1 Kings 9:19

9:19 all the storage cities that belonged to him, ¹  and the cities where chariots and horses were kept. ²  He built whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout his entire kingdom. ³ 

1 Kings 10:17

10:17 He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold; three minas ⁴  of gold were used for each of these shields. The king placed them in the Palace of the Lebanon Forest. ⁵ 

1 Kings 10:2

10:2 She arrived in Jerusalem ⁶  with a great display of pomp, ⁷  bringing with her camels carrying spices, ⁸  a very large quantity of gold, and precious gems. She visited Solomon and discussed with him everything that was on her mind.

1 Kings 9:16

9:16 (Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer. He burned it and killed the Canaanites who lived in the city. He gave it as a wedding present to his daughter, who had married Solomon.)

The Song of Songs 7:4

7:4 Your neck is like a tower made of ivory. ⁹ 

Your eyes are the pools in Heshbon

by the gate of Bath-Rabbim. ¹⁰ 

Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon

overlooking Damascus.

[9:19]  ¹ tn Heb “to Solomon.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[9:19]  ² tn Heb “the cities of the chariots and the cities of the horses.”

[9:19]  ³ tn Heb “and the desire of Solomon which he desired to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land of his kingdom.”

[10:17]  ⁴ sn Three minas. The mina was a unit of measure for weight.

[10:17]  ⁵ sn The Palace of the Lebanon Forest. This name was appropriate because of the large amount of cedar, undoubtedly brought from Lebanon, used in its construction. The cedar pillars in the palace must have given it the appearance of a forest.

[10:2]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[10:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “with very great strength.” The Hebrew term חַיִל (khayil, “strength”) may refer here to the size of her retinue (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or to the great wealth she brought with her.

[10:2]  ⁸ tn Or “balsam oil.”

[7:4]  ⁹ tn Alternately, “the ivory tower.” The noun הַשֵּׁן (hashshen, “ivory”) is a genitive of composition, that is, a tower made out of ivory. Solomon had previously compared her neck to a tower (Song 4:4). In both cases the most obvious point of comparison has to do with size and shape, that is, her neck was long and symmetrical. Archaeology has never found a tower overlaid with ivory in the ancient Near East and it is doubtful that there ever was such a tower. The point of comparison might simply be that the shape of her neck looks like a tower, while the color and smoothness of her neck was like ivory. Solomon is mixing metaphors: her neck was long and symmetrical like a tower; but also elegant, smooth, and beautiful as ivory. The beauty, elegance, and smoothness of a woman’s neck is commonly compared to ivory in ancient love literature. For example, in a piece of Greek love literature, Anacron compared the beauty of the neck of his beloved Bathyllus to ivory (Ode xxxix 28-29).

[7:4]  ¹⁰ sn It is impossible at the present time to determine the exact significance of the comparison of her eyes to the “gate of Bath-Rabbim” because this site has not yet been identified by archaeologists.