The $$$
Billionaire
King Solomon
How Rich was he?
Exactly how rich was King Solomon? How much gold and silver did he possess?What are the things that made him the wealthiest king IN THE WORLD during his lifetime? How much gold, silver, and other valuable goods did he receive as GIFTS each year?
Solomon, the son of King David, was blessed to have and become increasingly incredibly rich!
Shortly after Solomon became king the Eternal appeared to him in a dream and offered to give him ANYTHING (1Kings 3:5), which included being rich as were most kings on the earth. He requested, however, "an understanding heart" (verse 9) so that he could fulfill his responsibilities as king over all of Israel. God's response to his selfless request was amazing and unique. (1Kings 3:10 - 13)
Commerce and Trading
"King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion Geber . . . Then Hiram (King of Tyre) sent his servants with the fleet, seamen who knew the sea, to work with the servants of Solomon. And they went to Ophir, and acquired FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY TALENTS OF GOLD from there . . ." (1Kings 9:26-28)
His partnership with Hiram also brought him, every three years, things like ivory, monkeys, apes, etc. (1Kings 10:22-23). The Jewish historian Josephus also wrote about his rich trading for gold and silver.
" . . . for the King had many ships which lay upon the sea of Tarsus, these he commanded to carry out all sorts of merchandise unto the remotest nations, by the sale of which silver and gold were brought to the king, and a great quantity of ivory, and Ethiopians, and apes; and they finished their voyage, going and returning, in three years' time" (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 8, Chapter 7).
Gifts
The Queen of Sheba came special to Jerusalem to hear Solomon's wisdom. She was so impressed that she gave him camels, jewels, a large quantity of gold and other gifts.
9 She (Queen of Sheba) presented to King Solomon the gifts she had brought: almost five tons (other translations say 'one hundred and twenty talents') of gold . . . (2Chronicles 9:1, 9)
The Bible says that everyone who came to inquire of the king's wisdom brought him a gift - either animals, spices, precious metals and so on (1Kings 10:25). Josephus also wrote about how rich Solomon was through the gold and other goods he received.
"Now the weight of gold that was brought him was six hundred and sixty-six talents, not including in that sum what was brought by the merchants, nor what the toparchs and kings of Arabia gave him in presents."
"Accordingly there went a great fame all around the neighboring countries, which proclaimed the virtue and wisdom of Solomon, insomuch that all the kings everywhere were desirous to see him, as not giving credit to what was reported, on account of its being almost incredible. They also demonstrated the regard they had for him by the presents they made him; for they sent him VESSELS OF GOLD, and silver, and purple garments, and many sorts of spices, and horses, and chariots, and as many mules for his carriages as they could find proper to please the king's eyes, by their strength and beauty." (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 8, Chapter 7)
Huge Gold Bar weighing about 551 pounds (250 kilograms)!
How much GOLD did he own and what was it worth?
While the Bible does not give us a value or weight of all the silver, bronze, precious gems, garments, spices, etc. that came to Solomon, it does give us a rough idea how much gold he brought in and how rich he was.
14 Every year King Solomon received over twenty-five tons (other translations say 'six hundred and sixty-six talents') of gold, 15 in addition to the taxes paid by merchants . . . (1Kings 10)
Used anciently, Talents were a measure of weight and money. A talent weighs roughly 75 U.S. pounds (34.3 kilograms), which is equal to 1,094 troy ounces. At $1,500 per troy ounce, a talent of gold in today's value is worth $1,641,000. At $1,600 per troy ounce, a talent is worth $1,750,400. Solomon received 666 talents of the metal EACH YEAR. This means the value of what he got each year was between $1,092,906,000 and $1,165,766,400 U.S. dollars!
The king became so immensely rich that ALL his cups were made of gold (not one was made of silver - 1Kings 10:21). His wealth was so immense that gold and silver were as common in Jerusalem as STONES (2Chronicles 1:15, see also 1Kings 10:27)!
Net worth
What exactly was Solomon's net worth? Exactly how rich was he? There has never been a human in history who had SO MUCH gold and silver "at his fingertips" such that it was as common as pebbles! Since we know he ruled Israel for forty years, and that he brought in roughly 1.1 BILLION dollars of gold EACH YEAR, we can safely assume his assets were in the billions of dollars.
Solomon, however, possessed even MORE riches than what was mentioned above. He also inherited wealth from his father David, regularly received gold and silver from the kings of Arabia, governors and merchants, and heavily taxed his own people. Additionally, as if that was not enough, he received tribute money from countries and kingdoms, plus gold, silver, ivory, animals, slaves and so on every three years due to his business partnership with the King of Tyre AND he garnered gifts of gold, spices, precious stones, garments, armor, and so on EACH YEAR from a variety of others!
It is safe to say that the king was certainly RICH, and likely one of the top ten wealthiest humans EVER given the amount and variety of goods that came to him on a regular basis!
What did he do with it?
Solomon was a wise king. He used his wealth to build the temple. According to the Hebrew Bible, Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the Holy Temple (Hebrew: בֵּית־הַמִּקְדָּשׁ: Beit HaMikdash) in ancient Jerusalem before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BCE. How did it get destroyed? What happened to all that wealth?
• Solomon's faithfulness to God, rather than his political prowess, was the measure of his success according to 1 Kings. As his reign matured, his faithfulness to God was compromised when he worshipped the idols he constructed in order to please his many foreign wives.
• The kings who followed Solomon continued the pattern of unfaithfulness to God. When some repented of their evil ways and good things resulted, the faithfulness to God did not last.
• The political stress of being a nation versus an extended family erupted in a schism between the northern and southern tribes.
• These stories reflect the chosen people's theological struggle to make sense of the exile; written during or after the exile, these stories prefigure the exile chronologically.
• The prescientific worldview of these stories is quite different from ours. While we may identify God's redeeming influence in retrospect, we do not generally ascribe God's causal action to the events of our daily lives like these stories do.
• The violence and judgment in these stories are a consequence of a different worldview and the author's agenda to emphasize the importance of faithfulness to the well-being of God's chosen people.
Read it!
Sit down with a member of your family! READ: 1 Kings 11. Select one person to read verses 1–4 to set the scene for what was about to happen, another person to read verses 9–10, and another person to read verses 11–13 to discover God's response to Solomon. Because of Solomon's unfaithfulness to God and the unfaithfulness of the people, God warned that the once-united kingdom of Israel would split apart and come to an end. When Solomon died, most of his kingdom was ruled by someone other than his son, as God had said would happen if Solomon did not stop worshipping idols.
• What did Solomon do to upset God, and what was God's response to Solomon?
• Why do you think God chose to remove the kingdom not from Solomon, but from his son Rehoboam?
• Why do you think Rehoboam was punished for the sin of his father?
• Even though God punished Solomon and Rehoboam, what was the promise God made to them? Why did God offer this silver lining?
• Would you say that Solomon was a good king or a bad king?