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Visit of the Queen of Sheba
v. 1. And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, since the caravans from Canaan penetrated into the most remote corners of Arabia and spread the accounts of his great wisdom everywhere, she came to prove Solomon with hard questions, with epigrammatic riddles and conundrums, such as were much used in the Orient, at Jerusalem, with a very great company, and camels that bare spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones, with all the pomp and splendor so dear to the heart of the Oriental monarch; and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart, all the difficult questions which she had prepared beforehand.
v. 2. And Solomon told her all her questions, solving all her riddles; and there was nothing hid from Solomon which he told her not.
v. 3. And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, as shown in his conversation, and the house that he had built,
v. 4. and the meat of his table, the amount and the costliness of the food served in the royal palace, and the sitting of his servants, where and how they lived, and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel, his cupbearers also and their apparel, and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord, the magnificent arched viaduct by which he crossed to the Temple hill, one of the marvels of ancient architecture, with its stairway leading to the higher level, there was no more spirit in her, she was altogether overwhelmed.
v. 5. And she said to the king, It was a true report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts, his various enterprises, and of thy wisdom;
v. 6. howbeit, I believed not their words, namely, the words of those who brought such glowing reports, until I came and mine eyes had seen it; and, behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me, for thou exceedest the fame that I heard, it possessed a fulness which she had not considered possible.
v. 7. Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom.
v. 8. Blessed be the Lord, thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on His throne, Jehovah being the real sovereign of the children of Israel, to be king for the Lord, thy God; because thy God loved Israel, to establish them forever, therefore made He thee king over them to do judgment and justice, to adjust cases brought before him, and to dispense justice in accordance with his findings.
v. 9. And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold (almost $2,500,000 worth), and of spices, of which great amounts were produced in Arabia, great abundance, and precious stones; neither was there any such spice as the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon, both the quality and the quantity were unheard of in those days. V. 10. And the servants also of Huram and the servants of Solomon which brought gold from Ophir, 2Ch_8:18, brought algum-trees, sandalwood, and precious stones.
v. 11. And the king made of the algum-trees terraces to the house of the Lord and to the king's palace, raised pavements in beautiful designs, and harps and psalteries for singers, for the wood was especially adapted for that purpose; and there were none such seen before in the land of Judah.
v. 12. And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which she had brought unto the king, that is, in addition to the equivalent in gifts in return for those she presented. So she turned and went away to her own land, she and her servants. Note: Solomon was wiser than all men, and his wisdom deserved to be praised. But immeasurably greater is the eternal wisdom of the Son of God in the word of the Gospel, a wisdom which teaches the mystery of eternal salvation.