1 Kings 10:28

Linen yarn. Heb. miqweh, translated variously as “gathering together” (Gen. 1:10), “pools” (Ex. 7:19), “plenty” (Lev. 11:36), “hope” (Ezra 10:2; Jer. 14:8, 17:13). Here, however, it is now definitely known to be a proper name, and should therefore be transliterated rather than translated. The LXX, for instance, renders miqweh as “of Thekoue.” The RSV gives it as Kue, which has been identified as an ancient name for Cilicia. It has been suggested, furthermore, that the Hebrew word miṣraim, “Egypt,” should read muṣrim, “Musri,” later known as Cappadocia, a region adjacent to Cilicia, in Anatolia (Asia Minor). Kue and Musri appear together in the famous Shalmaneser III Monolith Inscription, and separately in other Assyrian sources. In the Amarna Letters and various Assyrian texts Musri is mentioned as famous for horse breeding. The Hittites had even published a text on the subject. From Anatolia a knowledge of horse breeding spread to Syria, where a Ugaritic veterinary treatise of the 14th century deals with it.

Verse 28 may therefore be translated, “And the export of Solomon’s horses [was] from Musri [Cappadocia] and from Kue [Cilicia]; the king’s merchants obtained them from Kue at a price.” The Egyptians, so far as currently available information indicates, did not breed horses for export. There seems to be general agreement, however, that miṣraim, Egypt, is the correct reading in v. 29 (see on Gen. 10:6). Egypt was an important exporter of chariots, though not of horses. As one of his business enterprises, Solomon thus carried on what appears to have been a profitable trade in Cilician horses and Egyptian chariots.

Commerce is an honorable calling and brings many just and worth-while returns. But it also offers many temptations and often provides a swift road to ruin. As the people of Israel became more and more interested in worldly gain, they found themselves straying further and further away from God. Greed took the place of mercy, and the interests of self were served rather than the common interests of all. On such a basis the nation could not endure. People followed the king down a pathway of selfishness and folly, and though oft rebuked by the prophets, persisted in a course that could end only in ruin.