"So King Solomon ruled over all Israel. And these were his chief officials: Azariah son of Zadok---the priest; Elihoreph and Ahijah, sons of Shisha---secretaries; Jehoshaphat son of Alihud---recorder; Benaiah son of Jehoiada---commander in chief; Zadok and Abiathar---priests." (1 Kings 2:1-4) Abiathar and Zadok were both priests during King David's administration. They were both still priests at the beginning of King Solomon's administration but, as we learned earlier in the book of 1 Kings, he banished Abiathar from his priestly duties and from Jerusalem itself. Jehoshaphat was one of David's recorders and Solomon keeps him on as well as Benaiah, who was formerly the captain of the king's guard for both David and Solomon but who has been promoted by Solomon as general over the whole army. Shisha was a secretary to David and now his sons are secretaries for Solomon, presumably because Shisha is now deceased or too infirm to continue working. He must have done his duties well since Solomon selects his sons to carry on his work.
"Azariah son of Nathan---in charge of the district governors; Zabud son of Nathan---a priest and adviser to the king; Ahishar---palace administrator; Adoniram son of Abda---in charge of forced labor." (1 Kings 4:5-6) We find two sons of a man named Nathan mentioned here and no one knows whether this Nathan might be David's son Nathan or whether this is a reference to Nathan the prophet. The fact that Solomon employs two of Nathan's sons suggests he has some sort of close connection to the royal family, either because he is related or because he was part of David's administration.
"Solomon had twelve district governors over all Israel, who supplied provisions for the king and the royal household. Each one had to provide supplies for one month in the year. These are their names: Ben-Hur---in the hill country of Ephraim." (1 Kings 4:7-8) The men on the list are tax collectors, though the taxes don't always take the form of money. Grain and livestock can be used for taxes and, since this taxation is for the purpose of supplying the royal household with food, grain and livestock are arguably more convenient than money because the money would have to then be taken to purchase grain and livestock. The Ben-Hur mentioned here is not the Ben-Hur of Hollywood, who was a fictional character whose story took place during the time of Christ in the first century AD.
The list of tax collectors continues: "Ben-Deker---in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth Shemesh and Elon Bethhanan; Ben-Hesed---in Arruboth (Sokoh and all the land of Hepher were his); Ben-Abinadab---in Naphoth Dor (he was married to Taphath daughter of Solomon)." (1 Kings 4:10-11) Scholars feel our chapter was written during the middle or latter years of Solomon's reign or even later. If Ben-Abinadab was appointed at the beginning of Solomon's reign, then he must have married Solomon's daughter at some point later on, for Solomon was quite a young man when he assumed the throne and had no grown daughter for Ben-Abindadab to marry. But since our chapter was likely composed at a time when Solomon's children were all grown, there is no contradiction here whatsoever when the author states in parenthesis that Ben-Abinadab was married to Taphath. Since this information is enclosed in parenthesis, it may not even have appeared in an earlier version of this list but was added in later.
More tax collectors were the following: "Baana son of Alihud---in Taanach and Megiddo, and in all of Beth Shan to Abel Meholah across to Jokmeam; Ben-Geber---in Ramoth Gilead (the settlements of Jair son of Manasseh in Gilead were his, as well as the region of Argob in Bashan and its sixty large walled cities with bronze gate bars); Ahinadab son of Iddo---in Mahanaim; Ahimaaz---in Naphtali (he had married Basemath daughter of Solomon); Baana son of Hushai---in Asher and in Aloth; Jehoshaphat son of Paruah---in Issachar; Shimei son of Ela---in Benjamin; Geber son of Uri---in Gilead (the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and the country of Og king of Bashan). He was the only governor over the district." (1 Kings 4:12-19) The Shimei mentioned here is not the Shimei whom Solomon put to death. That Shimei was also a Benjamite but he was the son of a man named Gera. The Shimei who was a tax collector was the son of a man named Ela.
Again we learn that a daughter of Solomon married one of his tax collectors. The information that Basemath married Ahimaaz is in parenthesis, as was the information that Ben-Abindabad married Taphath, and may have been added in at a later date. If Solomon had been middle aged or older when he became king, I'd assume that he appointed Ahimaaz and Ben-Abinadab as tax collectors because they were his sons-in-law. But instead what must have happened here is that these two men proved themselves so trustworthy and so hardworking that Solomon considered them suitable mates for the princesses. A tax collector was a very high-ranking and well-respected official in Solomon's day and although in a sense his daughters might be "marrying down" by marrying men who were not princes, there were no princes for these young ladies to marry who would not be heathen princes. It's to Solomon's credit that he did not marry his daughters to foreign princes, which most kings of his era would have done in order to form political alliances. Instead he married them to Israelite men who worshiped the one true God, men who were faithful to their God and their king and their country, men who were hard workers and good providers. Who wouldn't want their daughters to marry men who love the Lord and who will be good to their daughters and who will work hard to take care of them?
As we conclude today's study I'd like to bring up this question: How many children did King Solomon have? Only three are named in the Scriptures. His daughters Taphath and Basemath are named in 1 Kings 4 and then his son and successor, Rehoboam, is first mentioned in 1 Kings 11. Solomon will marry seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, which has led some scholars to estimate he must have fathered hundreds of children and possibly a thousand or more children. Other scholars, however, suspect Solomon was not very fertile and that he only managed to father three children in spite of having a thousand women with whom he presumably slept with at least once. In fact, if he had difficulty fathering children, this may help explain why he took so many wives and concubines. In his day it was believed that infertility was only on the woman's side, so if a couple could not conceive children it was assumed that the woman was barren. We must take into account, though, that Solomon married some of these women as part of political alliances and not for love, for lust, or because he wanted to father children with any particular one of them. Also the Bible will tell us that Solomon loved women, especially foreign women, and he will say himself in the book of Ecclesiastes that he denied himself nothing he wanted. It is believed that he had excessive sexual appetites and that he satisfied these appetites (within marriage) by taking all these wives and concubines. So there may be a combination of reasons for why he took so many wives but I wouldn't be surprised if one reason he did so was because he had difficulty fathering children. He needed a son and heir.
Rehoboam is the son of one of his foreign wives, Naamah the Ammonite, and if Solomon had had a son with one of his Israelite wives then it seems to me that son would have succeeded him as king and not the son of a foreign wife. Therefore, I lean more toward the theory that Solomon never fathered more than the three children named in the Bible. But another option to consider is that Solomon had more than one son and that they were all by foreign wives and that Rehoboam was the firstborn son among them. Having no son by an Israelite wife but having at least one son by a foreign wife would put the oldest of these half-foreign sons in line for the throne. There would be no need for the author to name any of these other sons since all the children of a king's minor wives and concubines were not usually listed in the Bible. This brings up the question of why two of Solomon's daughters were named. The Bible often doesn't mention daughters by name at all, so were these daughters by an Israelite wife? Did these daughters have the same mother as Rehoboam? Or were these two mentioned only because they married two of Solomon's officials?
This mystery is interesting but we are not going to be able to solve it with the scant amount of material we are offered in the Scriptures regarding the offspring of King Solomon. All we know for sure is he had two daughters who married two of his officials and that his half-Ammonite son, Rehoboam, will inherit the throne. Rehoboam will not be able to keep Israel united, sadly, and the kingdom will split in two during his time on the throne. But that tale is for another day and what we can take away from today's passage is that Solomon ran his government in a very orderly fashion, that he appointed good and honest men to his top positions, and that he was careful to select hardworking Israelite men for the two daughters named here instead of marrying them to foreign pagan princes even though that might have been more advantageous for him politically. This tells me he cared about the future of his children and grandchildren, as any father should.
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