Soloman was very clever in the respect that he made lots of alliances with influential people in order to further develop and expand his country. We are told in 1Kings11: 3 that ‘he had 700 wives who were from royal families and 300 concubines who gave birth to his children.’ These marriages were mainly for political and trade alliances, for example when Solomon married the Pharaoh of Egypt’s daughter, as a wedding present he obtained Ezion Geber in the gulf of Aquabah, a port in an arm of water north of the red sea, which he made an extensive fleet of trading ships for. This made Israel even wealthier and made Solomon’s reputation as King much more admired. The main exports from Israel were wheat and olive oil and also possibly copper as well as chariots and horses. The main trading partners were Arabia, East Africa, Syria, and Cilicia.
The most important of Solomon’s alliances was with Tyre, an alliance first initiated by David and later renewed by Solomon. The alliance resulted in a mutually beneficial trade: exports of wheat and olive oil from Israel and Lebanon hardwoods from Tyre. Tyrian workmen were also infamous for their skills in quality craftsmanship, building, and the refinement of copper; the alliance meant Solomon could utilise this source. It also opened up before Solomon new avenues of trade and industry, because it meant that Solomon had greater access to the Mediterranean and so could trade there too.
Although all of these political and trade alliances were useful and beneficial to Solomon and Israel, there were many drawbacks to this amount of women living in his household. It meant that there was a complicated web of women, sometimes related, who caused arguments in the palace. For example, there is the well known story in 1Kings3 of the two women who argue over the death of one of their babies, not agreeing on who is the Mother of the living one. In 1Kings3, Solomon seems to be very close to God and follows Him as his father did ‘Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statues of David’. However in 1Kings11 we are told that ‘his wives caused him to turn away from God.’ The alliances that he made with other countries bringing trade to Israel also brought their religions and their Gods. Instead of banishing these Gods and concentrating on Yahweh, he allowed his wives to build temples and worship their Gods and later in his old age, he followed them and also worshiped these Pagan Gods. Not only did this mean that God was angry with Solomon and brought his wrath upon the people of Israel, but the people saw Solomon’s example and also started to turn away from Yahweh.
Solomon was a very wealthy man and liked to demonstrate this through extravagance in both building and his own private luxury. He had a large bureaucracy modelled on the example of neighbouring Egypt. All of these wives and officers required money through food, living costs, wages, administration, clothes etc and because Solomon did not engage in any military expeditions and so retain any loot, he had to charge the people heavy taxes. His father David had always paid special attention to the North, in trying to win their favour, seeing as they were resentful to the south where David was from. However Solomon ignored his father’s advice and in fact taxed the North more heavily than the rest of the country, which lead to the disintegration of the country after Solomon’s death. He also caused friction by apparently having no regard for the old tribal confederacy and putting up the tax borders geographically, deliberately splitting tribes up. Solomon however did collect a considerable amount of income from the taxes he imposed on the caravans that travelled through Israel from Arabia.
Solomon’s true genius lay in the realm of industry and trade. He was able to recognise the economic significance of his position astraddle the major trade routes. His commercial ventures were numerous and, since foreign trade was largely a royal monopoly, a source of great wealth to the state. Solomon’s projects must have meant that thousands more were employed and although were taxed, would still probably been better off. Bright says that ‘Israel enjoyed a security and material plenty such as she had never dreamed of before and was never to know again’. The living standards of people would have gone up considerably during Solomon’s reign
Solomon was particularly renowned for his building projects. The first major building he constructed was his palace on the hill of Zion, which, in total took thirteen years to build. It was mainly constructed by Tyrian craftsmen due to Solomon’s alliance with Hiram, the King of Tyre, made previously by his Father David. He paid Hiram with 97000 gallons of olive oil and a considerable amount of grain. 80000 men worked in the quarries and 70000 were burden bearers, some of these were employed under conscription. The palace was often called the ‘House of the forest of Lebanon’ due to the amount of cedar trees taken for the building of Solomon’s home.
Although the building was very impressive, and Solomon’s wealth was evident due to this palace, Anderson remarks that ‘Ambitious and selfish by nature, his lavish court in Jerusalem was a hall of mirrors that reflected the glory and reputation of the great king of Israel’. I agree, that indeed, the palace does seem to be excessively furnished and finished. Hiram provided Solomon with high quality rose tinted limestone and Solomon refused anything but gold goblets to be used in the palace. The throne was inlaid with ivory and plated with the finest gold. He had 600 golden shields made, 200 large ones and the others smaller, all purely designed for display. Although Solomon was meant to be a representative of God he started building his own palace before starting construction of the temple, and within his palace, he also ordered shrines of foreign Gods to be built for his wives. There was a shrine to Molock, the God of Ammon and a shrine to Chemosh, the God of Moab.
The building of the temple was started in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign and took seven years to finish. Boadt comments that ‘while Solomon lived, his temple was the true center of worship for the whole country.’ The temple was a very positive thing for Solomon and was a credit to him. It was a reminder of God’s power and was a focal point of worship for the people of Israel. It was a place that brought the people together and it appears that Solomon wanted to give God the best because a lot of gold was used within the making and décor. It could be argued however, that this was purely put in for show because Solomon did have a habit of using very expensive lavish materials in his buildings. The temple had two key pillars, and contained a bronze sea. This was a very large bowl supported by gourds, the Canaanite fertility symbol. It represented the powers of watery chaos ruled by Yahweh and at the same time provided water for the services and ritual washings. Out of respect for the name of God that was said to be present in the temple, Solomon ensured that the stone was cut in the quarries away from the temple, so that there was no hammering in, or near, the temple.
However, the temple was designed largely by Tyrian architects, and because they had built many Pagan temples before, the main structure and carvings were modelled on these non-Yahweh structures. Also, due to the slave labour required for the building to be finished reasonably quickly, Anderson says that it was built ‘with the life and liberty of the people.’ The temple was built in the south of Israel and so the already unhappy people in the north, were forced to travel a long way to worship in the temple. This meant that they could not come so often, and gave them even more reason to feel resentment towards the monarchy. Bright says that ‘before Solomon’s death the northern tribes had been completely alienated from the house of David’. I agree that this is how the people probably felt, due to the numerous occasions where Solomon discriminated the north simply because they were far away from him and he didn’t think they would cause trouble for him.
Solomon also embarked on many other building projects, including the city walls around Jerusalem and he fortified the major centers of Megiddo, Gezer and Hazor as military bases for his chariot divisions. He also built several smaller temples around the country, for other Gods as well as Yahweh.
Solomon’s glory did not consist in material things alone, for it was attended by an amazing opening of cultural exploration. The period of Solomon’s reign was a time when the arts really flourished, and most people could read – the first time for a long period in history. The gift of wisdom from God given in 1Kings3 is something that we can admire Solomon for. When asked what one thing he wanted God to give him he answered, ‘I ask that you give me an obedient heart so I can rule the people in the right way and will know the difference between right and wrong’. God then decides that he ‘will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be’. Solomon did not act purely selfishly and ask simply for more riches, he asked for something that would benefit the kingdom as a whole. His wisdom is then demonstrated in the very same chapter in his decision in the case of the two women who claimed the same baby. The story goes that Solomon proposed to settle the argument by cutting the baby in two, so neither women would have it. At this point the real mother offered to surrender the baby, and Solomon, with the psychological understanding of a mother’s love, rendered the verdict in her favour. However Drane argues that ‘Solomon many have been renowned for his wisdom, but it was not the kind of practical wisdom that led to a sympathetic understanding of his own people’.
Solomon did a lot of writing during his life, and there is a whole book in the Bible dedicated to this writing (Songs of Solomon) as well as other parts of the Bible having inputs from him. He wrote 3000 proverbs and 1005 songs and during his reign a major court history was produced. The writer of Kings says that ‘Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone else’. Solomon’s time was the beginning of a wisdom movement and according to Anderson ‘Solomon was regarded as the patron of Israel’s wisdom movement.’ We are told in 1Kings4 that he had an extensive knowledge of beasts, birds, reptiles and fish, and wisdom in such topics was very highly regarded. The wisdom of Solomon was so infamous that the Queen of Sheba came to visit him and test him with hard questions to test his knowledge and wisdom.
For a variety of reasons, there was ill feeling and resentment against the style of Solomon’s rule. He established a strong central administration system, with tax districts under the control of an officer. Many people were angered, and felt that they were being led by an elite and privileged group, that went against the notion that all were equal before God. I agree with Drane when he says that ‘the old ways were being eroded; instead of twelve tribes serving God, there were twelve districts serving the king’. In many ways Solomon was a successful king: he brought military strength, strong alliances and trading routes, great wealth and efficient central administration. All of these are imperative to a stable and successful kingdom. However Anderson argues that all of this glory and security was achieved through ‘harsh measures of exploitation’, which is evident through the evidence of taxation and forced labour Solomon inflicted on the country. Drane and Bright both agree that ‘He had become like the kings of other nations in every bad sense’, and he was ‘the embodiment of all a king ought not to be’. Solomon’s reign is a controversial one, and although he was successful in many ways, his greed and desire for absolute luxury brought out qualities that led to the disintegration of himself and Israel, particularly as a nation that followed Yahweh.
