1 Kings 4 - Introduction
_SOLOMON'S PRINCES: HIS TWELVE OFFICERS: THE PEACE AND EXTENT OF HIS KINGDOM: HIS WISDOM._ _Before Christ 1012._... [ Continue Reading ]
_SOLOMON'S PRINCES: HIS TWELVE OFFICERS: THE PEACE AND EXTENT OF HIS KINGDOM: HIS WISDOM._ _Before Christ 1012._... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE WAS THE ONLY OFFICER— _Each officer presided over his land or province._ Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SOLOMON REIGNED OVER ALL KINGDOMS— This would be better rendered, _Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms_ or _provinces which were from the river,_ &c. 1:e. _from the Euphrates to the Nile._ The bounds of his kingdom were, the Euphrates to the east; the country of the Philistines, which bordered... [ Continue Reading ]
AND FATTED FOWL— See Nehemiah 5:18.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SOLOMON HAD FORTY THOUSAND STALLS OF HORSES— In 2 Chronicles 9:25 he is said to have had _four thousand stalls._ The smaller number, according to Houbigant and the best critics, is to be preferred. See Houbigant's notes, and Kennicott's 1st Dissert. p. 133.... [ Continue Reading ]
STRAW FOR THE HORSES— See Joshua 19:21 whence there is room to think, that this was not straw to _litter_ with. The _litter_ now used for _horses,_ &c. in the east, is their own dung, dried in the sun, and bruised between the hands, which is heaped up again in the morning, and in the summer sprinkle... [ Continue Reading ]
LARGENESS OF HEART, EVEN AS THE SAND THAT IS ON THE SEA-SHORE— That is, says Calmet, as one cannot count the number of the sands of the sea, so neither could one comprehend the extent or the depth of his wisdom: or, as the sands of the sea are innumerable, so the vast capacity of his genius could co... [ Continue Reading ]
SOLOMON'S WISDOM EXCELLED, &C.— There were three nations in the east of Canaan, which were very famous for their wisdom and erudition: the Chaldeans beyond the Euphrates, the Persians beyond the Tigris, and the Arabians on the nearer side of the Euphrates, a little towards the south: but whether the... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SPAKE THREE THOUSAND PROVERBS, &C.— Josephus, who loved to magnify every thing that concerned Solomon, instead of _three thousand proverbs,_ tells us that he composed three thousand _books_ of proverbs. The greater certainly is our loss, if the thing were credible; because all the proverbs of... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SPAKE OF TREES, &C.— The several books which treated of the nature and virtue of animals as well as plants, are supposed to have been lost in the Babylonish captivity; but Eusebius, as he is quoted by Anastasius, informs us, that king Hezekiah, seeing the abuse which his subjects made of Solomon'... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THERE CAME OF ALL PEOPLE TO HEAR, &C. _FROM ALL KINGS_— It is a conceit of one of the Jewish interpreters, that all the kings of the neighbouring countries went to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and that, upon their return, their subjects came to them, to hear what he had said: but, as we hear of n... [ Continue Reading ]