3. Another important outlet for trade was supplied by Egypt. Not only had Solomon espoused a daughter of Pharaoh, but in defiance of the Mosaic Law (Deut. xvii. 16) he exchanged the produce of his own countryfor the horses and chariots of Egypt, as also for the linen-yarn, spun from the flax which the Nile valley yielded in abundance (1 K. x. 28, 29).
4. Last, but not least important, was the inland trade of the Arabian peninsula. Caravans of the native tribes transported on camels the spices, incense, gold, precious stones, and valuable woods of the country, especially the almug or sandal, and brought them into the dominions of Solomon, or, if they were intended for his Tyrian allies, to Gezer and Beth-horon, whence they were transported to the port of Joppa.
But though these several branches of commerce opened up to the Hebrew kingdom many and various sources of national prosperity, and tended to multiply the luxuries and magnificence of the court, this prosperity was on the surface only. Hidden beneath its external splendour were several cankers, which surely though secretly undermined the true life of the nation. First of all, this massing of gold and silver, as doubtless the Jewish Lawgiver had foreseen, could only be brought about by a process of severe taxation. And while forced to bear burdens heavy and grievous, the nation saw the tide of commercial profits, instead of being fairly distributed among the people, flowing only into the royal exchequer. Secondly, these commercial alliances seriously affected the nation’s allegiance to Jehovah. In imitation of other Oriental empires Solomon surrounded himself with a numerous harem, having 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 K. xi. 1–3). Besides the daughter of Pharaoh, he espoused women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites, and, as he grew old, they turned away his heart from the worship of the true God. Three times, indeed, during the year he celebrated the Festivals of Jehovah (1 K. ix. 25), but the licentious worship of Baal and Ashtaroth, of Moloch and Chemosh, found its way even into the Holy City, and their hideousorgies were enacted “hard by the oracles of God” (1 K. xi. 5–8).
At first, perhaps, there may have been few signs of weakness in a fabric so vast and so magnificent. In the figurative language of the sacred record, silver was in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar-trees as sycamores; Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry; in the enjoyment of profound peace, every man dwelt safely under his vine and under his fig-tree. Princes administered the government of various portions of the empire (1 K. iv. 1–6); officers deputed for the purpose provided victual for the royal table, and barley and straw for Solomon’s 40,000 chariot-horses, his 12,000 war-horses (1 K. iv. 26), and his swift mules; kings and princes of subject-provinces brought in their tribute at a fixed rate year by year (1 K. x. 25); and when the queen of Sheba came with her great train from distant Yemen in Arabia to prove the king with hard questions, and beheld his palace, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cup-bearers, and the ascent from his own palace to the Temple[336], there was no spirit left in her, and she confessed that the half of his fame and magnificence had not been told her (1 K. x. 1–9).
Before long, however, clouds began to gather portending the coming storm. Once at Gibeon, on the occasionof his accession, again after the dedication of the Temple (1 K. iii. 5; ix. 2), the Lord had appeared to Solomon, and on condition that he continued to walk in the ways of his father, had promised to crown him with prosperity, and establish his dynasty, but at the same time had warned him that any apostasy would bring down severe punishment. But promise and warning had been alike forgotten, and when the Lord appeared for the third time, it was to announce that the kingdom should be rent from him (1 K. xi. 9–13).
i. The quarter, whence danger first threatened, was on the south, in the land of Edom. When Joab invaded that country during the late reign, and for six months directed an indiscriminate massacre of the male population, Hadad, who was of the blood royal, and at that time a little child, was carried off into Egypt, where he was hospitably received by the reigning Pharaoh, and rapidly rising in the royal esteem, obtained the hand of Tahpenes, the sister of the Egyptian queen. On the death of David and of Joab, he returned from Egypt, and thirsting to break off the hard yoke of Jacob from the neck of Esau, organized a revolt in his native land, and began to threaten Solomon’s communication with the Elanitic Gulf (1 K. xi. 15–22).
ii. A second adversary appeared in the north-eastern provinces of the empire. Rezin, the Syrian, the son of Eliadah, flying from the defeat which his feudal lord Hadadezer, king of Zobah, had sustained at the hands of David, put himself at the head of a band of adventurers and seized Damascus. Here he set up a petty kingdom, and became an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, and an impediment to the king’s commerce with Tadmor and the Euphrates (1 K. xi. 23–25).
iii. But a far more formidable adversary appeared nearer home. When Solomon was constructing the fortifications of Millo under the citadel of Zion, he observedthe industry and activity of Jeroboam, already known as a man of valour, the son of an Ephraimite, named Nebat. Perceiving his worth, the king not only employed him on the works, but elevated him to the rank of collector of the taxes from his native tribe. On one occasion as he was going out of Jerusalem, Jeroboam encountered the prophet Ahijah of the ancient sanctuary of Shiloh, and accompanied him to a neighbouring field. When they were alone, the prophet rent the new outer robe in which he was attired into twelve pieces, and gave ten of them to Jeroboam, assuring him at the same time that he should reign over ten of the tribes, and that if he proved faithful to His laws God would establish his dynasty as he had done that of David (1 K. xi. 26–39). News of this mysterious intimation in some way reached the ears of Solomon, and he sought to put Jeroboam to death, but the latter fled for refuge to the court of Shishak (Sheshonk I.), a powerful monarch, who was bent on restoring Egypt to its former greatness. Here he remained during the rest of Solomon’s reign. Departing from his earlier policy the king had laid the burden of compulsory labour not only on the remnant of the Canaanites, but on the Israelites themselves (1 K. v. 13, 14). This increased the old jealousy of the great house of Joseph, and a man like Jeroboam was certain at any time to rally round him all the national discontent and ill-feeling against the once prosperous monarch.
While the signs of coming danger were thus becoming more and more evident, Solomon’s reign of 40 years came to a close, B.C. 975. The hopes he might have inspired when first elevated to the throne had not been fulfilled. He had, indeed, built the promised Temple; he had adorned Jerusalem with sumptuous palaces; his wisdom and learning had attracted the notice and roused the envy of distant monarchs; but he had not been mindful,save for a short time, while the example of David and the instructions of his preceptor Nathan were fresh in his memory, of the vocation to which he had been called. His kingdom exhibited some of the worst faults of other Oriental monarchies. He had violated each and all of the fundamental principles of the kingdom as laid down by the great Lawgiver of his nation. He had encouraged the worst forms of idolatry, had multiplied wives, had amassed enormous wealth, had laid heavy burdens on the people, and sated with pomp and splendour and selfish luxuries, he had confessed the vanity of his life (Eccles. i. 12–18). The kingdom which Abraham had seen in vision stretching from the river of Egypt to the gates of Damascus had, indeed, been realized, but its unity was not destined to survive the reign of the son of David[337].