Solomon’s Grand Ambitions

1 Kings 9:15, 17-19: “Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the Lord’s Temple, his own palace, the Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, as well as Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer. King Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth Horon, Baalath and Tadmor in the desert, within his land, as well […]

Solomon’s Concubines and Wives

1 Kings 11:1, 3: “King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites… He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.” Solomon clearly knew that the Lord had instructed the Israelites: “You must not intermarry with them, for surely […]

Solomon and King Hiram of Tyre

1 Kings 9:10-14: “At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings—the Lord’s temple and the royal palace—King Hiram of Tyre had supplied Solomon with all the cedar and juniper and gold he wanted. So King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in Galilee. But when Hiram went from Tyre to inspect […]

Prayer Before the Temple

After completing the construction of the Temple, Solomon held grand ceremonies, sacrifices, and other celebrations. Solomon knew that the Temple was merely a symbol of God’s presence among His people. He also understood that prayer must hold firmly to God’s promises. Therefore, the seven petitions he made before God were all based on God’s promises. […]

Copper Mines in the Time of Solomon

1 Chronicles 18:8: “From Tebah and Cun, towns that belonged to Hadadezer, David took a large quantity of bronze. Solomon used it to make the Bronze Sea, the pillars and all the bronze articles.” 1 Kings 7:13-47: “King Solomon sent to Tyre and brought Huram, whose mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali […]

The Queen of Sheba

The Queen of Sheba (Hebrew: מַֽלְכַּת־שְׁבָׄא‎; Ancient Greek: βασίλισσα Σαβὰ) is a figure recorded in the Hebrew Bible. She was a queen who ruled the East African kingdom of Sheba and lived during the same era as King Solomon. Sheba’s location roughly corresponds to modern-day Ethiopia. At its peak, her power in Africa extended across […]

A Palace Greater Than the Temple

Solomon spent thirteen years building his own palace (1 Kings 7:1). The royal complex included the House of the Forest of Lebanon, the Colonnade, the Throne Hall, the King’s private residence, and Pharaoh’s daughter’s palace. This project took nearly twice as long as building the Temple. The construction of both the Temple and the palace […]

Building the Temple in Quietness

Zedekiah’s Cave, also known as Solomon’s Quarries, is a 20,000-square-meter underground quarry located beneath the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, dating back thousands of years. The Meleke limestone extracted from here is strong and corrosion-resistant, making it ideal for carving. When first cut, it is relatively soft and can be smoothly sawn. Upon exposure […]

Labor in the Time of Solomon

1 Kings 5:13, 15-16: “King Solomon conscripted laborers from all Israel—thirty thousand men… He had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hills, as well as three thousand three hundred foremen who supervised the project.” This marks the first time in the Bible that Israelites were conscripted for forced labor. At that time, […]

The Cedars of Lebano

1 Kings 5:6: “So give orders that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me. My servants will help your servants, and I will pay your servants whatever wages you set, for you know that we have no one among us as skilled in timber cutting as the Sidonians.” The cedar trees that grow in the […]