THE SHADES OF NIGHT (950-931)

Solomon's story can be seen as three distinct periods  the glorious dawn, the brilliant light of day and the shades of night.

The first of these periods, namely the beginning of the reign (970-967), was for Yisrael a time of exaltation and hope. Everything succeeded for this young and gifted monarch who seemed destined to lead Yisrael to its highest position.

The second period (967-950) was that in which Solomon appears in all his honour. At this time the king enacted those measures which were destined to modernize the State. He concluded brilliant alliances. To ensure peace on his frontiers he established a powerful army. He built the Great Tabernacle of YAHWEH, the royal palace and also various buildings judiciously placed throughout the land. He attempted to organize vast commercial networks of an international character. Here and there we can discern some regrettable mistakes, some serious miscalculations. That was to be expected; success cannot be achieved all along the line. But taken as a whole Solomon's achievements remain worthy of admiration, and it can be understood why the Yisraelite chroniclers were fond of regarding Solomon as the greatest of the kings of Yisrael.

The third period, the last twenty years of the reign (950-931), is the period studied in this chapter. A change has occurred. Hitherto all seemed characterized by success, but disturbing shadows can be discerned on the picture. The story began in an atmosphere of collective, overriding joy; it appears now to be on the point of concluding in national tragedy. In every sphere appear the signs of undeniable decadence. The building was falling apart. This work, whose foundations go back to David, seemed as if it would defy the centuries. Now, even before the death of Solomon it began to look as if it were condemned to early ruin.

What caused Solomon to go astray in this way? Quite simply it was a series of mistakes in government of the most unfortunate kind. There can be no hesitation in asserting that it was a succession of failures -financial, political, spiritual and social -and, finally, moral failure too. Solomon could hardly have blundered more grievously.

Solomon's financial failure

On his death in 970 David bequeathed to Solomon large stocks of precious metals. Perhaps they were not quite so large as we are given to understand (1 Divre Hayamim 22), but nonetheless they must have been considerable. Solomon, on his death, left his son Rehoboam an empty treasury. These two facts enable us to see clearly enough what was Solomon's financial policy. It will be useful, both from the historical and psychological point of view, to follow the somewhat startling course of events.

 Was the building of the Great Tabernacle of YAHWEH the beginning of Solomon's ruin? By no means.

 David, with the mentality of an old peasant, had carefully collected together gold and silver ingots provide for the cost of building the Great Tabernacle of Yerusalem; at one time, indeed, he had thought that he himself would be able to carry out this undertaking, but it was on his son Solomon that the honour devolved.

On his succession the latter found great quantities of materials, a list of which is to be found in the Scripture, together with all the gold and silver for the building costs.

The building of the Great Tabernacle cannot, therefore, have had any considerable influence on Solomon's unbalanced budget. Of course, he had rather exaggerated architectural ambitions and he was shortly to give them free reign.

At this period in the East the potentates of Egypt, Mesopotamia or Phoenicia imagined that their power must be asserted in the eyes of their subjects as well as those of foreign peoples by buildings of incredible luxury. In his turn, Solomon imagined that to maintain the prestige of the State of Yahudah-Yisrael he must put up a series of imposing buildings. The architecture was to proclaim the honour of the king and through him of the nation.

If, as seems probable, Solomon was able to build the Great Tabernacle with the aid of the reserves of precious metals amassed by David, how did he manage to build the splendid palace by the side of the tabernacle, the imposing stables at Megiddo and the up-to-date strong holds which defended the country against invasion? The necessary subsidy was found by taxation. The system of the twelve administrators with their districts had been set up so that collectors could gather the taxes determined by the king, who whenever he wished could obviously give orders for a further turn of the screw. With methods of this sort the country could soon be in a state of penury; the farmer would not be in a position to furnish any more produce for requisition; and the craftsmen without work would experience the direst poverty.

Heedlessly, Solomon continued to build. It was a real mania. Some of his expenditure, that which concerned the strongholds and the organization of the army, for example, was undeniably useful. But some of it, on the contrary, stood revealed as mere ostentation and disturbing evidence of the royal pride.

At Solomon's court there had been formed a sort of aristocracy -high officials, counselors, dignitaries, the king's private servants, countless heads of departments in the palace, wardens of the harem etc., all of them highly paid from State funds, and all of them trying to outdo each other in luxury and ostentation. From Phoenicia the rarest jewels and the most precious cloths had been brought. From Arabia, India, and Africa, caravans trans ported exotic products which excited the general greed; the wealthy classes vied with each other to obtain them.

These descendants of nomad shepherds could hardly believe their good fortune. Their ancestors led their rough, frugal and primitive lives in tents. And now their sons were lodged in rooms lined with gold and made gay with decorative motifs; around them they had furniture made of rare woods inlaid with gold and ivory; they possessed curious and valuable trinkets. In such dreamlike surroundings there were continual festivities orchestras of lutes, lyres, flutes, cymbals and drums provided the accompaniment for the lascivious dances of the women. Choice banquets were organized at which the cooks competed with each other in knowledge and expertise.

For his part the king outdid all his courtiers in magnificence. And when he was to receive an ambassador he took care to appear in a setting of spectacular luxury.

The ostentatious display on the occasion of the visit of the queen of Sheba will be remembered.

Daily the style of living at the palace grew more luxurious and expenses increased accordingly, until there was complete and shameless waste. Solomon was on the straight road to bankruptcy.

Financially Solomon thought himself on a par, probably, with the rulers of Egypt or Mesopotamia. In this he made a serious mistake.

In Egypt, for instance, there was the Nile. In Mesopotamia, there was the Euphrates. These two muddy rivers every autumn overflowed their banks and fertilized the surrounding countryside so that in the dry season enormous crops could be gathered. These were countries of proverbial wealth. There was no comparison with Canaan in which the farmer could only rely on the rain for irrigation and in which there were more rocky hills than fertile land.

The rulers of Egypt and Mesopotamia were despots who ruled their peoples with a rod of iron. In the guise of taxes they confiscated, purely and simply, almost the whole of the harvests, only leaving the peasants sufficient to prevent their starving. They were powerful monarchs with immense revenues. Except when the river rose too far, or not high enough, they could be sure of gathering immense quantities of cereals into their barns. With this grain it was easy enough to buy from the Phoenicians wood for building or cabinet work which was greatly in demand. By barter also, in which Egyptian wheat played its usual part, incense and spices were procured from Arabia. The same means was used to obtain from the Aegeans their ceramics or trinkets. Thus one part of the royal stocks was used to regulate imports.

Solomon's situation was quite different. He was to have difficulty in meeting the account - and it must have been a high one - that Hiram I, king of Tyre, one day presented to him. For Solomon could not depend on a surplus from the harvest in Yisrael. In the social disruption caused by forced labour the farmers of the twelve administrative districts could scarcely provide sufficient food to feed the population of the kingdom. How was Solomon to extricate himself from this desperate situation?

He must have had difficulty in doing so, for he was in the toils of Hiram of Tyre, the banker for the whole of the Middle East, a shrewd financier who knew his business well.

As a result of the intense marine and commercial activity in the western Mediterranean all the Phoenician ports on the coast of Lebanon had accumulated enormous wealth in their warehouses. From the beaches of Lebanon to the ports of the Delta ships conveyed the wood which ensured that the Egyptian craftsmen had a regular supply of this indispensable raw material. Despite his status as a son of Osiris the pharaoh was asked to pay cash and even on occasion in advance.

Consequently, the Phoenician coffers were over flowing with gold.

In Solomon's case Hiram had perhaps agreed to grant considerable credits. Perhaps also in certain circumstances (the building of Ezion-geber, for example he had encouraged the incurring of expense. Thus the debit balance increased every day. One day Hiram presented his account, and Solomon, as was to be expected, was unable to pay it.

As a good Phoenician Hiram had every intention of being paid. In gold? Solomon had none. And Hiram possessed very large reserves. In foodstuffs? Egypt which paid for the supplies of wood with cereals or dried vegetables, ensured the feeding of Hiram’s subjects. What then could Hiram ask of Solomon? Obviously land. This was one of Hiram's great needs. On his island and even on the coast he lacked that vital space in which he could house his workers, build factories and establish warehouses. Despite the great works carried out on the island to win land from the sea the city suffocated within its circle of fortresses. It is true that the rich merchants had begun to settle into luxurious villas on the mainland facing the sea and with their backs to the mountains of Lebanon. It was obvious nonetheless that to ensure the development of all his undertakings Hiram needed more territory.

This is the explanation of Hiram's offer to Solomon; since the latter was in financial difficulties he could pay his account by ceding an Yisraelite province in the north with its frontier adjacent to Phoenicia.

We may imagine Solomon's reaction. But he was unable to refuse this solution to his difficulties, however disagreeable it was. He was thus in the tragic necessity of alienating a part of the national territory bequeathed to him by his father David. This is a dark chapter in the history of Yisrael; to meet foolish expenses Solomon was under the painful obligation of parting with a territory acquired in past times by conquest from the Canaanites.

What in fact did Solomon cede? Twenty towns, we are told, in the land of Galilee (1 Melechim 9:11) on the borders of Phoenician territory.

Hiram went to view the province which he had recently annexed. These towns did not please him and he said: 'What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother ?l' And to this day they are called 'the land of Cabul'.

If Hiram's observation referred to one of the twenty towns which was called Cabul (situated in the tribe of Asher to the south of Akko, the modern port of St John d'Acre) it provides us with an interesting piece of geographical information; according to this, Solomon had granted to Hiram a maritime province which was of great advantage for the expansion of Phoenicia. But scholars are by no means certain that there is a real connection between Hiram's remark and the name of the city of Cabul.

In addition the Scripture explains the expression 'land of Cabul' in another way. These towns did not please Hiram and he clearly expressed his dissatisfaction. Yosephus, the Jewish historian, commenting on the Scriptural text, offers a further explanation: in his view Cabul was a Phoenician word meaning 'unsuitable'. Hebrew scholars have considerable reservations on the score of this explanation. Indeed the whole matter is very obscure.

In addition, it is worth pointing out that the picture of Hiram does not carry conviction. The writer was very careful not to admit that a fertile region had been lopped off from the land of Yisrael. It was obviously preferable to show that in the circumstances Hiram had made a bad bargain. But in fact that would have been surprising; in business Hiram was never on the losing side.1

Undeniably Solomon appears as a very poor man of business. On the debit side there were very foolish expenses, and on the credit side very modest revenue. The reign could only conclude with a resounding financial failure, and the ruin of the kingdom.

1 Two remarks are necessary here:

1. In 1 Melechim 9:14 we find that after the cession of the 'twenty towns', Hiram sent the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold. From this it might' be concluded that Hiram had bought the cities in question and paid for his purchase with the sum mentioned above. By no means this Phoenicia gold was paid to Yisrael for the decoration then being carried out a Solomon's buildings.

2 In 2 Divre Hayamim 8 2 we read At the end of the twenty years which it took Solomon to build the Great Tabernacle of YAHWEH and his own palace, he rebuilt the towns that Hiram had given him. According to this writer, therefore, it was Hiram who had given these towns to Solomon. There is obvious confusion here. It may be explained by an involuntary mistake or by an attempt at 'historical revision' in which an attempt is made to draw a veil over Solomon's conduct in selling off the national territory.

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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