For Teaching

1 Kings 10: What the Passage Says

102 claims across 29 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What 1 Kings 10 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The queen of Sheba hears about Solomon's fame and comes to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions, and he answers them all. She is overwhelmed by his wisdom, his palace, his household, and his wealth, and she praises the LORD before giving him gold, spices, and jewels; Solomon gives her gifts in return. The rest of the chapter lists Solomon's yearly income of gold, his gold shields, his ivory throne, his trading fleets, his chariots and horses, and the flood of silver and cedar that came into Jerusalem.

Claim by Claim

10:1
- The queen of Sheba heard the report of Solomon's fame.
- That fame was connected with the name of the LORD.
- She came to test Solomon with hard riddles.
10:2
- She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue.
- Camels carried spices.
- She brought very much gold.
- She brought precious stones.
- She came to Solomon.
- She spoke with him about everything that was in her heart.
10:3
- Solomon answered all her questions.
- Nothing was hidden from the king that he did not explain to her.
10:4
- The queen of Sheba saw all of Solomon's wisdom.
- She saw the house that Solomon had built.
10:5
- She saw the food of his table.
- She saw the seating of his servants.
- She saw the attendance of his ministers.
- She saw their clothing.
- She saw his cupbearers.
- She saw the ascent by which he went up to the house of the LORD; the term is ambiguous and can equally mean the burnt offering he offered at the house of the LORD.
- There was no more spirit left in her.
10:6
- She spoke to the king.
- She said the report she had heard in her own land was true.
- The report concerned his words and his wisdom.
10:7
- She said she did not believe the reports until she came and her own eyes saw.
- She said not even half had been told to her.
- She said his wisdom and prosperity exceeded the report she had heard.
10:8
- She said his men are happy.
- She said these servants of his are happy.
- She said they stand continually before him.
- She said they hear his wisdom.
10:9
- She said, blessed be the LORD his God.
- She said the LORD delighted in Solomon.
- She said the LORD delighted in him so as to set him on the throne of Israel.
- She said the LORD loves Israel forever.
- She said the LORD made Solomon king.
- She said he was made king to do judgment and righteousness.
10:10
- She gave the king one hundred twenty talents of gold.
- She gave a very great quantity of spices.
- She gave precious stones.
- No such abundance of spices ever came again as what the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.
10:11
- Hiram's fleet brought gold from Ophir.
- That fleet also brought a very great quantity of almug wood from Ophir.
- That fleet also brought precious stones.
10:12
- The king made supports from the almug wood for the house of the LORD and for the king's house; the term for what he made is ambiguous and can mean props, railings, or steps.
- The king made lyres and harps from the almug wood for the singers.
- No such almug wood ever came again.
- No such almug wood has been seen to this day.
10:13
- King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatever she asked.
- This was besides what he gave her out of his own royal bounty.
- She turned and went to her own country.
- She went with her servants.
10:14
- The weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty-six talents.
10:15
- This was besides the revenue from the traders.
- This was besides the trade of the merchants.
- This was besides the revenue from all the kings of Arabia.
- This was besides the revenue from the governors of the land.
10:16
- King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold.
- Six hundred shekels of gold went into each large shield.
10:17
- He made three hundred small shields of hammered gold.
- Three minas of gold went into each small shield.
- The king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
10:18
- The king made a great throne of ivory.
- He overlaid the throne with the finest gold.
10:19
- The throne had six steps.
- The top of the throne was rounded at the back.
- There were armrests on either side of the seat.
- Two lions stood beside the armrests.
10:20
- Twelve lions stood on the six steps, on one side and the other.
- Nothing like it had been made for any kingdom.
10:21
- All of king Solomon's drinking vessels were gold.
- All the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were pure gold.
- None of them were silver.
- Silver was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon.
10:22
- The king had a fleet of Tarshish at sea along with Hiram's fleet.
- Once every three years the fleet of Tarshish came in.
- It brought gold and silver.
- It brought ivory.
- It brought apes.
- It brought peacocks; the word is uncertain and may denote baboons.
10:23
- King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.
10:24
- All the earth sought Solomon's presence.
- They sought him in order to hear his wisdom.
- God had put that wisdom in his heart.
10:25
- Each man brought his present.
- The presents included vessels of silver and vessels of gold.
- The presents included garments.
- The presents included weapons.
- The presents included spices.
- The presents included horses and mules.
- This happened year by year.
10:26
- Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen.
- He had one thousand four hundred chariots.
- He had twelve thousand horsemen.
- He stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.
10:27
- The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones.
- He made cedars as plentiful as the sycamores of the lowland.
10:28
- Solomon's horses came out of Egypt.
- The king's merchants received linen yarn at a price; the term rendered linen yarn is uncertain and may instead name the place Kue.
10:29
- A chariot was brought up out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver.
- A horse cost one hundred fifty.
- They exported them in the same way to all the kings of the Hittites.
- They exported them in the same way to the kings of Aram.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

10:1: Sheba was a wealthy kingdom in southwest Arabia, roughly modern Yemen, about 1,400 miles from Jerusalem; its wealth came from controlling the overland trade in incense and spices. "Hard questions" translates a Hebrew word used for riddles and puzzles: testing a foreign ruler with riddles was a recognized way of measuring his wisdom, and a formal courtesy between courts. "The LORD" in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, which the Hebrew text writes out but which Jewish tradition does not pronounce aloud.
10:2: A "very great train" is a caravan: the queen's whole traveling household, servants, guards and pack animals. Camels made the desert crossing possible, and the spices she carried were the source of her kingdom's wealth, so the cargo is also a display of what Sheba had to trade.
10:5: A cupbearer served the king's wine and tasted it first; because the job meant constant access to the king's person, it was a post of high trust rather than menial service. "The house of the LORD" is the temple Solomon had built in Jerusalem. The Hebrew phrase behind "the stairway he used to go up" is ambiguous and has been read two ways since ancient times: either the processional stairway or ascent connecting the palace to the temple, or the burnt offerings Solomon presented there. Translations divide on it.
10:8: "Happy" here does not mean cheerful. In 1611 it meant fortunate or lucky, in the sense of being well placed by circumstance, which is what the queen is saying about the men who get to stand in Solomon's court every day.
10:9: A throne is the fancy chair a king sits on. Sitting on the throne means being the king. Israel was the land Solomon ruled, and its people.
10:10: A talent was a weight of roughly 75 pounds (about 34 kilograms), so 120 talents of gold is somewhere near four tons.
10:11: Hiram was king of Tyre, a Phoenician port city up the coast north of Israel, and Solomon's long-standing trading partner; the Phoenicians were the great seafarers of the region. Ophir was famous as a source of fine gold, but where it was is unknown, Arabia, East Africa and India have all been proposed. Almug wood is likewise unidentified; guesses include sandalwood and a kind of juniper.
10:12: The Hebrew word rendered "supports" occurs only here and its sense is uncertain; ancient and modern translators have variously guessed railings, steps, props or panelling. A lyre and a harp are both stringed instruments plucked by hand, standard in temple music.
10:14: 666 talents of gold is roughly 25 tons. Figures like this in royal records list annual income from tribute, tolls and trade together.
10:15: "The governors of the land" is ambiguous in Hebrew: it may mean the district governors of Solomon's own administration, or the local rulers of surrounding territories who paid him. "The kings of Arabia" would be the chieftains of the desert tribes along the trade routes.
10:16: A shekel was a weight, not a coin, coinage did not yet exist, of about two-fifths of an ounce (11.5 grams), so 600 shekels is roughly 15 pounds (7 kilograms) of gold per shield. Gold is far too soft for combat; these were ceremonial display shields carried by the royal guard. The "large" shield was the tall body-length type.
10:17: A mina was 50 shekels, about a pound and a quarter (0.6 kilograms), so three minas is close to four pounds. The House of the Forest of Lebanon was a great hall in Solomon's palace complex, described earlier in 1 Kings 7; it was named for its rows of cedar columns, which stood inside like a forest, and it served partly as an armory and treasury.
10:18: Ivory, carved from elephant tusk, was an imported luxury; a throne "of ivory" would have been wood inlaid with carved ivory panels, here further overlaid with gold.
10:19: "Stays" are armrests. Lions were the standard emblem of royal power throughout the region, and a throne flanked by them advertised the king's strength to anyone approaching.
10:22: "Ships of Tarshish" was a standing term for large ocean-going cargo vessels, named after a distant port whose location is disputed, proposals range from Spain to Sardinia to a site on the Red Sea route. The word translated "peacocks" is uncertain and may instead mean baboons or monkeys.
10:25: Gifts brought at a fixed amount year after year are tribute: the recognized way lesser rulers acknowledged a greater one and bought his protection, not spontaneous presents.
10:26: Chariots were the expensive elite weapon of the age, requiring trained teams, drivers and level ground. The "chariot cities" were garrison towns where the units and their horses were stationed, spread through the kingdom rather than kept in the capital.
10:27: The sycamore here is not the northern shade tree of that name but a fig species of the lowlands, which yielded cheap, common timber and poor-quality fruit, the point is that it was everywhere and worth little. Cedar, by contrast, was costly timber imported from Lebanon. The "western foothills" are the Shephelah, the belt of low hills between the coastal plain and the highlands of Judah.
10:28: Kue was a region in Cilicia, in what is now southeastern Turkey, known for breeding horses; Egypt and Kue were the two ends of the trade Solomon's agents worked. The Hebrew consonants for "Kue" can also be read as an ordinary noun, which is why older translations such as the King James render the word as "linen yarn."
10:29: Six hundred shekels of silver is about 15 pounds (7 kilograms) of metal, weighed out rather than counted as coins. "The Hittites" here means the small kingdoms of northern Syria that kept the Hittite name after the older Anatolian empire collapsed, not that empire itself. Aram was the group of Aramean kingdoms centered on Damascus, called Syria in older translations.

Read 1 Kings 10