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Matthew 12:42
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Matthew 12:42 Meaning and Commentary
The queen of the south
Called the queen of Sheba, ( 1 Kings 10:1 ) . Sheba was one of the sons of Joktan, a grandchild of Arphaxad, who settled in the southern parts of Arabia: hence this queen is called the queen of the south. Sheba is by the Targumist
F16 called Zemargad: and this queen the queen of Zemargad: she goes by different names. According to some, her name was Maqueda F17, and, as others say, Balkis F18: a Jewish chronologer F19 tells us, that the queen of Sheba, who is called Nicolaa, of the kingdom of Jaman, or the south, came to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, and gave him much riches: and Josephus F20 calls her Nicaulis, queen of Egypt and Ethiopia; of whom it is here said, that she
shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall
condemn it:
the meaning is, as before; that she shall rise from the dead, and stand as a witness against that generation at the day of judgment, and, by her example and practices, which will then be produced, condemn them, or aggravate their condemnation:
for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth;
an hyperbolical expression, meaning a great way off from a far country, a very distant part of the world from Jerusalem, (hmlv tmkx ewmvl) , "to hear the wisdom of Solomon"; the very phrase used by the above Jewish F21 writer.
And behold, a greater than Solomon is here;
one that was infinitely greater than Solomon was, in everything; so particularly in that, in which he excelled others, and on the account of which the queen of the south came unto him, namely, wisdom: for he is the wisdom of God, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The Jews themselves F23 own, that the king, meaning the Messiah, that shall be raised up of the seed of David, (hmlvm rty hyhy hmkx leb) , "shall be a greater master of wisdom", or "wiser than Solomon". Now what an aggravation of the condemnation of the Jews will this be another day, that a Gentile woman, living in a foreign and distant land, should, upon the fame of the wisdom of Solomon, leave her own kingdom and country, and come to Jerusalem, to hear his wise discourses about things natural, civil, and moral; and yet the Jews, who had a greater than Solomon in the midst of them, and had no need to take much pains to come to the sight and hearing of him, yet rejected him as the Messiah, blasphemed his miracles, and despised his ministry; though it was concerned about things of a spiritual and evangelic nature, and the eternal welfare of immortal souls.
F16 In 1 Chron. i. 9. & 2 Chron. ix. 1.
F17 Ludolph. Hist. Aethiop. 1. 2. c. 3. & not. in Claud. Confess. sect. 1.
F18 Pocock. Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 59.
F19 Juchasin, fol. 136. 1.
F20 Antiqu. 1. 8. c. 2.
F21 Juchasin, fol. 136. 1.
F23 Maimon. Hilchot. Teshuba, c. 9. sect. 2.
