2 Chronicles 9:12, commentary and pictures

2 Chronicles 9:12 belongs to chapters 1 to 9 of 2 Chronicles, which give the history of the undivided kingdom under Solomon and cover the same events as 1 Kings 1 to 11, coming in chronological order. The chief subjects in that section are the building and furniture of the temple, with the dedication prayer and sacrifices, and the divine answer to Solomon's prayer. The verse belongs to the account of the Queen of Sheba's visit and shows Solomon's great riches and the magnificence of his court, including his generosity in granting her requests. Those riches and luxury were among the things that later led him astray.

The queen's kingdom was in southern Arabia, from where the Abyssinian people originally came. The visit places the verse in the history claimed by Abyssinian kings, who trace their descent to the queen and to her union with Solomon.

After the visit a son named Menelek was born to Solomon by the queen, and through him the Abyssinian royal house claims descent from the house of Judah and of David through Solomon and even to the patriarch Judah, with the present King Menelek tracing his pedigree through his ancestors to Solomon and keeping as official emblem a lion figure identified as the Lion of Judah. Menelik II, Emperor of Abyssinia, claims to be the only direct descendant from the meeting through that union, tracing his royal lineage by the ancient Ghese chronicle about Magda, Queen of Sheba, which was loaned by Menelik himself and newly translated from Ghese into French and from French into English.