Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
There are enumerated, in verse 1, the officials and princes of Solomon; and in verse 7, the 12 prefects of provisions for each tribe. Then, in verse 20, the peace and happiness of Israel, and Solomon's daily expenditure, the extent, wealth, and magnificence of his kingdom, especially in horses and chariots. Finally, in verse 29, his wisdom, proverbs, songs, and books.
Vulgate Text: 3 Kings 4:1-34
1. Now King Solomon was reigning over all Israel, 2. and these were the princes whom he had: Azariah the son of Zadok the priest; 3. Elihoreph and Ahijah the sons of Shisha were scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder; 4. Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests. 5. Azariah the son of Nathan was over those who attended the king; Zabud the son of Nathan was a priest, the king's friend; 6. and Ahishar was in charge of the household, and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the tribute. 7. And Solomon had twelve prefects over all Israel, who provided provisions for the king and his household; for each in his month during the year would supply the necessities. 8. And these are their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim; 9. Ben-deker, in Makaz, and in Shaalbim, and in Beth-shemesh, and in Elon, and in Beth-hanan; 10. Ben-hesed in Arubboth (his was Socoh and all the land of Hepher); 11. Ben-abinadab, who had all Naphath-dor; he had Taphath the daughter of Solomon as wife; 12. Baana the son of Ahilud governed Taanach and Megiddo and all Beth-shan, which is near Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shan to Abel-meholah, over against Jokmeam; 13. Ben-geber in Ramoth-gilead (he had the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; he presided over all the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars); 14. Ahinadab the son of Iddo presided in Mahanaim; 15. Ahimaaz in Naphtali (he also had Basemath the daughter of Solomon as wife); 16. Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and in Bealoth; 17. Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah in Issachar; 18. Shimei the son of Ela in Benjamin; 19. Geber the son of Uri in the land of Gilead, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan, over all that was in that land. 20. Judah and Israel were innumerable, like the sand of the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and rejoicing. 21. And Solomon was in his dominion, having all the kingdoms from the river to the land of the Philistines, even to the border of Egypt; they brought gifts and served him all the days of his life. 22. And Solomon's provision for each day was thirty cors of fine flour and sixty cors of meal, 23. ten fat oxen and twenty pasture-fed oxen and a hundred rams, besides venison of deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl. 24. For he had dominion over all the region which was beyond the river, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, and over all the kings of those regions; and he had peace on every side round about. 25. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. 26. And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of chariot horses and twelve thousand horsemen. 27. And those prefects of the king fed them; they also furnished the necessities for King Solomon's table with great care, each in his time. 28. Barley also and straw for the horses and beasts of burden they brought to the place where the king was, according to the appointment. 29. And God gave Solomon wisdom and very great understanding, and largeness of heart, like the sand that is on the seashore.
30. And Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the Orientals and of the Egyptians, 31. and he was wiser than all men — wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and he was renowned among all the nations round about. 32. Solomon also spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were five and a thousand. 33. And he discussed trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; and he discoursed on beasts, and birds, and reptiles, and fish. 34. And people came from all nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.
Verse 4: Zadok and Abiathar Were Priests
4. And Zadok and Abiathar were priests — that is, high priests, meaning pontiffs. You will object: Solomon had already banished Abiathar and deprived him of the pontificate, chapter 2, verse 27. I reply that all the officials of Solomon are listed here, whether they were currently serving, had served, or were to serve in the future, as will be evident from verses 11 and 15. For Scripture wished to enumerate them all together here. Abiathar is therefore named because in David's time he had been Pontiff, and David had commended him to Solomon as faithful to him; but because he had conspired with Adonijah against Solomon, Solomon deprived him of the pontificate. So says Abulensis. Others reply that Abiathar was recalled by Solomon from exile, not to the pontificate but to a simple priesthood, as God had foretold in threatening his ancestor Eli, 1 Kings 2:36: 'It shall come to pass that whoever remains in your house, etc., will say: Dismiss me to one of the priestly portions.' So say Theodoret and Procopius. Third, Serarius replies that Abiathar is called a priest because he had been a priest.
Verse 5: Zabud the Son of Nathan, the King's Friend
5. Zabud the son of Nathan was a priest — that is, a prince intimate with the king, as the Septuagint translates. Thus the sons of David are called priests, that is, princes of the court and closest to the king, 2 Kings chapter 8, last verse.
Verse 11: He Had Solomon's Daughter as Wife
11. He had Taphath, Solomon's daughter, as wife. This is a prolepsis, for he did not yet have her, but obtained her later. For Solomon at this time was only about 20 years old, and so he could not have a daughter who was of marriageable age. I say the same about Ahimaaz, who had another of Solomon's daughters as wife in verse 15. For all the officials and princes of Solomon are listed here together, whether they were serving at that time or became officials later, as I said at verse 4.
Verse 20: Judah and Israel Were Innumerable
20. Judah and Israel were innumerable like the sand of the sea — that is to say: In the time of Solomon the tribe of Judah and the other eleven tribes of Israel grew into an almost innumerable multitude, and there was then the greatest abundance of all things, so that all rejoiced and exulted in their wealth and pleasures.
Allegorically, the happiness of Solomon's kingdom represented the supreme happiness of Christ's kingdom in the Church through grace, and in heaven through glory.
Verse 21: Solomon Had All the Kingdoms from the River
21. And Solomon was in his dominion, having all the kingdoms from the river of the land of the Philistines to the border of Egypt. One may ask what the 'river of the land of the Philistines' is. First, Gaspar Sanchez thinks it is the sea of the Philistines, for the Philistines are adjacent to it. Second, Abulensis thinks it is the river of Rhinocolura, which separates Philistia from the Arabs. Third, others think it is the Jordan, or rather the origin of the Jordan in Lebanon, where two streams, Jor and Dan, rise and soon converge to form the Jordan. But I say that this river is the Euphrates. For 'of the land of the Philistines' is not to be referred to 'river,' as is clear from the Hebrew (for in Hebrew it is nahar in the absolute state, not nehar, as it would need to be in the construct state if it governed the genitive 'of the land'), but to 'kingdoms' — that is to say: Solomon possessed all the kingdoms of the land of the Philistines, from the river — that is, those that lie between the river Euphrates and the land of the Philistines inclusive; or Solomon possessed all the kingdoms of the regions starting from the river Euphrates to the land of the Philistines. He preferred to say 'of the land' rather than 'to the land,' both to indicate that Solomon's kingdom did not end in the land of the Philistines but extended through it to the borders of Egypt — that is, from the river reaching through the land of the Philistines to the borders of Egypt — and because he speaks concisely and, from other well-known Scripture passages, briefly records the boundaries of Solomon's kingdom as promised by God. For Scripture assigns as the boundaries of the holy land promised to the Jews: the river Euphrates on the East, Philistia on the West, and Egypt on the South. For God had promised this to Abraham in Genesis 15:18, saying: 'To your seed I will give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates.' And so the author of this Book of Kings explains himself immediately in verse 24, saying: 'For he had dominion over the whole region which was beyond the river, from Tiphsah to Gaza,' which is the last satrapy of the Philistines. So clearly not only does St. Augustine understand it, but also reads it in his Questions on Joshua, Question 21: 'And he was ruling,' he says, 'over all kings from the river to the land of the Philistines and to the borders of Egypt. Behold where what God had foretold, speaking and promising to Abraham in Genesis, was fulfilled. For by "the river" the Euphrates is understood here.' For this cannot be taken to mean the Jordan, since both on this side and beyond the Jordan the Israelites already held territory even before Solomon's reign. So also the Chaldean says: 'from Perath' (that is, the Euphrates) 'of the land of the Philistines, to the borders of Egypt.' So also Benedict: 'From the river of the land,' he says, 'that is, to the land of the Philistines.' And Isidore more clearly: 'From the river to the land of the Philistines.' So also Lyra and Mariana Vatablus: 'From the river and the land of the Palestinians to Egypt.' For here three boundaries of Solomon's kingdom are given, namely the Euphrates from the East, the Philistines on the West, and Egypt from the South, as I said.
Verse 22: Solomon's Daily Provisions
Verse 22. And Solomon's provision (that is, of the court, or of the courtiers — namely the princes, attendants, and servants of Solomon) was thirty cors of fine flour and sixty cors of meal, ten fat oxen and twenty pasture-fed oxen (fattened and fed in pastures) and a hundred rams. From this the multitude of those whom Solomon supported is evident, as well as his magnificence.
Fine flour is the flower, or the whiter and purer flour of wheat, from which fine and delicate bread is made. Of this Martial says in Book 13:
'You could not number the merits and uses of fine flour.'
And Pliny in Book 18, chapter 10: 'The finest flour is made from the most excellent wheat. From African wheat it is right to get back half-modii from modii, and five sextarii of pollen. For in wheat they call what in spelt is called the flower.' Hence Seneca in letter 119: 'Whether this bread,' he says, 'is common or fine-flour, is of no concern to nature.' Thus the nobles eat fine flour bread, while the common people and rustics eat wheat and spelt bread. Moreover, a cor is a measure containing thirty Roman modii. See what was said On Measures, at the end of the Pentateuch.
Besides the venison of deer, gazelles, and roebucks. The 'roebuck' here is not what the common people call a buffalo, a stupid animal and food of the poor, since here it is placed among the delicacies of deer and gazelles caught by hunting. Hence Oppian in Book 2 On Hunting asserts that the roebuck belongs to the genus of gazelles. And Pliny in Book 8 says that 'Africa produces roebucks, with a resemblance to calves or rather to deer, but the ignorant common people give the name of roebucks to wild oxen.' In Hebrew it is iachmur, which Rabbi Jonah translates as 'large goat'; the Zurich Bible translates it as 'ibex'; others as 'fallow deer'; others as 'wild goat.'
Verse 24: He Had Dominion over All the Region
Verse 24. For he had dominion over all the region beyond the river, from Tiphsah to Gaza. Tiphsah is here set in contrast with Gaza; hence it seems to have been situated near the Euphrates. For this bounded Solomon's kingdom to the East, just as Gaza bounded it to the West. Some conjecture that Tiphsah is the city called Thapsacus by Ptolemy, Strabo, Xenophon, and Stephanus. There was another Tiphsah on this side of the Jordan, whose inhabitants Menahem killed, 4 Kings 15:16. Hence it appears that Solomon reigned beyond the river — that is, beyond the Euphrates — and held part of Mesopotamia, namely from Tiphsah to Gaza.
Verse 26: Forty Thousand Stalls of Chariot Horses
Verse 26. And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of chariot horses and twelve thousand horsemen — that is, he had 40,000 horses in stalls. For thus it is explained in 2 Chronicles 9:25: 'Solomon had,' it says, 'forty thousand horses in stables, and twelve thousand chariots and horsemen' (both for display and for war). It is a hypallage: 'He had stalls of horses,' that is, he had horses in stalls, or in stables. Or certainly by 'stalls,' understand the partitions that are assigned to each horse in the stable for feeding; for a common manger is divided into various partitions assigned to each horse, so that one horse is separated from another either by a small wall or an interposed beam, lest neighboring horses invade each other's partition and feed and fight and kick one another. So says Vatablus.
Moreover, in 2 Chronicles 9:25, the Hebrew now has: Solomon had four thousand stalls — because in each stall or stable he had ten horses, so that in total he had 40,000 chariot horses, as our Vulgate and the Septuagint translate. For four thousand multiplied by ten makes 40,000. So says Vatablus.
Chariot horses are those that pull chariots; cavalry horses are those that carry a rider. Solomon needed so many chariot horses for transporting his queens, of whom he had 700, and his concubines — that is, secondary wives — of whom he had 300. Also for hauling provisions, water, timber, stones, etc., for the construction of the temple and his palaces. He needed cavalry horses for soldiers and horsemen, and also for the princes and honorary attendants who would surround and accompany him on them for the sake of honor and magnificence.
Some think that Solomon sinned in the abundance of so many horses against the law of Deuteronomy chapter 17:16: 'When a king is established, he shall not multiply horses for himself'; but he sinned more in the cause, namely in the multiplication of so many queens and wives, and in such great pomp and royal display, which the people had to support. Hence they also murmured against Rehoboam, Solomon's son, and indeed defected from him to Jeroboam, as we shall hear in chapter 12, verse 4. Abulensis, however, excuses Solomon from sin, at least from a graver one, on the grounds that he did it with good intention and out of necessity, and in the abundance and supreme wealth of all things. For God wished in Solomon to display His own and Israel's glory and magnificence to the whole world.
Verse 29: God Gave Solomon Wisdom
Verse 29. And God gave Solomon wisdom and very great understanding, and breadth (the Chaldean has: 'expansion') of heart, like the sand that is on the seashore. He calls 'breadth of heart' magnificence and magnanimity — that is, a royal, ample, magnificent, and magnanimous heart; for sustaining and overcoming with great spirit so great a governance and so great burdens and works, especially of building projects. So that just as sand is very abundant and extends most broadly, so Solomon's heart would embrace very many things, even the smallest details, and would extend itself to carry out in practice everything that he conceived in his mind. For it profits little to conceive and understand many things in the mind unless there is the virtue and energy to put them into practice.
Verse 31: He Was Wiser Than All Men
31. Wiser than Ethan. This Ethan was a distinguished poet and musician, as is clear from 1 Chronicles 15:19; hence Psalm 88 also bears this title: 'The Understanding of Ethan.'
Verse 32: Three Thousand Proverbs
32. Solomon also spoke (dictated and caused to be written) three thousand proverbs. Part of them we have in Proverbs, where from chapter 10 the proverbs begin and extend to the end of the book through 658 verses, which contain roughly as many proverbs.
And his songs were a thousand and five. Vatablus says: 'five over a thousand.' So also the Hebrew, the Chaldean, and Josephus, meaning: The Book of Solomon's Odes contained a thousand and five odes. The Septuagint, however, translates: 'his songs were five thousand.'
Hence it is clear that Solomon was a Poet. The ancient poetry of the Hebrews has been lost; we no longer detect the meters of verse in the psalms and other poems, except in the rhythm.
Verse 33: He Discussed Trees and Animals
33. And he discussed trees, from the cedar which is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall — that is, from the largest to the smallest. By 'hyssop' here understand wall-pellitory, which some in Abulensis call oregano or esparto grass. Levinus Lemnius in chapter 26 On Plants, and Pineda, call it maidenhair fern; Serarius calls it savory, which for this reason is called tsatar in Arabic.
And he discoursed on beasts, birds, reptiles, and fish. It is likely that these were once recorded in books, as Ulysses Aldrovandi, Conrad Gesner, Guillaume Rondelet, Julius Scaliger, and others have recently written at length on the same subjects.
But almost all of these have been lost over the interval of so many centuries, especially because there was then no printing press, but only a few manuscript copies that easily perish. So too all the writings of the Patriarchs and Wise Men of the Hebrews, Egyptians, Chaldeans, Arabs, and Greeks before Moses have been lost, whose books and writings are almost the only ones surviving from that ancient age. Abulensis adds that they perished by God's providence, either because they contained things too curious, or because we were unworthy of such great light of the sciences, which he had received by revelation. The Gloss thinks they were burned by the Chaldeans; but Eusebius, and following him Glycas, by King Hezekiah.
Hence it is clear that Solomon both privately taught his own and publicly taught all people Physics and the science of natural things; for this is what the words 'discussed' and 'discoursed' signify. For to this end he himself built a school or academy on Mount Zion, in which he himself taught, as I said on Proverbs 9:1; and from him drew their learning Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, as Eusebius, St. Ambrose, Clement of Alexandria, and others attest.
Psellus adds that Solomon wrote books on gems, and on summoning genies or demons, binding them to a certain place, and compelling them to work. But some magicians also produce Solomon's incantations, his 'key,' and his ring; but these are magical and unworthy of Solomon. See Pineda.