Text: 1 Kings 10:26
OT Text Referred to: Deuteronomy 17:16
Subject: royal excess
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Contrast
Anchor Text: Deut 17:14-20 — The Law of the King
Significance: Deuteronomy 17:16 explicitly forbids Israel's future king from acquiring "many horses" (לֹא יַרְבֶּה לּוֹ סוּסִים, lo yarbeh lo susim) and from sending the people back to Egypt to obtain them. 1 Kings 10:26 records Solomon doing precisely this: he "accumulated 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses," with 10:28-29 specifying that horses were imported from Egypt. The narrator's careful documentation of Solomon's horse-accumulation against the explicit Deuteronomic prohibition invites the reader to recognize Solomon's violation of the king's torah. What Moses anticipated as a temptation of royal power, Solomon enacted as policy, illustrating how even the wisest king failed the Deuteronomic standard for faithful monarchy.