1 Kings 4:1–34

4:7–19 The “officers” (Hb. nitsabim) appointed by Solomon (and supervised by Azariah) are listed next and present a raft of interpretive issues. However, it is important that the impact of the placement of this list not be overlooked. “Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household.” The primary reason for these appointments is not the increasing complexity of the nation nor a recognition of God’s blessing on the nation, as is occasionally suggested. It is plainly to service the needs of the flourishing royal court. “Each man had to make provision for one month in the year,” presumably to ensure that the supply lines to the royal household did not wither.

Although not often noted, the ominous words of Samuel are surely in the mind of the writer:

These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day. (1 Sam. 8:11–18)

The division of the land into twelve districts clearly cuts across the tribal structure of Israel; while some of the districts may consist essentially of tribal areas, others (like the “hill country of Ephraim”) clearly do not. Despite significant efforts, it has not proven possible to identify precisely all of these place names. However, it does seem that the second through seventh regions follow a roughly clockwise pattern, with the remainder being north and south of the starting point in the hill country of Ephraim. It is also notable that the Transjordan is now included as an administrative district (1 Kings 4:19).

In verses 11, 15 we are told that Solomon appoints two of his sons-in-law to these key positions: “Ben-abinadab, in all Naphath-dor (he had Taphath the daughter of Solomon as his wife),” and “Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he had taken Basemath the daughter of Solomon as his wife),” but even more intriguing is the apparent omission of the territory of Judah from the list. It may be that the final phrase, “And there was one governor who was over the land,” may refer to the territory of Judah, or even that Solomon exempts his own territory from this royal procurement scheme. However, given the fact that a different word is used here, it seems most likely that this is a reference to Azariah (cf. v. 5).

Irrespective of the details of the division, one cannot help but sense a departure from the tribal ideal of Israel as one people gathered around the presence of God, a pattern established from the earliest days of the nation. This new situation may be more efficient, but it raises significant questions concerning the nature of the people of God under King Solomon. Once more, even as the reign of Solomon is held up as the highpoint of Israelite spirituality, one is left with a sense that all is not quite as it should be.

4:20 The writer’s habit of juxtaposing positive and negative appraisals of reality continues. As if to quell any sense of disquiet arising from verses 7–19, in verses 20–21 we are given a summary of life in the united kingdom, which is almost unparalleled in the OT. The promise to Abraham has been fulfilled: “Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea” (cf. Gen. 22:17; 32:12; 2 Sam. 17:11). Despite the apparent burden of maintaining the king according to the manner in which he has rapidly became accustomed, “they ate and drank and were happy.”²

4:21 Not only is life in the land good; the extent of the land exceeds even the promise of Yahweh, as “Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.” God’s enemies, it seems, have been overcome. God has delivered on all his promises, underlined by the phrases “all the kingdoms” and “all the days of his life.” The extent of Solomon’s kingdom is basically that envisaged in Genesis 15:18–21:

On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

4:22–23 The picture of life under Solomon shifts from the macro scale to the micro, as we leave the borders of the nation to examine the grocery order back in the royal court. It is an impressive list: “Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cors of fine flour and sixty cors of meal, ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.” A cor of flour was roughly equivalent to 275 pounds (125 kg). This emphasizes both the size and the opulence of Solomon’s court. While this was not atypical of ancient kings, it does not sit well with the requirements of Deuteronomy 17. The seven kinds of meat consumed are striking for both their luxury and their quantity. This is a far cry from the diet of the general population, and even though some of the meat comes from other nations as tribute, this cannot and does not eradicate the whiff of exploitation here.

4:24–25 The idyllic depiction of life under Solomon is picked up once more. John A. Davies suggests that the reference to “dominion” implies that Solomon is a new Adam and that through him God’s people are at last recovering something of the experience of Eden.³ The fact that Israel now explicitly enjoys both peace (Hb. shalom) and security from north to south would reinforce this, as does the fact that “every man [lived] under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon.” This phrase reinforces the picture of all being well in Israel and is characteristic of messianic rule (cf. Mic. 4:3–4 and Zech. 3:10, as well as the enticement of the Assyrians in 2 Kings 18:31).

4:26–28 Even as the significant benefits of life under Solomon are being extolled, a jarring note is sounded: “Solomon also had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen.” There is some discussion of the precise meaning of the phrase “stalls of horses.” This could also refer to teams of horses, but there is no doubt that the phrase is designed to bring to mind the clear prohibition of Deuteronomy 17:16 (“he must not acquire many horses for himself”). It is clear that the prosperity under Solomon means that supplying the needs of this vast contingent of cavalry is not an issue, but this does not address the heart of the problem. This new Adam, leading God’s people in what is starting to feel very much like paradise, is treading on dangerous ground.

4:29–30 One of the challenges in reading 1 Kings 1–11 is maintaining a faithful balance between thanking God for Solomon as we admire him and also recognizing that the seeds of disaster are germinating before our eyes. The writer is so nuanced and skillful that he will not allow us to jump to a final conclusion too soon. Solomon cannot be reduced to a cardboard cutout. He is both the wisest man who ever lived and also a great fool, but this will not become fully apparent for some time. For now, the fact that “God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore” remains front and center. The fact that Solomon’s “wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt” is actually a vindication of the fact that God himself is superior to all other gods.

4:31–34 Heman and Ethan the Ezrahite are mentioned in the superscriptions for Psalms 88 and 89, respectively, and, along with their brothers Calcol and Darda, receive passing mention in 1 Chronicles 2:6 (there is no explanation here of what happened to their brother Zimri, or why he was not considered wise!). But Solomon surpasses them all—in fact, his reputation is international. He is also a prolific source of wisdom material: “He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005.” The word for “proverbs” (Hb. mashal) may be a play on Solomon’s own name (Hb. shel omoh), and the large figures may be representative rather than precise. Solomon also has exhaustive knowledge of the natural world, as would befit a new Adam. He knows of the largest trees and the smallest herbs (probably hyssop) and of every class of animal life (broadly following the pattern of Genesis). This sweeping knowledge explains why “people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.”⁴