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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Kings 10:18 - 10:18
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Solomon had a great throne of ivory made, and had it overlaid with fine gold. כִּסֵּא־שֵׁן is not a throne made of ivory, but one merely ornamented with ivory; and we are to imagine the gilding as effected by laying the gold simply upon the wood, and inserting the ivory within the gold plate. מוּפָז, a hophal participle of פָּזַז: aurum depuratum, hence = טָהֹור in 2Ch 9:17. The throne had six steps, and a “rounded head on the hinder part thereof,” i.e., a back which was arched above or rounded off,
(Note: Instead of מֵאַֽחֲרָיו לַכִּסֵּה עָגֹול וְרֹאשׁ we have in the Chronicles מָֽאֳחָזִים לַכִּסֵּא בַּזָּהָב וְכֶבֶשׁ, “and a footstool in gold fastened to the throne” (the plural מָֽאֳחָזִים refers to the footstool and the steps). Now, however easily מאחזים may have been written by mistake for מאחריו, זהב כבשׁ cannot have grown out of עגול ראשׁ by any such mistake. The quid-pro-quo of the lxx for עָגֹול rof xxl רֹאשׁ, προτομαὶ μόσχων, in which עָגֹול is certainly confounded with עֵגֶל, does not warrant the conjecture of Thenius, that the Chronicler found עֵגֶל in his original and substituted כֶּבֶשׂ (lamb), whereupon כֶּבֶשׂ (lamb) was changed by another hand into כֶּבֶשׁ footstep, and רֹאשׁ was dropped altogether.)
and יָרֹת, arms, i.e., arms on both sides of the seat (הַשֶּׁבֶת מְקֹום), and two lions standing by the side of the arms. Beside this there were twelve lions upon the six steps, namely two upon each step, one on this side and one on that. Instead of אֲרָיִים (1Ki 10:20) we find אֲרָיֹרת in 1Ki 10:19, just as we do in both verses of the Chronicles, not because the reference is to artificial, inanimate figures and not to natural lions, as Thenius supposes, but because the plural ending ִים- is an unusual one with this word; and even where natural lions are spoken of, we always find אֲרָיֹרת in other passages (cf. Jdg 14:5; 2Sa 1:23; 2Ki 17:25; Son 4:8, etc.). The lions were symbols of the ruler's authority; and the twelve lions upon the steps may possibly have pointed to the rule over the twelve tribes of Israel, which was concentrated in the throne; not “watchers of the throne,” as Thenius thinks. This throne was so splendid a work, that the historian observes that nothing of the kind had ever been made for any other kingdom. Upon the early Assyrian monuments we do indeed find high seats depicted, which are very artistically worked, and provided with backs and arms, and some with the arms supported by figures of animals (see Layard's Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 301), but none resembling Solomon's throne. It is not till a later age that the more splendid thrones appear (vid., Rosenmüller, A. u. N. Morgenland, iii. pp. 176ff.).