Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Kings 4:21 - 4:21

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Kings 4:21 - 4:21


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Solomon's Regal Splendour. - 1Ki 4:21. “Solomon was ruler over all the kingdoms from the river (Euphrates) onwards, over the land of the Philistines to the border of Egypt, who brought presents and were subject to Solomon his whole life long.” Most of the commentators supply וְעַד before פְלִשְׁתִּים אֶרֶץ (even to the land of the Philistines) after the parallel passage 2Ch 9:26, so that the following גְּבוּל וְעַד would give a more precise definition of the terminus ad quem. But it is by no means probable that וְעַד, which appears to be indispensable, should have dropped out through the oversight of a copyist, and it is not absolutely necessary to supply it, inasmuch as בְּ may be repeated in thought before אֶרֶץ פ from the preceding clause. The participle מַגִּשִׁים is construed ad sensum with מַמְלָכֹות. Bringing presents is equivalent to paying tribute, as in 2Sa 8:2, etc.

Vv. 22-28. The splendour of the court, the consumption in the royal kitchen (1Ki 4:22-25), and the well-filled stables (1Ki 4:26-28), were such as befitted the ruler of so large a kingdom.

1Ki 4:22-23

The daily consumption of לֶחֶם (food or provisions) amounted to thirty cors of fine meal (סֹלֶת = חִטִּים סֹלֶת, fine sifted meal, Exo 29:2; for סֹלֶת see also Lev 2:2), and sixty cors of קֶמַח, ordinary meal, ten fattened oxen, twenty pasture oxen, which were brought directly from the pasture and slaughtered, and a hundred sheep, beside different kinds of game. כֹּר, κορός, the later name for חֹמֶר, the largest dry and also liquid (1Ki 5:11), measure of capacity, contained ten ephahs or baths, i.e., according to the calculation made by Thenius, 15,300 cubic inches (Dresden) = about 1 7/8 scheffel;

(Note: The scheffel is about an English sack (vid., Flügel's Dict.). - Tr.)

so that ninety cors would amount to 171 scheffel, from which 28,000 lbs. of bread could be baked (Theol. Stud. und Krit. 1846, pp. 132,133). And “if we reckon 2 lbs. of bread to each person, there would be 14,000 persons in Solomon's court,” The consumption of flesh would be quite in proportion to that of bread; for ten fattened oxen, twenty oxen from the pasture, and a hundred sheep, yield more than 21,000 lbs. of meat, that is to say, a pound and a half for each person, “assuming, according to the statements of those who are acquainted with the matter, that the edible meat of a fat ox amounts to 600 lbs., that of an ox from the pasture to 400 lbs., and that of a sheep to 70 lbs.” (Thenius ut sup.). This daily consumption of Solomon's court will not appear too great, if, on the one hand, we compare it with the quantity consumed at other oriental courts both of ancient and modern times,

(Note: According to Athen. Deipnos. iv. 10, the kings of Persia required a thousand oxen a day; and according to Tavernier, in Rosenmüller's A. u. N. Morgenland, iii. pp. 166,167, five hundred sheep and lambs were slaughtered daily for the Sultan's court.)

and if, on the other hand, we bear in mind that not only the numerous attendants upon the king and his harem, but also the royal adjutants and the large number of officers employed about the court, were supplied from the king's table, and that their families had also to be fed, inasmuch as the wages in oriental courts are all paid in kind. In addition to this, game was also supplied to the king's table: viz., אַיָּל stags, צְבִי gazelles, יַחְמוּר fallow-deer, and אֲבוּסִים בַּרְבֻּרִים “fattened fowl.” The meaning of אֲבוּסִים is doubtful. The earlier translators render it birds or fowl. Kimchi adopts the rendering “capons;” Tanch. Hieroz. “geese,” so called from their pure (בָּרַר) white feathers; and both Gesenius and Dietrich (Lex.) decide in favour of the latter. The word must denote some special kind of fowl, since edible birds in general were called צִפֳּרִים (Neh 5:18).

1Ki 4:24-25

Solomon was able to appropriate all this to his court, because (כִּי) he had dominion, etc.;...and (1Ki 4:25) Israel and Judah enjoyed the blessings of peace during the whole of his reign. הַנָּהָר בְּכָל־עֵבֶר, “over all the other side of the river (Euphrates),” i.e., not the land on the east, but that on the west of the river. This usage of speech is to be explained from the fact that the author of our books, who was living in exile on the other side of the Euphrates, describes the extent of Solomon's kingdom taking that as his starting-point. Solomon's power only extended to the Euphrates, from Tiphsach in the north-east to Gaza in the south-west. תִּפְסַח (crossing, from פָּסַח) is Thapsacus, a large and wealthy city on the western bank of the Euphrates, at which the armies of the younger Cyrus and Alexander crossed the river (Xen. Anab. i. 4; Arrian, Exped. Alex. iii. 7). Gaza, the southernmost city of the Philistines, the present Guzzeh; see at Jos 13:3. The הַנָּהָר עֵבֶר מַלְכֵי are the kings of Syria who were subjugated by David (2Sa 8:6 and 2Sa 10:19), and of the Philistines (2Sa 8:1). “And he had peace on all sides round about.” This statement does not “most decidedly contradict 1Ki 11:23.,” as Thenius maintains; for it cannot be proved that according to this passage the revolt of Damascus had taken place before Solomon's reign (Ewald and others; see at 1Ki 11:23.).

1Ki 4:25

“Judah and Israel sat in safety, every one under his vine and his fig-tree.” This expresses the undisturbed enjoyment of the costly productions of the land (2Ki 18:31), and is therefore used by the prophets as a figure denoting the happiness of the Messianic age (Mic 4:4; Zec 3:10). “From Dan to Beersheba,” as in Jdg 20:1, etc.

1Ki 4:26

This verse is not to be regarded “as a parenthesis according to the intention of the editor,” but gives a further proof of the peace and prosperity which the kingdom and people enjoyed under Solomon. Solomon had a strong force of war chariots and cavalry, that he might be able to suppress every attempt on the part of the tributary kings of Syria and Philistia to revolt and disturb the peace. “Solomon had 4000 racks of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 riding horses,” which were kept partly in Jerusalem and partly in cities specially built for the purpose (1Ki 9:19; 1Ki 10:26; 2Ch 1:14; 2Ch 9:25). אַרְבָּעִים (40) is an old copyist's error for אַרְבָּעָה (4), which we find in the parallel passage 2Ch 9:25, and as we may also infer from 1Ki 10:26 and 2Ch 1:14, since according to these passages Solomon had 1400 רֶכֶב or war chariots. For 4000 horses are a very suitable number for 1400 chariots, though not 40,000, since two draught horses were required for every war chariot, and one horse may have been kept as a reserve. אֻרְוָה does not mean a team (Ges.), but a rack or box in a stable, from אֳרָה, carpere. According to Vegetius, i. 56, in Bochart (Hieroz. i. p. 112, ed. Ros.), even in ancient times every horse had it own crib in the stable just as it has now. Böttcher (n. ex. Krit. Aehrenl. ii. p. 27) is wrong in supposing that there were several horses, say at least ten, to one rack. מֶרְכָּב is used collectively for “chariots.”

1Ki 4:27-28

“And” = a still further proof of the blessings of peace - ”those prefects (1Ki 4:7.) provided for king Solomon, and all who came to the king's table, i.e., who were fed from the royal table, every one his month (see at 1Ki 4:7), so that nothing was wanting (1Ki 4:28), and conveyed the barley (the ordinary food of cattle in Palestine and the southern lands, where oats are not cultivated) and the straw for the horses and coursers to the place where it ought to be. To שָׁם יִהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר the lxx, Vulg., and others supply הַמֶּלֶךְ as the subject: wherever the king might stay. This is certainly more in harmony with the imperfect יִהְיֶה than it would be to supply הָרֶכֶשׁ, as Bochart and others propose; still it is hardly correct. For in that case וְלָרֶכֶשׁ לַסּוּסֵים could only be understood as referring to the chariot horses and riding horses, which Solomon kept for the necessities of his court, and not to the whole of the cavalry; since we cannot possibly assume that even if Solomon changed his residence according to the season and to suit his pleasure, or on political grounds, as Thenius supposes, though this cannot by any means be inferred from 1Ki 9:18 and 1Ki 9:19, he took 16,000 horses about with him. But this limitation of the clause is evidently at variance with the context, since וְלָרֶכֶב לַסּוּסֵים too plainly refer back to 1Ki 4:6. Moreover, “if the king were intended, he would certainly have been mentioned by name, as so many other subjects and objects have come between.” For these reasons we agree with Böttcher in taking יִהְיֶה indefinitely: “where it (barley and straw) was wanted, according to the distribution of the horses.” רֶכֶשׁ probably denotes a very superior kind of horse, like the German Renner (a courser or race-horse). כְּמִשְׁפָּטֹו אִישׁ, every one according to his right, i.e., whatever was appointed for him as right.