The wealth of Solomon has never been adequately computed. It is stated that from the tomb of Tutanhkamen, in the most famous excavation of our generation, treasure to the value of $14,000,000 was recovered. The splendor and wealth of that pharaoh were insignificant compared to that of Solomon, the Magnificent. We see, for instance, in this fourteenth verse that Solomon’s income in gold bullion alone was almost the exact equivalent of $20,000,000 in our day and time. We must understand, however, that there was a vast difference between the values of the money standards of that time and of our own. The ratio would be about 15 to 1. For instance, a silver shekel would buy a cow; a half-shekel would buy an ass. If we evaluate their currency by purchasing power, it would take fifteen of our dollars to equal one of theirs. So the sum of gold, which is the equivalent of $20,000,000 by our former gold standard measurement, gives a conception of the annual income of Solomon, only if it is transmuted to our present ratio of purchasing power. This figure does not include all the tariff and income from taxes, the profit on his merchandising and the tribute in gifts of vassal nations. He was in the fortunate circumstance of paying income tax to himself so that his income remained undiminished! The gold of Solomon was hoarded for a unique and peculiar purpose. When David desired to build a house for the worship of God, his offer was rejected on the ground that he was a man of blood. However, the Lord said that his son should build the house of prayer, and David began the hoarding of gold for the erection and beautification of that temple. The estimates of the amount of gold that went into that temple go as high as two and one-half billions of dollars. It is not too much to say that no building ever erected by the hands of man could excel the beauty, the artistic perfection, the splendor, and the intrinsic value of the temple that Solomon built. In the Scriptural citation in I Kings, we have just read of the two hundred targets or bucklers of beaten gold. Also, there are catalogued the three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pounds of gold went into the construction of each shield. At the present rate of gold values, that would mean that each of these shields was worth $1680.00. There was considerably over a half million dollars of pure gold hammered into those shields. This glittering and entrancing treasure intrigued the greed of every conqueror of antiquity, but no man was able to take it from the House of God while His protection and care were upon it. It is not to be wondered that Shishak considered the capture of that treasure as the highest achievement of his reign.