- 140-
(^148) See Sir Edward Strachey's very thoughtful book on Hebrew Politics in the Times of
Sargon and Sennacherib, p. 200.
(^149) These shields were made of wood or of twisted material, and covered with gold, the
amount of the latter being calculated for the targets at 91bs., and for the smaller shields
at 4_ lbs (Keil).
(^150) 1 Kings 10:14 does not necessarily imply that this was the annual revenue, only that
it came to him in one year. The 666 talents may perhaps be a round sum.
(^151) Our Authorized Version renders 1 Kings 10:28 "linen yarn," but this is a
mistranslation for: "And the bringing out of horses which was for Solomon from Egypt
- and the troop of the merchants of the king brought a troop (of horses) for a (definite)
price." This would imply that there was a regular trading company which purchased the
horses by contract. But the text seems to be here corrupt, and the LXX render, "From
Egypt and from Koa" (doubtfully Thekoa), and that "the royal merchants fetched them
from Koa for a definite price." In this case there would seem to have been annual horse
fairs at Koa, at which the royal merchants bought at a contract price.
(^152) The price mentioned in 1 Kings 10:29 amounts (according to Keil) for a chariot - of
course, complete, with two or rather three horses, to £78, and for a (cavalry) horse, to
£19 10s.
(^153) Accordingly the story of the descent of the Ethiopian royal line from Solomon and
the Queen of Sheba must be dismissed as unhistorical, although Judaism may have
spread into Ethiopia from the opposite shores of Arabia.
(^154) Without here entering on a detailed criticism of the precise meaning of the Hebrew
expression leShem Jehovah ("to the name of Jehovah"), our inference from it can
scarcely be called in question.
(^155) Our Authorized Version renders "hard questions" - accurately as regards the import,
but not the literal meaning of the word. Josephus relates, on the authority of Dius and
Menander, some curious legends about "problems" propounded by Solomon to Hiram,
which the latter could not solve, and had to pay heavy fines in consequence, - a like
fate, however, overtaking Solomon in regard to the problems propounded to him by
Abdemon (Ag. Ap. 1. 17, 18). The love of the Easterns - especially the Arabs - for
"riddles" is well known.
(^156) So literally.
(^)