2 Chronicles 9:1

And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem, with a very great company, and camels that bare spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
queen	וּמַֽלְכַּת u.mal.kat-	H4436	a queen · conjunction + noun, feminine singular construct
Sheba	שְׁבָ֗א she.Va'	H7614	Sheba · proper noun, a place name
heard	שָֽׁמְעָה֮ sha.me.'Ah	H8085	to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
fame	שֵׁ֣מַע She.ma'	H8088	something heard · noun, common masculine singular construct
Solomon	שְׁלֹמֹה֒ she.lo.Moh	H8010	Shelomah · proper noun, a man's name
came	וַתָּב֣וֹא va.ta.Vo'	H935	to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Matthew 12:42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of th…
Luke 11:31 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts o…
1 Kings 10:1-13 And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions.
2 Chronicles 9:9 And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices great abundance, and precious stones: neither was there any such…
Genesis 10:7 And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.
Isaiah 60:6 The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and inc…
Genesis 10:28 And Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba,
Genesis 25:3 And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 2 Chronicles 9:1-12

This passage of story had been largely considered in the Kings; yet, because our Saviour has proposed it as an example to us in our enquiries after him (Mat 12:42), we must not pass it over without observing briefly, 1. Those who honour God he will honour, Sa1 2:30. Solomon had greatly honoured God, in building, beautifying, and dedicating the temple; all his wisdom and all his wealth were employed for the making of that a consummate piece: and now God made his wisdom and wealth to redound greatly to his reputation. The way to have both the credit and comfort of all our endowments and all our enjoyments is to consecrate them to God and use them for him. 2. Those who know the worth of true wi…

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Adam Clarke on 2 Chronicles 9:1

The queen of Sheba - See all the particulars of this royal visit distinctly marked and explained in the notes on Kg1 10:1-10 (note). The Targum calls her queen of Zemargad.

John Gill on 2 Chronicles 9:1

See Chapter Introduction

Tyndale Open Study Notes on 2 Chronicles 9:1-2

Although Solomon had long-term economic and political ties with Hiram of Tyre (8:17-18; 9:10-11), the queen of Sheba visited just once. Ancient Sheba (roughly modern Yemen) was noted for its important female rulers and for a wealthy economy based on trade in frankincense and myrrh. An ancient tradition suggests that the queen of Sheba came from Cush (Ethiopia), perhaps because of Sheba son of Raamah, a descendant of Cush (Gen 10:7; 1 Chr 1:9).

Rashi on 2 Chronicles 9:1

to test Solomon whether that which she had heard about his wisdom was true, and she came to test him. with riddles - Heb. בְחִידוֹת like (Jud. 14:12): “Let me ask you a riddle (אָחוּדָה נָא לָכֶם חִידָה),” [in the story] of Samson.

Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).

Dictionary and topics

Camel — From the Hebrew gamal, “to repay” or “requite,” as the camel does the care of its master. There are two distinct species of camels, having, however, the common characteristics of being “ruminants…
Riddle — (Heb. hodah). The oldest and, strictly speaking, the only example of a riddle was that propounded by Samson (Judg. 14:12-18). The parabolic prophecy in Ezek. 17:2-18 is there called a “riddle.” It…
Solomon — Peaceful, (Heb. Shelomoh), David’s second son by Bathsheba, i.e., the first after their legal marriage (2 Sam. 12). He was probably born about B.C. 1035 (1 Chr. 22:5; 29:1). He succeeded his father…
Presents · Of persons of rank, of great value and variety — Of persons of rank, of great value and variety
Sheba · 7. Queen of, visits — 7. Queen of, visits

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).