Šəlōmōh

Concise scholarly summary of the figure, name, tradition, and significance.

Šəlōmōh (Hebrew שְׁלֹמֹה; English Solomon) is the third king of Israel, son of David and Bathsheba, and the builder of the First Temple in Jerusalem. His forty-year reign (1 Kings 11:42) is remembered as Israel's golden age: the dream at Gibeon and the judgment between the two mothers (1 Kings 3), the building and dedication of the Temple (1 Kings 5–8), and the visit of the Queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10) — and then the turn, when foreign wives tilt his heart toward their gods and the kingdom moves toward division (1 Kings 11). Tradition ascribes Proverbs, Qohelet, and the Song of Songs to him.^[1]

The name is associated with the root š-l-m, 'to be whole, complete, at peace'; the Chronicler makes the pun explicit — 'his name shall be Solomon (Šəlōmōh), and I will give peace (šālôm) and quiet to Israel in his days' (1 Chronicles 22:9). Nathan the prophet also names the child Jedidiah, 'beloved of the LORD' (2 Samuel 12:25).^[2]

PuniCodex restores the name as Šəlōmōh, transcribing the Tiberian Masoretic pointing: the caron marks the shin [ʃ], the schwa records the vocal shewa at the word's head, and the macrons preserve the two long holam vowels [oː]. Because the restoration preserves vowel length but does not mark stress position, the name is classified Tier 2 (macron-preserving). The temple is served at šəlōmōh.com; the ASCII form solomon, descending from Greek Σολομών and Latin Salomon, remains the fallback imposed by the early domain-name system.^[3]

Etymology, ASCII constraint, Unicode restoration, name variations, tier classification.

The name is attested in Biblical Hebrew as שְׁלֹמֹה (Šəlōmōh), pointed with a vocal shewa, two long holam vowels, and a silent final he serving as mater lectionis.^[1] It derives from the root š-l-m, 'to be whole, complete, at peace', and is variously parsed as 'his peace' or as a nominal formation built on šālôm; the Chronicler exploits the resemblance directly — 'his name shall be Solomon (Šəlōmōh), and I will give peace (šālôm) and quiet to Israel in his days' (1 Chronicles 22:9). The same child also receives the throne-name Jedidiah, 'beloved of the LORD', from the prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 12:25).^[2]

The English form Solomon descends from the Septuagint's Σολομών through Latin Salomon and flattens all three Tiberian vowels. PuniCodex restores Šəlōmōh: the caron on Š marks the Hebrew shin (שׁ), the ə records the vocal shewa, and the macrons on ō preserve the two long holams. The restoration preserves vowel length but not stress position, which places the name in Tier 2 (macron-preserving).

The letter-by-letter transformation runs:

• s → Š — Same, capitalized and fricative
• o → ə — Schwa vowel
• l → l — Same
• o → ō — Macron: long vowel
• m → m — Same
• o → ō — Macron: long vowel
• n → h — Heh h

The project holds the domain šəlōmōh.com (xn--lmh-qxab0ju2f.com) as the canonical home of this name.

IPA reconstruction, phoneme breakdown, approximation, kin forms.

The reconstructed pronunciation of the name is /ʃəloːˈmoː(h)/ — Biblical Hebrew (Tiberian/Masoretic).^[1]

Phoneme by phoneme:

• šə- — Voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ] — Hebrew shin, marked by the upper right dot — with a short vocal sheva [ə].
• -lō- — Lateral approximant [l] followed by long [oː], the holam under ל.
• -mō(h) — Bilabial nasal [m] plus long [oː], the holam under מ; the final ה is silent, a mater lectionis for the long vowel.

For the modern speaker, the closest approximation is: 'shuh-LOH-moh' — start with a quick 'shuh'; both later 'o' sounds are long and steady, like 'show'.

Kindred and historical forms of the name:

• Hebrew root — š-l-m, 'to be whole, complete, at peace' — the name is a qal passive participle or noun form
• Aramaic — שְׁלֹמֹה (Šəlōmōh), as in the Targumim
• Arabic — Sulaymān (سُلَيْمَان), a distinct but etymologically related form from the same s-l-m root

BHS points the name שְׁלֹמֹה (1 Kings 1:1). The initial shewa is vocal (šəwa naʿ) because it opens the word; the two holams are long [oː]. The final he is silent. Modern Israeli Hebrew flattens the vowels to [o] and often elides the shewa, but the Tiberian tradition distinguishes length. HALOT s.v. שְׁלֹמֹה; TDOT s.v. Solomon.

Original writing system, transliteration steps, uncertainty markers, font/display notes.

The name is preserved in Hebrew as שְׁלֹמֹה, written in the square Hebrew alphabet — a consonantal script (abjad) of twenty-two letters, adopted from Aramaic models in the Second Temple period and written right to left. The consonantal skeleton is ש-ל-מ-ה (š-l-m-h): the root š-l-m, 'to be whole, at peace', closed by a silent he that serves as mater lectionis. The Masoretic pointing supplies a vocal shewa [ə] under the shin — vocal because it opens the word — and a long holam [oː] with both lamed and mem.^[1]

The scholarly transliteration is Šəlōmōh, giving the reconstructed Tiberian reading /ʃəloːˈmoː(h)/.^[2] The rendering proceeds step by step:

• The name is written שְׁלֹמֹה in the pointed Masoretic text (BHS): three root consonants plus the final mater.
• The initial shewa is vocal (shewa naʿ), giving the reduced vowel [ə]; the two holams are long [oː].
• The transliteration marks the shin with a caron, the reduced vowel with a schwa, and the long vowels with macrons, following academic convention.
• PuniCodex adopts the registrable Latin form Šəlōmōh as its restoration; the plain ASCII solomon descends instead from the Septuagint's Σολομών through Latin Salomon.

The Hebrew vocalization is medieval in attestation but older in tradition: the consonants are Second Temple-era, while the points were fixed by the Tiberian Masoretes in the early medieval period, and the first-millennium BCE pronunciation of the name may have differed in detail.^[3]

Sphere of influence, titles, epithets, domain cards.

Šəlōmōh is the king who turns peace into architecture. Son of David, he inherits a united kingdom and spends it on cedar, gold, and wisdom. His Temple in Jerusalem becomes the fixed center of Israelite worship; his judgment becomes proverbial; his trade fleets reach the edges of the known world. Yet his story ends in fracture: the kingdom he built splits the moment he dies.^[1]

The Temple

A house of cedar, stone, and gold for the name of YHWH, built with Phoenician artisans and dedicated with fire and cloud (1 Kings 6–8).

Wisdom and Judgment

His prayer at Gibeon asks for wisdom, and his famous verdict — to cut the disputed child in two — reveals the true mother (1 Kings 3).

Fleet and Trade

A navy at Ezion-Geber and an alliance with Hiram of Tyre bring gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks from Ophir (1 Kings 9–10).

Proverbs and Song

Tradition ascribes to him the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs — wisdom literature that ranges from proverb to eros to despair.

Iconography, attributes, and their meanings.

The iconography associated with Šəlōmōh concentrates in a small set of recurring attributes, each a compressed statement about the name:^[1]

• Temple — The fixed house of YHWH in Jerusalem, the center of Israelite cult and identity
• Seal / signet — The legendary ring that commanded demons and animals in later Jewish and Islamic folklore
• Scales — The instrument of his wise judgment and the balance of peace (šālôm)
• Peacock and gold — The exotic wealth of his international trade and the opulence of his court
• Crown — The throne of ivory overlaid with gold and the apex of Israelite royal power

Core myths, primary narratives, and textual evidence.

Šəlōmōh's mythology is the story of wisdom tested by excess. He begins with a prayer for understanding and ends with idolatrous shrines built for his foreign wives. His reign is Israel's golden age and its cautionary tale at once.^[1]

The Dream at Gibeon (1 Kings 3)

When Solomon becomes king, God appears to him at Gibeon and offers whatever he asks. Solomon does not ask for riches or long life but for 'an understanding mind to govern your people.' Pleased, God grants him wisdom and adds wealth and honor besides. The episode establishes Solomon as the archetype of the wise ruler.^[2]

The Judgment of the Two Mothers (1 Kings 3)

Two women come before the king, each claiming to be the mother of a living infant. Solomon orders the child cut in two. One woman pleads for the baby's life even if it means giving him up; the other agrees to the division. Solomon gives the child to the one willing to lose him, recognizing true motherhood by self-sacrifice rather than claim.

The Building and Dedication of the Temple (1 Kings 6–8)

Solomon contracts with Hiram of Tyre for cedar and skilled workers. The Temple takes seven years to build: an outer court, a hekhal (sanctuary), and a debir (holy of holies) housing the ark. At the dedication, fire descends and the glory-cloud fills the house; Solomon kneels and prays that God will hear prayers directed toward this place, including the prayers of foreigners and exiles.

The Queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10)

The queen of Sheba journeys to Jerusalem with a caravan of spices, gold, and precious stones to test Solomon's wisdom with hard questions. She leaves astonished, praising both his insight and the God who blessed him. The encounter makes Solomon a figure of international prestige and marks the southern trade route as a channel of legend.

The Fall and the Divided Kingdom (1 Kings 11)

In his old age, Solomon's foreign wives turn his heart after their gods, and he builds high places for Chemosh, Milcom, and Astarte. YHWH tears the kingdom from his son, leaving only one tribe for David's sake. The golden age ends not in invasion but in internal apostasy, and the united monarchy dies with its builder.

Cross-cultural identification, later adaptations, and interpretatio.

Solomon drifts from history into legend more readily than any other biblical king. Jewish aggadah makes him master of demons: in b. Gittin he captures Ashmedai, king of demons, and compels his service in building the Temple, and the late-antique Testament of Solomon gives him a seal-ring that commands the spirits.^[1] Islam's Sulaymān is a prophet who knows the speech of birds, commands the wind, and rules jinn and humans together; Surah 27 tells his exchange with the queen of Saba — Sheba — at length. Ethiopian tradition makes him, through that queen, the father of Menelik I and the founder of the Solomonic dynasty that Ethiopian emperors claimed into the twentieth century, as the Kebra Nagast narrates. Christianity keeps him as the type of the wise king and the builder whose Temple prefigures a spiritual house.^[2]

Within the corpus, the figure most closely bound to his story is his father [Dāwîḏ](/sites/david/), whose wars win the peace in which Solomon builds and whose house the Temple anchors.

Modern influence, literature, art, popular culture, and contemporary practice.

Šəlōmōh gave the world the idea of the wise king whose wealth is justified by understanding. The 'judgment of Solomon' has entered legal and popular language as a decision that exposes truth by risking loss. The Temple he built remains the imagined heart of Jerusalem, mourned in Jewish liturgy and yearned for in apocalyptic expectation. His attributed writings — Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs — are among the most read books of the Bible, while the Seal of Solomon became a protective amulet across Jewish, Christian, and Islamic magic. In modern archaeology, Solomon is also a battleground: the dating of Iron Age monumental gates at Megiddo, Hazor, and Gezer is central to debates about the historicity and scale of his kingdom.^[1]

Sites, inscriptions, artifacts, and physical attestations.

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem, now the Haram al-Sharif, is the traditional site of Solomon's Temple, though no Iron Age remains have been excavated there for religious and political reasons. Monumental six-chambered gates at Megiddo, Hazor, and Gezer have been attributed by some to Solomon's building program, while others date them later to the Omride dynasty. The site of Khirbet Qeiyafa and the Stepped Stone Structure in the City of David are debated as evidence of an early Judahite state. Saba (Sheba) in modern Yemen, with its dam and inscriptions at Marib, confirms the existence of the South Arabian kingdom that the Queen of Sheba legend reflects.^[1]

Cited primary and secondary sources with full bibliographic metadata.

The account of Šəlōmōh given in this edition rests on the witnesses and reference works listed below. The lexica secure the name's derivation from the root š-l-m; Kings and Chronicles supply the two biblical portraits of the reign; the wisdom books preserve the tradition of his authorship; and the modern works stake out the debate over the scale and historicity of the united monarchy.

• ^[1] HALOT s.v. שְׁלֹמֹה — form and etymology of the name.
• ^[2] TDOT s.v. Solomon — theological profile of the figure.
• ^[3] 1 Kings 1–11; 2 Chronicles 1–9 — the two biblical accounts of the reign.
• ^[4] Proverbs; Ecclesiastes; Song of Songs — the books ascribed to him.
• ^[5] Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (2003) — the maximalist case for the united monarchy.
• ^[6] Finkelstein & Silberman, The Bible Unearthed (2001) — the minimalist archaeological reading.
• ^[7] Kebra Nagast (Ethiopian tradition) — the Sheba–Menelik cycle and the Solomonic dynasty.

Solomon's reign is narrated in 1 Kings 1–11 and retold in glorifying terms in 2 Chronicles 1–9. The Kings account moves from the contested succession (1 Kings 1–2) through the dream at Gibeon and the judgment between the two mothers (1 Kings 3), the administrative lists and the catalogue of wisdom — 'three thousand proverbs and a thousand and five songs' (1 Kings 4:32) — to the building and dedication of the Temple (1 Kings 5–8) and the visit of the Queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10).^[1] The final chapter reverses the idyll: foreign wives turn his heart, adversaries arise, and the kingdom moves toward division (1 Kings 11). Three biblical books open under his name — Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Qohelet — and the deuterocanonical Wisdom of Solomon later speaks in his persona.^[2]

Solomon's New Testament footprint is small but pointed. Jesus sets his proverbial splendor against the lilies of the field — 'even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these' (Matthew 6:29; Luke 12:27) — and warns that the queen of the South will rise at the judgment against a generation that ignores 'something greater than Solomon' (Matthew 12:42; Luke 11:31).^[1] Matthew's genealogy notes pointedly that David fathered Solomon 'by the wife of Uriah' (Matthew 1:6), keeping Bathsheba's shadow inside the messianic line. Stephen's speech recalls that Solomon built the Temple (Acts 7:47), and 'Solomon's Portico' names the colonnade where Jesus teaches and the apostles later gather (John 10:23; Acts 3:11; 5:12). The epistles never cite him.^[2]

Aggadah makes Solomon both the wisest of kings and the great cautionary tale of overreach. Song of Songs Rabbah distributes his three books across his life — the Song to youth, Proverbs to maturity, Qohelet to disillusioned old age.^[1] His demon lore is anchored in b. Gittin (68a–b): Solomon captures Ashmedai, king of demons, to learn the secret of the shamir, the creature that splits stone without iron so the Temple can rise without tools of war; released, Ashmedai hurls him far from Jerusalem and reigns in his likeness while the true king wanders as a beggar — the sages' explanation of Qohelet's strange 'I was king over Israel.'^[2] The sages also debated his books, seeking to withdraw Qohelet for its contradictions before its acceptance (b. Shabbat 30b).^[3]

Sulaymān inherits David's prophethood and kingdom: 'Solomon was David's heir,' and his signature gift is understanding the speech of animals — he smiles at an ant warning her colony of his approaching hosts, whose ranks are marshaled from jinn, humans, and birds (27:15–19).^[1] Surah 27 (al-Naml) narrates the Sheba embassy at length: the hoopoe scouts the land of Saba, carries Solomon's letter to its queen, and her throne is transported to him 'before your glance returns to you'; tested and convinced, she submits 'with Solomon, to God, Lord of the worlds' (27:20–44).^[2] The winds run at his command (21:81; 34:12), jinn build for him and a fount of molten brass flows (34:12–13), and even his death is a sign: propped on his staff, he stands until a creature of the earth gnaws it and he falls — only then do the jinn know he has died (34:14).^[3]

Contemplative or interpretive essay on the figure's enduring meaning.

Šəlōmōh is the king who gets exactly what he asks for and then loses himself in what he does not need. His wisdom is real — it cuts through lies and builds a temple — but it cannot protect him from his own appetites. In that, he is a mirror for every culture that confuses accumulation with meaning.

The Temple he builds is beautiful, yet its completion already contains the warning that no building can house the infinite. When the cloud fills the house, it is a sign not of possession but of presence that exceeds architecture. Solomon's legacy is therefore double: he is the builder of a house and the proof that houses, however splendid, cannot save the builder. To remember him is to ask what we are building, and whether our wisdom is strong enough to refuse what our power can take.^[1]

Universities and students credited for contributions.