1
ST
KINGS
Week 8, chapters 4 and 5

We’ll finish up chapter 4 and get into chapter 5 of 1
st
Kings today. We’re in a section of the
Bible that deals with history more than establishing new God-principles. Thus in many cases
the raw history is told without comment on whether the actions of the various characters were
good or bad, moral or immoral, godly or carnal. It is up to the reader to discern and determine
for oneself the nature of the King’s and the people’s decisions and choices.

How is the reader to determine this? By knowing God’s laws and commands as they are
written in the Torah. The people of Solomon’s day were expected (by the Lord) to know right
from wrong because Moses had laid it all out for them hundreds of years earlier. But by now
they were nearly ignorant of the Torah Law and so a new law was established: the law of the
King. The King determined the laws his subjects were to go by, and sometimes those laws
agreed with the Torah Law and sometimes they didn’t. The people didn’t always seem to
know the difference, and I think the King didn’t either.

It is ironic that we Believers of the 21
st
century have found ourselves in a similar situation. The
law of the land has generally replaced the Law of the Bible, God’s laws. And sometimes we
recognize the conflict between the two, and sometimes we don’t. At other times we simply
tolerate and acquiesce when our government’s laws require us to disobey God’s laws. And
the reason for this (as concerns Believers in modern times) is the same as it was for the
people of God’s Kingdom in Solomon’s time: ignorance (often willful) of God’s
commandments.

This is the reason that I rail against that portion of my beloved Church that insists that we are
strictly a New Testament church and as such the Old Testament is dead to us. The Old
Testament (especially the Torah) is where God’s foundational principles, Governing
Dynamics, laws, commandments, and regulations as carefully given and explained. The New
Testament assumes the reader’s knowledge of this, and thus does not repeat all the tenets of
the older covenants. Since many in the Body of Christ have decided to not only skip that part of
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their Bibles where God’s instructions to us are contained, but even go so far as to label these
divine instructions as defective or obsolete, we have made ourselves ignorant and so we rather
easily accept the substitution of local civil law and a morality based on majority rule in place of
God-ordained morality and lifestyle.

For instance: American governmental laws say that we are often not liable for the monetary
debts we have incurred at our own free choice; God says we are liable. American
governmental laws say that it is our choice whether to take the life of a murderer or merely to
incarcerate them for a long time; God says their lives must be forfeit both as just payment for
their offense and as a safeguard for society. American law says that abortion should be free,
safe, and legal and it is wrong to even protest against it; God says it is an abomination before
Him. And many Christians and Jews completely agree with these and other laws as the
new definition of proper morality in American society because an elected majority has created
these laws.

Watch closely as we journey through the two books of the Kings as the King’s laws slowly and
steadily (baby step by baby step) override God’s laws, the people seem either unaware or
uninterested in this development, and the Kingdom rapidly nosedives into confusion and
chaos. At first everything seems to be wonderful; there is great prosperity, Israel is an admired
superpower, and international leaders from all over the world come to see how Israel and its
King were able to achieve such preeminence. But a few years later, within a handful of months
of Solomon’s death, Israel dissolves into two kingdoms, immorality reigns, and the remnants
of this once great country become just like their pagan neighbors.

This is the price that is paid when God’s people abandon God’s laws and commandments
and go our own way, believing that our hearts are pure enough and our civilization advanced
enough to decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong; what is good and what is evil.
This is what happens when we unilaterally declare that God’s ways are obsolete and were
only for a more primitive people; and that we, on the other hand, are beyond such limits and
restrictions.

1
st
Kings Chapter 4 contains two listings of officials in Solomon’s administration. We went over
the first list in verses 1 – 6 last week. These were essentially the folks who formed Shlomo’s
cabinet; they were the innermost circle of men closest to the king and with the full weight of
national power at their disposal. The next list is actually the more interesting and impactful. In
fact it is considered by many scholars as among the most crucial passages in the Bible for
understanding the organization of Solomon’s government and it gives a very accurate
illustration not only of the internal governmental structure but also how the population of Israel
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was distributed along tribal and ethnic lines. In other words, on the surface this is just a dry
listing of names and territories; but underneath it is a wonderful snapshot in time that helps
build a context for understanding Solomon’s decisions and Israel’s progress under him.

Let’s re-read a portion of chapter 4.

RE-READ 1
ST
KINGS CHAPTER 4:7 – end


What is being described here is 12 commissioners assigned to 12 districts; these districts were
formed to provide all the provisions needed for Israel’s government. Let me say that in another
way: these 12 districts were created to support Solomon and his vast royal court in a manner
that Shlomo demanded and most kings expected. These districts do not necessarily always
follow tribal boundaries but rather are socio-economic zones organized according to their
economic capacity. In other words, Solomon and his advisors divided Israel up into taxation
districts that often needed to cross tribal boundaries so that each taxation district had a
sufficient economic base so as to provide the enormous levy that was required of them by the
government. Theoretically the 12 districts should have been about equal in that regard,
although no doubt they were not as politics played a significant role in determining the
boundaries.

We’ll go over them one by one rather rapidly and briefly; but know that 6 of the districts were
defined by tribal areas, and the other 6 were defined by the towns used to create the definition
of the districts. Further there is a disagreement among scholars as to whether this list included
Judah or not. That is, many modern academics (Jewish and Christian) think that these 12
listed districts were strictly concerning the former northern kingdom while Judah was handled
separately. We’ll discuss this at the end of the list.

Before we start and some of you think that this is too academic or trivial for modern day
Believers to bother with, I want to stress that there is no proper understanding of the remaining
books of the Old Testament without understanding Israel’s politics and tribal affiliations. It
would like trying to correctly understand modern day America without knowledge of Plymouth
Rock and the Christian Pilgrims, George Washington and our Revolutionary War, Abraham
Lincoln and the bloody Civil War, and Roosevelt and WWII. Without understanding how we
expanded from east to west, that we acquired much of the territory that forms our southwestern
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states in a war with Mexico, and the role that slavery played in our national psyche and then
later the Civil Rights movement, then to understand who we are today as a nation is not
possible. Thus because foreigners don’t have this knowledge they often get convoluted ideas
about what some of our American national heritage celebrations mean, why we intentionally
created a government system that can only move slowly and incrementally, why we view
religion, race and ethnicity as we do, and so on. So hang in there as we deal with this list of
districts and other historical issues in the Bible and you will be richly rewarded with a deeper
and proper understanding of God’s Word.

The first district was run by Ben-Hur (son of Hur) and consisted primarily of the hill country of
Ephraim, but also included a bit of western Manessah. We’ll see in Chapter 11 that this district
is also called the district of the “House of Joseph”, because it included territory from both of
his sons. So even after all these centuries away from Egypt and the replacement of Joseph’s
tribe by his sons Ephraim and Manessah in Jacob’s cross-handed blessing, it was understood
that until some unknown future time these 2 sons were but placeholders for Joseph.

The second district is defined by the names of 4 cities, only a couple of which are known to us
today: Beth-Shemesh and Shaalbim. This district is managed by Ben-Deker (son of Deker). It
is located generally in the area that Dan formerly occupied before they migrated north, unable
to defeat those Canaanites and Philistines who occupied their territorial allotment when Joshua
arrived with those 3 million Israelites in tow.

Now would be a good time to mention that 5 of the taxation district commissioners were
identified only by their family names and not their actual name. That is, each of the 5 is merely
called “the son of so-and-so”. Son is ben in Hebrew.

The third district was governed by Ben-Hesed and it ran along the Mediterranean Sea coast.
This district was identified partly by clan territory called “the Land of Hefer”, and partly by
towns.

The fourth was identified only by the vital and powerful port city of Dor and a fellow named Ben-
Avinadav operated it. Interestingly he was a son in law of Shlomo and no doubt that had
much to do with his appointment to govern this important sea port that was critical to Israel’s
international commerce ambitions.

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Verse 12 next speaks of Ba’ana as the commissioner over the great fertile northern valleys of
Israel and the territory is defined by the well known cities of Taanach, Meggido (yes the
Megiddo of Armageddon) and by Beth-Shean (that is today that enormous archeological ruin of
a fabulous Roman city). This is the 5
th
district and if Israel had a breadbasket area, this is
surely it. It was also an ancient, and continuing, thoroughfare for trader merchants and armies;
great battles were fought there and the war to end all wars will be fought there in the future.

The 6
th
taxation district was governed by Ben-Gever, and this was territory that lay to the east
of the Jordan River, mostly in an area that the Torah refers to as Bashan. It mentions a couple
of cities by name and then says it encompassed 60 walled cities. A large area indeed and
many people, Hebrew and gentile, lived there.

7
th
was what can only be described as the eastern Jordan Valley and is identified by only one
city: Mahanaim. Interestingly Mahanaim was a royal city for a time, as it was used by
Ishbosheth, son of Saul, when he took over as king from his deceased father (but ruled only
briefly). Part of the tribal territory of Gad was included in this district.

The 8
th
district is identified as the tribal territory of Naphtali; Achima’atz was its commissioner
and he too married one of King Shlomo’s daughters. This is an area that would later be known
as the Galilee. It sat in a very strategic region where crops grew abundantly, and access roads
to all the compass directions were present. It was a kind of agriculture hub of commerce.

The Asher tribal territory is the next one and it probably included what we know as the territory
of the tribe of Zevulun. As the 9
th
district it was overseen by Ba’ana. This is a different
Ba’ana than the one I’ve listed as the 5
th
district. Just like today when certain names gains
popularity for a time, it was obviously so among aristocrats that Ba’ana was a trendy name in
that era.

The 10
th
one is called Yissachar (meaning the territory of the tribe of Issachar) and the
commissioner was Y’hoshaphat (again, a different Y’hoshaphat than we ran across in the 1
st
list). It included the town of Jezreel and extended eastward towards the Jordan River valley.

The 11
th
district was run by Shimei, and is essentially the tribal territory of Benjamin. Notice
that we have run into another Shimei who was a nemesis of David’s, and who Solomon put to
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death in revenge. He was also of the tribe of Benjamin; Shimei was a customary name used in
that tribe.

The 12
th
district’s identification is not entirely certain but all that really remains to assign is the
southern section of the Trans-Jordan and Judah. Therefore the reference to Gilead is very
likely meaning Gad’s southern most areas, including Reuben’s territory. And since it also
speaks of Og and Bashan there is no doubt that this district is located entirely on the east side
of the Jordan River and cannot include Judah.

But then the listing of the taxation districts ends with this cryptic statement: “Over all of these
was one administrator in the land”. The Jewish Publication Society says it ought to be
translated as “and one officer that was over all the officers in the land”. The noted Jewish
scholars Rainey and Notley think it should be rendered “and one commissioner was in the land
of Judah”.

Here’s what’s causing the difficulty: there is no mention in this listing of districts and
commissioners of a single city, town, or boundary that is in Judah. Rainey and Notley add the
word “Judah” because they think that the term “the land” (in Hebrew ha’eretz) can only be
referring to Judah. Otherwise the territory of Judah is completely left off the list.

But what this also seems to indicate is that the tribal territory of Judah was dealt with a bit
differently than all of the northern tribal territories when it came to taxation under Solomon.
And, since Shlomo was of the tribe of Judah……well, that’s one reason you always hoped that
the king would be from your own tribe. There was always direct benefit to the tribe when one of
its own held national power.

Then we’re given a further clue as verse 20 ends with the words that Judah and Israel were
very numerous and that they all ate, drank, and enjoyed themselves. Two things: 1
st
, note that
Judah and Israel are still spoken of as separate and identifiable entities and that is because
despite the fact that they were both under the same king, they refused to give up their identities
as belonging to either the northern or southern tribal coalitions as opposed to seeing
themselves belonging to a single 12 tribe coalition. And it didn’t help that Solomon gave Judah
special treatment regarding taxation (and no doubt other matters as well). 2
nd
notice the “eat,
drink and make merry” statement to end the passage. Very quickly the peace and prosperity
under Solomon led to a free-flowing, pleasure seeking, carnal type of lifestyle in Israel. Part of
this was because of the enormous influx of foreigners into Israel as both visitors and resident
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aliens, and because Solomon demonstrated the greatest of tolerance for their customs and
their religions with their various gods. Solomon developed quite a multi-cultural society. What
(on its face) seemed so intellectual, high-minded, kind and economically profitable soon led
Israel off a cliff into a valley of iniquity from which they never quite escaped. The wide road at
the bottom of that valley led first to the Empire of Assyria and the scattering of the 10 northern
tribes; and then later to Babylon, Judah’s place of exile.

Let’s move on to chapter 5. But before we do, you many notice that some of your Bibles
continue on for another 15 verses in chapter 4; but Hebrew text based translations like the CJB
move on to chapter 5. This causes no harm at all; this only has to do with a scholarly
disagreement over where to end one chapter and start the next. All the verses and words are
there no matter which version you are using. Since we’re using the CJB, chapter 5 begins
now.

READ 1
ST
KINGS CHAPTER 5 all


What is described in verse 1 is the largest expanse of territory that Israel has ever held and
controlled. Although I’ll make the point again at a later time, it is a sad truth that the short time
that modern Israel has existed (63 years) is only slightly shorter than the mere 80 years that
Israel existed as a unified sovereign nation under David and then Solomon. Israel’s golden
age was very brief.

The statement that describes the extent of Shlomo’s rule over all the kingdoms (meaning
gentile kingdoms) from the Euphrates to the Philistines to Egypt needs explanation. Just as in
the last verse of chapter 4 when it was said that the residents of Judah and Israel were as
numerous as grains of sand on the seashore, this is to be taken in the same vein as this
statement of about Solomon ruling over all kingdoms from the Euphrates River southward to
Egypt. Obviously there weren’t trillions of Israelites equal in number to all the sand grains, and
just as obviously Solomon didn’t rule over EVERY kingdom south of the Euphrates River. For
one thing the Euphrates River is over 1700 miles long, beginning in modern day Turkey and
emptying into the Persian Gulf.

Please be aware that just as we use certain broad and expansive statements in our English
language to communicate largeness or relatively high quantity, and we use other general
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statements because there is no need to communicate something precisely, so it is in the Bible.
Further, just as it is today, we usually speak in relation to our location, our culture, and in the
context of whatever is the subject; the Bible does the same. So we have to be careful not to
take biblical statements like the one which ends chapter 4, and the 1
st
one to begin chapter 5,
as rigid and absolute.

Rather, the territory that forms Solomon’s Israel is generally the land to the west side of the
Euphrates, not towards the east. And it is speaking of land in relation to areas near the only
land Israel had interest or divine rights in: the Promised Land. Thus Solomon’s Israel generally
controlled the land along both sides of the length of the Jordan River and what is modern day
Syria, Jordan, and Israel including the so-called West Bank. What Solomon’s Israel did NOT
control was Lebanon and Phoenicia (but they had excellent diplomatic ties with those
countries), and they did not control Philistine territory (what we think of as Gaza and then a few
miles north), although there was peace. Israel’s border with Egypt is almost identical to their
border with Egypt today that ends at the Sinai.

There were a number of small and medium sized kingdoms of non-Hebrews in that large area
controlled by Shlomo. And (as was usual for that time) a vassal king was installed by Solomon
over those kingdoms or an existing king agreed to come under Solomon’s control in exchange
for being allowed to remain in power. The price for such an arrangement was that each
kingdom agreed to give a specified amount of tribute on a regular basis to King Solomon who
ruled over them all.

In verses 2 and 3 (chapter 4 verses 22 and 23 in some Bible versions) is a list of the food items
needed to supply Solomon and his royal court. The numbers are staggering, and they are
given in terms of what was needed daily! C.F. Kiel (the 19
th
century Christian commentator)
calculates that this was sufficient provisions for 14,000 people. Other scholars have calculated
as high as 60,000 people. The differences are generally based on what the meanings are of
these ancient measures in relation to modern standard measures, and on how much a single
person might require. Either way it shows us just how large Solomon’s government had
become in so short a time, and how many of that government the ordinary citizens had to
support by giving up their own produce and livestock.

A little research into Persian and Arabian monarchies show that the size of the royal court in
relation to the size of the overall population, and the amount of the levy to supply these
government officials that is envisioned here in 1
st
Kings is commensurate with those Kings and
Sultans of other cultures. So the biblical account in no way needs to be regarded as either
exaggerated or exorbitant on Shlomo’s part.
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Verse 4 gives us a little more detail on the area of Israel under Solomon and it speaks of
Tifsach (a city that lies along the Euphrates) all the way to Gaza (one of the Philistine cities).
The key word here is peace; as much as his father David was a man who fought wars most of
his life and during his reign, Solomon inherited peace and security and was thus free to seek to
economic expansion. Saying from Dan to Be’er Sheva was an old traditional way of indicating
“all of Israel”. Saying a man lived under his fig tree and his vine meant a leisurely life, enjoying
the fruits of what grew on his land and in his fields and orchards.

But verse 6 is problematic because the number of horses contemplated is enormous and
probably not correct. Whereas 1
st
King 5 says that the number was 40,000, 2
nd
Chronicles 9
says that the number was 4000. Further, the number is not of horses, but rather of “stalls of
horses”, which leads to issue of how many horses per stall? Some rectify the discrepancy
between Kings and Chronicles by saying that Chronicles actually lists stalls while Kings lists
individual horses so therefore there must have been 10 horses per stall. But there is no
evidence of that (Biblical or archeological) and the likelihood of Solomon having 40,000 horses
is remote.

So no doubt the number is indeed stalls and the 40,000 is a copyist error that ought to read
4,000. And if we calculate that each of Solomon’s 1400 chariots required 2 horses plus 1 as a
spare (which was customary) that says that the need for all his chariots was 4200 horses. If
each of his 12,000 horsemen had a horse, then the total number of horses needed would have
been 12,000 plus the 4200 for the chariots, which equals 16,200. And that is a much more
plausible number. No matter, for that era even that amount of horses was awesome.

Another interesting factor is that Egypt was the main supplier of horses to the Middle East in
those days. There is no chance that Israel could have obtained so many horses without
obtaining a substantial number of them from Egypt. Horses were very valuable animals and
they were fearsome in battle; thus the nation that had them didn’t sell them to just anyone. It’s
like today regarding military armaments; a nation that manufactures them sells them only to
someone they are on friendly terms with and the armaments are often used as political
bargaining chips. I have little doubt that the mention at the start of chapter 3 of Solomon’s
marriage to the daughter of Pharaoh is part and parcel for the reason for the vast cavalry now
at Solomon’s disposal. But more, as Rashi pointed out, the marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter
began a steady downward slide in Shlomo’s relationship with God, and thus in how he ruled
over his kingdom. And this was because the marriage was nothing more nor less than the
surety of an alliance between Egypt and Israel. This kind of alliance was NOT supposed to
have happened; in fact it was forbidden.
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Deut 17:14-17 CJB

14
"When you have entered the land ADONAI your God is giving you, have taken
possession of it and are living there, you may say, 'I want to have a king over me, like all
the other nations around me.'

15
In that event, you must appoint as king the one whom ADONAI your God will choose.
He must be one of your kinsmen, this king you appoint over you- you are forbidden to
appoint a foreigner over you who is not your kinsman.

16
However, he is not to acquire many horses for himself or have the people return to
Egypt to obtain more horses, inasmuch as ADONAI told you never to go back that way
again.

17
Likewise, he is not to acquire many wives for himself, so that his heart will not turn
away; and he is not to acquire excessive quantities of silver and gold.


Solomon was running headlong into trouble all the while thinking his brilliance was leading
Israel into a new age of enlightenment and peace. In this short passage alone just look at the
commandments of God that he was breaking (not only the letter but the spirit of the
commandments). Should Israel appoint a king over themselves (something warned against),
the Torah says that this king ought not to lead his people back towards Egypt. That is, they
were not to create a relationship of alliance with Egypt. This did not necessarily mean that they
were to war with Egypt; but to begin to intermingle politically, religiously, socially, and with
intermarriage was forbidden. Not only that but the king was not to obtain a large number of
horses or a large number of wives.

Solomon not only ignored these divine instructions he did the opposite to the extreme. The
eventual outcome was inevitable.



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