Solomon’s Splendor and Fall

About the same time there were brought to the king, from the country called the Golden Land, precious stones and pine trees. He used these trees as supports for the temple and the palace, and also as material for musical instruments, the harps and lyres, so that the Levites could use them in their hymns to God. The wood brought to him at this time was larger and finer than any ever brought before. But let no one imagine that these pine trees were like those now called by that name, which get the name from the merchants, who call them so to make them admired by those who buy them. For the ones we speak of looked like the wood of the fig tree, but were whiter and more shining. We have said this much so that no one may be ignorant of the difference between these kinds of wood or unacquainted with the nature of the genuine pine tree; we thought it both timely and kind, when we mentioned it and the uses the king made of it, to explain the difference this far. [a]

The weight of gold brought to him was about fifty thousand pounds, not counting what the merchants brought, or what the local rulers and kings of Arabia gave him as presents. He also cast two hundred large shields of gold, each weighing about fifteen pounds, and made three hundred shields, each of nearly four pounds of gold, and had them carried into the house called the Forest of Lebanon. He also made cups of gold and of stone for entertaining his guests, and had them decorated with the greatest art; and he arranged for all his other vessels and furnishings to be of gold, for nothing was then bought or sold for silver. For the king had many ships on the sea of Tarsus, and he ordered these to carry all kinds of goods to the most distant nations; by their sale silver and gold were brought to the king, with a great quantity of ivory, and Ethiopians, and apes. They completed their voyage, out and back, in three years. [c]

So a great fame went around all the neighboring countries, proclaiming the virtue and wisdom of Solomon, so that kings everywhere wanted to see him, not believing what was reported because it was almost incredible. They showed their regard for him by the presents they made him: they sent him vessels of gold and silver, purple garments, many kinds of spices, horses and chariots, and as many mules for his baggage as they could find likely to please the king’s eyes by their strength and beauty. These additions, made to the chariots and horses he already had from those sent to him, increased the number of his chariots by four hundred, for he had a thousand before, and increased the number of his horses by two thousand, for he had twenty thousand before. These horses were so well trained, to make a fine appearance and to run swiftly, that no others could compare with them in either beauty or speed; they were at once the most beautiful of all and of matchless speed. Their riders were a further ornament to them. They were, first of all, young men in the most delightful bloom of their age, remarkable for their size and far taller than other men. They wore their hair very long, hanging down, and were dressed in garments of Tyrian purple; and every day gold dust was sprinkled on their hair, so that their heads sparkled as the sunbeams reflected from the gold. The king himself rode in a chariot in the middle of these men, who were armed and had their bows ready. He wore a white garment, and it was his habit to drive out for an airing. There was a place some seven or eight miles from Jerusalem called Etham, very pleasant with fine gardens and full of streams of water; he used to make his outings there, riding high in his chariot. [g] Solomon had a divine shrewdness in all things, and was very diligent and eager to have things done elegantly. So he did not neglect the care of the roads, but laid a paving of black stone along the roads leading to Jerusalem, the royal city, both to make them easy for travelers and to display the grandeur of his wealth and rule. He also divided up his chariots and set them in regular order, so that a certain number of them were in every city, while he kept a few around him; and he called those cities the cities of his chariots. The king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones in the street, and cedar wood, which had not been there before, as plentiful as the sycamore trees that fill the plains of Judea. He also set the price at which the Egyptian merchants who brought him their goods were to sell him a chariot with a pair of horses: six hundred drachmas of silver. And he sent them on to the kings of Syria and to the kings beyond the Euphrates. [j]

But although Solomon had become the most glorious of kings and the most beloved by God, and had surpassed in wisdom and riches all who had ruled the Hebrews before him, he did not continue in this happy state until he died. He abandoned the observance of the laws of his fathers, and came to an end in no way fitting the history we have given of him so far. He went mad over women and gave himself up to sexual excess without restraint. He was not satisfied with the women of his own country alone, but married many wives from foreign nations, Sidonians and Tyrians and Ammonites and Edomites; and he broke the laws of Moses, which forbade Jews to marry any but those of their own people. He also began to worship their gods, to please his wives and his passion for them. This was the very thing our lawgiver suspected, and so he warned us beforehand not to marry women of other countries, in case we should be entangled in foreign customs and abandon our own, and give up honoring our own God and worship their gods. But Solomon fell headlong into unreasonable pleasures and paid no attention to these warnings. For when he had married seven hundred wives, the daughters of princes and prominent men, and three hundred concubines, besides the king of Egypt’s daughter, he was soon ruled by them, until he came to imitate their practices. He was forced to give them this proof of his goodwill and affection: to live as was the custom of their countries. As he grew older, and his reason weakened with the length of time, it was not strong enough to recall to his mind the institutions of his own country; so he despised his own God more and more, and kept honoring the gods his marriages had brought in. Even before this happened, he had sinned and fallen into error about keeping the laws, when he made the images of bronze oxen that supported the bronze Sea, and the images of lions around his own throne; for he made these although it was not in keeping with piety to do so. And he did this even though he had in his own father a most excellent example of virtue close at hand, and knew what a glorious reputation David had left behind him because of his piety toward God. Nor did he imitate David, although God had twice appeared to him in his sleep and urged him to imitate his father. So he died without glory. So a prophet sent by God came to him at once and told him that his wicked deeds were not hidden from God, and threatened that he would not long rejoice in what he had done. The kingdom, indeed, would not be taken from him while he lived, because God had promised his father David that he would make Solomon his successor; but God would see to it that this befell his son when he was dead. Not that he would take all the people away from him: he would give ten tribes to a servant of his, and leave only two tribes to David’s grandson, for David’s sake, because he loved God, and for the sake of the city of Jerusalem, where God was to have a temple. [k]

When Solomon heard this, he was grieved and deeply troubled at this change of almost all the happiness that had made him admired into so bad a state. Not much time had passed after the prophet foretold what was coming before God raised up an enemy against him, whose name was Hadad. He took his occasion for enmity in this way. He was a child of the Edomite stock, of royal blood. When Joab, David’s commander, laid waste the land of Edom and for six months destroyed all who were grown men and able to bear arms, this Hadad fled and came to Pharaoh king of Egypt. Pharaoh received him kindly and gave him a house to live in and land to supply him with food; and when he grew up, Pharaoh loved him so greatly that he gave him his wife’s sister, whose name was Tahpenes, as his wife. By her Hadad had a son, who was brought up with the king’s children. When Hadad heard in Egypt that both David and Joab were dead, he came to Pharaoh and asked to be allowed to go to his own country. The king asked what he lacked, and what hardship he had met with, that he was so eager to leave him. And though Hadad often pestered him and begged to be released, he did not let him go then. But at the time when Solomon’s affairs began to go badly, because of the transgressions already mentioned and God’s anger against him for them, Hadad came to Edom with Pharaoh’s permission. When he could not make the people abandon Solomon, since the country was held down by many garrisons and a revolt could not be attempted safely, he moved from there and came into Syria. There he fell in with one Rezon, who had run away from his master Hadadezer king of Zobah and had become a robber in that country, and Hadad made friends with him, since Rezon already had a band of robbers around him. So he went up and seized that part of Syria and was made its king. He also made raids into the land of Israel, did it no small harm and plundered it, and that in Solomon’s lifetime. This was the disaster the Hebrews suffered from Hadad. [o]

There was also one of Solomon’s own nation who made an attempt against him: Jeroboam son of Nebat, who expected to rise because of a prophecy made to him long before. His father left him a child, and his mother brought him up. When Solomon saw that he was of an energetic and bold disposition, he made him overseer of the walls he was building around Jerusalem; and he took such care of the works that the king approved of his conduct and gave him, as a reward, the charge of the tribe of Joseph. About that time, as Jeroboam was once going out of Jerusalem, a prophet of the city of Shiloh named Ahijah met him and greeted him. He took him a little aside to an out-of-the-way place where there was no one else present, tore the garment he had on into twelve pieces, and told Jeroboam to take ten of them. And he told him beforehand: “This is the will of God: he will divide the dominion of Solomon, and give one tribe, with the one next to it, to his son, because of the promise made to David for his succession; and he will give ten tribes to you, because Solomon has sinned against him and given himself up to women and to their gods. Since you know, then, the reason God has changed his mind and turned away from Solomon, be righteous and keep the laws, because he has set before you the greatest of all rewards for your piety and the honor you pay to God: to be raised as high as you know David to have been.” [q]

Jeroboam was elated by these words of the prophet. Being a young man of a hot temper and eager for greatness, he could not keep quiet. Since he held so great a charge in the government, and remembered what Ahijah had revealed to him, he tried to persuade the people to abandon Solomon, to stir up unrest, and to bring the government over to himself. But when Solomon learned of his intention and treachery, he tried to catch him and kill him. Jeroboam was told of it beforehand and fled to Shishak king of Egypt, and stayed there until Solomon’s death. In this way he gained two advantages: he suffered no harm from Solomon, and he was kept safe for the kingdom. So Solomon died, already an old man, having reigned eighty years and lived ninety-four. He was buried in Jerusalem. He had surpassed all other kings in happiness and riches and wisdom, except that as he grew older he was led astray by women and broke the law. Concerning these transgressions, and the miseries that came on the Hebrews because of them, I think it best to speak at another opportunity. [r]