The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone: The book of Deuteronomy warns the Israelite people that when they one day would have a king, the king was not to become rich with silver and gold (Deut 17.17). See also the comments on verse 28, which show that Solomon also violated the law of Deut 17.16. Although these verses underline the great wealth and power of Solomon, the original readers, who were familiar with the teachings of Deuteronomy, would have seen the implicit criticism in these verses.
He made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah: Cedar (see the comments on 1 Kgs 4.33) and sycamore are types of trees. The sycamore trees known in the Western world are not the same as the sycamore in Israel. The tree mentioned in this verse is an evergreen “sycomore-fig” (Revised English Bible) or “wild fig” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy), which grew as tall as 12 meters (40 feet). It produced small figs and was a source of soft but durable wood.
Cedar was imported and was expensive. Sycamore trees, on the other hand, were common in the lowlands to the west of Jerusalem. The meaning is that Solomon had so much wealth that he was able to import large quantities of cedar lumber for building, and as a result, “cedar wood” (New Jerusalem Bible) was as common in Jerusalem as the wood of the native sycamore tree. Compare Moffatt: “cedar-wood as plentiful as sycomore-trees in the lowlands.”
The text does not mean that Solomon imported and planted cedar trees. He imported cedar lumber/timber. Many translations say something like “he made cedars as plentiful as the sycamore trees that are in the lowland” (An American Translation; similarly New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible), but the word “cedars” in English must refer to trees and not to lumber. International Children’s Bible, which adds the word “tree” after “cedar,” misses the point entirely by saying “Cedar trees were as common as the fig trees growing on the mountain slopes.”
Shephelah, which is a transliteration of the Hebrew noun here, refers to the lowlands in the territory of Judah, west of the hill country and east of the Mediterranean seacoast. A number of modern translations keep the Hebrew term (Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Peregrino), but since this term will not have any clear meaning for many readers, it will be better to translate the meaning. Compare “the foothills” (New American Bible, New International Version, Contemporary English Version), “the lowlands” (New Jerusalem Bible), “the low country” (La Bible Pléiade, Nouvelle Bible Segond), and “the foothills of Judah” (Good News Translation, New Living Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). International Children’s Bible has “mountain slopes,” but this seems misleading and is not recommended.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .