1 Kings 4:20

THE BOUNDARIES OF SOLOMON'S EMPIRE; HIS HOUSEHOLD EXPENSES; PREVAILING PEACE, etc.

"Judah and Israel were as many as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry. And Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt: they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life. And Solomon's provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore measures of meal, ten fat oxen and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and a hundred sheep, besides harts, and gazelles, and roebucks, and farted fowl. For he had dominion over all the region on this side of the River: and he had peace on all sides round about him. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon."

"Eating and drinking and making merry" (1 Kings 4:20). No wonder the Jews glorified the days of Solomon. With all of the nations on earth between the Euphrates River and Egypt paying tribute to Solomon, they were indeed living happily by the sweat of other peoples' faces; and to the Jewish citizens that looked to them very much like the Kingdom of God on earth! When the financial burden of all that extravagance eventually shifted upon themselves, that was when they rebelled.

"Provision for one day" (1 Kings 4:22). Scholars have calculated the provisions listed here, declaring them to have been sufficient for feeding 14,000 people daily.[9] It is indeed amazing that "the household" of Solomon consumed 36,500 sheep, about 11,000 oxen and enough flour to make ten and one half million pounds of bread annually! (based upon the calculation that the bakery produced 28,000 pounds daily). Matheney calculated a month's provisions as, "5,000 bushels of flour, 10,000 bushels of meal, 900 oxen, and 3,000 sheep. If the average district's population was about 100,000, there was indeed a very heavy yoke of taxation upon the people."[10]

Furthermore, the vast monies to be squandered upon the Temple and the colossal expenses of all the horses, horsemen, and other military personnel - none of all that was included in the king's "daily provisions."