1 Kings 1-11: The House of Solomon

I just finished reading Tracy Kidder's House, and my timing could not have been more perfect for writing this post. The work of long-form journalism follows the creation of a house from lines on an architect's drawing through the building process to habitation by the the family. It has resonances of Moby Dick as the narrator takes the reader through little adventures along the way into the history of house building or the creation of lumber. Detailed lists are not uncommon. These lists memorialize the materials that go into the making of the house, and seem meant to astonish with their breadth. Moreover, Kidder seems to argue that a house is a product of many different people, and that this one in particular is a particular manifestation of the people who paid for it and lived in it, the Souweine family.

It is clear that Kidder consulted the bible in constructing his narrative; he quotes from and refers to it a few times. Surprisingly, though, there is nothing about Solomon. Solomon is one of the greatest builders in the bible, constructing the temple in Jerusalem.

Just as Kidder found it necessary to interweave the ideas of house and home, the biblical author, writing millennia earlier, presents us with the establishment of three different houses in the tale of Solomon:

1. The establishment of the "house" of Solomon, continuation of the "house" of David
2. The construction of the temple, the "house" of the Lord
3. The construction of the structure that will house Solomon, his physical house

Two houses are promised through the covenant between God and David in 2 Samuel 7. The first of these is the house of David - the metaphorical house of his familial rule of Israel. The second is the house of God - the physical temple to be constructed by David's son.

Moveover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with you ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever...Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.
2 Samuel 7.11-16

In effect God establishes a blueprint for the future of the Davidic line's rule over all Israel. But the metaphorical house of David, as it turns out, is to be built on contract. In House this means that the structure has a base price that changes as the architect fleshes out the features and design. In my biblical use it will mean there is a contract between God and the king of Israel that might prevent God's promise from being fulfilled if the king does not act in a suitable manner. Though the contract seems secure in the passage above, it is actually modified once Solomon begins his reign.

Creating David's House
The story of succession to David's throne, the continuation of the house of David, is one of political intrigue. David's son Adonijah wishes to make himself king, and is successful in gaining support. As primogeniture, he might believe he has a right to the throne. However, the bible tends to favor the youngest son and the one favored by the mother (like Isaac and Jacob). Solomon is the second son of Bathsheba, who loves him greatly (Bathsheba's first son died, which cleared David of his sin of adultery and in a way probably also cleared Bathsheba of sin as well). Therefore she and Nathan conspire to make Solomon king. The scene of trickery has resonances with the tale of Jacob and Esau, in which their father Isaac is old and blind, having to rely on other cues to (incorrectly) identify his son and deliver his blessing. Here, however, the son's physical presence is removed from the narrative entirely as Bathsheba and Nathan conspire together and remind David of an oath that he made that Solomon would succeed him. Whether this oath was actually made is a matter of debate. On the one hand, this oath is not mentioned in Samuel or Kings, and so might be a lie. On the other hand, there are a number of books mentioned in Kings that do not appear within the biblical canon and may exist no longer. In any case, Solomon is not active in seeking the throne; it is handed to him. Jacob, by comparison, is at least complicit in Rebekah's trickery as he acts to fool his father. The trickster characteristic that made Jacob so appealing was clearly not desirable to the biblical author of Solomon's story. In fact, the author (or composite of authors) of the King narrative is very careful to emphasize that neither David nor his son Solomon betray the present king and seek the throne. David does not kill Saul when he gets a chance because Saul is the Lord's anointed. Solomon does not sit on the throne until after his father's death. These are men chosen specifically by God to create his house. In this way, if no other, the house of David is pure.

Solomon's Housekeeping
King Solomon has some housekeeping to do after ascending the throne, just as his father David did in the early chapters of 2 Samuel. Solomon kills off dangerous characters that pose a threat to his throne, people like Adonijah, Hoab, and Shimei. In this way Solomon purifies his and his father's house.

1 Kings 4 reveals what we might call the "domestic" side of Solomon's reign: his 12-member cabinet of priests and officials, as well as 12 officials over the land, each of whom makes provisions for him one month out of the year. Under Solomon and his cabinet and officials, "Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea; they ate and drank and were happy" (1 Kings 4.20). His provisions are listed, revealing how Solomon keeps up with the great sacrifices for which he is acclaimed. His grounds and men are described in detail. These lists are an important part of biblical narrative, as we shall see. The biblical author in this capacity acts as a record keeper, recording in detail many different aspects of the king. This penchant for listing and describing in detail has already appeared in the bible many times, in particular in the instructions for and descriptions of the creation of the ark of the covenant and traveling tent of meeting in Exodus. These lengthy descriptions of materials and design have been recorded since the earliest days of writing, and continue up through modern classics like Moby Dick, House, and famously in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas:

We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls.

Sections of literature like these suggest the building process itself by providing an ordered bill of materials. The author, in describing how something is built, builds something him or herself.

Building the Temple
This need for making lists reveals itself most clearly in the creation of God's house, the temple. Solomon is able to build, argues the author, on the basis of God's covenant with David and the current peace in the land.

Solomon contracts the men of King Hiram of Tyre to cut down the cedars of Lebanon to be used in the creation of the temple. The biblical author shows us a bit of the economy that comes into place: Hiram provides timber and Solomon supplies him with food, as well as 30,000 of his own men, 10,000 each working one-month shifts. Meanwhile, Solomon's own men work in the hill country quarrying great, costly stones: 70,000 laborers and 80,000 stone cutters, besides 3,300 supervisors.

The temple as constructed in 1 Kings 6 is described in great detail with all its great stones and walls of cedar laid over with gold. It is furnished with cherubim and decorated with carvings of open flowers, palm trees, and cherubim. All is conveyed in a matter-of-fact fashion; the literature seems almost to be a technical manual, which in fact it might be or at least be based off of. The house of God is a solid, beautiful structure, adorned with great pillars and basins of bronze. In total the size of the temple is 90 feet long, 30 feet high, and 45 feet tall, with a porch out front that measures 15 feet long by 30 feet wide. It takes seven years to build the structure, which is blessed with a grand housewarming festival and sacrifices.

Solomon's palace takes six years longer than the temple to construct, but employs the same language and detailed descriptions of construction and materials. 1 Kings 10 offers an even fuller treatment of the house of Solomon, with his possessions listed in lavish detail.

Housing Matters
As Solomon builds God's house, the word of the Lord comes to him:

Conerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, obey my ordinances, and keep all my commandments by walking in them, then I will establish my promise with you, which I made to your father David. I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people.
1 Kings 6.12-13

As the house of David is built on contract, as mentioned earlier, the Lord reserves the right to modify the contract at any time. The earlier contract with David was unconditional, but here a condition is placed upon God's promise. God will only dwell among his people if Solomon obeys the Lord. Of course, this immediately raises the dialectical tensions that run through the bible, the tensions between God's will and human action. Humankind has a tendency to undermine the will of God through exogamy and apostasy. And though Solomon prays to the Lord, who he sees inhabit the temple in a cloud, he has a soft spot for foreign women, who eventually turn him away from God. It is a shame, because with the completion of the temple comes a resting place for God and the covenant after so many years of travel. Solomon explains to the Israelites:

Now the Lord has upheld the promise that he made; for I have risen in the place of my father David; I sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. There I have provided a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with our ancestors when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
1 Kings 8.20-21

Unfortunately, the establishment of a home for the covenant does not put the matter of faith to rest. Faith in God is something that the people of Israel will always struggle with. This wavering devotion will eventually lead to the destruction of the temple and dispersal of the Israelites. And yet the Lord will always remain metaphorically at home in the temple:

I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you made before me; I have consecrated this house that you have built, and put my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time.
1 Kings 9.3

I say the Lord remains in the temple metaphorically because Solomon is wise to note in his prayer:

But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built! Have regard to your servant’s prayer and his plea, O LORD my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today; that your eyes may be open night and day towards this house, the place of which you said, “My name shall be there”, that you may heed the prayer that your servant prays towards this place. Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray towards this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling-place; heed and forgive.
1 Kings 8.27-30

God has a strange characteristic in which he is simultaneously comprehensible and ineffable. Though the smoke of God’s presence fills the temple, God does not really reside there. God’s home serves to metonymically connect the incomprehensible ideal of God with a fixed dwelling place. The temple helps to focus devotion to a God that defies logic, and Solomon himself seems to recognize this. Solomon even expresses some of the paradox himself, first claiming that the highest heaven cannot contain God, and then referring to God whose dwelling place is in heaven. Perhaps the dwelling place does not actually describe the abstract truth about God, but it is perhaps the closest concrete thing that humans are able to understand.

Bad Houses
As mentioned above, Solomon fails to keep his house neat and clean; he corrupts it by marrying foreign women. These women turn Solomon’s heart away from God, so that he evens builds “high places” (altars) that serve as houses for foreign gods. Solomon thereby breaks the covenant with God and nullifies the agreement they had. The house of David is to end. For the sake of David, it will not end during Solomon’s time. Rather, the kingdom will be wrenched from Solomon’s son so that he only reigns over one tribe, Judah. The man who will receive the other 10 tribes is Jeroboam, whose future is revealed when the prophet Ahijah tears his garment into 12 pieces and gives Jeroboam 10, to signify the tribes he will rule over.

Mere years after its establishment, the figurative house of David begins to crumble. The physical temple of God will be destroyed within a few centuries. Solomon’s personal house will surely be destroyed before then.

But the beauty of the bible’s portrayal of God is that even without these things, even without a temple to centralize worship, God continues to be a real presence that people feel in their lives. As some advocate today for the building of the Third Temple in Jerusalem, God – and the conception of God – is a force to be reckoned with, and amazingly is able to survive without a physical home on earth.