Also Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s merchants acquired them from Kue for a price.
Parallel translations
- WEB The horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt. The king’s merchants received them in droves, each drove at a price.
- KJV And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king’s merchants received the linen yarn at a price.
- BSB Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Kue; the royal merchants purchased them from Kue.
- NKJV Also Solomon had horses imported from Egypt and Keveh; the king’s merchants bought them in Keveh at the current price.
- NLT Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from Cilicia; the king’s traders acquired them from Cilicia at the standard price.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Solomon imported horses from Egypt through his merchants. It notes another aspect of his trade that ran counter to the law's warning.
Overview
His large-scale horse trade with Egypt, while economically lucrative, stood in tension with Deuteronomy 17:16, which forbade the king to send to Egypt to multiply horses. The detail is recorded plainly, but it reveals Solomon increasingly testing the boundaries God had set for Israel's kings. These small compromises in commerce and military strength prepare the way for the greater compromise of his heart in chapter 11.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Deut 17:16Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because Yahweh has said to you, “You shall not go back that way again.”
- 2 Chr 9:28They brought horses for Solomon out of Egypt and out of all lands.
- Isa 31:1–3Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they don’t look to the Holy One of Israel, and they don’t seek Yahweh!
- Isa 36:9How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
- Prov 7:16I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.
- 2 Chr 1:16–17The horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt and from Kue. The king’s merchants purchased them from Kue.
- Ezek 27:7Your sail was of fine linen with embroidered work from Egypt, that it might be to you for a banner; blue and purple from the islands of Elishah was your awning.
- Isa 19:9Moreover those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be confounded.
- Gen 41:42Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in robes of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck,
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Christ at the center
Solomon's glory, wisdom, and temple where God's presence dwells are a shadow of the greater Son of David — 'one greater than Solomon is here' — and of the true Temple, Christ himself.
How 1 Kings 10:28 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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