{"id":62050,"date":"2019-08-30T15:18:13","date_gmt":"2019-08-30T12:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=62050"},"modified":"2023-03-24T15:13:22","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T12:13:22","slug":"darker-strands-the-beginning-of-the-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/darker-strands-the-beginning-of-the-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Darker Strands: The Beginning of the Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[884,838,440],"acf":{"old_id":"62050","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33692,"related_cahpter":"296","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The biblical text increasingly accentuates the negative aspects of Solomon's reign: greed, over-indulgence and a national trade deficit","content":"

Upon first acquaintance with these chapters, the reader is impressed by the accomplishments of this king. But as one revisits them, especially with the awareness of Solomon’s failures at the end of his reign, one appreciates that he did not fail overnight; darker strands are revealed, indicating the deep flaws that threatened the impressive national enterprise. Chapters 9 and 10 of I Kings exemplify this literary ambivalence, as the biblical text increasingly accentuates the negative aspects of Solomon’s reign.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Chapter 9, verses 10-14 presents a tense conversation, as King Hiram of Tyre expresses his dissatisfaction with Kabul, the land he has received from Solomon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Twenty years earlier, Solomon had a positive relationship with Hiram, and the country produced excess wheat and oil, financing the imports of cedar and cypress timber (5:24-25) . Now, Solomon is in such financial deficit that he has to trade away segments of the land of Israel! What has changed? In place of timber, Hiram now supplies Solomon with “gold according to all his desire,” the price of which the national agriculture surplus cannot cover.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems that the increased demand for gold is representative of a wider shift in national lifestyle and priorities. The Talmud explains that in Kabul the people were \u201cwere wealthy and spoiled, they did not engage in manual labor [so the land deteriorated]\u201d (Shabbat 54a).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When Solomon rose to power, the nation was made up primarily of farmers, earning their living from the land. The gross national product was enormous and consumption was relatively modest, resulting in a huge national surplus. Now the people have become affluent, with no desire to get their hands dirty in the field.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If this Talmudic passage is correct, the problem is not so much the import of gold, but the fact that Israel has abandoned agriculture for “higher” pursuits, such as commerce and national planning and administration (see 9:22-23). With declining national production and increasing domestic consumption, the country suffers from a deficit, and Solomon eventually has to surrender land in order to pay off the national debt!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is just one example of a significant transformation in the lifestyle of the kingdom. Chapters 9 and 10 revisit most of the topics already addressed in chapters 3-5 and by a method of “compare and contrast,” the reader can take note of the national transitions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The word “gold,” appears seventeen times in chapters 9-10; chapters 3-5 fail to refer to gold even once. Thus we discern a palpable emphasis upon material extravagance and overindulgence. Something is wrong in Solomon’s kingdom.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alex Israel, 1 Kings: Torn in Two<\/em>, Maggid Books, 2013, Wealth and Opulence\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":61437,"id":61437,"title":"alex israel - kings 1","filename":"alex-israel-kings-1.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/adonijahs-scheme-to-ascend-the-throne\/alex-israel-kings-1\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"alex-israel-kings-1","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":61414,"date":"2019-08-19 12:13:44","modified":"2019-08-19 12:13:53","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1020,"height":1304,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-235x300.jpg","medium-width":235,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-768x982.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":982,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-801x1024.jpg","large-width":801,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":1020,"1536x1536-height":1304,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":1020,"2048x2048-height":1304,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-939x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":939,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-329x420.jpg","home_baner-width":329,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Excerpts from: 1 Kings - 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