1 Kings 10:27, commentary and pictures

The verse describes extraordinary abundance in Jerusalem under Solomon, when silver became as common as stones and costly cedar as plentiful as the common valley sycamore. That wealth was God-given prosperity flowing to the kingdom, making even precious metals common through great gain. Yet the riches and outward display absorbed Solomon, feeding vanity, pride and sensual indulgence until he turned from God to false worship. His multiplying of wealth and horses also brought severe oppression to the people and taught trust in chariots and military power instead of trust in God.

Words and Historical Setting

The verse pictures Jerusalem at the height of Solomon's prosperity, when wealth had become so extraordinary that silver lay as common as ordinary stones in the street. In that abundance cedar, a costly timber, had been made as plentiful as the sycamore trees that filled the lowland valleys. The silver heaped up in the capital was God-given wealth flowing in with gold into the kingdom, and its very commonness showed how greatly riches had multiplied under him.

The sycamore set beside cedar as the measure of commonness is the Asiatic wild fig, not the American tree that bears the same name. Though the two resemble one another and share a name, they are distinct, and the biblical tree is a large evergreen common in Arabia and Palestine and Egypt, especially in low places and valleys. Its wood was durable enough to be used for mummy chests, and its fig-like fruit, eaten by the poor, was produced abundantly several times a year.

The verse stands in the history of Solomon's life and reign and the great wealth of his kingdom told in the first eleven chapters of 1 Kings. Those chapters give the history of the undivided kingdom in 1 Kings 1 to 11, telling the same events as are told in 2 Chronicles 1 to 9. In that succession Solomon followed David as king of Israel, David having followed Saul, and at Solomon's death Rehoboam took the kingdom before its division into Israel and Judah.

Wealth and Its Consequences

The wealth described was God-given, and made silver in Jerusalem as plentiful as stones while gold was abundant alongside it, illustrating the great wealth flowing to the kingdom as precious metals were made common through great gains. That abundance stood in contrast to Zerubbabel's poverty, when only limited resources were available for rebuilding the temple, with silver as plentiful as stones and cedars as plentiful as sycamore trees in the valley under Solomon. Set against the size of the temple and Solomon's gains, David's preparation of a hundred thousand talents of gold and a thousand thousand talents of silver would amount to eight or nine hundred millions sterling by ordinary talent weight, more than enough to build an edifice as large as the temple itself apart from its courts of solid gold and silver, which proves either a mistake in the numeral letters or that a talent of inferior weight and value is meant.

Solomon's accumulation of silver in such great abundance was a multiplication of wealth that contributed to the people's severe oppression. His riches in extraordinary abundance, with silver as common as stones and cedars as plentiful as sycamore trees, were part of an outward display and luxury that absorbed him. Becoming vain about appearance, he neglected the true riches of character, and his love of display led to pride and temptation, to sensual indulgence, and eventually to apostasy from God and the worship of false gods in idolatry.

In the wider context of verses 26-28, his bringing in of a multitude of horses from Egypt was an evil. It taught trust in horses and chariots instead of trust in God, and exposed Israel to war and to sun worship to which the horse was devoted. It also tempted a people designed to remain settled in agriculture to keep swift-traveling beasts, to go away from home, and to become unsteady.