1 Kings 3–11

Chapter 3

Solomon’s Rule Consolidated

¹Then ^aSolomon ¹formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter ^band brought her to the city of David ^cuntil he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and ^dthe wall around Jerusalem.

^2aThe people were still sacrificing on the high places, because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days.

³Now ^aSolomon loved the Lord, ^bwalking in the statutes of his father David, except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

^4aThe king went to ^bGibeon to sacrifice there, ^cfor that was the great high place; Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

^5aIn Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon ^bin a dream at night; and God said, “^cAsk what you wish me to give you.”

Solomon’s Prayer

⁶Then Solomon said, “^aYou have shown great lovingkindness to Your servant David my father, ^baccording as he walked before You in ¹truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You; and ^cYou have ²reserved for him this great lovingkindness, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.

⁷“Now, O Lord my God, ^aYou have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet ^bI am but a little child; ^cI do not know how to go out or come in.

⁸“^aYour servant is in the midst of Your people which You have chosen, ^ba great people who are too many to be numbered or counted.

⁹“So ^agive Your servant ¹an understanding heart to judge Your people ^bto discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this ²great people of Yours?”

God’s Answer

¹⁰¹It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing.

¹¹God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing and have ^anot asked for yourself ¹long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself ²discernment to understand justice,

¹²behold, ^aI have done according to your words. Behold, ^bI have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you.

¹³“^aI have also given you what you have not asked, both ^briches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days.

¹⁴“^aIf you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will ^bprolong your days.”

¹⁵Then ^aSolomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and made peace offerings, and ^bmade a feast for all his servants.

Solomon Wisely Judges

¹⁶Then two women who were harlots came to the king and stood before him.

¹⁷The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, ¹this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.

¹⁸“It happened on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth to a child, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house.

¹⁹“This woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on it.

²⁰“So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom.

²¹“When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead; but when I looked at him carefully in the morning, behold, he was not my son, whom I had borne.”

²²Then the other woman said, “No! For the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” But ¹the first woman said, “No! For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.” Thus they spoke before the king.

²³Then the king said, “¹The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’ ”

²⁴The king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king.

²⁵The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.”

²⁶Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for ^1ashe was deeply stirred over her son and said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!”

²⁷Then the king said, “Give ¹the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him. She is his mother.”

²⁸When all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had ¹handed down, they feared the king, for ^athey saw that the wisdom of God was in him to ²administer justice.

Chapter 4

Solomon’s Officials

¹Now King Solomon was king over all Israel.

²These were his officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was ^athe priest;

³Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha were secretaries; ^aJehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder;

⁴and ^aBenaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and ^bAbiathar were priests;

⁵and Azariah the son of Nathan was over ^athe deputies; and Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, was the king’s friend;

⁶and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to forced labor.

⁷Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, who ¹provided for the king and his household; each man had to ²provide for a month in the year.

⁸These are their names: Ben-hur, in the ^ahill country of Ephraim;

⁹Ben-deker in Makaz and ^aShaalbim and ^bBeth-shemesh and Elonbeth-hanan;

¹⁰Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (^aSocoh was his and all the land of ^bHepher);

¹¹Ben-abinadab, in all ¹the ^aheight of Dor (Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife);

¹²Baana the son of Ahilud, in ^aTaanach and Megiddo, and all ^bBeth-shean which is beside ^cZarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to ^dAbel-meholah as far as the other side of ^eJokmeam;

¹³Ben-geber, in ^aRamoth-gilead (^bthe towns of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead were his: ^cthe region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars were his);

¹⁴Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in ^aMahanaim;

^15aAhimaaz, in Naphtali (he also married Basemath the daughter of Solomon);

¹⁶Baana the son of ^aHushai, in Asher and ¹Bealoth;

¹⁷Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;

^18aShimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin;

¹⁹Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, ^athe country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; and he was the only deputy who was in the land.

Solomon’s Power, Wealth and Wisdom

^20aJudah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the ¹seashore in abundance; they were eating and drinking and rejoicing.

^211aNow Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms ^bfrom the ²River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; ^cthey brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²²Solomon’s ¹provision for one day was thirty ²kors of fine flour and sixty kors of meal,

²³ten fat oxen, twenty ¹pasture-fed oxen, a hundred sheep besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.

²⁴For he had dominion over everything ¹west of the ²River, from Tiphsah even to ^aGaza, ^bover all the kings west of the River; and ^che had peace on all sides around about him.

^25aSo Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his vine and his fig tree, ^bfrom Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

^26aSolomon had ¹40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen.

²⁷Those deputies ¹provided for King Solomon and all who came to King Solomon’s table, each in his month; they left nothing lacking.

²⁸They also brought barley and straw for the horses and ^aswift steeds to the place where it should be, each according to his charge.

²⁹Now ^aGod gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of ¹mind, ^blike the sand that is on the seashore.

³⁰Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all ^athe sons of the east and ^ball the wisdom of Egypt.

³¹For ^ahe was wiser than all men, than ^bEthan the Ezrahite, Heman, ^cCalcol and ¹Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his ²fame was known in all the surrounding nations.

^32aHe also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005.

³³He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows on the wall; he spoke also of animals and birds and creeping things and fish.

³⁴¹Men ^acame from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

Chapter 5

Alliance with King Hiram

^11aNow Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for ^bHiram had ²always been a friend of David.

²Then ^aSolomon sent word to Hiram, saying,

³“You know that ^aDavid my father was unable to build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the wars which surrounded him, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet.

⁴“But now ^athe Lord my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor ¹misfortune.

⁵“Behold, ^aI ¹intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spoke to David my father, saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, he will build the house for My name.’

⁶“Now therefore, command that they cut for me ^acedars from Lebanon, and my servants will be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants 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 said, “Blessed be the Lord today, who has given to David a wise son over this great people.”

⁸So Hiram sent word to Solomon, saying, “I have heard the message which you have sent me; I will do ¹what you desire concerning the cedar and cypress timber.

⁹“My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea; and I will make them into rafts to go by sea ^ato the place where you ¹direct me, and I will have them broken up there, and you shall carry them away. Then ^byou shall accomplish my desire by giving food to my household.”

¹⁰So ¹Hiram ²gave Solomon ³as much as he desired of the cedar and cypress…