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(^80) The law only forbade alliance with the Canaanites (Exodus 34:16 Deuteronomy 7:3).
(^81) Comp. the views expressed in the Mishnah on the lawfulness of such worship in vol.
3 of this "Bible History," p. 78.
(^82) Similarly Xerxes offered a thousand oxen at Troy (Herod. 7. 43)
(^83) Accordingly, Solomon forfeited this promise on account of his later idolatry. He died
at the age of about fifty-nine or sixty.
(^84) The word Cohen in 1 Kings 4:2 ("Azariah, the son of Zadok the priest") should not
be rendered "priest," but refers to a civil office - that of the king's representative to the
people and his most intimate adviser. The same term is used of Zabud in ver. 5, where
the Authorized Version translates "principal officer," and also of David's sons, 2
Samuel 8:18. A grand. son of Zadok could not have been old enough to be high-priest
(comp. 1 Chronicles 6:10.)
(^85) The provision made was not only for the court and its dependants, but also for the
royal stables (1 Kings 4:26-28), In verse 26 the number of his horses is by a clerical
error given as 40,000 instead of 4,000 (comp. 2 Chronicles 9:25). If, according to 1
Kings 10:26, 2 Chronicles 1:14, Solomon had 1,400 chariots, each with two horses,
and with, in most of them, a third horse as reserve, we have the number 4,000.
(^86) It is difficult to give the exact equivalent of the "thirty measures of fine flour and
threescore of meal" (in all, ninety measures), 1 Kings 4:22. According to the
calculation of the Rabbis (Bibl. Dict. vol. 3, p, 1742) they would yield ninety-nine
sacks of flour. Thenius (Studien u. Krit. for 1846, p. 73, etc.) calculates that they would
yield two pounds of bread for 14,000 persons. But this computation is exaggerated. On
competent authority I am informed that one bushel of flour makes up fourteen (four
pound) loaves of bread; consequently, one sack (four bushels) fifty-six loaves, or 224
pounds of bread. This for ninety-nine sacks would give 22,176 pounds of bread, which
at two pounds per person would supply 11,088 - or, with waste, about 11,000 persons.
Of this total amount of bread, the thirty-three sacks of "fine flour" - probably for court
use - would yield 1,848 loaves, or 7,392 pounds of bread. The number of persons fed
daily at the court of the kings of Persia is said to have been 15,000 (see Speaker's
Comm., p. 502). Thenius further calculates that, taken on an average, the thirty oxen
and one hundred sheep would yield one and a half pounds of meat for each of the
14,000 persons. At the court of Cyrus, the daily provision seems to have been, 400
sheep, 300 lambs, 100 oxen, 30 horses, 30 deer, 400 fatted geese, 100 young geese,
300 pigeons, 600 small fowls, 3,750 gallons of wine, 75 gallons of new milk, and 75 of
sour milk (comp. Bahr in Lange's Bibel W., vol. 7. p. 29). But here also the
(^)