SOLOMON, PRINCE OF PEACE

At his birth, Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba, had received from the prophet Nathan the name of Jedidiah ('beloved of YAHWEH'). The chroniclers called him Shelomoh (Solomon) in which is found the Hebrew root shalom, peace. In fact. Solomon was the prince of peace.

The forty years of David's reign (1010-970) give every appearance of an uninterrupted succession of campaigns inside and outside the country, of continual engagements and battles with no quarter given.

The forty years of Solomon's reign (970-931) were a period of continuous peace. For a long time past the Yisraelites had not experienced so long a period of complete social tranquility. And after the king's death they were never again to enjoy this great happiness in which Yahudah and Yisrael lived in security, each man under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan as far as Beersheba, throughout the lifetime of Solomon. 32

Under Solomon, then, there were forty years of peace. Historians have sometimes disputed Solomon's title as 'prince of peace' and have pointed to the military rivalry which was manifested between Rezin, the Aramean king of Damascus, an ambitious and grasping character, and Solomon, king of Yerusalem. Rezin's trouble was for nothing. On several occasions he attacked the Yisraelite outposts, but they were easily able to repel his assaults. Nevertheless, he continued to attack from time to time. These engagements amounted to nothing more, on a final analysis, than border incidents and should not be regarded as full-scale expeditions.

On the other hand, Hadad, the former sovereign of Edam who was driven out of his kingdom by David, had taken refuge, as was mentioned above, in Egypt. Directly after the death of David, Hadad hastened back to his former kingdom to try to win back his crown. But this petty chieftain was obliged to confine himself to minor engagements with the troops which guarded the road between Yahudah and the port of Ezion-geber, at the end of the Gulf of Aqaba (see map), that is, on the Red Sea. In the end, nevertheless, Hadad was to succeed in regaining his kingdom.

These different actions in reality amount to very little. There was nothing comparable with the warlike maneuvers which from one end to the other of David's reign were its distinguishing mark.

Solomon was truly the prince of peace.

The people of Yahudah and Yisrael lived in security

32 Dan was a city at the extreme north of Palestine. Beersheba was at the extreme south of Yisraelite territory. Hence the poetical geographic expression 'from Dan to Beersheba' to designate the whole of the country.

Solomon's army

Solomon, who was a sovereign of an essentially peace loving temperament, owed this peace very largely to the formidable military organization which he was able to establish. There were no wars of conquest on his programme. Nevertheless, to ensure the peace of his kingdom, he practiced a policy of armament which was meant to discourage any potential invader. This is a trait that must be put down to the 'wisdom' of Solomon.

The poor offensive and defensive weapons of Yahshua Ben Nun, the Shophtim, and even of David have already been mentioned. This is explained by the fact that although for some centuries past iron had been known in the Middle East 33 the sons of Yisrael experienced great difficulties in obtaining this metal; on the other hand their opponents, particularly the Philistines, forged great quantities of iron from which they produced formidable weapons.

In the case of the infantry there were no very great changes. Benaiah remained the commander of the professional army which was both the king's personal bodyguard and the training school for officers. On the other hand, the units composed of peasants and landed proprietors only joined the colours when war was declared. There was no general mobilization in Solomon's time, nevertheless the armories at this period were well provided with arms made of iron (swords, javelins, lances, arrows) and in the gallery of the Forest of Lebanon was stored a stock of weapons which could very probably meet all the tactical requirements of the times. In addition, there were depots in the many citadels and strong points.

But the great military reform carried out by Solomon dealt with a new form of armament, at least so far as the Yisraelites were concerned; this was the chariot.

33 Iron Age I:1200-900 B.C. During this period use of the new metal spread very slowly through Palestine Iron Age II 900-600 B.C.

Solomon and the introduction of chariots

Hitherto the Yisraelites had been terrified on the battle fields by the sight of the enemy's chariots, whether they were Egyptian or Canaanite, Hittite or Philistine. The psychological reaction of the very lightly armed infantry men can easily be understood when they had to with stand the assault of hundreds of bronze chariots, the horses at the gallop, advancing on their lines.

In 970, at the time of Solomon's accession, the Yisraelites had not yet used the war chariot. It is true that in Yahshua Ben Nun's time, when the tribes gained a precarious foothold in the Promised Land, they had been obliged to settle in the mountain regions or the wooded districts where the chariot was practically useless. But a little later, at the time of the Shophtim, they had to confront the armoured divisions of the Philistines; the Song of Deborah had preserved for us the detailed account of one of these dramatic battles. The question therefore arises: why did the Yisraelites, now called to fight in the plains, not make use of these new tactical weapons?

It is noticeable that David himself, a clever and well versed tactician, did not decide to make use of chariot formations in his army, despite the fact that they had become normal in the armies of the neighbouring powers. There is a very simple reason for this: David's financial position did not allow him to use a form of armament whose cost was prohibitive. In addition, on the battlefield chariots were only effective when they were used in large numbers and in close formation.

Then, too, well-trained drivers were required, together with supporting companies of archers kept in training by daily practice. It would have been necessary to build stables and establish a body of grooms. David was quite unable to assume so heavy a charge. Whenever the royal troops captured chariots from the Philistines they ham strung the horses and rendered the chariots useless. At the most, during the last years of his reign, David kept on the rock of Yerusalem a hundred chariots, captured from the enemy, which were used by his sons for parading through the streets of the capital.

With Solomon the situation changed completely. This shrewd politician realized the danger of a lack of arms of this kind. Directly after his coronation the chariot question became one of his chief concerns in connection with national defense. On this point we possess two sources of the highest interest which agree in the most surprising manner. These are the information provided by the text of the Scripture and the results of certain excavations.

At Megiddo, a fortress dominating the plain of Jezreel, archaeologists have discovered the foundations of the immense establishments which contained the stables, the depots for chariots, the quarters of the grooms and the barracks for the chariot teams. It is very probable that Solomon purchased from his father-in-law, Pharaoh Siamon, both the chariots and the horses, and that the instructors too came from the same source. In any case it can be said that Solomon had been able to adopt the very best methods of the period, at least so far as this specialized form of armament was concerned. Consequently the Yisraelites were in a position to meet any attack from neighbouring states. The introduction of the two-wheeled chariot, a bronze vehicle with iron armour, is usually attributed to the Hittites who swept in waves over the Middle East in about the year 1350 B.C. The back of the chariot was open so as to allow its crew to leave or enter it rapidly, but for battle a series of ropes was put in place to prevent the men being thrown out by a violent impact. Two high-spirited horses, trained for the purpose, were harnessed on either side of a long curved pole.

Sometimes two, sometimes three men formed the crew of a chariot; there was the driver with a whip, the archer with a supply of arrows arranged in quivers on either side of the chariot, and, on occasion, a soldier whose function it was to protect the crew with his shield.

At this period a horse with a saddle was practically unknown; this animal was only used for drawing carts and chariots. Four hundred years after Solomon, at the time of the Babylonian Exile, the prophet YeshaYahu was still unacquainted with the words designating saddle, spurs, etc. In other words, cavalry, in the strict meaning of the word, remained for long unknown in these civilizations.

As with a tank corps in modern times, recruitment to Solomon's chariots was reserved to an elite. The men were picked with care and received regular and intensive training. There could be no question, as with the infantry, of sending them home to wait (like the modern reservist) for their recall in case of war. Even in peace time these specialists had to remain under arms; they continued to look after their horses in the royal stables. The horses of a team had to know each other; they had also to know their regular driver, with whom they constituted one tactical unit. And the chariot itself, on account of the violent treatment it received, required, if it was to remain in good shape, teams of metal workers and carpenters to maintain it. In short, in these chariot barracks there was a professional army always on a war footing.

The prince of peace

At the international level Solomon was as fortunate as his father had been. In about the year 1000 Egypt was weakened by internal troubles; the great imperialist kingdoms of Asia Minor had fallen, and Assyria had not yet made an appearance on the frontier of Palestine It was a fortunate conjuncture of events which sheltered Yahudah-Yisrael from the fearful invasions of her powerful neighbours of the south and north-west.

On the other hand, David had administered some sharp lessons to the neighbouring tribes. All these trouble makers were reduced for the time being to a less warlike state of mind. As a result, under Solomon's rule Yahudah-Yisrael was able to enjoy a period of complete peace. Taxpayers of all countries and all periods have never been much enamoured of taxes imposed for military purposes. Hardly any tax is more unpopular, saving of course, forced labour. And so we find the Hebrews, and especially those of Yisrael, protesting strongly against the royal levy on hay; this concerned the first hay harvest in the spring, which was reserved for the horses of the chariot corps. The Yisraelites had forgotten that at the time of Gideon and Jephthah the farmers were obliged to mow the wheat before it was ripe and hide it away in order to save the harvest from the greed of the Midianites and Ammonites, the rapacious raiders from the other side of the Yarden.

Solomon ensured peace for his people. And although he had at his disposition a formidable army he was not led away by dreams of conquest. That is by no means his least title to fame.

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Solomon The Magnificent Index   Solomon Sitemap  Scripture History Through the Ages  Solomon The Historian  RADIANT DAWN  Solomon's Wisdom  SOLOMON IN ALL HIS HONOR  David's role in building the Temple  Dates of the building of the Temple  Division of the Temple  The Ark of the Covenant  The most Kodesh Place  Dedication of the Temple  SOLOMON Prince of Peace  SOLOMON THE TRADER   Solomon's Ophir expedition  The queen of Sheba  LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF SOLOMON  First historical works of the Hebrews  What did Solomon write  THE SHADES OF NIGHT  Political and social failure  Solomon's spiritual failure  The moral failure of Solomon  CONCLUSION of Solomon