Chapter Nine

(See 1 Kgs 10:1-25)

1–12. The visit of Solomon by the Queen of Sheba. 23–28. The riches, luxury and glory of Solomon. 29–31. Concluding remarks on Solomon’s reign.

2 Chronicles 9:1. The Queen of Sheba, having heard of the fame of Solomon, came to test Solomon with hard questions in Jerusalem, with a very great retinue, and with camels bearing spices and a great amount of gold and precious stones. And she came to Solomon and spoke with him about all that was on her mind. 2 Chronicles 9:2. And Solomon explained to her all that she asked, and there was nothing hidden from Solomon that he did not explain to her. 2 Chronicles 9:3. And the Queen of Sheba saw the wisdom of Solomon and the house that he had built, 2 Chronicles 9:4. and the food at his table, and the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, and their clothing, and his cupbearers, and their clothing, and the staircase by which he went up to the house of the Lord, and she was overwhelmed. 2 Chronicles 9:5. And she said to the king: It is true what I heard in my land about your deeds and your wisdom, 2 Chronicles 9:6. but I did not believe the words about them until I came and saw with my own eyes. And behold, not even half was told to me of the abundance of your wisdom: you surpass the fame that I heard. 2 Chronicles 9:7. Blessed are your people, and blessed are these servants of yours, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom! 2 Chronicles 9:8. Blessed be the Lord your God, who was pleased to set you on His throne as king for the Lord your God. Because of the love of God for Israel, to establish it forever, He has made you king over it to execute justice and righteousness. 2 Chronicles 9:9. And she gave to the king one hundred twenty talents of gold and a great abundance of spices and precious stones; and there were no such spices as those that the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. 2 Chronicles 9:10. And the servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon, who brought gold from Ophir, brought also red sandalwood and precious stones. 2 Chronicles 9:11. And the king made from the red sandalwood staircases to the house of the Lord and to the house of the king, and lyres and harps for the singers. And nothing like it had been seen before in the land of Judah. 2 Chronicles 9:12. And King Solomon gave to the Queen of Sheba all that she desired and asked for, besides what she had brought to the king. And she turned and went to her own land, she and her servants. The account in 2 Chronicles of the visit to Solomon by the Queen of Sheba is almost verbatim the same as the parallel account 1 Kgs 10:1-13 (see “Explanatory Bible”, vol. II, pp. 413–414). In the Hebrew text the structure made by Solomon for the temple and for the palace is named differently in the two books: according to 2 Chr 9:11 mesillot means “staircases,” LXX: ἀναβάσεις, Vulgate: Gradus, translated as “steps”; according to 1 Kgs 10:12 it is misad, “railings.” The archaeology of the Old Testament temple decides this question in favor of the terminology of 2 Chronicles (Olesnitsky, “Old Testament Temple”, p. 248).

2 Chronicles 9:13. The weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold. 2 Chronicles 9:14. Besides, merchants and traders brought gifts, and all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the regions brought gold and silver to Solomon. 2 Chronicles 9:15. And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold, using six hundred shekels of beaten gold for each shield, 2 Chronicles 9:16. and three hundred shields of beaten gold, using three hundred shekels of gold for each shield; and the king placed them in the house of the Forest of Lebanon. 2 Chronicles 9:17. And the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold, 2 Chronicles 9:18. and six steps to the throne and a golden footstool attached to the throne, and armrests on both sides of the seat, and two lions standing beside the armrests, 2 Chronicles 9:19. and moreover twelve lions standing there on the six steps, on both sides. No such [throne] had ever been made for any kingdom. 2 Chronicles 9:20. And all the drinking vessels of King Solomon were of gold, and all the vessels in the house of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon, Compare 1 Kgs 10:14-21. On the structure of the throne or royal seat of Solomon according to Jewish tradition see the commentaries to 1 Kgs 7:7 in “Explanatory Bible”, vol. II, p. 394.

2 Chronicles 9:21. for the king’s ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram, and once every three years the ships from Tarshish returned, bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and peacocks. Compare 1 Kgs 10:22. In this passage of 2 Chronicles, as also in 2 Chr 20:36-37, it appears that Solomon’s fleet made voyages to Tarshish; but in fact it went to Ophir, and the name “Tarshish” has a different meaning. See “Explanatory Bible”, vol. II, p. 415.

2 Chronicles 9:25. And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; and he stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem; 2 Chronicles 9:26. and he ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. 2 Chronicles 9:27. And the king made silver and gold as common as stone in Jerusalem, and cedarwood as plentiful as the sycamores that are in the lowlands. 2 Chronicles 9:28. And horses were brought to Solomon from Egypt and from all lands. Here only verse 26 presents a new thought (compare 1 Kgs 4:21), while verses 25 and 27–28 represent a repetition of what was said in 2 Chr 1:14-17. Compare also 1 Kgs 10:26-27 and 1 Kgs 4:26. The number of stalls or chariots that Solomon had varies in different places and according to different texts: according to this passage in 2 Chronicles and 1 Kgs 4:26 – 40,000 stalls (according to some LXX codices and the Vulgate, as well as the Slavonic text – 40,000 horses); according to 2 Chr 1:14 and 1 Kgs 10:26 – 1,400 chariots. But for 1,400 chariots there would be no need for 40,000 horses; probably one should read: 4,000 horses (Prof. Gulyaev “Historical Books of Sacred Scripture of the Old Testament”, p. 514; Prof. Olesnitsky, “Old Testament Temple”, p. 646; “Explanatory Bible”, vol. II, p. 382).

2 Chronicles 9:29. The rest of the acts of Solomon, from first to last, are written in the records of the prophet Nathan, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of the seer Iddo concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat. 2 Chronicles 9:30. And Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years. 2 Chronicles 9:31. And Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead. Compare 1 Kgs 11:41-43. The fall of Solomon and the judgment of God upon him and his house, of which 3 Kings tells (1 Kgs 11:1-40), are not included in the narrative of 2 Chronicles: the historical character of the books of Chronicles and the special purpose of these books apparently did not permit the inclusion of this material in the narrative (just as the political affairs of the court, described in chapters 1–11 of 3 Kings, were not included in Chronicles)⁴. The historical and documentary character of the books of Chronicles is noted here (verse 29) by the detailed mention of the works of famous prophets and historians: Nathan, Ahijah, Jeddo, whereas in the parallel verse 1 Kgs 11:41 only the “book of the acts of Solomon” is named generally. “The prophet Nathan belongs to those persons about whom the book of Chronicles mentions more than once, but whose writings have not come down to us. The prophet Nathan is mentioned in 2 Sam 7:2-17; 1 Kgs 1:8-45; Ps 50:1; 1 Chr 17:1-15; 2 Chr 9:29. From these passages it is evident that he had considerable influence both on political and on church affairs” (Prof. Gulyaev “Historical Books of Sacred Scripture of the Old Testament”, pp. 514–515). Ahijah the Shilonite is known only by his prophecies: concerning the division of the Hebrew kingdom into two (1 Kgs 11:29-39) and concerning the destruction of the house of Jeroboam (1 Kgs 14:4-16; 2 Chr 10:15); besides, according to this passage, he kept chronicles. The same is known of Iddo, mentioned also in 2 Chr 12:15. Chapters 11–36, forming the second and larger part of 2 Chronicles, contain an account of all the kings of the Kingdom of Judah from the moment of the separation of the Kingdom of Israel from it until the fall of the former in the Babylonian captivity. * * * It is precisely the particular character and purpose of the narrative of Chronicles, rather than arbitrary and tendentious distortion of ancient records by a postexilic writer, as for example J. Wellhausen maintains, that gave rise to the noted differences in the narrative between 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles about Solomon’s reign. According to Wellhausen (Wellhausen J., Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels. Berlin, 1886, pp. 192–193), in 2 Chronicles “the ancient image (of Solomon’s reign) is so dimmed that all dark and unpleasant features are destroyed and new and brilliant colors are inserted in their place, not in the spirit of the original, but in the taste of the age: priests and Levites, fire from heaven, the fulfillment of all the righteousness of the law and much music, besides that, all sorts of legendary anachronisms and exaggerations. The material of the “tradition is refracted through an alien environment – the spirit of postexilic Judahism.”