The Wisdom of Solomon

David’s successor, Solomon, is remembered mainly for two things: his wisdom, and his wives. God appeared to Solomon in a dream and said “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” Solomon asked “that you give me a heart that understands, so I can rule the people in the right way and will know the difference between right and wrong.” (1 Kings 3:3-15)

Solomon’s wisdom was evidenced in a rather remarkable way. Asked to judge between two prostitutes laying claim to the same baby, he ordered it cut in half. One of the women was happy with the arrangement; the other preferred to give up the baby rather than have it die, thereby identifying herself as its true mother. To Solomon is attributed the book of Proverbs (at least, most of it) and possibly the book of Ecclesiastes.

His wisdom also achieved its stated purpose. He presided over an era of peace in the kingdom: establishing a successful administration; establishing trade relations with Egypt, arabia, and the artisanal province of Tyre (with whom he imported “gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks”), and building the temple to God, fulfilling God’s promise to his father.

The layout was functionally the same as that of the tabernacle, though now the cherubim were gold statues, and indeed gold covered most of the interior. But the true glory came when the temple was dedicated to the Lord, the ark of the covenant was brought into the Most Holy Place, and “a cloud filled the Temple of the Lord. The priests could not continue their work, because the Temple was filled with the glory of the Lord.” (1 Kings 8:10, 11) As always in the Old Testament, the ultimate quest is the presence of God.

The rest of his time Solomon seems to have spent marrying. “He had seven hundred wives who were from royal families and three hundred slave women who gave birth to his children. His wives caused him to turn away from God. As Solomon grew old, his wives caused him to follow other gods. He did not follow the Lord completely as his father David had done” (1 Kings 11:3,4) He may have had an affair with the mysterious Queen of Sheba (at any rate, the 20th century Ethiopian king Haile Selassie was the last of a dynasty that claimed descent from this union, though this is generally considered unlikely).

Solomon’s turbulent household also did little for his parenting. After he died, his sons Rehoboam and Jeroboam fought over the kingdom, eventually dividing it. Jeroboam took the northern kingdom, Samaria; Rehoboam the southern kingdom, Judah. The united kingdom had lasted all of three generations. Wisdom itself, it seems, only takes one so far.