1 Kings 10:17

And he made three hundred shield s [portable shields ( peltas, Vulgate) adapted for use in hand to hand encounters ( 2 Chronicles 12:9 , 2 Chronicles 12:10 ; cf. 2 Samuel 1:21 ). That these were much smaller shields is clear from the text. These shields were borne by the royal bodyguard on great occasions ( 1 Kings 14:27 ). They were taken away by Shishak ( ib . 1 Kings 10:26 )] of beaten gold; three pound [ מָגֶה μνᾶ , mina . As 2 Chronicles 9:16 has here 300 shekels, it follows that the maneh = 100 shekels. From Ezekiel 45:12 , however, it would seem that there were manehs of different value] of gold went to one shield [ i.e; half as much as to the target]; and the king put them in [Heb. gave them to ] the house of the forest of Lebanon [ 1 Kings 7:2 . They would certainly be suspended on the walls, but whether on the inside or the outside is not quite certain, and the text affords us no means of deciding. We know that elsewhere shields were suspended outside the walls of armouries, etc. "At Tyre the beauty of the place was thought to consist in the splendour and variety of the shields of all nations hung on its walls ( Ezekiel 27:10 , Ezekiel 27:11 ). In Rome the temple of Bellona was studded with them. In Athens, the round marks where they hung can still be traced on the walls of the Parthenon. There were also arms hung round the wails of the second temple (Joshua, Ant. 15.11. 3)," Stanley. It is supposed that along with those made by Solomon were hung the shields taken by David from the Syrians, as according to 2 Samuel 8:7 , LXX ; these latter also were carried off by Shishak. It has been inferred from Song of Solomon 4:4 that these also were 500 in number, and that the entire thousand were suspended on a part of the house of the forest of Lebanon known as the Tower of David; cf. Isaiah 22:8 ; Psalms 47:9 ].

The historian now proceeds to describe the great feature of another of Solomon's palaces. As the house of the forest of Lebanon was distinguished by the golden shields which emblazoned and glorified its walls, so was "the porch of judgment" ( 1 Kings 7:7 ) by the chryselephantine throne.