King Solomon (970-928 BCE)

Solomon's reign was marked by a constant tension between two conflicting orientations: faithfulness to the God of Israel and fulfillment of the Judaic religious precepts, against a propensity to yield to the pervasiveforeign influences that penetrated the kingdom as a result of the obligation simposed by its grandiose nature.

The major undertaking of Solomon's reign - besides his almost complete success in preserving the kingdom which he inherited fromhis father King David - was the building of the magnificent Temple to the God of Israel on the summit of Mount Moriah, a project which his father, for various reasons, had not undertaken.
The resplendent Temple was an expression of the power thatresided in Solomon's kingdom and of its beneficent foreign relations. The monumental sanctuary received the symbolic affirmation of the God to whom it was dedicated: "the priests came out of the sanctuary for the cloud had filled the House ofthe Lord and the priests were not able to remain and perform the service because of the cloud, for the Presence of the Lord filled the House of the Lord... "(1 Kings 8:11).Solomon also experienced a divine revelation in the form of a vision following the conclusion of the dedicatory service: "I have heard the prayer and the supplication which you have offered to Me. I consecrate this House which you have built and I set Myname there forever "(1 Kings 9:3). The concentration of religious ritual in the Temple, together with the institutionalization of the biblical injunction regarding the pilgrimage festivals, transformed Jerusalem - despite its unpromising natural features - into an important political and commercial center during Solomon sreign. At the same time, the king's earthly imperial rule involved him in the affairs of the surrounding peoples: "Solomon allied himself by marriage with Pharaohking of Egypt. He married Pharaoh's daughter and brought her to the City of David" (1 Kings 3:1), and built her a palace (1 Kings 7:8). This unique historical evidence of an Egyptian princess leaving her country attests both to Solomon spower and Egypt's temporary weakness. However, this marriage, and others he made withhigh-born foreigners for political expediency, inclined the king to the cultureand religion of those peoples, causing him to neglect his own God: "At that time Solomon built a shrine for Chemosh the abomination of Moab on the hill near Jerusalem, and one for Moloch the abomination of the Ammonites. And he did the same forall his foreign wives who offered and sacrificed to their gods" (1 Kings 11:7-8). Astrong impression was also made by the foreign dignitaries who visited Jerusalem, of whom the most famous is probably the Queen of Sheba. She had " heard of Solomon sfame, through the name of the Lord, and she came to test him with hard questions.She arrived in Jerusalem with a very large retinue, with camels bearing spices, agreat quantity of gold, and precious stones" (1 Kings 10:1-2).

Maintaining the excessive splendor necessitated the useof forced labor on a vast scale (1 Kings 5:28). This, and the many palaces that Solomon built in the "miloh", the area that he prepared for this purpose on the slopes of Mount Moriah, including the palace for Pharaoh's daughter, turned thepeople against him"(1 Kings 12:3).

At a spiritual level, the pagan rituals that flourished at his encouragement seemed to dull the divine luster of his monarchy: "And the Lord said to Solomon, Because you are guilty of this - you have not kept Mycovenant and the laws which I enjoined upon you - I will tear the kingdom away from you... But, for the sake of your father David, I will not do it in your lifetime; Iwill tear it away from your son" (1 Kings 11:11-12). The united imperial kingdom of Davidand Solomon endured for only two generations. Around Solomon there sprang upthe myth of extraordinary kingly splendor and superhuman wisdom.