1 Re 4:7 Commento

An instance of the wisdom God granted to Solomon we had in the close of the foregoing chapter. In this we have an account of his wealth and prosperity, the other branch of the promise there made him. We have here, I. The magnificence of his court, his ministers of state (Kg1 4:1-6), and the purveyors of his household (Kg1 4:7-19), and their office (Kg1 4:27, Kg1 4:28). II. The provisions for his table (Kg1 4:22, Kg1 4:23). III. The extent of his dominion (Kg1 4:21-24). IV. The numbers, case, and peace, of his subjects (Kg1 4:20-25). V. His stables (Kg1 4:26). VI. His great reputation for wisdom and learning (Kg1 4:29-34). Thus great was Solomon, but our Lord Jesus was greater than he (Mat 12:42), though he took upon him the form of a servant; for divinity, in its lowest humiliation, infinitely transcends royalty in its highest elevation.

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 4 As in the preceding chapter we have a proof of the wisdom and understanding which the Lord gave to Solomon, as promised, so in this an account is given of the riches and honour he was possessed of; of him, as king over all Israel, and of his princes, Kg1 4:1; of the providers of food for his household in the several parts of the land, Kg1 4:7; of the largeness and extent of his dominions, and of the peace and prosperity thereof, Kg1 4:20; of his daily provisions for his household and for his cattle, Kg1 4:22; and of his superior wisdom and knowledge to all others in all nations, which brought some out of all to hear it, Kg1 4:29.

And these are their names,.... Or rather the names of their fathers; for of many of them not their own names but their fathers' names are given, as being well known: the son of Hur, in Mount Ephraim; a fruitful country in the tribe of Ephraim, from whence this officer was to furnish the king with provisions for one month in the year.

The officials elected by Solomon designate the order of the chosen ones whom Christ affirmed in his grace and appointed as rulers of his people. Indeed, twelve prefects were selected to administer the incomes of this king and his house, because just as many apostles had to be distributed over the entire world and had to be appointed as treasures of the divine mysteries, so that they might nourish with living and immortal food the Israel of God and might administer the incomes of the house of the peaceful king. Therefore, also the limits of each prefecture were clearly denoted, because, in a similar way, each apostle received a certain province: Simon preached in Rome, John in Ephesus, Matthew in Palestine and Thomas in the region of India.

An account of Solomon's chief officers, Kg1 4:1-6. Names of the twelve officers that were over twelve districts, to provide victuals for the king's household monthly, Kg1 4:7-19. Judah and Israel are very populous; and Solomon reigns over many provinces, Kg1 4:20, Kg1 4:21. The daily provision for his family, Kg1 4:22, Kg1 4:23. The extent and peace of his dominions, Kg1 4:24, Kg1 4:25. His horses, chariots, and dromedaries; with the provision made for them, Kg1 4:26-28. His wisdom and understanding, Kg1 4:29-31. The number of his proverbs and songs; and his knowledge in natural history, Kg1 4:32, Kg1 4:33. People from all nations come to hear his wisdom, Kg1 4:34.

Twelve officers - The business of these twelve officers was to provide daily, each for a month, those provisions which were consumed in the king's household; see Kg1 4:22, Kg1 4:23. And the task for such a daily provision was not an easy one.

SOLOMON'S PRINCES. (Kg1 4:1-6) So King Solomon was king over all Israel--This chapter contains a general description of the state and glory of the Hebrew kingdom during the more flourishing or later years of his reign.

HIS TWELVE OFFICERS. (Kg1 4:7-21) Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel--The royal revenues were raised according to the ancient, and still, in many parts, existing usage of the East, not in money payments, but in the produce of the soil. There would be always a considerable difficulty in the collection and transmission of these tithes (Sa1 8:15). Therefore, to facilitate the work, Solomon appointed twelve officers, who had each the charge of a tribe or particular district of country, from which, in monthly rotation, the supplies for the maintenance of the king's household were drawn, having first been deposited in "the store cities" which were erected for their reception (Kg1 9:19; Ch2 8:4, Ch2 8:6).

Solomon's Ministers of State. His Regal Splendour and Wisdom - 1 Kings 4-5:14 1 Kings 4 contains a list of the chief ministers of state (Kg1 4:2-6), and of the twelve officers placed over the land (Kg1 4:7-20), which is inserted here to give an idea of the might and glory of the kingdom of Israel under Solomon's reign. So far as the contents are concerned, this list belongs to the middle portion of the reign of Solomon, as we may see from the fact that two of the officers named had daughters of Solomon for their wives (Kg1 4:11, Kg1 4:15), whom they could not possibly have married till the later years of Solomon's life.

Solomon's Official Persons and Their Districts. - Kg1 4:7. Solomon had (appointed) twelve נצּבים over all Israel, who provided (כּלכּלוּ) for the king and his house, i.e., supplied provisions for the necessities of the court. These prefects are not to be regarded as "chamberlains," or administrators of the royal domains (Michaelis and Ewald), for these are mentioned in Ch1 27:25. under a different title. They are "general receivers of taxes," or "chief tax-collectors," as Rosenmller expresses it, who levied the king's duties or taxes, which consisted in the East, as they still do to the present time, for the most part of natural productions, or the produce of the land, and not of money payments as in the West, and delivered them at the royal kitchen (Rosenmller, A. und N. Morgenland, iii. p. 166). It cannot be inferred from the explanation given by Josephus, ἡγεμόνες καὶ στρατηγοί, that they exercised a kind of government, as Thenius supposes, since this explanation is nothing but a subjective conjecture. "One month in the year was it every one's duty (אחד על יהיה) to provide." The districts assigned to the twelve prefects coincide only partially with the territories of the tribes, because the land was probably divided among them according to its greater or smaller productiveness. Moreover, the order in which the districts are enumerated is not a geographical one, but probably follows the order in which the different prefects had to send the natural productions month by month for the maintenance of the king's court. The description begins with Ephraim in Ch1 27:8, then passes over in Ch1 27:9 to the territory of Dan to the west of it, in Ch1 27:10 to the territory of Judah and Simeon on the south, in Ch1 27:11 and Ch1 27:12 to the territory of Manasseh on this side from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, then in vv. 13 and 14 to the territory of Manasseh on the other side of the Jordan, thence back again in vv. 15 and 16 to the northern parts of the land on this side, viz., the territories of Naphtali and Asher, and thence farther south to Issachar in v. 17, and Benjamin in v. 18, closing at last in v. 19 with Gilead. Kg1 4:8 In the names of the prefects we are struck with the fact, that in the case of five of them the names given are not their own but their fathers' names. It is very improbable that the proper names should have dropped out five times (as Clericus, Michaelis, and others suppose); and consequently there is simply the assumption left, that the persons in question bore their fathers' names with Ben prefixed as their own proper names: Benhur, Bendeker, etc., after the analogy of Benchanan in Ch1 4:20 and others, although such a proper name as Ben-Abinadab (Ch1 4:11) appears very strange. Benhur was stationed on the mountains of Ephraim. These mountains, here only the mountainous district of the tribe of Ephraim, were among the most fruitful portions of Palestine (see at Jos 17:14-15). Kg1 4:9 Bendeker was in Makaz, a city only mentioned here, the situation of which is unknown, but which is at any rate to be sought for in the tribe of Dan, to which the other cities of this district belong. Shaalbim has probably been preserved in the present Selbit, to the north-west of Ylo (see at Jos 19:42). Bethshemesh, the present Ain-Shems (see at Jos 15:10). Elon (אילון), which is distinguished from Ajalon (Jos 19:42 and Jos 19:43) by the epithet Bethchanan, and belonged to the tribe of Dan, has not yet been discovered (see at Jos 19:43). The lxx have arbitrarily interpolated ἕως before Bethchanan, and Thenius naturally takes this under his protection, and consequently traces Bethchanan in the village of Beit Hunn (Rob. Pal. ii. p. 371), but without considering that ἕως yields no reasonable sense unless preceded by מן, ἐκ (from; cf. Kg1 4:12). Kg1 4:10 Benhesed was in Arubboth, which does not occur again, so that its situation, even if it should be identical with Arab in Jos 15:52, as Bttcher conjectures, can only be approximatively inferred from the localities which follow. To him (לו), i.e., to his district, belonged Sochoh and all the land of Hepher. From Sochoh we may see that Benhesed's district was in the tribe of Judah. Of the two Sochohs in Judah, that still exist under the name of Shuweikeh, it is impossible to determine with certainty which is intended here, whether the one upon the mountains (Jos 15:48) or the one in the plain (Jos 15:35). The fact that it is associated with the land of Hepher rather favours the latter. The land of Hepher, which must not be confounded with the city of Gath-hepher in the tribe of Zebulun (Jos 19:13; Kg2 14:25), but was the territory of one of the Canaanitish kings who were defeated by Joshua, was probably situated in the plain (see at Jos 12:17). Kg1 4:11 Ben-Abinadab had the whole of the high range of Dor (דּאר נפת, Jos 12:23), i.e., the strip of coast on the Mediterranean Sea below the promontory of Carmel, where the city of Dor, which has been preserved in the village of Tantura or Tortura, nine miles to the north of Caesarea, was situated (see at Jos 11:2). Whether this district embraced the fruitful plain of Sharon is not so clearly made out as Thenius supposes. בּן־אבינדב stands at the head absolutely, without any grammatical connection with כּל־נפת: "Abinadab: the whole of the high range of Dor," etc. The person named was probably a son of David's eldest brother but one (Sa1 16:8; Sa1 17:13), and therefore Solomon's cousin; and he had married Solomon's daughter. Kg1 4:12 Baana the son of Ahilud was most likely a brother of Jehoshaphat the chancellor (Kg1 4:3). This district embraced the cities on the southern edge of the plain of Jezreel, and extended to the Jordan. Taanach and Megiddo, which have been preserved in the villages of Taanuk and Lejun, were situated on the south-western border of this plain, and belonged to the Manassites (see at Jos 12:21; Jos 17:11). "And all Bethshean," in other words, the whole of the district of Bethshean, i.e., Beisan, at the eastern end of the valley of Jezreel, where it opens into the Jordan valley (Rob. Pal. ii. p. 740ff.), "which (district was situated) by the side of Zarthan below Jezreel, from (the town of) Bethshean (see at Jos 17:11) to Abel-Mecholah, on the other side of Jokmeam." Zarthan, also called Zereda (compare Kg1 7:46 with Ch2 4:17), has probably been preserved, so far as the name is concerned, in Kurn Sartabeh, in the neighbourhood of which the old city probably stood, about five miles to the south of Beisan, at a point where the Jordan valley contracts (see at Jos 3:16). The expression "below Jezreel" refers to "all Bethshean," and may be explained from the elevated situation of Jezreel, the present Zern (see at Jos 19:18). According to Rob. iii. p. 163, this is "comparatively high, and commands a wide and noble view, extending down the broad low valley on the east of Beisan and to the mountains of Ajlun beyond the Jordan." The following words, "from Bethshean to Abel-Mecholah," give a more precise definition of the boundary. The lxx have erroneously inserted καὶ before מבּית־שׁאן, and Thenius and Bttcher defend it on the strength of their erroneous interpretations of the preceding statements. Abel-Mecholah was in the Jordan valley, according to the Onomast., ten Roman miles to the south of Beisan (see at Jdg 7:22). The last clause is not quite intelligible to us, as the situation of the Levitical city Jokmeam (Ch1 6:53, or Kibzaim, a different place from the Jokneam on Carmel, Jos 12:22; Jos 21:34) has not yet been discovered (see at Jos 21:22). According to this, Baanah's district in the Jordan valley did not extend so far as Kurn Sartabeh, but simply to the neighbourhood of Zarthan, and embraced the whole of the tribe-territory of Manasseh on this side of the Jordan. Kg1 4:13 Bengeber was in Ramoth of Gilead in the tribe of Gad (Jos 20:8), probably on the site of the modern Szalt (see at Deu 4:43). "To him belonged the Havvoth Jair (Jair's-lives) in Gilead, to him the region of Argob in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and brazen bolts." If we look at this passage alone, the region of Argob in Bashan appears to be distinct from the Havvoth Jair in Gilead. But if we compare it with Num 32:40-41; Deu 3:4-5, and Deu 3:13, Deu 3:14, and Jos 13:30, it is evident from these passages that the Jair's-lives are identical with the sixty large and fortified cities of the region of Argob. For, according to Deu 3:4, these sixty fortified cities, with high walls, gates, and bars, were all fortified cities of the kingdom of Og of Bashan, which the Israelites conquered under Moses, and to which, according to Num 32:41, Jair the Manassite, who had conquered them, gave the name of Havvoth Jair. Hence it is stated in Jos 13:30, that the sixty Jair-towns were situated in Bashan. Consequently the אר חבל לו in our verse is to be taken as a more precise definition of וגו יאיר חוּת לו, or a clearer description of the district superintended by Bengeber, so that Gilead is used, as is frequently the case, in the broader sense of Peraea. Compare with this the Commentary on Deu 3:4, Deu 3:13, Deu 3:14, where the names ארגּב and חוּת are explained, and the imaginary discrepancy between the sixty Jair's-towns in the passages cited, and the twenty-three and thirty cities of Jair in Ch1 2:22 and Jdg 10:4, is discussed and solved. And when Thenius objects to this explanation on the ground that the villages of Jair cannot be identical with the sixty fortified cities, because villages of nomads and strongly fortified cities could not be one and the same, this objection falls to the ground with the untenable interpretation of חוּת as applying to nomad villages. Kg1 4:14 Ahinadab the son of Iddo received as his district Mahanaim, a fortified and probably also a very important city to the north of the Jabbok, on the border of the tribe of Gad, which may perhaps have been preserved in the ruin of Mahneh (see at Jos 13:26 and Gen 32:3). מחנימה, to Mahanaim (cf. Ewald, 216, a., note), with ה local, probably referring to the fact that Ahinadab was sent away to Mahanaim. Kg1 4:15 Ahimaaz, possibly Zadok's son (Sa2 15:27; Sa2 17:17.), in Naphtali. This does not denote generally "the most northern portion of the land, say from the northern end of the lake of Gennesaret into Coele-Syria," as Thenius supposes; for the tribe-territory of Asher, which had a prefect of its own, was not situated to the south-west of Naphtali, but ran along the west of Naphtali to the northern boundary of Canaan (see at Jos 19:24-31). He also (like Ben-Abinadab, Kg1 4:11) had a daughter of Solomon, Basmath, as his wife. Kg1 4:16 Baanah the son of Hushai, probably the faithful friend and wise counsellor of David (Sa2 15:32., Kg1 17:5.), was in Asher and בּעלות, a name quite unknown. If בּ forms part of the word (Baaloth, according to the lxx, Vulg., Syr., and Arab.), we must take it as a district, since the preposition בּ would necessarily have been repeated if a district (Asher) had been connected with a town (Baaloth). In any case, it is not the city of Baaloth in the Negeb of Judah (Jos 15:24) that is intended. Kg1 4:17 Jehoshaphat the son of Paruach, in Issachar; i.e., over the whole of the territory of that tribe in the plain of Jezreel, with the exception of the cities of Taanach, Megiddo, and Bethshean, which were in the southern portion of it, and were allotted to the Manassites, and, according to Kg1 4:12, were put under the care of Baanah; and not merely in the northern part of Issachar, "with the exception of the plain of Jezreel," as Thenius erroneously maintains. Zebulun may possibly have also formed part of his district, if not entirely, yet in its southern portion, provided that the northern portion was assigned to Ahimaaz in Naphtali, since Zebulun had no prefect of its own. Kg1 4:18 Shimei the son of Elah, possibly the one mentioned in Kg1 1:8, in Benjamin. Kg1 4:19 Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, i.e., as the apposition "the land of Sihon ... and of Og..." clearly shows, the whole of the Israelitish land on the east of the Jordan, as in Deu 34:1; Jdg 20:1, etc., with the simple exception of the districts placed under Bengeber and Ahinadab (Kg1 4:13 and Kg1 4:14). אחד נציב, "one president was it who (was) in the land (of Gilead)." נציב cannot signify a military post or a garrison here, as in Sa1 10:5; Sa1 13:3, etc., but is equivalent to נצּב, the president (Kg1 4:7). The meaning is, that notwithstanding the great extent of this district, it had only one prefect.