Kebra Nagast And when the Queen sent her message to Solomon, saying that she was about to depart to her own country, he pondered in his heart and said, “A woman of such splendid beauty hath come to me from the ends of the earth! What do I know? Will God give me seed in her?” Now, as it is said in the Book of Kings, Solomon the King was a lover of women.21 And he married wives of the Hebrews, and the Egyptians, and the Canaanites, and the Edomites, and the Îyôbâwîyân (Moabites?), and from Rîf22 and Kuërguë,23 and Damascus, and Sûrest (Syria), and women who were reported to be beautiful. And he had four hundred queens and six hundred concubines. Now this which he did was not for [the sake of] fornication, but as a result of the wise intent that God had given unto him, and his remembering what God had said unto Abraham, “I will make thy seed like the stars of heaven for number, and like the sand of the sea.”24 And Solomon said in his heart, “What do I know? Peradventure God will give me men children from each one of these women.” Therefore when he did thus he acted wisely, saying, “My children shall inherit the cities of the enemy, and shall destroy those who worship idols.” Now those early peoples lived under the law of the flesh, for the grace of the Holy Spirit had not been given unto them. And to those [who lived] after Christ, it was given to live with one woman under the law of marriage. And the Apostles laid down for them an ordinance, saying, “All those who have received His flesh and His blood are brethren. Their mother is the Church and their father is God, and they cry out with Christ Whom they have received, saying, ‘Our Father, Who art in heaven.’” And as concerning Solomon no law had been laid down for him in respect of women, and no blame can be imputed to him in respect of marrying [many] wives. But for those who believe, the law and the command have been given that they shall not marry many wives, even as Paul saith, 21I Kings xi, 1. 22Upper Egypt. 23See Yâ˚ût, IV, P. 250. 24Genesis xxii, 17.
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