Image Details

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT? This somewhat imaginative engraving of Solomon and his bride depicts the Biblical text: “Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt; he took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David, until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem” (1 Kings 3:1, see also 2 Chronicles 8:11). For a dowry, Pharaoh gave the couple the city of Gezer—or at least what was left of it. “Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it down, had killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife” (1 Kings 9:16–17).