2 Chronicles 9:13

Solomon’s Wealth

9:13 Solomon received 666 talents ¹  of gold per year, ² 

2 Chronicles 22:2

22:2 Ahaziah was twenty-two ³  years old when he became king and he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. His mother was Athaliah, the granddaughter ⁴  of Omri.

2 Chronicles 9:21

9:21 The king had a fleet of large merchant ships ⁵  manned by Huram’s men ⁶  that sailed the sea. Once every three years the fleet ⁷  came into port with cargoes of ⁸  gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. ⁹ 

2 Chronicles 36:22

Cyrus Allows the Exiles to Go Home

36:22 In the first year of the reign of ¹⁰  King Cyrus of Persia, in fulfillment of the promise he delivered through Jeremiah, ¹¹  the Lord moved ¹²  King Cyrus of Persia to issue a written decree throughout his kingdom.

¹ tn The Hebrew word כִּכַּר (kikar, “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, by extension, to a standard unit of weight. According to the older (Babylonian) standard the “talent” weighed 130 lbs. (58.9 kg), but later this was lowered to 108.3 lbs. (49.1 kg). More recent research suggests the “light” standard talent was 67.3 lbs. (30.6 kg). Using this as the standard for calculation, the weight of the gold Solomon received annually was 44,822 lbs. (20,380 kg).

² tn Heb “the weight of the gold which came to Solomon in one year was 666 units of gold.”

³ tc Heb “forty-two,” but the parallel passage in 2 Kgs 8:26 reads “twenty-two” along with some mss of the LXX and the Syriac.

⁴ tn The Hebrew term בַּת (bat, “daughter”) can refer, as here, to a granddaughter. See HALOT 165-66 s.v. I בַּת 1.

⁵ tn Heb “for ships belonging to the king were going [to] Tarshish with the servants of Huram.” This probably refers to large ships either made in or capable of traveling to the distant western port of Tarshish.

⁶ tn Heb “servants.”

⁷ tn Heb “the fleet of Tarshish [ships].”

⁸ tn Heb “the ships of Tarshish came carrying.”

⁹ tn The meaning of this word is unclear; some suggest it refers to “baboons.” NEB has “monkeys,” NASB, NRSV “peacocks,” and NIV “baboons.”

⁷ tn The words “the reign of” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

⁸ tn Heb “to complete the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah.”

⁹ tn Heb “stirred the spirit of.”