1 Kings 4

When Solomon ascended the throne, the people of Israel soon learned that he was not another David. He was a scholar, not a soldier, a man more interested in erecting buildings than fighting battles. David enjoyed the simple life of a shepherd, but Solomon chose to live in luxury. Both David and Solomon wrote songs, but Solomon is better known for his proverbs. We have many of David’s songs in the book of Psalms, but except for Psalms 72 and 127, and the Song of Solomon, we have none of Solomon’s three thousand songs.

David was a shepherd who loved and served God’s flock, while Solomon became a celebrity who used the people to help support his extravagant lifestyle. When David died, the people mourned; after Solomon died, the people begged his successor King Rehoboam to lighten the heavy yoke his father had put on their necks. David was a warrior who put his trust in God; Solomon was a politician who put his trust in authority, treaties, and achievement. “King Solomon was among the wisest fools who ever wore a crown,” wrote Frederick Buechner.

Solomon is mentioned nearly three hundred times in the Old Testament and a dozen times in the New Testament. He’s listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:6–7) and is cited as an example of splendor (Matt. 6:29; Luke 12:27) and wisdom (Matt. 12:42; Luke 11:31). He is identified as the builder of the temple (Acts 7:47). One of the colonnades in the temple was named after him (John 10:23; Acts 3:11; 5:12). His father, David, was recognized as the ideal leader, and his record became the standard by which every succeeding king of Judah was measured. However, nobody pointed to Solomon as a good example of a godly ruler.

Chapters 3 and 4 describe events that occurred during the first three years of Solomon’s reign, before he began to build the temple (6:1), and they describe Solomon in several roles.

David was a gifted administrator (2 Sam. 8:15–18; 20:23–26), and his son inherited some of that ability. Even though Solomon had great wisdom and authority, he couldn’t handle the affairs of the kingdom alone. A good leader chooses capable associates and allows them to use their own gifts and thereby serve the Lord and the people.

Special officers (vv. 1–6). Azariah was the high priest (v. 2). He was the son of Ahimaaz and the grandson of Zadok, the priest who had served David so faithfully. It appears that Ahimaaz had died and therefore his son was given the office. See 2 Samuel 15:27, 36; 1 Chron. 6:8–9. The word ben in Hebrew can mean son or grandson. While David had only one scribe, Solomon had two (v. 3), and they were the sons of David’s scribe, Shisha. He was also known as Seriah (2 Sam. 8:17), Sheva (2 Sam. 20:25), and Shavsha (1 Chron. 18:16). Solomon’s kingdom was much larger and more complex than that over which his father ruled, so the keeping of records would have been more demanding.

Jehoshaphat had been recorder during David’s reign (2 Sam. 8:16; 20:24), and Benaiah had been appointed head of the army by Solomon (2:35). He was born into a priestly family but chose a military life instead. Abiathar had been exiled because of his part in the plot involving Adonijah (2:27), and Zadok had died and been replaced by his grandson. Since both Zadok and Abiathar had served with David, they are found in the official roster. Azariah was in charge of the twelve officers who supervised the twelve districts that Solomon had marked out in Israel (vv. 7–19). Whether his father was Nathan the prophet (1:11), Nathan the son of David (2 Sam. 5:14), or another man named Nathan is not explained. Nathan was a popular name in Israel.

Zabud was a priest who served as special adviser to the king; Ahishar managed the complex affairs of the king’s household; and Adoniram was in charge of the men who were drafted to labor in the public works of the kingdom (9:15–23; 2 Chron. 2:2, 17–18; 8:7–10). These would not be Israelites but foreigners in the land. However, in the building of the temple, Solomon did conscript Israelites to devote four months a year to public service (5:13–18). Adoniram was also known as Adoram and he was stoned to death by the people when Rehoboam became king (1 Kings 12:18–20). Samuel had warned the people that their king would do such things (1 Sam. 8:12–18).

Special commissioners (vv. 7–19, 27–28). Solomon marked out twelve “districts” of various sizes and put a commissioner over each district. The boundaries of the districts ignored the traditional boundaries of the tribes and even incorporated territory that David had taken in battle, and each district was to provide food for the king’s household for one month. It’s likely that the commissioners also collected taxes and supervised the recruiting of soldiers and laborers for the temple and Solomon’s other building projects. By establishing new districts that crossed over old boundaries, Solomon may have hoped to minimize tribal loyalty and eliminate some of the tension between Judah and the northern tribes. Instead, the plan only aggravated the tension, particularly since Judah wasn’t included in the redistricting program. Being the royal tribe that contained the royal city, Judah was administered separately.

Any king with seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, plus numerous officers and frequent guests, would have a large household to feed. The Queen of Sheba came with “a very great train” that must have included several hundred people. According to verses 22–23, the meals for one day in the palace required 185 bushels of fine flour, 375 bushels of coarse meal, ten oxen fattened in the stall and twenty oxen from the pasture, one hundred sheep, and various kinds of game and fowl. Solomon also needed grain for his many horses, which may have been how the coarse meal (barley) was used. The conquered nations may have looked upon these monthly donations as part of their tribute to King Solomon, but the Jewish tribes considered the whole system to be a humiliating form of extortion. After Solomon’s death, it was no wonder that the ten tribes rose up in revolt against “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men.”

For some reason, five of the commissioners are identified by their fathers, for ben in Hebrew means “son of” (8–11, 13). The son of Abinadab (v. 11) may have been a son of David’s own brother and therefore a cousin to Solomon (1 Sam. 16:8; 17:13). He also married one of Solomon’s daughters, as also did Ahimaaz (v. 15). It’s likely that Solomon instituted this supply system several years into his reign since he didn’t have adult children when he was crowned. Baana was probably a brother to Jehoshaphat the recorder (vv. 12 and 3). These twelve men had great power in the land and were a part of the corrupt bureaucracy that Solomon wrote about in Ecclesiastes 5:8–12.

Special disctinctions (vv. 20–28). The nation of Israel became famous for its large population, its peace and security, its buildings, its wise king, and its satisfying lifestyle, “eating, and drinking, and making merry” (v. 20). Of course, the population grew because of God’s promise to the patriarchs (Gen. 15:5; 17:8; 22:17; 26:4; 32:12) and His promises in the covenant (Deut. 28:1–14). The enlarged territory was also a part of God’s promise (Gen. 15:18; Ex. 23:31; Deut. 1:7; Josh. 1:4). The tributary nations submitted to Solomon’s rule and brought him gifts and tribute annually, and Solomon enjoyed great blessing because of God’s covenant with David (2 Sam. 7). Contrary to God’s law, Solomon multiplied horses in the land (Deut. 17:16) and built special cities for housing them (v. 26; 10:26–29; 2 Chron. 1:14–17; 9:25, 28).

King David appreciated and enjoyed God’s created world and wrote hymns of praise about the Creator and His creation, but Solomon looked upon nature more as an object of study. God gave Solomon wisdom and breadth of understanding beyond that of the great wise men of the east, and he was able to lecture accurately about the living things in God’s creation. Ecclesiastes 2: informs us that Solomon planted great gardens, and no doubt it was in these that he observed the way plants and trees developed.

Ethan and Heman are mentioned in 1 Chronicles 15: as members of David’s musical staff assigned to direct sanctuary worship. Ethan is probably the man also known as Jeduthun who wrote Psalms 39 and 89 (1 Chron. 16:41–42; 25:1, 6), and Psalm 88 is assigned to Heman. These men were also known for their wisdom. Other than 1 Chronicles 2:6, we have no further information about Calcol and Darda.

Most of Solomon’s three thousand proverbs have been lost, for fewer than six hundred are recorded in the book of Proverbs. Also lost are “the annals of Solomon” (11:41) as well as the books about Solomon written by Nathan, Ahijah, and Iddo (2 Chron. 9:29). We do find many references to nature in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon, so Solomon’s scientific enquiries did yield spiritual truth and practical lessons for life. He became an international celebrity and important people from all over the known world came to see his treasures and hear his wisdom.

Peace and prosperity reigned while Solomon was king, but no matter how successful things appeared to citizens and visitors, all was not well in the kingdom. During the period between his ascension to the throne and his dedication of the temple, Solomon appears to have walked with the Lord and sought to please him. But Alexander Whyte expressed it vividly when he wrote that “the secret worm … was gnawing all the time in the royal staff upon which Solomon leaned.” Solomon didn’t have the steadfast devotion to the Lord that characterized his father, and his many pagan wives were planting seeds in his heart that would bear bitter fruit.