and Gentile, would readily get the force of Paul’s illustration.

In a letter to the Ephesians, Paul outlined clearly that the fight of the Christian soldier is not against blood and flesh, but against “the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places.” Therefore the armor necessary for this fight could not be obtained from worldly sources, but had to be the armor from Jehovah God, who brings victory under his army Commander, Jesus Christ.—Eph. 6:11-17.

SOLOMON

(Solʹo·mon) [peaceable].

Son of King David of the line of Judah. King of Israel from 1037 to 997 B.C.E. The Bible record, after reporting the death of the son born to David through his illicit relations with Bath-sheba, continues: “And David began to comfort Bath-sheba his wife. Further, he came in to her and lay down with her. In time she bore a son, and his name came to be called Solomon. And Jehovah himself did love him. So he sent by means of Nathan the prophet and called his name Jedidiah, for the sake of Jehovah.” (2 Sam. 12:24, 25) Solomon later had three full brothers, sons of David and Bath-sheba: Shimea, Shobab and Nathan.—1 Chron. 3:5.

JEHOVAH’S PROMISE TO DAVID

Jehovah had declared to David, before Solomon’s birth, that a son would be born to him and that his name would be Solomon, and that this one would build a house to His name. The name Jedidiah (“beloved of Jah [Jehovah]”) seems to have been given as an indication to David that Jehovah had now blessed his marriage to Bath-sheba, and that the fruitage thereby produced was approved by him. But this was not the name by which the child was commonly known. Undoubtedly the name Solomon (“peaceable”) applied in connection with the covenant that Jehovah made with David, in which he said that David, being a man who had shed much blood in warfare, would not build the house for Jehovah, as David had it in his heart to do. (1 Chron. 22:6-10) Not that David’s warfare was wrong. But Jehovah’s typical kingdom was essentially of a peaceful nature and objective; its wars were for the purpose of cleaning out wickedness and those opposing Jehovah’s sovereignty, to extend Israel’s dominion to the boundaries that God had outlined, and to establish righteousness and peace. These objectives the wars of David accomplished for Israel. Solomon’s rule was essentially a reign of peace.

ADONIJAH’S ATTEMPT TO TAKE THE THRONE

After his birth Solomon next appears in the Scriptural record in the time of David’s old age. David, doubtless on account of Jehovah’s promise, had previously sworn to Bath-sheba that Solomon would succeed him on the throne. This was known to the prophet Nathan. (1 Ki. 1:11-13, 17) Whether Solomon’s half-brother Adonijah knew of this oath or intent of David is not stated. In any case, Adonijah made an attempt to gain the throne in a manner similar to that employed by Absalom. Perhaps because of the king’s feebleness and because Adonijah had the support of Joab the army chief and Abiathar the priest, he had confidence that he would be successful. It was nonetheless a treasonable action, an effort to seize the throne while David was still alive and without the approval of David or of Jehovah. Also, Adonijah revealed his underhandedness in inviting to his sacrifice at En-rogel (where he intended to be acclaimed as king) the king’s sons and men of Judah, the king’s servants, but leaving out Solomon, Nathan the prophet, Zadok the priest and the mighty men who had fought closely with David, along with Benaiah their leader. This indicates that Adonijah counted Solomon as a rival and an obstacle to his ambitions.—1 Ki. 1:5-10.

SOLOMON ENTHRONED

The prophet Nathan, ever faithful to Jehovah and to David, was on the alert. First sending Bath-sheba with instructions to inform the king of the plot, he then came in himself, asking David if this proclaiming of Adonijah as king had been authorized by him. David acted quickly and decisively, calling for Zadok the priest and Nathan to take Solomon to Gihon under the protection of Benaiah and his men. He was to put Solomon on the king’s own she-mule (denoting a high honor to the one riding, in this case, that he was successor to the kingship). (Compare Esther 6:8, 9.) David’s instructions were followed out, and Solomon was anointed, and acclaimed as king.—1 Ki. 1:11-40.

On hearing the sound of the music at Gihon, not so very far away, and the shouting of the people: “Let King Solomon live,” Adonijah and his coconspirators fled in fear and confusion. Solomon gave a foregleam of the peace that would mark his rulership by refusing to mar his ascension to the throne by executing revenge. Had matters been reversed, Solomon would very likely have lost his life. But he sent to the sanctuary, where Adonijah had fled for asylum, and had Adonijah brought before him. Informing Adonijah that he would continue to live unless bad should be found in him, Solomon then dismissed him to his house.—1 Ki. 1:41-53.

DAVID’S CHARGE TO SOLOMON

David, before dying, gave Solomon the solemn charge to “keep the obligation to Jehovah your God by walking in his ways, by keeping his statutes, his commandments and his judicial decisions and his testimonies.” He further instructed him concerning Joab and Shimei, not to let them ‘go down into Sheol in peace’; also to show loving-kindness toward the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite. (1 Ki. 2:1-9) Probably it was prior to this that David gave instructions to Solomon regarding the building of the temple, passing on to him the architectural plan “that had come to be with him by inspiration.” (1 Chron. 28:11, 12, 19) David gave command to the princes of Israel there present to help Solomon his son and to join in building the sanctuary of Jehovah. On this occasion the people anointed Solomon again as king and Zadok as priest. (1 Chron. 22:6-19; chap. 28; 29:1-22) God’s blessing on Solomon is shown early in his reign, as he began to sit upon “Jehovah’s throne as king in place of David his father and to make a success” of the kingship and to develop strength in it.—1 Chron. 29:23; 2 Chron. 1:1.

ADONIJAH’S SEDITIOUS REQUEST

It was not long until Solomon had to act to carry out David’s instructions concerning Joab and Shimei. This was prompted by the action of Adonijah, who still manifested ambition, despite the mercy that Solomon had shown him. Adonijah approached Solomon’s mother with the words: “You yourself well know that the kingship was to have become mine, and it was toward me that all Israel had set their face for me to become king; but the kingship turned and came to be my brother’s, for it was from Jehovah that it became his.” Here Adonijah acknowledged that Jehovah was behind the enthroning of Solomon, yet his request that followed these words was a further crafty bid for usurpation of the kingship. He said to Bath-sheba: “Please, say to Solomon the king . . . that he should give me Abishag the Shunammite as a wife.” Adonijah may have felt that he had a strong enough following, together with the support of Joab and Abiathar, that, by taking David’s nurse (considered as David’s concubine, though he had no relations with her), he could start an uprising that might overthrow Solomon. (For wives and concubines of a king were the property of his successor, and one taking over such wives was considered as establishing a claim to the throne [compare 2 Samuel 16:21, 22].) When Bath-sheba, not discerning Adonijah’s duplicity, transmitted his request to Solomon, Solomon interpreted it immediately as a bid for the kingship and forthwith sent Benaiah to put Adonijah to death.—1 Ki. 2:13-25.

Abiathar deposed, Joab and Shimei put to death

Then Solomon gave attention to Adonijah’s co-conspirators, dismissing Abiathar from the priesthood (which fulfilled Jehovah’s word spoken against the house of Eli [1 Sam. 2:30-36]), but not killing him, because he had carried the Ark before David and had suffered affliction with him. Zadok replaced Abiathar. In the meantime, Joab, having heard of Solomon’s action, fled to grab hold of the horns of the altar, but was there slain by Benaiah at Solomon’s order. (1 Ki. 2:26-35) Finally, Solomon also placed Shimei on oath to observe certain restrictions, for this man had called down evil on his father David. When Shimei, about three years later, violated this restriction, Solomon had him put to death. Thus David’s injunction to Solomon was fully carried out.—1 Ki. 2:36-46.

SOLOMON’S WISE REQUEST

In the early part of Solomon’s reign the people were sacrificing on many “high places,” because there was no house of Jehovah, though the tabernacle was at Gibeon and the ark of the covenant was in a tent on Zion. Although Jehovah had said that his name was to be placed upon Jerusalem, he evidently tolerated this practice until the temple should be built. (1 Ki. 3:2, 3) At Gibeon, known as “the great high place,” Solomon offered a thousand burnt sacrifices. Here Jehovah appeared to him in a dream, saying: “Request what I should give you.” Instead of asking for riches, glory and victory, Solomon requested a wise, understanding and obedient heart in order to be able to judge Israel. Solomon’s humble request pleased Jehovah so that he gave him, not only what he had asked for, but also riches and glory “so that there will not have happened to be any among the kings like you, all your days.” Jehovah, however, added the admonition: “And if you will walk in my ways by keeping my regulations and my commandments, just as David your father walked, I will also lengthen your days.”—1 Ki. 3:4-14.

Shortly afterward, when two prostitutes presented a difficult problem of parental identity, Solomon demonstrated that God had indeed endowed him with judicial wisdom. This greatly strengthened Solomon’s authority in the eyes of the people.—1 Ki. 3:16-28.

BUILDING ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In the fourth year of his reign, in the second month of the year (the month Ziv [April-May]), in 1034 B.C.E., Solomon began to build the house of Jehovah on Mount Moriah. (1 Ki. 6:1) The building of the temple was peacefully quiet: the stones were fitted before being brought to the site, so that no sound of hammers or axes or of any tools of iron was heard. (1 Ki. 6:7) King Hiram of Tyre cooperated in supplying timbers of cedar and juniper trees in exchange for wheat and oil. (1 Ki. 5:10-12; 2 Chron. 2:11-16) He also furnished workmen, including an expert craftsman named Hiram, the son of a Tyrian man and a Hebrew woman. (1 Ki. 7:13, 14) Solomon conscripted for forced labor thirty thousand men, sending them to Lebanon in shifts of ten thousand a month. Each group returned to their homes for two-month periods. Besides these there were seventy thousand burden bearers and eighty thousand cutters. These last-named groups were non-Israelites.—1 Ki. 5:13-18; 2 Chron. 2:17, 18.

Inauguration of the temple

The tremendous building project occupied seven and a half years, being concluded in the eighth month, Bul, in 1027 B.C.E. (1 Ki. 6:37, 38) It appears that it took some time afterward to bring in the utensils and to get everything arranged, for it was in the seventh month, Ethanim, at the time of the Festival of Booths, that the sanctification and inauguration of the temple were carried out by Solomon. (1 Ki. 8:2; 2 Chron. 7:8-10) Therefore it must have taken place in the seventh month of 1026 B.C.E., eleven months after completing the building, rather than a month before the structure was completed (in 1027), as some have thought.

Another view adopted by some is that the inauguration services were in Solomon’s twenty-fourth year (1014/1013), after he had also built his own house and other government buildings, which occupied thirteen more years, or twenty years’ building work in all. This view is supported by the Septuagint, which interpolates certain words not found in the Masoretic text, at 1 Kings 8:1 (3 Kings 8:1 in LXX, Bagster) reading: “And it came to pass when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and his own house after twenty years, then king Solomon assembled all the elders of Israel in Sion, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, this is Sion, in the month of Athanin.” However, a comparison of the accounts in Kings and Chronicles indicates that this is an incorrect conclusion.

The record in 1 Kings chapters six to eight describes the temple construction and its completion, next mentions Solomon’s thirteen-year government building program, then, after speaking again at length of the temple construction and the bringing in of the “things made holy by David his father,” the account proceeds to describe the inauguration. This seems to indicate that the description of the government building program (7:1-8) was inserted parenthetically, as it were, to round out and complete the discussion about the building operations. But the record at 2 Chronicles chapter 5:1-3 appears to indicate more directly that the inauguration took place as soon as the temple and its furnishings (with the exception of the Ark), were ready, for it reads: “Finally all the work that Solomon had to do for the house of Jehovah was at its completion, and Solomon began to bring in the things made holy by David his father; and the silver and the gold and all the utensils he put in the treasures of the house of the true God. It was then that Solomon proceeded to congregate the older men of Israel and all the heads of the tribes.” After detailing the installation of the ark of the covenant in the temple by the priests, who carried it from the city of David up to the temple hill, the account then goes on to describe the inauguration.—2 Chron. 5:4-14; chaps. 6, 7.

Some have questioned the view just mentioned that the inauguration took place in the year after the temple was completed, because of 1 Kings 9:1-9, which speaks of Jehovah as appearing to Solomon after the “house of the king” was constructed, saying that he had heard Solomon’s prayer. (Compare 2 Chronicles 7:11-22.) This was in his twenty-fourth year, after his twenty-year building work. Was God twenty years in answering Solomon’s prayer given at the inauguration of the temple? No, for at that inauguration, at the close of Solomon’s prayer, “the fire itself came down from the heavens and proceeded to consume the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and Jehovah’s glory itself filled the house.” This was a powerful manifestation of Jehovah’s hearing of the prayer, an answer by action, and was acknowledged as such by the people. (2 Chron. 7:1-3) God’s later appearance to Solomon showed that he had not forgotten that prayer offered twenty years previously, and now was answering it verbally by assuring Solomon of his response to it. God, at this second appearance, also gave Solomon added admonition to continue faithful as had David his father.