has lowered her fiery gaze, or turned her fiery eyes there - to the distant, native north. The king notices this change and invites a choir of singers to entertain her, who turn to her with a request: Look around, look around, Shulamite; Look around, look around, and we'll look at you! But the Shulamite got bored with these choirs and their artificial consolations, and she answered them in some irritation: Why should you look at the Shulamite? How about the Manaim round dance? The choir, however, wants to entertain and cheer up the sad Shulamite and sings a Song of praise to her (although, perhaps, not without an admixture of subtle irony): Oh, how beautiful are your feet in sandals, The rounding of your hips is like a necklace, The work of a skilled artist; Your belly is a round bowl, In which the aromatic wine is not exhausted; Your belly is a heap of wheat, Your two breasts are like two kids, Your neck is like an ivory pillar; Your eyes are like the lakes of Heshbon, Your nose is the Tower of Lebanon, Your head is on you like Carmel, And the hair of your head is like purple; The king is fascinated by your curls. At this time the king himself enters, and he, continuing the song of praise in honor of the Shulamite, sings to her: Beloved, by your cuteness! This figure of yours is like a palm tree, And your breasts are like bunches of grapes. I thought: I wish I could climb a palm tree, I would grab hold of its branches; And your breasts would be like bunches of grapes, And the smell from your nostrils is like apples; Your lips are like excellent wine! The Shulamite interrupts the king and, continuing the thread of his thoughts, with the bliss of love, throws herself into his arms and sings: It flows 180 straight to a friend, Delights the lips of the weary, I belong to my friend. And his desire is addressed to me. But, taking advantage of the king’s disposition and love for herself, Shulamite pours out the melancholy of her heart before him and calls on the king to quickly leave the stuffy palaces of Jerusalem and go to the fertile expanse of fields and villages: In the morning (there) we will go to the vineyard, Let's see if the vine has blossomed, Have the pomegranate apple trees blossomed; There I will show you my caresses. The king finally agrees to the requests of the Shulamite and the court moves to a summer residence to the north, under the shadow of the mighty forests and mountains of Lebanon. Spring is in full bloom and the Shulamite is in bliss. Expressing her bliss, her spontaneous joy at the sight of her native nature, she tries in every possible way to share her bliss with the king: The mandrakes have already released incense, And at our doors are all kinds of excellent fruits, Her joy is boundless, and she would be ready to express her love for her crowned husband every hour, every minute, in front of the whole world, but she is shy and ashamed of people. Oh, why is she not his sister, but his wife! Oh, if only you were my brother, Sucking my mother's breasts! Then, when I met you on the street, I would bring you to my mother's house. And I would give you aromatic wine, The juice of my pomegranate apples. But the king is not her brother, but her husband. And she realizes that this relationship is even higher than the relationship that can exist between brother and sister. This is the incarnation of two souls into the unity of being. Over time, the Shulamite fully comprehends this great moral mystery and expresses it in verses marvelous in their strength and deep enthusiasm: Place me like a seal on your heart. Like a ring on your hand: For love is strong as death, Fierce, like hell, jealousy; Her arrows are arrows of fire; She is a very strong flame. Big waters can't extinguish love If someone gave all the wealth of his house for love. Then he would have been rejected with contempt. 181 This is, in general terms, the meaning of the book “Song of Songs”, in terms of its historical content 182. But, in addition to the historical meaning, it also contains another, deeper, transformative meaning; this has been the ever-present belief of the church, both Jewish and Christian, and such a meaning involuntarily appears to everyone upon deeper examination. In fact, the enthralling feeling that animates the characters is so great and divinely pure that no human heart, not even the heart of the wisest king, could contain and realize the fullness of this feeling. Such a feeling in its entirety is possible and accessible only to the God-man in his relation to his bride - St. churches. But even in the very course of the action, such a striking parallel with the supreme relationship between Christ and the church clearly appears that its representative significance becomes undeniable. In the condescension of the great king to the love of a simple village shepherdess, one involuntarily sees the condescension of the Heavenly King to the pitiful, enslaved by the forces of this world church of the Old Testament, and in the elevation of the shepherdess to the royal marriage bed, and to the position of the queen, one involuntarily sees again the elevation of the weak, subject to slavery of humanity to the sonship of God, the subordinate, oppressed church to a grace-filled position bride of Christ. It is only in this very highest educational sense that the book “Song of Songs” receives its deepest meaning, and in this very sense it becomes even higher than all other books of the Old Testament. “This song,” Bernard rightly says, “surpasses all other songs of the Old Testament. Since these latter are for the most part songs in honor of deliverance from captivity, Solomon did not have any reason to compose them. At the height of his glory, in an aura of wisdom, in an abundance of wealth, in an inviolable peace, he here glorifies Christ and His Church, the grace of holy love, the sacrament of eternal marriage, although constantly, like Moses, putting a veil on his face, since at that time there was no one or few who could directly contemplate this glory. Such is the belief of the Church and such is the conviction of all who are able to look deeper than what appears only to superficial observation. Chapter 24. The Last Years of Solomon The glory of Solomon, as a great eastern monarch, thundered throughout the east, so that the surrounding monarchs reverently bowed before him and considered it a special honor for him to accept gifts from them. But nothing lasts forever under the moon, and even the glory of Solomon, with all its external splendor, could last only as long as the inner foundation on which it rested was healthy. Therefore, when Solomon, under the weight of years, began to weaken in his moral life, then his glory began to quickly fade, leaving only a vague memory in the legends. The biblical chronicler, the author of the 1st book of Kings, playing on the name of Solomon, says that when he grew old (although he could not have been more than 55 years old), “his wives corrupted his heart, and his heart was not completely devoted (shalem) to the Lord.” The author of the book of Chronicles, having described all the greatness of his glory, his building of the church, his prayers and his commercial enterprises, pointing to the prophets who acted as historiographers, then sadly adds only that the wisest king “slept with his fathers.” Two terrible evils peeked out from under the brilliant surface of this reign and brought terrible harm to the king and the people - namely, the evil of polygamy and the evil of Eastern despotism. The primitive simplicity of the monarchy, with its less pomp, was more grateful than the splendor of moral stagnation and magnificent decay. There were probably many among the Israelis who looked unfavorably on how national simplicity was being supplanted by foreign splendor. Although the decrees of the Mosaic Law at this time seem to have been almost generally neglected, especially in their state legalizations, and although Solomon himself, apparently, was little aware of how much he violated the Mosaic worldview, in any case he did in all directions exactly what was least consistent with the true ideal of royal power among the chosen people (Deut. 17:16, 17). Three things were especially forbidden to the Israeli sovereign, and Solomon did all these three things. If we judge from this point of view only, we will have to admit that Solomon was precisely an example of everything that a king should not be. According to the Mosaic decrees, the king was forbidden to multiply horses or send caravans to Egypt for the purpose of exporting horses from there, because intercourse with Egypt was considered undesirable, and Moses directly commanded that “the king should not multiply horses for himself and should not return the people to Egypt.” And yet, Solomon’s trade in horses and the amounts for which he purchased them for the kings of the Hittites and Syrians were the most significant in his land trading enterprises. Then the king was forbidden to excessively increase his personal wealth, namely to accumulate gold and silver, and Solomon considered it his special glory to accumulate so much silver that it became as common as stones in Jerusalem, so that, due to the excessive influx of Ophir gold, silver was considered almost nothing. Finally, he was forbidden to “multiply wives, lest his heart be corrupted”; and he just fell in love with many foreign women, except for the daughter of Pharaoh, namely women “Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites, from those nations about which the Lord said to the children of Israel: Do not go in to them, and let them not come in to you, lest they incline your hearts to their gods; Solomon clung to them in love.” Some assumed that these wives and concubines were only a kind of guarantee of friendship with the surrounding peoples, and that their multiplication from among the pagan peoples, with whom any rapprochement was directly and clearly prohibited, stemmed more from a thirst for power and glory than from a love of pleasure. But sacred historians give no room for such mitigating conclusions. The most ancient chronicler directly says that “Solomon clung to them in love.” “And he had 700 wives and 300 concubines; and the wives corrupted his heart.” Such a number of wives and concubines is positively unprecedented in history. The greatest harem known in ancient or modern times was that of Darius Kodoman, and yet it is known about him that he had only one wife and 329 concubines. It is also known about some Egyptian kings that they had more than 300 wives. Thus, Solomon, in this respect, seemed to set his goal to outshine the surrounding monarchs, although this object of his pride contained an inevitable source of corruption and corruption, and with fatal necessity prepared the fall of his true glory. One can hardly doubt that among other abuses inseparably associated with such a multiplication of wives, the inevitable members of the eastern courts also appeared in Solomon’s court, namely the eunuchs with their constant intrigues. “Such insects,” says the ancient historian, “gather in palaces like flies on a summer day”; in a large harem they become all the more inevitable and therefore occur wherever polygamy exists. It is true that they are mentioned only once, and that only at the court of David (1 Chronicles 28:1). But, on the other hand, Samuel clearly mentions them among the crowd of those predatory robbers, whose greed the kings had to satisfy (2 Sam. 8:15). In the later reign, if the word saris is taken literally, they became as common at the Israeli court as at the Persian court. At best, therefore, life spent in eastern palaces and harems provides only the opportunity for all kinds of immorality, corruption and melancholy. She arouses the jealousy and fierce rivalry of all these pitiful wives, corrupted by luxury and idleness, who have no choice but to constantly quarrel among themselves and seek the royal favor with all kinds of intrigues, together with their low, pitiful and disfigured overseers. It is remarkable that the author of the book of Chronicles completely passes over in silence the fall of Solomon and does not even mention the shameful number of his wives or his apostasy. Having stated that in his early years Solomon “loved the Lord,” he then limits himself to the statement that when Solomon grew old, “his wives turned his heart aside to other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, like the heart of David his father.”183 The circumstance that this apostasy of his took place when he was old (though in fact he could not have been more than 60 years old even when he died) seems to show that the strength of his will was much crushed by enervating self-indulgence. Like Samson, he became too weak to resist the constant insistence of female temptations. But besides this, we cannot completely deny here a kind of political calculations, which, of necessity, invaded the soul of Solomon, thanks to incessant relations, which aroused ambition in imitation of them. It is possible that a certain tendency to engage in magic and sorcery and to look into the mysterious darkness of the future introduced another new element of decay 184 . Sensuality led to religious indifference, and indifference to an all-consuming vanity, which ended in the most daring violation of the most expressive commands of God. It was already quite illegal to enter into marriages with idolaters and not take measures to incline them to the true faith. But if this indulgence could be excusable for some reasons; if the psalmists enthusiastically sang of his marriage to the daughter of Pharaoh, and, as far as is known, not a single prophet rebelled against this, then, undoubtedly, the most that could be allowed for these foreign queens was precisely the admission of pagan rituals in their private, inaccessible life. But in reality, Solomon acted completely differently. Although he probably continued to visit the temple three times annually, he not only tolerated, but encouraged, and openly, the performance of pagan rites in the very neighborhood of the temple, which he therefore seemed to have built in vain. In this regard, one cannot help but see the obvious moral decline of the king. At first he was embarrassed even by the mere presence of Pharaoh's daughter in the city of David, because it was sanctified by the presence of the ark of God (2 Chronicles 8:11). He apparently did not build any churches for her, and some even assumed that she became a proselyte, although the Talmud says: “When Solomon married the daughter of Pharaoh, she brought him a thousand different kinds of musical instruments and taught him songs in honor of various idols.” 185 In all likelihood, she died early, since after the construction of the palace was completed, nothing more is known about her. But to please his other wives, Solomon not only did not limit himself to toleration of idolatry or indifference to it, but openly took part in the most outrageous forms of superstition. The mere mention of this circumstance in the book of Kings does not provide us with a proper measure of the depth of his religious and moral decline. If we take the evidence given there literally, then he offered burnt offerings and thanksgiving sacrifices on certain occasions throughout his life on the great brass altar, and also offered incense. This in itself was illegal. But Solomonov’s religiosity was clearly losing its former purity, and many such alien elements invaded it, between which there could be nothing in common. Like the scum of the mixed population that the kings of Assyria settled in Samaria, that ignorant crowd that “feared the Lord and served their own gods” (2 Kings 17:33), so Solomon, but with infinitely less apology, worshiped equally in the church of Jehovah and in the church of Chemosh, and this not only secretly, but also openly, on a hill located opposite his own palace and church ( 2 Kings 23:13). In addition to all the other influences that led him astray from the true path, one can probably add an extraordinary pride in his knowledge, which inspired him with a vain feeling of superiority over everything that he could now, in his opinion, regard as the exclusive prejudices of his own people. Poisoned by the doubts of cold learning and blinded by the gloomy inaccessibility of the Eastern autocrat, the king, who had once uttered a highly spiritual and heartfelt prayer at the consecration of the church, now leaned toward a disgusting idolization of nature, which led him to the apotheosis of cruelty and lust. and so Solomon really “followed the trail,” in other words, idolatrously idolized Astarte, the goddess of Sidon. According to Justin the Philosopher, Solomon even traveled to Sidon and there, out of courtesy to his wife, openly took part in idolatrous worship. One of the main cities of Bashan was named after her by Astaroth of Karnaim, that is, “Astarte the two-horned” or “horned crescent.” There is no need to describe this cult, which among different Semitic peoples took extremely different forms. One can only hope that this idolization of the moon and the heavenly powers had a purer form among the ancient Phoenicians than it had in later centuries and among other peoples. In the form in which her cult was allowed by Solomon, who personally took part in it, he almost descended to such vileness in which he was, according to the description of Bl. Augustine, between the Carthaginian colonists of Tire 186. A later legend says that among the wives of Solomon was the daughter of Hiram, and that it was in her honor that this disgusting cult was allowed 187. If the idolization of Ashtoreth was inevitably associated to a greater or lesser extent with immorality, then the idolization of Milcom, the “Ammonite abomination,” was inevitably accompanied by blood. Lust, as in all forms of pagan idolatry, was inextricably linked with cruelty. There can hardly be any doubt that Milchom is only a diminutive and, perhaps, affectionate form of Moloch, unless we take the ending as a suffix meaning “their king.” It is clear, in any case, that Milchom (mentioned in 1 Kings 11:5) cannot be a deity different from Moloch mentioned in Art. 7, each of these idols being called “the abomination of the children of Ammon” 188 . If indeed Milchom is the same as Moloch, then it is not difficult to imagine that his idolatry was accompanied by all the horrors of child sacrifice, with which it was usually associated with the surrounding pagan worshipers of this god. Almost all ancient forms of idolatry were only various forms of idolatry of the sun and stars. Just as Astarte was the “queen of heaven” and personified the pleasant splendor of the night, so Moloch was the king who personified the scorching heat of the summer afternoon, a terrible destructive force that was most natural to propitiate with blood. If, therefore, Solomon really allowed himself to take part in the worship of this terrible deity, then it is difficult to say that this worship consisted of anything other than those rituals about which the Bible speaks with the deepest disgust (Lev. 20:1-5). Then another deity directly mentioned as idolized by Solomon was Chemosh or Chemosh, “the abomination of the Moabites.” To this form of idolatry the Moabites seem to have been so exclusively devoted that the prophet Jeremiah calls them “the people of Chemosh,” or simply “Chamosh.” An interesting confirmation of this circumstance is that his name is often found on the famous Moabite stone, and since Kar-Khemish means the fortress of Chemosh, his worship was apparently widespread among the Hittite tribes. Like Milchom, he was also a sun god and perhaps also a war god and was often propitiated by blood sacrifices. On the Moab Stone, those killed during the battle are called “an offering to Chemosh.” The sacred historian testifies that Solomon did not limit himself to these deities, but “did this for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and made sacrifices to their gods” (1 Kings 11:1–8). This evidence gives us the right to conclude that altars were erected to other deities, to whom sacrifices and incense were also offered. If they are not mentioned in particular, it is because all these deities were already minor and could fit the main types listed above. The Hittites and Edomites, from among whom the other wives were taken, do not appear to have had any special and separate gods. However, the temples for these pagan abominations were not built in the holy city itself. With all his boundless cosmopolitanism and religious indifferentism, Solomon, even in the worst times of his life, apparently did not have enough courage to desecrate the immediate precincts of the church in such a way. Nevertheless, these churches were built in bold proximity to the church, to which they actually faced, “on the hill that is before Jerusalem” (that is, to the east of it). This hill can only be the Mount of Olives. Currently, the “mount of temptation” is identified with the southern core of Olives; but this, apparently, is already the latest indication, since in the 12th century, according to Brocard, the church of Moloch, according to general belief, was located on this hill, and the church of Chemosh was on the southern elevation of the mountain. It is remarkable that these pagan temples rose here for several centuries and were destroyed only during the reign of the pious gift of Josiah. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who served as an instrument of retribution for Solomon's apostasy, is given a terrible reproach for having “incited Israel to sin.” No such stigma is placed on the name of Solomon, and, however, from all subsequent history it is clear that his example acted fatally in all respects. He introduced his people to the names and idolization of deities, to whose rites they were constantly inclined in subsequent years. As early as the fourth year of Rehoboam's reign, the so-called high places (bamot) or decorated temples of pagan deities had become commonplace, and cone-shaped monuments dedicated to them (vile symbols of productivity) could be seen "on every high hill and under every green tree." And this idolization naturally accustomed the people to the most vile moral depravity (1 Kings 14:22–24). The warnings of Moses met with fearful fulfillment, and the harm caused by Solomon's corruption far outweighed the short-lived benefits of his outward splendor and wisdom. But the root of Solomon’s glory was also gnawed by another worm, which accelerated its destruction. If his polygamy entailed physical destruction and spiritual darkness, then his external splendor required sacrifices from his people, which became more and more difficult from year to year than they could bear. Churches, cities, fortresses and palaces, the construction of which Solomon satisfied his passion for construction, were possible only under the condition of hard labor; and all the luxury and gilded pomp of his court could be supported only by the collection of taxes, which fell with a terrible burden on the rapidly impoverished people. Undoubtedly, Solomon first tried to obtain the necessary labor through “slave work” imposed on the disenfranchised population of the conquered peoples. The Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites were all forcibly forced to work, with free-born Israelites given more honorable service in the matter of national state defense (1 Kings 11:20–22; cf. 1 Chronicles 22:2). But this hard labor of foreign peoples was not enough, so Solomon was forced to collect a labor tax from among the Israelites themselves in the amount of 30,000 (1 Kings 5:13–18). Since leaving Egypt, the Israelites had never before been forced to do such work, and thus the warning of Samuel was fulfilled when he, in response to their strong desire for the establishment of royal power, said that their king would take “your male servants, and your female servants, and your best young men, and your donkeys, and use them for his business” (1 Sam. 8:16). These 30,000 workers constituted one fortieth of the total working population. 10,000 of them were constantly at work, and its burden was deeply felt by the entire population. At first, of course, the people, blinded by the consciousness of their national pride, put up with this situation. But this situation became more and more unbearable as the shine of external glory faded. In addition to such forced labor, the people were forced to pay a tax, mercilessly collected by Adoniram. It was necessary to maintain a huge army and pay for a brilliant detachment of bodyguards. A courtyard like Solomonov itself required enormous supplies every day. How was it possible to support this entire harem and the entire staff of brilliant courtiers, if not from the resources of the people themselves? Solomon depleted his treasury so much that he was even forced to cede part of the sacred land to Hiram, and if this concession was already humiliating in itself, then even more so it was made so by the circumstances accompanying it. There is no doubt that all considerations should have kept Solomon from collecting forced taxes. Cash payments had always been unpopular in eastern countries, and until this time they were completely unknown to the free Israelites. Therefore, the tenth, which Solomon probably demanded, could arouse discontent among the people. But neither tithes, nor trade, nor gifts, nor the work of foreign tribes, nor income from their own possessions could satisfy all the needs of such a magnificent and luxurious court. Therefore, Solomon was forced to find new sources of income. Although there is no direct evidence that he introduced the poll tax, the complaints that were clearly expressed after his death were so strong as to indicate the likelihood of such a supposition. The people considered the yoke imposed by Solomon to be very heavy, as was directly expressed to his successor, Rehoboam. A spark of deep and gloomy discontent was already smoldering in the hearts of the people, and even a faint breath of wind was enough for it to flare up into a whole flame. But Solomon was not left without due warnings about the calamity that was to darken his last days and fall with all its weight on the first days of the reign of his only son. God, who had twice appeared to him in vision to bless the great works of the first period of his life, and who had given him the promises of so many extraordinary gifts and favors, appeared to him now with the announcement of the fate awaiting him. Since Solomon left God, God also left him and warned him that his son would inherit only part of the divided kingdom of Judah. But although this punishment in its entirety was deferred, Solomon himself was not left unpunished, and the form in which the divine wrath was manifested must have seemed all the more grievous to the king, who had so long enjoyed complete happiness and boundless obedience. His trade began to decline rapidly, his glory to fade, his possessions to shrink, and Solomon became the prey of opponents whom he could despise at the dawn of his glory, but whom he could not now even punish in these final days of his life. The Bible says nothing about his personal feelings, but so wise and so gifted a king could not blind himself to the inevitable consequences of so misdirecting his ambition and his vanity. When kings set an unworthy and enervating example, the people quickly follow them. Polygamy, religious indifference, arrogant exclusivity, which served as the main features of Solomon's palace, were completely imitated in the houses of princes and all noble persons. Therefore, all kinds of violence, debauchery and dishonesty were completely established in the cities of the chosen people, and a huge influx of foreign traders and colonists always brought with them “foreign women”, which brought terrible corruption among the people and especially the youth. One circumstance gives us the opportunity to measure the depth of the moral abyss that separated the time of David from the time of Solomon. When Solomon died and the ten tribes were in open rebellion, the old men, who were contemporaries of Solomon's best days, gave Rehoboam wise advice, which, if he had followed it, would have prevented the division of the kingdom. But when he turned for advice to the true sons of his kingdom, the "young peers", who, brought up under the corrupting influence of the last years of Solomon's reign, looked at everything lightly, they gave him advice so boldly absurd, so senselessly irritating, so alien to all justice and decency, that it gives us the opportunity to identify that arrogant spirit of oppression that dominated the last years of the reign of Solomon, apparently imitating the state order of Egypt. Such young men, frivolous in their arrogance, were completely unthinkable under the former kings of Israel. They show us to what dizzying intoxication and madness the upper classes had reached, brought up under the corrupting influence of a king who did not want to know at all about the mood of his people, wholly absorbed in his own pleasures and blinded by his arrogance. Unbridled luxury and licentiousness have done their corrupting work in the hearts of the sons and daughters of Israel. Their land was full of silver and gold and there was no end to their chariots. But at the same time, their country was filled with idols, and there was no longer a trace of the former moral simplicity, and at the same time of the former moral valor. When all such acts of Solomon revealed his complete deviation from the covenant with God, since these acts completely destroyed the very purpose of choosing Israel as a “light for the nations,” the Lord was angry with Solomon. A strict sentence was pronounced upon him that the kingdom would be torn away from him and given to his servant. The first signs of God's wrath were soon revealed. Weakened by court pomp, Solomon did not pay due attention to the internal state of his state. Some princes of the conquered peoples did not fail to take advantage of this and rebelled. In the southeast, the uprising was raised by the Idumaean prince Ader, who escaped during the conquest of Idumea by David by fleeing to Egypt and now appeared again with the aim of regaining the then lost possessions; and in the northeast, a certain Razon, a slave of King Adraazar, defeated by David, raised a rebellion. Having become the head of the gang, he captured Damascus and settled there as a sovereign prince, forming a strong Syrian kingdom with Damascus as its capital. But these unrest on the distant outskirts were nothing in comparison with the danger that was being prepared for the throne of Solomon within the state itself. The Lord, in his anger, predicted to Solomon that the kingdom would be torn away from him and given to “his servant.” And this servant was Jeroboam the son of Nebat, of the tribe of Ephraim. The name of this young man, like the name of Solomon's son, Jeroboam, indicates the fact that he was born in the early and golden years of prosperity, during which the people were proud of their power and their ever-increasing numbers. Rehoboam, like the Greek Polydemos, denotes a multitude, and Jeroboam, like Eurydemos, denotes a multitude of people. His position was peculiar and his origins were obscure. He was the son of a widow from the insignificant town of Tsereda (probably Tsartan in the Jordan Valley), and widows in the east generally belonged to the most downtrodden and miserable class of people. The proximity of Zartan to the clayey soil on which the bronze vessels of the church were poured by Hiram probably brought Jeroboam into contact with large masses of Solomon's workers. His own courage and efficiency did the rest. He was obviously a man of great intelligence and beautiful appearance, and Solomon, who, although he was spoiled by all sorts of favorites and parasites, involuntarily paid attention to him, favorably reacted to his efficiency in carrying out earthworks to strengthen the city of David. The king elevated this young man to the position of overseer of the workers, the masses of whom were from his native tribe of Ephraim. This position was not only enviable, but also dangerous, and nothing more clearly shows the tact and intelligence of Jeroboam than the fact that he knew how to completely please his bosses without alienating his workers and fellow tribesmen. But here, by the way, he became acquainted with the other side of state life: he saw the burdens that the people had to bear to satisfy the immoderate whims of the tsar, heard the murmur of the workers, saw the court disorder and the moral depravity of the tsar himself. At the sight of all this, the old pride of the Ephraimites awoke in him, and he was ashamed of his native tribe. In the blessing of Jacob, Ephraim was predicted to have a great future, which was partly fulfilled in the fact that such a great leader as Joshua came from his tribe. In general, before the accession of the House of David, it was the center and set the tone for the entire religious and state life of the people. And now it had to slavishly serve the representatives of the hated tribe of Judah. This thought was a natural preparation for his upcoming assignment, and it was finally strengthened in him when it was confirmed to him by the Shiloh prophet Ahijah, who, having met him one day in the field, tore his cloak in front of him into 12 pieces and, giving ten of them to Jeroboam, said that in this way the Lord would tear apart the kingdom of Israel, and that with Solomon’s successor, ten tribes of Israel would go to him, and only two tribes would remain behind the house of Solomon, and that only “for the sake of David, that this lamp of Israel might remain before the face of God, and for the sake of the city of Jerusalem, which God chose for Himself to place His name there.” These words of the prophet found an instant echo in the soul of the dreamy and ambitious young man. What he answered and how he acted is unknown. Apparently he was too impatient to await the death of his sovereign, and must have been led by temporary misfortune to believe that the fulfillment of the prophecy lay in higher hands than his own. Be that as it may, he “raised his hand against the king.” Probably, Jeroboam did not hide from his friends and acquaintances among the tribe of Ephraim about the prophecy made to him by Ahijah and, as a result, of necessity, came to premature indignation. The news of his plot came to the attention of the king, and he sent to arrest the traitor. But Jeroboam, at the first sign of danger, fled to Egypt. Egypt, for Solomon, as for many subsequent kings of Judah, turned out to be too fragile a reed to rely on. The pharaoh who helped Solomon and gave him his daughter in marriage was succeeded by a certain Susakim I, Shoshenq of monuments, the first king of the XXII dynasty and the first pharaoh, who is called by name in the Bible and therefore can be identified with certainty. He took possession of the Egyptian throne and founded the Bubastian dynasty around 960 BC. In the book of Kings, Shusakim is not called a pharaoh, but simply a king of Egypt (1 Kings 11:40). This was the same king who, 20 years later, during the reign of Rehoboam, took Jerusalem by storm and plundered the church and palace, seizing all their treasures 190. The identity of this king with the patron Jeroboam is confirmed by Egyptian monuments, because in a large inscription on the southern wall of the church at Karnak he is depicted in one remarkable scene in which he shakes his victorious weapon over 133 defeated enemies and bows the heads of 30 defeated peoples, among whom Judea is mentioned, to the foot of the Theban Trinity. It was under the protection of this king that Jeroboam fled. Susakim did not have the same need for an alliance with his neighbors as his predecessors, and the relationship of the Tanitian king with Solomon could be an entirely sufficient reason for Susakim to joyfully welcome a rival to the house of David. He loved Jeroboam so much that he even gave him in marriage to Ano, the sister of his wife Tekeminah, who was the mother of Abijah. Be that as it may, Jeroboam apparently remained in Egypt under the faithful protection of the Pharaoh until the death of Solomon. Since he apparently continued to communicate with the dissatisfied party, immediately after the death of Solomon, at the invitation of his fellow tribesmen, he returned to his homeland and became the head of the rebellion, which led to the division of the people of Israel into two kingdoms. “The kingdom of Israel, exalted by Solomon,” says the latest Jewish historian, “was like a magical world erected by powerful geniuses. The charm disappeared with his death. He did not leave his son an inheritance of his magic ring." 192 In the midst of such worries and trials, Solomon approached his death. History does not say how all these trials affected him and whether they awakened true contrition and repentance in him. But the books he left behind, and especially the book of Ecclesiastes, complement the story of his life. This last book takes a complete look at the entire experience of his life. Here we see a man who has experienced all the pleasures of life and drank the cup of earthly joys to the dregs, and yet remained unsatisfied, and in the end had to exclaim with sadness: “vanity of vanities, all is vanity and vexation of the spirit”! From all his life experiences, he came to the conviction that true life consists of obedience to God and fulfillment of His holy commandments. “Let us hear the essence of everything,” he concludes his book: “fear God and keep His commandments, because this is everything for man.” Solomon died in Jerusalem in the 40th year of his reign and was buried in the city of David. The chronicler simply concludes the story of his life with the words: “And Solomon slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David his father, and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead” (2 Chronicles 9:31). Thus ended the life of the wisest of kings. It is difficult to characterize this famous personality by her inner being, because history gives no information about her except the external facts of her life. But these latter clearly show that Solomon's life fell into three distinct periods. In the first of these periods, preceding the beginning of his reign, he was in the full sense of the word Jedidiah, “beloved of the Lord,” and fully worthy of the appointment that lay before him as a great monarch and builder of the church of the Most High God. God generously poured out all his best gifts on him - royal beauty, a quick mind, lofty goals, a reasonable heart, to which was added that governmental wisdom that the royal young man asked for. When, among the jubilant crowd of people, “the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan anointed Solomon as king,” this majestic scene involuntarily awakened in everyone the brightest hopes for the future. And Solomon, apparently, promised to more than justify these bright hopes. In the second period of his life, Solomon appears in all the glory of his royal majesty. He built a majestic temple from precious fragrant trees, decorating it with precious metals and stones; With wonderful luxury he erected city after city, palace after palace, each more brilliant and majestic than the other; the centuries-old cedars of the Lebanese mountains were rafted for him by the greatest sailors of antiquity, and ships brought him all kinds of treasures from the most distant countries - Tarsis and Ophir; income flowed to him from everywhere, overflowing his treasuries, and he sat on a luxuriously majestic throne guarded by lions, receiving signs of respect and reverence from everywhere, even from the famous Queen of Sheba, who, at the sight of everything that only presented itself to her eyes at the court of Solomon, was almost lost in amazement. But even through this dazzling splendor of royal splendor, a shadow of doubt regarding the strength and duration of this glory somehow ominously made its way. When describing all this splendor, one involuntarily feels that all this is not of particular importance for humanity, for which one glorious deed, one inspiring thought is more valuable than all the blinding splendor of oriental splendor; one humble worker, busy in a solitary study with the discovery of the laws of nature and life, one poet, who enriched the spiritual treasury of humanity with at least one sweet song, is worth more than many sultans strewn with pearls and precious stones. And indeed, the brilliance of Solomon’s reign, as not having a strong internal foundation, quickly faded in the third period of his life. There was a sudden disappointment. The gold has tarnished and water has mixed with the wine. The good done by Solomon remained as a legacy to the people and humanity, but everything that was exclusively personal and selfish in his magnificent life disappeared like a ghost. His extensive trading ventures ended in failure; his political alliances proved a dubious truce; his sinful luxury aroused deep and gloomy discontent everywhere. His shameful harem gave him neither a true family home nor heartfelt love. His foreign hired bodyguards cooled the people's love for him. The forced labor he established created poverty and disorder. He left behind a weak and unworthy son, as if only to fragment his kingdom and disgrace his name. The king, who built and dedicated the church to the one true God, became a polytheist; a brilliant, promising young man - an old man exhausted and weakened by sins; the beloved monarch tyrannized the terribly irritated people with whips. The king of the world had to fight fierce enemies; the king of glory was burdened with debts; the favorite of the Lord - built churches for Molech and Ashtoreth. Hiram of Tire turned away from him in displeasure, having not received due reward for his assistance in all of Solomon’s enterprises. The new Egyptian pharaoh gave refuge to his indignant slaves. Truly, the saying of St. is applicable to Solomon in the deepest sense. historian, who, regarding the vision he had after the coronation, said: “And Solomon woke up, and this was a dream.” Yes, Solomon woke up from a dream of external greatness, and it turned out that he had lost the key to the meaning of life. His soul became darkened, his faith faded, and his jealousy cooled. All happiness and contentment disappeared from his life. There was emptiness everywhere. His father David in the last years of his life was surrounded by devoted warriors, prophets and nobles; and Solomon stood in terrible loneliness, since the pack of low hypocrites surrounding him brought even more coldness into the king’s heart, empty of all the best feelings. His children, apparently, did not give him any joy or comfort, so we don’t even know how many children he had from his countless wives. We know of only one son, Rehoboam, and even he, at the age of forty-one, showed nothing but insane frivolity and cruelty. How must the luxurious chambers of his proud and magnificent palaces have seemed intolerable to the darkened soul of such a man! “At first, says the Talmud, before he even married foreign wives, he reigned over the angels, sat on the throne of the Lord (1 Sam. 19:23); then only over those below - over all the kingdoms (1 Kings 4:21); then only over Israel (Eccl. 1:12); then only over Jerusalem (“the words of Ecclesiastes, the son of David, king in Jerusalem” Eccl. 1:1). Finally, he reigned only over his own stick, as it is said: And this was my share of labor.” By the word “this,” he meant, according to the teachings of the rabbis, the staff that was in his hand and remained his only property. One Arab legend truly and aptly says that the rod on which Solomon leaned was secretly undermined at the core by a worm. It was a worm of pride, sensuality and selfishness. With the same specificity, another legend tells about the circumstances of his death. Magnificently dressed and with a crown on his head, he entered the church and, stopping among the majestic columns, leaning on his precious staff with a mysterious seal on it, silently looked towards the cherubs, looking more like a statue - with a long gray beard descending onto clothes made of Tyrian purple; and suddenly, by a wave of the hand of God, he died. Although he was already lifeless, no one dared to approach him. He stood there for a long time with his eyes frozen from the cold of death, and none of the priests and pilgrims present dared to touch him when they even saw that he was dead. But finally, a mouse ran out from under the column, began to gnaw the leather covering at the end of his staff, and the dead king, disturbed by it in his dead greatness, fell face down, and his magnificent crown was raised from dust and ashes. Dust and ashes - that’s what all his earthly glory turned into! The king himself was fully aware of this during his lifetime, and from here his famous words ring the death knell for all earthly glory: “vanity of vanities, and all is vanity and vexation of the spirit!” It is extremely remarkable that St. The Scriptures of subsequent times pass him by completely in silence. With the exception of one indication of the Savior’s glory (and even then only for the purpose of showing that a simple lily of the field surpassed this glory in its beauty), for several centuries his name was hardly mentioned anywhere else, whether by the historians and prophets of Israel, or by the apostles and evangelists of the Church of Christ. Saul with his shyness and generosity in the first years of his life, with his lawlessness and dark madness of the last period and with his tragic death on the battlefield; David with his heroism, fall and despair - both of these kings were morally much more important for humanity than the brilliant builder king, who turned into a feminine sensualist and apostate. The story of Solomon is the story of a man whose heart and will were corrupted and weakened by luxury and boundless pride. This was a king whom one could look at with amazement as a dazzling figure in his brilliance and grandeur, but a coldness wafted from all this splendor, and it was impossible to love him. But it would be unfair to say that the reign of Solomon did not leave any good traces. He raised Israel for a time to the highest degree of national aspiration, and showed to what power and splendor that people could attain. He opened up completely new fields for the mental life of Jews. He awakened in them a consciousness of their national identity and at the same time made them less narrow in their worldview. He perfectly organized the ministry of the Levites, placed it on a solid foundation and gave the people a permanent and majestic church for worship. In the early years of his power, he showed himself to be the ideal of a king, ruling wisely and firmly in the fear of God. He made his people stronger and richer; Possessing a well-fortified capital, he strengthened the defense of the country with towers and fortresses. If by his sins he personally lost the right to the promise given to him of a long life and an inalienable kingdom, if his insane construction led almost to the destruction of the national welfare he had created, nevertheless he gave his people unprecedented weight among the surrounding nations, firmly established some of the most useful institutions and “awakened among them a strong desire for deeper wisdom and for a higher art - a desire that never died out, despite all the storms of subsequent centuries, and in some directions even developed with increasing strength and beauty" 193. If Solomon had not rendered any other service to his people other than the construction of the church, then even then his influence on the religious life of the people would have been felt until the last days of their historical life. The church was for the Israelites a permanent monument and visible symbol of divine presence and protection, a strong bastion of law and tradition, a witness to duty, an incentive to historical knowledge, an inspiration to sacred songs 194. And in this very sense, King Solomon forever remained the true prototype of that divine “King of the world”, in whom only the best aspirations of the peoples and all mankind could be realized. Chapter 25. The internal state of the chosen people during the time of the king-monarchs The period of the reign of the three great kings of the people of Israel was the time of their greatest flowering, both politically and spiritually. After the disasters and turmoil of the period of the judges, it was a time of prosperity, power and splendor, when the people of Israel achieved the full realization of the great promises of God and, under the cover of firm power, could freely discover all the best qualities of their national genius, with their state improvement show a true example of “government of God,” and with the height of their religious and moral life, in all its splendor, justify their great calling - to be a light for the pagans. If the people of Israel did not live up to their purpose even under such favorable circumstances and presented many sad facts of deep religious and moral decline even in their best representatives, in the person of their kings themselves, then this only shows how primordial evil took root in the moral nature of man and, like a millstone around his neck, uncontrollably pulled him into the abyss of evil, despite all his efforts in the pursuit of good. Such was the common fate of Old Testament humanity, which languished in slavery to sin, and the only consolation for it was the hope of future deliverance - in the person of that great Savior, to be the keeper of the promises about whom the chosen people were destined. The promises of a Savior during this period found clear confirmation in the glorious promise to David that God would raise up for him his seed, whose throne would stand forever, and to this seed He would be a father, and it would be His Son (2 Samuel 7:12–16). David could not attribute this promise to his successor and therefore understood it in the same sense as the apostle subsequently interpreted it. Paul, precisely in the sense of the promise of a spiritual successor and “Son of David,” the Son of God, the Savior of the world and the King of the universe, whose throne “will stand forever.” In addition to this promise, confirmed in the covenant with Solomon (1 Kings 9:5), the thought of the future Savior at this time permeates the entire life of the people: its very political power was a prototype of the spiritual power of the Messiah, and its very kings, especially David and Solomon, in the best periods of their lives were clear prototypes of the Savior - the first a prototype of Him as the King of victory, the second as the King of peace. Then all the psalms of David are filled with expressions of fiery expectation of the Messiah and the clearest prophecies about all the events of His earthly life, from birth to suffering and death, from resurrection to glorification at the right hand of the Father. The prophetic psalms of David provide clear evidence of how alive the great promise of God about the Savior of the world was in the best national consciousness and how the religious and moral spirit of mankind longed for the fulfillment of this promise. The internal animation of religious and moral feeling found its full expression in the development of worship and the rituals and institutions associated with it. In this regard, David rendered immeasurable services to the cause of true religion and the Old Testament Church with his ecclesiastical and religious institutions. Being himself a divinely inspired psalmist and prophet, he used all his efforts to streamline and elevate worship. By bringing the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, he effected a complete transformation in the order of the Levitical service, establishing proper and permanent worship in the tabernacle. For this purpose, three families of brother singers were chosen so that “they would preach on harps, psalms and cymbals.” Under the leadership of these skilled singers (Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun, whose names appear in the inscriptions of many psalms), a large choir was formed, which, together with the serving Levites and priests, “praised, thanked and exalted the Lord God of Israel” before the ark of the Lord. The descendants of Aaron's two sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, were appointed to perform the highest duties of the priesthood. Although Aaron was actually succeeded by his eldest son Eleazar, the honor of the high priesthood was in some way shared with him by Ithamar, to whose house the high priesthood sometimes completely passed (for example, in the person of Eli the high priest). In the time of David we see representatives of both these lines in the person of the great priests Zadok and Abiathar, one of whom was high priest in the old tabernacle in Gibeon, and the other in the new tabernacle in Jerusalem. But the house of Eleazar was twice as numerous as the house of Ithamar in the number of priestly families, since according to the census carried out by David, there were sixteen families in the first and only eight families in the second. The twenty-four heads of these families were made under David the leaders of twenty-four “orders,” i.e. regular services in the church, to which members of these priestly families consistently appeared. Both the Levites and the singers were divided into the same “orders,” who performed the service together with the corresponding orders of priests. The “series,” in all likelihood, began on Saturday and continued throughout the week, when it was replaced by the next series. This division was strictly observed until later times, as can be seen from the history of Zechariah, the father of St. John the Baptist, who was rewarded with a vision of an angel, “while he served in the order of his turn before God” (Luke 1:8). The order of service established in the tabernacle was transferred to the Temple of Solomon, where, however, in order to enhance the solemnity of the service, cases became more frequent when all twenty-four courses participated in the service simultaneously, as was especially the case during the consecration of the church. With the consecration of the church, all worship was concentrated in it, and the old tabernacle at Gibeon lost all significance; at the same time, with the ejection of Abiathar from the priesthood (for his participation in the political conspiracy of Adonijah), the high priesthood finally ceased in the branch of Ithamar and concentrated in the branch of Eleazar, in the person of Zadok, anointed to the high priesthood under Solomon. Church ritual during worship at this time received a high development, but only from the outside, in the sense of splendor and grandeur. Essentially, it remained the same as it was established by Moses at the tabernacle, although at the same time, in accordance with new needs, new rituals appeared. This is especially the rite of anointing for the kingdom. It was private and solemn. The first was usually performed by the prophet, as an executor of the will of God, and the second was performed at a national meeting by the chief priest or high priest, as intermediaries between the will of God and the will of the people. During anointing, oil was used as a visible instrument for communicating the grace of God. The initiate was given a book of the law, with which he had to conform in all his life and management. During this time, an important change took place in public administration, which consisted precisely in the establishment of royal power. Its establishment was caused by the urgent need of people's life, since the absence of firm power during the time of the judges led to complete anarchy and the disasters associated with it. But its establishment at the same time was in some way an expression of the insufficient trust on the part of the people in the direct rule of God himself and the desire to have a government like the surrounding nations. Therefore, to Samuel’s question, the Lord answered him: “They did not reject you, but they rejected Me, so that I should not reign over them” (1 Samuel 8:7). The very existence of royal power in a theocratic state weakened its essential principle, since the people could become inclined to place their hopes more on the visible king, forgetting the supreme and invisible one. Nevertheless, firm power was an urgent need in both the internal and external political life of the people, and therefore it was established with the restrictions that were set in the legislation of Moses, who had already foreseen this inevitable moment in the life of the chosen people. These restrictions consisted, first of all, in the fact that the people should not appoint a foreigner as their king, but certainly a natural Israeli, and, moreover, one “whom the Lord God will choose” (Deut. 17:15). This limitation of election is followed by laws that limit the very power of the king. And it is remarkable that these restrictions are mainly directed against what distinguished the eastern kings especially, namely against the accumulation of personal wealth and the development of luxury, which always entail moral corruption, oblivion of laws and the people. “Appoint yourself a king,” says the legislator, only so that he does not multiply horses for himself and does not return the people to Egypt to multiply horses for himself” (Deut. 17:15). The meaning of this law is that they are prohibited from entering into relations and an alliance with Egypt, which in ancient times was famous for its horse breeding. The desire to have the best horses - one of the main objects of vanity of eastern monarchs - would force them to enter into relations with the pharaohs, and then into a political union with Egypt, while such a union, due to the geographical position of Palestine, could be disastrous for the Israeli people, which was later justified by history. In addition, the multiplication of horses, completely unnecessary in a mountainous country, would not serve to protect the interests of the people (for example, during war), but to satisfy the vain pride of the king. - “So that he does not multiply wives for himself, lest his heart be corrupted” (Deut. 17:17). Harems in the east still constitute one of the most vile court institutions, in which despot monarchs lose their last moral and physical strength, plunging into the grossest debauchery. Therefore, the decree prohibiting having harems is understandable. “And so that he does not multiply silver and gold for himself excessively.” Excessive accumulation of wealth could give rise, as can be seen from the history of Solomon, to extensive trading enterprises that would be incompatible with the truly popular interests, would contribute to the development of inequality in wealth and thus would violate the fundamental law of Moses, which established socio-economic equality, would introduce luxury at court incompatible with the theocratic system of the state and thereby alienate the king from the people. “But when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he must write out for himself a copy of this law in a book kept by the priests and the Levites, and let him have it, and let him read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to do all the words of this law and these statutes.” The king was not a legislator and had to rule the state not according to his personal arbitrariness, but according to the law given from above, from which he had to have a correct list, so that, constantly having it before him, he would not deviate either to the right or to the left (v. 20), therefore, he generally had to rule according to the law recognized by the people. This decree put a limit to the despotism into which eastern rulers so easily fall. Finally, the legislator gives a general definition of the relationship of the royal power to the people. In the ancient eastern monarchies the relationship between the rulers and the people was usually characterized by arrogant contempt on the part of the ruler and slavish subservience on the part of the people. In the state of the chosen people such an attitude should not have taken place; therefore, the legislator demands from the king “that his heart should not be puffed up before his brothers” (Deut. 17:20), or, in applying these words to government, that he rule his subjects with meekness and love, not as slaves, but as brothers. The best kings were faithful to this rule. David for example in an address to the people, he called his subjects brothers: “And King David stood on his feet and said: Listen to me, my brothers and my people!” (1 Chronicles 28:2). Thus, the power of the kings of the Israeli people was limited by strict regulation - in the spirit of the ancient principles of divine rule and popular self-government. This is how she appears in history. To convey to her a greater obligation for the king, such a procedure was even established that upon ascending the throne, the king entered into an agreement with the people, in which, in all likelihood, he undertook to fulfill the laws that determined the limits of his power (1 Kings 10:25; 2 Kings 5:3; 2 Kings 11:17). It is clear from history that kings did not always strictly implement these laws regarding royal power, and in the person of Solomon we see a king who even directly violated some of the basic provisions of the legislation, since he entered into an alliance with Egypt and started a cavalry, indulged in polygamy and immoderate luxury. But in this they were only exponents of the general spirit of disobedience of their people and suffered punishment in the very consequences of their violations of the law, as was especially the case with Solomon. In general, however, tsarist power was very useful for the development of civil virtues and the state life of the people. Thanks to her, the people of Israel achieved extraordinary political power and splendor, so that the entire modern civilized world was under its political influence. In case of greater obedience of both kings and the people themselves to the holy laws of God, the people of Israel could combine with their political influence religious and moral influence and, thus, in the full sense, could become a great torch for humanity. But crimes against the law quickly undermined his power and his moral strength, and he began to uncontrollably strive for fall. Since the establishment of royal power, the will of God found direct exponents in the person of the prophets, whose activities during the time of the kings acquired very important significance in the state. These were living bearers of the will of God, which they courageously expressed to the kings and thereby called them to obedience to the law and repentance. Some of the prophets, such as Nathan and Gad were close advisers to the king, directing his activities in accordance with the requirements of the will of God and the law. In case of any sin or crime of the king against the law, they were fearless avengers for the trampled law, as well as expressers of the will of God, which they personally expressed to the sinful kings. David owed the highest moments of his contrition and repentance for sins to the courageous and severe reproaches of Nathan. The prophets were also the main “descriptors,” that is, historiographers who described the deeds of the kings. At the same time, they were the main disseminators of enlightenment among the Israeli people at this time. By this time, prophetic brotherhoods or schools in which the law and sacred poetry and music were studied especially multiplied. The “hosts of prophets” were in several main cities, from where they moved to other neighboring cities, accompanying their prophecy, i.e. preaching about the law, with solemn music on various musical instruments (psalter, tympanum, flute and harp - 1 Samuel 10:5), and they had such a strong influence that those around them succumbed to their inspiration, as was the case, for example. with Saul, who, after being anointed, entered the host of prophets, where he received the necessary preparation for the high appointment ahead of him. In the schools of the prophets, the great psalmist David probably received his education and especially his high art in poetry and music, under whom sacred poetry and music became a necessary accessory to worship. And in general, by this time, the “hosts of prophets” had become completely schools of comprehensive education and enlightenment. The height and breadth of this education is evidenced by the example of Solomon, who undoubtedly received his comprehensive education in all departments of scientific and artistic knowledge in these same schools or from the court teachers-prophets. Along with the spread of enlightenment, writing also spread, which at that time received such widespread development that it became a means of ordinary communication, and we find mention of letters through which correspondence was carried out between distant persons (2 Samuel 11:14; 2 Chronicles 2:11). At the court, for state production, there were special scribes and even a court “writer” or historiographer. The court prophets kept their notes on the activities and lives of kings, as is known especially about Samuel, Nathan and Gad. The result of these records were the sacred books relating to this time: the Book of Judges, written by Samuel, in order to show what disasters the people brought upon themselves by deviating from their covenant with Jehovah, the first and second books of Kings, of which the first contains the history of the Israelite people from the birth of Samuel to the death of Saul, and the second - the continuation of this story until the anointing of Solomon as king. The book of Ruth dates back to the same period, the appearance of which could have been caused by the need to historically clarify the genealogy of the greatest king of the chosen people - David. But besides these historical books, the best indicator of the height of enlightenment of this time are the books of the kings themselves - namely David and Solomon. David owns most of those divinely inspired songs and psalms that, together with the psalms of other singers, both of his and those of subsequent times, made up the book of Psalms. In their content and presentation, these psalms are a truly great outpouring of the divinely inspired genius of the poet, who in wondrous songs embodied the best content of the religious and moral worldview of his time - such a high worldview that it will not lose its inspiring interest until the end of the world, while the human heart beats with feelings of faith, hope and love. Four sacred books are attributed to Solomon: the Song of Songs, the book of Solomon's Proverbs, the book of Ecclesiastes or Preacher, and the book of the Wisdom of Solomon. These books undoubtedly form part of the 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs spoken of in the third book of Kings (1 Kings 9:32). According to Jewish tradition, the first of these books was written by Solomon in his youth, the second in adulthood, and the third in old age. The fourth book does not exist at all in the Jewish canon of books, and it is preserved only in the Greek translation of 70 commentators, from where it was translated into Russian. In the book of Song of Songs, i.e. a high, beautiful song, under the guise of the bride and groom, the mysterious union of Christ with the Church is depicted, under which symbol it is repeatedly depicted in other books of St. Scriptures of both the old and new testaments 195. The book of Proverbs, as its very name suggests, contains parables or wise moral teachings from a wise king who spoke deep everyday truths based on his own experience. The collection of proverbs was made partly by Solomon himself, and partly by subsequent collectors of the sayings of the wise king in later times. In the book of Ecclesiastes or Preacher we have, as it were, the last testament of a wise king, who, having experienced all the happiness available to man on earth, finally came to the sad conviction that everything on earth is “vanity of vanities, and all is vanity and vexation of the spirit.” The only thing in which a person can find satisfaction is in fulfilling the rule: “Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is everything for a person” (Eccl. 12:13). During the period under review, the people of Israel were in all respects superior to the nations around them. Politically, he was the most powerful people in the surrounding world and had no rivals in arms in the east. Egypt at that time was extremely weakened by internal and external adversities; The XXI Dynasty that reigned there had to direct all its efforts to protecting its country from attacks on it by the Libyans and other nomads of the African and Asian deserts, who, taking advantage of the weakening of Egypt, constantly made predatory raids on it. Another strong power, Assyro-Babylon, was also completely absorbed in the internal discord between its two halves (Assyria and Babylonia, which were constantly competing with each other) and, thus, lost its importance in international politics. Only small kingdoms remained, which were either subjugated by force by the kings of Israel and paid them tribute, or they themselves sought an alliance and friendship with them (for example, King Hiram of Tire) and thereby strengthened their power. Along with political power, Israel stood high above the surrounding nations spiritually. All these peoples, in comparison, did not possess any outstanding literary works. If the political dominance of Israel had been more durable and long-lasting, then the surrounding peoples would not have escaped its beneficial influence in literary, religious and moral terms, as was the case with the Queen of Sheba, who returned to her country with a feeling of deep reverence for everything she saw. Unfortunately, Solomon's well-known weakness prevented this, and he allowed even in Jerusalem the free practice of those disgusting pagan cults that were in irreconcilable opposition to the sublime religion of Jehovah. The history of the fall of Solomon shows that in religious terms the neighboring peoples stood at the same low level as when the Israelites entered the Promised Land, and the wild immorality of their cults stood out even more strongly in the face of such a sublime expression of true religion as, for example, they were. the psalms of David and other contemporary books included in the canon of St. Scriptures. Chronologically, the period of the king-monarchs covers a round figure of 120 years, since each of them reigned for 40 years 196. An important chronological indication lies in the remark of 1 Kings. 6:1, namely that the construction of the church began in 480 “after the departure of the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,” which at the same time coincided with the 4th year of Solomon’s reign. Thus, the establishment of the monarchy was in 396 and the death of Solomon in 516 from the exodus from Egypt. According to generally accepted chronology, the death of Solomon falls on 980, or more precisely 978 BC. See, for example, evidence that David used Phoenician workers and artists to build and decorate his palace. 2 Sam. 5:11. Sidon, by its etymological origin, means a fishing place - the same as Bethsaida. Tire, that is, Tsur, a rock, so named from the rocky island on which part of this city was built. From the XI to the X centuries BC. This, of course, is only evidence of legend. Moevers, however, hesitates to refute it, and considers this city to be generally very ancient. Utica, for example. was founded around 1100 BC. In Sir. 46:18 states that Samuel waged a successful war against Tire. Copper was called Cypriot metal. From the name Cyprus comes the Latin name for copper cuprum, the German name Cuper and the English name correg. Born in 19 AD. The gold talent is approximately 125,000 rubles (1889), and, therefore, the entire gold production amounted to from 25 to 35 million rubles. Sapir is the Amorite and also the Assyrian name for Hermon. The islands of the Mediterranean Sea were generally called the Kittim Islands. That is, Greece. The best sea snails for obtaining purple came from the shores of Laconia. See in volume 1, in the chapter: “The Religion of the Canaanites.” From this whole picture we see what enormous importance the Queen Mother occupied in the East, at court. As David's wife, Bathsheba, approaching the king, had to bow before her husband, while as the queen-mother she herself accepted worship from the king. The wives of eastern kings generally had little social significance, but the queen mother always enjoyed the deepest respect even from the reigning monarchs. In the Vulgate, one place in the book of Job 28:16, namely: “she (wisdom) is not valued with the gold of Ophir” is rendered with the words: “non conferetur tinctis Indiae coloribus.” Vacuum sedem et inania arcana. Nil praeter nubes et coeli numen adorant. Hakamim: Prov. 1:6; 13:20; 15:12; 22:17; Ref. 29:14. Proverbs 31:1. Lemuel is identified by Jewish interpreters with Solomon. Proverbs 6:16: 30:15, 16, 18, 21, 21, 25. Wed. something similar in Muslim legends: “what is something and what is nothing?” (Answer: “God and the world”). “Who is something and who is less than nothing?” (Answer: “a believer and a hypocrite”). “What is the worst thing and what is the most beautiful thing?” (Answer: “the apostasy of the believer and the repentance of the sinner”). Josephus c. Apion., 1, 17, § 18. Proverbs 6:5–8; 30:25 ; Ant. VIII, 2, § 5 Josephus, Ant. vin, 2, § 5. These or similar means passed into Christian times under the name “key of Solomon” and so on. The parables of this book are divided into three classes: 1) the parables of Solomon in 1–24; 2) the parables of Solomon, copied by order of Hezekiah, 25–29, and 3) the prophecies of Agur and Lemuel 30 and 31. Comment, in Eccles, I, 1. We have presented the content of the book “Song of Songs” as it is generally understood in the serious historical and exegetical science of our time. But this understanding is not unique and various researchers have made many attempts to present a different concept, so according to one of them, the book contains not two, but three actual characters, namely Solomon, who seeks the love of the Shulamite shepherdess, the Shulamite herself and her rural groom, the love for whom she struggles with the temptation represented by the position of a royal wife and court splendor. But this insertion of a third person is not justified by the course of the content and is only a preconceived idea of ​​interpreters who are trying to reduce the sacred book to the level of a simple drama with an inevitable clash between rivals. Of much deeper interest is the theory recently expressed by Prof. Kyiv Academy A. A. Olesnitsky, in his study of the “Song of Songs”. According to his theory, suggested to him by a native of Palestine (Tayar), who draws his views from the depths of the immediate worldview of the East, this book is a sublimely poetic depiction of the relationship between the sun (king-groom) and Palestine (as the bride) in various seasons. This theory, in its talented development by the Kyiv professor, is so plausible that it undoubtedly sheds new light on one of the most mysterious books of the Old Testament, and it deserves all the more attention because on the basis of it the deepest, transformative meaning of the book emerges more directly and clearly. See A. A. Olesnitsky: “The Book of Song of Songs and its newest critics.” Kyiv, 1882, final chapter, 339–387 pp. There is an interesting example of casuistry in the Talmud: "whoever says that Solomon sinned will be absolutely wrong. His wives seduced his heart to follow other gods, but he did not go... But what can we say about 1 Kings 11:7? He intended to build a high place near Chemosh, but did not build it" (Shabbath, I. 56, 2, cf. Sanhedrin, I. 55, 56). All that can be said in favor of Solomon is that the history books do not say that he personally “served” foreign gods. Svida says that Hezekiah subsequently found magical formulas for curing diseases engraved on the pillars of the church, and destroyed them because they inclined to idolatry. Dean Plumitre thinks that this can serve as an explanation for the severe accusation of Asa for the fact that in his illness he sought doctors, and not the Lord (2 Chron. 16:12). Augustine, “On the City of God,” II, 3. Jer. 7:18, 44:19; 1 Sam. 31:10; 1 Kings 14:24; Os. 4:14 etc. Movers, however, makes a distinction between them, and Ewald, with his usual positivity, says: there is no doubt that Moloch was different from Milcom. Jer. 48:7; Wed Court. 11:24. Jerome says that the chief place of this idolatry was Dibon. Chemosh means “winner.” 2 Par. 12:9. Susakim will be discussed below. Champollion read the inscription above one of the bearded figures: “Judaga Melek” (king or kingdom of Judah), although this reading is rather doubtful. See Duncker, II, 233. Of the 133 inscriptions only one hundred can be made out, and among them the name of Jerusalem is not found, although the names of the cities of Aialon can be made out. Bethgoron, Gibeon, Rimmon, etc. Ewald, Geschichte, III. 317. See I. W. Farrar, Solomon, his Life and Times, from the Men of the Bible series. “The Wanderer”, Jan., Feb., Oct. and November 1888. See Ref. 44; Ezek. 16, Os. 2:19 ; Matt. 25. Saul actually reigned for twenty years, but his reign, as a direct continuation of Samuilov, is determined, together with the latter, by a rounder figure of forty years. You might be interested in: