Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Kings 10:16-17

"And king Solomon made two hundred bucklers of beaten gold; six hundred [shekels] of gold went to one buckler. And [he made] three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pounds of gold went to one shield: and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon." — 1 Kings 10:16-17 (ASV)

The shields overlaid with gold—the larger called “targets,” and the lesser called “shields”—were evidently used for ornamenting the king’s palace and (as we may gather from the account in 2 Chronicles 12:11, regarding the bronze shields that superseded them) were taken down and carried before the king on solemn occasions, such as when he went to the house of the Lord. There are accounts of shields of gold among the Syrians of Zobah (2 Samuel 8:7; 1 Chronicles 18:7), and of shields hung on the walls of Tyre (Ezekiel 27:10–11). The use of such ornaments argues a plethora of gold, too great to be absorbed either in currency or in personal and architectural decorations.