We have here a further account of Solomon's prosperity.

I.How he increased his wealth. Though he had much, he still coveted to have more, being willing to try the utmost the things of this world could do to make men happy. 1. Besides the gold that came from Ophir (Kg1 9:28), he brought so much into his country from other places that the whole amounted, every year, to 666 talents (Kg1 10:14), an ominous number, compare Rev 13:18, and Ezr 2:13. 2. He received a great deal in customs from the merchants, and in land-taxes from the countries his father had conquered and made tributaries to Israel, Kg1 10:15. 3. He was Hiram's partner in a Tharshish fleet, of and for Tyre, which imported once in three years, not only gold, and silver, and ivory, substantial goods and serviceable, but apes to play with and peacocks to please the eye with their feathers, Kg1 10:22. I wish this may not be an evidence that Solomon and his people, being overcharged with prosperity, by this time grew childish and wanton. 4. He had presents made him, every year, from the neighbouring princes and great men, to engage the continuance of his friendship, not so much because they feared him or were jealous of him as because they loved him and admired his wisdom, had often occasion to consult him as an oracle, and sent him these presents by way of recompence for his advice in politics, and (whether it became his grandeur and generosity or no we will not enquire) he took all that came, even garments and spices, horses and mules, Kg1 10:24, Kg1 10:25. 5. He traded to Egypt for horses and linen-yarn (or, as some read it, linen-cloth), the staple commodities of that country, and had his own merchants or factors whom he employed in this traffic and who were accountable to him, Kg1 10:28, Kg1 10:28. The custom to be paid to the king of Egypt for exported chariots and horses out of Egypt was very high, but (as bishop Patrick understands it) Solomon, having married his daughter, got him to compound for the customs, so that he could bring them up cheaper than his neighbours, which obliged them to buy them of him, which he was wise enough no doubt to make his advantage of. This puts an honour upon the trading part of a nation, and sets a tradesman not so much below a gentleman as some place him, that Solomon, one of the greatest men that ever was, thought it no disparagement to him to deal in trade. In all labour there is profit.

II.What use he made of his wealth. He did not hoard it up in his coffers, that he might have it to look upon and leave behind him. He has, in his Ecclesiastes, so much exposed the folly of hoarding that we cannot suppose he would himself be guilty of it. No, God that had given him riches, and wealth, and honour, gave him also power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, Ecc 5:19.

1.He laid out his gold in fine things for himself, which he might the better be allowed to do when he had before laid out so much in fine things for the house of God. (1.) He made 200 targets, and 300 shields, of beaten gold (Kg1 10:16, Kg1 10:17), not for service, but for state, to be carried before him when he appeared in pomp. With us, magistrates have swords and maces carried before them, as the Romans had their rods and axes, in token of their power to correct and punish the bad, to whom they are to be a terror. But Solomon had shields and targets carried before him, to signify that he took more pleasure in using his power for the defence and protection of the good, to whom he would be a praise. Magistrates are shields of the earth. (2.) He made a stately throne, on which he sat, to give laws to his subjects, audience to ambassadors, and judgment upon appeals, Kg1 10:18-20. It was made of ivory, or elephants' teeth, which was very rich; and yet, as if he had so much gold that he knew not what to do with it, he overlaid that with gold, the best gold. Yet some think he did not cover the ivory all over, but here and there. He rolled it, flowered it, or inlaid it, with gold. The stays or arms of this stately chair were supported by the images of lions in gold; so were the steps and paces by which he went up to it, to be a memorandum to him of that courage and resolution wherewith he ought to execute judgment, not fearing the face of man. The righteous, in that post, is bold as a lion. (3.) He made all his drinking vessels, and all the furniture of his table, even at his country seat, of pure gold, Kg1 10:21. He did not grudge himself what he had, but took the credit and comfort of it, such as it was. That is good that does us good.

2.He made it circulate among his subjects, so that the kingdom was as rich as the king; for he had no separate interests of his own to consult, but sought the welfare of his people. Those princes are not governed by Solomon's maxims who think it policy to keep their subjects poor. Solomon was herein a type of Christ, who is not only rich himself, but enriches all that are his. Solomon was instrumental to bring so much gold into the country, and disperse it, that silver was nothing accounted of, Kg1 10:21. There was such plenty of it in Jerusalem that it was as the stones; and cedars, that used to be great rarities, were as common as sycamore trees, Kg1 10:27. Such is the nature of worldly wealth, plenty of it makes it the less valuable; much more should the enjoyment of spiritual riches lessen our esteem of all earthly possessions. If gold in abundance would make silver to seem so despicable, shall not wisdom, and grace, and the foretastes of heaven, which are far better than gold, make earthly wealth seem much more despicable?

Lastly,Well, thus rich, thus great, was Solomon, and thus did he exceed all the kings of the earth, Kg1 10:23. Now let us remember, 1. That this was he who, when he was setting out in the world, did not ask for the wealth and honour of it, but asked for a wise and understanding heart. The more moderate our desires are towards earthly things the better qualified we are for the enjoyment of them and the more likely to have them. See, in Solomon's greatness, the performance of God's promise (Kg1 3:13), and let it encourage us to seek first the righteousness of God's kingdom. 2. That this was he who, having tasted all these enjoyments, wrote a whole book to show the vanity of all worldly things and the vexation of spirit that attends them, their insufficiency to make us happy and the folly of setting our hearts upon them, and to recommend to us the practice of serious godliness, as that which is the whole of man, and will do infinitely more towards the making of us easy and happy than all the wealth and power that he was master of, and which, through the grace of God, is within our reach, when the thousandth part of Solomon's greatness is a thousand times more than we can ever be so vain as to promise ourselves in this world.

A navy of Tharshish - For probable conjectures concerning this place, and the three years' voyage, see at the end of this, Kg1 10:29 (note) and the preceding chapter, 1 Kings 9 (note).

Apes - קפים kophim; probably a species of monkey rather than ape.

For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish, with the navy of Hiram,.... Tharshish was not the place the navy went from, but whither it went to, as appears from Ch2 9:21 and designs not Tarsus in Cilicia; nor Tartessus in Spain, or Gades, or which was however near it; though it appears from Strabo (s) and Mela (t) that the Phoenicians were acquainted with those parts, and were possessed of them; and particularly, according to Velleius Paterculus (u), the navy of Tyre traded thither before the days of Solomen; and Vitringa (w) is clear in it, that these were ships that traded to Tartessus, with the ships of Tyre; and it is more likely that that place is meant than Carthage, now called Tunis, in Africa; though the Targum here calls it the navy, the navy of Africa; but as Tharshish is sometimes used for the sea in general, here it may signify a particular sea, so called: and which Josephus (x) names the Tarsic sea, the same with the Indian sea; and points to the same country where Ophir was, which was washed by it, and to which the two fleets joined were bound. This is observed, to account for it how Solomon came by so much gold:

once in three years came the navy of Tharshish; it returned in such a space of time; navigation not being improved as now, and sailing by coasts, and what with their stay abroad to sell and purchase goods, and to refit their ships, as well as sometimes contrary winds, they were so long in performing this voyage, which is now done in a few months:

bringing gold and silver; so that silver was accounted of, and used for some purposes, though not for the king's plate:

ivory, and apes, and peacocks; ivory is the elephant's tooth, as the word signifies; some of those are of an almost incredible size; some are said to be of ninety, others one hundred and twenty five pounds weight; Vartomannus (y) says, he saw in Sumatra, where some place Ophir, one that weighed three hundred and thirty pounds; though, according to the Ethiopians (z) the ivory is from the horns; and so say (a) Pausanias and others, see Eze 27:15 but it is commonly supposed to be of the two teeth in the upper jaw that stands out; and whether they are called horns or teeth, they are the same of which ivory is: of elephants there were large numbers in India, bigger and stronger than those in Africa; which latter were afraid of the former, as Diodorus Siculus (b), Curtius (c), and Pliny (d) relate; so Virgil (e) speaks of ivory as fetched from India and Horace (f) also, which must be East India, for there are no ivory nor apes in the West Indies (g): "apes" or "monkeys" were then, as now, brought from those parts. Strabo (h) reports, that when the Macedonians under Alexander were there, such a vast number of them came out of the woods, and placed themselves on the open hills, that they took them for an army of men set in battle array to fight them. Vartomannus (i) speaks of monkeys in the country of Calecut, of a very small price: near Surat apes are in great esteem, nor will they suffer them to be killed on any account (k). There are various sorts of apes, some more like to goats, others to dogs, others to lions, and some to other animals, as Philostorgius (l) relates; and who also says the sphinx is one sort of them, and which he describes on his own sight of it as resembling mankind in many things, and as a very subtle animal; and so Solinus (m) reckons such among apes; but what come nearest in name and sound to the "kuphim" of Solomon here are those Pliny (n) calls "cephi", whose fore feet he says are like the hands of men, and their hinder feet like the feet and thighs of men; and Strabo (o) describes a creature found in Ethiopia, called by him "ceipus" or "cepus", which has a face like a satyr, and the rest of it is between a dog and a bear. There is a creature called "cebus" by Aristotle (p), and is described as having a tail, and all the rest like a man; according to Ludolf (q), "cephus" is the "orangoutang" of the Indians. The word for peacocks should rather be rendered "parrots", so Junius; which are well known to come from India (r), and from thence only, according to Pausanias (s); Vartomannus (t) says, that at Calecut there are parrots of sundry colours, as green and purple, and others of mixed colours, and such a multitude of them, that men are appointed to keep them from the rice in the fields, as we keep crows from corn; and that they are of a small price, one is sold for two pence, or half a souse; and the number of them may be accounted for, because the Brachmans, the priests, reckon them sacred, and therefore the Indians eat them not (u). Curtius (w) designs these, when he says, in India are birds, which are taught to imitate man's voice; and Solinus (x) says, that India only produces the green parrot, that is, the East Indies, the West Indies not being then discovered; though some (y) think they were, and that it was thither Solomon's navy went: certain it is there are parrots of various colours in the West Indies, which P. Martyr of Angleria frequently makes mention of in his Decades. Huetius (z) derives the Hebrew word here used from which he says signifies to "join" or "adhere" to anything, as these birds will; cling to, and hang by their bills and nails on a branch of a tree, &c. so that they are not easily separated from it; the word is used in Deu 33:3 and, according to some, in this sense. But, after all, if it should be insisted on, as it is by many, that "peacocks" are meant, these also are found in India. Alexander the great first saw them in this country, which so amazed him, that he threatened to punish those severely that should kill any of them (a). Vartomannus (b) makes mention of them as in great numbers in some parts of India; and they are caught and sold at an easy rate at Surat (c), and make part both of their game, and of their grand entertainments (d); Aeianus (e) often speaks of them as in India in great numbers, and in great esteem.

(s) Geograph. l. 3. p. 104. (t) De Situ Orbis, l. 2. c. 6. (u) Hist. l. 1. in principio. (w) Comment. in Jesaiam, c. 23. 1. (x) Antiqu. l. 8. c. 7. sect. 2. (y) Navigat. l. 6. c. 22. (z) Ludolf. Ethiop. Hist. l. 1. c. 10. (a) Eliac. 1. p. 308, 309. Vid. Plin. l. 8. c. 3. Aelian. Hist. Animal. l. 4. c. 21. & 7. 2. & 11. 37. & 14. 5. Varro apud Schindler. Lexic Pentaglott. col. 1905. (b) Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 121. So Polybius, Hist. l. 5. (c) Hist. l. 8. c. 9. (d) Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 9. (e) "India mittit ebur". Georgic. l. 1. ver. 57. (f) "---Non aurum et ebur Indicum". Carmin. l. 1. Ode 31. Manetho. Apotelesm. ver. 297. & l. 4. ver. 149. Philo. de Praemiis, p. 924. (g) Manasseh Spes Israelis, sect. 2. p. 21. Ortel. Thesaur. Geograh. Varrerius de Ophyra. (h) Geograph. l. 15. p. 480. (i) Navigat. l. 5. c. 20. (k) Ovington's Voyage to Sarat, p. 360, 361, 596. (l) Eccl. Hist. l. 3. c. 11. (m) Polyhist. c. 40. (n) Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 19. (o) Ut supra, (Geograph.) l. 17. p. 559. (p) Hist. Animal. l. 2. c. 8, 9. (q) Ethiop. Hist. l. 1. c. 10. (r) Aelian. de Animal. l. 16. c. 2. "Psittacus eois ales mihi missus ab India". Ovid. Amor. l. 2. Eleg. 6. (s) Corinthiaca, sive, l. 2. p. 136. (t) Ut supra. (Navigat. l. 5. c. 20.) (u) Aelian de Animal. l. 13. c. 18. (w) Ut supra. (Hist. l. 8. c. 9.) (x) Polyhistor. c. 65. (y) Erasm. Schmid. de America Orat. ad. Calc. Pindari, p. 261. Vatablus in loc. & in c. 9. 28. Hornius de Gent. Americ. l. 2. c. 6, 7, 8. (z) De Navigat. Solomon. c. 7. sect. 6. (a) Aelian. ut supra, (de Animal. l. 16. c. 2.) & l. 5. c. 21. Curtii Hist. l. 9. c. 1. (b) Navigat. l. 6. c. 7. (c) Ovington's Voyage to Surat, p. 268, 269. (d) lbid. p. 398. (e) De Animal. l. 11. c. 33. & l. 13, 18. & l. 16. c. 2.

a navy of Tharshish--Tartessus in Spain. There gold, and especially silver, was obtained, anciently, in so great abundance that it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon. But "Tarshish" came to be a general term for the West (Jon 1:3).

at sea--on the Mediterranean.

once in three years--that is, every third year. Without the mariner's compass they had to coast along the shore. The ivory, apes, and peacocks might have been purchased, on the outward or homeward voyage, on the north coast of Africa, where the animals were to be found. They were particularized, probably as being the rarest articles on board.