King Solomon

 

King Solomon is a figure that has been of great interest to me. He is to me one of the most interesting biblical figures, with a few other exceptions. Now before I go into discussion about why I am so intrigued by him, let me first post a bit of background information. A brief history of sorts.

The biblical King Solomon was known for his wisdom, his wealth and his writings. He became ruler in approximately 967 B.C.E. and his kingdom extended from the Euphrates River in the north to Egypt in the south. His crowning achievement was the building of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Almost all knowledge of him is derived from the biblical books of Kings I and Chronicles II.

Solomon was the son of King David and Bathsheba. Solomon was not the oldest son of David, but David promised Bathsheba that Solomon would be the next king. When David’s elder son Adonijah declared himself king, David ordered his servants to bring Solomon to the Gihon spring where the priest anointed him while David was still alive. Solomon inherited a considerable empire from his father.

At first Solomon was faced with opposition. Two of David’s closest advisors, Joab son of Zeruiah and the priest Abiathar, sided with Adonijah. When Adonijah came to Solomon and requested the king’s servant as a wife, Solomon saw that this was a veiled threat to take over his kingdom and sent a messenger to kill Adonijah. He banished Abiathar to the city of Anathoth. Solomon then followed his father’s last instructions in which David had ordered him to kill both Joab and one of his father’s enemies, Shimei son of Gera. Solomon thus overcame the last potential threats to his kingdom. He then appointed his friends to key military, governmental and religious posts.

Solomon accumulated enormous wealth. He controlled the entire region west of the Euphrates and had peace on his borders. Kings I states that he owned 12,000 horses with horsemen and 1,400 chariots. Remains of stalls for 450 horses have in fact been found in Megiddo. Solomon strengthened his kingdom through marital alliances. Kings I records that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines, although some regard this number as an exaggeration.² He had a large share in the trade between northern and southern countries. He established Israelite colonies around his province to look after military, administrative and commercial matters. The empire was divided into twelve districts, with Judah constituting its own political unit and enjoying certain privileges.

Although Solomon was young, he soon became known for his wisdom. The first and most famous incident of his cleverness as a judge was when two women came to his court with a baby whom both women claimed as their own. Solomon threatened to split the baby in half. One woman was prepared to accept the decision, but the other begged the King to give the live baby to the other woman. Solomen then knew the second woman was the mother.

People from surrounding nations also came to hear Solomon’s wisdom. He composed 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs. He wrote the Song of Songs, the Book of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

One of the most celebrated visits to Solomon was that of the Queen of Sheba, who came from southern Arabia. Historically, Arabia was a country rich in gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Solomon needed Sheba’s products and trade routes; the queen of Sheba needed Solomon’s cooperation in marketing her country’s goods. The queen came to Solomon with camels carrying spices, gold and precious stones. She asked him questions and riddles and was amazed at his wisdom.

Once Solomon’s empire was tranquil, he began to build the Holy Temple. He received wood from King Hiram of Tyre and imposed a compulsory labor service on both the Israelites and the foreign nations that were under his control. His workers built the structure of the Temple, its decorations and its vessels. The Temple took seven years to complete. It was built of stone and cedar, carved within and overlaid with pure gold. When it was done, Solomon dedicated the Temple in a public ceremony of prayers and sacrifices.

Solomon was also renowned for his other building projects in which he used slave labor from the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. He spent 13 years building his own palace, and also built a city wall, a citadel called the Millo, a palace for the daughter of Pharaoh (who was one of his wives) and facilities for foreign traders. He erected cities for chariots and horsemen and created storage cities. He extended Jerusalem to the north and fortified cities near the mountains of Judah and Jerusalem.

Solomon died in Jerusalem after 40 years as ruler of Israel. He was buried in the City of David. His son, Rehoboam succeeded him as king. Under Rehobaum’s rule, Solomon’s empire was lost and his kingdom was divided into two parts.

* The Jewish Virtual Library

Ok, now that I have set the scene, one of the first things which I find notable about Solomon was the fact that he allowed all of his wives to practice thier own relgion, as he had a harem of foregin wives, they were allowed to worship thier own gods as they choose, and he even had shrines built for his wives to worship, pray, and offer sacefice to the gods of thier choosing and homelands. He did not push his own religion upon them nor force them to convert. To me living in a male dominated world and being a King no less, within a male dominated and very conservitive religion this was very foward thinking. Of course it also made him not very popular, and was one of the factors that would lead to his eventual downfall.

Another intresting aspect of Solomon is the conection he has to magic and the use of sorcery. There is a text known as The Key of Solomon there is some debate about wheather or not Solomon was the acutal author of the text, but the text is a grimoire (spell book) of ritual and ceremonail magic, and part of the Key of Solomon involves a list of 72 demons and thier seals and how to summon them, according to legend, the 72 demons were 72 kings which Solomon had shut up within a brass vessel and threw into the ocean.

Another asepect of Solomon that is of interest to me, is the fact that that it is said that Lilith appeared before Solomon. For those who do not know the story of Lilith, I will give a breif overview. She is considered the Queen of Demons, and as the story goes, she was the first wife of Adam, but she would not be subserviant, and wished to be equal to Adam, and the thing that really pushed Adam over the edge, was during sex Lilith insisted on being on atop, so Adam complained to God about his disobediant wife, and Lilith was cast from Eden. The story than says that after she was exilied she became a succubus and fornicated with wild beasts, giving brith to all matter of horrible creatures.

This is one intresting story I found about Solomon from the Book of Thoth:

In one instance, Solomon and Asmodeus are having a philosophical discussion about the nature of good and evil, when Asmodeus tricks the usually wise Solomon into removing his magical ring. The demon king laughs in triumph and throws the magical ring into the sea, after which Solomon immediately finds himself in another life as a lowly beggar. One night, while Solomon is preparing dinner for his new king, he cuts into a fish and out pops the magical ring from the fish’s stomach. Once Solomon puts the ring back on, he resumes his previous life as the King of the Israelites, awakening in his bed to find it had all only been a dream. Despite the fact that Asmodeus sought to destroy Solomon, the Hebrew king learned a valuable lesson from the demon lord in this instance.

Just as Asmodeus is often interchangeable with Satan himself in some traditions, and is a representative of the deadly sin of lust, so too are the other entities of the seven deadly sins sometimes interconnected with the being known as ‘Satan’. The seven deadly sins were first classified by St. Gregory in the 6th Century. Aside from Asmodeus, the deadly sins are as follows: Pride-Lucifer, Avarice-Mammon, Envy-Leviathan, Gluttony-Beelzelbub, Anger-Satan, and Sloth-Belphegor. Opposing these negative characteristics are Pride-Humility, Avarice-Sufficiency, Lust-Chastity, Envy-Charity, Gluttony-Sobriety, Anger-Patience, and Sloth-Diligence. It is apparent that many of these demons are merely different names for Lucifer, and Beelzebub, lord of the flies, and Belphegor, are variations of the Babylonian sun god Bel. Beelzebub comes from the Semitic Zebub which means “a fly”, and the figure of Baal-Sebul became the “Lord of the Flies”.

Lilith too is a noted adversary of King Solomon, as she appears to him one night in order to tempt him while he is studying the holy texts. She appears in a voluptuous sexual form to try and persuade Solomon to lay with her, but upon Solomon dragging the demoness before a mirror, she cast no reflection and quickly retreated at the realization that she had no form. As punishment for her unnatural crimes against humanity, the children of Lilith were scattered across all the planes of space and time; some even bound to their own dimension in order to keep them from dwelling in the earthly realms. A quick note about the Hebrew Solomon- the root of Sol equates with the meaning of the word ‘Sun’, as does the holy capital city of Sion. In this sense we have the ‘wisdom’ and light of the sun which scatters out the forces of ‘darkness’ represented by Lilith and her demonic husband Asmodeus. 

Here is another mention of Solomon having an encounter with Lilith, in the Testiment of Solomon, here she does not name herself as Lilith, but names herself Obizuth.:

And I adored the Lord God of Israel and bade another demon present himself. And there came before me a spirit in woman’s form that had a head without any limbs, and her hair was dishevelled. And I said to her, ‘Who art thou?’ But she answered, ‘Nay, who art thou? And why dost thou want to hear concerning me? But as thou wouldst learn, here I stand before thy face. Go then into thy royal storehouses and wash thy hands. Then sit down afresh before thy tribunal and ask me questions, and thou shalt learn, O king, who I am.’ And I, Solomon, did as she enjoined me, and restrained myself because of the wisdom dwelling in me, in order that I might hear of her deeds and apprehend them and manifest them to men. And I sat down and said to the demon, ‘Who are thou?’ And she said, ‘I am called among men Obizuth, and by night I sleep not, but go my rounds over all the world and visit women in childbirth. And divining the hour I take my stand, and if I am lucky I strangle the child. But if not, I retire to another place, for I cannot a single night retire unsuccessful. For I am a fierce spirit of myriad names and many shapes. And now hither, now thither, I roam. And to westering parts I go my rounds. But as it now is, though thou hast sealed me round with the ring of God, thou has done nothing. I am not standing before tee, and thou wilt not be able to command me. For I have no work other than the destruction of children and the making of their ears to be deaf, and the working of evil to their eyes, and the binding their mouths with a bond, and the ruin of their minds, and paining of their bodies’

When I, Solomon, heard this, I marvelled at her appearance, for I beheld all her body to be in darkness. But her glance was altogether bright and cheery, and her hair was tossed wildly like a dragon’s, and the whole of her limbs were invisible. And her voice was very clear as it came to me. And I cunningly said, ‘Tell me by what angel thou are frustrated, O Evil Spirit?’ But she answered me, ‘By the angel of God called Afarof, which is interpreted Raphael, by whom I am frustrated now and for all time. His name, if any man know it, and write the same on a woman in childbirth, then I shall not be able to enter her. Of this name the number is 640.’ And I, Solomon, having heard this, and having glorified the Lord, ordered her hair to be bound and that she should be hung up in front of the Temple of God, that all the children of Israel as they passed might see it and glorify the Lord God of Israel, who had given me this authority with wisdom and power from God by means of this signet.” (Gaster 157-159)

There is also a story that says Solomon suspected the Queen of Sheba might have been Lilith.

* Image info: Artist unknwn