Chapter 10 of Melachim A is entirely a description of greatness: wealth, wisdom, splendor and honor. The prophet does not relate these details in order to impress us with numbers, but rather to show how greatly the Holy One, blessed be He, poured out an immense abundance upon Shlomo and upon Israel, both in wisdom and in wealth. From here on we will proceed according to the order of the pesukim, from pasuk 14, and see how the Malbim explains the descriptions, and what our Sages learned from Shlomo's wondrous throne.
וַיְהִי מִשְׁקַל הַזָּהָב אֲשֶׁר בָּא לִשְׁלֹמֹה בְּשָׁנָה אֶחָת שֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹת שִׁשִּׁים וָשֵׁשׁ כִּכַּר זָהָב׃ - And the weight of gold that came to Shlomo in one year was six hundred sixty six talents of gold.
An immense quantity of gold came to Shlomo in a single year, and it came from those special ships that sailed to Ofir to bring back gold from there. And why does the prophet take the trouble to tell us this? To show how greatly Hashem gave abundance to Shlomo: both the immense wisdom that he had, and the immense wealth that he had. There is a great lesson here: in the periods when the people of Israel did the will of Hashem, the Holy One, blessed be He, poured out an abundance of good upon the people.
By us it is written "If you walk in My statutes," and afterwards "And I will give your rains in their season," "And your threshing shall reach until the vintage," and all the good promises. When were they actually fulfilled? Unfortunately in only one period, and that is the good era of Shlomo. Then "each man under his vine and under his fig tree" was fulfilled, immense economic wealth, great success, the nations were subject to us, there were no wars, and everything went smoothly. From the moment the cracks began, from the moment a small deviation from the path began, immediately afterward all the troubles began.
לְבַד מֵאַנְשֵׁי הַתָּרִים וּמִסְחַר הָרֹכְלִים וְכָל מַלְכֵי הָעֶרֶב וּפַחוֹת הָאָרֶץ׃ - Besides that which came from the traveling merchants, and the traffic of the peddlers, and all the kings of Arabia, and the governors of the land.
All this is aside from the additional income: great merchants who would transport goods from country to country, and small peddlers who would come to trade here, and from them a tax was collected for the king. "And all the kings of Arabia" refers to the kings to the west, who would bring him tribute. All of these together provided immense income for the kingdom.
וַיַּעַשׂ הַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה מָאתַיִם צִנָּה זָהָב שָׁחוּט שֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹת זָהָב יַעֲלֶה עַל הַצִּנָּה הָאֶחָת׃ וּשְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת מָגִנִּים זָהָב שָׁחוּט שְׁלֹשֶׁת מָנִים זָהָב יַעֲלֶה עַל הַמָּגֵן הָאֶחָת וַיִּתְּנֵם הַמֶּלֶךְ בֵּית יַעַר הַלְּבָנוֹן׃ - And King Shlomo made two hundred large shields of beaten gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each large shield. And three hundred small shields of beaten gold; three manim of gold went into each small shield; and the king put them in the House of the Forest of Levanon.
What is the difference between a tzinah and a magen? Both are protective implements, except that the tzinah surrounds a person from three directions, while the magen protects him only from one direction. And what is "beaten gold"? Shachut means drawn out, as in "their tongue is a drawn arrow," which means a drawn arrow. This is a special gold that could be drawn out like wax, unique gold that was easy to hammer out, as Rashi explains. Each magen was made of three manim of gold, a great weight, and Shlomo placed them in the House of the Forest of Levanon.
Some say that these shields were intended mainly for the king's honor: when the king would go out from his house, the soldiers would go out with these shields of gold, like an honor guard. That is, these are not shields meant for war, but for the honor of the king, especially since in Shlomo's time there was almost no war until the end of his days.
וַיַּעַשׂ הַמֶּלֶךְ כִּסֵּא שֵׁן גָּדוֹל וַיְצַפֵּהוּ זָהָב מוּפָז׃ - The king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the finest gold.
The Ralbag says: a throne of ivory means one made from elephant tusk, which was considered an extremely precious item. A single elephant tusk can be worth several thousand or even tens of thousands of dollars, and Shlomo made an entire throne from such tusks. "And overlaid it with the finest gold" - refined gold that shines like pearls, as in the expression "finest gold."
שֵׁשׁ מַעֲלוֹת לַכִּסֵּה וְרֹאשׁ עָגֹל לַכִּסֵּה מֵאַחֲרָיו וְיָדֹת מִזֶּה וּמִזֶּה אֶל מְקוֹם הַשָּׁבֶת וּשְׁנַיִם אֲרָיוֹת עֹמְדִים אֵצֶל הַיָּדוֹת׃ - The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was rounded at the back, and there were arm rests on either side by the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the arm rests.
"Six steps" - six stairs. "And the top of the throne was rounded at the back" - where the king leaned there was a rounded top behind him, a place to rest his head and a place for his back. "And arm rests on either side" - supports for the throne, where he rested his hands. And two lions stood beside the arm rests, one on each side.
וּשְׁנֵים עָשָׂר אֲרָיִים עֹמְדִים שָׁם עַל שֵׁשׁ הַמַּעֲלוֹת מִזֶּה וּמִזֶּה לֹא נַעֲשָׂה כֵן לְכָל מַמְלָכוֹת׃ - And twelve lions stood there on the six steps, on either side; nothing like it was ever made for any kingdom.
The Malbim asks: why specifically a lion? Because the banner of Yehuda bears the image of a lion, and the kingship comes from the house of Yehuda. The twelve lions allude to his twelve forefathers: counting back from Shlomo to Yehuda, or from David to Yaakov, twelve generations.
As we explained earlier regarding the sea that Shlomo made, which rested on twelve oxen: the sea represents kindness, since water is kindness, and the oxen on which it stood symbolize judgment, and here there is a blending of judgments with kindnesses. So too here: the throne is the throne of justice, where people stood in judgment, and that is judgment, and it stands upon the lions, for the lion is on the right side of the chariot and it alludes to kindness. Once again we see the blending of kindness with judgment.
וְכֹל כְּלֵי מַשְׁקֵה הַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה זָהָב וְכֹל כְּלֵי בֵּית יַעַר הַלְּבָנוֹן זָהָב סָגוּר אֵין כֶּסֶף לֹא נֶחְשָׁב בִּימֵי שְׁלֹמֹה לִמְאוּמָה׃ - And all King Shlomo's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Levanon were of pure gold; there was no silver, it was counted as nothing in the days of Shlomo.
All the king's drinking vessels were of gold, for a person who has the means to make vessels of gold will not make them of silver nor of glass, since gold is the finest. And the vessels of the House of the Forest of Levanon, which we saw earlier was the king's summer house, were of "pure gold." What is "pure gold"? One who has such gold locks it away in a vault because of its great value. Another interpretation: when such gold is brought to be sold, all the other shops close their doors, for no one buys from them, everyone buys the special gold. "There was no silver" - there was never a case where he made something of silver, since he had the means to make it of gold, and indeed silver was counted as nothing in his days.
And by way of wit one may explain: a child comes and asks his father, Dad buy me this, Dad bring me that, and the father answers, I have no money. In the days of Shlomo, a father who said this simply would not be believed, the child would not accept such an answer, for there was plenty of money. This is "there was no silver, it was counted as nothing in the days of Shlomo": the claim "I have no money" was counted as nothing in the days of Shlomo, no one would buy such an excuse.
כִּי אֳנִי תַרְשִׁישׁ לַמֶּלֶךְ בַּיָּם עִם אֳנִי חִירָם אַחַת לְשָׁלֹשׁ שָׁנִים תָּבוֹא אֳנִי תַרְשִׁישׁ נֹשְׂאֵת זָהָב וָכֶסֶף שֶׁנְהַבִּים וְקֹפִים וְתֻכִּיִּים׃ - For the king had at sea a fleet of Tarshish ships together with the fleet of Chiram. Once every three years the fleet of Tarshish came bringing gold and silver, ivory, apes and peacocks.
Here the prophet describes where the great wealth came from: Shlomo had Tarshish ships that sailed the sea together with Chiram's ships, and once every three years, since this was a very distant voyage, they would return bringing gold and silver, ivory (elephant tusks), special apes and peacocks. And the word for peacocks here is not the parrot of Ben Yehuda, but as all the commentators explain: a peacock, with its distinctive spreading of feathers. All of these were extremely precious items.
The Malbim brings the question of the Abarbanel. The Abarbanel understood that Tarshish was the city of Carthage in North Africa, and he wondered: how did the ships travel from Etzion Gever, which is on the shore of the Red Sea in the Eilat region, all the way to Carthage? After all, the land divides there in the Suez area, and before the canal was dug it was impossible to pass through. He therefore wanted to strain the reading and explain that Tarshish is the name of a type of ship, named for its shape. But this troubled him, since it is written "and he joined him to build ships to go to Tarshish," which implies that Tarshish is a place name and not a description of a ship, and if so "Tarshish ships" means ships that go to Tarshish. And the question returns: how could they reach Carthage from Eilat? Because of this he wanted to say that an error crept into what is written in Divrei HaYamim, that he made "Tarshish ships to go to Ophir," when in truth the intention was ships to go to Tarshish.
Says the Malbim: this is not so, and it is entirely improper to say that the writer of the prophets erred. Could such a thing enter one's mind? Therefore he has a different explanation. In Sefer Yeshayahu the Malbim writes that the place called Tarshish is the city of Tarzis, in ancient Spain. Spain was a very central place in ancient times, and the Tzorim who came there called it "Ushpania," after the many rabbits that were there, and from "Ushpania" it became Espania, Spania, Sepharad. And there they found refined silver in abundance on the surface of the land, so much so that all their vessels and the bands and hooks of their ships were made of silver and not of iron, from the great amount of silver they had. They built a central city named Tarsus, and this city sits at the entrances to the Atlantic Sea, the ocean, and the Red Sea opens into the ocean. Therefore, from the ships that Shlomo built at Etzion Gever, he could send both to Ophir and to Tarshish, which is Spain.
And from here also a fine distinction: as is known, gold is found in hot lands and silver in cold lands. Even today, silver is brought from Russia and from the cold lands that have silver mines, and gold from Africa, which is a hot land. And one can see this also from their very nature: gold resembles the sun and the hot lands, and silver resembles ice and is found in the cold lands. It follows, then, that from Ophir in Africa he brought the gold, and from Tarshish in Spain, from the lands of Europe, he brought the silver. And this is what the pasuk says, that the fleet of Tarshish which came once every three years carried gold and silver together.
וַיִּגְדַּל הַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה מִכֹּל מַלְכֵי הָאָרֶץ לְעֹשֶׁר וּלְחָכְמָה׃ וְכָל הָאָרֶץ מְבַקְשִׁים אֶת פְּנֵי שְׁלֹמֹה לִשְׁמֹעַ אֶת חָכְמָתוֹ אֲשֶׁר נָתַן אֱלֹהִים בְּלִבּוֹ׃ - And King Shlomo was greater than all the kings of the earth in wealth and in wisdom. And all the earth sought the presence of Shlomo to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.
Shlomo was greater and more famous than all the kings of the earth in his wealth and in his wisdom, and everyone sought to see him and to hear his wisdom.
וְהֵמָּה מְבִאִים אִישׁ מִנְחָתוֹ כְּלֵי כֶסֶף וּכְלֵי זָהָב וּשְׂלָמוֹת וְנֵשֶׁק וּבְשָׂמִים סוּסִים וּפְרָדִים דְּבַר שָׁנָה בְשָׁנָה׃ - And each one brought his tribute: vessels of silver and vessels of gold, garments, weapons and spices, horses and mules, year by year.
As is the way of those who come to see the presence of a great king, that they bring a tribute in order to greet him. And this too added great wealth to him.
Before we proceed to the matter of the horses, it is fitting to pause on Shlomo's throne. I will read before you from the Yalkut Shimoni on Megillat Esther, in remez 1046, and whoever wishes can also see a similar description in the Targum Sheni on Megillat Esther in the first chapter.
On the verse "In those days, when King Achashverosh sat on the throne of his kingdom," everyone asks: what do I care where he sat? They said: when the wicked Nevuchadnetzar rose up and destroyed the Beit HaMikdash, he exiled Tzidkiyahu and Israel to Bavel, and he took away the throne that King Shlomo had made with his wisdom, as it is stated, "And King Shlomo made a great throne of ivory," inlaid with precious stones and pearls. And the throne had six steps, and each and every step was overlaid with precious stones and pearls, some white, some greenish, some reddish, and among them were stones like fine glass. And palm trees surrounded the throne, covered with white linen garments, and upon their tops were peacocks of ivory positioned opposite the wings of eagles. And two lions of gold stood on the first step, and two pillars of marble upon the heads of the lions, and two vines of gold on the two sides of the throne shading the tops of the pillars. And two hollow lions of gold stood opposite the first ones, filled with types of spices, which would spray forth fragrances when Shlomo ascended, and all of this operated by a special mechanism. And six golden chairs, like separate seats, were on the two sides of the throne, one for the Kohen Gadol and one for the deputy, and seventy chairs surrounded the throne for the seventy elders, the Sanhedrin of Israel.
And here it is important not to err: when we say "throne," we immediately picture in our minds a chair like the ones we sit on. But the seat was only a small part of the throne. The throne itself was like a huge chamber, with steps and trees, exceedingly magnificent, a kind of great platform, the whole of which was called "the throne."
The Midrash continues: when Shlomo would ascend the throne, he would place his foot on a step, and the wheel of the mechanism would turn, and the lion would stretch out its arm from the right and the eagle would stretch out its arm from the left, and the king would lean on them and take hold of their hands and ascend, and so on each and every step. And when he would reach the top of the throne, the eagles would spread their wings by means of the mechanism, and these were not real eagles but all of gold, and they would cover over the head of the king from above. And a golden dove would descend from the pillar by means of the mechanism, and it would open the ark and take out a Sefer Torah and place it in the hand of the king, to fulfill what is stated, "And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life."
And in another Midrash, in the Sifrei d'Aggadeta, Midrash Abba Guryon, it is brought that the lion would stretch out its arm and take the crown and place it on the head of the king, and those standing there would say: may the kingdom of the house of David be established forever. And on each and every step there were pure animals opposite impure ones: on the first step an ox and opposite it a lion, on the second a lamb and opposite it a wolf, on the third a kid and opposite it a leopard, on the fourth a deer and opposite it a bear, on the fifth an eagle and opposite it a dove, on the sixth a hawk and opposite it a bird, and he would ascend and make peace between them, making peace between the two kinds of animals. And he would recite one verse on each and every step: on the first "The Torah of Hashem is perfect, restoring the soul," on the second "The testimony of Hashem is faithful, making wise the simple," on the third "The precepts of Hashem are upright, gladdening the heart," on the fourth "The commandment of Hashem is clear, enlightening the eyes," on the fifth "The fear of Hashem is pure, enduring forever," and on the sixth "The judgments of Hashem are true, altogether righteous," and afterward, "And Shlomo sat on the throne of Hashem."
And when the Kohen Gadol and the elders would sit on his right and on his left and judge the case with him, and when they would bring up the witness before Shlomo, the mechanism would begin to operate: the wheels would turn, the lions would roar, the eagles would fly and the peacocks would run. Imagine what an uproar would be created, an entire forest suddenly beginning to stir, and a person's heart would fall within him. And the Midrash says: all of this was "to seize the heart of the witnesses so that they would testify truthfully."
And when they exiled him, and Nevuchadnetzar wished to sit upon it and to judge Tzidkiyahu at Rivlah, at that moment Israel said: there has been fulfilled in us "and our enemies are judges," that our enemies take honor in a thing that was unique to us. But he did not know the secret of the mechanism, he did not have the secret code of exactly where to step so that the lion would stretch out its arm from here and the eagle from there, and he had no entry ticket to the system. He extended his foot, and a serpent of silver that would turn within the mechanism sprang out and struck him on his left thigh, and he was pained until the day of his death.
And some say in the Midrash that the matter happened earlier: Pharaoh Necho captured the throne from Yerushalayim and brought it to Egypt, and he sought to ascend and sit upon it, and the lion struck him on his thigh and he became lame, and therefore he was called Pharaoh Necho, for from that moment he received his lameness. And when Nevuchadnetzar destroyed Yerushalayim and came to conquer Egypt, he found the throne there with Pharaoh Necho, who no longer took risks upon himself and did not ascend it again, and he took it and brought it to Bavel, and the lion struck him and he fell from it. And concerning this it is stated, "How have you fallen from heaven," and did he fall from heaven? Rather, he sought to sit on the throne of one to whom wisdom had been given from heaven, on the throne of Shlomo. When Daryavesh reigned and destroyed Bavel, he took the throne and brought it to Madai, and no man sat upon it. And when Achashverosh reigned, he sent and brought wise men from Egypt to make a likeness of the throne, and they were unable to make it, and they made for him another throne in its stead. Therefore it is stated, "when King Achashverosh sat on the throne of his kingdom" - a throne made for him in place of the throne of Shlomo.
From here we see how unique that throne was, that the whole of it worked by a special technique whose operation was known to Shlomo alone, and in this too his unique wisdom was revealed. And this is what the prophet attests, "the like was not made for any kingdom": there was no king who had a throne similar to this. And even what Achashverosh made was in the category of a poor imitation, a pauper's version of Shlomo's throne, and not on the level of the throne that Shlomo built.
וַיֶּאֱסֹף שְׁלֹמֹה רֶכֶב וּפָרָשִׁים וַיְהִי לוֹ אֶלֶף וְאַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת רֶכֶב וּשְׁנֵים עָשָׂר אֶלֶף פָּרָשִׁים וַיַּנְחֵם בְּעָרֵי הָרֶכֶב וְעִם הַמֶּלֶךְ בִּירוּשָׁלָיִם׃ - And Shlomo gathered chariots and horsemen, and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, and he placed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Yerushalayim.
"Chariot" refers to an iron chariot, which they would harness to horses and fight with, as it is written, "for he had nine hundred iron chariots." Shlomo had a thousand and four hundred chariots. Some of them were placed in the chariot cities, special cities in which the chariots were concentrated, and some were with the king, for the king needs protection in his place and his city as well.
And what does the prophet come to teach us with this? That Shlomo was served not only out of love but also out of fear. Everyone took into account that it was not worthwhile to tangle with him, that he had such an arsenal of weapons of war, and he had a horse ready for the day of battle, and therefore they feared him. There is indeed a discrepancy here from the numbers in Divrei HaYamim, but as we have discussed, we do not occupy ourselves with contradictions that concern numbers, and whoever wishes may examine the commentators. We seek to understand the spirit of the matter.
וַיִּתֵּן הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶת הַכֶּסֶף בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם כָּאֲבָנִים וְאֵת הָאֲרָזִים נָתַן כַּשִּׁקְמִים אֲשֶׁר בַּשְּׁפֵלָה לָרֹב׃ - And the king made silver in Jerusalem like stones, and cedars he made as plentiful as the sycamores in the lowland.
At first glance this seems to contradict what we saw above: "silver was not considered anything in the days of Shlomo," that silver counted for nothing, while here he compares it to stones, and stones are surely worth more than "nothing." Rashi resolves this in the name of Chazal: the earlier verse was before Shlomo married the daughter of Pharaoh, and this verse is after he married the daughter of Pharaoh. As we recall, marrying the daughter of Pharaoh, as we will see stated more explicitly later on, was the beginning of the calamity and the start of the decline. At first silver was considered as nothing, and afterwards it already had some value, like stones.
The Midrash asks: "like stones," and it was not stolen? How could one throw silver scattered about like stones and it not be stolen? Rabbi Yosi said: these were stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits, stones four and five meters high. Who could come and steal such stones? You would need cranes to move them. So too the silver: it was there, and it was valuable, but it was in such blocks that no one could take it away.
Beyond this, the verse comes to teach something else: it was not only Shlomo who grew wealthy. Sometimes a king grows rich and it is not a good sign at all, for the people have sunk into terrible poverty and destitution, the king oppresses and crushes them, and from that he becomes very wealthy. Here the prophet is telling you: not so. The king himself grew rich and the people grew rich as well. How? First of all, there was silver like stones not only in the king's house but throughout all of Jerusalem. And further: "and cedars he made as plentiful as the sycamores in the lowland" - every one of the wealthy people of Jerusalem would build himself a house of cedar, to the point that cedars were as common as the sycamores of the lowland. This wealth did not remain with the upper one percent, but brought the entire nation to a better economic state.
וּמוֹצָא הַסּוּסִים אֲשֶׁר לִשְׁלֹמֹה מִמִּצְרָיִם וּמִקְוֵה סֹחֲרֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ יִקְחוּ מִקְוֵה בִּמְחִיר׃ - And the source of the horses that Shlomo had was from Egypt, and the king's merchants would take a collection at a price.
We saw that Shlomo had many chariots and horsemen, and for this he needed horses. But whoever looks closely already sees here a deviation. Beyond the deviation we mentioned, the marriage to the daughter of Pharaoh, about which we will speak at length in the next chapter, we see here a further failing: multiplying horses from Egypt.
The Malbim explains: in Egypt were the finest and most special horses. Just as they say of a special hen "an Arabian hen," and of a special donkey "a Libyan donkey," so a fine horse is an Egyptian horse. Shlomo sent men there and had merchants there. And what is "mikveh"? According to the Malbim it is from the word mikveh mayim, a gathering pool, that is, a place of collection and assembly: a gathering place for the horses. The king's merchants did not buy individual horses, but bought up globally the entire horse trading center in Egypt. In today's terms: he had a franchise over all horse sales in Egypt. Whoever wanted to buy horses, Shlomo's merchants were there, he would settle a price with them and they would sell to him. And clearly the profits in this were far greater, for there is a monopoly here: he bought everything, and all the horses that were born were his, and therefore he could raise the price as he wished, and from this he grew very wealthy.
There is a further explanation from the Radak: "mikveh" is from the word "tikvat chut hashani," that is, a thread. The intent of the verse is that two things came from Egypt, both horses and linen threads, which were fine and famously originated from Egypt, as it is written "embroidered linen from Egypt" and "striped cloths of Egyptian linen," for the Egyptians took pride in their special linen. A third explanation is brought by the Metzudat David based on Targum Yonatan: as is known, when the Targum does not translate a word but transcribes it as is, that is a sign that it is a proper name. Like "and Yaakov said to Lavan," where the Targum transcribes the names as they are, since there is nothing to translate. Here the Targum does not translate the word "mikveh," and from this the Metzudat David concludes that it is a place name: the mem is the mem of usage, and the place was called Kaveh, and from there the king's merchants would take at a price. However we explain it, there was certainly great wealth here for Shlomo in horses, and not only wealth, but that he brought the people down to Egypt in order to multiply horses, for the main dwelling of those men was in Egypt in order to multiply horses from there.
וַתַּעֲלֶה וַתֵּצֵא מֶרְכָּבָה מִמִּצְרַיִם בְּשֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹת כֶּסֶף וְסוּס בַּחֲמִשִּׁים וּמֵאָה וְכֵן לְכָל מַלְכֵי הַחִתִּים וּלְמַלְכֵי אֲרָם בְּיָדָם יֹצִאוּ׃ - And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred pieces of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty; and so for all the kings of the Hittites and for the kings of Aram, through their hand they were brought out.
See how greatly he grew wealthy: since he had a monopoly, he raised the prices, and a chariot of four horses cost six hundred shekels of silver. To such an extent that even the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram, when they wanted to buy horses, bought them from Shlomo's merchants, since all the Egyptian horse trade was in his hands. And from this too Israel grew wealthy, for as we explained the wealth did not remain with Shlomo alone, but the whole kingdom grew rich through him.
Chapter 10 spreads before us the peak of Shlomo's greatness: gold in abundance, shields large and small for the king's honor, an ivory throne without parallel in any kingdom, ships setting sail to Ophir and Tarshish and bringing gold from the hot lands and silver from the cold lands, and all the kings of the earth seeking his presence and bringing tribute. This was the one era in which all the good promises of "If you walk in My statutes" were fulfilled, and its wealth did not remain in the palace but flowed down to all the people, silver like stones in Jerusalem and houses of cedar for the wealthy. Yet within this splendor the first buds of decline also flicker: the marriage to Pharaoh's daughter, the multiplying of horses from Egypt and bringing men down there in order to multiply horses. And as we have seen, from the moment a small deviation from the path began, it was not long before troubles began, and even Shlomo's wondrous throne was tossed about between Pharaoh Necho and Nevuchadnetzar, until no one knew how to operate it and no one succeeded in making its like.