Comentários de Citação sobre I Reis 10:28

HE SHALL NOT MULTIPLY HORSES TO HIMSELF — “except what he needs for his carriage, in order that he cause not the people to return to Egypt, because horses were obtained from Egypt, as it is said, And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty.”¹¹¹I Kings 10:29. This is Rashi’s language. But I have this difficulty regarding it, for the Rabbis have said in Yerushalmi at the end of Tractate Sanhedrin:¹¹²Yerushalmi Sanhedrin X, 9. — On Yerushalmi see Leviticus, p. 192, Note 44. “You may not return there for settlement, but you may return for business, for goods, and for conquest of the land.” And so, if the king should send men and buy horses and chariots there, it would be considered “trading” and would be permissible! It is then possible that Scripture admonishes [the king] not to increase his numbers of horses even from his own Land, or from the land of Shinar, or by way of permissible trading, in order that he should not put his trust in his chariots, because they are many, and in his horsemen, because they are exceedingly mighty,¹¹³Isaiah 31:1. but his trust shall be in the Name of the Eternal.¹¹⁴See Jeremiah 17:7. Then he admonishes the king not to cause the people to return to Egypt, to have his servants and people there as overseers of cattle dwelling in the cities for the chariots¹¹⁵I Kings 9:19. On Solomon’s conduct in this matter see “The Commandments,” Vol. II, p. 330. to the end that he should multiply horses, similar to what is said of Solomon, and all the store-cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots etc.¹¹⁵I Kings 9:19. On Solomon’s conduct in this matter see “The Commandments,” Vol. II, p. 330. And thus he had in Egypt, as it is said, And the horses which Solomon had, were brought out of Egypt; also out of Keveh, the king’s merchants buying them etc.¹¹⁶I Kings 10:28. for no one was allowed to export horses from Egypt without permission from the Egyptian king and they paid him a tax for them. To Solomon, however, Pharaoh gave the right to export horses, meaning that he could take them out at will, and he could transfer that right to whomever he wished and keep the tax. He also had merchants stationed in Egypt buying all horses and sending to their lord [Solomon] those that he wanted and selling the others to kings of other countries. Thus it is said and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Aram, did they bring them out by their means,¹¹¹I Kings 10:29. that is to say, they took them out through Solomon’s merchants, and it was to him that they gave the tax.