n was not exempted from grave mistakes. He was
scarcely seated on his throne before he married an Egyptian princess,
doubtless with the view of strengthening his political power. But while
this splendid alliance brought wealth and influence, and secured
chariots and horses, it violated one of the settled principles of the
Jewish commonwealth, and prevented that isolation which was so necessary
to keep uncorrupted the manners and habits of the people. The alliance
doubtless favored commerce, and in one sense enlarged the minds of his
subjects, removing from them many prejudices; but the nation was not
intended by the divine founder to be politically or commercially great,
but rather to preserve the worship of Jehovah. Moreover, the daughter of
Pharaoh was an idolater, and her influence, so far as it went, tended to
wean the king from his religious duties,--at least to make him tolerant
of false gods.

The enlargement of the king's harem was another mistake, for although
polygamy was not condemned, and was practised even by David, it made
Solomon prominent among Eastern monarchs for an absurd ostentation,
allied with enervating effeminacy, and thus gradually undermined the
healthy tone of his character. It may have prepared the way for the
apostasy of his later years, and certainly led to a great increase of
the royal expenses. The support of seven hundred wives and three
hundred concubines must have been a scandal and a burden for which the
nation was not prepared. The pomp in which he lived presupposes a change
in the government itself, even to an absolute monarchy and a grinding
despotism, fatal to the liberties which the Israelites had enjoyed under
Saul and David. The predictions and warnings of Samuel were realized for
the first time in the reign of Solomon, so that wealth, prosperity, and
luxury were but a poor exchange for that ancient religious ardor and
intense patriotism which had led the Hebrew nation to victory over
surrounding idolatrous nations. The heroic ages of Jewish history passed
away when ships navigated by Phoenician sailors brought gold from Ophir
and silver from Tarshish, and did not return until the Maccabees rallied
the hunted and decimated tribes of Israel against the armies of the
Syrian kings.

Solomon's peaceful and prosperous reign of forty years was, however,
favorable to one grand enterprise which David had longed to accomplish,
but to whom it was denied. This was the building of the Tem