I Kings - Ferrar Fenton Bible Translation page 357

country, about your affairs, and about your wisdom! But I did not trust the statements until I came, and my eyes saw it. And indeed I was not told of the half of the extent of your scier1ces,·—for what I have heard is better than was re- ported to me. Your nobles are happy! Your ministers are happy, who always stand before you to listen to your wisdom ! Your EvER·· L1v1NG Gov should be blessed Who has granted to you to sit upon the throne of Israel! The Loan of Israel should be loved for ever, Who appointed you as king to do justice and right I ’ ro She then gave the king one hun- dred and twenty talents of gold, and very many spices, and precious II I2 stones. There never again came so great a quantity of spices as the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. But however the ships of Khiram

which brought gold from Aufer brought also from Aufer a very large quantity of almug woodl and precious stones, and the king made from the almug wood brackets for the house of the Evan-1.1v1Nc;, and lutes for the palace of the king, and harps and guitars for the singers. Such almug trees were never again brought, nor have been seen to this day. King Solomon also presented to

the Queen of Sheba all she desired, or she asked for, beside what she was given direct from the hand of King Solomon. Then she turned and went to her own country, and passed over to it. (ac. 985.) Sniuntutfs Wealth. x4 The weight of gold that came to Solomon in each year was six hun- dred and sixty-six talents of gold}

15 beside that produced by taxes on traders, and the import duties, and Almug wood is sandal wood, called by

the Arabians Kalmak——a product of India and Africa, and used in the East in our own day foxithé same purposes as Solomon put it to. v 9 @3,646,350 sterling by weight and at {4 er oz., but in purchasing value then at least

porty-fold what gold is now, that ls, equal to {445,852,ooo ster ing.--·F. F. PERIOD.--Y. KINGS. 1O·—-2g tribute from all the kingdoms of the west, and the Dependencies of the country. Solomon consequently made two hundred shields of beaten gold. (Six hundred of gold went to each shield.) And three hundred targets of beaten gold; (each con- tained three pounds weight of gold ;) and the king put them in the Palace of the forest of Lebanon. The king also made a great ivory

throne, and plated it with refined gold. There were six steps to the throne. and a carriage head to the throne from behind it, with arms on both sides of the seat, and two lions standing beside them, with twelve stationed on the six steps, one upon each side. There was nothing made like them in all the kingdoms. All the drinking cups of King

Solomon were of gold, and all the furniture of his palace in Lebanon was of pure gold. None was of silver or brass in the days of Solomon, for the kings ships of Tarshish, at sea with the ships of Khiram, returned every three years. These ships of Tarshish brought gold, and silver, ivory, monkeys and peacocks. Thus Solomon was greater than

all the kings of the earth in wealth and wisdom, and all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear the learning that GOD had given to his intellect; and all of them brought tribute of articles of silver, and gold, and fabrics, and arms, and spices, and horses, and mules, imposed year by year. Solomon also accumulated chariots and horses, and possessed 16 18 20 21 22 26 one thousand four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand cavalry, which he placed in cavalry barracks, and with the_ king in jerusalem. S0 the king made silver injcrusalcm, 27 like stones, and planted many cedars and syeamores in the lowlands. The horses that Solomon had were 28 brought from Egypt, and the collect- ing merchants were paid for them by the king according to contract. They zg brought up and fetched an Egyptian chariot for six hundred shekels of silver} and a horse for one hundred and fifty} and the same from all the I Taking ecxivalent weights of silver at 5s

g. per oz. Englls , equal to {67 ros. fora charlot, and for each horse, {16 xl7s. Then, taking the value of a modern carriage horse at {go sterling, the silver shekel of 2s. 4d. would be of Eve times the purchasing power of our day QR'!