Tag Archives: 1 Kings 4-6

Daily Bible Study

April 19, 2024 Bible Study — Solomon’s Temple Was Not Very Large by Today’s Standards

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 4-6.

I’ve written about this before, but I don’t think even then I really thought about its implications.  Solomon’s temple was not very big.  The various descriptions later in the Bible about the repairs various kings made to the temple leave us with the impression that it was a massive building.  This is not the intention, or fault, of the writers.  It happens because we read back into our the Bible our perceptions of the world.  So, how big was the temple Solomon had built?  Well, the passage says that it was 60 cubits long by 20 cubits wide by 30 cubits high.  The translation notes say that converts to 90 feet long by 30 feet wide by 45 feet high.  That means it was 2,700 square feet.  For comparison, in 2015 the average home in the United States was 2,687 square feet (the average has dropped some since then).  That means that many American homes are larger than Solomon’s temple.  For another comparison, St Peter’s Basilica, the largest church building in the world, is a little over 69,000 square feet, which is more than thirteen times the size of Solomon’s temple.  I think it is important that we keep this in mind as we read the later accounts about the temple being restored after being allowed to fall into disrepair.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

April 19, 2023 Bible Study — Let Us Strive To Live Peacefully Under Our Own “Vine and Fig Tree”

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 4-6.

First, I want to note that this passage lists “Shimei son of Ela” as one of King Solomon’s governors.  So, perhaps the Shimei who failed to support Adonijah’s attempt for the throne was this Shimei rather than Shimei son of Gera, or perhaps that was a third Shimei.  I usually look at Solomon’s preparations for and then building the temple, but today I want to look at some other things in this passage.  The writer makes the point that everyone in Israel lived safely under their own vine and fig tree.  The phrase “everyone under their own vine and under their own fig tree” seems to me likely to be an idiom.  Considering the context, I think it would be an idiom for safety and peace.  In fact, this expression is used twice more in the Old Testament: once in Micah and another time in Zechariah.

I think the writer is contrasting life for Israelites under Solomon to what things were like under the Judges and even under King Saul.  In those earlier times there was a lot more raiding between the various peoples of the region (take a look at the account of how David and his men lived while they were among the Philistines in Ziklag, and even what happened to Ziklag when David and his men went with the Philistine army).  Further, it gives us an idea about why David conquered the neighbors he did while remaining peaceful with the Phoenicians (or, more accurately as it is understood today, the Canaanites of the Tyre and Sidon regions).  The other areas around Israel spent a lot of time raiding their neighbors, while those we now know as the Phoenicians were more interested in trade with those they encountered.  Solomon’s borders were the Hittite empire to the north, the Egyptian empire to the south, basically desert to the east, and the Mediterranean Sea to the east, except for the areas controlled by Tyre and Byblos (I believe that Tyre controlled Sidon at this time, while Byblos is mentioned as a separate entity in this passage) which were on the northern part of his eastern border.  We can learn from this that peoples prosper when they live by their own efforts and trade peacefully with those around them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

April 19, 2022 Bible Study — Worshiping God Together Leads To Unity

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 4-6.

King Solomon inherited a kingdom at peace, and was able to maintain that peace (for the most part, a later passage touches on some of the disturbances which happened later in his reign).  Solomon maintained peace in his kingdom by delegating authority to well chosen subordinates.   As a result, King Solomon was able to dedicate time to becoming knowledgeable about many different subjects.  This passage shows the important connection between wisdom and knowledge.  Wisdom will lead us to seek the knowledge necessary to make wise decisions, but knowledge does not make us wise.  I wrote above that King Solomon maintained peace by carefully delegating authority.  However, another element in maintaining the peace within his kingdom was the fact that he built the Temple.  The passage tells us that Solomon was able to build the Temple because he had peace, but it also allowed him to maintain that peace.  By focusing the practice of worshiping God in Jerusalem, he brought the people of Israel together.  They came from all parts of his kingdom with a common interest in worshiping God.  That connection made them feel like one people, and it caused them to have a unified understanding of what it meant to worship God.  It should encourage us to gather with other Believers so that we can both learn from them what God has revealed to them and teach them what God has revealed to us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

April 19, 2021 Bible Study Solomon’s Wisdom and Knowledge

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 4-6.

We learn from this passage that King David had left Solomon a unified country with no enemies threatening it.  King Solomon was able to build upon this and maintain the peace for which his father had fought.  King Solomon established a bureaucracy which allowed him to spend time studying many other things without having to spend all of his time governing. It seems that this study did not just generate useless knowledge since the kings of many nations sent envoys to learn from King Solomon.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

April 19, 2020 Bible Study — King Solomon Has the Temple Built

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 4-6.

The first thing I noticed when reading this was that King Solomon had time to learn about all of the subjects it later says he was knowledgeable about because he set up his government with people in charge of various aspects of it.  This included regional governors.  King Solomon demonstrated the wisdom for which he was famous by delegating his authority to others instead of trying to run everything himself.  Unlike his two predecessors, King Solomon delegated specific areas of responsibility to specific individuals.  King Saul had delegated responsibility sparingly, and only on a task by task basis.  King David had delegated responsibility on a more consistent basis, but did not clearly divide areas of responsibility.

Another item of interest to me was that the Temple of Solomon had what we would consider low ceilings.  The passage tells us that each story of the Temple complex was 7 1/2 feet high.  There was a two-fold reason for this.  Building materials were outrageously expensive, especially those used by Solomon in the Temple.  Also, the Israelites of that time had not developed the more advanced architectural techniques which make high ceilings practical.  This second point is related to the first in that what building materials one uses will impact how advanced one’s architectural techniques need to be to build high ceilings.  I will note it is likely that the impact of the level of architectural skill is more on it not occurring to them to build high ceilings than on them not being able to figure out how to do so.  Now, as I was doing a little research on the design of Solomon’s Temple I came across a reference suggesting that the design of Solomon’s Temple was a copy of the Temple of Melqart in Tyre.  This is certainly possible because King Solomon hired builders from Hiram of Tyre to assist in building the Temple.  However, while we do not know for sure, it seems probable that it was Hiram who built the Temple of Melqart in Tyre.  Which means that he may have copied Solomon’s design rather than the other way around.

 

Daily Bible Study

April 19, 2019 Bible Study — King Solomon’s Wisdom

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 4-6.

From the list of King Solomon’s officials we learn that King Solomon formally delegated governing Israel to subordinates. These officials almost certainly had other officials reporting to them. In yesterday’s passage, King Solomon eliminated the various power bases which King David had spent his reign balancing. In their place he set up officials and governors whose power derived from King Solomon. All of this demonstrates Solomon’s wisdom. King David had conquered most of the surrounding lands. King Solomon established a system of government which allowed him to use the wealth of these lands to begin building projects. In discussing King Solomon’s wisdom and knowledge the writer mentions that he composed a large number of proverbs and wrote a large number of songs. I am sure that some of those proverbs were designed to give guidance to the officials and judges who served under Solomon.

In describing King Solomon’s wisdom and fame, the author uses language which is reminiscent of myths, legends, and tall-tales. I am not saying that King Solomon was not that wise, merely that the writer is using the language used in those sorts of stories to quickly convey Solomon’s great wisdom before moving on to talk about his actual actions. I mention this to contrast it with the precision the writer uses to describe the year in which construction began on the Temple. He writes that Temple construction began in the 4th year of Solomon’s reign, 480 years after the Israelites left Egypt. This gives us a hard and fast date from which we can figure out when everything that happened before this occurred. Of course, the problem we have is that we cannot be sure when King Solomon built the Temple.

Daily Bible Study

April 19, 2018 Bible Study — Egypt to the South, the Euphrates River to the North

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 4-6.

    One of the things which has always struck me when reading this passage, and other descriptions of the large geographic area around Israel in the Bible, is that it describes the Euphrates River as being north of Israel. I always think of the Euphrates River as being east of Israel because I think of it as being in Iraq (which it is). However, when the writers of the Old Testament thought of the Euphrates River, they thought of the area that is now Syria (bordering on what is now Turkey). It is worth mentioning that the various references to Babylon and other empires based in what is now Iraq or Iran as being from the north in the Old Testament has bothered me for years. Now, I understand why that happened. Because almost all travel to and from the capitals of those empires and Israel went through northern Syria, those who lived in Israel thought of them as being to their north.
    In the past when I read that David or Solomon or some other Israelite/Judean king ruled over land extending from Egypt to the Euphrates River, I envisioned a much larger kingdom then the writer meant. I always interpreted that as from Egypt in the east to the Euphrates River (Iraq) in the east. When in fact the writer meant from Egypt in the south to the Euphrates River (Turkey) in the north.

Daily Bible Study

April 19, 2017 Bible Study — There Is Value In Reading The Bible Time After Time

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 4-6.

    Today’s passage starts out with a list of officials who served Solomon. Such lists usually make my eyes glaze over for two reasons. First, the names and titles do not really mean that much to me. Second, the names are generally difficult ones (e.g. Elihoreph). Today I actually recognized a couple of the names. The first name I recognize is Zadok who is listed here as the father of a priest and a little further on as a priest: where he is listed along with Abiathar. It is interesting to see Abiathar listed here because in yesterday’s passage we were told that Solomon deposed Abiathar from his position as priest as part of Solomon consolidating power as king. Benaiah, who was captain of David’s bodyguards and one of his mighty men, is now commander of Solomon’s armies. And one more familiar name appears. Two of Nathan’s sons are officials under Solomon. It was Nathan who confronted David about his sin with Bathsheba. It was also Nathan who arranged for David to crown Solomon as king when Adonijah tried to set himself up to replace David.

    The relevance of these observations is that they demonstrate how reading through the Bible time and again reveal things we might otherwise overlook. I just completed my fifth year of reading through the Bible in order to write this blog. Something I started doing in order to discipline myself to read the Bible everyday. I pretend like there are people who are relying on what I write for their daily Bible study in order to discipline myself to read the passages and write something about them. I pray that God will make some use of this blog, but I know that few of those who come here actually read the passages I am commenting on (yesterday, my blog had 18 views, but only three click throughs to the Bible passage…a number that is pretty consistent, even when my views went as high as 52 earlier this o=month). I will encourage everyone who comes here to click through and read the passage I am commenting on. There is more value in reading that than in reading what I have written.

Daily Bible Study

April 19, 2016 Bible Study

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 4-6.

    David had his mighty men, the Three and the Thirty. Solomon, on the other hand, had his advisers and his district governors. David had a strong military and used them to exert control over the various factions in Israel, but it was a balancing act that he had to constantly maintain. Solomon built an administrative government and subjected all of the factions to those administrators. By dividing up the country into twelve units and making each unit only responsible for supporting the government one month out of the year he was able to make the burden seem bearable. He followed a similar pattern when he instituted forced labor to build the Temple. In this manner Solomon was able to build a stable state which did not need war to maintain itself.