¹⁸And Huram sent him by the hands of his servants ships, and servants that had knowledge of the sea; and they came with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and fetched from thence four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon. =18.= _sent him by the hands of his servants ships_] The words would seem to imply that Huram had ships transported overland from the Phoenician coast to the Gulf of Akaba! Either the Chronicler has phrased the matter carelessly, or perhaps the text should be altered to conform with Kings, where it is merely said that Solomon built ships in Ezion-geber――probably with the help of Huram――and that Huram helped to man them. _Ophir_] The situation of this oft-mentioned place is not known. It has been identified with some part of the coast (a) of India, (b) of Africa, (c) of Arabia. The last identification is the most probable; Ophir appears as the name of an Arabian tribe (Genesis x. 29). The name is variously written in the LXX. but usually with an initial “S,” _Sophir(a)_, which has been supposed to refer to India. _four hundred and fifty talents_] So LXX., but in 1 Kings “four hundred and twenty” (so Hebrew, in LXX. B “a hundred and twenty”). CHAPTER IX. =1‒12= (= 1 Kings x. 1‒13). THE VISIT OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. ¹And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem, with a very great train, and camels that bare spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. ²And Solomon told her all her questions: and there was not any thing hid from Solomon which he told her not. ³And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, =1.= _Sheba_] An important district in Arabia Felix, the seat of a kingdom. See notes on 1 Chronicles i. 9, 32; also Barnes on 1 Kings x. 1. _hard questions_] Hebrew _ḥidoth_, “dark sayings” (Proverbs i. 6); the singular is translated “riddle” (Judges xiv. 12‒18). ⁴and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance¹ of his ministers, and their apparel; his cupbearers also, and their apparel; and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her. ¹ Hebrew _standing_. =4.= _and their apparel_] The phrase is repeated probably through an error of transcription; it occurs once only in the parallel place in 1 Kings. _his ascent by which he went up_] Render (if the text be sound), =his manner of going up=, i.e. the pomp with which he went up (so Targum); but it is better, with LXX. and Peshitṭa, to read _the burnt offerings which he used to offer_, a rendering which is right in 1 Kings x. 5 (compare Revised Version margin). The difference of reading between Chronicles and 1 Kings in the Hebrew is slight.