2 Chronicles 9

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.

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.

Literally, “Shephelah,” the name for the western foothills on the coastal side of the range of mountains and hills alongside the Jordan River Valley. The hills lie in what are now parts of Israel and Palestinian Territory in the West Bank.

“Forty years” was a common way of saying “many years,” or “a long time.” The symbolic number shows up about 150 times in the Bible. It was probably intended to be taken no more literally than our modern saying “at the eleventh hour.” “Eleventh hour” means at the last moment, not 11 o-clock.