Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Kings 10:16
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Solomon had 500 ornamental shields made, 200 larger ones (צנּים, scuta, targets), and 300 smaller (מגנּים, clypei). These shields, like all the shields of the ancients, were made of wood or basket-work, and covered with gold plate instead of leather (see my bibl. Archol. ii. pp. 296ff.). שׁחוּט זהב does not mean aurum jugulatum, i.e., gold mixed with metal of a different kind, but, as Kimchi has shown, aurum diductum, beaten gold, from שׁחט, to stretch; since Solomon would certainly use pure gold for these ornamental shields. "Six hundred shekels of gold he spread upon one target," that is to say, he used for gilding one target. Six hundred shekels would weigh about 17 1/2 lbs., so that the value of the gold upon a target would be more than 5000 thalers (750), supposing that the Mosaic shekel is meant. But this is rendered doubtful by the fact that the gold upon the small shields is estimated at three minae. If, for example, the three minae are equal to three hundred shekels, according to Ch2 9:16, as is generally assumed, a hundred shekels are reckoned as one mina; and as the mina only contained fifty Mosaic shekels, according to Eze 45:12, the reference must be to shekels after the king's weight ( Sa2 14:26), which were only half the sacred shekels (see my bibl. Archol. ii. p. 135). Consequently the gold plate upon one target was not quite 9 lbs., and that upon a shield not quite 4 1/2 lbs. These shields were intended for the body-guard to carry on state occasions ( Kg1 14:27-28; Ch2 12:10), and were kept in the house of the forest of Lebanon ( Kg1 7:2). 3 Kings (1 Kings) 10:18
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