Bible Strands
1 Kings 10:21
All King Solomon’s drinking cups were gold, and all the utensils of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. There was no silver, because it was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Solomon’s palace inventory for the Queen of Sheba’s delegation, detailing the materials used in his royal buildings and furnishings immediately after describing the throne room steps.
The words — כּלֵי (kelei) translates to "vessels" or "utensils," and מַשְקֶה (masheh) means "drinking cup," both explicitly qualified by זָהָב (zahav, "gold") to specify the material composition of the king’s tableware.
The thread — This identical inventory appears in 2 Chronicles 9:20, while 1 Kings 10:17 and 1 Kings 7:2 provide the surrounding architectural and craft context for these gold-plated furnishings.
Why it lands — The text states that silver was treated as worthless because gold supply was so abundant that it exceeded demand, establishing Solomon’s economic status through material valuation rather than moral or theological claims.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And all king Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver: it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 10:17 He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.
- 1 Kings 7:2 He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high, with four rows of cedar pillars supporting the cedar beams.
- 2 Chronicles 9:20 All King Solomon’s drinking cups were gold, and all the utensils of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. There was no silver, because it was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon.