1 Kings 10:12

Contextual Overview

¹When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relation to the name of the LORD , she came to test him with hard questions. ¹ When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord , she came to test Solomon with hard questions. ¹Now the queen of Sheba heard the report about Solomon concerning the name of Yahweh. So she came to test him with riddles. ¹ Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with difficult questions. ¹ And the queene of Saba hearing the fame of Solomon (concerning the name of the Lord) came to proue him with harde questions. ¹ And the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon as to the name of Jehovah, and she came to test him with hard questions. ¹ The queen of Sheba heard about Solomon, so she came to test him with hard questions. ¹ Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions. ¹ When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of Yahweh, she came to prove him with hard questions. ¹ And when the Queene of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, concerning the Name of the Lord; shee came to prooue him with hard questions.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

pillars: or, rails, Heb. a prop

harps: 1 Chronicles 23:5, 1 Chronicles 25:1-31, Psalms 92:1-3, Psalms 150:3-5, Revelation 14:2, Revelation 14:3

Reciprocal: 2 Chronicles 9:11 - harps Revelation 18:12 - merchandise

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the king made of the almug trees pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king's house,.... Or terraces, as in 2 Chronicles 9:11, causeways; and means the ascent or causeway he made from his own house to the temple; the pavement of which, as Jarchi interprets the word here, was made of the wood of these trees; or the supports of it, or rather the rails on each side, on which men might stay themselves as they passed along, as Ben Gersom; and since this ascent was admired by the queen of Sheba, it is particularly observed what wood it was made of, and from whence it came:

harps also, and psalteries for singers; these musical instruments were made of the same wood; Josephus i says of amber, and that their number was 400,000:

there came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this day; not in the land of Israel, neither before nor since, see 2 Chronicles 9:11.

i Antiqu. l. 8. c. 3. sect. 8.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Pillars - The Hebrew word signifies ordinarily a “prop” (margin). It is generally supposed to mean in this place a “railing,” or “balustrade,” a sense which connects and harmonises the present passage with the parallel passage in Chronicles (marginal reference), where Solomon is said to have made of the almug-wood “stairs” for the temple and for his own house.

Harps - The Jewish harp כנור kı̂nnôr was of a triangular shape, and had ordinarily ten strings. It probably resembled the more ancient harp of the Assyrians, which was played with a plectrum, as was (ordinarily) the “kinnor.”

Psalteries - The psaltery, or viol. Hebrew: נבל nebel; Greek: νάβλα nabla, was a stringed instrument played with the hand; perhaps a lyre, like those on Hebrew coins, the sounding-board of which is shaped like a jug; or, perhaps, a sort of guitar, with a hollow jug-shaped body at the lower end.