Materials, &c.,
collected for
this structure.
Cost of the
Temple.
Store cities
built by
Solomon.
lations relating to the discipline of an army, consisting of
infantry, cavalry, and chariots, for the security of the kingdom
from foreign as well as domestic enemies. The court contained
within it all the establishments becoming the state of a
great monarch; and the inferior details of domestic labours
were performed by servants or slaves, who were designated
hewers of wood and drawers of water.
The greater part of Solomon’s subjects were employed, either
in preparing the materials or in the building of the temple, for
a period of thirty-nine years, having, besides, the effective
assistance of Hiram. It appears that 80,000 men were
occupied in the mountains preparing stone; others, numbering
30,000, were engaged in hewing wood, and there were 70,000
bearers of burdens, making in all 180,000 constantly employed,
under 3,600 overseers.1 The gold, silver, and other costly
materials left by David expressly for the erection of this superb
building, with the additions made by Solomon, and the free
labour bestowed upon the work, have been estimated at a sum
exceeding the national debt of Great Britain; but even at the
moderate computation of Josephus, the 10,000 talents of gold
and 100,000 talents of silver, at the lowest value, namely the
Syrian talent, would be 17,718,750/.2
Shortly after the completion of this edifice, Solomon erected
what was no doubt an idolatrous temple, for the use of his
Cushite wife, the daughter of Miphra Muthosis, with whom he
had received as a dower the city of Gaza, which the king of
Egypt had recently captured.3
Solomon also built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the
store cities in Hamath; likewise Beth-horon the upper and
Beth-horon the nether, and Ba’alath;4 but the greatest undertaking
of all, was the establishment of regular commercial
intercourse by sea, with that part of the eastern world known
under the name of Ophir.
1 1 Kings, chap. V ., v. 15, 16 ; 2 Chron., chap. I I ., v. 18 ; Jos., lib. V I I I .
cap. ii. s. 9.
2 Jos., chap. X I I I ., description of the Temple.
8 I Kings, chap. I I I ., v. 1.
4 2 Chron., chap. V I I I ., v. 4, 5, 6, compared with Jos., lib. V I I I . cap. vi.
The coasts of Arabia and eastern Africa, with those onoPMrsoaght
both sides of the peninsula of India, have each in turn been weii as Asia,
considered the place bearing that name; but as the first does
not correspond, either as to distance or products, with the
indications afforded in the Scriptures, the question lies between
the second and third regions.
Each of these possesses the chief requisites for the return
cargoes, but the greatest number of authors are in favour of the
coast of India, which has all the different products, possibly including
the doubtful almug, or algum.1 Although so much has
been written on the subject, a few remarks on the time and
means by which the united fleets may have overcome the dangers
of Tharshish, or the open sea, in search of wealth, may not be
out of place. In connexion with the time mentioned, a difficulty
has arisen regarding the country of the Queen Of the
South, which is imagined by some to have been on the eastern,
whilst’ it has been placed by others on the western‘side of the
Red Sea. The first rests in a great measure on Arab history
and tradition; and whilst the Saba of Yemen, by its southern SaWYemen
position, agrees with the supposed seat of the Queen’s government,
the ancient Saba, afterwards Meroe,2 not only agrees as
well, but it may with greater propriety be styled, “ the uttermost
parts of the earth.”3 It has already been seen that the
Himyarites of Arabia and the Sabseans of Africa were one and
the same people,4 and that the name of Sheba or Saba, equally
of Arabic derivation, is found in both countries. But a writer,
whose veracity is now better understood than formerly,
mentions the interesting fact, which has been repeated by most
subsequent travellers, that the Abyssinians claim the celebrated
princess who visited Solomon as one of their sovereigns; T^Queenrf
adding, that her posterity reigned over their country for a long Solomon,
time. Moreover, the Abyssinian annals describe the journey
of the learned Queen of Sheba, Saba, or Asaba (meaning
south), to visit Solomon, and add that she had a son by this
1 Possibly the odoriferous thyon of Pliny, in lib. X I I I . , cap xvi.
2 Jos. Ant., lib. I I ., cap. x. s. 2. 8 Matthew, chap. X I I ., v. 42.
4 Ludolphus, Hist. .ZEthiop. I., and Comment, ad suam Hist. .ZEthiop., lib.
X V I.. n. 60.