Solomon and Solomonic LiteratureConway, Moncure Daniel
History
Solomon and Solomonic Literature
Conway, Moncure Daniel
Hebrew literature -- History and criticism; Solomon, King of Israel
Bathsheba, as we have seen, was said to have written Proverbs
xxxi. as an admonition or reproof to her son on his betrothal with the
daughter of Pharaoh. The words of David, "Send me Uriah the Hittite"
(2 Sam. xi. 6), and the emphasis laid on Uriah's being a Hittite (a
race with which intermarriage was prohibited, Deut. vii. 1-5) might
have been meant as some legal excuse for David's conduct. He rescued
Bathsheba, Hebraised (1 Chr. iii. 5), from unlawful wedlock, it might
be said, and her exaltation in Talmudic tradition may have been meant
to guard the purity of David's lineage. But the ascription to Bathsheba
of especial opposition to her son's marriage with the daughter of
Pharaoh indicates that the gravamen in Solomon's posthumous offence
lay less in his intermarriage with foreigners than in building for
them shrines of their several deities,--Istar, Chemosh, Milcom, and
the rest. Against Pharaoh's daughter the Talmud manifests a special
animus: she is said to have introduced to Solomon a thousand musical
instruments, and taught him chants to the various idols. (Shabbath,
56, col. 2.)
There is a bit of Solomonic folklore according to which the Devil
tempted him with a taunt that he would be but an ordinary person
but for his magic ring, in which lay all his wisdom. Solomon being
piqued into a denial, was challenged to remove his ring, but no
sooner had he done so than the Devil seized it, and, having by its
might metamorphosed the king beyond recognition, himself assumed
the appearance of Solomon and for some time resided in the royal
seraglio. The more familiar legend is that Solomon was cajoled into
parting with his signet ring by a promise of the demon to reveal
to him the secret of demonic superiority over man in power. Having
transformed Solomon and transported him four hundred miles away,
the demon (Asmodeus) threw the ring into the sea. Solomon, after long
vagrancy, became the cook of the king of Ammon (Ano Hanun), with whose
daughter, Naamah, he eloped. [4] One day in dressing a fish for dinner
Naamah found in it the signet ring which Asmodeus had thrown into the
sea, and Solomon thus recovered his palace and harem from the demon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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