Sheba

QUEEN OF SHEBA AND BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP 125
Twenty-first Dynasty, and Thebes in the south under priests. As for the
Assyrians, they spent the period of David and Solomon’s reigns combating
Aramean population movements. Authorities agree that if Solomon’s state
did exist, it would have taken advantage of Egypt’s withdrawal from Asia
and Assyria’s domestic disorder. It would therefore have been centered in
an area controlling valuable resources or trade routes. Palestine had neither.
The area to the north, known as Phoenicia, had a long history of
commercial activity. We do not know for certain what the Phoenicians
called themselves, although traditions say it was a word that meant either
Canaanite or merchant or both. The Egyptians established control over the
area around the fifteenth century B.C.E., and when they withdrew the
Phoenicians enjoyed some freedom until the Assyrians moved against them
in the ninth century B.C.E. Although the Phoenician southern border was
Palestine, the Phoenicians had no record of Solomon’s kingdom, nor did
trade between the Phoenicians and Egyptians pass through Palestine. It was
sea-borne and the Phoenicians traded widely, not only throughout the
Mediterranean, but also as far as Britain and West Africa. Since the
Phoenicians had a hold on the trade with the Near East, the only alternative
for Solomon’s state to gain wealth would have been to the south, in Arabia.
There is evidence of a rich and highly organized state in the southwest
of Arabia, in Sabaea, and the same kind of civilization must have flourished
further along the trade routes between Sabaea and Taima, a city that
Solomon is believed to have controlled. If Solomon, despite the total lack
of evidence, had ruled from Palestine, the prosperity of Judah would have
continued after the kingdom split because of his control of the Taima trade.
However, since it was Israel not Judah that experienced great prosperity
after the split the indications are that the northern trade that sustained
Solomon’s united kingdom had passed to the northern kingdom. Since
Judah was supposedly in the south and controlling Taima, this makes no
sense at all. The Assyrian attack of 721 B.C.E. on Israel would have been
logical if Israel were in western Arabia, but not if it were in Palestine.
The Old Testament and other records speak of military expeditions by
the Libyan-Egyptian leader Sheshonk (ca. 945-924 B.C.E.), the Assyrian
Sennacherib (ca. 704-681 B.C.E.), and the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar II
(605-562 B.C.E.). The first expedition was undertaken against Judah in the
days of turmoil after Solomon’s death and provided an opportunity for the
Kingdom of Israel to break free of Judaean control. Sheshonk overwhelmed
several Judaean cities but Rehoboam bought him off, thus sparing the
capital. Fragments of a list of Sheshonk’s conquests survive at the Temple