King Solomon

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King Solomon

• The Wisest King

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King Solomon

• Born of David and Bathsheba
• c.961-922 BC
• A great general, consolidated his armies and
  political factions
• Drove dissidents out of Israel
• Strengthened the country

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King Solomon

• Russian Icon

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Brief Facts

• Married the Daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh
• Political reasons
• Had several wives and concubines
• Supposedly wrote many OT books
• The Song of Songs (Solomon)
• The Book of Wisdom (Wisdom of Solomon)
• Ecclesiastes
• Proverbs

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Solomon the King

• Appointed officers and established administrative
  districts with government officials (prefects) to
  organize authority
• Modernized the military with horses and chariots
• Increased trade
• Set of an extensive building campaign palaces,
  fotresses and walls, a central temple
• Set up a tax system

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Solomons Temple

• A place for the Ark of the Covenant
• Built in Jerusalem
• Built in 960 BC, destroyed by the Babylonians in
  586 BC
• Rebuilt in 516 and destroyed again in 70 BC

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Solomons Temple
Ethiopian icon of Solomon
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The Judgment of Solomon

• 1 Kings 316-28
• Two women approach Solomon, each claiming they
  are the mother of a child
• Because Solomon cannot legally tell which one is
  the true mother he orders the baby split in half,
  one for each of the mothers
• One of the women cries out to let the other woman
  have the child
• Solomon, knowing that the true mother would not
  allow such a fate for her child, knows that she
  is the true mother
• Thus he gives her the child without prejudice

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Solomon Dies

• Solomon dies (1 Kings 1143) and his son Rehoboam
  takes the throne
• During Rehoboams rule, the kingdom splits into
  the North and the South
• Israel was at its Zenith during Solomons reign
• This is in much thanks to King David as well

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Israel During the Reign of David and Solomonc.
1000 BC
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Israel After David and Solomon