1 Kings 3–11

Solomon’s Walk with Yahweh

3Solomon intermarried with Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and he took the daughter of Pharaoh and brought her to the city of David until he finished building his house, the house of Yahweh, and the walls of Jerusalem all around. ²But the people were sacrificing on the high places, for the house for the name of Yahweh had not yet been built in those days. ³Solomon loved Yahweh, by walking in the statutes of David his father; only he was sacrificing and offering incense on the high places. ⁴So the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice, for the great high place was there. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

Solomon’s Request for Wisdom

⁵Yahweh appeared to Solomon at Gibeon in a dream at night, and God said, “Ask what I should give to you.” ⁶Then Solomon said, “You have shown great loyal love with your servant David my father, as he walked before you in faithfulness and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart with you. You have shown for him this great loyal love, and you have given a son to him who is sitting on his throne as it is this day. ⁷So then, O Yahweh, you are my God. You have made your servant king in place of David my father though I am a young boy. I do not know going out or coming in. ⁸Your servant is in the middle of your people whom you have chosen; a great people who cannot be counted or numbered because of abundance. ⁹Give to your servant a listening heart to judge your people, to discern between good and bad, because who is able to judge this, your difficult people?”

¹⁰The word was good in the eyes of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. ¹¹And God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing and you did not ask for yourself a long life^a and you did not ask riches for yourself and you did not ask for the life of your enemies, but you have asked for yourself the ability to make wise judgments;^{b 12}behold, I do hereby do according to your word. I hereby give you a wise and discerning heart; there was no one like you before you, nor afterwards will one like you arise. ¹³Too, what you have not asked I give to you: both riches and honor, so that no man among the kings will be like you all of your days. ¹⁴If you will walk in my ways by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David your father walked, then I will lengthen your days.” ¹⁵Then Solomon awoke, and look, it was a dream, and he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and he offered burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings, and he held a feast for all of his servants.

Solomon’s Wisdom Tested: The Two Prostitutes

¹⁶Then two prostitutes came to the king, and they stood before him. ¹⁷The one woman said, “Please my lord, I and this woman are living in one house, and I gave birth, with her in the house. ¹⁸It happened on the third day after my giving birth, this woman also gave birth, and we were together. There was not anyone with us in the house, only the two of us were in the house. ¹⁹Then the son of this woman died in the night because she laid on him. ²⁰So she got up in the middle of the night, and she took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep, and she put him in her lap, and she put her dead son in my lap. ²¹When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead! When I looked closely at him in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I had borne.” ²²Then the other woman said, “No, for my son is the living one, and your son is the dead one.” The other kept on saying, “No, for your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one,” and so they argued in front of the king. ²³Then the king said, “This one is saying, ‘This is my son, the living one, but your son is the dead one,’ and the other one keeps saying, ‘But no! Your son is the dead one, and my son is living!’ ” ²⁴So the king said, “Bring me a sword,” and they brought the sword before the king. ²⁵Then the king said, “Divide the living child into two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” ²⁶Then the woman whose son was the living one spoke to the king because her compassion was aroused for her son, and she said, “Please, my lord, give her the living child, but certainly do not kill him!” The other one was saying, “As for me, so for you! Divide him!” ²⁷Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to her, and do not kill him; she is his mother.” ²⁸When all of Israel heard the judgment that the king had rendered, they stood in awe^c of the king, because they realized that the wisdom of God was in him to execute justice.

Solomon’s Wisdom: Political Administration

4King Solomon was king over all Israel. ²Now these are the officials who were his: Azariah the son of Zadok was the priest. ³Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, were the secretaries; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder. ⁴Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army, and Zadok and Abiathar were priests. ⁵Azariah the son of Nathan was over the governors, and Zabud the son of Nathan was a priest, an advisor to the king. ⁶Ahishar was over the palace, and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the forced labor. ⁷Solomon had twelve governors over all Israel, and they sustained the king and his palace, each one was to sustain for each month of the year.^{a 8}These are their names: Ben-Hur was in the hill country of Ephraim. ⁹Ben-Deker was in Makaz and in Shaalbim and in Beth-Shemesh and Elon of Beth-Hanan. ¹⁰Ben-Hesed was in the Arubbot; Socoh and all the land of Hepher were his. ¹¹Ben-Abinadab was in all of Naphat of Dor; Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife. ¹²Baanah the son of Ahilud was in Taanach and Megiddo and all Beth-Shean which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, of Beth-Shean up to Abel-Meholah up to the other side of Jokmeam. ¹³Ben-Geber was in Ramoth-Gilead; the villages of Jair, the son of Manasseh which are in the Gilead were his, and the region of Argob which is in the Bashan, sixty great cities, with walls having crossbars of bronze, were his. ¹⁴Ahinadab the son of Iddo was in Mahanaim. ¹⁵Ahimaaz was in Naphtali; he moreover also had taken Basemath the daughter of Solomon as wife. ¹⁶Baanah the son of Hushai was in Asher and Bealoth. ¹⁷Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah was in Issachar. ¹⁸Shimei the son of Ela was in Benjamin. ¹⁹Geber the son of Uri was in the land of Gilead, the land of Sihon, the king of the Amorites, and of Og, the king of Bashan; one governor which was over the land. ²⁰Judah and Israel were as many as the sand which is on the seashore in abundance, eating and drinking and rejoicing!

Solomon’s Wisdom: Prosperity

^21b Now Solomon was ruling over all the kingdoms from the River^c to the land of the Philistines, and up to the border of Egypt, who were bringing tribute and were serving Solomon all the days of his life. ²²The food of Solomon for one day was thirty dry measures of choice meal and sixty dry measures of flour; ²³ten stall-fed oxen and twenty pasture-fed oxen and a hundred sheep, besides deer and buck gazelles and roebucks and well-fed fowls. ²⁴For he was ruling over all the west of the River^d from Tiphsah up to Gaza, over all the kings west of the River;^e and he had peace from every side all around. ²⁵Judah and Israel lived in security, each man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan as far as Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

²⁶Now Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his war chariots and twelve thousand horsemen. ²⁷These governors sustained King Solomon and all who came near to the table of King Solomon, each in his month; they did not omit anything. ²⁸The barley and the straw for the horses and for packhorses they brought to the place where they were, each according to his share.

Solomon’s Wisdom: Literature, Zoology, Biology, Dendrology

²⁹God gave wisdom to Solomon and very great discernment, as well as breadth of understanding,^f as the sand which is on the edge of the seashore. ³⁰The wisdom of Solomon was greater than the wisdom of all the people^g of the east and more than all the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹He was wiser than all the men: Ethan the Ezrahite; Heman, Calcol, and Darda the children of Mahol; and he was very well known.^{h 32}He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five. ³³He spoke concerning the trees, from the cedar which is in Lebanon up to the hyssop which grows on the wall; he also spoke concerning the animals, concerning the birds, concerning the creeping things, and concerning the fish. ³⁴They came from all the nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon; from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

Solomon’s Wisdom: Architecture

5Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him as king in place of his father, for Hiram had always been a friend for David. ²Then Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, ³“You knew David my father, that he was not able to build a house for the name of Yahweh his God, in view of the warfare^a which surrounded him, until Yahweh placed them^b under the soles of his feet. ⁴But now Yahweh my God has given me rest all around me. There is no adversary, and there is no bad occurrence. ⁵Here I am, intending to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, as Yahweh promised to my father David, saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set in your place on your throne, shall build the house for my name.’ ⁶So then, command that they may cut cedars for me from Lebanon, and let my servants be with your servants. The wage of your servants I will give to you according to all that you say, for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.” ⁷When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly, and he said, “Blessed be Yahweh this day, who has given to David a wise son over this great people.” ⁸Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, “I have heard what you have sent to me; I will do all of your desire concerning the timber of cedars…