Solomon: The Son Who Sat on the Throne of Yahweh

Who he was, and when

Solomon (Hebrew *שְׁלֹמֹה*) was a king of the tribe of Judah in the time of the united kingdom, son of David and Bathsheba (1 Kings 1:11). According to Ussher, *Annals of the World* (1650), he reigned 1015 BC to 975 BC. His name first appears in Scripture in a family list, 2 Samuel 5:14, and the trail of his name runs all the way to Acts, 272 verses across fifteen books, most densely in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. He was one son among many: the dossier names Amnon, Chileab, Absalom, Adonijah, Shephatiah, Ithream, Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Eliada, Eliphelet, Tamar, Elpelet, Nogah and Jerimoth among his brothers and sister.

A throne claimed while David still lived

Solomon's first real scene is one he does not speak in. Another son is already acting as king, and the guest list gives it away: "but he didn't call Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother" (1 Kings 1:10). Nathan then goes to Bathsheba: "Haven't you heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith reigns, and David our lord doesn't know it? Now therefore come, please let me give you counsel, that you may save your own life, and your son Solomon's life" (1 Kings 1:11-12). The word Bathsheba is told to carry is an oath: "Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne" (1 Kings 1:13). Solomon is, at this point, a life in danger and a promise remembered by others.

The reversal comes quickly (1 Kings 1:33-34; 1 Kings 1:37-39; 1 Kings 1:46-47), and then Adonijah appears in the posture of a man who knows he has lost: "Adonijah was afraid because of Solomon; and he arose, and went, and hung onto the horns of the altar" (1 Kings 1:50). Solomon's answer draws a line rather than granting a blanket pardon: "If he shows himself a worthy man, not a hair of his shall fall to the earth; but if wickedness is found in him, he shall die" (1 Kings 1:52). Then, tersely: "Go to your house" (1 Kings 1:53). The consolidation of the kingdom continues in 1 Kings 2:12-13, 1 Kings 2:22-23 and 1 Kings 2:45-46.

The Chronicler tells the accession as worship rather than intrigue: "They made Solomon the son of David king the second time, and anointed him before Yahweh to be prince, and Zadok to be priest. Then Solomon sat on the throne of Yahweh as king instead of David his father, and prospered; and all Israel obeyed him" (1 Chronicles 29:22-23). Even his brothers bow: "also all of the sons of king David submitted themselves to Solomon the king" (1 Chronicles 29:24). And the verdict of that scene is not Solomon's achievement but God's action: "Yahweh magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel" (1 Chronicles 29:25). The same handover from David's side is recorded in 1 Chronicles 22:5-7 and 1 Chronicles 28:5-6.

Gibeon, and wisdom given

"Solomon loved Yahweh, walking in the statutes of David his father; except that he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places" (1 Kings 3:3). Scripture praises and qualifies in a single sentence. At Gibeon, "that was the great high place," he offers a thousand burnt offerings, and God comes to him in a dream with an open hand: "Ask for what I should give you" (1 Kings 3:4-5). Solomon's answer begins not with himself but with his father's God (1 Kings 3:6; see also 2 Chronicles 1:5-8).

What he asked for is later reported as a gift, not a talent: "Yahweh gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him" (1 Kings 5:12). Around that word stand cedar and cypress from Hiram, wheat and pure oil sent back year by year, and a treaty between the two men (1 Kings 5:10-12). The building work and its dealings fill many of the dossier's passages: 1 Kings 5:1-2, 1 Kings 5:7-8, 1 Kings 5:15-16, 1 Kings 6:1-2, 1 Kings 7:13-14, 1 Kings 7:47-48, 2 Chronicles 2:1-3, 2 Chronicles 7:10-12, 2 Chronicles 8:1-3 and 2 Chronicles 8:16-18. A visitor comes to test him in 1 Kings 10:1-4 and 2 Chronicles 9:1-3.

The cost, and the failures

The dossier's own quoted verses will not let the reign be read as unmixed glory. Immediately after the promise of wisdom: "King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men" (1 Kings 5:13). And of the peoples left in the land, "of them Solomon conscripted forced labor to this day. But of the children of Israel, Solomon made no servants for his work" (2 Chronicles 8:8-9). Compare 1 Kings 9:15-17 and 1 Kings 9:21-23.

He married the daughter of Pharaoh, and moved her out of David's city with a reason that is careful about holiness: "My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places where Yahweh's ark has come are holy" (2 Chronicles 8:11). Among his wives the dossier also names Naamah and one further wife left unnamed (1 Kings 4:11); among his children, Taphath, Basemath and Rehoboam.

The high places are named as an exception to his love for Yahweh (1 Kings 3:3), and that is a sin the text states, not implies. The reign then turns, and the turning is recorded in 1 Kings 11:4-7, 1 Kings 11:25-28 and 1 Kings 11:40-43. Those verses are not quoted in the material before me, so I cite them and leave their words to the reader rather than retell them. His death and the passing of the crown to Rehoboam stand there and in 2 Chronicles 9:28-31.

What we are not told

The dossier lists no open questions, which is not the same as saying everything is clear. Two of his wives are recorded without names, one only as the daughter of Pharaoh. Nothing here tells us his age at his accession, and nothing here tells us what he thought when Adonijah went home alive.

The line into the New Testament

His name does not stop with Chronicles. The New Testament references listed are Matthew 1:6-7, Matthew 6:29, Matthew 12:42, Luke 11:31, Luke 12:27, John 10:23 and Acts 7:47. It is Matthew 1:6-7 that carries the line forward: Solomon, son of David, named in the genealogy with which Matthew opens his Gospel of Jesus Christ. The rest of that testimony is best read where it stands, in those verses, rather than paraphrased here.