Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comAdam Clarke Commentary - 1 Kings 10:5 - 10:5
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The meat of his table - The immense supply of all kinds of food daily necessary for the many thousands which were fed at and from his table. See 1Ki 4:22-23 (note).
And the sitting of his servants - The various orders and distinctions of his officers.
The attendance of his ministers - See the account of these and their attendance, 1Ki 4:1, etc.
And their apparel - The peculiarity of their robes, and their splendor and costliness.
And his cup-bearers - The original משקיו mashkaiv may as well be applied to his beverage, or to his drinking utensils, as to his cup-bearers.
And his ascent by which he went up - It seems very strange that the steps to the temple should be such a separate matter of astonishment. The original is ועלתו אשר יעלה בית יהוה which all the versions have translated, And the holocausts which he offered in the house of the Lord. The Vulgate, Septuagint, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, all express this sense: so does the German translation of Luther, from which, in this place, we have most pitifully departed: And seine Brandopfer, die er in dem Hause des Herrn opferte; “And his burnt-offering which he offered in the house of the Lord.”
There was no more spirit in her - She was overpowered with astonishment; she fainted. I have seen precisely the same effect produced; a lady who was herself an artist, viewing some exquisitely finished oriental paintings, was so struck with astonishment that she twice nearly fainted, and was obliged to leave the room. What happened to the queen of Sheba is a natural and not an uncommon effect which will be produced in a delicate sensible mind at the sight of rare and extraordinary productions of art.
Of the profusion of Solomon’s sacrifices we have already had proof, 1Ki 8:63; 1Ki 9:25.