Absalon, David's beloved son, rebelled against his father. According to the Bible, his hair got caught in the branches of a tree and a soldier killed him against his father's wishes.

According to Biblical legend, the queen of Sheba visited Solomon in the 10th century BCE. Her Semitic kingdom is better known as Saba and its people as Sabaeans. The Semitic languages of Eritrea and Ethiopia derive from the Sabaeans. The capital of Saba was Marib (east of modern Sanaa), near which a huge irrigation dam was built in the 6th century. The picture represents its construction. The dam cracked in the late 3rd century CE.

Solomon receives the Queen of Saba or Sheba in full ceremonial splendor. The ambiance in this early 20th century illustration is an imaginative variant on earlier imaginative depictions.

Phoenician artisans were used in the construction of Solomons' Temple, especially, but not exclusively, in working cedar timber.

Solomon's temple might have looked like this early 20th century reconstruction.

What the interior of Solomon's temple looked like is as little known as its exterior, but its depiction required more imagination due to the many stylistic details involved, as in this picture.

Esther has her own book in the Old Testament. She was a favorite of Xerxes I of Persia. She and her cousin Mordecai discovered the conspiracy of Haman against the Jews, which she denounced before the emperor. Haman was hanged. The story of Esther is read in the Jewish festival of Purim.

Jehoiakim, who had been placed on the throne of Judah by Necho, submitted to Nebuchadnezzar (605-562), but then rebelled. His son Joachin surrendered to the Assyrians, who placed Zedekiah on the throne of Judah. When Zedekiah in turn rebelled, Nebuchadnezzar had Jerusalem besieged. In a probable attempt to organize resistance outside of Jerusalem Zedekiah was captured. Jerusalem resisted but finally fell. Here Nebuchadnezzar watches while Zedekiah is being blinded.