1 Kings Chapter 10    

“Sheba.” The exact location of “Sheba” is not known and is debated by scholars. In Matthew 12:42, Jesus referred to her as “the Queen of the South.”

“difficult questions.” The Hebrew is “riddles,” but that has a different meaning in the Hebrew culture than it does in the Western culture. In the West, a “riddle” is something that I know the answer to and see if you can figure it out. In the biblical culture, a “riddle” is a difficult question, in this case, it would be things she did not know and wanted information about (cp. 1 Kings 10:2). This is a Gentile queen being drawn to the God of the Jews.

“the house that he had built.” The Hebrew is ambiguous, however, the way 1 Kings 10:4-5 is worded, the “house” is more likely Solomon’s palace than the Temple.

“the attendance of his waiters.” The word “attendance” is more literally, “standing.” Solomon’s officials sat at the table while the waiters stood and served.

“burnt offering that he offered up.” The Hebrew words regularly refer to a burnt offering. However, they could be taken as referring to the “ascent,” the stairway by which he went up to the house of Yahweh, but that is unlikely. Of all the great architectural wonders that might impress the Queen of Sheba, the stairway from Solomon’s house to the Temple would not seem to be one of them; it is not even mentioned in other verses.

“she was left breathless.” The Hebrew could also be translated as, “there was no more spirit in her,” but the meaning of that phrase would be unclear at best.

“words and of your wisdom.” The Hebrew word for “words” can also be “matters” “situation,” and some versions go that way.

“staircases.” The Hebrew word translated “staircases” is apparently an architectural term that only appears here in all of the known Hebrew literature, so the English versions differ as to what it refers to. 2 Chronicles 9:11 has a Hebrew word that can be more easily understood as being a staircase.

“no such almug wood.” The Hebrew text is ambiguous as to whether “no such almug wood” refers to the quality of the wood or the quantity of the wood, however, the parallel verse, 2 Chron. 9:11. seems to refer to the quality of the wood.

“in addition to what Solomon gave her of his royal bounty.” 2 Chronicles 9:12 makes it clear that Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba more than she brought.

“666.” This is a clear indicator that Solomon’s heart had changed. The 666 figure shows us that Solomon had turned away from God and had gone over to “the dark side.” The number 666 is not a factual number; it is not the number of talents of gold that came to him, because 1 Kings 10:15 says that in addition to the 666 talents of gold that came to him, he also got gold from the taxes on the traders and the traveling merchants, the taxes imposed on all the Arabian kings and the governors of the country. With all that extra revenue, Solomon would surely have gotten much more than one extra talent of gold, making it 667, or 668, or even 673 talents of gold. So for God to say Solomon got 666 talents in addition to such and such amount more, tells us God really wants us to see the number 666 in relation to Solomon here. As we read on in the chapter, God tells us openly that Solomon did evil in the sight of Yahweh (1 Kings 11:6).

“600 shekels.” Six hundred shekels is roughly 15 pounds (6.8 kg). A shekel was roughly .4 ounces (11 or 11.5 grams), (see commentary on Gen. 24:22, “shekel”).

“lions.” The Hebrew text specifies male lions.

“Kue.” Kue has been historically understood to be in what is central Turkey today.

“600 shekels.” Six hundred shekels is roughly 15 pounds (6.8 kg), and 150 shekels is roughly 3.75 pounds (1.7 kg). A shekel was roughly .4 ounces (11 or 11.5 grams), (see commentary on Gen. 24:22, “shekel”).