1 Kings 10:18

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹⁴The weight of gold that came to Solomon each year was 666 talents, ¹⁵not including the revenue from the merchants, traders, and all the Arabian kings and governors of the land. ¹⁶King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. ¹⁷He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. ¹⁸Additionally, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold.¹⁹The throne had six steps and a rounded top at the back of the throne. There were armrests on both sides of the seat, with a lion standing beside each armrest. ²⁰Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like this had ever been made for any kingdom. ²¹All of King Solomon's drinking cups were gold, and all the utensils of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. There was no silver, because it was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon. ²²For the king had the ships of Tarshish at sea with Hiram's fleet, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. ²³So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a great throne: 2 Chronicles 9:17-19, Psalms 45:6, Psalms 110:1, Psalms 122:5, Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 1:8, Revelation 20:11

ivory: 1 Kings 10:22, 1 Kings 22:39, Psalms 45:8, Ezekiel 27:6, Amos 6:4, Revelation 18:12

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 7:7 - for the throne Esther 5:1 - sat Song of Solomon 7:4 - ivory

Cross-References

Genesis 10:16
the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites,

Genesis 10:17
the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites,

Numbers 34:8
and from Mount Hor to Lebo-hamath, then extending to Zedad,

Joshua 18:22
Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,

2 Samuel 8:9
When King Toi of Hamath heard that David had defeated the entire army of Hadadezer,

2 Kings 17:24
Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.

2 Kings 17:30
The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima,

2 Chronicles 13:4
Then Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, "Hear me, O Jeroboam and all Israel!

Isaiah 10:9
"Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

Ezekiel 27:8
The men of Sidon and Arvad were your oarsmen. Your men of skill, O Tyre, were there as your captains.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory,.... To sit on and judge his people; and ivory being white, may denote the purity, justice, and equity with which he judged; the white throne in Revelation 20:11 may be an allusion to this; the ivory he had from Tarshish, 1 Kings 10:22

and overlaid it with the best gold; for the greater splendour and majesty of it; not that he covered it all over, for then the ivory would not be seen, but interlined it, or studded it with it, whereby it appeared the more beautiful and magnificent. Such a throne of gold and ivory was decreed to Caesar by the Romans p.

p Appian. Alex. l. 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

It is, on the whole, probable that the substance of the throne was wood, and that the ivory, cut into thin slabs, and probably carved in patterns, was applied externally as a veneer. This is found to have been the practice in Assyria. The gold was probably not placed over the ivory, but covered other parts of the throne.