Discovery Box1 Kings 10:23-29 
Context10:23 King Solomon was wealthier and wiser than any of the kings of the earth. 1 10:24 Everyone 2 in the world wanted to visit Solomon to see him display his God-given wisdom. 3 10:25 Year after year visitors brought their gifts, which included items of silver, items of gold, clothes, perfume, spices, horses, and mules. 4
10:26 Solomon accumulated 5 chariots and horses. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses. He kept them in assigned cities and in Jerusalem. 6 10:27 The king made silver as plentiful 7 in Jerusalem as stones; cedar was 8 as plentiful as sycamore fig trees are in the lowlands. 9 10:28 Solomon acquired his horses from Egypt 10 and from Que; the king’s traders purchased them from Que. 10:29 They paid 600 silver pieces for each chariot from Egypt and 150 silver pieces for each horse. They also sold chariots and horses to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Syria. 11
1 tn Heb “King Solomon was greater than all the kings of the earth with respect to wealth and with respect to wisdom.”
2 tc The Old Greek translation and Syriac Peshitta have “all the kings of the earth.” See 2 Chr 9:23.
3 tn Heb “and all the earth was seeking the face of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had placed in his heart.”
4 tn Heb “and they were bringing each one his gift, items of silver…and mules, the matter of a year in a year.”
5 tn Or “gathered.”
6 tn 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.
7 tn The words “as plentiful” are added for clarification.
8 tn Heb “he made.”
9 tn Heb “as the sycamore fig trees which are in the Shephelah.”
10 sn From Egypt. Because Que is also mentioned, some prefer to see in vv. 28-29 a reference to Mutsur. Que and Mutsur were located in Cilicia/Cappadocia (in modern southern Turkey). See HALOT 625 s.v. מִצְרַיִם.
11 tn 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.”
