An untried lad. [The Sages] say (Seder Olam 14) that Solomon was twelve years old when he became king. For in the immediate context of his birth the text recounts the story of Amnon and Tamar and then says, “Two years later, Absalom was having his flocks sheared” (2 Samuel 13:23); Absalom then killed Amnon, fled to Geshur, and stayed there three years (2 Samuel 13:38), for a total of five; he then returned to Jerusalem and remained there for two years (2 Samuel 14:28), for a total of seven, at which point he rebelled against his father and was killed (2 Samuel 15–18); after that “there was a famine during the reign of David for three years” (2 Samuel 21:1), for a total of ten; the following year, when David counted the Israelites, it says “they traversed the country … nine months” (2 Samuel 24:8), for a total of eleven; and in the year of David’s death, the fortieth year of his reign (v. 27–28), he instituted the shifts (1 Chronicles 26:31), for a total of twelve.