For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.
Solomon's wealth reaches its peak here. The cargo list raises the question that runs through the whole chapter. Was this the glory of a kingdom picturing Christ's reign, or the first drift of a wise man toward folly?
The fleet and the partnership
The voyages were a joint venture. Solomon owned the ships, but the crews came from another king.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinSolomon had a fleet of ships, manned mostly by the experienced sailors of King Hiram. Another fleet appears in 10:22, a navy of Tarshish, which sailed with Hiram's navy every three years to fetch gold, silver, ivory and apes and peacocks. All these statements show the great prosperity of the kingdom.
Where the ships went
Where these ships sailed is not settled. The cargo itself is the best clue.
William KellyTarshish seems to have given its name to ships that sailed anywhere — at least on long voyages... There may have been another place so called in the south east or Indian ocean, to which Solomon's ships sailed from Ezion-Geber. We have no reason to think the route round Africa by the Cape of Good Hope was known then. And even if it were, the south of Spain could not supply ivory, asses and peacocks. These point rather to India or Ceylon.
A preview of the kingdom of Christ
Read one way, the scene is a small model of something far larger. Foreign nations were serving Israel's king, and that pattern will return.
Leslie M. GrantEvery three years Solomon sent ships to Tarshish, enlisting the help of Huram's servants, to bring gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks (v. 21). So he had Gentile cooperation in such ventures, as will be true in the future kingdom of Israel. So Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom, though he gives us only a faint picture of the greater glory of "the world kingdom" of the Lord Jesus.
Solomon's own kingdom did not stay at that height:
J. T. MawsonThat splendid king led the people down a steep road. He gathered into his kingdom apes and peacocks, strange women and idols. This showed the folly, vanity, corruption and heathen practices into which they sank. How discouraging this would be if we had no hope except in man's "self-determination." But the Scriptures help us. From them we learn that the blessing God has purposed to flow out to all nations from Zion can only come through the One who is greater than Solomon, and that One is Christ.
Apes and peacocks
The last two items on the cargo list matter most. A man who once ranked wisdom above rubies was now importing pets.
W. W. FeredayBut as his kingdom grew rich, his imports were "gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks" (1 Kings 10:22). "Apes and peacocks." For a man supreme in the earth for wisdom this is a descent from the sublime to the ridiculous... First, he valued wisdom as more precious than rubies and fine gold; then he turned to madness and folly. Apes are the synonym of folly, and peacocks of vanity.
The application lands on the reader, not on Solomon:
W. W. Fereday"Apes and peacocks" — folly and vanity! Yet Solomon desired them. We may not value these particular creatures as pets, but do we in any degree cling to things which correspond to them?
Who was the centre?
David gathered great wealth too. The difference between the two kings was who it was all for.
F. B. HoleFirst then, we notice that all this magnificent accumulation of gold and silver and ivory, of valuables and objects of art, descending even to apes and peacocks, was all collected for his own pleasure and enjoyment. He was the centre around which everything revolved. How different he was from his father... If David received large sums into his private purse, as he unquestionably did, he still kept the Lord's interests before him... Solomon was on quite different lines. All that he got he heaped up for his own benefit.
There was also a plain command behind this. Israel's king had been told not to multiply gold and silver to himself:
F. B. HoleHe greatly multiplied gold and silver and ivory, and not only these but things that were useless, or that merely fed his personal vanity, like apes and peacocks. All these things he multiplied to himself.
Summary
- Cargo. Every three years the fleet came home with gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks. The kingdom was at the height of its wealth.
- Partnership. Hiram's experienced sailors made the voyages possible. That help from another nation points to the nations serving the King to come.
- Picture. Solomon's riches are only a faint sketch of the far greater glory of Christ's world kingdom.
- Descent. Solomon once prized wisdom above rubies. Then came apes and peacocks — a fall from the sublime to the ridiculous, folly and vanity bought at great cost.
- Direction. David gathered wealth with the Lord's house in view; Solomon heaped it up for himself. The same treasure can serve God or feed self, and the difference is who stands at the centre.