1 Kings 10:12

Contextual Overview

¹The queen of Sheba heard about Solomon’s fame connected with the name of the Lord and came to test him with riddles. ¹ When the queen of Sheva heard of the fame of Shlomo concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions. ¹ And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord , she came to prove him with hard questions. ¹ Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord , she came to test him with hard questions. ¹ When the queen of Sheba heard about Solomon, she came to test him with hard questions. ¹ When the queen of Sheba heard about Solomon, she came to challenge him with difficult questions. ¹Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with riddles. ¹ Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon in relation to the name of the LORD, she came to test him with riddles. ¹ And the Queene of Sheba hearing ye fame of Salomon (concerning the Name of the Lord) came to proue him with hard questions. ¹Now the queen of Sheba heard the report about Solomon concerning the name of Yahweh. So she came to test him with riddles.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

pillars: or, rails, Heb. a prop

harps: 1 Chronicles 23:5, 1 Chronicles 25:1-31, Psalms 92:1-3, Psalms 150:3-5, Revelation 14:2, Revelation 14:3

Reciprocal: 2 Chronicles 9:11 - harps Revelation 18:12 - merchandise

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the king made of the almug trees pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king's house,.... Or terraces, as in 2 Chronicles 9:11, causeways; and means the ascent or causeway he made from his own house to the temple; the pavement of which, as Jarchi interprets the word here, was made of the wood of these trees; or the supports of it, or rather the rails on each side, on which men might stay themselves as they passed along, as Ben Gersom; and since this ascent was admired by the queen of Sheba, it is particularly observed what wood it was made of, and from whence it came:

harps also, and psalteries for singers; these musical instruments were made of the same wood; Josephus i says of amber, and that their number was 400,000:

there came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this day; not in the land of Israel, neither before nor since, see 2 Chronicles 9:11.

i Antiqu. l. 8. c. 3. sect. 8.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Pillars - The Hebrew word signifies ordinarily a “prop” (margin). It is generally supposed to mean in this place a “railing,” or “balustrade,” a sense which connects and harmonises the present passage with the parallel passage in Chronicles (marginal reference), where Solomon is said to have made of the almug-wood “stairs” for the temple and for his own house.

Harps - The Jewish harp כנור kı̂nnôr was of a triangular shape, and had ordinarily ten strings. It probably resembled the more ancient harp of the Assyrians, which was played with a plectrum, as was (ordinarily) the “kinnor.”

Psalteries - The psaltery, or viol. Hebrew: נבל nebel; Greek: νάβλα nabla, was a stringed instrument played with the hand; perhaps a lyre, like those on Hebrew coins, the sounding-board of which is shaped like a jug; or, perhaps, a sort of guitar, with a hollow jug-shaped body at the lower end.