Chapter IX.
1–12 (= 1 Kings x. 1–13).
The Visit of the Queen of Sheba.
¹And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem, with a very great train, and camels that bare spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. ²And Solomon told her all her questions: and there was not any thing hid from Solomon which he told her not. ³And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built,
1. Sheba] An important district in Arabia Felix, the seat of a kingdom. See notes on 1 Chronicles i. 9, 32; also Barnes on 1 Kings x. 1.
hard questions] Hebrew ḥidoth, “dark sayings” (Proverbs i. 6); the singular is translated “riddle” (Judges xiv. 12–18).
⁴and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance[¹] of his ministers, and their apparel; his cupbearers also, and their apparel; and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit in her.
[¹] Hebrew standing.
4. and their apparel] The phrase is repeated probably through an error of transcription; it occurs once only in the parallel place in 1 Kings.
his ascent by which he went up] Render (if the text be sound), his manner of going up, i.e. the pomp with which he went up (so Targum); but it is better, with LXX. and Peshitṭa, to read the burnt offerings which he used to offer, a rendering which is right in 1 Kings x. 5 (compare Revised Version margin). The difference of reading between Chronicles and 1 Kings in the Hebrew is slight.
⁵And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thine acts[¹], and of thy wisdom.