1 Kings 3–11

THE LORD APPEARS TO SOLOMON

3Solomon made an alliance^A with Pharaoh king of Egypt by marrying Pharaoh’s daughter.^t Solomon brought her to the city of David^u until he finished building his palace,^v the Lord’s temple,^w and the wall surrounding Jerusalem.^{x 2}However, the people were sacrificing on the high places,^y because until that time a temple for the Lord’s name^z had not been built. ³Solomon loved the Lord^aa by walking in the statutes of his father David,^ab but he also sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

⁴The king went to Gibeon^ac to sacrifice there because it was the most famous high place. He offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.^{ad 5}At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon^ae in a dream at night.^af God said, “Ask.^ag What should I give you?”

⁶And Solomon replied, “You have shown great and faithful love to your servant, my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, righteousness, and integrity.^B You have continued this great and faithful love for him by giving him a son to sit on his throne,^ah as it is today.^ai

⁷“Lord my God, you have now made your servant king in my father David’s place.^aj Yet I am just a youth with no experience in leadership.^{Ca 8}Your servant is among your people you have chosen,^b a people too many to be numbered or counted.^{c 9}So give your servant a receptive heart to judge^d your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?”^e

¹⁰Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had requested this. ¹¹So God said to him, “Because you have requested this and did not ask for long life^A or riches for yourself,^f or the death^B of your enemies, but you asked discernment for yourself to administer justice,^{g 12}I will therefore do what you have asked.^h I will give you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has never been anyone like you before and never will be again.^{i 13}In addition, I will give you what you did not ask for: both riches and honor,^j so that no king will be your equal during your entire life.^{k 14}If you walk in my ways and keep my statutes and commands just as your father David did, I will give you a long life.”^l

¹⁵Then Solomon woke up^m and realized it had been a dream.ⁿ He went to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the Lord’s covenant,^o and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.^p Then he held a feast^q for all his servants.

SOLOMON’S WISDOM

¹⁶Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.^{r 17}One woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I had a baby while she was in the house. ¹⁸On the third day after I gave birth, she also had a baby and we were alone. No one else^C was with us in the house; just the two of us were there. ¹⁹During the night this woman’s son died because she lay on him. ²⁰She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while your servant was asleep. She laid him in her arms, and she put her dead son in my arms. ²¹When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, I discovered he was dead. That morning, when I looked closely at him I realized that he was not the son I gave birth to.”

²²“No,” the other woman said. “My son is the living one; your son is the dead one.”

The first woman said, “No, your son is the dead one; my son is the living one.” So they argued before the king.

²³The king replied, “This woman says, ‘This is my son who is alive, and your son is dead,’ but that woman says, ‘No, your son is dead, and my son is alive.’ ” ²⁴The king continued, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought the sword to the king. ²⁵And the king said, “Cut the living boy in two and give half to one and half to the other.”

²⁶The woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she felt great compassion^Ds for her son. “My lord, give her the living baby,” she said, “but please don’t have him killed!”

But the other one said, “He will not be mine or yours. Cut him in two!”

²⁷The king responded, “Give the living baby to the first woman, and don’t kill him. She is his mother.” ²⁸All Israel heard about the judgment the king had given, and they stood in awe of the king because they saw that God’s wisdom^t was in him to carry out justice.

SOLOMON’S OFFICIALS

4King Solomon reigned over all Israel,^{u 2}and these were his officials:^v

Azariah son of Zadok, priest;

³Elihoreph and Ahijah the sons of Shisha, secretaries;

Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud, court historian;

⁴Benaiah son of Jehoiada, in charge of the army;

Zadok and Abiathar, priests;

⁵Azariah son of Nathan, in charge of the deputies;

Zabud son of Nathan, a priest and adviser to the king;

⁶Ahishar, in charge of the palace;

and Adoniram son of Abda, in charge of forced labor.

⁷Solomon had twelve deputies for all Israel. They provided food for the king and his household; each one made provision for one month out of the year.^{w 8}These were their names:

Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;

⁹Ben-deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan;

¹⁰Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (he had Socoh and the whole land of Hepher);

¹¹Ben-abinadab, in all Naphath-dor (Taphath daughter of Solomon was his wife);

¹²Baana son of Ahilud, in Taanach, Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as the other side of Jokmeam;

¹³Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (he had the villages of Jair son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and he had the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars);

¹⁴Ahinadab son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;

¹⁵Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also had married a daughter of Solomon—Basemath);

¹⁶Baana son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;

¹⁷Jehoshaphat son of Paruah, in Issachar;

¹⁸Shimei son of Ela, in Benjamin;

¹⁹Geber son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of King Sihon of the Amorites and of King Og of Bashan.

There was one deputy in the land of Judah.^A

SOLOMON’S PROVISIONS

²⁰Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea;^a they were eating, drinking, and rejoicing. ²¹Solomon ruled all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and as far as the border of Egypt.^b They offered tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.^c

²²Solomon’s provisions for one day were 180 bushels^B of fine flour and 360 bushels^C of meal, ²³ten fattened cattle, twenty range cattle, and a hundred sheep and goats, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and pen-fed poultry,^{Dd 24}for he had dominion over everything west of the Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza and over all the kings west of the Euphrates. He had peace on all his surrounding borders. ²⁵Throughout Solomon’s reign, Judah and Israel lived in safety from Dan to Beer-sheba,^e each person under his own vine and his own fig tree.^{f 26}Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.^{g 27}Each of those deputies for a month in turn provided food for King Solomon and for everyone who came to King Solomon’s table. They neglected nothing. ²⁸Each man brought the barley and the straw for the chariot teams and the other horses^h to the required place according to his assignment.^B

SOLOMON’S WISDOM AND LITERARY GIFTS

²⁹God gave Solomon wisdom, very great insight, and understandingⁱ as vast as the sand on the seashore. ³⁰Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East,^j greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.^{k 31}He was wiser than anyone^l—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite,^m and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, sons of Mahol.ⁿ His reputation extended to all the surrounding nations.^o

³²Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs,^p and his songs numbered 1,005.^{q 33}He spoke about trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing out of the wall. He also spoke about animals, birds, reptiles, and fish. ³⁴Emissaries of all peoples, sent by every king on earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom.^r

HIRAM’S BUILDING MATERIALS

5King Hiram of Tyre^s sent his emissaries to Solomon when he heard that he had been anointed king in his father’s place,^t for Hiram had always been friends with David.^u

²Solomon sent this message to Hiram: ³“You know my father David was not able to build a temple for the name of the Lord his God. This was because of the warfare all around him until the Lord put his enemies under his feet.^{v 4}The Lord my God has now given me rest on every side; there is no enemy or misfortune.^{w 5}So I plan to build a temple for the name of the Lord my God,^x according to what the Lord promised my father David: ‘I will put your son on your throne in your place, and he will build the temple for my name.’^y

⁶“Therefore, command that cedars from Lebanon be cut down for me. My servants will be with your servants, and I will pay your servants’ wages according to whatever you say, for you know that not a man among us knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”^z

⁷When Hiram heard Solomon’s words, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be the Lord today!^aa He has given David a wise son to be over this great people!” ⁸Then Hiram sent a reply to Solomon, saying, “I have heard your message; I will do everything you want regarding the cedar and cypress timber. ⁹My servants will bring the logs down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place you indicate. I will break them apart there, and you can take them away. You then can meet my needs by providing my household with food.”^a

¹⁰So Hiram provided Solomon with all the cedar and cypress timber he wanted, ¹¹and Solomon provided Hiram with one hundred twenty thousand bushels^A of wheat as food for his household and one hundred twenty thousand gallons^B of oil from crushed olives.^b Solomon did this for Hiram year after year.

¹²The Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he had promised him.^c There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.^d

SOLOMON’S WORK FORCE

¹³Then King Solomon drafted forced laborers from all Israel;^e the…