1 Kings 10:18

Moreover the ling made a great throne [Heb. seat . The use of a chair where the custom of the country is to squat on the ground, or to recline on a divan, is always a mark of dignity. See 2 Kings 4:10 ; Proverbs 9:14 ] of ivory [Heb. tooth . Below in verse 22 we have elephant's tooth . It is generally thought that this "throne of the house of David" ( Psalms 122:5 ) was of wood, veneered with ivory, as was the practice in Assyria, and in the chryselephantine statues of the Greeks (Paus. 2.4.1; 6.25. 4, etc.) Bähr says there is no more necessity for believing this throne to have been of solid ivory than the "ivory house" mentioned in 1 Kings 22:39 . Cf. Psalms 45:8 ; Amos 3:15 ; Amos 6:4 . But there is surely this difference between them, that the palace could not possibly be constructed entirely of ivory, whereas the throne might be, and some of the thrones of India have been (Rawlinson)], and overlaid it with the best [ מוּפָז , from the root פָּזַז , separavit = aurum depuratum . The chronicler explains the word by טָהוֹר ( 2 Chronicles 9:17 )] gold . [It is very unlikely that the gold entirely covered and concealed the ivory, especially if the latter was merely a veneer. Keil and Bähr consider that the gold was laid on the wood and the ivory inserted between the plates, but the text does not speak of overlaying with ivory, but of overlaying ivory with gold. And the presumption is that the ivory was solid. In the Greek statues both ivory and gold were applied in laminae, the former representing the flesh, the latter the drapery.]