“Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and threescore and six talents of gold; beside that which chapmen and merchants brought. And all the kings of Arabia and governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon.” — 2 Chronicles 9:13-14
A couple of years ago, my husband and I had the opportunity to visit the Winter Palace in Russia, located on the bank of the Neva River in St. Petersburg. From the 1760s until 1917, the Winter Palace was the main residence of the Russian tsars. Today, this marvel of Baroque architecture houses the Hermitage Museum and an incomparable collection of artifacts numbering over three million items.
While the furnishing and artifacts were impressive, it was the amount of gold that amazed me beyond words. Never in my life had I seen or imagined so much gold in one place. The opulence was quite literally staggering!
The palace is huge: 700 feet long and 100 feet high, with 176 sculptured figures along the roofline that add to the building’s striking appearance. While we did not begin to see them all, we were told that the palace has 1,786 doors, 1,945 windows, 1,500 lavishly decorated halls and rooms, and 117 staircases! Built in the shape of a rectangle, with inner windows and doors opening onto an enclosed garden courtyard, it truly is an amazing sight.
On the day of our visit, we joined a stream of other tourists being rapidly ushered from one ornate area to the next by guardians of the palace. Elaborate features of gold and other precious materials dazzled our eyes. However, the second largest room in the Winter Palace, the Armorial Hall, stands out in my memory. The walls of this enormous chamber—originally the place where official ceremonies and weddings were held—are lined with immense fluted columns of gold. The magnificent inlaid floor, made from sixteen varieties of rare wood, is polished to an almost mirror-like gloss. Huge crystal chandeliers hang from the coffered white and gold ceilings, and ornate matching sconces adorn the walls.
The luxury we viewed that day made me think of Solomon’s wealth, described in today’s text. King Solomon’s fortune dwarfed that of every person who lived before him; he was the richest person in the world of his day. He reigned for forty years, and we are told that every year he received 666 talents of gold. This did not include income derived from business and trade, nor the annual tribute paid to him by the kings and governors of surrounding nations. His wealth was so tremendous that during his reign, silver was no more valued than common stones.
Pondering this kind of wealth made me think of the testimony of Bill Cripps, a veteran in our church. As a young man, Bill began to count the cost of serving God. He thought to himself, “If I should gain the whole world, live to be a ripe one hundred years old without an ache or a pain or a care of any kind, and then spend all of eternity in that lake of fire and brimstone where the Bible says the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched, I would have missed everything.”
The Winter Palace in St. Petersburg was built for the Empress Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, but she died before the palace was completed. The workers who maneuvered the huge fluted columns in the Armorial Hall into place have long since stepped into eternity. The artisans who crafted the sculpted figures along the roofline are gone. Even the tsars who lived in this amazing structure have departed from this world. Where are they spending eternity?
Bill Cripps had the right perspective, and it is one we should all strive to keep in mind. Wealth like that of Solomon or the Russian tsars may last for a lifetime . . . but after a lifetime comes eternity. Let us purpose to live our lives for God, and then when we step into eternity, we will forever enjoy blessings that are truly beyond description!
This concluding portion of chapter 9 gives several examples of Solomon’s revenues, trade ventures, and immense wealth (verses 13-28), and completes the summary of Solomon’s forty-year reign with an account of his death (verses 29-31).
Verse 13 relates that 666 talents of gold came to Solomon in one year. The weight of a talent varied by region, date, and type from 65 to 135 pounds.1 At a minimum, Solomon’s annual salary would have surpassed 43,000 pounds in gold or about one billion dollars at current prices.2 Added to this, the “kings of Arabia and governors of the country” brought gold and silver to Solomon. The word chapmen in verse 14 means “traders.”
The writer of 2 Chronicles went on to provide further examples of Solomon’s wealth and prosperity. Verse 16 states that he made three hundred shields of beaten gold. We are told in 1 Kings 10:17 that “three pound[s] of gold went to one shield” so the value of just one of these shields perhaps would have been comparable to that of an expensive car in our day. The “targets” mentioned in verse 15 were even larger shields, probably designed to cover the whole body, and Solomon had two hundred of them. While these shields no doubt made awe-inspiring displays in the house of the forest of Lebanon, they were merely ornamental. They would have been of no use in battle, as gold was both too heavy and too soft a metal to provide effective protection.
Solomon’s “great throne of ivory” overlaid with gold, described in verses 17-19, would have been a spectacular sight. It had six steps as an ascent to the seating area, and was flanked on both sides by six lions representing the twelve tribes of Israel.
At the conclusion of the description of Solomon’s great wealth, the statement is made in verse 28 that they “brought unto Solomon horses out of Egypt.” This was in direct disobedience to God’s command in Deuteronomy 17:16, which stated that the king of Israel “shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.”
In the closing verses of this chapter, the writer omitted any reference to Solomon’s idolatry, his multiple marriages, and the heavy taxation he imposed upon the people. He simply reported that Solomon reigned for forty years, that he died and was buried in the city of David, and that his son Rehoboam succeeded him on the throne.
1. Emil G.Hirsch et al., “Weights and Measures,” The Jewish Encyclopedia (New York and London: Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1905), vol.XII, 483-84, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Jewish_Encyclopedia_volume_12.pdf.
2. “Live Gold Price,” kitco, August 17, 2023, https://www.kitco.com/charts/livegold.html.
I. The reign of Solomon
C. The character of Solomon’s reign
5. Solomon’s riches (9:13-28)
a. His yearly revenue (9:13-16)
b. His ivory throne (9:17-19)
c. His gold utensils (9:20-21)
d. His fame and wisdom (9:22-24)
e. His horses (9:25-28)
D. The death of Solomon (9:29-31)
While we do not have the material wealth of Solomon or the tsars of Russia, we can obtain treasures beyond compare in eternity if we stay true to God through our lifetime on earth.
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