Note [original edition] : Nothing discovered his
death unto them, but the creeping thing of the earth, which gnawed his
staff;] The commentators, to explain this passage, tell us that
David, having
laid the foundations of the temple of
Jerusalem, which was to be in lieu of
the tabernacle of
Moses, when he died, left it to be finished by his son
Solomon, who employed the genii in the work: that
Solomon, before the edifice
was quite completed, perceiving his end drew nigh, begged of
God that his
death might be concealed from the
genii till they had entirely finished it;
that
God therefore so ordered it, that
Solomon died as he stood at his
prayers, leaning on his staff, which supported the body in that posture a full
year; and the genii, supposing him to be alive, continued their work during
that term, at the expiration whereof the temple being perfectly completed, a
worm, which had gotten into the staff, ate it through, and the corpse fell to
the ground and discovered the king’s death
4.
Possibly this fable of the temple’s being built by
genii, and not by
men, might take its rise from what is mentioned in scripture, that
the house
was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither; so that there was
neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was
building
5;
the
Rabbins indeed, tell us of a worm, which might assist the
workmen, its virtue being such as to cause the rocks and stones to fly in
sunder
6.
Whether the worm which gnawed
Solomon’s staff were of the same breed
with this other, I know not; but the story has perfectly the air of a
Jewish
invention.
-
4
Al Beidawi, Jallalo’ddin.
-
5
I Kings, vi. 7.
-
6
V. Kimhi, in loc. Buxt. Lex. Talm. p. 2456,
& Schickardi Tarich reg. Pers. p. 62.