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The two last-mentioned articles of import indicate the commencement of a very
dangerous decline towards Oriental luxury. It has been well observed (by Ewald), that
there was a moment in Israel's history when it seemed possible that David might have
laid the foundation of an empire like that of Rome, and another when Solomon might
have led the way to a philosophy as sovereign as that of Greece.^148
But it was an equally, if not more dangerous path on which to enter, and one even more
opposed to the Divine purpose concerning Israel, when foreign trade, and with it
foreign luxury, became the object of king and people. The danger was only too real,
and the public display appeared in what the Queen of Sheba saw of Solomon's court (1
Kings 10:5), in the magnificence of his throne (vers. 19, 20), and in the sumptuousness
of all his appointments (ver. 21). Two hundred large targets and three hundred smaller
shields, all covered with beaten gold,^149 hung around the house of the forest of
Lebanon; all the king's drinking vessels, and all the other appurtenances for State
receptions were of pure gold; the merchants brought the spices of the East into the
country (ver. 15); while traders, importers, and vassal chiefs swelled the immense
revenue, which in one year^150 rose to the almost incredible sum of 666 talents of gold,
which at the lowest computation amounts to upwards of 2 _ millions of our money, or
only one million less than that of the Persian kings (Herod 3. 95).
Add to this the number of Solomon's chariots and horsemen, the general wealth of the
country, and the importation of horses^151 from Egypt, which made Palestine almost an
emporium for chariots and horses;^152 and it will not be difficult to perceive on what a
giddy height king and people stood during the later years of Solomon's reign.
It was this scene of wealth and magnificence, unexampled even in the East, as well as
the undisputed political influence and supremacy of the king, combined with the
highest intellectual activity and civilization in the country, which so much astounded
the Queen of Sheba on her visit to Solomon's dominions. Many, indeed, were the
strangers who had been attracted to Jerusalem by the fame of its king (1 Kings 10:24).
But none of them had been so distinguished as she, whose appearance was deeply
symbolical of the glorious spiritual destiny of Israel (Psalm 72:10, 11; Isaiah 60:6), and
indicative of the future judgment on the unbelief of those who were even more highly
favored (Matthew 12:42; Luke 11:31). Sheba, which is to be distinguished from Seba,
or Meroi in Ethiopia, was a kingdom in Southern Arabia,^153 on the shores of the Red
Sea, and seems to have been chiefly governed by Queens.
Owing to its trade, the population was regarded as the wealthiest in Arabia. It may
have been that Solomon's fame had first reached the ears of the Queen through the fleet
of Ophir. In consequence, she resolved to visit Jerusalem, to see, to test, and to learn
for herself whether the extraordinary reports which had reached her were true. But,
(^)