Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Chronicles 8-10.

Today’s passage summarizes King Solomon’s wealth.  The idea has been presented that Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire in the Fourteenth Century A.D., was the richest man to ever live.  The claim is made that his wealth is better documented than Solomon’s, but that is not actually the case.  Much of what we know about Mansa Musa is from Arabic writings written after his pilgrimage to Mecca and is based on what he told the men who later wrote it down.  He is also mentioned in some histories written in Timbuktu (part of the Mali Empire at the time) in the Seventeenth Century.  These sources are, at best,  no more reliable than the account in this passage. The point I am making with of all of this is that King Solomon’s wealth as recorded here exceeds that which is recorded for Mansa Musa, and that the biblical record is at least as reliable as the records which report Musa’s wealth (Mansa is actually a title).  If indeed the wealth ascribed to King Solomon in today’s passage is correct, then he was wealthier than Mansa Musa.  And yet, for all of King Solomon’s wealth, his people were discontented such that they rebelled against his son, Rehoboam, and split the kingdom.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.