_THE BOY-KING'S WISDOM._
1 KINGS iii. 1-28.
"An oracle is upon the lips of a king."--PROV. xvi. 10 (Heb.).
"A king that sitteth on the throne of judgment scattereth away
all evil with his eye."--PROV. xx. 8.
"Ch' ei fu Rè, che chiese senno
Acciochè Rè sufficiente fosse."
DANTE, _Parad._, xiii. 95.
"Deos ipsos precor ut mihi ad finem usque vitæ quietam et
intelligentem humani divinique juris mentem duint."--TAC.,
_Ann._, iv. 38.
It would have thrown an interesting light on the character and
development of Solomon, if we had been able to conjecture with any
certainty what was his age when the death of David made him the
unquestioned king. The pagan historian Eupolemos, quoted by Eusebius,
says that he was twelve; Josephus asserts that he was fifteen. If
Rehoboam was indeed as old as forty-one when he came to the throne (1
Kings xiv. 21), Solomon can hardly have been less than twenty at his
accession, for in that case he must have been married before David's
death (1 Kings xi. 42). But the reading "forty-one" in 1 Kings xiv.
21 is altered by some into "twenty-one," and we are left in complete
uncertainty. Solomon is called "a child" (1 Kings iii. 7), "young and
tender" (1 Chron. xxix. 1); but his acts show the full vigour and
decision of a man.[151]
The composite character of the Books of Kings leads to some
disturbance of the order of events, and 1 Kings iii. 1-4 is perhaps
inserted to explain Solomon's sacrifice at the high place of
Gibeon,[152] where stood the brazen altar of the old Tabernacle.[153]
But no apology is needed for that act.[154] The use of high places,
even when they were consecrated to the worship of Jehovah, was
regarded in later days as involving principles of danger, and
became a grave offence in the eyes of all who took the Deuteronomic
standpoint. But high places to Jehovah, as distinct from those
dedicated to idols, were not condemned by the earlier prophets, and
the resort to them was never regarded as blameworthy before the
establishment of the central sanctuary.
After the frightful massacre of the descendants of Aaron at Nob, the
old "Tabernacle of the congregation" and the great brazen altar of
burnt offerings had been removed to Gibeon from a city defiled by
the blood of priests.[155] Gibeon stood on a commanding elevation
within easy distance of Jerusalem, and was henceforth regarded as
"the great high place," until the Temple on Mount Zion was finished.
Thither Solomon went in that imposing civil, religious, and military
procession of which the tradition may be preserved in the name of
Wady Suleiman still given to the adjoining valley. There, with
Oriental magnificence, like Xerxes at Troy, he offered what the
Greeks called a _chiliombe_, that is, a tenfold hecatomb of burnt
offerings.[156] This "thousandfold holocaust," as the Septuagint
terms it, must have been a stately and long-continued function,
and in approval of his sacrifice Jehovah granted a vision to the
youthful king. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams and
ten thousands of rivers of oil, when all the beasts of the forest are
His, and the cattle upon a thousand hills? "Thinkest thou," He asked,
in the words of the Psalmist, "that I will eat bull's flesh or drink
the blood of goats?" No; but God always accepts a willing sacrifice
in accordance with the purpose and sincerity of the giver. In reward
for the pure intention of the king He appeared to Solomon in a dream,
and said, "Ask what I shall give thee."
The Jews recognised three modes of Divine communication--by dreams;
by Urim, and by prophets. The highest and most immediate illumination
was the prophetic. The revelation by means of the primitive Urim and
Thummin, the oracle and jewelled breastplate of the high priest, was
the poorest, the most elementary, the most liable to abuse. It was
analogous to the method used by the Egyptian chief priests, who wore
round their necks a sapphire ornament called Thmei, or "truth," for
purposes of divination.[157] After the death of David the Urim and
Thummin fell into such absolute desuetude, as a survival of primitive
times, that we do not read of its being consulted again in a single
instance. It is not so much as mentioned during the five centuries
of the history of the kings, and we do not hear of it afterwards.
Solomon never once inquired of the priests as David did repeatedly.
In the reign of Solomon the voice of prophecy, too, was silent, until
disasters began to cloud its close. Times of material prosperity and
autocratic splendour are unfavourable to the prophet's function,
and sometimes, as in the days of Ahab, the prophets themselves
"philippised" in Jehovah's name. But revelation by dreams occurs in all
ages. In his prophecy of the great future, Joel says, "Your old men
shall see visions, your young men shall dream dreams." It is true that
dreams must always have a subjective element, yet, as Aristotle says,
"The visions of the noble are better than those of common men."[158]
The dreams of night are reflections of the thoughts of day. "Solomon
worships God by day; God appears to Solomon by night. Well may we look
to enjoy God, when we have served Him."[159] Full of the thoughts
inspired by an intense devotion, and a yearning desire to rule aright,
the sleeping soul of Solomon became bright with eyes,[160] and in his
dream he made a worthy answer to the appeal of God.
"Ask what I shall give thee!" That blessed and most loving offer
is made to every human soul. To the meanest of us all God flings
open the treasuries of heaven. The reason why we fatally lose them
is because we are blinded by the glamour of temptation, and snatch
instead at glittering bubbles or Dead Sea fruits. We fail to attain
the best gifts, because so few of us earnestly desire them, and so
many disbelieve the offer that is made of them. Yet there is no
living soul to which God has not given the choice of good and evil.
"He hath set fire and water before thee: stretch forth thy hand unto
whether thou wilt. Before man is life and death; and whether him
liketh shall be given him."[161] Even when our choice is not evil it
is often desperately frivolous, and it is only too late that we rue
the folly of having rejected the better and chosen the worse.
"Damsels of Time the hypocritic days,
Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes,
And marching single in an endless file,
Bring diadems and fagots in their hands.
To each they offer gifts after his will,--
Bread, kingdoms, stars, and sky that holds them all.
I, in my pleachèd garden, watched the pomp,
Forgot my morning wishes; hastily
Took a few herbs and apples, and the Day
Turned and departed silent. I, too late,
Under her solemn fillet saw the scorn."[162]
But Solomon made the wise choice. In his dream he thanked God for
His mercifully fulfilled promise to David his father, and with the
touching humble confession, "I am but a little child: I know not how to
go out or come in,"[163] he begged for an understanding heart to judge
between right and wrong in guiding his great and countless people.[164]
God was pleased with the noble, unselfish request. The youthful king
might have besought the boon of "many days," which was so highly
valued before Christ had brought life and immortality to light; or
for riches, or for victory over his enemies. Instead of this he had
asked for "understanding, to discern judgment," and the lesser gifts
were freely accorded him. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."[165]
God promised him that he should be a king of unprecedented greatness.
He freely gave him riches and honour, and, conditionally on his
continued faithfulness, a long life. The condition was broken, and
Solomon was not more than sixty years old when he was called before
the God whom he forsook.[166]
"And Solomon awoke, and behold it was a dream." But he knew well that
it was also more than a dream, and that "God giveth to His beloved
even sleeping."[167]
In reverential gratitude he offered a second sacrifice of burnt
offerings before the ark on Mount Zion, and added to them peace
offerings, with which he made a great feast to all his servants.
Twice again did God appear to Solomon; but the second time it was to
warn, and the third time to condemn.
In the parallel account given by the chronicler, Solomon says,
"Give me now wisdom and knowledge," and God replies, "Wisdom and
knowledge is granted unto thee." There is a wide difference between
the two things. Knowledge may come while wisdom still lingers, and
wisdom may exist in Divine abundance where knowledge is but scant
and superficial. The wise may be as ignorant as St. Antony, or St.
Francis of Assisi; the masters of those who know may show as little
'wisdom for a man's self' as Abélard, or as Francis Bacon. "Among the
Jews one set of terms does service to express both intellectual and
moral wisdom. The 'wise' man means the righteous man; the 'fool' is
one who is godless. Intellectual terms that describe knowledge are
also moral terms describing life." No doubt in the ultimate senses of
the words there can be no true knowledge, as there can be no perfect
wisdom, without goodness. This was a truth with which Solomon himself
became deeply impressed. "The fear of the Lord," he said, "is the
beginning of wisdom, but fools despise knowledge and understanding."
The lineaments of "a fool" are drawn in the Book of Proverbs, and
they bear the impress of moral baseness and moral aberrations.
To Solomon both boons were given, "wisdom and understanding exceeding
much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea
shore." Of his many forms of intellectual eminence I will speak
later on. What he longed for most was evidently moral insight and
practical sagacity. He felt that "through justice shall the throne be
established."
Practical wisdom was eminently needed for the office of a judge.[168]
Judgeship was a main function of Eastern royalty, and rulers were
called _Shophetim_ or judges.[169] The reality of the gift which
Solomon had received from God was speedily to be tested.[170] Two
harlots came before him.[171] One had overlaid her child in the
night, and stealing the living child of the other she put her dead
child in its place. There was no evidence to be had. It was simply
the bare word of one disreputable woman against the bare word of
the other. With instant decision, and a flash of insight into the
springs of human actions, Solomon gave the apparently childish order
to cut the children in two, and divide them between the claimants.
The people laughed,[172] and the delinquent accepted the horrible
decision; but the mother of the living child yearned for her babe,
and she cried out, "O my lord, give her the living babe,[173] and in
no wise slay it." "_Give her the living babe, and in no wise slay
it_," murmured the king to himself, repeating the mother's words; and
then he burst out with the triumphant verdict, "Give _her_ the living
child! _she_ is the mother thereof!"[174]
The story has several parallels. It is said by Diodorus Siculus
that when three youths came before Ariopharnes, King of Thrace, each
claiming to be the only son of the King of the Cimmerians, he ordered
them each to hurl a javelin at their father's corpse. Two obeyed,
one refused, and Ariopharnes at once proclaimed him to be the true
son.[175] Similarly an Indian story tells that a woman, before she
bathed, left her child on the bank of the pool, and a female demon
carried it off. The goddess, before whom each claimed the child,
ordered them to pull it in two between them, and consigned it to
the mother who shuddered at the test.[176] A judgment similarly
founded on filial instinct is attributed to the Emperor Claudius. A
mother refused to acknowledge her son; and as there were no proofs
Claudius ordered her to marry the youth, whereupon she was obliged to
acknowledge that he was her son.[177]
Modern critics, wise after the event, express themselves very
slightingly of the amount of intelligence required for the decision;
but the people saw the value of the presence of mind and rapid
intuition which settled the question by bringing an individual
dilemma under the immediate arbitrament of a general law. They
rejoiced to recognise the practical wisdom which God had given
to their young king. The word _Chokhmah_, which is represented
by one large section of Jewish literature, implied the practical
intelligence derived from insight or experience, the power to govern
oneself and others. Its conclusions were expressed chiefly in a
gnomic form, and they pass through various stages in the Sapiential
Books of the Old Testament. The chief books of the _Chokhmah_ are the
Books of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, followed by such books as
Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus. On the Divine side Wisdom is the Spirit
of God, regarded by man under the form of Providence (Wisdom i. 4,
7, vii. 7, 22, ix. 17); and on the human side it is trustworthy
knowledge of the things that are (_id._ vii. 17). It is, in fact, "a
knowledge of Divine and human things, and of their causes" (4 Macc.
ii. 16). This branch of wisdom could be repeatedly shown by Solomon
at the city gate and in the hall of judgment.
2. His varied _intellectual_ wisdom created deeper astonishment. He
spake, we are told, "of trees from the cedar which is in Lebanon even
unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts
and fowl and of creeping things and of fishes." This knowledge has been
misunderstood and exaggerated by later tradition. It is expanded in
the Book of Wisdom (viii. 17) into a perfect knowledge of kosmogony,
astronomy, the alterations of solstices, the cycles of years, the
natures of wild beasts, the forces of spirits, the reasonings of men,
the diversities of plants. Solomon became to Eastern legend
"The warrior-sage, whose restless mind
Through nature's mazes wandered unconfined,
Who every bird, and beast, and insect knew,
And spake of every plant that quaffs the dew."
His knowledge, however, does not seem to have been even empirically
scientific. It consisted in the moral and religious illustration
of truth by emblems derived from nature.[178] He surpassed, we are
told, the ethnic gnomic wisdom of all the children of the East--the
Arabians and Chaldæans, and all the vaunted scientific and mystic
wisdom of Egypt.[179] Ethan and Heman were Levitic poets and
musicians;[180] Chalcol and Darda[181] were "sons of the choir,"
_i.e._, poets (Luther), or sacred singers;[182] and all four were
famed for wisdom; but Solomon excelled them all. Of his one thousand
and five songs, the majority were probably secular. Only two psalms
are even traditionally assigned to him.[183] Of his three thousand
proverbs not more than two hundred survive, even if all in the Book
of Proverbs be his. Tradition adds that he was a master of "riddles"
or "dark sayings," by which he won largely in fines from Hiram, whom
he challenged for their solution, until the Tyrian king defeated him
by the aid of a sharp youth named Abdemon.[184] Specimens of these
riddles with their answers may be found in the Book of Proverbs,[185]
for the Hebrew word "proverb" (_Mashal_) probably means originally,
an illustration. This book also contains various ambiguous hard
sayings of which the skilful construction awoke admiration and
stimulated thought.[186] The Queen of Sheba is said to have tested
Solomon by riddles.[187] The tradition gradually spread in the
East that Solomon was also skilled in magic arts, that he knew the
language of the birds,[188] and possessed a seal which gave him
mastery over the genii. In the Book of Wisdom he is made to say, "All
such things as are either secret or manifest, them I know." Josephus
attributes to him the formulæ and spells of exorcism, and in Eccles.
ii. 8 the words rendered "musical instruments" (shiddah and shiddoth;
R.V., "concubines very many") were understood by the Rabbis to mean
that he was the lord over male and female demons.[189]
3. Far more precious than practical or intellectual ability is the
gift of _moral_ wisdom, which Solomon so greatly appreciated but
so imperfectly attained. Yet he felt that "wisdom is the principal
thing, therefore get wisdom." The world gives that name to many
higher and lower manifestations of capacity and attainment, but
wisdom is in Scripture the one law of all true life. In that
magnificent outburst of Semitic poetry, the twenty-eighth chapter
of the Book of Job, after pointing out that there is such a thing
as natural knowledge--that there is a vein for the silver, and ore
of gold, and a place of sapphires, and reservoirs of subterranean
fire--the writer asks: "But where shall wisdom be found? and where is
the place of understanding?" After showing with marvellous power that
it is beyond man's unaided search--that the depths and the seas say,
"It is not in us," and destruction and death have but heard the fame
thereof with their ears--he adds with one great crash of concluding
music, "God understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth the place
thereof.... And unto man He said, _Behold, the fear of the Lord, that
is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding_."[190] And again
we read, "_The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge_."[191]
The sated cynic of the Book of the Ecclesiastes, or one who had
studied, not without dissatisfaction, his sad experience, adds,
"_Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of
man_." And in answer to the question "_Who is a wise man and endued
with knowledge among you?_" St. James, the Lord's brother, who had
evidently been a deep student of the Sapiential literature, does
not answer, "He who understands all mysteries," or, "He who speaks
with the tongue of men or of angels," but, "Let him show out of a
good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom." Men whom the
world has deemed wise have often fallen into utter infatuation, as
it is written, "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness"; but
heavenly wisdom may belong to the most ignorant and simplehearted.
It is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated,
without partiality and without hypocrisy."
We should observe, however, that the _Chokhmah_, or
wisdom-literature of the Jews, while it incessantly exalts morality,
and sometimes almost attains to a perception of the spiritual life,
was neither prophetic nor priestly in its character. It bears the
same relation to the teaching of the prophets on the one hand,
and the priests on the other, as morality does to religion and
to externalism. Its teaching is loftier and truer than the petty
insistence of Pharisaism on meats and drinks and divers washings, in
that it deals with the weightier matters of the law; but it does not
attain to the passionate spirituality of the greater Hebrew seers.
It cares next to nothing for ritual, and therefore rises above the
developed Judaism of the post-exilic epoch. It is lofty and true
inasmuch as it breathes the spirit of the Ten Commandments, but it
has not learnt the freedom of love and the beatitudes of perfect
union with God. In one word, it finds its culmination in Proverbs and
Ecclesiasticus, rather than in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount
and the Gospel of St. John.
We cannot better conclude this chapter than with the eulogy of the
son of Sirach: "Solomon reigned in a peaceable time and was honoured;
for God made all quiet round about him, that he might build a house
in His name and prepare His sanctuary for ever. How wise wast thou
in thy youth, and, as a flood, filled with understanding! Thy soul
covered the whole earth, and thou filledst it with dark parables. Thy
name went far unto the islands, and for thy peace thou wast beloved.
The countries marvelled at thee for thy songs, and proverbs, and
parables, and interpretations. By the name of the Lord God, who is
called the Lord God of Israel, thou didst gather gold as tin, and
didst multiply silver as lead."[192]
FOOTNOTES:
[151] See 1 Sam. xxi. 6, compared with 1 Chron. xvi. 39, 40; 2 Chron.
i. 3.
[152] An old Hivite capital (Josh. xviii. 21-25), now El Jib.
Josephus alters it to "Hebron."
[153] See 1 Chron. xvi. 39, 40, xxi. 29; 2 Chron. i. 3. The annals of
Solomon fall into three divisions: first, his secure establishment
upon the throne (1 Kings i, ii.); next, his wisdom, wealth, glory,
and great buildings, especially the building of the Temple (iii.-x.);
lastly, his fall and death (xi.).
[154] It was sufficiently sanctioned by Exod. xx. 24, and Jerusalem
was not yet chosen (Deut. xii. 13, 14). See Judg. vi. 24, xiii. 19;
1 Sam. ix. 12, etc. This seems to have been the last great sacrifice
there. In 1 Kings iii. 5-15 the sacrifice is regarded with approval;
in verses 2, 3 it is condemned, but excused by circumstances; in the
verses inserted by the chronicler (2 Chron. i. 3-6) it is said that
the Tabernacle was there.
[155] See 1 Sam. xxii. 17-19.
[156] Herod., vii. 43. Xerxes offered one thousand at Troy, and
Crœsus three thousand at Delphi (_Id._, i. 50).
[157] Hence, perhaps, the LXX. rendering of Δήλωσις καὶ Ἀλήθεια.
This view is accepted by Hengstenberg (_Egypt and the Five Books of
Moses_, chap. vi.), and Kalisch (on Exod. xxviii. 31).
[158] Arist., _Eth. Nic._, i. 13: "βελτίω τὰ φαντάσματα τῶν ἐπιεικῶν
ἢ τῶν τυχόντων."
[159] Bishop Hall.
[160] "Εὔδουσα γὰρ φρὴν ὄμμασιν λαμπρύνεται."--Æsch., _Eum._, 104.
[161] Ecclus. xv. 16, 17.
[162] Emerson.
[163] The phrase "a little child" (comp. Jer. i. 6) hardly bears on
his actual age. See Gen. xliii. 8; Exod. xxxiii. 11. It is proverbial
like the subsequent phrase, for which see Deut. xxviii. 6; Psalm
cxxi. 8, etc.
[164] Heb., "A hearing heart." LXX., "A heart to hear and judge Thy
people in righteousness." In 2 Chron. i. 10, "Wisdom and knowledge."
[165] Matt. vi. 33.
[166] Josephus (_Antt._, VIII. vii. 8) makes him die at ninety-four,
and become king at fourteen. Perhaps he mistook μ' for π' in the LXX.
[167] Psalm cxxvii. 2 (uncertain).
[168] 1 Sam. viii. 6, 20; 2 Sam. xv. 4. "To rule was with the
ancients the synonym of to judge." Artemidorus, _Oneirocr._, ii. 14.
(Bähr, _ad loc._).
[169] Compare the Phœnician's _Suffetes_ (Liv.).
[170] As instances of the lower sense in which the term "wisdom" was
applied, see 2 Sam. xiii. 3 (Jonadab); xiv. 2 (the woman of Tekoa);
xx. 16 (the woman of Abel of Beth-maachah).
[171] The Rabbis call them "innkeepers," as they call Rahab.
[172] I follow the not improbable additional details given by
Josephus from tradition.
[173] יֵלֶד. LXX., παιδίον.
[174] So the Greek version, which represents the clause rightly.
Tradition narrates a yet earlier specimen of Solomon's wisdom. Some
sheep had strayed into a pasture. The owner of the land demanded
reparation. David said that to repay his loss he might keep the
sheep. "No," said Solomon, who was but eleven years old, "let him
keep them only till their wool, milk, and lambs have repaid the
damage; then let him restore them to their owner." David admitted
that this was the more equitable judgment, and he adopted it. See The
Qur'an, _Sura_ xxi. 79 (Palmer's Qur'an, ii. 52).
[175] The parallel is adduced by Grotius.
[176] Quoted by Bähr.
[177] Suet., _Claud._, 15.
[178] For references to animals, etc., see Prov. vi. 6, xxiv. 30-34,
xxx. 15-19, 24-31; Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. ii. 5; Ecclus. xlvii. 17.
[179] See Isa. xix. 11, xxxi. 2; Acts vii. 22; Herod., ii. 160;
Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. ii. 5 (Keil).
[180] See 1 Chron. ii. 6, vi. 44, xv. 17, 19, xxv. 5. Titles
of Psalms xviii., lxxxviii., lxxxix. "Ezrahite," perhaps, is a
transposition of Zerahite.
[181] 1 Chron. ii. 6. In _Seder Olam_ they are called "prophets who
prophesied in Egypt."
[182] "Sons of Mahol" (comp. Eccles. xii. 4).
[183] Psalms lxxii., cxxvii. The so-called "Psalms of Solomon," fifteen
in number, are of the Maccabean age; Josephus calls his songs βίβλια
περὶ ὠδῶν καὶ μελῶν, and his proverbs βίβλους παραβολῶν καὶ εἰκόνων.
[184] See Euseb., _Præp. Evang._, ix. 34, § 19.
[185] Prov. xi. 22, xxiv. 30-34, xxv. 25, xxvi. 8, xxx. 15.
[186] _E.g._, Prov. vi. 10.
[187] 1 Kings x. 1; LXX., ἐν αἰνίγμασι. See Wünsche, _Die
Räthselweisheit_, 1883; Grätz, _Hist. of the Jews_, i. 162. For
specimens of her traditional puzzles see the author's _Solomon_, p.
135 (Men of the Bible).
[188] "And Solomon was David's heir, and said, Ye folk! we have been
taught the speech of birds, and we have been given everything: verily
this is a Divine grace" (Qur'an, _Sura_ xxvii. 15). For the legend of
Solomon and the hoopoes, see _Sura_ 27.
[189] According to Suidas (s.v., Ἐζεκίας) Hezekiah found his (magic?)
formulæ for the cure of diseases engraved on the posts of the Temple.
See Targum on Esth. i. 2; Eccles. ii. 8.
[190] Job xxviii. 23, 28.
[191] Prov. i. 7.
[192] Ecclus. xlvii. 13-18.