Bible Commentaries
1 Kings 10

Verses 1-29

Chapter 10

Now the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon and so she came to Jerusalem with a very great company of people, camels, spices, a lot of gold, and precious stones: and as she came to Solomon, she communed everything that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all of the questions that she asked: not any thing hid from the king, that he did not tell her. And the queen of Sheba had seen all of Solomon's wisdom, the house that he had built, the meat at his table ( 1 Kings 10:1-5 ),

And we remember the meat of his table is fantastic. How much food it took for every day to feed Solomon's household and all. One day's provision, three hundred bushels of fine flour, six hundred bushels of meal, ten fat oxen, twenty oxen out of the pastures or ten choice grade and twenty commercial grade beef, a hundred sheep, beside the harts, roebucks, fallowdeer and fatted fowl. That was every day. And so when the queen of Sheba saw this whole thing, the servants, the sitting of his table. No doubt everything of gold on his table, gold plates, gold cups and she saw the whole thing you know and the way they would bear his cup to him. The way he would ascend to the house of God and the whole thing. Man, she was just wiped out. And it said that.

there was no more spirit in her ( 1 Kings 10:5 ).

She just, "Wow!"

And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in my own land of your acts and your wisdom. However I did not believe the words, until I came, and I saw it with my own eyes: and, behold, they didn't tell me half of all that is here of your wisdom and prosperity. It exceeds even the fame which I heard. Happy are your men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the LORD loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice ( 1 Kings 10:6-9 ).

So interesting, she sees the whole thing and she says, Hey, they didn't tell me. I didn't believe it when they told me of all that was here. They didn't even tell me half of the story. It's fantastic. Oh, blessed and happy are the people who can just sit here and listen to your wisdom and all. And then, "Blessed be the Lord thy God."

Now no doubt at this point in his life Solomon was still walking with the Lord and honoring God because she saw the way he ascended into the place of worship and all. And he was still right on. Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men, that when they see your good works, they will glorify your Father which is in heaven" ( Matthew 5:16 ). And evidently, Solomon was doing it because as she sees the whole thing, she actually praises God, "Blessed be God." He was just really at this point in his life right on. But unfortunately, his disobedience to God caused a lapse in his worship and in his dedication to God later on.

Now he also developed another navy to ply the waters of the Mediterranean. The first navy was down in the area of the Persian Gulf and all and would go down to Africa on the east coast of Africa, the Ivory Coast. And the other navy went out to the Mediterranean and covered the area of the Mediterranean going as far as England and bringing back peacocks and gold and rare trees and so forth. And so Solomon actually just had all of this glory and wealth and all that was coming in.

Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold ( 1 Kings 10:14 ),

Interesting number.

Beside that he had all of the spices that the merchants brought from the kings of Arabia. And he made two hundred targets of beaten gold: six hundred shekels of gold went to one target. He made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pounds of gold went into each shield ( 1 Kings 10:15-17 ):

Can you imagine that? Three hundred shields with gold, three pounds each. Boy, at today's market prices. Then he made this fantastic throne, six steps leading up to the throne. He made it of ivory and overlaid it with gold. With two lions that were carved there beside it.

His drinking vessels were all of gold, nothing was silver: for silver was accounted as nothing in Solomon's days. The king had the navy for Tharshish and the other one for Africa. And great riches and it tells of all the glory and so forth of Solomon.

Verse twenty-eight.

And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, linen yarn: the king's merchants received yarn for a price ( 1 Kings 10:28 ). "