translation_id: net-engnet

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “the report about Solomon.” The Hebrew text also has, “to the name of the Lord ,” which fits very awkwardly in the sentence. If retained, perhaps it should be translated, “because of the reputation of the Lord .” The phrase, which is omitted in the parallel passage in 2 Chr 9:1 , may be an addition based on the queen’s declaration of praise to the Lord in v. 9 .


text: Or “test.”


text: Or “riddles.”


text: For location see Map5-B1 ; Map6-F3 ; Map7-E2 ; Map8-F2 ; Map10-B3 ; JP1-F4 ; JP2-F4 ; JP3-F4 ; JP4-F4 .


text: Heb “with very great strength.” The Hebrew term חַיִל ( khayil , “strength”) may refer here to the size of her retinue (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or to the great wealth she brought with her.


text: Or “balsam oil.”


text: Heb “Solomon declared to her all her words; there was not a word hidden from the king which he did not declare to her.” If riddles are specifically in view (see v. 1 ), then one might translate, “Solomon explained to her all her riddles; there was no riddle too complex for the king.”


text: Heb “all the wisdom of Solomon.”


text: Heb “house.”


text: Heb “the food on his table.”


text: Heb “the seating of his servants and the standing of his attendants.”


text: Heb “there was no breath still in her.”


text: Heb “about your words [or perhaps, “deeds”] and your wisdom.”


text: Heb “the half was not told to me.”


text: Heb “good.”


text: Heb “How happy are your men! How happy are these servants of yours, who stand before you continually, who hear your wisdom!”


text: Or “delighted in.”


text: Heb “to do justice and righteousness.”


text: The Hebrew term כִּכָּר ( kikkar , “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 9,000 pounds of gold (cf. NCV, NLT); CEV “five tons”; TEV “4,000 kilogrammes.”


text: Heb “there has not come like those spices yet for quantity which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.”


text: This Hebrew architectural term occurs only here. The meaning is uncertain; some have suggested “banisters” or “parapets”; cf. TEV, NLT “railings.” The parallel passage in 2 Chr 9:11 has a different word, meaning “tracks,” or perhaps “steps.”


text: Two types of stringed instruments are specifically mentioned, the כִּנּוֹר ( kinnor , “zither” [?]), and נֶבֶל ( nevel , “harp”).


text: Heb “there has not come thus, the fine timber, and there has not been seen to this day.”


text: Heb “besides what he had given her according to the hand of King Solomon.”


text: Heb “turned and went.”


text: The Hebrew term כִּכָּר ( kikkar , “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 50,000 pounds of gold (cf. NCV); CEV, NLT “twenty-five tons”; TEV “almost 23,000 kilogrammes.”


text: Heb “the weight of the gold which came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold.”


text: Heb “traveling men.”


text: The Hebrew text has simply “six hundred,” with no unit of measure given.


text: Heb “[There were] armrests on each side of the place of the seat, and two lions standing beside the armrests.”


text: Heb “nothing like it had been made for all the kingdoms.”


text: Heb “there was no silver, it was not regarded as anything in the days of Solomon.”


text: Heb “a fleet of Tarshish [ships].” This probably refers to large ships either made in or capable of traveling to the distant western port of Tarshish.


text: Heb “the fleet of Tarshish [ships].”


text: Heb “came carrying.”


text: The meaning of this word is unclear. Some suggest “baboons.”


text: Heb “King Solomon was greater than all the kings of the earth with respect to wealth and with respect to wisdom.”


label: NET textual note

text: The Old Greek translation and Syriac Peshitta have “all the kings of the earth.” See 2 Chr 9:23 .


text: Heb “and all the earth was seeking the face of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had placed in his heart.”


text: Heb “and they were bringing each one his gift, items of silver…and mules, the matter of a year in a year.”


text: Or “gathered.”


text: Heb “he placed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.” map For location see Map5-B1 ; Map6-F3 ; Map7-E2 ; Map8-F2 ; Map10-B3 ; JP1-F4 ; JP2-F4 ; JP3-F4 ; JP4-F4 .


text: The words “as plentiful” are added for clarification.


text: Heb “he made.”


text: Heb “as the sycamore fig trees which are in the Shephelah.”


text: Heb “and a chariot went up and came out of Egypt for six hundred silver [pieces], and a horse for one hundred fifty, and in the same way to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Aram by their hand they brought out.”