Everyone knows King Solomon’s wealth surpassed anything the ancient world had seen but was he richer than the world’s current richest man, Microsoft founder Bill Gates? Right now, Gates net worth is estimated at around $40 billion. To his credit, he’s signed a pledge to give half of it away and is at the forefront of a worldwide effort to eradicate AIDS and distribute computers to Third World countries. That aside, let’s take a hypothetical look at the numbers between the two men.
The New International Version of the Bible mentions King Solomon’s yearly salary at 666 talents of gold per year. One talent of gold equals 34.5 kg, which converts to 1109 troy ounces. A ballpark current value of gold is $960 per ounce. Multiply that out and the King’s salary was about $760 million per year. Not bad. Not bad at all. Multiply that by the 40 years he was in power and you end up with a a figure of slightly over $30 billion. That’s just salary!
But King Solomon’s wealth would not be complete without accounting for the other property and assets he owned. Horses, land, etc. Plus, we’re figuring that if he was investing by Biblical principles and had God’s voice in his ear, his return on investment would have been a healthy one. Just taking a wild guess, it seems like the King could have been the owner of a net worth that could easily have translated into $100 billion today.
While we’re pretty sure he got no royalties for having authored parts of the Bible, and he did have 700 wives under his care, which surely must have been a serious drain on his budget, but the guy was doing alright, even by today’s standards.
The Solomon Success Team
Flickr / jurvetson
