1 Kings 10

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

The queen of Sheba visits Solomon

¹ Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of Yahweh, she came to test him with hard questions. ² She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels carrying spices and very much gold and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was on her heart. ³ And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he did not explain to her. ⁴ When the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, ⁵ the food of his table, the seating of his servants, the attendance of his ministers and their attire, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of Yahweh, there was no more spirit in her. ⁶ Then she said to the king, "The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom. ⁷ But I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it; and indeed, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the report that I heard. ⁸ Happy are your men! Happy are these your servants who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom! ⁹ Blessed be Yahweh your Elohim, who delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel! Because Yahweh loved Israel forever, He has made you king, to do justice and righteousness." ¹⁰ Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. ¹¹ Also the fleet of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a very great amount of almug wood and precious stones. ¹² And the king made of the almug wood supports for the house of Yahweh and for the king's house, and lyres and harps for the singers. No such almug wood has come again, nor has it been seen to this day. ¹³ King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked, besides what he gave her out of his royal bounty. So she turned and went back to her own land, she and her servants.

Solomon's wealth

¹⁴ Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, ¹⁵ besides what came from the traders and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land. ¹⁶ King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each large shield. ¹⁷ And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. ¹⁸ The king also made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with the finest gold. ¹⁹ The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was rounded at the back; there were armrests on either side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the armrests. ²⁰ Twelve lions stood there, one on each end of the six steps; nothing like it was ever made in any kingdom. ²¹ All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver, for silver was not considered anything in the days of Solomon. ²² For the king had ships of Tarshish at sea with the ships of Hiram. Once every three years the ships of Tarshish came, bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks. ²³ So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. ²⁴ And all the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which Elohim had put in his heart. ²⁵ Each of them brought his gift: articles of silver and articles of gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses and mules, so much year by year.

²⁶ Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. ²⁷ The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedars as plentiful as the sycamore-fig trees that are in the lowland. ²⁸ Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt and from Kue; the king's traders bought them from Kue at a price. ²⁹ A chariot could be imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for one hundred and fifty; and in the same way, through them, they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Aram.

Notes

• 10:1 Sheba was the land of the Sabeans in southwestern Arabia (modern Yemen), rich from the trade in incense, spices and gold carried north by camel caravan. "Hard questions" are chidot, "riddles," the word used of Samson's riddle (Judges 14:12); wisdom was tested with riddles and sayings (Proverbs 1:6). Yeshua said that "the queen of the South" came "from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon," and that "something greater than Solomon is here" (Matthew 12:42; Luke 11:31).
• 10:5 "There was no more spirit in her" is literally "there was no more ruach in her": she was left breathless, overwhelmed by what she saw. "His burnt offerings that he offered" follows the Masoretic pointing; some ancient versions and some translations read the same letters as "his ascent by which he went up" to the house of Yahweh.
• 10:9 A foreign queen blesses Yahweh, the Elohim of Israel, as Jethro had done (Exodus 18:10) and as Hiram did (1 Kings 5:7); Solomon had prayed that foreigners would hear of Yahweh's great name and come (8:41-43). She also reminds him why he is king: "to do justice and righteousness" (mishpat and tsedakah), the pair that describes David's reign (2 Samuel 8:15) and the ideal king of the prophets (Jeremiah 22:15; 23:5).
• 10:12 No one knows for certain what almug wood was; it was a rare, fine timber, perhaps red sandalwood. 2 Chronicles 9:10-11 spells it "algum" and says it was made into "steps" (or "paths"); the word here, mis'ad, is also uncertain and may mean supports or railings.
• 10:28 Deuteronomy's law of the king said, "Only he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt in order to multiply horses," and "nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself" (Deuteronomy 17:16-17). Verses 26-29 describe exactly these things, without comment; the next verses turn to the third warning, about wives (11:1-4). "Kue" is mikveh, which many identify with Que, a region in Cilicia (southern Turkey) famous for horses; older translations took the word as "linen yarn."

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