Discovery Box1 Kings 10:14-15
Context10:14 Solomon received 666 talents 1 of gold per year, 2 10:15 besides what he collected from the merchants, 3 traders, Arabian kings, and governors of the land.
Psalms 68:29
Context68:29 as you come out of your temple in Jerusalem! 4
Kings bring tribute to you.
Psalms 72:10
Context72:10 The kings of Tarshish 5 and the coastlands will offer gifts;
the kings of Sheba 6 and Seba 7 will bring tribute.
Psalms 72:15
Context72:15 May he live! 8 May they offer him gold from Sheba! 9
May they continually pray for him!
May they pronounce blessings on him all day long! 10
[10:14] 1 tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “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 to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 50,000 pounds of gold (cf. NCV); CEV, NLT “twenty-five tons”; TEV “almost 23,000 kilogrammes.”
[10:14] 2 tn Heb “the weight of the gold which came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold.”
[10:15] 3 tn Heb “traveling men.”
[68:29] 4 tn Heb “Be strong, O God, [you] who have acted for us, from your temple in Jerusalem.”
[72:10] 5 sn Tarshish was a distant western port, the precise location of which is uncertain.
[72:10] 6 sn Sheba was located in Arabia.
[72:10] 7 sn Seba was located in Africa.
[72:15] 8 tn The prefixed verbal form is jussive, not imperfect. Because the form has the prefixed vav (ו), some subordinate it to what precedes as a purpose/result clause. In this case the representative poor individual might be the subject of this and the following verb, “so that he may live and give to him gold of Sheba.” But the idea of the poor offering gold is incongruous. It is better to take the jussive as a prayer with the king as subject of the verb. (Perhaps the initial vav is dittographic; note the vav at the end of the last form in v. 14.) The statement is probably an abbreviated version of the formula יְחִי הַמֶּלֶךְ (yÿkhiy hammelekh, “may the king live”; see 1 Sam 10:24; 2 Sam 16:16; 1 Kgs 1:25, 34, 39; 2 Kgs 11:12).
[72:15] 9 tn Heb “and he will give to him some gold of Sheba.” The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive with a grammatically indefinite subject (“and may one give”). Of course, the king’s subjects, mentioned in the preceding context, are the tribute bearers in view here.
[72:15] 10 tn As in the preceding line, the prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives with a grammatically indefinite subject (“and may one pray…and may one bless”). Of course, the king’s subjects, mentioned in the preceding context, are in view here.
