The high priest ended his intoning and held his arms up, signaling the assembled throng for silence. They filled the Temple, the Holy House which king Solomon himself had built to honor the great God of Israel, JHVH! The sacrifices were set ablaze. Smoke from the sacrificial altars and from the incense pans rose throughout the Holy House. This was the day of the king's wedding and all Jerusalem had turned out to witness it. It was the day of the New Moon, chosen because it was a holiday in Israel when all refrained from work.

The king was resplendent in his beautiful wedding attire, and his new queen, his bride, was beautiful to behold. This was Naamah, princess of Ammon, future mother to the kings of Israel.

After the solemnities, after the wedding liturgy, after the dancing and rejoicing, when all Jerusalem, both great and small, intoxicated and weary, had departed to their homes, the king took his bride, Naamah, to the royal bed chamber, to consumate both the marriage, and his own lust for her. The new queen was young and extremely lovely to look at. He had known, the very first time that he had lain eyes on her, that he must have her for his own. He had been smitten with her from that very first day.

Solomon would have 700 wives and 300 concubines during his lifetime, but Naamah was to be one of his favorites, especially in the beginning, and she would be the mother of his dynasty. So blinded with love and lust for her was he, that he ignored the words of the Law and the prophets. For JHVH had spoken through the mouths of is holy men, commanding that the Children of Israel not marry with foreign women, and Moses had specifically decreed that the people of Ammon were not to enter into the Peoplehood of Israel through marriage. For the Ammonites were the children of incest, the descendants of the union of Lot and his younger daughter.

But Solomon would not heed the words of the TORAH or the holy men. He relied on his own judgment in the matter of his passions. For he said within his heart, "Am I not the king? Am I not God's Anointed? Does not all the world pay me homage? Is not JHVH with me in all that I put my hands to? Have I not built Him a magnificent House which is a holy Temple for all peoples? He has granted me wisdom and wealth, and empire beyond all men who have lived before me. What now would He withhold from me that I desire? And I desire this Ammonite woman above ALL women, and I shall have her for my queen and my lover, and what person is there that shall speak against it? For all Israel will come to celebrate my marriage and shall rejoice along with me. For it is well known that she is the daughter of Shobi, king of the Ammonites, who was kind to my father David, and protected him when he fled from my brother Absalom."

The king sat upon the royal bed and Naamah sat on a low stool near him, and took his hand and kissed it. She raised her eyes to him and smiled. She spoke: "Is my lord pleased with me? You know that I am a virgin yet I hope that my husband will think me possessed of some measure of wisdom."

The king caressed her face and her hair, and returned her smile. He nodded and replied, "Though my bride be young, I am assured that the daughter of the king of Ammon is well schooled in all things befitting a queen, and that she does possess much wisdom."

She smiled again. "though I have lived all of seventeen years, my people consider me wise. Yet I know that my wisdom can never reach the level of the wisest of kings", she said as she lowered her eyes.

The king placed his hand beneath her chin and lifted her head so that her eyes met his. "Then", he replied, "we will grow in wisdom together as man and wife."

He raised her off of the stool and sat her on the bed next to him, running his fingers over her soft tender neck. As he caressed her sweet youthfull throat, he kissed her full on the lips, softly at first, then more passionately. His fingers held her throat and he pressed his mouth against her ear and whispered, "Oh let me kiss you with the kisses of my mouth. For your love is sweeter than wine."

He gazed at her intently, relishing the feelings of passion than began to flow through his entire body as he contemplated making love with her.

She placed her own hand over his that felt her throat and caressed it. She smiled once more her enchantingly beautiful smile, and said, "My lord, you know that I received training as a priestess of Milcom, the god of Ammon, although I never had the opportunity to serve in the priestesshood."

He caressed her shoulders and bent to kiss them. His kisses then covered her breasts as he knelt before her. She threw her arms around his neck as he undid her robe and sucked her nipples, first one, then the other. He rested his face against her breasts as she ran her fingers slowly through his dark locks. He spoke: "Priestess of Milcom, shall I worship you?"

She smiled and whispered into his ear, "Although I am no goddess, my heart would be happy if my husband would worship me with his love ways on this, our wedding night."

HIs arms wound around her slender waist, and he arose from kneeling, and lay down beside her in the royal bed, holding and kissing her. He looked down upon her as his hands moved over her body, probing and caressing. The soft flatness of her belly excited him. She writhed slightly and moaned as his fingers found the opening between her thighs which she parted as he bent to kiss the insides of them.

He spoke again: "The holy men believe that I should not have taken you to wife, for you are an Ammonitess, and you worship foreign gods." She caressed him as he lay his head upon her thighs.

"My king", she asked, "cannot your God JHVH accept the presence of other deities here in this city? Surely this place is wide enough for many gods to dwell in and be worshipped."

The king lay back and pulled Naamah to him. Caressing her, he pulled her on top of him. His fingers moved up and down her naked skin, and they both sighed.

He hardened between his own thighs and she felt herself becoming wet as they lay close together and loved one another with lips, tongues, and hands.

Solomon spoke again: "When my father David conquered this city, the Jebusite inhabitants had been worshipping the high god El and his son Baal for hundreds of years. And my father did not interfere with their worship. He honored their reverence for their gods, and quickly made peace with their ruler and high priest, Ornan. Indeed, it was Ornan himself who offered David his own threshing floor to build an altar to JHVH. And was the threshing floor not sacred to Baal, Ornan's own god? For the Jebusites did practice their fertilitiy rites there on his threshing floor. They had worshipped El and Baal there. And yet my father David also built an altar to the God of Israel, and offered sacrifice there. So the God of Israel and the gods of the Caananites among whom we dwell were worshipped together here in Jerusalem."

Naamah felt Solomon's hardness and she reached down under his garment and felt it, took it into her fingers, and played with it. The king's breath grew more rapid as she began to stroke his testicles.

"Was not your God JHVH jealous of the gods of the Jebusites?", she asked.

He parted her thighs and began to mount her. "JHVH had commanded that we should give no other gods precedence before Him", the king answered. "Yet we dwelt side by side with the old inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we wished to live in peace with them. Therefore David wished to make peace with their gods. JHVH is our God and we did not place El and Baal before Him. He protected our ancestors in the dessert when they left Egypt - just as their gods protected the Jebusites. But we would put no foreign gods before JHVH."

Solomon mounted his bride and she guided him into her with her hand. "Yet neither Baal nor his father El was able to prevent David from conquering their city", she remarked as the king slipped deeply into her body.

He whispered to her, as he held her tightly, and slowly thrust into her, "JHVH is more powerfull than the gods of Caanan. They could not prevail against Him. He determined that this city should be the place of His holy habitation and that He should show forth His power over many nations from Zion. And the gods of Jerusalem would not stand against Him. Yet no blood was shed here by Israel. The city was taken peaceably and it became the city of peace. Here gods and mortals dwell together peacefully."

The pace of their copulating quickened. Through her undulations and embraces, she said, "Yet your holy men speak harshly against the alien gods. They have no true understanding of our gods and goddesses; of how they live and love; of how they love us, their worshippers. They say that JHVH is a stern father who will punish His children because He is jealous of their attentions to the old gods of Caanan. But your God shall not punish His anointed king who is the prince of Peace, and the prince of love. And the king's bride shall teach him how to love in new ways, in the ways that the divine immortal gods and goddesses love."

Solomon had put an end to speaking. He had become completely overpowered by his passions, and he held his bride, moaning and crying, thrusting zealously into her.

She tightened her hold on him, embracing him with her arms and legs. "Yes, my king", she sighed. "Futter me now! You have taken my virginity; take now my priestess' gift. You have known me as a woman; you shall yet know me as divine power, and that knowledge shall make you yet stronger. It shall make you a god. Plough me as the plowman plows the field to seed it!", she screamed. "Love me with your passion as the gods and goddesses love with their passions!", she pleaded yet at the same time commanded. "For the gods and goddesses shall make US divine. We shall become their very lovers!"

But her words were now only half heard by the king as he he her tightly and reached the crest of his tuminescent wave. Her words were drowned out by his screams as he released his seed into her. She smiled as she felt him flow into her open vulva. Then they both lay still for a few moments, catching their breaths.

Later they resumed their conversation as they lay in bed, holding and caressing one another.

"Tell me, my beautiful priestess wife", the king said, "Do we truly become lovers to the immortals?"

"Yes my king", she nodded in response. "When we invite them into our love bed, they join us in our loving. They enter into us at our beck and call and become one with us and we with them. In my land of Ammon, we priestesses serve as KEDESHOT in the temple of Milcom; sacred prostitutes invoking Astarte, goddess of love, to enter us as we serve the worshipper. We become Astarte as we guide the worshipper to summon Milcom and invite him to the service. When the worshipper mounts us, it is Milcom who mounts and enters us, and truly, it is Astarte whom he enters. Thus do the gods and goddesses join us in the ritual, and we become lovers to the immortals."

Naamah stopped speaking for a moment, and raising herself on her elbows, she lay her head on Solomon's chest, holding him about the waist. She looked at him and continued. "Do not the Israelite women, the KEDESHOT, do the very same in the Temple of YHVH if they wish to become His lovers", she asked.

The king smiled at her good naturedly. "No, my dearest. There are no KEDESHOT in the service of Israel's God. It is not permitted. JHVH is our Father, and He does not incest His children. It would be an abomination to us."

Naamah smiled in wonder. She said, "But if He has no consort, how can He know what the love of male and female is?"

Solomon explained: "He dwells alone in the heavens and is ineffible. He has no need of sexual love. In that, He is different from the gods of the nations."

"But has He not commanded you in His Law many commandments regarding what is prohibited between man and woman?", she asked.

Solomon nodded, "Yes, indeed He has."

Naamah looked at the king intently, hoping to impress him with her words: "But can you not see that He prohibits the full expression of sexual love for no other reason than that He Himself is celebate, and has no consort. Therefore He wishes you to follow His example. He knows that you need to copulate in order to have children - so He grudgingly allows you that - but He restricts you the fullest, most pleasurable areas of sexual expression. He does not wish to be your lover as the other gods do. Yet the other gods are our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and children. They are our FAMILY along with our human family. And that which is forbidden us regarding our human family is desired of us among our family of immortals."

She continued: "Solomon! You are so wise and powerfull! You have the passion and the strength of a god. Therefore learn from the gods how to be their lover, for you are worthy!"

So being much pleased wuth her words, and with her feminine charms and beauty, the king of Israel allowed Naamah to lead him into the service of the gods of the nations whose lover he became.

In time however, Solomon forsook Naamah for his other wives. She to whom he had vowed eternal love was forgotten, and the king married the daughter of Pharaoh for whom he built a special palace. In marrying the princess of Egypt, Solomon cemented an important alliance with his very powerfull North African neighbor.

And Pharaoh's daughter became the king's most favored wife, and he worshipped her gods and goddesses.

And JHVH became displeased with the acts of Solomon regarding the foreign gods of his wives, not because He was jealous of them but because Solomon, in his worship of them, neglected the duties of the king to his people. In ascending the throne and becoming God's Son, he had taken the solemn oaths of the kings of Israel, namely to rule over them with MISHPAT, TSEDEK, and SHALOM.

The vow of MISHPAT meant that the king of Israel would rule in true judgment, executing the Law of God so that there would be harmony throughout the kingdom. But Solomon had always shown favor to his own tribe of Judah, neglecting the needs of the northern tribes whose people bristled at his ignoring of their needs. In order to undetake the building of temples to his wives' gods, he had imposed greater and harsher taxes on the northern tribes, stripping them of their valuable resources, and giving them nothing in return.

The vow of TSEDEK meant that the king would rule in righteousness, protecting the weak from the the oppression of the strong. But the older Solomon grew, the more time he spent devoting himself to the priests and the temples of the gods to the negelct even of his own tribe of Judah. He who had earlier achieved far and wide fame for his "Solomonic" judgments, now let the kingdom be given over to powerfull and greedy men who took advantage of the poor and the weak with impunity.

The vow of SHALOM meant that he would imbue the kingdom with wholeness and well-being by his rule. But with the passing of MISHPAT and TSEDEK, the people's hope for the well-being of the nation disappeared. How, they wondered, could there be wholeness and well-being in the kingdom when the king himself neglected even the worship of its protector JHVH for the worship of lesser, alien gods?

King Solomon, the Son of the God of Israel, reached the end of his days in a mental state of pessimism and apathy. In spite of all the lovers that he had made among the immortal gods and goddesses, as an old man, he experienced a feeling of emptiness and futility as is reflected in the last book he wrote which we know as ECCLESIASTES in which there is the constant refrain that "all is vanity and emptiness under the sun".

And Solomon had devoted himself to Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, and to Milcom and Molech, the gods of the Ammonites, and to Ashtoreth, the Phoenician goddess of love. The day devoted to her was Friday as at a later time it would be the day of Venus. This was the day before the Sabbath, the day when Israel was supposed to prepare itself to receive the Heavenly King in love. But Solomon observed it as a day of a different kind of love on which he consorted with the KEDESHOT, the priestesses of Ashtoreth. And he built high places and altars for these gods and goddesses.

And Solomon died in the midst of the worship of these gods, and at his death, he did not remember Naamah, the wife of his younger years, she who had initiated him into the worship of the gods and who had instructed him in the love of them. But JHVH caused an irony to enter into Israel after Solomon died. For on the wedding night of the king and princess Naamah, she conceieved Rehoboam who became the king of Israel after Solomon. And Rehoboam treated the people even worse in his youth than his father had done in his old age.

And the tribes of the north revolted against Rehoboam and set up their own kingdom and their own Hebrew nation. And when SHALOM departed completely, there was war between Judah and Israel incessantly so that both kingdoms became weak from fighting. Then the nations surrounding them came and conqured both Israel and Judah and God's people were taken away captive and led into exile where they dwell to this day. For the love of the gods did not help them.

Yet for all her idolatry, Naamah became the mother of the Davidic and Solomonic line of kings, and the ancestress of the Messiah who shall come at the end of days to teach and to rule the earth with MISHPAT, TSEDEK, and SHALOM.

* "most beloved","Son of God": These expressions are used of Solomon alone
   of all Biblical personalities. Solomon as beloved of God, see 2 Samuel
   7:14. Solomon as the Son of God, see 2 Samuel 12:24. Also see the
   Apocryphacal Wisdom of Solomon 2:18. Other kings of the ancient Middle
   East may have also employed the title.

** "Messiah","Prince of Peace": The former expression was given to EVERY
    king of Israel. It means Anointed for anointing with oil was part of
    the coronation ceremony of Israel's kings. In time, the expression
    'Messiah' came to take on a specific, supernatural connotation as the
    embodiment of a special Jewish king who would come to redeem the earth.
    The latter expression was applied to Solomon whose name in Hebrew
    (Shlomoh) is associated with the concept of peace (SHALOM).

*** The rabbis have a MIDRASH to the effect that while Solomon sat on the
    throne, there was no outbreak of war anywhere on the earth.

These messianic expressions have been taken over by Christianity and applied to Jesus. In fact, Christians have modeled Jesus as messiah after Solomon, the so-called "perfect king" loved by God, the son of David. Solomon is also the Jewish paradigm for the Messiah in spite of all of his idolatries. In the Jewish psyche, his later religious acts are not allowed to overshadow his love of God and the wisdom of his youth.

Solomon's messianic character is perhaps best expressed in Psalm 72.

A Psalm of Solomon.
1 Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son.
2 He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment.
ibid.

KELLY FLEMING Magdalene-Kelle@adelphia.net Monday ,September 27, 2004