1 Kings 10

No one seems to know where the land of Sheba was. A popular guess is Yemen, in southern Arabia, parked at the corner of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Another common guess is across the Red Sea, somewhere on the Horn of Africa, in Somalia, Ethiopia, or another neighboring nation.

These were offerings for sin, the most common offering in Israel. Worshipers burned the entire animal, which could have been a bull or a sheep—or in Solomon’s case, many of them.

That’s 9,000 pounds or 4,000 kilograms. In Hebrew measurement, 120 talents.

Like Sheba, no one seem sure of where Ophir was. And, like Sheba, popular guesses are southern Arabia and the eastern coast of Africa. The phrase “gold of Ophir” shows up on a broken piece of pottery found in the ruins of Tell Qasile, in what is now Tel Aviv: “gold of Ophir for Beth-Horan…30 shekels.” Tell Qasile was an ancient town destroyed by Egyptian Pharaoh Shishak in 924 BC, a few years after Solomon’s reign. Solomon ruled Israel from about 970-931.

There’s no such wood today. The most common guess is that almug wood is today’s sandalwood, which is about the most expensive wood on the market. It’s fine-grained and good for building and carving. But it’s also fragrant, with an oil that produces a long-lasting scent. Some people describe the smell as calming, sensual, or woodsy. Africa has several kinds of sandalwood, but not from the same family as the hardwood trees.

Verses 11-12 are an odd interruption to the story of Solomon and the queen of Sheba. It feels like the editor or compiler knew it needed to go somewhere, but that his wife said supper was on, so he had better hurry. So, he dropped it in here. That’s likely not what happened. But that’s how intrusive it reads, interrupting the story.

This could read like it’s a gift exchange, but it may have been a financial transaction with gifts on top of it. The queen may have come with a shopping list and a supply of goods to use in trade.

That’s 23 metric tons and 666 talents, in ancient Hebrew measurement. There’s no indication of how he got it. Perhaps in mining expeditions or in taxes collected by the non-Israelite nations he dominated.

Seven kilograms, or 600 shekels in ancient Hebrew weight.

Two kilograms, or three minas in Hebrew weight.

Location of Tarshish is unknown. But wherever it was, it was west of the Jewish homeland of Israel. Scholars often guess that it was a city in Spain or somewhere else at the opposite end of the Mediterranean Sea from the Jewish homeland. Some say it was a Phoenician colony called Tartessus, in Spain. Phoenicians were native to what is now Lebanon, but their merchant ships sailed through the Mediterranean Sea.

The kingdom of Musri and the city of Kue were both in what is now central and southern Turkey. Kue was near the Apostle Paul’s hometown of Tarsus. Some ancient Bible versions say the horses came from Egypt and Kue.

That’s about seven kilograms and 1.7 kilograms of silver for a chariot and a horse. It was 600 shekels and 150 shekels in Hebrew weight. Shekels came in different kinds of metal and different weights. There was a heavy shekel that weighed about 11.5 grams or .4 ounces. This was sometimes called the King’s Shekel or the Royal Shekel. That’s the measure we use here. Some scholars say this was also the weight used in the Israelite worship center and later in the Jerusalem Temple. The lighter shekel weighed about 9.5 grams or .33 ounces. Some scholars say this was probably the shekel accepted at the worship center.