SOL'OMON (Hel), ShNoma, peaceable). A son of David and Bathsheba (II. Sam. xii. 24), successor of David on the throne of Israel. The date of his reign may he stated approximately as B.C. 977-937. The biblical account of Solomon is found in 1. Kings, chapters i.-xi., and its parallel II. Chronicles• chapters i.-ix. The facts furnished by these passages may be briefly summarized as follows: When David was old, his son Adonijah set himself up as a pretender to the throne, but Bathsheba interceded for Solomon. David granted her request and Solomon became King. One by one the new King had his enemies, Adoni jab, Joah, and Shimei, put to death, so that he rested securely on his throne. He took to wife a daughter of Pharaoh and at the time of his mar riage he worshiped in the 'high places.' Solomon divided Israel into twelve parts for admini strative purposes, and we are told that his terri tory extended from the river (Euphrates) unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt, and that he made bondsmen of the Canaanites who remained in the land. He made an alliance with Hiram, King of Tyre, and, in re turn for food, furnished him with timber; the ships of the allies went out trading together. The temple was built in great splendor with Hiram's aid and dedicated with much magnifi cence. The King also built a house for his Egyp tian wife and a palace in the Lebanon. The temple took from the fourth to the eleventh year of Solomon's reign for its completion : the palace in the Lebanon from the seventh to the twentieth year. Several cities also were built by the King. Many strange women were in his household, who are said to have influenced him to worship alien gods; and for this sin the historian assigns as a punishment Solomon's troubles at the hands of enemies in his lifetime, and the division of the kingdom between Behoboam and Jeroboam after his death. (See JEROBOAM I.; REIMBOAM.) Al most all other details about Solomon are ampli fications either of his wisdom or his splendor. We are told that the Lord appeared to him in a dream and asked him to choose a gift. whereupon Solomon chose neither riches nor power, but wis dom, and as a reward was given both what he chose and what lie resigned. A proof of his wis dom immediately follows (I. Kings iii. 1(i-25), and it is never lost sight of afterwards (cf. I. Kings iv. 29 et seq.. where he is said to be "wiser than all men :" v. 7-12: x. 1-3. where Solomon answers the 'hard questions' propounded by the Queen of Sheba, and x. 24). The entire narrative is a recital of the magnificence of the King, es pecially the description of his building opera tions (I. Kings iv. 22-28: ix. 26-29; x. 1-13. the story of the Queen of Sheba, who voluntarily pays the King tribute; 11. Citron. ix. 9).
The narrative in Kings concerning Solomon is based upon earlier documents, such as the "Book of the Acts of Solomon" ( I. Kings xi. 41). Al though the main facts are authentic in the opinion of many Bible critics. they are so entwined with
legendary lore and colored by a traditional view of Solomon belonging to a period many centuries later. that it is difficult to determine the exact position to he assigned to him in Hebrew history. This traditional view is still more consistently carried out in the narrative in Chronicles, which has no independent historical value. In the Book of Kings there are still traces of a conception of Solomon which did not hold him up in a favora ble light. The extension of power is made re sponsible for the introduction of foreign religious customs, and the blame for the rebellion immedi ately following upon the death of Solomon is in part, at least, put upon the King. In Chronicles, however, all these unfavorable features are sup pressed and the King is held up as a marvel of piety and wisdom, as well as a great ruler under whom the kingdom rose to its highest point of glory.
Solomon's distinguishing quality was as an ad ministrator. He kept the confederacy of the Hebrew tribes intact during his reign, though not in such a condition that his successor could continue his policy. An important step was his strengthening the fortifications of the country, and no less significant was his foreign policy, which involved alliances with surrounding na tions such as the Plicenicians. He kept the Egyp tian power at bay by becoming the vassal of the Egyptian King. Through this international in tercourse, an impetus was given to commerce in Solomon's days, which prompted the tale of Sol omon's personal achievements as a great marine merchant. Contact with other nations also had its result in a marked intellectual advance, and it is probably safe to date from Solomon's days the beginnings of a genuine literary activity in Israel, though several centuries elapsed before the movement assumed important dimensions. The new epoch thus marked by Solomon's reign is sufficient to account for the view taken by the later tradition, which makes Solomon himself an author of high rank and prodigious fertility. The books ascribed to him, Proverbs, Canti cles, and Ecclesiastes (qq.v.), belong to vari ous periods which, however. arc all considerably subsequent. to his days. That the sim pler sanctuary of former days was replaced in his reign by a more ambitions edifice was a natural consequence of a general politi cal growth, but the of the new edifice is colored by the desire to extol the grand eur of Solomon's achievements, while the account of the ceremonies, including the prayer, is prob ably a post-exilic production. Similarly the visit of the Queen of Sheba is a bit of folk lore brought by tradition into connection with Solomon as the most commanding figure in the annals of Hebrew royalty. Consult the chapters on Solomon in the Hebrew histories of Gutty. Stade, Kent, Well hansen, Piepenbring, Kittel, and Conlin; also McCurdy, History, Prophecy, and the Monuments (New York, 18941901).