Israel and Egypt in the “Age of Solomon”

John Van Seters

Introduction

In the current study of the history of ancient Israel, perhaps the most hotly debated issue centers on how to evaluate critically the nature of the United Monarchy of David and Solomon. The Bible presents this period as the time in which the united tribes of Israel and Judah reached the zenith of their ter- ritorial expansion under the single rule of David and the height of their wealth and political influence under his successor Solomon. During the latter king’s reign he built a sumptuous temple and palace, whose splendors are portrayed in holy writ. The problem, and hence the debate, arises from the fact that in recent times scholars have had some difficulty and strong disagreement as to how to relate the archaeological evidence to this period. For while the impres- sive ruins of several sites, such as Gezer, Megiddo, and Hazor, are linked to Solomon and correlated with the text in 1 Kings 9:15 that speaks about his building activity there, the remains in Jerusalem itself are extremely sparse and make it hard to justify the glowing description of his reign in the Bible. There are few other historical connections that can assist us, but the one that on the surface would appear to be most promising is the Egyptian connection, because of our extensive knowledge of Egyptian history. In this paper, there- fore, I want to examine the biblical record of Egypt’s relations with Israel in the “age of Solomon”.

Solomon’s Marriage to an Egyptian Princess and the Conquest of Gezer

The first task of the historian who wishes to investigate the possible relations between Israel and Egypt in the “Solomonic age” is to look carefully at the texts relating to Solomon’s marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter and the Egyptian con- quest of Gezer. These events are usually assumed by biblical historians, such as M. Noth, to be unassailable historical facts. Yet Noth goes on to list all the

* It is a pleasure for me to dedicate this paper to Professor John S. Holladay Jr., former col- league and longtime friend.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���5 | doi ��.��63/9789004302563_008 200 Van Seters things that make the statement in 1 Kings 3:1 doubtful and reasons why it could not be derived from an inscription or archival source (Noth 1968: 48–49).1 The text states:

Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt; he took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had finished building his own house and the house of Yahweh and the wall around Jerusalem.

In this text, and the others related to it, no names are given for the woman or her father, although in later events involving Egypt we are given the name of pharaohs. In the phrase, “Pharaoh, king of Egypt”, the title pharaoh is treated as a proper name, as it is in many late texts. Furthermore, in the accounts of Saul and David, the names of royal wives are common, so the lack here is quite remarkable. There is no clear indication of chronology for the marriage, before or after Solomon’s succession. David, at any rate, is never cited as hav- ing any contact with Egypt. The remark in 1 Kings 3:1 couples the marriage with Solomon’s building activity in a curious way to leave the impression that there is a long period of time between the marriage and her final residence in Jerusalem. Nothing about the remark suggests a historical source. The marriage announcement also seems to be curiously out of place and relates to nothing before and after. Indeed, it is anticlimactic in its reference to Solomon’s build- ing activity and the Greek text locates it, along with 9:16–17a, after 5:14 and preceding the start of Solomon’s preparations for temple construction, which is not much better. In 1 Kings 7:8 we again encounter the Egyptian princess in connection with the building of her palace, but the statement is most difficult to interpret. We read:

[Solomon’s] own house where he was to reside, the other court within the portico (’ulam), was of like construction. A house he would [also] make with similar portico for the daughter of Pharaoh whom Solomon had married.

Since the whole construction of the palace with its several pillared halls or porticos is called Solomon’s house, it is difficult to know what to make of “his

1 Cf. Montgomery and Gehman (1951: 102–3), who view all the remarks about Pharaoh’s daugh- ter as archival. For a critique of Montgomery’s understanding of archival sources, see Van Seters (1983: 299–301).