King Solomon's Wisdom, Wives, Mistresses & Mines

King Solomon’s Wisdom,Wives, Mistresses & Mines

 

               

                              
                                        

“Solomon” means peaceful.  Solomon was the second son born to King David.  King David have promised Queen Bathsheba that their son Solomon, though not his first son, will be made as King.  King David kept his promise by ensuring that the priest anoints Solomon as his successor.

God appeared to Solomon in a dream and promised him anything he asked.  Solomon opted for wisdom.  God made him the wisest man on the earth along with great riches and honor.

Then God said to Solomon, “Because this was with your heart and you did not ask for wealth, possessions, honor, and the lives of your enemies, and also did not ask for long life, but have asked for wisdom and knowledge that you might judge my people over whom I have made you king, wisdom and knowledge is given to you. And I will also give to you wealth, possessions, and honor, the like of which was not had by the kings who were before you, nor will there be the like after you.” So Solomon went from the high place which was at Gibeon to Jerusalem before the tent of assembly. And he reigned over Israel.

Solomon has written 1005 songs and more than 3000 proverbs or parables.  He ruled Israel for forty years till his old age. He had 700 Wives, Princesses and 300 Concubines or Mistresses. There are many stories which show King Solomon’s best judgment and wisdom. The best judgment to find out the true mother of a disputed infant was most prominent among them.

Solomon, Hebrew Shlomo ,  biblical Israelite king who built the first Temple of Jerusalem and who is revered in Judaism and Christianity for his wisdom and in Islam as a prophet.

King Solomon’s Wisdom

One of the most famous biblical stories of the outstanding wisdom of King Solomon, which won the expression "The Judgment of Solomon" relates to the clever tactic by which Solomon resolved a literally unsolvable dispute. The story related in Kings 3:16-28, tells of two prostitutes who came before King Solomon, bringing with them a single baby boy.

Each mother told the same story: that they both lived together, that both had given birth to a child, that one child was dead in the morning and that the live child was hers. Each mother accused the other, that after having discovered that her child had died during the night, its mother had stolen the other mother's live baby and replaced it with the dead child. Thus, each mother claimed, on waking up in the morning, she had discovered a dead child on her breast, which was not hers. 

In a dispute such as this, where there is no evidence or witness, King Solomon's solution is fascinating. After some deliberation, he called for a sword to be brought before him. He declared that there was only one fair solution, namely, that the live child should be split in two, each woman receiving half of the child. Upon hearing this terrible verdict, the baby's true mother cried out in horror and anguish, "Please, My Lord, give her the live child - do not kill him!" However, the liar, in her bitter jealousy, exclaimed, "It shall be neither mine nor yours - cut!" Realizing that a true mother's instincts are to protect her child, Solomon instantly gave the baby to the real mother, who was willing to relinquish her baby in order to save its life.

The story of Solomon's audacious verdict, which flushed out the truth in the dispute and revealed who had spoken the truth and who had lied, has been often used metaphorically, to depict a decision, which may risk destroying the subject matter of the dispute itself, rather than allowing either disputing party to share in it. Ironically, of course, in the biblical story, Solomon in his wisdom indeed avoided the destruction of the subject matter of the dispute, namely the baby, and pronounced a true judgment, based on his profound knowledge of human nature.

Both King David and King Solomon led a life of loose morals.  Their fatal attraction towards the opposite sex finally resulted in their downfall.

King David extended his kingdom’s boundaries by military power, whereas King Solomon protected it due to his diplomacy.  King Solomon had abundant wealth and people enjoyed under his regime.  People had faith in his wisdom and judgment and he ruled without any opposition until Jeroboam rebelled against him.

King David has written psalms.  King Solomon penned 1005 songs and 3000 proverbs or parables. Although Proverbs was written in Israel thousands of years ago, its wisdom is applicable to any culture at any time.

Both King David and King Solomon had several girl friends and wives from foreign countries and they indulged in worldly pleasures and made merry.

King Solomon had 700 royal wives, princesses and 300 concubines or mistresses.

Bible has answers to your questions about sex, marriage, sexual addictions, and more.

But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites; from the nations of whom the LORD had said to the children of Israel,

“You shall not intermarry with them, neither they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.”

Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

It will be interesting to note that Indian mythological characters King Dasharatha had 60,000 wives and Lord Krishna had 16,008 wives in contrast to King Solomon’s tally of 1000 wives, princesses and mistresses.

King Solomon possessed great wisdom, granted to him by God. He was a prolific writer, poet, and scientist. His skills in architecture and management turned Israel into the showplace of the Middle East. As a great diplomat, he made treaties and alliances that brought peace to his kingdom.

Solomon was very aggressive in his foreign policy. In sealing treaties in ancient days, it was customary for a lesser king to give his daughter in marriage to the greater king (in this case, Solomon). Every time a new treaty was sealed, Solomon ended up with yet another wife. These wives were considered tokens of friendship and “sealed” the relationship between the two kings.

Solomon’s Wives -

King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.  He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.  As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.  He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.

On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites.  He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.

The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.  Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command. So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates.  Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son.  Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”

The Queen of Sheba -

 The Queen of Sheba, according to the biblical narrative, was a woman of great wealth, beauty, and power. Sheba, believed to be either in Ethiopia or Yemen by most biblical scholars, was a well-established city, and, although there is little evidence outside the Bible as to the nature of the monarchy and how it was established, it is clear that the Queen of Sheba ruled alone and was not enamored with the religions in her own land.

When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions. Arriving with a very great caravan—with camels carrying Spices, large quantities of Gold, and Diamonds —she came to Solomon and talked with him about all she had on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for him to explain to her. When the queen of Sheba saw the Wisdom of Solomon, as well as the palace he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, the cupbearers in their robes and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed. She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. But I did not believe what they said until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half the greatness of your wisdom was told me; you have far exceeded the report I heard. How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on his throne as king to rule for the Lord your God. Because of the love of your God for Israel and his desire to uphold them forever, he has made you king over them, to maintain justice and righteousness.”

Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. There had never been such spices as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

Queen Sheba was to halt overnight at King Solomon’s palace enjoying his hospitality.  She told Solomon he should not use power to possess her.  Solomon took a solemn vow from her that she will not take anything from the royal palace.  However, in the night while asleep she felt thirsty and took water to drink and thus breached the promise.  Solomon for whom the women were the major weakness had sex with the queen Sheba in that night.

Shamir the mythical worm –

The Shamir is a worm or a substance that had the power to cut through or disintegrate stone, iron and diamond. King Solomon is said to have used it in the building of the First Temple in Jerusalem in the place of cutting tools.

Angels also helped Solomon in building the Temple; though not by choice. The edifice was, according to rabbinical legend, miraculously constructed throughout, the large heavy stones rising and settling in their respective places of themselves. The general opinion of the Rabbis is that Solomon hewed the stones by means of a shamir, a mythical worm whose mere touch cleft rocks. According to Midrash Tehillim, the Shamir was brought from paradise by Solomon's eagle; but most of the Rabbis state that Solomon was informed of the worm's haunts by Asmodeus, the king of demons. The Shamir had been entrusted by the prince of the sea to the mountain rooster alone, and the rooster had sworn to guard it well, but Solomon's men found the bird's nest, and covered it with glass. When the bird returned, it used the Shamir to break the glass, whereupon the men scared the bird, causing it to drop the worm, which the men could then bring to Solomon.

The royal palace of King Solomon -

According to the Rabbinical literature, on account of his modest request for wisdom only, Solomon was rewarded with riches and an unprecedented glorious realm, which extended over the upper world inhabited by the angels and over the whole of the terrestrial globe with all its inhabitants, including all the beasts, fowl, and reptiles, as well as the demons and spirits. His control over the demons, spirits, and animals augmented his splendor, the demons bringing him precious stones, besides water from distant countries to irrigate his exotic plants. The beasts and fowl of their own accord entered the kitchen of Solomon's palace, so that they might be used as food for him, and extravagant meals for him were prepared daily by each of his 700 wives and 300 concubines, with the thought that perhaps the king would feast that day in her house.

Asmodeus – King of Demons -

One legend concerning Asmodeus goes on to state that Solomon one day asked Asmodeus what could make demons powerful over man, and Asmodeus asked to be freed and given the ring so that he could demonstrate; Solomon agreed but Asmodeus threw the ring into the sea and it was swallowed by a fish. Asmodeus then swallowed the king, stood up fully with one wing touching heaven and the other earth, and spat out Solomon to a distance of 400 miles.
 The Rabbis claim this was a divine punishment for Solomon having failed to follow three divine commands, and Solomon was forced to wander from city to city, until he eventually arrived in an Ammonite city where he was forced to work in the king's kitchens. Solomon gained a chance to prepare a meal for the Ammonite king, which the king found so impressive that the previous cook was sacked and Solomon put in his place; the king's daughter, Naamah, subsequently fell in love with Solomon, but the family (thinking Solomon a commoner) disapproved, so the king decided to kill them both by sending them into the desert. Solomon and the king’s daughter wandered the desert until they reached a coastal city, where they bought a fish to eat, which just happened to be the one which had swallowed the magic ring. Solomon was then able to regain his throne and expel Asmodeus.

 Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. Then he rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king.

The Desert Princess
Jill Eileen Smith

 


The fascinating biblical fictions -
The loves of King Solomon # 1

The Desert Princess tells the story of Naamah the Ammonite, mentioned once in scripture as the mother of Solomon's son, Rehoboam (1 Kings 14:21). Smith sets her story during one of the most turbulent periods of David's reign -- when he fled Jerusalem from his son Absalom. She posits that Shobi the Ammonite who provisioned David and his company, mentioned in 2 Samuel 17:27, could have been Naamah's father -- and thus Solomon's introduction to the woman who would bear his heir. And thus the stage is set for a lovesick princess to fall in love with David's favorite son. There's more supposition than fact here, which is typically intolerant of in biblical fiction. However, Smith has little to go on when characterizing Naamah, so allowances must be made.

The biggest issue with this novella is that it is simply too short to do justice to Smith's talent for bringing biblical stories to life within the pages of her writing. That aside, this is a promising start to the Solomon series, as she uses the heavily fictionalized Naamah to frame Solomon at a critical point in his youth -- favored but not yet proclaimed David's heir. Naamah's interactions with Solomon hint at the wisdom to come by revealing his facility for wordplay as well as his penchant for pleasure.  One look forward to discovering how Smith both frames an older Solomon in further novellas and gives a plausible, sympathetic voice to the now silent women who once inhabited his world.

                              















 Desert Princess

                                                             Desert Princess  -   Image    1

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About the book:

Solomon captured her heart. But can she hold on to his?

King David is running for his life with his young son Solomon in tow when Naamah first encounters the prince. Her father is loyal to the king, and that loyalty will be sealed years later--through the marriage of Solomon and Naamah. 

For her part, Naamah is happy to wed the handsome prince and enter into palace life. But all is not well in Jerusalem. Solomon must navigate constant threats to his life--even from within the palace walls. And when peace is restored, can Naamah ever be truly happy as she watches the love of her life taking more wives?

Join bestselling author Jill Eileen Smith as she weaves a tale of young love, heartbreaking betrayal, and the power of forgiveness, all against the vivid backdrop of one of the most tumultuous times in Israel's history.

 

King Solomon's Mines

H. Rider Haggard came to literary prominence with the publication of King Solomon’s Mines in 1885. Haggard self-consciously modeled the book on Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, which Haggard had read. He bet his brother that he could write an adventure story at least as good, and within a year Haggard had published the now-famous novel of adventure. According to some accounts, he wrote the book in under six months.  King Solomon’s Mines is adapted from the Classic by H Rider Haggard.

In H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines the protagonists discover multiple settings said to belong to, or having been built at the request of King Solomon, such as 'Solomon's Great Road' and the mines themselves.  The two mountains which form the entrance to Kukuana Land (where the mines are located in the novel) are referred to as 'Sheba's Breasts' which could well be an allusion to the Queen of Sheba, with whom King Solomon had a relationship.

In search of King Solomon’s legendary diamond mines –

King Solomon’s Mines is a 1985 Hollywood movie of 100 minutes duration.  The Movie stars Sharon Stone as Jesse Huston who is in search of her father who was lost in an expedition for famous legendary treasure of Diamonds from King Solomon’s Mines.  She hires Richard Chamberlain as her partner in the search for her father.  The Director of the movie is J Lee Thompson.

 

         

                      

                                                                                                                                                            

 

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

Jesse Huston (Sharon Stone) hires Allan Quatermain (Richard Chamberlain) to find her father, believed lost on an expedition to find the fabled King Solomon's Mines. Together with his companion, the mysterious Umbopo, they penetrate unknown country, following a map believed to be genuine. It transpires that Professor Huston has been captured by a German military expedition on the same quest, led by Bockner (Herbert Lom), a single-minded knackwurst-munching, bald-headed Colonel and a ruthless Turkish slave-trader and adventurer, Dogati (John Rhys-Davies). Huston is being forced to interpret another map, also believed to be genuine.

The two rival expeditions shadow each other, clashing on several occasions, and finally enter the tribal lands of the Kukuana who capture them. The tribe is under the control of the evil priestess, Gagoola, who has Quatermain hung upside down over a pond full of crocodiles. Just when all seems lost, Umbopo arrives and after defeating Gagoola's warriors in combat, reveals his identity as an exiled tribal chief and the rightful ruler of the Kukuanas. As the tribesmen submit to him, Gagoola captures Jesse and flees into caves in the depths of the Breasts of Sheba, the twin mountain peaks where the mines are located. They are pursued by Bockner and Dogati, who attack the village in full force. They follow Quatermain and Umbopo to the entrance to the mines, but are hampered by a moat of quicksand. Bockner orders his men forward into the moat, but they have trouble crossing it. Dogati then kills all of Bockner's soldiers, as well as most of his own men, and uses their bodies as stepping stones to cross the moat safely. As they approach the entrance, Bockner shoots Dogati and takes command of what little remains of the party.

Inside the mines, Quatermain and Umbopo rescue Jesse and find the resting place of all the former tribal queens, including the Queen of Sheba herself, encased in crystal. Umbopo explains that Gagoola had attempted to sacrifice Jesse in order to keep her power as the Kukuanas' ruler because of Jessie's strong resemblance to the Queen of Sheba. Then Gagoola appears and taunts Umbopo, who pursues her through the caverns. As Bockner and his men arrive next, Quatermain and Jessie flee for safety, but end up in the cavern's treasure chamber, which is full of raw diamonds and other priceless treasures. As they gather some of the diamonds to take with them, Bockner hears their voices from outside the chamber, but before he can enter, Gagoola activates a hidden rock switch and seals Quatermain and Jessie inside the chamber. The switch also triggers a trap that causes the ceiling of the chamber, which is lined with stalactites to lower on them. Quatermain and Jessie manage to stop the ceiling trap, but then the chamber begins filling up with water. Just as the chamber fills completely, a lit stick of dynamite set by Bockner outside the chamber door explodes, sending them both spewing out of the chamber in the resulting flood to safety.

Bockner enters the chamber and quickly lays claim to the treasure, only to be confronted by a wounded, but very much alive, Dogati, who was wearing a protective vest that shielded him from the bullets. He then forces Bockner to swallow some of the diamonds, intending to cut him open to retrieve them later on. Meanwhile, Umbopo finally corners Gagoola. But rather than face his judgment, she instead leaps down one of the volcano's shafts and is incinerated when she lands in the molten lava below. However, the reaction causes a series of eruptions throughout the mines. Dogati is partially buried when the treasure chamber's ceiling collapses, but Bockner is unharmed. He gloats to Dogati after claiming a few more diamonds for himself and then leaves the chamber. But not before firing his gun at the ruined ceiling, burying Dogati alive. Quatermain, Jessie and Umbopa quickly flee for their lives through the collapsing caverns. They cross over a small booby- trapped lake (which one of Bockner's men fell victim to earlier), only to be stopped by Bockner, who demands they surrender their diamonds to him. Quatermain places the diamonds on the central stepping stone that triggers the trap and tells Bockner to come take the diamonds himself if he wants them. Bockner does so and falls into the lake, only to be seized in the jaws of a Mokele-mbembe and dragged beneath the water. The trap resets itself and the diamonds rise back to the surface, but Umbopo warns Quatermain and Jesse not to take them, saying they belong to the mountain.

The trio continues their escape through the caverns, which becomes even more dangerous as the lava chamber they are in is full of fire and falling rocks. Quatermain tells Umbopo to take Jessie through to safety while he follows them. But before he can do so, he is struck down by Dogati, who survived the cave-in. A brutal fight between them ensues, but Quatermain gains the upper hand at the last instant, sending Dogati falling into the chamber's lava pit to his death. Quatermain manages to escape from the mines at the last minute, just as the volcano explodes, sealing the entrance forever.

Returning to the village, Umbopo assumes his rightful place as the ruler of the Kukuanas and he and his people bid a fond farewell to Quatermain and Jesse. As they exit the village, they each reveal they had kept a diamond from the mines as a souvenir of their adventure and the movie ends with them kissing outside the village gates.

                 







               

Sharon Stone – image 1                                                                 Sharon Stone – image 2        

King Solomon and his famous wisdom attracted me during my bible lessons starting my childhood.   The old and new testament had great values in my life.  Now, having an established medium of JOHNNY’S BLOG, it gives me immense joy to write about King Solomon’s life and the divine intervention.