CHAP. XVIII.

OF SOLOMON.

SECT. I.

Of the establishing of Solomon; of birthright; and of the cause of Adonijah's death, and of Solomon's wisdom.

SOLO

OLOMON, who was brought up under the prophet Nathan, began to reign over Judah and Israel, in the year of the world 2991. He was called Solomon by the appointment of God. He was also called Jedediah, or Theophilus, by Nathan, because the Lord loved him.

Hiram, king of Tyre, after Solomon's anointing, dispatched embassadors towards him, congratulating his establishment; a custom between princes very ancient. Whence we read that David did in like sort salute Hanum' king of the Ammonites, after his obtaining the kingdom.

The beginning of Solomon was in blood, though his reign was peaceable. For soon after David's death he caused his brother Adonijah to be slain by Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, taking occasion from Adonijah's desiring, by Bathsheba, that the young maid Abishag, who lay in David's bosom in his latter days, to keep him warm, might be given to him. Whatsoever he pretended, it was enough that Adonijah was his elder brother, and sought the kingdom contrary to the will of David, whom God in

1 2 Sam. x.

clined towards Solomon. And yet it is said, that a word is enough to the wise, and he that sees but the claw, may know whether it be a lion or not; so it may seem that to the quick-sighted wisdom of Solomon, this motion of Adonijah's was a demonstration of a new treason. For they which had been concubines to a king, might not after be touched but by a king; whence Achitophel wished Absalom to take his father's concubines as a part of the royalty. And David after that wrong, determining to touch them no more, did not give them to any other, but shut them up, and they remained widowed until their death3. And this it seems was the depth of Ishbosheth's quarrel against Abner, for having his father's concubine. And some signification of this custom may seem too in the words of God by Nathan to David: I have given thee thy master's house and thy master's wives' and in the words of Saul, upbraiding Jonathan, that he had chosen David to the shame of the nakedness of his mother 4. Hereunto perhaps was some reference to this purpose of Adonijah, to marry with her that was always present with David in his latter days, and who belike knew all that was past, for the conveying of the kingdom to Solomon. There might be divers farther occasions, as either that he would learn such things by her as might be for the advantage of his ambition, or that he would persuade her to forge some strange tale about David's last testament, or any thing else that might prejudice the title of Solo

mon,

As for the right of an elder brother, which Adonijah pretended, though generally it agreed both with the law of nations, and with the customs of the Jews; yet the kings of the Jews were so absolute, as they did therein, and in all else, what they pleased. Some examples also they had, (though not of kings,)

2 2 Sam. xvi. 21. 2 2 Sam. xx. 3. 4 1 Sam. xx. 30. 5 1 Kings ii. 15. 6 Deut. xxi. 15. Filium exosæ agnoscito dando ei portionem duorum ; nam ipsius est jus primogenitorum. 1 Reg. i. 17. aud 20, 29, 31. 1 Kings i. 20, 27.

which taught them to use this paternal authority in transferring the birthright to a younger son; namely, of Jacob's disinheriting Reuben, and giving the birthright, (which was twice as much as any portion of the other brethren,) to Joseph; of whom he made two tribes. And that it was generally acknowledged that this power was in David, it appears by the words of Bathsheba and Nathan to David, and of Jonathan to Adonijah. For as for popular election, that it was necessary to confirm, or that the refusal of the people had authority to frustrate the elder brother's right to the kingdom, it no where appears in the stories of the Jews. It is said, indeed, that the people made Saul king at Gilgal'; that is, they acknowledged and established him. For that he was king long before, no man can doubt. In like manner elsewhere the phrase of choosing or making their king is to be expounded; as where, in the prohibition, that they should not make themselves a king, it is said, Thou shalt make him king whom the Lord shall choose.

But to proceed with the acts of Solomon; at the same time that he put Adonijah to death, he rid himself also of Joab, and three years after of Shimei, as David had advised him; he displaced also the priest Abiathar, who took part with Adonijah against him; but in respect of his office, and that he followed David in all his afflictions, and because he had borne the ark of God before his father, he spared his life. And thus being established in his kingdom, he took the daughter of Vaphres, king of Egypt, to wife; for so Eusebius out of Eupolemus, calls him. He offered a thousand sacrifices at Gi. beon, where God appearing unto him in a dream, bade him ask what he would at his hands: Solomon chooseth wisdom, which pleased God. • And God ⚫ said unto him, because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, neither

7 1 Sam. xi. 14.

8 Deut. xi. 30.

9 1 Kings ii.

M

VOL. III.

hast thou asked riches for thyself, neither hast asked the life of thine enemies, behold, I have done according to thy words:' by which we may inform ourselves what desires are most pleasing to God, and what not. For the coveting after long life, in respect of ourselves, cannot but proceed of self-love, which is the root of all impiety; the desire of private riches is an affection of covetousness which God abhorreth; to affect revenge, is as much as to take the sword out of God's hand, and to distrust his justice. And in that it pleased God to make Solomon know that it liked him, that he had not asked the life of his enemies, it could not but put him in mind of his brother's slaughter, for which he had not any warrant, either from David, or from the law of God. But because Solomon desired wis. dom only, which taught him both to obey God, and to rule men, it pleased God to give him withal that which he desired not. And I have also given thee,' saith God, that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honour.' This gift of wisdom our commentators stretch to almost all kinds of learning; but that it comprehended the knowledge of the nature of plants and living creatures, the scriptures testify, though no doubt the chief excellency of Solomon's wisdom was in the knowledge of governing his kingdom; whence, as it were, for an example of his wisdom, the scripture telleth how soon he judged the controversy between the two harlots.

SECT. II.

Of Solomon's buildings and glory.

He then entered into league with Hiram king of Tyre, from whom he had much of his materials for the king's palace and the temple of God; for the building whereof he had received a double charge, one from his father David, and another from God.

10 1 Kings iv. 33. 1 Kings iii. 9.

For like as it is written of David, 1 Chron. xxii. 6., 'that he called Solomon his son, and charged him 'to build a house for the Lord God of Israel;' so doth Tostatus' give the force of a divine precept to these words, behold, a son is born unto thee,' &c. 'he shall build an house for my name.'

He began the work of the temple, in the beginning of the fourth year of his reign, at which time also he prepared his fleet at Ezion-gaber, to trade for gold in the East Indies, that nothing might be wanting to supply the charge of so great a work. For that the temple was in building, while his fleets were passing to and fro, it is manifest; for the pillars of the temple were made of the Almaggim trees, brought from Ophir. Of this most glorious building, (of all the particulars whereof the form and example was given by God himself3,) many learned men have written; as Salmeron, Montanus, Ribera, Barradas, Azorius, Villalpandus, Pineda, and others, to whom I refer the reader,

For the cutting and squaring of the cedars which served that building, Solomon employed thirty thousand carpenters, ten thousand every month by course; he also used eighty thousand masons in the mountain, and seventy thousand labourers that bore burdens, which, it is conceived, he selected out of the proselytes; besides three thousand three hundred masters of his work; so as he paid and employed in all, one hundred eighty-three thousand and three hundred men: in which number the Sidonians, which were far more skilful in hewing timber than the Israelites, may, as I think, be included. For Hiram caused his servants to bring down the cedars and firs from Lebanon to the sea, and thence sent them in rafts to Joppa, or the next port to Jerusalem. For. in 2 Chron. ii., it is plain that all but the thirty thousand carpenters, and the overseers, were strangers, and, as it seemeth, the vassals of Hiram', and of 1 Tost. xi. 26. in 1 Chron. 21 Kings vi. 3 1 Chron. xxviii. 29. 41 Kings v 51 Kings v. 9. 61 Kings v. 11.