The Wise King  

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Solomon was King of Israel, son and successor of King David, ruling the Jewish state for approximately four decades, from the year 970 BC. until 930 BC His reign was characterized by several questions that would become unforgettable in the history of Israel, among which are: the important construction projects he developed, such is the case of the Jerusalem temple, for the important harem that surrounded it, for its enormous wealth, but mainly characterized and known to King Solomon for the wisdom he had. 

At the death of King David, and with the support of important figures, such as his mother, the prophet Nathan, General Banaias and the high priest Sadoc, Solomon eliminated his political opponents and began a reign characterized by a long period of peace and good relations with neighboring towns such as Egypt, Arabia, Phenicia, Edom and Damascus, during which the country experienced a great economic and cultural development.

Once made king, Solomon prayed and asked God to help him to be a good king, and God was pleased that Solomon wanted to be just and wanted to bless him, so he asked what blessing he wanted, and Solomon answered that he wanted to be wise , and God was pleased that he had chosen to be wise, God told him that if he obeyed his commandments, he would have wisdom. Solomon obeying God and fulfilling his mandates became the wisest man on earth; people came from other countries to ask him questions, and he gave them wise advice. Kings and queens visited him and brought him beautiful gifts.

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With the development of his people, he achieved an advanced internal security and control of the communication channels that facilitated a wide expansion of the Hebrew trade, especially that of horses, which from Cilicia were transported to Egypt. In addition, in order to encourage commercial activity, Solomon ordered the construction of a fleet of ships, and consolidated the political power of Israel in the region by espousing one of the daughters of the pharaoh of Egypt and strengthening the ties of friendship with Hiram I, king of the city of Tire.

The fruit of his wisdom and wise reign was nono economic prosperity, which allowed the king to build in Jerusalem the great temple that David had designed to shelter the Ark of the Covenant and a magestusos royal palace, buildings in which a large number participated of foreign technicians, such as masons and bronze soldiers from Tire or carpenters from Gebal, and for which they imported luxurious materials from Phenicia.

 
When people needed help or needed advice, they went to him. The best known among his stories is the Dispute between two women for a baby: One day, two women went to see him with a baby. They told her that they lived in the same house, that each one had a child, but that one of the babies had died; and now both women wanted the baby that was alive. Each mother said it was their baby, so they asked King Solomon to tell them who could stay with him.  

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Solomon wanted to know which of the women was the mother of the baby and had a great idea. He asked for a sword and told one of his servants to split the baby in two and give each woman a share. Solomon did not intend to hurt the creature; I just wanted to see the way the women reacted, knowing that the child's true mother would not allow it to be harmed.  

One of the mothers told Solomon not to split the baby in two. She did not want to be hurt because she loved him, and said that the other woman could take him away. The other woman told Solomon to break it in two.  Then Solomon knew who should stay with the child, because the real mother did not want to be harmed; and Solomon gave it to her. Soon everyone knew what had happened and they understood that Salomon's wisdom came from God.

owards the end of Solomon's life, the high fiscal pressure and the proliferation of cults of foreign divinities, introduced by the numerous foreign women of the monarch, created a growing popular unrest that would erupt during the reign of Rehoboam, his son and successor, who he could not avoid the rebellion of ten of the twelve Hebrew tribes (all except Judah and Benjamin) and the subsequent splitting of the country into two kingdoms: that of Israel, to the north, with capital at Shechem, and that of Judah, to the south , with capital in Jerusalem.

Despite rejecting King Solomon's permissiveness to the pagan practices of many of his women and considering the division of Israel as a divine punishment for their idolatry, the biblical tradition has idealized the figure of the sovereign, presented as a man of great wisdom, paradigm of pondering and justice, in various passages of the Holy Scriptures, among them the famous Judgment of Solomon or the visit of the Queen of Sheba.

Solomon has also been attributed the authorship of different Old Testament books, such as the Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, the Book of Wisdom, Proverbs and the Psalms of Solomon.

 
It represents in some way the divine wisdom that comes from the Creator, in Solomon who cried out to God for nothing but wisdom, to be just, correct and do what must be done, God responded to such calm with ample wisdom, such and such necessary to face and resolve any Situation, but being resolved in the most favorable way possible. Although the end of the life of SAlomon was not the most indicated, for a not very successful stage, we can not forget the essence of his acts of kindness and wisdom, as human beings we are not perfect and we are prone to fail and to sin , the most important thing to remember is that we must always owe God and be faithful servants and praisers of his presence and his creation.