1 Kings 10:17

And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pound of gold went to one shield: and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(17) Pound—that is, maneh, equal (see 2Chronicles 10:16) to one hundred shekels.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:14-29 Solomon increased his wealth. Silver was nothing accounted of. Such is the nature of worldly wealth, plenty of it makes it the less valuable; much more should the enjoyment of spiritual riches lessen our esteem of all earthly possessions. If gold in abundance makes silver to be despised, shall not wisdom, and grace, and the foretastes of heaven, which are far better than gold, make gold to be lightly esteemed? See in Solomon's greatness the performance of God's promise, and let it encourage us to seek first the righteousness of God's kingdom. This was he, who, having tasted all earthly enjoyments, wrote a book, to show the vanity of all worldly things, the vexation of spirit that attends them, and the folly of setting our hearts upon them: and to recommend serious godliness, as that which will do unspeakably more to make us happy, that all the wealth and power he was master of; and, through the grace of God, it is within our reach.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

These shields, together with the 500 taken by David from Hadadezer 2 Samuel 8:7 were hung round the outer walls of a building, reckoned as belonging to the "house of the Forest of Lebanon," but separate from it, and called sometimes "the Tower of David" Sol 4:4, or from its use "the armoury" Sol 4:4; Isaiah 22:8. The practice of hanging shields outside walls for ornamentation seems to have existed at Tyre Ezekiel 27:10-11, Rome, Athens, and elsewhere. Traces of it are thought to be found in the Assyrian sculptures.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16, 17. two hundred targets, six hundred shekels—These defensive arms were anciently made of wood and covered with leather; those were covered with fine gold. 600 shekels were used in the gilding of each target—300 for each shield. They were intended for the state armory of the palace (see 1Ki 14:26).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Three pound, or, three hundred shekels, as it is expressed 2 Chronicles 9:16.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold,.... Which were a lesser sort:

three pounds of gold went to one shield; or three hundred shekels, as in 2 Chronicles 9:16 a hundred shekels made one pound; so that these were but half the value of the former, and one of them was worth but two hundred and twenty five pounds: Eupolemus (o), an Heathen writer, makes mention of those golden shields Solomon made, and which were made for show, and not for war, as follows:

and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon; one part of which was made an armoury of, see Sol 4:4.

(o) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 34.

Geneva Study Bible

And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pound of gold went to one shield: and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

17. three pound of gold went to one shield] The word rendered pound here is ‘maneh,’ and according to the parallel passage (2 Chronicles 9:16) is equal to ‘one hundred shekels.’ There is no sufficient data for settling the value of these weights in terms of our English standards, but such computations as seem most trustworthy make the maneh equal to about 2½ lbs. The addition of three such maneh of gold to a shield need not make it unwieldy. Of course the gold was only the external covering, not the whole fabric of the shields, though Josephus says the king cast (ἐχώνευσε) these targets and shields of the precious metal.

in the house of the forest of Lebanon] On this see above 1 Kings 7:2. These golden shields were probably only used on grand occasions, and when not in use were suspended against the numerous pillars in the royal armoury, for which purpose the house of the forest of Lebanon appears to have been built. The shields were carried away in the succeeding reign by Shishak king of Egypt (1 Kings 14:26) and brazen ones were made by Rehoboam to be put in their place.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 17. - And he made three hundred shields [portable shields (peltas, Vulgate) adapted for use in hand to hand encounters (2 Chronicles 12:9, 10; cf. 2 Samuel 1:21). That these were much smaller shields is clear from the text. These shields were borne by the royal bodyguard on great occasions (1 Kings 14:27). They were taken away by Shishak (ib. ver. 26)] of beaten gold; three pound [מָגֶה μνᾶ, mina. As 2 Chronicles 9:16 has here 300 shekels, it follows that the maneh = 100 shekels. From Ezekiel 45:12, however, it would seem that there were manehs of different value] of gold went to one shield [i.e., half as much as to the target]; and the king put them in [Heb. gave them to] the house of the forest of Lebanon [1 Kings 7:2. They would certainly be suspended on the walls, but whether on the inside or the outside is not quite certain, and the text affords us no means of deciding. We know that elsewhere shields were suspended outside the walls of armouries, etc. "At Tyre the beauty of the place was thought to consist in the splendour and variety of the shields of all nations hung on its walls (Ezekiel 27:10, 11). In Rome the temple of Bellona was studded with them. In Athens, the round marks where they hung can still be traced on the walls of the Parthenon. There were also arms hung round the wails of the second temple (Jos., Ant. 15:11.3)," Stanley. It is supposed that along with those made by Solomon were hung the shields taken by David from the Syrians, as according to 2 Samuel 8:7, LXX., these latter also were carried off by Shishak. It has been inferred from Song of Solomon 4:4 that these also were 500 in number, and that the entire thousand were suspended on a part of the house of the forest of Lebanon known as the Tower of David; cf. Isaiah 22:8; Psalm 47:9]. The historian now proceeds to describe the great feature of another of Solomon's palaces. As the house of the forest of Lebanon was distinguished by the golden shields which emblazoned and glorified its walls, so was "the porch of judgment" (1 Kings 7:7) by the chryselephantine throne. 1 Kings 10:17

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

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 2 Chronicles 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 Ezekiel 45:12, the reference must be to shekels after the king's weight (2 Samuel 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 (1 Kings 14:27-28; 2 Chronicles 12:10), and were kept in the house of the forest of Lebanon (1 Kings 7:2).