Solomon’s Cities and a Visiting Queen

When the king saw that the walls of Jerusalem needed to be made more secure and stronger (for he thought the walls around Jerusalem ought to match the dignity of the city), he both repaired them and made them higher, with great towers on them. He also built cities that could be counted among the strongest: Hazor and Megiddo, and the third, Gezer. Gezer had in fact belonged to the Philistines, but Pharaoh king of Egypt had marched against it, besieged it and taken it by force; and when he had killed all its inhabitants, he utterly overthrew it and gave it as a present to his daughter, who had been married to Solomon. For this reason the king rebuilt it, as a city naturally strong and useful in war and in the sudden changes of affairs that sometimes happen. He also built two other cities not far from it; one was named Beth-horon and the other Baalath. He built other cities as well, conveniently placed near these, for the enjoyment of pleasures and delicacies; they were naturally of a mild climate, good for fruits ripening in their proper seasons, and well watered with springs. Solomon went as far as the desert above Syria and took possession of it, and built there a very great city, two days’ journey from Upper Syria, one day’s journey from the Euphrates, and six days’ journey from Babylon the Great. The reason this city lay so far from the inhabited parts of Syria is that further down there is no water to be had, and that only in that place are there springs and wells. When he had built this city and surrounded it with very strong walls, he named it Tadmor, and it is still called that today among the Syrians, but the Greeks call it Palmyra. [a]

Solomon the king was busy at this time building these cities. But some may ask why all the kings of Egypt, from Menes, who built Memphis and lived many years before our forefather Abraham, down to Solomon, an interval of more than thirteen hundred years, were called Pharaohs, taking the name from one Pharaoh who lived after the kings of that interval. I think it necessary to tell them, to cure their ignorance and to make the reason for the name plain. In the Egyptian language Pharaoh means a king. I suppose they used other names from childhood, but when they were made kings they changed them to the name that in their own tongue denoted their authority. In the same way the kings of Alexandria, who were formerly called by other names, were named Ptolemies after their first king when they took the kingdom. The Roman emperors, too, are called by other names from their birth, but are styled Caesars, their rule and rank imposing that name on them and not allowing them to keep the names their fathers gave them. I suppose also that Herodotus of Halicarnassus, when he said there were three hundred and thirty kings of Egypt after Menes who built Memphis, did not tell us their names for this reason: they were all commonly called Pharaohs. For when, after their deaths, a queen reigned, he calls her by her name, Nicaule, showing that while the kings were men and so could share the same title, a woman could not; and so he set down her own name, since she could not naturally bear that one. As for myself, I have found from our own books that after Pharaoh, Solomon’s father-in-law, no king of Egypt used that name any longer, and that it was after that time that the queen of Egypt and Ethiopia I mentioned came to Solomon; we will tell the reader about her shortly. But I have mentioned these things now to prove that our books and those of the Egyptians agree in many things. [d]

King Solomon subdued the remnant of the Canaanites who had not submitted to him before, those, I mean, who lived on Mount Lebanon and as far as the city of Hamath, and ordered them to pay tribute. Every year he chose some of them to serve him in the lowest tasks, to do his household work and to farm the land. For none of the Hebrews were made servants; nor was it reasonable, when God had brought so many nations under their power, that they should push their own people down into such lowly occupations rather than those nations. All the Israelites were under arms and served as soldiers in chariots and on horseback, rather than leading the life of slaves. He also appointed five hundred and fifty officers over the Canaanites who had been reduced to this household slavery; they received the entire charge of them from the king and trained them in the work and tasks for which he needed them. [f] The king also built many ships in the Egyptian gulf of the Red Sea, at a place called Ezion-geber, not far from the city of Eloth, which is now called Berenice. This country had formerly belonged to the Jews. For his ships Solomon also received a fitting gift from Hiram king of Tyre, who sent him enough men to serve as pilots, and others skilled in seafaring, and Solomon ordered them to go with his own stewards to the land of old called Ophir, but now the Golden Land, which belongs to India, to fetch him gold. When they had collected about thirty thousand pounds of gold, they returned to the king. [g]

At that time there was a woman who was queen of Egypt and Ethiopia. She was devoted to the study of wisdom, and admirable in other respects as well. When this queen heard of the virtue and good sense of Solomon, she had a great desire to see him. The reports that went out every day led her to come to him, since she wanted to be satisfied by her own experience and not by mere hearsay; for what is heard that way can easily go along with a false opinion and then be talked round again, since it depends entirely on those who tell it. So she resolved to come to him, especially to test his wisdom by putting to him questions of great difficulty and asking him to solve their hidden meaning. She came to Jerusalem with great splendor and rich equipment, bringing with her camels loaded with gold, with several kinds of sweet spices, and with precious stones. The king received her kindly and showed a great desire to please her; and grasping easily in his mind the meaning of the ingenious questions she put to him, he solved them sooner than anyone could have expected. She was amazed at Solomon’s wisdom, and found it more excellent when tested than what she had heard of it beforehand. She was especially struck by the fineness and size of his royal palace, and no less by the good arrangement of its rooms, for she saw that the king had shown great wisdom in it. But she was beyond measure astonished at the house called the Forest of Lebanon, and at the magnificence of his daily table, the manner of its preparation and service, the clothing of the servants who waited, and the skillful and orderly way they attended. Nor was she less moved by the daily sacrifices offered to God and the careful management the priests and Levites gave them. As she saw this done every day, she was filled with the greatest wonder imaginable, so that she could not contain her amazement but openly confessed how wonderfully she was moved. She went on to speak with the king, and so admitted that she was overcome with wonder at the things we have described. She said, “All the things, O king, that came to us by report came with uncertainty as to whether we should believe them. But as for the good things that belong to you, both those you possess in yourself, I mean your wisdom and good sense, and the happiness you have from your kingdom, certainly what reached us was no falsehood. It was not only a true report, but it described your happiness at a much lower level than I now see it before my eyes. For the report only tried to persuade our hearing; it did not make known the worth of the things themselves as seeing them and being present among them does. I, who did not believe what was reported because of the number and grandeur of the things I asked about, see them to be far more numerous than they were said to be. So I count the Hebrew people happy, and your servants and friends as well, who enjoy your presence and hear your wisdom continually every day. One would bless God, then, who has so loved this country and those who live in it as to make you king over them.” [j]

When the queen had shown in words how deeply the king had moved her, her feelings were also made known by certain presents: she gave him about fifteen hundred pounds of gold, and an immense quantity of spices and precious stones. (They say also that we have the root of the balsam which our country still produces as this woman’s gift.) Solomon in turn repaid her with many good things, chiefly by giving her whatever she chose for herself, for there was nothing she desired that he refused her. Indeed, he gave what she asked for more readily than the gifts he chose to give of his own accord, and so showed the greatness of his soul. So when this queen of Egypt and Ethiopia had obtained what we have already described, and had again shared with the king what she had brought with her, she returned to her own kingdom. [k]