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.