Solomon's Prestige Among the Kings of the Earth

CHAPTER SIX

SOLOMON’S PRESTIGE AMONG THE KINGS OF THE EARTH (3 REG. 5, 10)

Solomon’s status among his royal colleagues is a topic that receives considerable attention in the Solomon Narrative. The subject takes a more prominent place in 3 Regum than in 1 Kings due both to the occurrence of pluses vis-à-vis MT and to a diﬀerent arrange- ment of subject matter. A comparison of the sections where the subject is addressed, chs. 5 and 10 of 1 Kings and 3 Regum, makes this clear.

3 Reg. 5: 14

The first indication of the LXX taking special interest in the subject obtains at 3 Reg. 5: 14. In 3 Regum and 1 Kings alike, the preceding verses vv. 9–13 deal with Solomon’s wisdom. V. 14 pro- vides a suitable conclusion to this section by indicating a consequence of Solomon’s wisdom: People attend upon him to hear him pro- nounce sayings and teachings. Here the two versions exhibit significant differences. Compare: 5: 14a1 ka‹ pareg¤nonto W!aboŸY:w" 5: 14a ...pãntew ofl lao‹ μyMi+['h¢;AlK;mûi ékoËsai t∞w sof¤aw Salvmvn hmo-lov] tm¢'k]j; taè ['mv]loi 5: 14b ka‹ §lãmbanen d«ra2 –5: 14b parå pãntvn t«n basil°vn t∞w g∞w ≈r,a+;h; yk¢el]m'AlK; tŸaeme ˜soi ≥kouon t∞w sof¤aw aÈtoË >wôtom;k]j;Ata, W[`m]v; rv,àa}

1 In order to avoid confusion with vv. 14a and b, which in the LXX follow on v. 14, Greek letters are used to divide the verse. 2 The phrase elambanen dvra is absent from LXX B A x a2, whereas it is marked by an obelus in the Syrohexapla. The omission of the phrase in the Hexaplaric manuscripts is in agreement with MT. The fact that it is also lacking in LXX B might be explained from the inﬂuence of the Hexaplaric text on LXX B (cf. Wevers, “Textual History”). solomon’s prestige among the kings of the earth 97

The MT-version is syntactically difficult. The following translation is proposed here: “People came from all the nations to hear Solomon’s wisdom, (sent) by all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.” One peculiarity of v. 14 as it stands is that it requires us to attach two different meanings to the verb [mç within the distance of a few words, namely “to hear, listen to” and “to hear of ”. The reason for this is that it does not make sense to say that kings who heard Solomon’s wisdom (v. 14b) came to hear Solomon’s wisdom (v. 14a), unless it is assumed that the author meant to say that the kings returned to Solomon after a previous visit. In that event, how- ever, we may expect the preceding account to contain a reference to a first royal visit, and this is not the case. Another difficulty of v. 14 concerns the relationship between the phrases introduced by lkm and lk tam. Both the different prepositions used and the absence of the conjunction w“ preceding tam render it unlikely that v. 14 jux- taposes two distinct groups: “People came from all the nations... (and) from all the kings of the earth.” As a consequence the partitive aspect of lkm does not apply to lk tam in v. 14b. V. 14 speaks of only one group consisting of representatives of all nations, and the clause introduced by lk tam also refers to this group. Thus tam ≈rah yklmAlk means to say that the people coming to Solomon were sent by their royal masters.3 Whereas v. 14 in 1 Kgs. 5 consists of a single main clause dealing with one subject, v. 14 in 3 Reg. 5 comprises two main clauses dealing with different subjects. The first clause does not speak of people from all the nations coming to Solomon, but speaks sum- marily of “all the nations”, which, even if it is not meant to be understood literally, may suggest a greater number of visitors “than people of all nations” of MT. The second clause presents a state- ment that does not occur in MT: “And he (i.e., Solomon) took gifts from all the kings of the earth, whoever heard (of ) his wisdom.” The difference with the situation in MT is caused by the presence of a phrase that has no counterpart in the Hebrew of v. 14b, elambanen dvra. This plus combines with the sequel to create a sentence that has no parallel in MT. Since akouein + gen. means both “to

3 Cf. 2 Sam. 15: 3, which is cited in BDB (86, sub taeme 4.b.) alongside 1 Kgs. 5: 14: ˚lmh tam ˚lAˆya [mçw, “but there is none to hear you deputed of the king.” Thus also Barthélemy, Critique textuelle, 339; Mulder, 1 Kings 1–11, 205.