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1 Kings 10:14
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12 aAnd the king made1 steps of the almug wood for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, also harps and stringed instruments for singers. There never again came such balmug wood, nor has the like been seen to this day.  
13 Now King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired, whatever she asked, besides what Solomon had given her according to the royal generosity. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.

Solomon’s Great Wealth

14 The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,
15 besides that from the atraveling merchants, from the income of traders, bfrom all the kings of Arabia, and from the governors of the country.  
16 And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield.
17 He also made athree hundred shields of hammered gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the bHouse of the Forest of Lebanon.  
18 aMoreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold.  
19 The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round at the back; there were armrests on either side of the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the armrests.
20 Twelve lions stood there, one on each side of the six steps; nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom.
21 aAll King Solomon’s drinking vessels were gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Not one was silver, for this was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon.  
22 For the king had amerchant ships at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the merchant bships came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and2 monkeys.  
23 So aKing Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.  
24 Now all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.
25 Each man brought his present: articles of silver and gold, garments, armor, spices, horses, and mules, at a set rate year by year.
Commentaries:
Forerunner Commentary
What is the Forerunner Commentary?
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What Does 1 Kings 10:14 Mean?



1 Kings 10:14-27

After his prodigious wisdom, Solomon is best known for his colossal—seemingly astronomical—personal wealth. While riches are not evil in themselves, God admonishes the Israelite king not to "greatly multiply silver and gold" for himself (Deuteronomy 17:17). Beyond the greed factor, God gave this warning, not because He wants His rulers to be poor, but because of the effect amassing wealth has on the general populace. When a king gathers all of a nation's wealth to himself, the citizenry experiences acute financial oppression.

I Kings 10:14-25, 27 describes Solomon's nearly unbelievable wealth in detail. He was so wealthy that he "surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches" (verse 23). He generated an income of 666 talents of gold per year (verse 14), and "silver [was] as common in Jerusalem as stones, and . . . cedars as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland" (verse 27). He even charged a hefty, yearly set fee for anyone who desired to hear his wisdom (verse 25)! Money just seemed to pour into his coffers.

Obviously, much of this wealth came to him from trade and as gifts like that from the Queen of Sheba (verses 1-2, 10). However, he took advantage of his people to garner a great deal of wealth in the form of high taxes and using resident aliens as forced labor on public works projects (II Chronicles 2:17-18; 8:7-10). After he died, the people sent emissaries to his son Rehoboam to request a lightening of their work and tax burdens, but he rebuffed them, causing Israel's rebellion under Jeroboam (I Kings 12:1-20; II Chronicles 10). From the biblical perspective, amassing wealth like this is a terrible abuse of power.

Martin G. Collins
The Enduring Results of Compromise


 
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