Antiquities of the Jews — Book 8, Chapter 2

1. Solomon having already settled himself firmly in his kingdom, and
having brought his enemies to punishment, he married the daughter of
Pharaoh king of Egypt, and built the walls of Jerusalem much larger and
stronger than those that had been before, 2 and thenceforward he managed
public affairs very peaceably. Nor was his youth any hinderance in the
exercise of justice, or in the observation of the laws, or in the
remembrance of what charges his father had given him at his death; but
he discharged every duty with great accuracy, that might have been
expected from such as are aged, and of the greatest prudence. He now
resolved to go to Hebron, and sacrifice to God upon the brazen altar
that was built by Moses. Accordingly he offered there burnt-offerings,
in number a thousand; and when he had done this, he thought he had paid
great honor to God; for as he was asleep that very night God appeared to
him, and commanded him to ask of him some gifts which he was ready to
give him as a reward for his piety. So Solomon asked of God what was
most excellent, and of the greatest worth in itself, what God would
bestow with the greatest joy, and what it was most profitable for man to
receive; for he did not desire to have bestowed upon him either gold or
silver, or any other riches, as a man and a youth might naturally have
done, for these are the things that generally are esteemed by most men,
as alone of the greatest worth, and the best gifts of God; but, said he,
"Give me, O Lord, a sound mind, and a good understanding, whereby I may
speak and judge the people according to truth and righteousness." With
these petitions God was well pleased; and promised to give him all those
things that he had not mentioned in his option, riches, glory, victory
over his enemies; and, in the first place, understanding and wisdom, and
this in such a degree as no other mortal man, neither kings nor ordinary
persons, ever had. He also promised to preserve the kingdom to his
posterity for a very long time, if he continued righteous and obedient
to him, and imitated his father in those things wherein he excelled.
When Solomon heard this from God, he presently leaped out of his bed;
and when he had worshipped him, he returned to Jerusalem; and after he
had offered great sacrifices before the tabernacle, he feasted all his
own family.

2. In these days a hard cause came before him in judgment, which it was
very difficult to find any end of; and I think it necessary to explain
the fact about which the contest was, that such as light upon my
writings may know what a difficult cause Solomon was to determine, and
those that are concerned in such matters may take this sagacity of the
king for a pattern, that they may the more easily give sentence about
such questions. There were two women, who were harlots in the course of
their lives, that came to him; of whom she that seemed to be injured
began to speak first, and said, "O king, I and this other woman dwell
together in one room. Now it came to pass that we both bore a son at the
same hour of the same day; and on the third day this woman overlaid her
son, and killed it, and then took my son out of my bosom, and removed
him to herself, and as I was asleep she laid her dead son in my arms.
Now, when in the morning I was desirous to give the breast to the child,
I did not find my own, but saw the woman's dead child lying by me; for I
considered it exactly, and found it so to be. Hence it was that I
demanded my son, and when I could not obtain him, I have recourse, my
lord, to thy assistance; for since we were alone, and there was nobody
there that could convict her, she cares for nothing, but perseveres in
the stout denial of the fact." When this woman had told this her story,
the king asked the other woman what she had to say in contradiction to
that story. But when she denied that she had done what was charged upon
her, and said that it was her child that was living, and that it was her
antagonist's child that was dead, and when no one could devise what
judgment could be given, and the whole court were blind in their
understanding, and could not tell how to find out this riddle, the king
alone invented the following way how to discover it. He bade them bring
in both the dead child and the living child; and sent one of his guards,
and commanded him to fetch a sword, and draw it, and to cut both the
children into two pieces, that each of the women might have half the
living and half the dead child. Hereupon all the people privately
laughed at the king, as no more than a youth. But, in the mean time, she
that was the real mother of the living child cried out that he should
not do so, but deliver that child to the other woman as her own, for she
would be satisfied with the life of the child, and with the sight of it,
although it were esteemed the other's child; but the other woman was
ready to see the child divided, and was desirous, moreover, that the
first woman should be tormented. When the king understood that both
their words proceeded from the truth of their passions, he adjudged the
child to her that cried out to save it, for that she was the real mother
of it; and he condemned the other as a wicked woman, who had not only
killed her own child, but was endeavoring to see her friend's child
destroyed also. Now the multitude looked on this determination as a
great sign and demonstration of the king's sagacity and wisdom, and
after that day attended to him as to one that had a divine mind.

3. Now the captains of his armies, and officers appointed over the whole
country, were these: over the lot of Ephraim was Ures; over the toparchy
of Bethlehem was Dioclerus; Abinadab, who married Solomon's daughter,
had the region of Dora and the sea-coast under him; the Great Plain was
under Benaiah, the son of Achilus; he also governed all the country as
far as Jordan; Gabaris ruled over Gilead and Gaulanitis, and had under
him the sixty great and fenced cities [of Og]; Achinadab managed the
affairs of all Galilee as far as Sidon, and had himself also married a
daughter of Solomon's, whose name was Basima; Banacates had the seacoast
about Arce; as had Shaphat Mount Tabor, and Carmel, and [the Lower]
Galilee, as far as the river Jordan; one man was appointed over all this
country; Shimei was intrusted with the lot of Benjamin; and Gabares had
the country beyond Jordan, over whom there was again one governor
appointed. Now the people of the Hebrews, and particularly the tribe of
Judah, received a wonderful increase when they betook themselves to
husbandry, and the cultivation of their grounds; for as they enjoyed
peace, and were not distracted with wars and troubles, and having,
besides, an abundant fruition of the most desirable liberty, every one
was busy in augmenting the product of their own lands, and making them
worth more than they had formerly been.

4. The king had also other rulers, who were over the land of Syria and
of the Philistines, which reached from the river Euphrates to Egypt, and
these collected his tributes of the nations. Now these contributed to
the king's table, and to his supper every day 3 thirty cori of fine
flour, and sixty of meal; as also ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of
the pastures, and a hundred fat lambs; all these were besides what were
taken by hunting harts and buffaloes, and birds and fishes, which were
brought to the king by foreigners day by day. Solomon had also so great
a number of chariots, that the stalls of his horses for those chariots
were forty thousand; and besides these he had twelve thousand horsemen,
the one half of which waited upon the king in Jerusalem, and the rest
were dispersed abroad, and dwelt in the royal villages; but the same
officer who provided for the king's expenses supplied also the fodder
for the horses, and still carried it to the place where the king abode
at that time.

5. Now the sagacity and wisdom which God had bestowed on Solomon was so
great, that he exceeded the ancients; insomuch that he was no way
inferior to the Egyptians, who are said to have been beyond all men in
understanding; nay, indeed, it is evident that their sagacity was very
much inferior to that of the king's. He also excelled and distinguished
himself in wisdom above those who were most eminent among the Hebrews at
that time for shrewdness; those I mean were Ethan, and Heman, and
Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. He also composed books of odes
and songs a thousand and five, of parables and similitudes three
thousand; for he spake a parable upon every sort of tree, from the
hyssop to the cedar; and in like manner also about beasts, about all
sorts of living creatures, whether upon the earth, or in the seas, or in
the air; for he was not unacquainted with any of their natures, nor
omitted inquiries about them, but described them all like a philosopher,
and demonstrated his exquisite knowledge of their several properties.
God also enabled him to learn that skill which expels demons, 4 which is
a science useful and sanative to men. He composed such incantations also
by which distempers are alleviated. And he left behind him the manner of
using exorcisms, by which they drive away demons, so that they never
return; and this method of cure is of great force unto this day; for I
have seen a certain man of my own country, whose name was Eleazar,
releasing people that were demoniacal in the presence of Vespasian, and
his sons, and his captains, and the whole multitude of his soldiers. The
manner of the cure was this: He put a ring that had a Foot of one of
those sorts mentioned by Solomon to the nostrils of the demoniac, after
which he drew out the demon through his nostrils; and when the man fell
down immediately, he abjured him to return into him no more, making
still mention of Solomon, and reciting the incantations which he
composed. And when Eleazar would persuade and demonstrate to the
spectators that he had such a power, he set a little way off a cup or
basin full of water, and commanded the demon, as he went out of the man,
to overturn it, and thereby to let the spectators know that he had left
the man; and when this was done, the skill and wisdom of Solomon was
shown very manifestly: for which reason it is, that all men may know the
vastness of Solomon's abilities, and how he was beloved of God, and that
the extraordinary virtues of every kind with which this king was endowed
may not be unknown to any people under the sun for this reason, I say,
it is that we have proceeded to speak so largely of these matters.

6. Moreover Hiram, king of Tyre, when he had heard that Solomon
succeeded to his father's kingdom, was very glad of it, for he was a
friend of David's. So he sent ambassadors to him, and saluted him, and
congratulated him on the present happy state of his affairs. Upon which
Solomon sent him an epistle, the contents of which here follow:

Solomon To King Hiram.

"5 Know thou that my father would have built a temple to God, but was
hindered by wars, and continual expeditions; for he did not leave off to
overthrow his enemies till he made them all subject to tribute. But I
give thanks to God for the peace I at present enjoy, and on that account
I am at leisure, and design to build a house to God, for God foretold to
my father that such a house should be built by me; wherefore I desire
thee to send some of thy subjects with mine to Mount Lebanon to cut down
timber, for the Sidonians are more skillful than our people in cutting
of wood. As for wages to the hewers of wood, I will pay whatsoever price
thou shalt determine."

7. When Hiram had read this epistle, he was pleased with it; and wrote
back this answer to Solomon.

Hiram To King Solomon.

"It is fit to bless God that he hath committed thy father's government
to thee, who art a wise man, and endowed with all virtues. As for
myself, I rejoice at the condition thou art in, and will be subservient
to thee in all that thou sendest to me about; for when by my subjects I
have cut down many and large trees of cedar and cypress wood, I will
send them to sea, and will order my subjects to make floats of them, and
to sail to what place soever of thy country thou shalt desire, and leave
them there, after which thy subjects may carry them to Jerusalem. But do
thou take care to procure us corn for this timber, which we stand in
need of, because we inhabit in an island."

8. The copies of these epistles remain at this day, and are preserved
not only in our books, but among the Tyrians also; insomuch that if any
one would know the certainty about them, he may desire of the keepers of
the public records of Tyre to show him them, and he will find what is
there set down to agree with what we have said. I have said so much out
of a desire that my readers may know that we speak nothing but the
truth, and do not compose a history out of some plausible relations,
which deceive men and please them at the same time, nor attempt to avoid
examination, nor desire men to believe us immediately; nor are we at
liberty to depart from speaking truth, which is the proper commendation
of an historian, and yet be blameless: but we insist upon no admission
of what we say, unless we be able to manifest its truth by
demonstration, and the strongest vouchers.

9. Now king Solomon, as soon as this epistle of the king of Tyre was
brought him, commended the readiness and good-will he declared therein,
and repaid him in what he desired, and sent him yearly twenty thousand
cori of wheat, and as many baths of oil: now the bath is able to contain
seventy-two sextaries. He also sent him the same measure of wine. So the
friendship between Hiram and Solomon hereby increased more and more; and
they swore to continue it for ever. And the king appointed a tribute to
be laid on all the people, of thirty thousand laborers, whose work he
rendered easy to them by prudently dividing it among them; for he made
ten thousand cut timber in Mount Lebanon for one month; and then to come
home, and rest two months, until the time when the other twenty thousand
had finished their task at the appointed time; and so afterward it came
to pass that the first ten thousand returned to their work every fourth
month: and it was Adoram who was over this tribute. There were also of
the strangers who were left by David, who were to carry the stones and
other materials, seventy thousand; and of those that cut the stones,
eighty thousand. Of these three thousand and three hundred were rulers
over the rest. He also enjoined them to cut out large stones for the
foundations of the temple, and that they should fit them and unite them
together in the mountain, and so bring them to the city. This was done
not only by our own country workmen, but by those workmen whom Hiram
sent also. 6