2 Chronicles 9:21

2Ch_9:21

And apes, and peacocks.

Apes and peacocks

(to children):--We learn from this passage--

I. That a rich man can get, as far as worldly goods are concerned, almost what he likes in this world.

II. What even wise men will do, when they have more money than they know how to use. Such was Solomons position; apes and peacocks were costly, and so he had a special desire to have s goodly number about him. (D. Davies.)

Apes

I. The ape is something like us, and yet he is very much unlike us.

1. He cannot speak.

2. He cannot learn.

3. He has no foresight or forethought. It is wonderful how deceptive appearances can be.

II. The ape is only a caricature of a man, and does not imitate him in his better movements or habits; so you generally find that if a child or man apes another, he apes him only in his failings. I saw a boy the other day, who could not have been more than eleven, vigorously puffing the end of a cigar that he had picked up somewhere. He evidently thought he looked like a man, but I need not tell you how disgusted I felt, and wished that he could imitate the man in a more manly way. He stupidly aped a gentleman whose failing was that he smoked at all. Learn to be natural. Let the one desire of your life be to be true. Never put on a false look or try to live under false pretences. (D. Davies.)

Peacocks

The peacock has a beautiful tail, and in this respect no bird can match him. But the more you know about him the less you think of his tail. He can only screech hideously when he tries to sing. He is also a very gluttonous and a very selfish and destructive character. The beautiful bird has nothing to commend it except its beautiful feathers. Its characteristic failing is vanity.

I. I want you to remember that there are some people in the world like that peacock. Everything depends upon their dress, or their outward appearance. But if you get to know their disposition and their conduct, you will very often cease to be charmed with their dress.

II. I want you to guard yourselves against attaching too much importance to appearances. God does not. Learn that the truest ornament is a meek and gentle spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. (D. Davies.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9:21 Solomon’s fleet of trading ships of Tarshish was used to transport cargo. The peculiar shape of these strong ships allowed them to sail long distances in the open sea. • and peacocks: The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain. Solomon was so great that he imported fine goods and exotic animals from the farthest reaches of the known world.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Which country of the best writers is thought to be Cilicia, read 1 Kings 10:22.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

the king's ships went to Tarshish--rather, "the king's ships of Tarshish went" with the servants of Huram.

ships of Tarshish--that is, in burden and construction like the large vessels built for or used at Tarshish [CALMET, Fragments].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 21. The king's ships went to Tarshish] "Went to Africa." - Targum.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(21) For the king’s ships went to Tarshish.—1Ki_10:22, “For the king had a Tarshish fleet on the sea, with the fleet of Hiram.” It is generally assumed that the words of the chronicler are an erroneous paraphrase of the expression, “Tarshish fleet,” i.e., a fleet of ships fitted for long voyages. (Comp. Isa_2:16.) The identity of the present fleet with that mentioned above in 2Ch_9:10 is not evident. Solomon may have had a fleet in the Mediterranean (“the sea” of 1Ki_10:22) trading westward, as well as in the Red Sea, trading south and east. Some have identified Tarshish with Cape Tarsis in the Persian Gulf. (See Note on 2Ch_20:36.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. For the king’s ships went to Tarshish] R.V. For the king had ships that went to Tarshish. Here the Chronicler misunderstands the parallel passage (1Ki_10:22, “For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish”). “Navy (or ‘ships’) of Tarshish” is a phrase meaning large ships fit for long voyages; cp. Psa_48:7. The merchandise mentioned in this verse doubtless came from the East and not from Tarshish (= Tartessus in Spain).

every three years once] R.V. once every three years.

apes] These animals were much sought after; they appear e.g. pictured in relief on the Black Obelisk (in the British Museum) among the tribute received by Shalmaneser II. of Assyria.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tharsis. Any distant place was so called. (Tirinus)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

To Tarshish. The parallel has, in both clauses of its verse, (1Ki_10:22) "ships of Tarshish." The order of the words in the former clause of our present verse, that compels us to read, "going to Tarshish," certifies the correct meaning. The word "Tarshish" (the subsequent Tartessus) covered a district in South Spain, as well as named a town and river, and stretched opposite the coast of Africa. Both coasts were beneath Phoenician rule, and a voyage to Tarshish would most naturally mean calling at many a port, and many an African port, from one and another of which all the imports here spoken of would be obtainable. The meaning of the Hebrew root of Tarshish is "to subjugate." The town lay between the two mouths of the river Baetis, now Guadal-quiver. Gesenius thinks that the writer of Chronicles says, in ignorance, "to Tarshish." and that the ships went to Ophir! These passages do not say that the voyage, whatever it was, took three years; much less that that length of time was necessary. Whether voyages were in Solomon"s time made from the Red Sea, circumnavigating Africa, into the Mediterranean, is not certain. If they were such voyages, taken at a sauntering pace, with calls at many ports and easygoing delays, they may easily have consumed as long a space of time as three years! The theory that Tarshish was Tarsus in Cilicia is easily and conclusively negatived. The names in Hebrew of "ivory, apes, and peacocks" have been said to be of Indian origin. This is far from proved, and, as regards the first two, may be said to be sufficiently disproved. But if it all were so, still the fact that the Hebrew names were of an Indian language derivation would go very short way to prove that the Hebrew people got the things represented by them direct, or at all, from India.

Ivory; Hebrew, The Authorized Version rendering "ivory" occurs ten times in the Old Testament, having for its original the Hebrew (1Ki_10:18 1Ki_22:39; 2Ch_9:17; Psa_45:8; Son_5:14; Son_7:4; Eze_27:6, Eze_27:15; Amo_3:15 Amo_6:4)

In all these cases, two of them being in closest juxtaposition with the present and its parallel occasion, the word speaks of ivory that is being used, i.e. as though it were manufactured material or ready for manufacture. But in our passage and its parallel, where the different word given above is found, it is manifest that it speaks of the material, so to say, in the rough, as just "tooth or tusk of ;" but, further, what the is is not yet ascertained. It is not a word known in the Hebrew vocabulary. Gesenius finds the Sanscrit ibhas, which signifies an "elephant;" Canon Rawlinsen finds in some Assyrian inscriptions a word habba, used of both elephant and camel, but probably having for its generic signification "a great animal;" Keil (on the parallel) finds a Coptic word, eboy, the Latin elephas, to which he prefixes the Hebrew article h. The Targum Jonathan shows at once lypiDAve. Gesenius, in his "Thesaurus," calls also timely attention towhw Eze_27:15, where we read, "They brought thee a present, horns of ivory and ebony" (Hebrew, Chethiv, Keri, w ve twOnrq). But no use of "ebony" happens to be mentioned in the connection of our present passages or subject. Thus it will be seen that no little ingenuity has been employed to hunt down this little word, though as yet not quite successfully. More may be seen in Smith"s "Dictionary of the Bible," 1:906. Apes; Hebrew, Conder ("Handbook to the Bible," 2nd edit., p. 390) says, "This word is identical with the name of the monkey in Tamil. " Keil connects it with the Sanscrit kapi, but does not believe, with Gesenius, that the animal came from India, but Ethiopia. In a valuable note in the" Speaker"s Commentary" we read, "It is found" (not stated where) "that the word was an Egyptian word, signifying a kind of monkey, in use in the time of Thothmes II, i.e. about the time of the Israelites" exodus." (For Herodotus"s testimony respecting ivory and apes in North Africa, see his "Hist.," 4:91.) Peacocks; Hebrew, Conder ("Handbook to the Bible," p. 393") says a Tamil word, tokei, means "peacock." Keil proposes to consider it one of the later Romans" luxurious delicacies, aves Numidicae, from Tuoca, a town in Mauretania or Numi-alia. Some translate it "guinea-fowl," and some "parrots." The peacock did not belong to Africa, yet still it may have been purchaseable at some port there.

Vers. 21-31.

Grandeur without godliness.

These words and those that precede them are as suggestive by reason of what is absent from them as by that which is contained in them. They are significant of

I GRANDEUR WITHOUT GODLINESS. The historian is drawing his records of the reign of Solomon to a close; and, in taking his view (or his review) of it, he has much to say of the splendours of his throne and of his surroundings; of the multitude of his horses and chariots, with their stalls and stables; of his store of gold and silver; of his apes and peacocks; of his ships and his cedars; but he says nothing of his service of Jehovah; nothing of the gratitude he showed to God for the very bountiful blessings he had bestowed upon him, and the high estate to which he had raised him, and the special gifts of mind with which he had endowed him. Hem there is a painful absence, a silence that speaks only too forcibly. When Solomon came to review his own life and to examine his own career in the light of early influence and special privilege, he must have felt constrained to be silent, or, if he spoke at all, to use the language of confession. There had been much grandeur but little godliness in his reign. And what had been the proved value of it?

1. The delight it had ministered to him had been of a less noble and lesselevating kind, if not actually ignoble and injurious.

2. It bad led his mind away from sources of joy which would have been farworthier in themselves and far more beneficial in their influence.

3. It had raised a standard of excellency before the eyes of his subjectswhich can have had no enlarging and elevating effect upon their minds.

4. It must have awakened the cupidity of surrounding sovereigns and theenvy of many among his subjects.

5. It must have been in painful, not to say guilty, contrast with muchpoverty in many hundreds of Hebrew homes.

6. It entailed a heavy penalty on the people in the shape of burdensometaxes. Grandeur without godliness is a serious sin and a profound mistake. It is as guilty as it is foolish. And so we find the man who "passed all the kings of the earth" in wealth and in a certain order of wisdom (ver. 22), going down into fault and failure because he lost that "fear of God" which he ought to have understood was "the beginning of wisdom." Unfaithfulness to the principles he learned in youth sent him down into his grave "prematurely old," his kingdom weakened, his character corrupted, his reputation bearing upon its face a dark and ineffaceable stain. How unspeakably preferable is

II SIMPLICITY AND SACRED SERVICE. Rather than have grandeur without godliness, who would not live in obscurity with a name that does not travel beyond his "native hills," in a home unfamiliar with ivory and gold, living on homeliest fare and dressed in plainest raiment, with the love of the heavenly Father in the heart, the sense of his abiding favour in the soul, Christ"s happy and holy service for the heritage of the life, and his nearer presence the promise of the future? Before honour is humility, before grandeur is godliness, before gold and silver is a noble and a useful life. C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ivory the tusks of elephants and the elephants themselves.

and apes In German, meerkats, long- tailed monkeys.

and peacocks - Heb. וְתוּכִּיִּים.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.