and those of the Egyptians agree together in many things.

wisdom, while she proposed questions of very great difficulty, and entreated that he would solve their hidden meaning. Accordingly she came to Jerusalem with great splendour and rich furniture; for she brought with her camels laden with gold, with several sorts of sweet spices, and with precious stones. Now, upon the king's kind reception of her, he both showed a great desire to please her, and easily comprehending in his mind the meaning of the curious questions she propounded to him, he resolved them sooner than any body could have expected. So she was amazed at the wisdom of Solomon, and discovered that it was more excellent upon trial than what she had heard by report beforehand; and especially she was surprised at the fineness and largeness of his royal palace, and not less so at the good order of the apartments, for she observed that the king had therein shown great wisdom; but she was beyond measure asto

3. But king Solomon subdued to himself the remnant of the Canaanites that had not before submitted to him;-those I mean that dwelt in mount Lebanon, and as far as the city Hamath; and ordered them to pay tribute. He also chose out of thein every year such as were to serve him in the meanest offices, and to do his domestic works, and to follow husbandry; for none of the Hebrews were servants [in such low employments]; nor was it reasonable that, when God Lad brought so many nations under their power, they should depress their own people to such mean offices of life, rather than those nations; but all the Israelites were concerned in warlike affairs, and were in armour, and were set over the chariots and the horses rather than leading the life of slaves. He appointed also five hundred and fifty rulers over those Canaanites who were reduced to such domestic | nished at the house which was called the Foslavery, who received the entire care of them from the king, and instructed them in those labours and operations wherein he wanted their assistance.

4. Moreover, the king built many ships in the Egyptian Bay of the Red Sea, in a certain place called Ezion-geber: it is now called Berenice, and is not far from the city Eloth. This country belonged formerly to the Jews, and became useful for shipping, from the donations of Hiram, king of Tyre; for he sent a sufficient number of men thither for pilots, and such as were skilful in navigation; to whom Solomon gave this command: That they should go along with his own stewards to the land that was of old called Ophir, but now the Aurea Chersonesus, which belongs to India, to fetch him gold. And when they had gathered four hundred talents together, they returned to the king again.

5. There was then a woman, queen of Egypt and Ethiopia;* she was inquisitive into philosophy, and one that on other accounts also was to be admired. When this queen | heard of the virtue and prudence of Solomon, she had a great mind to see him; and the reports that went every day abroad induced her to come to him, she being desirous to be satisfied by her own experience, and not by a bare hearing (for reports thus heard are likely enough to comply with a false opinion, while they wholly depend on the credit of the relaters); so she resolved to come to him, and that especially, in order to have a trial of his

That this queen of Sheba was a queen of Sabrea in South Arabia, and not of Egypt. and Ethiopia, as Josephus bere asserts, is, I suppose. now generally agreed; and since Sabaa is well known to be a country near the sea in the south of Arabia Felix, which lay south from

Judea also; and since our Saviour calls this queen

the queen of the south," and says, "she came from the utmost parts of the earth" (Matt. xii. 42; Luke xi. 31), which descriptions agree better to this Arabia than to Egypt and Ethiopia, there is little occasion for doubting in this matter.

rest of Lebanon, as also at the magnificence of his daily table, and the circumstances of its preparation and ministration, with the apparel of his servants that waited, and the skilful and decent management of their attendance: nor was she less affected with those daily sacrifices which were offered to God, and the careful management which the priests and Levites used about them. When she saw this done every day, she was in the greatest admiration imaginable, insomuch that she was not able to contain the surprise she was in, but openly confessed how wonderfully she was affected; for she proceeded to discourse with the king, and thereby owned that she was overcome with admiration at the things before related; and said, "All things, indeed, O king, that came to our knowledge by report, came with uncertainty as to our belief of them; but as to those good things that to thee appertain, both such as thou thyself possessest, I mean wisdom and prudence, and the happiness thou hast from thy kingdom, certainly the same that came to us was no falsity; it was not only a true report, but it related thy happiness after a much lowe. manner than I now see it to be before my eyes. For as for the report, it only attempted to persuade our hearing, but did not so make known the dignity of the things themselves as does the sight of them, and being present among them. I, indeed, who did not believe what was reported, by reason of the multitude and grandeur of the things I inquired about, do see them to be much more numerous than they were reported to be. Accordingly, I esteem the Hebrew people, as well as thy servants and friends, to be happy, who enjoy thy presence, and hear the wisdom every day continually. One would therefore bless God, who hath so loved this country, and those that inhabit therein, as to make thee king over them."

CHAP. VII.

ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.

6. Now when the queen had thus demon-y those that purchase them; for those we strated in words how deeply the king had speak of were to the sight like the wood of affected her, her disposition was known by the fig-tree, but were whiter and more. certain presents, for she gave him twenty shining. Now we have said thus much, talents of gold, and an immense quantity that nobody may be ignorant of the differof spices and precious stones. (They say ence between these sorts of wood, nor unacalso that we possess the root of that bal- quainted with the nature of the genuine sam which our country still bears by this pine-tree; and we thought it both a seasonwoman's gift). Solomon also repaid her able and humane thing when we mentioned with many good things, and principally by it, and the uses the king made of it, to ex bestowing upon her what she chose of her plain this difference so far as we have done 2. Now the weight of gold that was own inclination, for there was nothing that she desired which he denied her; and as brought him was six hundred and sixtyhe was very generous and liberal in his six talents, not including in that sum what own temper, so did he show the greatness was brought by the merchants, nor what of his soul in bestowing on her what she the toparchs and kings of Arabia gave him So when this in presents. He also cast two hundred herself desired of him. queen of Ethopia had obtained what we targets of gold, each of them weighing six already given an account of, and had again hundred shekels: he also made three huncommunicated to the king what she brought dred shields, every one weighing three with her, she returned to her own kingdom. pounds of gold, and he had them carried and put into that house which was called The Forest of Lebanon. He also made cups of gold, and of [precious] stones, for the entertainment of his guests, and had them adorned in the most artificial manner; and he contrived that all his other furniture of vessels should be of gold, for there was nothing then to be sold or bought for silver; for the king had many ships which lay upon the Sea of Tarsus, these he commanded to carry out all sorts of merchandise into the remotest nations, by the sale of which silver and gold were brought to the king, and a great quantity of ivory, and Ethiopians, and apes; and they finished their voyage, going and returning, in three years' time.

3. Accordingly there went a great fame all around the neighbouring countries, which proclaimed the virtue and wisdom of Solomon, insomuch that all the kings everywhere were desirous to see him, as not giving credit to what was reported, on account of its being almost incredible: they also demonstrated the regard they had for him by the presents they made him; for they sent him vessels of gold and silver, and purple garments, and many sorts of spices, and horses, and chariots, and as many mules for his carriages as they could find proper to please the king's eyes, by their strength Some blame Josephus for supposing that the balsam- and beauty. This addition that he made tree might be first brought out of Arabia, or Egypt, or to those chariots and horses which he had Ethiopia, into Judea, by this queen of Sheba since several have said, that of old no country hore this precious before from those that were sent him aug Dalsam but Judea; yet it is not only false that this balsam mented the number of his chariots by above was peculiar to Judea, but both gypt and Arabia, and four hundred, for he had a thousand before, particularly Sabæa, had it; which last was that very coun- and augmented the number of his horses try whence Josephus, if understood not of Ethiopia but of Arabia, Intimates this queen might bring it first into Ju- by two thousand, for he had twenty thoudea. Nor are we to suppose that the queen of Sabaa sand before. These horses also were so could wil! omit such a present, as this balsam-tree would much exercised, in order to their making a De esteemed by Slomon, in case it were then almost pe- fine appearance, and running swiftly, that culiar to ner own country: nor is the mention of balm or ba sam, as carried by merchants, and sent as a present no others could, upon the comparison, appear out of Judea by Jacob, to the governor of Egypt (Gen. Xxxvii. 25. and xliii. 11), to be alleged to the contrary, since what we there ren fer balm or balsam denotes rather that turpentine which we now call Turpentine of Chip or Cyprus, the juice of the turpentine-tree, than this precious balsam. This last is also the same word that we else

where render, by the same mistake Balm of Gun: 1

should be rendered the Turpentine of Giend. Jer via. 22.

either finer or swifter; but they were at once the most beautiful of all others, and their swiftness was incomparable. Their riders also were a further ornament to them, being, in the first place, young men in the most delightful flower of their age, and being emi

nent for their largeness, and far taller than other men. They had also very long heads of hair hanging down, and were clothed in garments of Tyrian purple. They had also dust of gold every day sprinkled on their hair, so that their heads sparkled with the reflection of the sun-beams from the gold. The king himself rode upon a chariot in the midst of these men, who were still in armour, and had their bows fitted to them. He had on a white garment, and used to take his progress out of the city in the morning. There was a certain place, about fifty furlongs distant from Jerusalem, which is called Etham, very pleasant it is in fine gardens, and abounding in rivulets of water; thither did he use to go out in the morning, sitting on high [in his chariot]. 4. Now Solomon had a divine sagacity in all things, and was very diligent and studious to have things done after an elegant manner; so he did not neglect the care of the ways, but he laid a causeway of black stone along the roads that led to Jerusalem, which was the royal city, both to render them easy for travellers, and to manifest the grandeur of his riches and government. He also parted his chariots, and set them in a regular order, that a certain number of them should be in every city, still keeping a few about him; and those cities he called the cities of his chariots; and the king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as the stones in the street; and so multiplied cedar-trees in the plains of Judea, which did not grow there before, that they were like to the multitude of common sycamore-trees. He also ordained the Egyptian merchants that brought him their merchandise, to sell him a chariot, with a pair of horses, for six hundred drachmæ of silver, and he sent them to the kings of Syria, and to those kings that were beyond Euphrates.

ried many wives out of foreign nations: Sidonians, and Tyrians, and Ammonites, and Edomites; and he transgressed the laws of Moses, which forbade Jews to marry any but those that were of their own people. He also began to worship their gods, which he did in order to the gratification of his wives, and out of his affection for them. This very thing our legislator suspected, and so admonished us beforehand, that we should not marry women of other countries, lest we should be entangled with foreign customs, and apostatize from our own; lest we should leave off to honour our own God, and should worship their gods. But Solomon was fallen headlong into unreasonable pleasures, and regarded not those admonitions; for when he had married seven hundred wives,† the daughters of princes, and of eminent persons, and three hundred concubines, and these besides the king of Egypt's daughter, he soon was governed by them, till he came to imitate their practices. He was forced to give them this demonstration of his kindness and affection to them, to live according to the laws of their countries. And as he grew into years, and his reason became weaker by length of time, it was not sufficient to recall to his mind the institutions of his own country; so he still more and more contemned his own God, and continued to regard the gods that his marriages had introduced: nay, before this happened, he sinned, and fell into an error about the observation of the laws, when he made the images of brazen oxen that supported the brazen sea, and the images of lions about his own throne; for these he made, although it was not agreeable to piety so to do; and this he did, notwithstanding that he had his father as a most excellent and domestic pattern of virtue, and knew what a 5. But although Solomon was become the glorious character he had left behind him, most glorious of kings, and the best beloved because of his piety towards God; nor did by God, and had exceeded in wisdom and he imitate David, although God had twice ap riches those that had been rulers of the He-peared to him in his sleep, and exhorted him brews before him, yet did not he persevere in this happy state till he died. Nay, he forsook the observation of the laws of his father, and came to an end no way suitable to our foregoing history of him. He grew mad in his love of women, and laid no restraint on himself in his lusts; nor was he satisfied with the women of his country alone, but he mar

to imitate his father: so he died ingloriously. There came therefore a prophet to him, who was sent by God, and told him that his wicked

+ These 700 wives, or the daughters of great men, and

the 300 concubines, the daughters of the ignoble, make intimated elsewhere by Solomon himself, when he speaks of his not having found one [good] woman among that very number, Eccles. vii. 28.

1000 in all; and are, I suppose, those very 1000 women

Josephus is here certainly too severe upon Solomon, Whether these fine gardens and rivulets of Etham, who, in making the cherubims and these twelve brazen about six miles from Jerusalem, whither Solomon rode so oxen, seems to have done no more than imitate the patoften in state, be not those alluded to, Eccles. ii. 5, 6; terns left him by David; which were all given David by where he says, "He made him gardens and orchards, and divine inspiration. See my description of the temples, planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits; he made him ch. x.; and although God gave no direction for the lions pools of water, to water the wood that bringeth forth that adorned his throne, yet does not Soloman seem trees;" and to the finest part whereof be seems to allude, therein to have broken any law of Moses; for although when, in the Canticles, he compares his spouse to a "gar- the Pharisees and latter Rabhing have extended the seden enclosed," to a "spring shut up," to a fountair cond commandment, to forbid the very making of any sealed," ch. iv. 12 (part of which fountains are still extant, image, though without any intention to have it worshipped, as Mr. Maundrell informs us, pp 87, 88), cannot now be yet do not I suppose that Solomon so understood it, nor certainly determined, but may very probably be conjec- that it ought to be so understood. The making any other tured. Bat, whether this Etham has any relation to those altar for worship but that at the tabernacle, was equally rivers of Etham, which I'rovidence once dried up in a mi- forbidden by Moses, Ant. b. iv, ch. viii. s. 5; yet did not raculous manner, Ps. Ixxiv. 15, in the Septuagint, I can- the two tribes and a haif offend when they made an altar for a memorial only, Josh. xxii; Ant. b. v. c. i. s. 26, 27.

not say.