2 Chronicles 9: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The queen of Sheba comes to Jerusalem to test Solomon with hard questions, sees his wisdom and his court, and trades lavish gifts with him. The chapter then lists Solomon's yearly income of gold, his hammered gold shields, his ivory throne, his trading ships, and the tribute other kings brought him each year. It closes by pointing to other written records of his reign, and reports his forty years as king, his death and burial, and his son Rehoboam taking the throne.

Claim by Claim

1. 9:1
   • The queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon.
   • She came to test Solomon with hard questions.
   • She came to Jerusalem.
   • She came with a very great company.
   • She came with camels carrying spices.
   • She brought gold in abundance.
   • She brought precious stones.
   • She came to Solomon.
   • She spoke with him about all that was in her heart.
2. 9:2
   • Solomon answered all her questions.
   • Nothing was hidden from Solomon that he did not tell her.
3. 9:3
   • The queen of Sheba saw the wisdom of Solomon.
   • The queen of Sheba saw the house that Solomon had built.
4. 9:4
   • She saw the food of his table.
   • She saw the seating of his servants.
   • She saw the attendance of his ministers.
   • She saw the clothing of his ministers.
   • She saw his cupbearers.
   • She saw the clothing of his cupbearers.
   • She saw his ascent by which he went up to the house of the LORD.
   • There was no more spirit in her.
5. 9:5
   • She said to the king that the report she heard in her own land was true.
   • The report she heard concerned his words and his wisdom.
6. 9:6
   • She said she did not believe their words until she came and her eyes saw it.
   • She said that not half of the greatness of his wisdom had been told her.
   • She said he exceeded the report she had heard.
7. 9:7
   • She said his men are happy.
   • She said his servants are happy.
   • She said these servants stand continually before him.
   • She said these servants hear his wisdom.
8. 9:8
   • She said, Blessed be the LORD his God.
   • She said the LORD delighted in Solomon.
   • She said the LORD set Solomon on his throne to be king.
   • She said Solomon was made king for the LORD his God.
   • She said his God loved Israel.
   • She said God loved Israel so as to establish them forever.
   • She said God therefore made Solomon king over them.
   • She said Solomon was made king to do judgment and justice.
9. 9:9
   • She gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold.
   • She gave a great abundance of spices.
   • She gave precious stones.
   • There was never any spice like that which the queen of Sheba gave king Solomon.
10. 9:10
    • The servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon brought gold from Ophir.
    • They also brought algum wood.
    • They also brought precious stones.
11. 9:11
    • The king made steps for the house of the LORD out of the algum wood.
    • The king made steps for the king's palace out of the algum wood.
    • The king made lyres out of the algum wood for the singers.
    • The king made harps out of the algum wood for the singers.
    • Nothing like them had been seen before in the land of Judah.
12. 9:12
    • King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired, whatever she asked.
    • What he gave was besides what she had brought to the king.
    • She turned and went to her own land.
    • She went with her servants.
13. 9:13
    • The weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty-six talents of gold.
14. 9:14
    • This was besides what traders and merchants brought.
    • All the kings of Arabia brought gold and silver to Solomon.
    • The governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon.
15. 9:15
    • King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold.
    • Six hundred shekels of beaten gold went into each large shield.
16. 9:16
    • He made three hundred small shields of beaten gold.
    • Three hundred shekels of gold went into each small shield.
    • The king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
17. 9:17
    • The king made a great throne of ivory.
    • He overlaid the throne with pure gold.
18. 9:18
    • There were six steps to the throne.
    • There was a footstool of gold attached to the throne.
    • There were armrests on each side of the seat.
    • Two lions stood beside the armrests.
19. 9:19
    • Twelve lions stood on the six steps, on the one side and on the other.
    • Nothing like it had been made for any kingdom.
20. 9:20
    • All the drinking vessels of king Solomon were of gold.
    • All the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold.
    • None were of silver.
    • Silver was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon.
21. 9:21
    • The king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram.
    • Once every three years the ships of Tarshish came.
    • The ships brought gold and silver.
    • The ships brought ivory.
    • The ships brought apes.
    • The ships brought peacocks.
22. 9:22
    • King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.
23. 9:23
    • All the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon.
    • They sought him to hear his wisdom.
    • God had put that wisdom in his heart.
24. 9:24
    • Each man brought his present.
    • They brought vessels of silver.
    • They brought vessels of gold.
    • They brought garments.
    • They brought weapons.
    • They brought spices.
    • They brought horses.
    • They brought mules.
    • They did this year by year.
25. 9:25
    • Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots.
    • Solomon had twelve thousand horsemen.
    • He stationed them in the chariot cities.
    • He stationed some with the king at Jerusalem.
26. 9:26
    • He ruled over all the kings from the River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt.
27. 9:27
    • The king made silver in Jerusalem as common as stones.
    • He made cedar trees as abundant as the sycamore trees in the lowland.
28. 9:28
    • Horses were brought to Solomon out of Egypt.
    • Horses were brought to Solomon out of all lands.
29. 9:29
    • The rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are written in the records of Nathan the prophet.
    • They are written in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite.
    • They are written in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam son of Nebat.
30. 9:30
    • Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.
31. 9:31
    • Solomon slept with his fathers.
    • He was buried in the city of David his father.
    • Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.

Words Worth Explaining

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

9:1

Sheba was a wealthy kingdom in southwest Arabia, in the area of modern Yemen, which grew rich controlling the overland trade in incense and spices, the journey to Jerusalem was roughly 1,400 miles by camel. "Prove him with hard questions" does not mean an examination: the Hebrew word means riddles or puzzles, and trading them was a recognized contest of wits between rulers and their courts.

9:2

"Solomon told her all her questions" is old English for "Solomon answered all her questions."

9:3

The Hebrew word for "house" covers both a temple and a palace; here, as verse 4's separate mention of the LORD's house shows, it means Solomon's own palace complex.

9:4

A cupbearer was a high court official, not a waiter: he served the king's wine and tasted it first, which put him among the most trusted men in the kingdom. The last item in the list is genuinely uncertain in Hebrew, the same consonants can be read as "his ascent" (the stairway or processional way by which he went up to the temple, as the King James has it) or "his burnt offerings" (the sacrifices he presented there, as many modern translations have it).

9:7

"Happy" in 1611 English means fortunate or well off, closer to "lucky" than to cheerful.

9:8

Chronicles regularly describes the king of Israel as sitting on the LORD's own throne rather than his own, the language casts the human king as a deputy holding a throne that belongs to God. "Judgment and justice" is a fixed Hebrew pair meaning something like fair legal decisions and right dealing generally.

9:9

A talent was a weight, not a coin, roughly 75 pounds (34 kg). Her gift of 120 talents was therefore about four tons of gold.

9:10

Huram (spelled Hiram in Kings) was the king of Tyre, the Phoenician port city up the coast; his sailors were the experienced seamen of the region, and Solomon's ventures depended on them. Ophir was a distant source of exceptionally fine gold (its location is unknown, with Arabia, East Africa and India all suggested) and its name became a byword for gold of the best quality. What kind of tree "algum" was is also uncertain; sandalwood and a species of juniper are the usual guesses.

9:11

The Hebrew word rendered "terraces" or "steps" occurs only here and in the parallel passage, and its meaning is not known; suggestions include stairs, walkways, supports and railings. "Psalteries" is the King James word for a plucked stringed instrument, roughly a lyre or small harp.

9:13

666 talents is about 25 tons of gold. Round or striking numbers of this kind were commonly used to convey scale.

9:14

"Chapmen" is old English for traveling traders or peddlers, the word survives now only in the surname Chapman. The point is that this figure counted only direct payments to the crown, on top of ordinary trade revenue.

9:15

"Target" is the King James word for a large shield, the kind that covers most of the body, as against the smaller shield of the next verse. A shekel was a weight of about two-fifths of an ounce (11.5 grams), so 600 shekels is roughly 15 pounds (7 kg) of gold per shield. These were ceremonial, for display and parade, not for battle.

9:16

The House of the Forest of Lebanon was a great hall in Solomon's palace complex, named for its rows of cedar pillars, which made the interior look like a forest of trees. It served as an armory and treasury as well as a state hall.

9:17

Ivory came from elephant tusks and had to be imported, which made it one of the most expensive materials available. A throne "of ivory" almost certainly means a wooden frame faced with carved ivory panels, then overlaid with gold.

9:18

"Stays" is the King James word for armrests. Lions were the standard emblem of royal power throughout the ancient Near East, and thrones flanked by animal figures are known from the region's art. The Hebrew here reads "a footstool of gold"; the parallel account in 1 Kings 10:19 instead describes a rounded top to the throne.

9:20

"It was not any thing accounted of" means silver was reckoned as worth nothing. This is deliberate exaggeration: silver was valuable everywhere in the ancient world, and the claim is a way of saying gold was so plentiful at Solomon's court that silver stopped registering.

9:21

Tarshish was a distant port reached by sea, most often identified with Tartessus in southern Spain, though Sardinia and other sites are proposed; "ships of Tarshish" may not mean ships bound there at all, but a class of large ocean-going vessel, the way one might say "an ocean liner." The word translated "peacocks" is of uncertain meaning (baboons is the other common suggestion) and "apes" and "ivory" likewise point to a trade route reaching Africa or India.

9:24

"Harness" in 1611 English meant armor and weapons, not straps for a horse. "A rate year by year" means a fixed annual quota: this describes regular tribute from subject or allied rulers, not occasional gifts.

9:25

The parallel verse at 1 Kings 4:26 gives 40,000 stalls rather than 4,000, a difference that most likely arose in copying. The Hebrew word translated "horsemen" can mean either the riders or the horses themselves. The chariot cities were fortified garrison towns where chariot forces were stationed away from the capital; Megiddo, Hazor and Gezer are named elsewhere as Solomon's fortresses.

9:26

"The river," used on its own in Hebrew, always means the Euphrates, in what is now Iraq and Syria: it marks the far northeastern limit of the territory claimed here. The Philistines were a people settled in five cities on the southern coastal plain, long-standing rivals of Israel, whose land lay between Judah and the sea.

9:27

The sycomore here is the sycomore fig, a common Middle Eastern tree whose wood was cheap and ordinary, the comparison is to something plentiful and unremarkable, and the tree is not the same as the modern sycamore or plane. Cedar, by contrast, had to be shipped from Lebanon at great expense. The "low plains" are the Shephelah, the belt of low hills between the central highlands and the coast.

9:28

Egypt was known for fine horses and chariot teams. In the parallel passage at 1 Kings 10:28 the Hebrew names a second source alongside Egypt, usually read as Kue in Cilicia (southern Turkey), another famous horse-breeding region; Chronicles here has the more general "all lands."

9:29

A "seer" is an older Hebrew term for a prophet, from the idea of seeing visions. The three writings named here are lost: they were sources the Chronicler drew on, not books of the Bible. Nathan was the prophet at David's court; Ahijah, from the sanctuary town of Shiloh, told Jeroboam son of Nebat that he would rule ten of the tribes; Jeroboam was a royal official who led the northern tribes' break from Solomon's son, the story told in the next chapter. The King James "against Jeroboam" translates a Hebrew preposition that can equally mean simply "concerning."

9:31

"Slept with his fathers" is a standard Hebrew idiom for dying, carrying the sense of a peaceful death and burial in the ancestral tomb, as against being killed or dying in disgrace. The City of David is the oldest part of Jerusalem, the fortified ridge David captured from the Jebusites, where the kings of Judah were buried.