1 Kings 10 — The Half Was Not Told Me
The queen of Sheba hears of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, and comes to prove him with hard questions, with camels bearing spices, gold and precious stones. She communes with him of all that is in her heart, and he answers every question. When she has seen his wisdom, his house, his table, his servants and his ascent to the house of the LORD, there is no more spirit in her: it was a true report, but the half was not told me. She blesses the LORD who loved Israel and set Solomon on the throne to do judgment and justice, gives him gold and spices, receives all her desire, and goes home. Gold comes in — six hundred threescore and six talents in one year, besides trade. Solomon makes shields of beaten gold, a great throne of ivory with six steps and twelve lions, and drinking vessels of gold; silver is nothing accounted of. His navy of Tharshish brings gold, ivory, apes and peacocks. He exceeds all kings in riches and wisdom, and all the earth seeks him. He gathers chariots and horsemen, makes silver as stones in Jerusalem, and has horses brought out of Egypt.
“Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.”
— 1 Kings 10:7
- v.1-5 The queen of Sheba comes to prove him with hard questions; she sees all — no more spirit in her
- v.6-13 A true report — the half was not told me; she blesses the LORD; gifts and almug trees; all her desire
- v.14-22 Six hundred threescore and six talents; shields of gold; the ivory throne; the navy of Tharshish
- v.23-29 Exceeding all kings; chariots and horsemen; silver as stones; horses brought out of Egypt
Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not (v. 3). Then she had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built (v. 4), and verse 5 lists the rest — table, servants, ministers, their apparel, the cupbearers. She saw wisdom not only in answers but in order: a household well run. The list is chapter 4's provision seen through a visitor's eyes. There was no more spirit in her: she was left breathless.
And his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the LORD — the Hebrew may also be read as his burnt offerings which he offered in the house of the LORD, and translations differ (compare 2 Chronicles 9:4). Either way, the list ends at the house of God. The study notes that the last thing she saw, on either reading, was the king going to worship. For readers today the question is a fair one: what does a stranger see in our homes and churches — order, generosity, and at the end of it all, the worship of the LORD?
It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom (v. 6). Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it. The doubter becomes a witness. She would not believe at second hand, so she came, tested and saw. Her journey is a model of honest inquiry: hear the report, doubt it if you must, then come and see — as Philip said to the doubting Nathanael, Come and see (John 1:46). Thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.
Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom (v. 8). She envies not the gold but the servants who hear wisdom every day; Psalm 84:4 says Blessed are they that dwell in thy house. The half was not told me has become a familiar saying for an experience that outruns its report. Christians have often used it of knowing God: Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard... the things which God hath prepared for them that love him (1 Corinthians 2:9). The study offers that as an application, not as the verse's meaning.
A foreign queen blesses Israel's God. Whether she came to faith or spoke with the courtesy of diplomacy, as Hiram did (5:7), the text does not say; she speaks of the LORD thy God. But what she says is sound: the king exists because God loved the people, and his task is to do judgment and justice — what David executed... unto all his people (2 Samuel 8:15). Power is for the people's good. Readers should hold her words as a measure for the rest of the chapter, where gold and display take up most of the verses.
She gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones (v. 10). Psalm 72, titled for Solomon, sings that the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts (Psalm 72:10). Verses 11-12 interrupt with Hiram's navy bringing almug trees from Ophir, used for pillars (or supports) in the two houses and for harps also and psalteries for singers; what wood is meant is not known, and red sandalwood is one suggestion. Wealth from far away became music for worship.
The visit ends in giving on both sides. All her desire, whatsoever she asked recalls 8:43, where Solomon prayed that God would do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: the king does for the stranger what he asked God to do. Royal bounty renders a Hebrew phrase like according to the hand of the king — a gift fitting a king's generosity, beyond what she asked. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.
The narrator does not say that she stayed, or worshipped at the temple, or bore the king a child. Later traditions fill the silence — Jewish, Arabic and Ethiopian stories grew up around her — but the study stays with the text, which simply sends her home. What she took with her was what she had seen and heard. Readers should notice where the chapter places her: at the start of a chapter on riches, so that her words about judgment and justice (v. 9) stand over all the gold that follows.
Besides this came income of the merchantmen, and of the traffick of the spice merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia (v. 15). 2 Chronicles 9:13 gives the same sum. A talent was a great weight of metal; the study does not convert it. Readers sometimes notice that 666 is also the number of Revelation 13:18; the text gives no hint of a link, and the study draws none. The point is abundance flowing to Jerusalem from trade, tribute and gift — the riches promised in 3:13, that which thou hast not asked.
Readers should also hear the law of the king: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold (Deuteronomy 17:17). The narrator does not quote it, and some readers think he presents the wealth simply as God's promised gift. Many others read the chapter's piling up of gold, followed by horses from Egypt (v. 28) and many wives (11:1-3), as a quiet measuring of Solomon by Deuteronomy 17:16-17, which names those three things. The study offers this as a reading many make; the text lays the details side by side and lets the reader see.
Gold becomes display: two hundred targets of beaten gold — large shields — of six hundred shekels each, and three hundred shields of beaten gold, hung in the house of the forest of Lebanon (vv. 16-17). They were ceremonial, it seems; within a few years of Solomon's death Shishak king of Egypt took them, and Rehoboam made brasen shields in their stead (14:25-27). The throne had six steps and a rounded back, with two lions beside the arm rests and twelve lions on the steps (vv. 19-20): there was not the like made in any kingdom.
The throne declared that this king sat higher than others; the lions, emblems of royalty, may recall Judah, a lion's whelp (Genesis 49:9). Readers may set it beside the king of chapter 3, who did his best work for two women with no gold in sight. All king Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold... none were of silver: it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon (v. 21). The study notes the movement of these chapters — wisdom, worship, wealth, display — without passing a verdict the narrator does not pass.
Tharshish may name a distant port — Jonah fled toward Tarshish by sea (Jonah 1:3) — but these ships seem to have used the Red Sea route (9:26), and in 22:48 ships of Tharshish were built to go to Ophir; many therefore take the phrase as a kind of large sea-going ship. Once in three years suggests long voyages. The cargo — gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks — came from far countries, and shows trade reaching well beyond Israel.
Readers in India may note a long-discussed suggestion: that the Hebrew words for apes and peacocks are borrowed from Indian languages — apes compared with Sanskrit kapi, peacocks with a Tamil word for the bird — which would point to trade with India. Others question the links, and some translations render the second word baboons. The study offers the suggestion as possible, not proved. So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom (v. 23) — the gift of 3:12-13 fulfilled to overflowing.
All the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart (v. 24), bringing presents a rate year by year (v. 25). He had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen (v. 26). The king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycomore trees that are in the vale, for abundance (v. 27) — precious things as common as stones on a hillside. The Hebrew word the KJV renders linen yarn is read by many as a place-name, Keveh or Kue, often identified with Cilicia in the north.
A chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty (v. 29), and Solomon's merchants passed them on to the kings of the Hittites, and... the kings of Syria. The chapter ends here, and readers have long heard Deuteronomy 17:16: the king shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt. Many read the closing order — gold, horses from Egypt, then the wives of chapter 11 — as the narrator's implicit measure. The study offers it as such. Psalm 20:7: Some trust in chariots, and some in horses.
The queen of Sheba is a model for honest seekers. She heard a report about God's king, doubted it, and took the trouble to come and test it with her hardest questions — and found that the half had not been told. If you have questions about God, bring them; He is not afraid of hard ones. If you are a believer, ask what a visitor sees in your home or church: order, kindness, and at the end, worship? Remember her verdict that power exists to do judgment and justice. And read the rest of the chapter carefully: gold, shields, an ivory throne, silver like stones, horses from Egypt. Blessing can become display, and display can become trust in chariots. Hold your riches with open hands.
Jesus Himself used this chapter: The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here (Matthew 12:42). She travelled far to hear a wise king; many of Jesus' hearers had One greater among them and would not listen. The church has also seen in her gold and spices a foretaste of the nations coming to Christ's light: Isaiah 60:6 says they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense, and many have heard it again in the wise men's gifts of gold, and frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:11). That is offered as the church's reading — and those who come to Him, believers say, find that the half was not told.
Note what drew her: fame concerning the name of the LORD — Solomon's renown was bound up with his God. Hard questions translates a Hebrew word used of Samson's riddle (Judges 14:12): enigmas and puzzles, the tests of wisdom that courts prized. She came to prove him — to test whether the report was true. Here, it seems, is the stranger of 8:41, who cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake. Jesus would say that she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon (Matthew 12:42).
Where was Sheba? Many locate it in south-west Arabia, where the kingdom of Saba grew rich on the incense trade; Ethiopian tradition claims her as a queen of Ethiopia, and the two lands face each other across the Red Sea. Scripture links Sheba with gold, spices and precious stones (Ezekiel 27:22; Isaiah 60:6). Later legends — such as the Ethiopian story of a son named Menelik — are traditions, not part of the text, and the study does not repeat them as history. The narrator does not even give her name. What he gives is her journey, her questions and her verdict.