1. Lesson One of the Book of Daniel, Introduction to the Book of Daniel

Lesson 58,  Geography Study Concerning the Scriptures, The Exploits of Solomon  

The Exploits of Solomon  

Solomon inherited a kingdom that was extensive and secure. 

His accession to the throne was not seriously challenged by others, nevertheless he moved quickly against Adonijah (David’s fourth son )(who had opposed David’s selection of Solomon) , Abiathar the priest (who had supported Adonijah), and Joab (who had murdered Abner, Amasa, and Absalom and supported Adonijah) to ensure that his kingdom would be safe from within.

1 Kings 2:24,25,  Now therefore, as the LORD liveth, which hath established me, and set me on the throne of David my father, and who hath made me an house, as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day. ²⁵And king Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell upon him that he died.

1 Kings 2:26,27,   And unto Abiathar the priest said the king, Get thee to Anathoth, unto thine own fields; for thou art worthy of death: but I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou barest the ark of the Lord GOD before David my father, and because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted. ²⁷So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the LORD; that he might fulfil the word of the LORD, which he spake concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.

Now concerning Joab (David’s Nephew) (Solomon’s cousin)

(Try to have class break down this name)

JOAB (Joh' ab) Personal name meaning, “Yahweh (Joh)is father (Ab).” Military commander during most of David’s reign. He was the oldest son of Zeruiah, the sister of David (2 Sam. 2:13; 1 Chron. 2:16). He was loyal to David and ruthless in achieving his objectives. After Saul’s death, David was negotiating with Abner (father of light), Saul’s military commander. Joab, whose brother had been slain in battle by Abner, deceived Abner and murdered him. David publicly lamented this assassination (2 Sam. 2-3). Joab’s exploits in the capture of Jerusalem led David to name him commander (1 Chron. 11:4-8). Joab successfully led David’s armies against the Ammonites (2 Sam. 10). During this campaign David sent his infamous order to have Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, killed (2 Sam. 11). Joab was instrumental in the reconciliation of David and Absalom ab-shaw-lome' (father of peace)(2 Sam. 14). When Absalom led a rebellion, Joab remained loyal to David. Joab killed Absalom against the clear orders of David (2 Sam. 18:14). He also convinced David to end his obsessive grieving for Absalom (2 Sam. 19:4-8). Joab murdered Amasa, whom David had named commander (2 Sam. 20:10). He opposed David’s plan for a census, but carried it out when ordered to do so (2 Sam. 24:1-9). When David was dying, Joab supported Adonijah’s ad-o-nee-yaw' (worshipper of Jehovah) claim to the throne (1 Kings 1). David named Solomon shel-o-mo' (peaceful) king and told him to avenge Abner and Amasa (David’s nephew) by killing Joab. Although Joab fled to the tabernacle for sanctuary, Solomon ordered Benaiah ben-aw-yaw' (Jah has built) to kill Joab (1 Kings 2).

1 Kings 2:28-34,  Then tidings came to Joab: for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom. And Joab fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD, and caught hold on the horns of the altar. ²⁹And it was told king Solomon that Joab was fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD; and, behold, he is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, fall upon him. ³⁰And Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the LORD, and said unto him, Thus saith the king, Come forth. And he said, Nay; but I will die here. And Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me. ³¹And the king said unto him, Do as he hath said, and fall upon him, and bury him; that thou mayest take away the innocent blood, which Joab shed, from me, and from the house of my father. ³²And the LORD shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword, my father David not knowing thereof, to wit, Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah. ³³Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever: but upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne, shall there be peace for ever from the LORD. ³⁴So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up, and fell upon him, and slew him: and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.

To guarantee external security, Solomon took wives from many nations surrounding Israel including the daughter of a pharaoh. 

1 Kings 11:1-4,  But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; ²Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. ³And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. ⁴For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

Can two walk together except they be agreed?

Undoubtedly that marriage paved the way for chariots to be imported from Egypt just as his renewed control of Hamath made it possible to import horses.

1 Kings 10:28,29,  And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king’s merchants received the linen yarn at a price. ²⁹And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty: and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means.

Solomon also led Israel into a period of vast commercial expansionism. 

He revived the alliance with Hiram of Tyre, according to which large quantities of cedar and cypress woods were imported into Israel in exchange for certain staple commodities not found in abundance in Phoenicia.

The location and extent of his domain meant that Solomon was in control of the main trading arteries between Arabia, Africa, and Asia, with all the lucrative benefits of such control.

Solomon’s domination of those routes probably occasioned the visit from the Queen of Sheba.  (Came from the area near the entrance to the Red Sea.)

1 Kings 10:1-9, And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions. ²And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. ³And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not. ⁴And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon’s wisdom, and the house that he had built, ⁵And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her. ⁶And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. ⁷Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard. ⁸Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom. ⁹Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the LORD loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice.

But no less important, Solomon's league with Hiram came at the dawn of Phoenician commercial and political expansionism into the Mediterranean world.

Solomon’s economic resources and Hiram’s technological resources were joined in an effort that would prove to be of immense mutual benefit.

Hiram built two fleets for Solomon: one to sail the Mediterranean, the other to sail the Red Sea.

I Kings 10:22,  For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.

2 Chron 8:17,  Then went Solomon to Eziongeber, and to Eloth, at the sea side in the land of Edom. ¹⁸And Huram sent him by the hands of his servants ships, and servants that had knowledge of the sea; and they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and took thence four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon.

The Mediterranean fleet sailed as far away as the port of Tarshish (in Spain) and returned once every three years with valuable and unusual commodities: gold, silver ivory, iron, tin, apes, and peacocks. 

The word tarshich refers to a place where metal is smelted. 

It seems probable, therefore, that it became attached to an important and strategic refinery. 

Solomon’s Red Sea fleet sailed from the port of Ezion-geber on voyages to Ophir, from which it regularly returned with large amounts of gold and rare woods.  

Scholars have situated Ophir either in eastern Africa, along the Gulf of Aden, or somewhere in modern Somaliland.

The economic effects of Solomon’s ventures can hardly be overstated. 

Opulent affluence of unprecedented proportion was lavished upon Tyre and Israel. 

Solomon made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephela. 

I Kings 10:27,  And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycamore trees that are in the vale, for abundance.

Again, “all of King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none was of silver, it was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon”

I Kings 10:21,  And all king Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver: it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.

Besides the revenues generated from caravan taxation, some 666 talents of gold (approximately 21 tons) came to the coffers in Jerusalem annually. 

I Kings 1:14,15, Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold, ¹⁵Beside that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffic of the spice merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the country.

In light of this the Solomonic era became Israel’s golden age.