Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into David’s city, until he had finished building his own house, Yahweh’s house, and the wall around Jerusalem.
Parallel Translations
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Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into David’s city, until he had finished building his own house, Yahweh’s house, and the wall around Jerusalem.
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And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem round about.
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And Solomon became allied to Pharaoh king of Egypt by marriage, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem round about.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to 1 Kings 3:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Kings 9:24 But Pharaoh’s daughter came up out of David’s city to her house which Solomon had built for her. Then he built Millo.
- 1 Kings 11:1 Now king Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites;
- 2 Samuel 5:7 Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion. This is David’s city.
- 1 Kings 6:1–7:15 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build Yahweh’s house. The house which king Solomon built for Yahweh had a length of sixty cubits, and its width twenty, and its height thirty cubits. The porch in front of the temple of the house had a length of twenty cubits, which was along the width of the house. Ten cubits was its width in front of the house. He made windows of fixed lattice work for the house. Against the wall of the house, he built floors all around, against the walls of the house all around, both of the temple and of the inner sanctuary; and he made side rooms all around. The lowest floor was five cubits wide, and the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for on the outside he made offsets in the wall of the house all around, that the beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house. The house, when it was under construction, was built of stone prepared at the quarry; and no hammer or ax or any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was under construction. The door for the middle side rooms was in the right side of the house. They went up by winding stairs into the middle floor, and out of the middle into the third. So he built the house, and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar. He built the floors all along the house, each five cubits high; and they rested on the house with timber of cedar. Yahweh’s word came to Solomon, saying, “Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, and execute my ordinances, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.” So Solomon built the house, and finished it. He built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar: from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the house with cypress boards. He built twenty cubits on the back part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the ceiling. He built them for it within, for an inner sanctuary, even for the most holy place. In front of the temple sanctuary was forty cubits. There was cedar on the house within, carved with buds and open flowers. All was cedar. No stone was visible. He prepared an inner sanctuary in the middle of the house within, to set the ark of Yahweh’s covenant there. Within the inner sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in its height; and he overlaid it with pure gold; and he covered the altar with cedar. So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold. He drew chains of gold across before the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold. He overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. He also overlaid the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary with gold. In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high. Five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub. From the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was ten cubits. The other cherub was ten cubits. Both the cherubim were of one measure and one form. One cherub was ten cubits high, and so was the other cherub. He set the cherubim within the inner house. The wings of the cherubim were stretched out, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the middle of the house. He overlaid the cherubim with gold. He carved all the walls of the house around with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, inside and outside. He overlaid the floor of the house with gold, inside and outside. For the entrance of the inner sanctuary, he made doors of olive wood. The lintel and door posts were a fifth part of the wall. So he made two doors of olive wood; and he carved on them carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold. He spread the gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees. He also did so for the entrance of the temple door posts of olive wood, out of a fourth part of the wall; and two doors of cypress wood. The two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold fitted on the engraved work. He built the inner court with three courses of cut stone and a course of cedar beams. The foundation of Yahweh’s house was laid in the fourth year, in the month Ziv. In the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished throughout all its parts, and according to all its specifications. So he spent seven years building it. Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house. For he built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. Its length was one hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars. It was covered with cedar above over the forty-five beams, that were on the pillars, fifteen in a row. There were beams in three rows, and window was facing window in three ranks. All the doors and posts were made square with beams: and window was facing window in three ranks. He made the porch of pillars. Its length was fifty cubits and its width thirty cubits; with a porch before them, and pillars and a threshold before them. He made the porch of the throne where he was to judge, even the porch of judgment; and it was covered with cedar from floor to floor. His house where he was to dwell, the other court within the porch, was of the like work. He made also a house for Pharaoh’s daughter (whom Solomon had taken as wife), like this porch. All these were of costly stones, even of cut stone, according to measure, sawed with saws, inside and outside, even from the foundation to the coping, and so on the outside to the great court. The foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits. Above were costly stones, even cut stone, according to measure, and cedar wood. The great court around had three courses of cut stone, and a course of cedar beams; like the inner court of Yahweh’s house and the porch of the house. King Solomon sent and brought Hiram out of Tyre. He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze; and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill, to work all works in bronze. He came to king Solomon, and performed all his work. For he fashioned the two pillars of bronze, eighteen cubits high apiece; and a line of twelve cubits encircled either of them.
- 1 Kings 9:15-19 This is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised, to build Yahweh’s house, his own house, Millo, Jerusalem’s wall, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, taken Gezer, burned it with fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it for a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. Solomon built in the land Gezer, Beth Horon the lower, Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness, all the storage cities that Solomon had, the cities for his chariots, the cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.
- 2 Chronicles 2:1-4 Now Solomon decided to build a house for Yahweh’s name, and a house for his kingdom. Solomon counted out seventy thousand men to bear burdens, eighty thousand men who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them. Solomon sent to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, “As you dealt with David my father, and sent him cedars to build him a house in which to dwell, so deal with me. Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, to dedicate it to him, to burn before him incense of sweet spices, for the continual show bread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the set feasts of Yahweh our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel.
- 2 Chronicles 8:11 Solomon brought up Pharaoh’s daughter out of David’s city to the house that he had built for her; for he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places where Yahweh’s ark has come are holy.”
- 1 Chronicles 11:7 David lived in the stronghold; therefore they called it David’s city.
- 2 Chronicles 18:1 Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance; and he allied himself with Ahab.
- Ezra 5:11 Thus they returned us answer, saying, “We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and are building the house that was built these many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (23 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Which was Bethlehem.
Which was Bethlehem.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1Ki 3:1 And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king…
1Ki 3:1 And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem round about.
Ver. 1. And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh.] That his kingdom might the better be established, {1Ki 2:46} which albeit God had promised, yet Solomon knew that his providence was to be served, and all good means used.
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And took Pharaoh’s daughter.] After he had first taken Naamah, the Ammonitess, Rehoboam’s mother, a year and more before David’s death: for Solomon reigned but forty years, {1Ki 11:42} and Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign. These ladies probably were proselyted, ere Solomon married them: else the marriage could not be lawful. It was in his best time that he did it; neither is he anywhere blamed for this with Pharaoh’s daughter at least, to whom both David is thought by some to allude in Psa 45:10, and Solomon in the Canticles; yet others think otherwise. Josephus saith he married Pharaoh’s daughter in the first year of his reign, while his father David was yet alive. Those who hold he did ill in it, say, that God afterwards punished him for it, in his posterity, by Shishak, king of Egypt. How fearfully the wrath of God fell upon the Protestants in France, for that unhappy marriage of the king of Navarre with the daughter of France, a Papist, a little afore the Parisian massacre, who knoweth not?
And the house of the Lord.] This Solomon would finish, before that he would set up the queen’s palace; such was his zeal, while young: but he suffered sad decays afterwards I read of a holy man who oft prayed that he might keep up his young zeal with his old discretion.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, as being…
Made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, as being a powerful neighbour. Took Pharaoh’s daughter; upon what conditions is not here expressed; but it is probable she was first instructed in and proselyted to the Jewish religion; as may be gathered,
1. Because he was not yet fallen from God, but loved the Lord, and walked in the statutes of David, 1Ki 3:3; and therefore would never have married a gross idolater, which was so contrary to God’s law, and so pernicious in its consequences.
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2. Because he is no where reproved for this fact, as he is for loving many other strange women, 1Ki 11:1.
3. By comparing Psa 45 and the Book of Canticles; whereby it plainly appears that this action had something extraordinary in it, and was designed by God to be a type of Christ, calling his church to himself, and to the true religion, not only out of the Jews, but even out of the Gentile world. The city of David; of which see 1Ki 2:10; into David’s palace there. The house of the Lord, i.e. the temple appropriated to the worship and honour of God. The wall of Jerusalem round about; which though in some sort built by David, 2Sa 5:9, yet Solomon is here said to build, either because he made it higher, and stronger, and more beautiful and glorious; in which or the like sense Nebuchadnezzar is said to have built Babylon, Dan 4:30; or because he built another wall besides the former, for greater security; for after this time Jerusalem was encompassed with more walls than one.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain We are here told concerning Solomon,
We are here told concerning Solomon,
I. Something that was unquestionably good, for which he is to be praised and in which he is to be imitated. 1. He loved the Lord, Kg1 3:3. Particular notice was taken of God's love to him, Sa2 12:24. He had his name from it: Jedidiah - beloved of the Lord. And here we find he returned that love, as John, the beloved disciple, was most full of love. Solomon was a wise man, a rich man; yet the brightest encomium of him is that which is the character of all the saints, even the poorest, He loved the Lord, so the Chaldee; all that love God love his worship, love to hear from him and speak to him, and so to have communion with him. 2. He walked in the statutes of David his father, that is, in the statutes that David gave him, Kg1 2:2, Kg1 2:3; Ch1 28:9, Ch1 28:10 (his dying father's charge was sacred, and as a law to him), or in God's statutes, which David his father walked in before him; he kept close to God's ordinances, carefully observed them and diligently attended them. Those that truly love God will make conscience of walking in his statutes. 3. He was very free and generous in what he did for the honour of God. When he offered sacrifice he offered like a king, in some proportion to his great wealth, a thousand burnt-offerings, Kg1 3:4. Where God sows plentifully he expects to reap accordingly; and those that truly love God and his worship will not grudge the expenses of their religion. We may be tempted to say, To what purpose is this waste? Might not these cattle have been given to the poor? But we must never think that wasted which is laid out in the service of God. It seems strange how so many beasts should be burnt upon one altar in one feast, though it continued seven days; but the fire on the altar is supposed to be more quick and devouring than common fire, for it represented that fierce and mighty wrath of God which fell upon the sacrifices, that the offerers might escape. Our God is a consuming fire. Bishop Patrick quotes it as a tradition of the Jews that the smoke of the sacrifices ascended directly in a straight pillar, and was not scattered, otherwise it would have choked those that attended, when so many sacrifices were offered as were here.
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II. Here is something concerning which it may be doubted whether it was good or no. 1. His marrying Pharaoh's daughter, Kg1 3:1. We will suppose she was proselyted, otherwise the marriage would not have been lawful; yet, if so, surely it was not advisable. He that loved the Lord should, for his sake, have fixed his love upon one of the Lord's people. Unequal matches of the sons of God with the daughters of men have often been of pernicious consequence; yet some think that he did this with the advice of his friends, that she was a sincere convert (for the gods of the Egyptians are not reckoned among the strange gods which his strange wives drew him in to the worship of, Kg1 11:5, Kg1 11:6), and that the book of Canticles and the 45th Psalm were penned on this occasion, by which these nuptials were made typical of the mystical espousals of the church to Christ, especially the Gentile church. 2. His worshipping in the high places, and thereby tempting the people to do so too, Kg1 3:2, Kg1 3:3. Abraham built his altars on mountains (Gen 12:8; Gen 22:2), and worshipped in a grove, Gen 21:33. Thence the custom was derived, and was proper, till the divine law confined them to one place, Deu 12:5, Deu 12:6. David kept to the ark, and did not care for the high places, but Solomon, though in other things he walked in the statutes of his father, in this came short of him. He showed thereby a great zeal for sacrificing, but to obey would have been better. This was an irregularity. Though there was as yet no house built, there was a tent pitched, to the name of the Lord, and the ark ought to have been the centre of their unity. It was so by divine institution; from it the high places separated; yet while they worshipped God only, and in other things according to the rule, he graciously overlooked their weakness, and accepted their services; and it is owned that Solomon loved the Lord, though he burnt incense in the high places, and let not men be more severe than God is.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt,....…
And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt,.... Pharaoh was a common name of the kings of Egypt, of whom no mention is made in Scripture from the times of Moses until this time; which may seem strange, when it is considered that that kingdom was a potent one, and near the land of Canaan; but it was governed by a race of kings in this period of time, of whom, as Diodorus Siculus (i) says, there is nothing worthy of relation. The name of this Pharaoh, according to Eupolemus (k), an Heathen writer, was Vaphres; for he says, that David contracted a friendship with this king, and he relates some letters which passed between him and Solomon, concerning sending him workmen for the building of the temple, which are still preserved; but Calvisius (l) thinks it was Sesostris; what this affinity was is next observed:
and took Pharaoh's daughter: that is, married her; who, according to Ben Gersom, was proselyted first to the Jewish religion; which is very probable, or otherwise it can hardly be thought Solomon would marry her; and as the forty fifth psalm, Psa 45:1, and the book of Canticles, supposed to be written on that occasion, seem to confirm; to which may be added, that it does not appear she ever enticed or drew him into idolatry; for, of all the idols his wives drew him into the worship of, no mention is made of any Egyptian deities. The Jews say (m) Rome was built the same day Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter, but without foundation: this was not Solomon's first wife; he was married to Naamah the Ammonitess before he was king, for he had Rehoboam by her a year before that for Solomon reigned only forty years, and Rehoboam, who succeeded him, was forty one years of age when he began to reign, Kg1 11:41;
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and brought her into the city of David; the fort of Zion:
until he had made an end of building his own house: which was thirteen years in building, and now seems to have been begun, Kg1 7:1;
and the house of the Lord; the temple, which according: to the Jewish chronology (n), was begun building before his marriage of Pharaoh's daughter, and was seven years in building; and therefore this marriage must be in the fourth year of his reign; for then he began to build the temple, Kg1 6:37; and so it must be, since Shimei lived three years in Jerusalem before he was put to death, after which this marriage was, Kg1 2:37;
and the wall of Jerusalem round about; all which he built by raising a levy on the people, Kg1 9:15; and when these buildings were finished, he built a house for his wife, but in the mean while she dwelt in the city of David.
(i) Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 42. (k) Apud. Euseb. Praeparet. Evangel. l. 9. c. 30, 31, 32. (l) Chronolog. p. 191, 192. (m) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 56. 2. & Sanhedrin, fol. 21. 2. (n) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 15. p. 41.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Solomon marries Pharaoh's daughter, ver. 1. His religion, ver.…
Solomon marries Pharaoh's daughter, ver. 1. His religion, ver. 2-4. His prayer for wisdom, and the answer, ver. 5-15. He decides the dispute between the two harlots, ver. 16-28.
Pharaoh - As being a powerful neighbour, whose daughter doubtless was first instructed in, and proselyted to the Jewish religion. It seems, this was designed by God to be a type of Christ, calling his church to himself, and to the true religion, not only out of the Jews, but even out of the Gentile world. City of David - Into David's palace there. The wall - Which though in some sort built by David, yet Solomon is here said to build, either because he made it higher, and stronger, in which sense Nebuchadnezzar is said to have built Babylon, Dan. iv, 30, or because he built another wall besides the former, for after this time Jerusalem was encompassed with more walls than one.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Solomon marries Pharaoh's daughter, 1, 2.
CHAPTER III
Solomon marries Pharaoh's daughter, 1, 2.
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He serves God, and offers a thousand burnt-offerings upon one
altar, at Gibeon, 3, 4.
God appears to him in a dream at Gibeon; and asks what he shall
give him, 5.
He asks wisdom; with which God is well pleased, and promises to
give him not only that, but also riches and honour; and, if
obedient, long life, 6-14.
He comes back to Jerusalem; and offers burnt-offerings and
peace-offerings, and makes a feast for his servants, 15.
His judgment between the two harlots, 16-27.
He rises in the esteem of the people, 28.
NOTES ON CHAP. III
Verse 1. Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh] This was no doubt a political measure in order to strengthen his kingdom, and on the same ground he continued his alliance with the king of Tyre; and these were among the most powerful of his neighbours. But should political considerations prevail over express laws of God? God had strictly forbidden his people to form alliances with heathenish women, lest they should lead their hearts away from him into idolatry. Let us hear the law: Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son; for they will turn away thy son from following me, c. Ex 34:16; De 7:3-4. Now Solomon acted in direct opposition to these laws; and perhaps in this alliance were sown those seeds of apostacy from God and goodness in which he so long lived, and in which he so awfully died.
Those who are, at all hazards, his determinate apologists, assume,
1. That Pharaoh's daughter must have been a proselyte to the Jewish religion, else Solomon would not have married her.
2. That God was not displeased with this match.
3. That the book of Canticles, which is supposed to have been his epithalamium, would not have found a place in the sacred canon had the spouse, whom it all along celebrates, been at that time an idolatress.
4. That it is certain we nowhere in Scripture find Solomon blamed for this match. See Dodd.
Now to all this I answer,
1. We have no evidence that the daughter of Pharaoh was a proselyte, no more than that her father was a true believer. It is no more likely that he sought a proselyte here than that he sought them among the Moabites, Hittites, c., from whom he took many wives.
2. If God's law be positively against such matches, he could not possibly be pleased with this breach of it in Solomon but his law is positively against them, therefore he was not pleased.
3. That the book of Canticles being found in the sacred canon is, according to some critics, neither a proof that the marriage pleased God, nor that the book was written by Divine inspiration; much less that it celebrates the love between Christ and his Church, or is at all profitable for doctrine, for reproof, or for edification in righteousness.
4. That Solomon is most expressly reproved in Scripture for this very match, is to me very evident from the following passages: DID NOT SOLOMON, king of Israel, SIN by these things? Yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin; Ne 13:26. Now it is certain that Pharaoh's daughter was an outlandish woman; and although it be not expressly said that Pharaoh's daughter is here intended, yet there is all reasonable evidence that she is included; and, indeed, the words seem to intimate that she is especially referred to. In 1Kg 3:3 it is said, Solomon LOVED THE LORD, walking in the statutes of David; and Nehemiah says, Did not Solomon, king of Israel, SIN BY THESE THINGS, who WAS BELOVED of HIS GOD; referring, most probably, to this early part of Solomon's history. But supposing that this is not sufficient evidence that this match is spoken against in Scripture, let us turn to 1Kg 11:1-2, of this book, where the cause of Solomon's apostasy is assigned; and there we read, But King Solomon loved many STRANGE WOMEN, TOGETHER WITH THE DAUGHTER OF PHARAOH, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites: of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in unto them; neither shall they come in unto you; for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: SOLOMON CLAVE UNTO THESE IN LOVE. Here the marriage with Pharaoh's daughter is classed most positively with the most exceptionable of his matrimonial and concubinal alliances: as it no doubt had its predisposing share in an apostacy the most unprecedented and disgraceful.
Should I even be singular, I cannot help thinking that the reign of Solomon began rather inauspiciously: even a brother's blood must be shed to cause him to sit securely on his throne, and a most reprehensible alliance, the forerunner of many others of a similar nature, was formed for the same purpose. But we must ever be careful to distinguish between what God has commanded to be done, and what was done through the vile passions and foolish jealousies of men. Solomon had many advantages, and no man ever made a worse use of them.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 1Ki 3:1. Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh — As…
1Ki 3:1. Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh — As being a powerful neighbour. And took Pharaoh’s daughter — To wife, which was not unlawful, if she was first instructed in, and made a proselyte to, the Jewish religion, as, in all probability, she was. For Solomon was not yet fallen from God, but loved the Lord, and walked in the statutes of David, (1Ki 3:3,) and therefore would not have married a gross idolater, which would have been directly contrary to God’s law, and most pernicious in its consequences. It is true he afterward loved many strange women, and the wives he married alienated his heart from Jehovah, and drew him in to worship strange gods: but the gods of the Egyptians are not reckoned among them, nor does it appear that Pharaoh’s daughter was one of the wives whose example or conversation had such a pernicious influence. On the contrary, it is likely she was a worshipper of the true God, and that Solomon’s taking her to wife was designed by God to be a type of Christ calling his church to himself and to the true religion, not only from among the Jews, but even out of the Gentile world. This, it is thought, plainly appears from the forty-fifth Psalm, and the book of Canticles. And brought her into the city of David — Into David’s palace there. Until he had made an end of building the house of the Lord — The temple designed for the worship and honour of God. And the wall of Jerusalem round about — Which, though in some sort built by David, yet Solomon is here said to build, either because he made it higher and stronger, in which sense Nebuchadnezzar is said to have built Babylon, (Dan 4:30,) or because he built another wall besides the former, for after this time Jerusalem was encompassed with more walls than one.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain What Pharaoh is meant is uncertain. It must have…
What Pharaoh is meant is uncertain. It must have been a predecessor of Shishak (or Sheshonk), who invaded Judaea more than 40 years later 1Ki 14:25; and probabilities are in favor, not of Psusennes II, the last king of Manetho’s 21st dynasty, but of Psinaces, the predecessor of Psusennes. This, the Tanite dynasty, had become very weak, especially toward its close, from where we may conceive how gladly it would ally itself with the powerful house of David. The Jews were not forbidden to marry foreign wives, if they became proselytes. As Solomon is not blamed for this marriage either here or in 1 Kings 11, and as the idol temples which he allowed to be built 1Ki 11:5-7 were in no case dedicated to Egyptian deities, it is to be presumed that his Egyptian wife adopted her husband’s religion.
The city of David - The city, situated on the eastern hill, or true Zion, where the temple was afterward built, over against the city of the Jehusites (1Ki 9:24; compare 2Ch 8:11).
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Solomon. By the death of his enemies, and by…
Solomon. By the death of his enemies, and by his affinity with the king of Egypt, and his friendship with Hiram, king Tyre, who were the most potent princes in the neighbourhood. Eupolemus (ap. Eusebius, præp.) has a letter of Solomon to Pharao Vaphres, in which the latter is said to have been the friend of David; (Salien) and Clement of Alexandria (Strom. i.) produces the testimony of Polyhistor, saying, that Vaphres sent 80,000 Egyptian workmen to assist Solomon to build the temple. --- Daughter. Who probably, embraced the true religion; so that her praises are supposed to be recorded in the 44th Psalm, and in the canticles; though it seems she afterwards relapsed, and became the chief instrument in the perversion of the king, chap. xi. 1. --- David. She dwelt in the apartments of Bethsabee, (Canticle of Canticles iii. 4., and viii. 2,) till a magnificent palace could be built for her reception, chap. vii. 8. To marry idolatrous women was strictly forbidden, Deuteronomy vii. 3., 1 Esdras x. 2., and 2 Esdras xiii. 26.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain The Beginning Of Solomon’s Reign
SECOND SECTION
The Beginning Of Solomon’s Reign
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1Ki_3:1 to 1Ki_5:14
A.—Solomon’s marriage, solemn sacrifice and prayer; first judicial decision
1Ki_3:1-28
1And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord [Jehovah], and the wall 2[walls] of Jerusalem round about. Only the people sacrificed in high places, because there was no house built unto the name of the Lord [Jehovah], until those days. 3And Solomon loved the Lord [Jehovah], walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places. 4And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt-offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar.
5In Gibeon the Lord [Jehovah] appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God1 said, Ask what I shall give thee. 6And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. 7And now, O Lord [Jehovah] my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child:2 I know not how to go out or come in. 8And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. 9Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? 10And the speech pleased the Lord,3 that Solomon had asked this thing. 11And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; 12but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; Behold I have done according to thy words:4 lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. 13And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honor: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.5 14And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days. 15And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord [Jehovah],6 and offered up burnt-offerings, and offered [made]7 peace-offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.
16Then came there two women that were harlots,8 unto the king, and stood before him. 17And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. 18And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together;9 there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. 19And this woman’s child [son]10 died in the night; because she overlaid it. 20And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child [son]10 in my bosom. 21And when I rose in the morning to give my child [son]10 suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son which I did bear. 22And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And11 this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king. 23Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. 24And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. 25And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. 26Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. 27Then the king answered and said, Give her12 the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof. 28And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment.
Exegetical and Critical
1Ki_3:1. And Solomon made affinity. After the rule of Solomon was established by the removal of his enemies from within (1Ki_2:46), he sought to make it outwardly strong, also, by a family alliance with the king of Egypt. After David’s great victories over the surrounding nations, and especially after the Philistines were rendered powerless, Egypt was the nearest and most powerful neighbor of the kingdom of Israel. As the latter had increased so much in extent and power, the king of Egypt may also have desired an alliance with the king of Israel (Ewald, Gesch. Isr., iii. s. 279); but such an alliance secured Solomon against other nations, and was even productive of an enlargement of his territory (1Ki_9:16). The Pharaoh named here “belonged certainly, following the synchronism, to the 21st Tanaitic dynasty, and may have been its last king, Psusennes or Psusennos, who reigned thirty-five years” (Winer, R.-W.-B., ii. s. 363).—This marriage with an Egyptian was not contrary to the law, since it only prohibited union with the daughters of the Canaanite tribes (Exo_34:11-16; Deu_7:1-3). The supposition of some rabbins, that the Egyptian had become a proselyte, is unnecessary; it is certain, besides, that Egyptian worship was not introduced by her into Jerusalem; and even later no trace of it is found (1Ki_11:4-7).—By the city of David we are to understand the ancient and fortified Jerusalem, the citadel of David—the upper city. The dwelling for the queen was but temporary; when the new palace was built she inhabited it (1Ki_9:24).—“He made,” says Josephus, “the walls wider and firmer than they had been.” David had only fortified the upper city (2Sa_5:7; 2Sa_5:9).
1Ki_3:2-4. Only the people sacrificed in high places, &c. 1Ki_3:2-3 do not pronounce a judgment in general upon the condition of public worship in the beginning of Solomon’s reign (Keil), but form an introduction to verses 4–15. The connection is this: when the rule of Solomon was established from within by the extirpation of his foes, and outwardly by an alliance with Pharaoh, Solomon held a great festival for all Israel (2Ch_1:2-3), not only to implore Jehovah’s further aid to his successful government, but also in gratitude for the past. But as Jehovah’s house was not yet built, and as the people, for want of a central sanctuary, still sacrificed on high places here and there, Solomon followed this custom, but chose the greatest, i. e., the most important height, that at Gibeon, where the ancient tabernacle and the altar of burnt-offering stood. 1Ki_3:2-3 serve then to explain how it was that Solomon, who loved Jehovah, and, like David, kept the law, celebrated his great inauguration-festival on a high place. [Bishop Horsley remarks on 1Ki_3:3 : This is not mentioned as a circumstance of blame either in the people or in the king. For had they not sacrificed and burnt incense on high places, they could not have sacrificed or burnt incense at all. And it appears by the sequel that the sacrifice at Gibeon was acceptable.—E.H.]—The high places are very often used in these books in the same sense; but not always. That בָּמָה does not mean “barred entrance,” and then “sacred forest” grove (Thenius, Böttcher), is easy to see from Mic_3:12, where it is synonymous with הַר, mountain; comp. Mic_1:3-4; Jer_26:18, with Amo_4:1, where גְּבָעוֹת stands for בָּמוֹת. The fundamental meaning is and must be: height, high place. Among all ancient nations, heights and mountains were naturally chosen as the fit places for offering-up to the Deity who dwells on high, far above earth. But as all prayer to and worship of the Godhead took the form of sacrifice, for which an altar was requisite, בָּמוֹת became the expression for high places upon which altars were erected. By degrees, however, the use of the term became more extended, so that places of sacrifices, even if not on high places, but in towns, and even in valleys, were also called “high places” (2Ki_17:9; Jer_7:31; Jer_32:35). In heathen worship, besides the altars for sacrifices, they had many dwellings for the Divinity, not regular temples, but cells, chapels, tents, in which the image of the Deity stood, and these also were named בָּמוֹת (Eze_16:16); hence the expressions בָּתֵּי הַבָּמוֹת (1Ki_13:32; 2Ki_17:29), and בָּנָה בָּמוֹת (1Ki_11:7; 1Ki_14:23). Because the worship at the high places so easily became entangled with idolatry, the Mosaic law commanded that sacrifices should only be offered at Jehovah’s dwelling-place—the tabernacle (Lev_17:3). For the unquiet times of the Judges, however, this prescript could not be obeyed; and as the patriarchs sacrificed on high places before the law was given (Gen_12:8), their example was followed; even Samuel did this (1Sa_9:12 sq.). Thus it happened that this more convenient practice took deep root, and it was not until much later that it was found possible to abolish it (2Ki_23:4-23); it was always, however, an abnormity, though unavoidable, so long as an house for Jehovah’s name, i.e., a central sanctuary, was wanting (for this last expression see below on chap. 6).—A thousand burnt-offerings. In the entire ancient world, the greatest number of animals possible were collected for sacrifice at great festivals (see below on 1Ki_8:62). The feast must have at least lasted more than one day. The passage we are considering has very unfairly been selected to prove that the king himself sacrificed, i.e., exercised priestly functions. Even the great number of animals offered contradicts this; so does 1Ki_6:2; where king Solomon is said to have built the house of the Lord and made windows, &c., no more means that he performed masons’ and carpenters’ work than that he himself offered the animals in sacrifice.
1Ki_3:5-10. The Lord appeared to Solomon, &c. The expression נִרְאָה does not mean that Solomon saw Jehovah in any bodily form, but that Jehovah revealed himself to him. If the reading here and in 1Ki_3:10 be not יְהוָֹת, but אֱלֹהִים is to be subjoined to it; the last more general term serves to designate the words which Solomon understood to be really divine communications. For it is evident that the word יְהוָֹה does not specifically belong to the appearing, as Thenius thinks, from examination of the parallel passage in 2Ch_1:7, where נִרְאָה אֱלֹהִים occurs,—Solomon grounds (1Ki_3:6) his request that Jehovah would grant him the gifts needful for a sovereign, upon the mercy shown his father David, to whom God had performed His promises, and raised up his son to sit upon the throne of Israel. He humbly calls himself a little child, not only as if he were just twelve years old, as some rabbins say, but because his youth was unfitted for the great and arduous task laid on him. Solomon died after a reign of forty years, and was named before (1Ki_11:4) זָקֵן, which makes him, as is also the general opinion, twenty years old at least.—Going out and coming in is, like Deu_31:2; 1Sa_18:13; 1Sa_18:16; 2Sa_3:25; Psa_121:8, descriptive of the entire manner of life. The conclusion, from 1Ki_3:8, clearly refers to Gen_32:13; Gen_13:16.—The שֹׁמֵעַ with לֵב (like Job_12:3; Job_34:10; Pro_15:32, the seat of thought and knowledge, 1Ki_3:9), as is to be seen from לִשְׁמֹעַ מִשְׁפָּט (1Ki_3:12), must be connected with the following לִשְׁפֹּט, and is not to be translated, as Luther has it, obedient heart; or as the Vulgate, cor docile. A right sentence depends upon the hearing, that is, the trial of the parties, and for this, understanding and judgment are most requisite for the judge (comp. 2Sa_14:17). 1Ki_3:7 refers to ruling, but 1Ki_3:9 to judging: the two conjoined form the kingly office (1Sa_8:6; 1Sa_8:20; 2Sa_15:4. Artemid. Oneir., ii. 1 Kings 14 : κρίνειν τὸ ἅρχειν ἔλεγον οἱ παλαιοί).
1Ki_3:11-15. And God said, &c. Instead of the life of thine enemies (1Ki_3:11), 1Ki_3:13 reads בָּבוֹד; it is, therefore, military glory, victory which is meant. לִשְׁמֹעַ מִשְׁפָּט does not mean: “to exercise divine right” (Keil), but: to dispense justice.—Behold it was a dream, not that he only knew on awaking that it was but a dream; and not that he remembered distinctly on awaking what he had dreamed (Seb. Schmidt), but: “that it was more than a dream (an ordinary one)—something really divine; of this he became so convinced on awaking, that immediately after his return to the capital, he went to the place where the sacred ark stood, and worshipped the Lord anew with many sacrifices and thanksgiving-offerings. The thank-offerings were for this extraordinary proof of divine favor” (Hess). The sequel showed that it was not a mere dream.
1Ki_3:16. Then came there two women, &c. This story is meant to show, by one instance, that Solomon had really received what he had prayed for, and what God had promised him (Theodoret: ἐπιδεῖξαι τὴν τοῦ βασίλεως ἐβουλήθη σοφίαν). Thenius counts the whole among those passages which the writer gave from oral tradition; but we must not overlook the fact that he did not take it, like other narratives, from the “book of the Acts of Solomon” (1Ki_11:41). [The writer of the Book of the Kings refers only at the end of Solomon’s reign to the book of the Acts of Solomon, and not at each step in his career.—E. H.]—The rabbins derive זֹנוֹת from זוּן, to feed, nourish; and explain it thus with the Chaldee, here as in Jos_2:1, by פונדקן, i. e., hostesses, evidently to avoid some offence. On this account, it can scarcely allude to harlots, because they, as Calmet remarks, seldom have many children, and if they have, do not usually care much about providing for them. As זָנָה is generally spoken of intercourse which is extra-matrimonial, or adulterous, so this passage refers to “those who have had children, being unmarried” (Gerlach).
1Ki_3:17-28. And the one woman said, &c. She alleges that the other can persist so obstinately in her denial, because there was no one else in the house. The latter probably took the child away to avoid the just and heavy reproach of having killed her own child, and the consequent disgrace she would incur. This is at least more probable than that she wished to continue nursing for her health’s sake (Thenius), or that she thought to inherit something in the future from the child (Hess); or, finally, that she intended to sell it afterwards for her support (Le Clerc).—In 1Ki_3:21, at first the time given is the morning, in a general way; but next, the expression is the same as clara luce (Vulgate), or, “as it was becoming brighter and brighter” (Thenius). רַחֲמִים (1Ki_3:26) is the New Testament σπλάγχνα (2Co_6:12; 2Co_7:15). Comp. Gen_43:30. Luther: “for her motherly heart yearned upon her son.” The words: neither mine nor thine, &c., do not only show want of maternal love, but also envy and dislike of her accuser.—They feared. Comp. Luk_4:36; Luk_8:25. The sentence made a deep impression; אֱלֹהִים is here the same as in Psa_68:16; Psa_65:10.
Historical and Ethical
1. Solomon’s marriage with a daughter of Pharaoh was, strictly speaking, a political alliance; but it has, nevertheless, also significance in the history of redemption. The great and mighty king of the land, which for Israel had been “the house of bondage” in which it had eaten “the bread of affliction” (Exo_20:2; Deu_16:3), gives now to the king of this once despised and oppressed people, his daughter in marriage, and must, in the providence of God, contribute to the strengthening of the Israelitish throne, and to the increase of the power and glory of the Israelitish kingdom. Thus was this marriage a witness for the divine beneficence in the deliverance from Egypt, to the goal of which Israel had come in the reign of Solomon—the period of the richest bloom of the kingdom. It was likewise a divine seal upon the independence of the people, which had begun with the exodus from Egypt, and now had reached its completeness. [We beg leave to dissent from the position here taken by our author. (Comp. Exeget. on 1Ki_3:1). Solomon’s alliance with the Egyptian princess for political purposes was after the fashion of worldly princes, and in direct hostility with the theocratic spirit. Egypt was quite as much an “abomination” as “Canaan,” and we are surprised that our author should apologize for Solomon in the matter.—E. H.]
2. That sacrificing and burning of incense in high places was forbidden in the Mosaic law rests, not upon the grounds of outward regulation, but was a natural, necessary consequence of the Mosaic fundamental principles. Jehovah is one, and beside him there is no God. He has chosen Israel, out of all the peoples of the earth, to be His people; He has made a covenant with them, and as a sign and pledge of this covenant will He dwell in the midst of His people. As He himself is one only, so also is and can His dwelling-place be only one. This is the place where He “meets” His people, i.e., exercises the covenant relation (Exo_29:42 sq.). The concentration of the Jehovah-cultus is connected as inseparably with monotheism, as is the worship in high places, i.e., in any favorite spot, with polytheism. From the Mosaic standpoint, the worship in high places appeared as an ignoring, yea, as a denial, of the dwelling of Jehovah in the midst of His people, and, consequently, of the election and of the covenant of Jehovah, whereof it was the witness and pledge (cf. Joshua 22). If the law in question could not be carried out in times of unrest and of convulsion, nevertheless, as soon as the period of the undisturbed possession of Canaan was entered upon, it would remain the business of every truly theocratic king, as the servant of Jehovah, to put an end, as far as possible, to worship in high places. Hence, also, was David, after he had won for Israel victory over all enemies, most earnest to erect an enduring central sanctuary, for which the old tabernacle, especially since the removal of the ark of the covenant from it, was no longer serviceable. Since this, however, was denied him, he laid the charge of it upon Solomon, his son and successor, and made the building of a “house of Jehovah” the first and most pressing duty of his reign (1Ch_28:2 sq.). After the building of the temple, sacrificing in high places should have disappeared totally; but it forever kept emerging, even under kings who in other respects adhered firmly to the worship of Jehovah. Nevertheless, it is constantly spoken of as a defect or an abnormity (1Ki_15:14; 1Ki_22:44; 2Ki_12:4; 2Ki_14:4; 2Ki_15:4; 2Ki_15:35; 2Ki_21:3).
3. The divine revelation which Solomon received, came, as in so many other instances both in the Old and also even in the New Testament, through the medium of a dream. In itself the dream is, according to the Scripture, something wholly idle and vain (Ecc_5:6; Job_20:8; Isa_29:7-8); in so far, however, as man is then removed entirely from the sensible and outward world, and is in the condition of a pure psychical intuition, he can, more than in the natural, wakeful condition, become a more receptive soil for divine influences and communications. Hence, in Sirach 31 : (34) 2 sq., while the nothingness of dreams is taught, yet in 1Ki_3:6 this statement follows: ἐὰν μὴ παρὰ ὑψίστου [sc. τὰ ἐνύπνια] ἀποσταλῇ ἐν ἐπισκοπῇ, μὴ δῷς εἰς αὐτὰ τὴν καρδίαν σοῦ. Dreams of the latter description are placed, consequently, on a level with prophecy and visions, which are the operation of the רוּחַ of Jehovah (Joe_3:1). But these invariably presuppose a certain spiritual temper upon the part of the dreamer. “The prophetic dream of the night, as a rule, is connected with the moral reflections and presentiments of the day” (Lange, on Gen_20:3). A soul directed towards God and divine things in its wakeful state, is peculiarly fitted, in the stillness of the night, in its involuntary expressions, i.e., in its dreams, to receive purely spiritual, inwardly divine influences. Such was the case with Solomon. His dream shows what then agitated and filled his soul, and that the festivity he then held was not an empty political ceremony, but resulted from an actual religious need. An Adonijah, at his feast at the spring Rogel (1Ki_1:9-25), would never have been able to dream so. If ever dream contained nothing chimerical (visionary), it was Solomon’s dream at Gibeon. [Bp. Hall, beautifully: “Solomon worships God by day: God appears to Solomon by night. Well may we look to enjoy God when we have served him.—E. H.]
4. The prayer of Solomon unites in itself all that belongs to a true prayer. It affords evidence especially of the genuine theocratic spirit in which this son of David had been educated, and was now entering upon his royal office. He recognises the greatness of the task to be the king of the people which Jehovah has chosen from among all peoples of the earth, and his first and greatest anxiety is to comply with this demand. He feels that he, especially in his youth and inexperience, cannot do this of his own strength, and he prays for enlightenment from on high, not so much for himself as for the sake of the people. It is not his own merit which gives him courage for this prayer, but he rests it upon the divine grace and mercy which his father had so richly experienced. His words are not many, but the few he utters are the expression of a living, child-like faith, as simple and substantial as it is inward and true.
5. The history of the two women “is genuinely Oriental, in which we must dismiss from our minds wholly, our forms of justice and processes of proof: since an accurate, striking flash, which solves the difficulty, in living, immediate insight with one stroke, as with the sharpness of a sword, is far loftier than a regular consideration and balancing of the grounds advanced, for and against. Therefore, this wisdom, as belonging to the period, to the land, and to the whole people, must be looked upon as a high gift of God, as, indeed, it actually was “(Gerlach). Examples of similar judicial decision are not wanting in antiquity. Grotius observes: Non dissimile illud Ariopharnis regis Thracum, qui de tribus filios se Cimmeriorum regis dicentibus eum pro filio habuit, qui jussus cadaver patris jaculis noluerat, incessere. Ouœ historia est apud Siculum Diodorum. Another instance “is adduced by Robertson from an Indian book. A woman in bathing left her child on the bank of a pond. A female demon who was passing by carried it off. Both appear before the goddess with their claims. She commands that each shall seize an arm and a leg and pull at it. The mother of the child is recognised by her refusal” (Philippson). Solomon demonstrated his capacity as judge in the case in hand, in so far especially that, in the absence of witnesses and of outward means of proof, he knew how to bring the secret truth to light in such way as to convince the contestants themselves. The words of Pro_16:10 are here confirmed. While Niemeyer, in the judgment of Solomon, recognises, if not “God’s wisdom,” at least “rapid decision, presence of mind, and an accurate insight into human nature,” other theologians of the illumination period, have seen nothing more than “the proceeding of an Oriental despot, a fancy which would not do much to subserve the interests of a European prince “(G. L. Bauer in Keil on the place). He who judges so unwisely, only shows in the act, that in like or similar circumstances he would scarcely have reached so wise a judgment as Solomon’s. Little as Solomon’s procedure may correspond to our present notions of the administration of justice, formally considered, nevertheless that which for all time remains the chief point was not wanting, 1Ki_3:12—the divine gift of bringing to light the secret, inward fact, and of awakening the sleeping conscience, so that falsehood and misrepresentation vanish, and the truth comes forth. Without this gift all forms and rules of investigation avail nothing; yea, as experience has so often shown, they serve to pervert the conscience and to conceal the truth.
Homiletical and Practical
1Ki_3:1. Cramer: Although marriage with persons of unlike faith be allowed, and is in itself no sin (1Co_7:14), it is, nevertheless, better that one avoid it, because the unbelieving perverts the believer more frequently than the believer converts the unbeliever.—Starke: God has the hearts of all men in His hands, and can bring it to pass that they who have been inimical to us, and have despised us, shall hold us in great honor (Pro_16:7; Gen_31:24).—As soon as Solomon saw his existence secured, he proceeded to matrimony.
1Ki_3:2-4. Solomon’s Sacrificial Festivity: (a) When he celebrated it (at the beginning of his reign to return thanks for the past assistance of God, and to implore its continuance); (b) where he kept it (upon the high place at Gibeon, because no temple was built as yet: the place of prayer in the Old and in the New Testament).—Though God dwell not in temples built by human hands, yet it is needful for each congregation to have an house, where with one mouth it praises the name of the Lord. Where this need is not felt, there is a defect in faith and love for the Lord
1Ki_3:3. He loved the Lord. This is the best and greatest thing that can be said of a man. So, every one who loves the world, has not in him the love of the Father: this is only where God is loved above all things, His word observed, and His commandments fulfilled with joy and delight (1Jn_2:5; 1Jn_2:15; 1Jn_5:3). Happy is he who, to the question of the Lord: Lovest thou me can return the answer of Peter (Joh_21:17). Because Solomon loved the Lord he honored also his father, and walked in his ways. The want of filial piety in our day comes from want of love to the Lord.
1Ki_3:4. If we should begin our daily work with the sacrifice of our prayer, how much more our life’s calling, and every weighty undertaking upon which our own and the well-being of other men depends (God grant it, He who can help, &c.).
1Ki_3:5-15. The Prayer of Solomon: (a) Its contents (1Ki_3:6-9); (b) its answer (1Ki_3:10-14).
1Ki_3:5. Starke: Those who love God (1Ki_3:3), God loves in return, and reveals himself to them (Joh_14:21).—Hall: The night cannot be otherwise than holy to him whom the previous day has been holy.—In our dreams we often speak and act in such way that we must be frightened, upon awaking, at how much that is impure and corrupt is still within us. Upon this account we should pray in the evening: Ah! may my soul in sleeping also do that which is good, or, if I dream, be it from thee, so that my senses even in sleep may acquire love for thee, &c. (Psa_63:7).—[One is here reminded of Bp. Ken’s beautiful evening hymn: “Glory to thee, my God, this night.”—E. H.]—A dream like Solomon’s does not happen when the day just past has been spent in revel and riot, in gross or in refined sin.—Lisco: What happened here in dream, Christ commands in “Our Father.”—Starke: God well knew what Solomon needed; but he bid him ask, (1) to show how negligent men are in praying for what is spiritual; (2) that he would only bestow His gifts in the ordinance of prayer; (3) that great personages might have an example of what they should ask of God, above all others. Ask what I shall give thee: (a) a test-word, for as man wishes and prays, so does he show of whose spirit he is the child (Psa_139:23); (b) a word of warning, for we not only may, but we should also ask for all which we have most at heart (Psa_37:4).
1Ki_3:6-10. When is our prayer pleasing to God? (a) When we pray in the feeling of our weakness and helplessness, and in confidence in the mercy of God and His promises; (b) when before all things we ask for spiritual blessings and gifts (Mat_6:33; Eph_1:3).—The true wisdom for which we have to ask God (Jam_1:5), does not consist in manifold and great knowledge, but in the understanding of what is good and bad (Job_28:28; Jam_3:17; Eph_5:17), and is a fruit of the renewal of our mind (Rom_12:2).—A ruler who does not ask God for an obedient heart for himself, can and ought not to hope for or expect that his people will yield him a submissive heart.—Youth, which as a rule places freedom in lawlessness, needs before all things to ask God daily for an obedient heart.
1Ki_3:8-9. Pfaff: Subjects are not simply creatures of the authorities, nor are they designed for the exercise of their pleasures and the splendor of their position (Hoheit); but they are God’s people, and as such, are to be governed and judged.
1Ki_3:11-14. The granting of Solomon’s prayer teaches and assures us: (a) That God grants more than they request, over and above praying and understanding, to those who call upon him with earnestness, and for spiritual gifts (Eph_3:20; Mat_6:33); (b) that God gives to him upon whom He confers an office, that is, to one who does not rush into an office or calling, but is called thereto by God, the necessary understanding, if he humbly seek it.—Where there is wisdom, there comes, indeed, also gold and silver (Pro_3:16 sq.), but not the reverse.
1Ki_3:15. Hall: A heart conscious in itself of the living evidences of a special grace of God, cannot forbear feeling that it should be authenticated through outward signs, and especially through munificence.
1Ki_3:16-28 : Lisco: Solomon’s Wise Judgment: (a) The question in dispute (1Ki_3:16-22); (b) the decision (1Ki_3:23-28).
1Ki_3:17-22. Such sin brings together, but it unites only for a short time; for it produces discord, wrangling, and controversy. Abiding peace dwells only in the house where the God of peace binds hearts together.—He who takes from the heart of a mother her child, or estranges or deprives her, will not escape the righteous tribunal of the judge to whom the mother (das mutterherz) calls and appeals.—Litigation is generally associated, with envy, falsehood, and unrighteousness, hence the Lord says, be ready, &c. (Mat_5:25; Luk_12:58).
1Ki_3:26. If an immoral woman be merciful for the son of her body, and cannot forget her little child (kindleins), how much more should every Christian mother be ready to offer, when necessary, the heaviest sacrifice to deliver her child from moral ruin.—Seiler: If in the hearts of sinners the love of father and mother be so strong, how strong must the fatherly love of God be (Isa_49:15)?—Envy hardens all human feeling, and makes one hard and heartless.
1Ki_3:27. When a child, apparently given over to death, is restored to its parents by divine providence, so much the more must their chief solicitude be to educate and bring it up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.—Not power and force, not great pomp, and pride, and tyranny, but wisdom and righteousness, give to the government authority, and call forth genuine fear and the voluntary obedience of the people.—If it were given to a Solomon to bring to disgrace lying and misrepresentation, by judicial wisdom and knowledge of the human heart, and to deliver a righteous judgment, how much less shall liars and hypocrites stand up under the tribunal of Him who could say, A greater than Solomon is here! who, without needing witnesses and judicial examination, will bring to light what is hidden in darkness (1Co_4:5), and before whose judgment-seat we must all appear (2Co_5:10).
Footnotes:
[1]1Ki_3:5.—[The Sept. and Chald. here repeat Lord; the Syr. follows the Hbr. In reading God; while the Vulg. and Arab. avoid repeating the divine name.
[2]1Ki_3:7.—[Some MSS., followed by the Sept. and Vulg., prefix the conjunction ו.
[3]1Ki_3:10.—[Many MSS. read יהוה instead of אדני, and are followed by the Chaldee.
[4]1Ki_3:12.—[Many MSS. and editions, followed by the Vulg., have כדבריך in the plural.
[5]1Ki_3:13.—[The Sept. put this clause in the past tense: ὡς οὐ γέγονεν ἀνὴρ ὅμοιός σοι ἐν βασιλεῦσι, the Vat. ending the clause here; but the Alex., by retaining the last words of the Hbr., πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας σου, makes nonsense.
[6]1Ki_3:15.—[The Sept. add ἐν Σιών.
[7]1Ki_3:15.—[The Hbr. וַיַּעַשׂ is the same before “peace-offerings” and before “feast,” and is quite different from the וַיַּעַל before “burnt-offerings.” The distinction is accurately preserved by the Sept. and the Vulg.
[8]1Ki_3:16.—[This translation is sustained here, as in Jos_2:1, by all the VV. except the Chald., and is undoubtedly the invariable and distinctly-marked sense at the frequent Hbr. word. The Chald. renders inn-keepers. The author’s objection to the sense of harlots seems insufficient.
[9]1Ki_3:18.—[Many MSS., followed by the Sept. and Vulg., prefix the conjunction ו.
[10]1Ki_3:19.—[It is better to retain throughout the passage the same rendering of the same Hbr. word.
[11]1Ki_3:22.—[One MS., followed by the Vat., Sept., and Arab., omits the second clause of 1Ki_3:22.
[12]1Ki_3:27.—[The Sept. remove any possible obscurity by paraphrasing, “Give the child to her that said, Give her,” &c.—F. G.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain SOLOMON’S AFFINITY WITH EGYPT, 1Ki_3:1.
SOLOMON’S AFFINITY WITH EGYPT, 1Ki_3:1.
1. Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh — This seems to have been his first act of foreign policy, and was, perhaps, designed to counteract the influence of Hadad the Edomite, who had fled to Egypt during David’s reign, and was now securely housed in the royal family. See 1Ki_11:14-22. Every thing in the history of Hadad naturally conspired to make him a settled enemy of the kingdom of Israel; and, perhaps, at a later period, he had a hand with Jeroboam in planning the revolt of the ten tribes of Israel. Solomon, doubtless, expected to strengthen his kingdom by this affinity with Egypt, and to prevent invasion from that quarter. It was the first intercourse between these nations since the time of the Exodus, and the first of those foreign alliances which brought the Israelites into disastrous intimacy with the heathen powers. Its immediate effect was probably favourable to Solomon by increasing his fame and comparative importance among the nations, and adding to his dominions, (1Ki_9:16,) but it resulted in a commerce forbidden by the law, (1Ki_10:26-29,) and thus involved the Israelitish kingdom in numerous evils. The Pharaoh here named is by Winer and Ewald identified with Psousennes, the last king (in Manetho’s table) of the twenty-first dynasty; called also the Tanite dynasty from the city Tanis, the scriptural Zoan, which was then the place of the royal residence.
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Took Pharaoh’s daughter — According to the letter of the law only marriage with the Canaanitish tribes was forbidden, (Exo_34:16,) and intermarriage with nations outside of Canaan was not only not prohibited but tolerated in the examples, never rebuked, of Joseph’s marriage with the daughter of an Egyptian priest, (Gen_41:45;) of Moses’s marriage with a daughter of Midian, (Exo_2:21,) and that of Boaz and Ruth. But though the law did not forbid these marriages, they were not in harmony with its spirit; and it was by foreign marriages that Solomon’s heart was seduced from the worship of Jehovah. See note on 1Ki_11:1.
The city of David — This was built upon Mount Zion, the Jebusite stronghold, and has been identified for centuries with the southwestern hill of the modern city — “the upper city” of Josephus. See notes on 2Sa_5:6-7, and compare Josephus, Wars, 1Ki_5:4; 1Ki_5:1. But recently this locality of Zion has been called in question. Thrupp, Fergusson, and Rawlinson identify Zion with Moriah, and so locate “the city of David” on the eastern, or temple, mountain. The chief reasons for this identification are:
1.) That in many passages Zion is distinguished from Jerusalem. For example, 2Ki_19:31; Psa_51:18; Joe_3:16; Zec_1:17. These passages, however, are all poetic parallelisms, and Zion may be distinguished from the rest of the city as being its most conspicuous feature.
2.) The passages which speak of Zion as the “holy hill,” or chosen seat of Jehovah, are thought applicable only to the temple mountain: (Psa_2:6; Psa_132:13; Isa_60:14; Jer_31:6; Joe_3:17; Joe_3:21; Zec_8:3 :) but on whichever mountain “the city of David’’ was built, it was consecrated by the ark of God before the temple was erected, and so would ever be celebrated as “chosen” and “holy.” Afterwards the ark was transferred from the city of David to the temple. Compare 2Sa_6:16; 1Ki_8:1.
3.) Some passages in 1 Maccabees (1Ma_4:37; 1Ma_4:60; 1Ma_7:33) seem to identify Zion with the temple mount, as, “they went up to Mount Zion and saw the sanctuary desolate, and the altar profaned.” But all this may have been seen from the modern Zion, as one looked across the valley; and Zion may also be used in the wider sense of Jerusalem.
4.) Finally, Psa_48:2 is thought to be decisive against the modern Zion, which is the most southern extremity of the city. But it may well be asked, in reply, what more beauty of situation or elevation has Moriah than the modern Zion “on the sides of the north?” The passage is very properly rendered by Gesenius thus: “Beautiful in its elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion; (the joy) of the remotest north is the city of the Great King.” But if we retain the rendering “sides of the north,” we may either understand the reference to its appearance as being immediately north of the border of Judah, (Jos_15:8,) or, as Alexander suggests, “As it rose upon the view of the army returning from the south.” From whatever quarter viewed, the modern Zion is more noticeable for its elevation than Moriah. Until more conclusive evidences are adduced to overthrow the ancient tradition, we therefore prefer to locate the city of David on the southwestern hill, “the upper city,” which, elevated so conspicuously above the neighbouring heights, would be most naturally fixed upon by the Jebusites as their stronghold, or castle. Subsequently Solomon removed his Egyptian wife “out of the city of David” to his own palace, (1Ki_9:24; 2Ch_8:11,) which seems to have been built upon the southern slope of Moriah. See note at the beginning of chap. 7.
Until… his own house — He had no appropriate palace of his own as yet, and he esteemed the palace of David, where the ark had been brought, too holy for the residence of a foreign princess. See 2Ch_8:11. Whence it appears that Pharaoh’s daughter must have dwelt for many years, not in the royal house, as Thenius thinks, but in some private residence upon Mount Zion, somewhat apart from the more sacred places.
House of the Lord — The temple.
The wall of Jerusalem — This, though strongly fortified by David, (2Sa_5:9,) was greatly enlarged and strengthened by Solomon. See 1Ki_9:15; 1Ki_11:27.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. Pharaoh king of Egypt] This is the first…
1. Pharaoh king of Egypt] This is the first notice since the Exodus of any connexion of Israel with Egypt. It is impossible to decide with certainty which Pharaoh it was whose daughter Solomon took to wife. The 22nd Egyptian dynasty commenced with Sheshonk I. (the Shishak of the Bible), about b.c. 990. This monarch did much to advance the Egyptian power, which under the previous Tanite sovereigns of the 21st dynasty had sunk very low. We shall find Shishak (1Ki_11:40) receiving Jeroboam when he fled from Solomon. The wife of Solomon must therefore have been a daughter of a king in the previous dynasty, the kings of which would be likely to welcome an alliance with so powerful a monarch. The last of these was Psusennes 2, but as he is said by Manetho to have reigned only fourteen years, it seems more probable that the princess whom Solomon married was the daughter of Psinaces who preceded Psusennes. Pharaoh is used in the Bible as the royal title of the Egyptian kings, and not as the proper name of any single person.
This wife of Solomon probably embraced Judaism, as we find no reproach against him for this marriage, nor is any Egyptian deity mentioned among those for whom Solomon at a later time built high places (1Ki_11:1-8) when strange women turned away his heart after other gods.
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into the city of David] This was the eastern portion of the hill of Zion on which the temple was afterwards built. Solomon considered this too sacred a place for his own dwelling, because thither the ark of the Lord had come (2Ch_8:11).
his own house] This was outside the city of David, and from 1Ki_7:8 we can see that the house for Pharaoh’s daughter was close to the king’s own house, and built after the same fashion and of like grandeur. The time which Solomon took about building his own house was thirteen years (cf. 1Ki_7:1), during this period the Egyptian wife continued to dwell in the city of David. The marriage song of the 5th Psalm is referred by the oldest interpreters to this marriage of Solomon with Pharaoh’s daughter.
Ch. 1Ki_3:1-4. Solomon marries Pharaoh’s daughter. Sacrifices still offered on the high places. Solomon’s sacrifice at Gibeon (2Ch_1:3)
At the beginning of this Chapter the LXX. inserts a long passage which has nothing to correspond to it in the Hebrew. It speaks of Solomon’s wisdom, the number of the people, the presents of those who were tributary to Solomon, the provisions for his table, the names of his chief ministers, and contains a notice of his horses and chariots. Some portions of this passage are drawn from Chapter 4. and some from 2Ch_9:25-26. The verses of Chapter 4. which are introduced here are omitted by the LXX. in that place. See notes there.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) Pharaoh king of Egypt.—At this time it would…
(1) Pharaoh king of Egypt.—At this time it would appear, from the Egyptian records and traditions, that Egypt was weak and divided, and that what is called the twenty-first dynasty of the Tanite kings was ruling in Lower Egypt. This, and a corresponding abeyance (judging from the monuments) of Assyrian power, gave scope for the rise to sudden greatness and wealth of the Israelite kingdom under Solomon, and probably induced the Egyptian king of those days to consent to an alliance which, at other times, the greatness of the Pharaohs might have spumed. No fault is found with the alliance by the sacred historian, for the Egyptians were never looked upon with the same aversion as the strange women of the Canaanite races. As, moreover, it is not in any way connected with Solomon’s subsequent declension into idolatry, noticed in 1Ki_11:1-8, it is not unlikely that the new queen literally acted on the call of the Psalmist (Psa_45:10) to “forget her own people and her father’s house.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain THE BEGINNING OF SOLOMON"S REIGN. In the preceding chapter…
THE BEGINNING OF SOLOMON"S REIGN. In the preceding chapter we have seen the establishment of Solomon"s rule (ver. 46) by the removal of internal foes, i.e. , of disaffected and rebellious subjects. In this we see him strengthening his position by an external alliance, by a marriage with an Egyptian princess. This event, however, is related hero, not because the historian had this connexion of ideas in his mind, but probably because the marriage came next in order of time.
And Solomon made affinity (Not "alliance" (as some have supposed) but relationship. Lit., made himself son-in-law) with Pharaoh king of Egypt (which of the Pharaohs this was, it is impossible to say with certainty. As, however, Shishak (1Ki_11:40 1Ki_14:25) is undoubtedly the Sheshonk who succeeded to the throne of Egypt in the 26th year of Solomon (Poole), and who was the first king of the 22nd dynasty of Manetho, we may safely identify this Pharaoh with "a late king of the 21st (or Janite) dynasty." It has been assumed (Bunsen, Ewald, Brugsch, al. ) that it was Psusennes II, the last king of that house, on the supposition that he reigned 35 years, (as stated by Eusebius), but according to Africanus, his reign was limited to 14 years. It is wiser to say, therefore, with Mr. Poole (Dict. Bib., "Pharaoh") that this Pharaoh "cannot yet be identified on Manetho"s list." It is also impossible to decide whether the alliance was first sought by Solomon with a view to win over a powerful and dangerous neighbour (Thenius), to whose inroads his northern border was exposed, and especially to counteract the influence (1Ki_11:21) of Hadad (Plumptre), or whether the marriage was proposed by Pharaoh because the 21st dynasty "had then become very weak" (Rawlinson) and its head desired "friendly relations with the kingdom of Israel, which had grown into a power to be dreaded" (Keil). But we may reasonably suppose that the alliance "must have been to most Israelites a very startling one" (Plumptre.) Egypt (Rahab, Psa_89:10 Isa_51:9) was to every Israelite a name both of triumph and dread. The Pharaohs were their (ancestral foes), and took Pharaoh"s daughter (A marriage such as this was not without precedent, (Gen_41:45 Exo_2:21 Num_12:1 Mat_1:5 Rth_4:13) nor was it condemned by the Law, which only forbade intermarriage with the nations of Canaan, (Exo_34:16 Deu_7:3) and sanctioned the union of an Israelite with a captive taken in war. (Deu_21:13; cf. Deu_20:14) "At the same time, it was only when the foreign wives renounced idolatry, that such marriages were in accordance with the spirit of the law" (Keil). As Solomon at this period of his life faithfully observed the law, as he is never blamed for this marriage, and as there is no trace whatever of the introduction of Egyptian rites into Israel, it is a fair presumption that the Egyptian princess conformed to the religion of her adopted country), and brought her into the city of David (2Ch_8:11 speaks of her dwelling in "the house of David," i.e., it would seem, the palace which David had occupied) until he had made an end (this hardly shows that he had begun to build, as Keil infers. He did not begin building the Temple until the fourth, (1Ki_6:1) nor his own house until the eleventh year (1Ki_7:1) after his accession, and the marriage, though not at the very commencement of his reign, can hardly have been delayed to the eleventh year, and may have taken place before the death of Shimei) of building his own house (cf. 1Ki_7:7) and the house of the Lord (cf. 1Ki_6:7:51) and the wall of Jerusalem round about. (Probably, he both strengthened and extended the city walls, as Josephus (Ant. 8:6. 1) affirms. Acc. to the LXX addition to ch. 12.,) it was on this task that Jeroboam was employed. (1Ki_11:27; cf. 1Ki_9:15) David had fortified a part of the city. (2Sa_5:9)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain "An oracle is upon the lips of a king."-…
THE BOY-KINGS WISDOM
1Ki_3:1-28
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"An oracle is upon the lips of a king."- Pro_16:10 (Hebrews).
"A king that sitteth on the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eye."- Pro_20:8
"Chei fu Re, che chiese senno Accioche Re sufficiente fosse." DANTE, Parad., 13:95.
"Deos ipsos precor ut mihi ad finem usque vitae quietam et intelligentem humani divinique juris mentem duint."-TAC., Ann., 4:38.
IT would have thrown an interesting light on the character and development of Solomon, if we had been able to conjecture with any certainty what was his age when the death of David made him the unquestioned king. The pagan historian Eupolemos, quoted by Eusebius, says that he was twelve; Josephus asserts that he was fifteen. If Rehoboam was indeed as old as forty-one when he came to the throne, {1Ki_14:21} Solomon can hardly have been less than twenty at his accession, for in that case he must have been married before Davids death. {1Ki_11:42} But the reading "forty-one" in 1Ki_14:21 is altered by some into "twenty-one," and we are left in complete uncertainty. Solomon is called "a child," {1Ki_3:7} "young and tender"; {1Ch_29:1} but his acts show the full vigor and decision of a man.
The composite character of the Books of Kings leads to some disturbance of the order of events, and 1Ki_3:1-4 is perhaps inserted to explain Solomons sacrifice at the high place of Gibeon, where stood the brazen altar of the old Tabernacle. But no apology is needed for that act. The use of high places, even when they were consecrated to the worship of Jehovah, was regarded in later days as involving principles of danger, and became a grave offence in the eyes of all who took the Deuteronomic standpoint. But high places to Jehovah, as distinct from those dedicated to idols, were not condemned by the earlier prophets, and the resort to them was never regarded as blameworthy before the establishment of the central sanctuary.
After the frightful massacre of the descendants of Aaron at Nob, the old "Tabernacle of the congregation" and the great brazen altar of burnt offerings had been removed to Gibeon from a city defiled by the blood of priests, {1Sa_22:17-19} Gibeon stood on a commanding elevation within easy distance of Jerusalem, and was henceforth regarded as "the great high place," until the Temple on Mount Zion was finished. Thither Solomon went in that imposing civil, religious, and military procession of which the tradition may be preserved in the name of Wady Suleiman still given to the adjoining valley. There, with Oriental magnificence, like Xerxes at Troy, he offered what the Greeks called a chiliombc, that is a tenfold hecatomb of burnt offerings. This "thousandfold holocaust," as the Septuagint terms it, must have been a stately and long-continued function, and in approval of his sacrifice Jehovah granted a vision to the youthful king. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil, when all the beasts of the forest are His, and the cattle upon a thousand hills?" Thinkest thou," He asked, in the words of the Psalmist, "that I will eat bulls flesh or drink the blood of goats?" No; but God always accepts a willing sacrifice in accordance with the purpose and sincerity of the giver. In reward for the pure intention of the king He appeared to Solomon in a dream, and said, "Ask what I shall give thee."
The Jews recognized three modes of Divine communication-by dreams, by Urim, and by prophets. The highest and most immediate illumination was the prophetic. The revelation by means of the primitive Urim and Thummim, the oracle and jeweled breast-plate of the high priest, was the poorest, the most elementary, the most liable to abuse. It was analogous to the method used by the Egyptian chief priests, who wore round their necks a sapphire ornament called Thmei, or "truth," for purposes of divination. After the death of David the Urim and Thummim fell into such absolute desuetude, as a survival of primitive times, that we do not read of its being consulted again in a single instance. It is not so much as mentioned during the five centuries of the history of the kings, and we do not hear of it afterwards. Solomon never once inquired of the priests as David did repeatedly in the reign of Solomon the voice of prophecy, too, was silent, until disasters began to cloud its close. Times of material prosperity and autocratic splendor are unfavorable to the prophets function, and sometimes, as in the days of Ahab, the prophets themselves "philippised" in Jehovahs name. But revelation by dreams occurs in all ages. In his prophecy of the great future, Joel says, "Your old men shall see visions, your young men shall dream dreams." It is true that dreams must always have a subjective element, yet, as Aristotle says, "The visions of the noble are better than those of common men." The dreams of night are reflections of the thoughts of day. "Solomon worships God by day; God appears to Solomon by night. Well may we look to enjoy God, when we have served him." Full of the thoughts inspired by an intense devotion, and a yearning desire to rule aright, the sleeping soul of Solomon became bright with eyes, and in his dream he made a worthy answer to the appeal of God.
"Ask what I shall give thee!" That blessed and most loving offer is made to every human soul. To the meanest of us all God flings open the treasuries of heaven. The reason why we fatally lose them is because we are blinded by the glamour of temptation, and snatch instead at glittering bubbles or Dead Sea fruits. We fail to attain the best gifts, because so few of us earnestly desire them, and so many disbelieve the offer that is made of them. Yet there is no living soul to which God has not given the choice of good and evil. "He hath set fire and water before thee: stretch forth thy hand unto whether thou wilt. Before man is life and death; and whether him liketh shall be given him." (Ecclus. 15:16, 17) Even when our choice is not evil it is often desperately frivolous, and it is only too late that we rue the folly of having rejected the better and chosen the worse.
"Damsels of Time the hypocritic days,
Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes,
And marching single in an endless file,
Bring diadems and fagots in their hands.
To each they offer gifts after his will, -
Bread, kingdoms, stars, and sky that holds them all.
I, in my pleached garden, watched the pomp,
Forgot my morning wishes; hastily
Took a few herbs and apples, and the Day
Turned and departed silent. I, too late,
Under her solemn fillet saw the scorn."
But Solomon made the wise choice. In his dream he thanked God for His mercifully fulfilled promise to David his father, and with the touchingly humble confession, "I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in," he begged for an understanding heart to judge between right and wrong in guiding his great and countless people.
God was pleased with the noble, unselfish request. The youthful king might have besought the boon of "many days," which was so highly valued before Christ had brought life and immortality to light; or for riches, or for victory over his enemies. Instead of this he had asked for "understanding, to discern judgment," and the lesser gifts were freely accorded him. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." {Mat_6:33} God promised him that he should be a king of unprecedented greatness. He freely gave him riches and honor, and, conditionally on his continued faithfulness, a long life. The condition was broken, and Solomon was not more than sixty years old when he was called before the God whom he forsook.
"And Solomon awoke, and behold it was a dream." But he knew well that it was also more than a dream, and that "God giveth to His beloved even sleeping."
In reverential gratitude he offered a second sacrifice of burnt offerings before the ark on Mount Zion, and added to them peace offerings, with which he made a great feast to all his servants. Twice again did God appear to Solomon; but the second time it was to warn, and the third time to condemn.
In the parallel account given by the chronicler, Solomon says, "Give me now wisdom and knowledge," and God replies, "Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee." There is a wide difference between the two things. Knowledge may come while wisdom still lingers, and wisdom may exist in Divine abundance where knowledge is but scant and superficial. The wise may be as ignorant as St. Antony, or St. Francis of Assisi; the masters of those who know may show as little "wisdom for a mans self" as Abelard, or as Francis Bacon. "Among the Jews one set of terms does service to express both intellectual and moral wisdom. The wise man means the righteous man; the fool is one who is godless. Intellectual terms that describe knowledge are also moral terms describing life." No doubt in the ultimate senses of the words there can be no true knowledge, as there can be no perfect wisdom, without goodness. This was a truth with which Solomon himself became deeply impressed. "The fear of the Lord," he said, "is the beginning of wisdom but fools despise knowledge and understanding." The lineaments of "a fool" are drawn in the Book of Proverbs and they bear the impress of moral baseness and moral aberrations.
To Solomon both boons were given, "wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore." Of his many forms of intellectual eminence I will speak later on. What he longed for most was evidently moral insight and practical sagacity. He felt that "through justice shall the throne be established."
1. Practical wisdom was eminently needed for the office of a judge. Judgeship was a main function of Eastern royalty, and rulers were called Shophe-tim or judges. The reality of the gift which Solomon had received from God was speedily to be tested. Two harlots came before him. One had overlaid her child in the night, and stealing the living child of the other she put her dead child in its place. There was no evidence to be had. It was simply the bare word of one disreputable woman against the bare word of the other. With instant decision, and a flash of insight into the springs of human actions, Solomon gave the apparently childish order to cut the children in two, and divide them between the claimants. The people laughed and the delinquent accepted the horrible decision; but the mother of the living child yearned for her babe, and she cried out, "O my lord, give, her the living babe, and no wise slay it." "Give her the living babe, and in no wise slay it," murmured the king to himself, repeating the mothers words; and then he burst out with the triumphant verdict, "Give her the living child! She is the mother thereof!"
The story has several parallels. It is said by Diodorus Siculus that when three youths came before Ariopharnes, King of Thrace, each claiming to be the only son of the King of the Cimmerians, he ordered them each to hurl a javelin at their fathers corpse. Two obeyed, one refused, and Ariopharnes at once proclaimed him to be the true son. Similarly an Indian story tells that a woman, before she bathed, left her child on the bank of the pool, and a female demon carried it off. The goddess, before whom each claimed the child, ordered them to pull it in two between them, and consigned it to the mother who shuddered at the test. A judgment similarly founded on filial instinct is attributed to the Emperor Claudius. A mother refused to acknowledge her son; and as there were no proofs Claudius ordered her to marry the youth, whereupon she was obliged to acknowledge that he was her son.
Modern critics, wise after the event, express themselves very slightingly of the amount of intelligence required for the decision; but the people saw the value of the presence of mind and rapid intuition which settled the question by bringing an individual dilemma under the immediate arbitrament of a general law. They rejoiced to recognize the practical wisdom which God had given to their young king. The word Chokhmah, which is represented by one large section of Jewish literature, implied the practical intelligence derived from insight or experience, the power to govern oneself and others. Its conclusions were expressed chiefly in a gnomic form, and they pass through various stages in the Sapiential Books of the Old Testament. The chief books of the Chokhmah are the Books of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, followed by such books as "Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus." On the Divine side Wisdom is the Spirit of God, regarded by man under the form of Providence; {#/RAPC Wis 1:4,7,7:7,22,9:17} and on the human side it is trustworthy knowledge of the things that are (id. 7:17). It is, in fact, "a knowledge of Divine and human things, and of their causes". {#/RAPC 4Ma 2:16} This branch of wisdom could be repeatedly shown by Solomon at the city gate and in the hall of judgment.
2. His varied intellectual wisdom created deeper astonishment. He spake, we are told, "of trees from the cedar which is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts and fowl and of creeping things and of fishes." This knowledge has been misunderstood and exaggerated by later tradition. It is expanded in the Book of Wisdom (8:17) into a perfect knowledge of cosmogony, astronomy, the alterations of solstices, the cycles of years, the natures of wild beasts, the forces of spirits, the reasonings of men, the diversities of plants. Solomon became to Eastern legend
"The warrior-sage, whose restless mind
Through natures mazes wandered unconfined,
Who every bird, and beast, and insect knew,
And spake of every plant that quaffs the dew."
His knowledge, however, does not seem to have been even empirically scientific. It consisted in the moral and religious illustration of truth by emblems derived from nature. He surpassed, we are told, the ethnic gnomic wisdom of all the children of the East-the Arabians and Chaldaeans and all the vaunted scientific and mystic wisdom of Egypt. Ethan and Heman were Levitic poets and musicians; Chalcol and Darda were "sons of the choir," i.e., poets (Luther), or sacred singers; and all four were famed for wisdom; but Solomon excelled them all. Of his one thousand and five songs, the majority were probably secular. Only two psalms are even traditionally assigned to him. Of his three thousand proverbs not more than two hundred survive, even if all in the Book of Proverbs be his. Tradition adds that he was a master of "riddles" or "dark sayings," by which he won largely in fines from Hiram, whom he challenged for their solution, until the Tyrian king defeated him by the aid of a sharp youth named Abdemon. Specimens of these riddles with their answers may be found in the Book of Proverbs, {Pro_11:22; Pro_24:30-34; Pro_25:25; Pro_26:8; Pro_30:15} for the Hebrew word "proverb" (Mashal) probably means originally, an illustration. This book also contains various ambiguous hard sayings of which the skilful construction awoke admiration and stimulated thought. {E.g., Pro_6:10} The Queen of Sheba is said to have tested Solomon by riddles. The tradition gradually spread in the East that Solomon was also skilled in magic arts, that he knew the language of the birds, and possessed a seal which gave him mastery over the genii. In the Book of Wisdom he is made to say, "All such things as are either secret or manifest, them I know." Josephus attributes to him the formulae and spells of exorcism, and in Ecc_2:8 the words rendered "musical instruments" (shiddah and shiddoth; R.V, "concubines very many") were understood by the Rabbis to mean that he was the lord over male and female demons.
3. Far more precious than practical or intellectual ability is the gift of moral wisdom, which Solomon so greatly appreciated but so imperfectly attained. Yet he felt that "wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom." The world gives that name to many higher and lower manifestations of capacity and attainment, but wisdom is in Scripture the one law of all true life. In that magnificent outburst of Semitic poetry, the twenty-eighth chapter of the Book of Job, after pointing out that there is such a thing as natural knowledge-that there is a vein for the silver, and ore of gold, and a place of sapphires, and reservoirs of subterranean fire-the writer asks: "But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?" After showing with marvelous power that it is beyond mans unaided search-that the depths and the seas say, "It is not in us," and destruction and death have but heard the fame thereof with their ears - he adds with one great crash of concluding music "GOD understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth the place thereof And unto man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." {Job_28:23; Job_28:28} And again we read, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." {Pro_1:7} The sated cynic of the Book of the Ecclesiastes, or one who had studied, not without dissatisfaction, his sad experience, adds, "Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." And in answer to the question "Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?" St. James, the Lords brother, who had evidently been a deep student of the Sapiential literature, does not answer "He who understands all mysteries," or, "He who speaks with the tongue of men or of angels," but, "Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom." Men whom the world has deemed wise have often fallen into utter infatuation, as it is Written, "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness"; but heavenly wisdom may belong to the most ignorant and simple hearted. It is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, without partiality and without hypocrisy."
We should observe, however, that the Chokhmah, or wisdom-literature of the Jews, while it incessantly exalts morality, and sometimes almost attains to a perception of the spiritual life, was neither prophetic nor priestly in its character. It bears the same relation to the teaching of the prophets on the one hand, and the priests on the other, as morality does to religion and to externalism. Its teaching is loftier and truer than the petty insistence of Pharisaism on meats and drinks and divers washings, in that it deals with the weightier matters of the law; but it does not attain to the passionate spirituality of the greater Hebrew seers. It cares next to nothing for ritual, and therefore rises above the developed Judaism of the post-exilic epoch. It is lofty and true inasmuch as it breathes the spirit of the Ten Commandments, but it has not learnt the freedom of love and the beatitudes of perfect union with God. In one word, it finds its culmination in Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus, rather than in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount and the Gospel of St. John.
We cannot better conclude this chapter than with the eulogy of the son of Sirach: "Solomon reigned in a peaceable time and was honored; for God made all quiet round about him, that he might build a house in His name and prepare His sanctuary forever. How wise wast thou in thy youth, and as a flood, filled with understanding! Thy soul covered the whole earth, and thou filledst it with dark parables. Thy name went far unto the islands, and for thy peace thou wast beloved. The countries marveled at thee for thy songs, and proverbs, and parables, and interpretations. By the name of the Lord God, who is called the Lord God of Israel, thou didst gather gold as tin, and didst multiply silver as lead (Ecclus. 47:13-18)."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain 1Ki_3:1. Pharaoh, king of Egypt—Probably Vaphres, but Winer suggests…
THE RULE OF WISDOM
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
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1Ki_3:1. Pharaoh, king of Egypt—Probably Vaphres, but Winer suggests Psusennes. An alliance with so mighty a royal house shows that the Hebrew kingdom enjoyed high renown, and commanded influence among the nations. From the Egyptian monuments a supposed portrait of this princess has been obtained. The “Song of Solomon” is supposed to have her as the immediate theme. Brought her into the city of David—Not admitted into the stronghold of Zion, where the ark was; probably he found for her a temporary home in his mother’s residence (Son_3:4; Son_8:2) while his own palace was building. This marriage is never censured in Scripture, so that it is natural to conclude she became a proselyte to the Hebrew religion. To this, Psa_45:10-11 may refer, a Psalm which is thought, in addition to the Canticles, to have been composed by Solomon in her honour.
1Ki_3:2. Only the people sacrificed in high places—This is not recorded as a wrong act, but as rendered necessary until the Temple could accommodate them.
1Ki_3:4. The king went to Gibeon to worship there: for the tabernacle was now there (2Ch_1:3). called the great high place, because of that fact. High places, בָמוֹת, i.e., hills, and mountain heights: were chosen by all ancient nations for worship and sacrifice. Danger rose out of this temporarily permitted practice (Deu_12:13-14); but in Solomon’s conduct now there was nothing wrong. After the Temple was completed, the “high places” should have been abandoned; but the habit had become formed, and hence the share. A thousand burnt offerings—As an act of national consecration and homage to Jehovah; its motive being, “Solomon loved the Lord” (1Ki_3:3).
HOMILETICS OF 1Ki_3:1-4
THE PARADOXES OF A DEFECTIVE PIETY
We obtain a glimpse in these verses of the state of religion in the nation at this period. The enemies of Solomon had been despatched, the throne was established in the popular affection, and the government of the youthful king had already won the respect of surrounding nations. The only thing that indicated the kingdom was not so thoroughly established in all respects as it might be, was the unsettled condition of public worship. “Only the people sacrificed in high places.” The practices of the heathen still clung to the worshippers of the one living and true God. The growth of the religious life of a people is slow: it is a long time before all traces of a previous period of imperfection and debasement disappear. The best guarantee of permanency in all earthly governments is a strong, healthy, propagative piety; and in the process of development towards a more perfect knowledge and experience many contradictions will appear.
I. That piety may include a devout love of God, and yet be defective. “And Solomon loved the Lord.” So far good. It does not say he loved the Lord with all his heart. The command in this respect was most explicit, and frequently repeated (Deu_13:3; Deu_30:6; Mat_22:37; Mar_12:30; Mar_12:33, Luk_10:27). The religion of some is purely intellectual; they conceive noble ideas of God; they construct an ideal paradise, and adorn and fill it with bright poetic fancies; they scorn to betray the least feeling—this would be altogether too gross and sensual: they live in an ever-revolving circle of refined mental intoxication. The religion of others is all emotional; they have tears for everybody and everything; they are a power in society, and they know it, for we are all most easily moved through our sympathies. But excess of feeling is penicious—it over-rides the judgment, and is apt to degenerate into weakness and folly. The victim of emotion goads himself in vain efforts to produce certain sensational effects which will not admit of repetition according to order, and at last sinks into a condition of helplessness, and is constantly employed in a morbid dissection of his own miserable and over-wrought feelings. The religion of others consists in a blind and dogged devotion to some one moral precept; it is obtruded into everything; it is the oracle to interpret every problem, the key to fit the complicated wards of human opinion and unlock every mystery; it is with them the infallible touchstone by which to test the religion of everybody else. Such people have no conception of the harmony and continuity of universal truth. It is possible to love God with a devout and reverential affection, and yet be defective in the realization and practical presentment of the religious life.
II. That piety may influence the practical outgoings of the individual life, and yet be defective. “Walking in the statutes of David his father.” These “statutes” referred, not only to the directions which had been specially enjoined on Solomon by his father David (1Ki_2:2-4; 1Ch_28:8-9), but also to the Divine commandments which David loved, and (notwithstanding some grievous falls) ordinarily practised. They who love God will strive to regulate their every-day life according to the Divine precepts, and in imitation of the holiest examples. The best of human examples is imperfect; and the most devoted and conscientious Christian worker is painfully conscious of constantly coming far short of his own ideal of duty. There are contradictions in the individual Christian life difficult to reconcile—the most saintly have to mourn over innumerable defects.
III. That piety may be demonstrative in acts of worship, and yet be defective. “He sacrificed and burnt incense in high places” (1Ki_3:3). The heathen were accustomed to perform their religious rites on the summit of lofty mountains, under the idea that they were thus nearer Deity and heaven. Abraham built his altars on mountains (Gen_12:8; Gen_22:2), and worshipped in a grove (Gen_21:33)—whence the custom among the Jews was derived, and for which they were not reprehensible till the law obliged them to worship in one place (Deu_12:5-6). The law did not forbid “high places” directly, but only by implication. It required the utter destruction of all the high places which had been polluted by idolatrous rites (Deu_12:2). The injunction to offer sacrifices nowhere but at the door of the tabernacle (Lev_17:3-5) was an indirect prohibition of high-places, or, at least, of the use which the Israelites made of them; but there was some real reason to question whether this was a command intended to come into force until the place was chosen where the Lord would cause His name to dwell (Deu_12:11; Deu_12:14). The result was that high places were used for the worship of Jehovah from the time of the Judges downwards (Jdg_6:25; Jdg_13:16; 1Sa_7:10; 1Sa_13:9; 1Sa_14:35; 1Sa_16:5; 1Ch_21:26), with an entire unconsciousness of guilt on the part of those who used them. And God so far “winked” at this ignorance that He accepted the worship thus offered Him, as appears from the vision vouchsafed to Solomon on this occasion. There were two reasons for the prohibition of high places:—1st, the danger of the old idolatry creeping back if the old localities were retained for worship; and, 2nd, the danger to the unity of the nation if there should be more than one legitimate religious centre. The existence of worship at high places did, in fact, facilitate the division of the kingdom.—Speaker’s Commentary. The worship of God is not confined to any one particular spot—the devotion of the worshipper, and the manifestations of Divine blessing, consecrate the locality. We may worship God with all the proprieties of external ceremonial, and with all the ardour of a devout spirit; and yet the religion of the life be defective. Few men carry into all the departments of practical duty the holy and exalted feeling realized in their best moments at the Mercy Seat.
IV. That piety may be liberal in sacrifices, and yet be defective. “A thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar.” A sacrifice of a thousand victims was an act of royal magnificence suited to the greatness of Solomon. So Xerxes offered a thousand oxen at Troy (Herod. vii. 43). We are not to suppose that Solomon offered sacrifice with his own hand; such a task was beyond the power of a single person to do. He simply presented the victims. Scores of priests officiated on such occasions, and the sacred festival lasted many days. Where God sows plentifully, he expects to reap accordingly; and those who truly love Him and His worship will not grudge the expenses of their religion. The liberality of the wealthy is the easiest part of Christian duty, and few give to God’s cause in proportion to their means. Giving is, to some natures, the severest test of a genuine piety, and one of its best evidences. There may be a princely generosity in giving, while there is a niggardliness in doing. The most opulent sacrifices cannot atone for active, loving, faithful service.
V. That piety may be associated with great worldly affluence, and yet be defective. “And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt.” It was an evidence of the importance into which the kingdom of Israel had risen that Solomon should succeed in forming an alliance with Egypt, the most ancient and splendid of the Eastern monarchies. It was the first intercourse between these nations since the time of the Exodus. Its immediate effect was probably favourable to Solomon, by increasing his fame and comparative importance among the nations, and adding to his dominions (chap. 1Ki_9:16). Riches flowed in upon him, kings courted his favour and were proud to form alliances with his house: There is no reason why piety should not flourish in the king’s palace as well as in the humble cottage: there are many among the great and wealthy who fear God and work righteousness. It is not an easy matter to settle which are the most difficult to bear—the dangers of the rich, or the temptations and miseries of the starving poor. It is possible to be surrounded with temporal abundance, while the heart is restless and unsatisfied. Solomon had all that his soul could desire, and the result was detrimental rather than helpful to his piety. His marriage with the Egyptian princess, though not formally condemned, opened the way to other alliances that were disastrous. According to the letter of the law, only marriage with the Canaanitish tribes was forbidden to the Jews (Exo_34:16); and inter-marriage with nations outside of Canaan was not only not prohibited, but tolerated in the examples, never rebuked, of Joseph’s marriage with the daughter of an Egyptian priest (Gen_41:45); of Moses’ marriage with a daughter of Midian (Exo_2:21); and that of Boaz and Ruth. But though the law did not forbid these marriages, they were not in harmony with its spirit; and it was by foreign marriages that Solomon was at length seduced from the worship of Jehovah. Piety is safest when it is humblest; and only as the believer retains his humble, child-like trust in God, amid increasing temporal prosperity, will he escape the perils that threaten.
LESSONS:—
1. There is danger in resting satisfied with the mere externalism of religion.
2. There may be much that is morally good in individual character, and yet a serious deficiency in piety.
3. True piety demands the full surrender to God of will, affection, and life.
THIS passage may be also homiletically treated as follows:—
PIETY LIMITED BY OPPORTUNITY
I. That piety is limited by individual experience.
1. It is limited by the individual experience of the love of God. “Solomon loved the Lord” (1Ki_3:3). He was first loved by Him, and was thus called Jedidiah, the darling of Jehovah. Our love to God is but the reflex of His love to us (1Jn_4:19). Our piety receives its character and attains its limits by the nature and degree of our love to God: as our love is, so is our piety. Love is the source and power of the religious life, and the stream can never rise higher than the fountain.
2. It is limited by the examples of those we are taught to imitate. Solomon walked in the statutes of David his father, and strove to copy his example. A good man is a pattern for all to imitate; and all men are more potently influenced by a living example of piety, than by the most elaborate code of precepts, however eloquently explained or cogently enforced. It was a high commendation to the Thessalonian converts that they became imitators of the highest patterns of Christian excellence (1Th_1:6). All human models are imperfect, and the characters shaped and influenced by them must partake of their imperfections. The example of Christ is the absolute, all-perfect standard, the great infallible pattern after which the noblest life must ever be moulded.
3. It is limited by individual capacity. The dew falls in quantity sufficient to water the whole earth, but there is an endless variety in the capacities of the flower-cups held out to receive the refreshing draught; some are so small that one crystal drop each would fill their tiny fragile goblets. So the blessing of heaven descends upon mankind in superabundant measure, but there is a vast diversity in the capacity of the individual recipient. The grandest created nature is bounded by its finiteness. If man were not finite he could not grow.
II. That piety is limited by the opportunities for its cultivation. “Only the people sacrificed in high places, because there was no house built unto the name of the Lord” (1Ki_3:2). The frequent public worship of God is founded in a necessity and tendency of human nature. Man will worship, and if he is not constantly directed to the great Object of all true and acceptable worship, and spiritually assisted in the exercise, he is apt to regard the vast fabric of created things as God; and nature, with her grand, silent motions, becomes the object of his pantheistic idolatry. The multiplicity and accessibleness of Christian ordinances in the present day lead many to undervalue their importance. But a compulsory and prolonged absence from the house of God, and the conscious depreciation in spirituality, rectify the delusion, and compel the sufferer to estimate more highly than ever the public means of grace.
II. That piety is limited by the associations and conditions of national life. “And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh” (1Ki_3:1). The alliance with Egypt, and growing importance and wealth of the nation, would have a powerful influence in developing and forming the character of the nation at that time. National life is the outcome and representation of many conflicting and contradictory causes, some apparent, some hidden; but all active. Climate, natural scenery, employments, modes of living, intercourse with each other and with other peoples, all act and react in giving form, colour, tone, and spirit to the national character. The ruggedness and strength of the free mountaineers are strangely contrasted with the refinement, softness, and supineness of the inhabitants of the sultry plains; and the causes of the difference are evident. And so the associations and conditions of national life affect and limit the piety of a people. There will be more vigour and enterprise in the religion of a nation struggling for independence and extended commerce, than in a nation reposing in contentment, and revelling in luxuries and riches. Success in either individuals or communities is often a fatal advantage, and the period of greatest prosperity registers the beginning of decline.
LESSONS:—
1. That the opportunities for cultivating personal piety are abundant.
2. That it is an imperative duty to strive after a higher standard of piety.
3. That the actual use made of opportunities will be the measure of personal piety enjoyed.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Ki_3:1-4. National reformation.
1. Meets with rebellious opposition.
2. Is gradual in accomplishment.
3. Must be wisely conducted.
4. Is facilitated by promoting amicable relations with other nations.
5. Aims at strengthening the internal government.
6. Is permanent in its results only when it grows out of a genuine religious life.
1Ki_3:1. Marriage.
1. An important crisis in individual life.
2. Not to be entered into without serious thought.
3. May make or mar the happiness of two lives.
4. Is honourable in all.
5. Broadens our sympathies for the race.
6. Has the divine sanction.
—Although marriage with persons of unlike faith be allowed, and is in itself no sin (1Co_7:14), it is, nevertheless, better that one avoid it, because the unbeliever perverts the believer more frequently than the believer converts the unbeliever. Solomon’s marriage with a daughter of Pharaoh was, strictly speaking, a political alliance, but it has also a significance in the history of redemption. The great and mighty king of the land which for Israel had been “the house of bondage,” in which it had eaten “the bread of affliction” (Exo_20:2; Deu_16:3), gives now to the king of this once despised and oppressed people his daughter in marriage, and must, in the providence of God, contribute to the strengthening of the Israelitish throne, and to the increase of the power and glory of the Israelitish kingdom. God has the hearts of all men in his hands, and can bring it to pass that they who have been inimical to us, and have despised us, shall hold us in great honour (Pro_16:7; Gen_31:24).—Lange.
—This seems to have been Solomon’s first act of foreign policy, and was, perhaps, designed to counteract the influence of Hadad, the Edomite, who had fled to Egypt during David’s reign, and was now securely housed in the royal family (see chap. 1Ki_11:14-22). Everything in the history of Hadad naturally conspired to make him a settled enemy of the kingdom of Israel; and, perhaps, at a later period, he had a hand with Jeroboam in planning the revolt of the ten tribes of Israel. Solomon doubtless expected to strengthen his kingdom by this affinity with Egypt, and to prevent invasion from that quarter.—Whedon.
—“Until he had made an end of building the house of the Lord.” This Solomon would finish before he would set up the queen’s palace—such was his zeal while young; but he suffered sad decays afterwards. I read of a holy man who oft prayed that he might keep up his young zeal with his old discretion.—Trapp.
1Ki_3:2. “Only the people sacrificed in high places.” The particle “only” has reference to the last sentence of chap. 1Ki_2:46. This is not mentioned as a circumstance of blame either in the people or in the king; for had they not sacrificed and burnt incense on high places, they could not have sacrificed or burnt incense at all. And it appears by the sequel that the sacrifice at Gibeon was acceptable.—Bishop Horsley. Possibly Solomon thought it better to allow an error in a circumstance than to occasion a neglect of the substance of God’s worship, which he apprehended would follow upon a severe prohibition of that practice, because the people’s hearts were generally and constantly set upon these high places, as appears from all the following history; and they were not willing to submit to so much trouble and charge as the bringing of all their sacrifices to one place would cause; nor would they yield to it until the temple was built, which he knew would easily incline and oblige them to it. And that being speedily to be done, he might think it more advisable rather to delay the execution of that law of God for an approaching season, wherein he doubted not they would be sweetly and freely drawn to it, than at present to drive them to it by force, although these and all other prudential considerations should have given place to the will and wisdom of God.—Pool.
1Ki_3:3. “Walking in the statutes of David his father”—the customs, usages, and laws of religious conduct practised by David. But it does not appear that David ever sacrificed or burnt incense in high places. The contrary is implied in this verse; and it is more than intimated that though this worship was tolerated because not offered to false gods, and because there was no house yet built to Jehovah, still both Solomon and his people were censurable for allowing it such great extent and prominence, and thereby paving the way for future idolatry in Israel. It would have been safer and better to have sacrificed only before the ark of the covenant, as Solomon did after his return from Gibeon (1Ki_3:15), or else only at Gibeon, where the tabernacle was (1Ch_16:39).—Whedon.
1Ki_3:2-4. Solomon’s sacrificial festivity.
1. When he celebrated it—at the beginning of his reign, to return thanks for the past assistance of God, and to implore its continuance.
2. Where he kept it—upon the high place at Gibeon, because no temple was built as yet, the place of prayer in the Old and in the New Testament. Though God dwell not in temples built by human hands, yet it is needful for each congregation to have a house where, with one mouth, it praises the name of the Lord. Where this need is not felt, there is a defect in faith and love for the Lord.—Lange.
1Ki_3:3. He loved the Lord. This is the best and greatest thing that can be said of a man. So every one that loves the world has not in him the love of the Father; this is only where God is loved above all things, His word observed, and His commandments fulfilled with joy and delight (1Jn_2:5; 1Jn_2:15; 1Jn_5:3). Happy is he who, to the question of the Lord, “Lovest thou me?” can return the answer of Peter (Joh_21:17). Because Solomon loved the Lord, he honoured also his father, and walked in his ways. The want of filial piety in our day comes from want of love to the Lord.—Lange.
1Ki_3:4. Gibeon was well worthy to be the chief, yea, the only high place. There was the hallowed altar of God; there was the tabernacle, though, as then, severed from the ark; thither did young Solomon go up, and as desiring to begin his reign with God, there he offers no less than a thousand sacrifices.—Bishop Hall.
If we should begin our daily work with the sacrifice of our prayer, how much more our life’s calling, and every weighty undertaking upon which our own and the well-being of other men depend!—Lange.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain 1Ki 3:5
1Ki 3:5
Solomon’s prayer was acceptable to God (1) because every true and faithful prayer is so acceptable, and (2) because of all prayers He loveth best those that are wholly unselfish, those in which all thoughts of self are absorbed and annihilated in thoughts of Him and of our fellow-men.
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I. Even of things earthly God says to each of us, "Ask what I shall give thee." Our lives may be very much what we choose to make them. Asking God for gifts at the hands of time or opportunity does not mean mere asking; he who asks must, if his prayer is to be listened to, be sincere in his petition, and if he be sincere, will naturally and necessarily take the means which God appoints. Were it not so—if vice could with a wish yawn into being the rewards of virtue, if sluggishness could at a touch appropriate to itself the gifts of toil—then prayer would corrupt the world. Action, effort, perseverance—these are the touchstones that test the pure gold of sincerity.
II. Though this be true of earthly things, it is ten times more indisputably true of the better and the heavenly. Dost thou love uprightness? Ask it, will it, and thou shalt be upright. Dost thou love purity? Ask it, will it, and thou shalt be pure. "Ask what I shall give thee." God said it to Solomon in the dim visions of the night; He says it to us by the voice of His eternal Son. "Every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."
F. W. Farrar, In the Days of thy Youth, p. 159.
I. Not wealth, not pleasure, not fame, not victory, not length of days, but an understanding heart, was the choice of Solomon’s boyhood.
The prayer for wisdom is always pleasing to God. (1) Even intellectual wisdom—how far higher is it, how far worthier of man as God made him, than any alternative of fashion or vanity of wit or vice. Fear not to ask of God an understanding heart, even in studies which name not His name. (2) But the speech which pleased the Lord was a prayer rather for practical wisdom. The gift which Solomon’s prayer drew down was the gift of justice. When he seated himself in the gate to hear the causes which Israel brought to him, intellect was nothing; judgment, the power to discriminate between good and bad—this was his work. This therefore was his prayer.
II. The bitter and painful thing to remember in the history before us is the wreck and ruin of that prayer which in itself was so beautiful and so acceptable. (1) It may have been that Solomon’s largeness of heart slipped into latitudinarianism. (2) That which cankered Solomon’s wisdom was the entrance of sinful lust.
III. We may hope that even out of this wreck the lost life found a way to arise. We read the Book of Ecclesiastes as the record of that hope. Let us hope that the night’s prayer at Gibeon was being answered, though in dim and broken reflection, in the latest utterances of the Preacher, son of David, king of Jerusalem.
C. J. Vaughan, Sermon Preached at St. Olave’s School, 1872.
References: 1Ki 3:5.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 19; J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons, 5th series, p. 37; Bishop Thorold, Good Words, 1878, p. 20. 1Ki 3:7.—Outline Sermons for Children, p. 45
1Ki 3:6-9
I. In what sense, it may be asked, did David expect that his son’s kingdom would be a Divine and spiritual one, in what sense an earthly and magnificent one? I answer, He looked for no earthly magnificence which was not the manifestation of an inward and spiritual dominion; he feared no earthly magnificence which was a manifestation of it. Solomon’s own history will be the best solution of the riddle, if it is one.
II. Solomon beseeches God for an understanding heart. All his moral and spiritual desires are gathered up in that petition. He asks precisely what he feels to be necessary to his work; he wants nothing more. Consider what he felt that this work demanded. "He must discern between good and bad." This he perceives to be the characteristic function of a ruler. He must know right from wrong, must learn in complicated cases to see into the truth, to see it in spite of any falsehoods that might be invented to blacken it. To discern God first, that he might judge of evil by that; to have intense inward sympathy with the right, that he might hate and resolutely put down the wrong—this was the gift which, in his conscious ignorance, he desired Him who possessed it to bestow.
III. Such a time as Solomon’s, though a really great one, is a critical one for any nation. The idea of building a house which the Lord would fill with His glory was a recognition of God as eternally ruling over that people and over all people. Yet there lay close to it a tendency to make the invisible visible, to represent the holy presence as belonging to the building instead of the building as being hallowed and glorified by the presence. There was the seed of idolatry in Solomon, as there is in every man. That early prayer for an understanding heart was the prayer against it, and it was answered as fully as any prayer ever was. But there comes a moment when the king or the man ceases to desire that the light should enter into hint, should separate the good from the bad in him. Then the tempter appears and points the road to idolatry. And the sympathising king who sent his people away with gladness of heart, sure that God was the King and that they had a human king who felt towards them as He felt, would gradually become a tyrant. So even the wise king would prepare his subjects for rebellion and his kingdom for division.
F. D. Maurice, Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament, p. 74.
Reference: 1Ki 3:7, 1Ki 3:9.—Old Testament Outlines, pp. 66, 67.
1Ki 3:9-12
I. God comes to every one of us saying, "Ask what I shall give thee." Goethe said he admired the man who knew precisely what he aimed at in life. God wishes you at the commencement of your career to come up to the height of a great choice. You must choose, your refusal to choose is itself a choice, and it is the liberty to choose your own aim in life, and at last your own destiny, that makes life so serious, Life comes to every man with its riddle; and if he answers it aright, it is well with him; but if he tries to go on neglecting the commandments of the Giver of life, if he tries to go on living in his own way, and not in God’s way, life to him will be a thing of loss, and he will become an object to be wept over. We are placed here, naked as the giant of fable, to wrestle with the rude elements of the world, to conquer in the midst of its varied probation; but remember this: no devil nor devil’s child can cast you down without your own consent.
II. Notice that "the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing." It was this thing in contrast to three other things that he rejected: long life, riches, and revenge on his enemies.
III. The reasons are here assigned why it pleased the Lord that Solomon rejected the false and chose the true aim in life. (1) Because he chose what enabled him to be serviceable to others. Our great poet has told us that Heaven does with us as we do with torches: not light them for themselves. We are lit in order to be the light of the world. (2) It pleased the Lord because he chose to walk in the statutes of a good father, and so to encourage him in his last days in his faith in God’s covenant. (3) It pleased the Lord because he chose God Himself as his portion rather than all His gifts.
Herber Evans, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 329.
References: 1Ki 3:10.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. x., p. 335; E. J. Hardy, Faint yet Pursuing, p. 69.
1Ki 3:12
As He is wont, God gave Solomon more than he asked. There is a difference between the favour that was sought and the boon which was granted. "The heart" is the affections; "the understanding" is the intelligent knowledge of any subject; "wisdom" is the sensible and right use both of the knowledge and the affections.
I. Wisdom is the only thing of which God has said that He gives it liberally and never upbraids. No man need be afraid to ask for wisdom, however often or however much. Solomon’s wisdom went higher than all natural history, higher than political economy, higher than moral science. It went up to essential truth, to the Truth of truths, to Christ Himself. Read the eighth chapter of Proverbs, and you will see, beyond a cavil, what and who was "the Wisdom" that God gave to Solomon. All this was the result of one good choice, and the answer to one simple, humble prayer in early life.
II. There is a very solemn lesson in the fact that Solomon afterwards abused that vast gift, that that very heart went wrong. No one prayer can secure continuance; one period of life is no guarantee for another period of life; the intellect may be darkened, and the heart may go wrong, and the wisest man become the worst.
III. The triple band of wisdom, intellect, and love is a "threefold cord, which shall not be quickly broken." Affections are the springs of life, without which the man lies dormant and useless. Affections are the seat of faith, and the heaven of this present life. And intellect is strength. Intellect takes in all truth, and is the characteristic of man. But wisdom takes us higher. Wisdom teaches us that the affections and the intellect have a far end beyond; that we must live up to our immortality; that we must be like God. Wisdom blends and sanctifies the heart and the understanding, gives unity, completes our being, moulds nature into grace, and turns the man into a saint.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 12th series, p. 101.
References: 1Ki 3:24-27.—A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., p. 172. 1Ki 4:20-28.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1504.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Solomon's Choice
Solomon's Choice
This chapter relates how Solomon, out of various gifts offered to him by the Almighty, chose wisdom, and adds an illustration of the use he made of the gift with which he was endowed.
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1. Pharaoh] probably one of the immediate predecessors of the Shishak (Sheshonk) mentioned in 1Ki_11:40 is intended. His own house.. Lord] see 1 Kings 7, 6. Both of these buildings were outside the limits of the city of David.
2. High places] Both the Canaanites (see Num_33:52; Deu_12:2) and the early Israelites (see 1Sa_9:12; 2Sa_15:30, 2Sa_15:32) use(i to worship on hill-tops, possibly as being nearer heaven, the dwelling-place of the Deity, or perhaps (more probably) as being the best sites for burning the victims that were offered in sacrifice. In Deu_12:10 f. the worship of the Lord is ordered to be restricted to a single sanctuary; though the history shows that religious practices at the high places were permitted even by the best of kings (see 1Ki_15:14; 1Ki_22:43) until the reign of Hezekiah(see 2Ki_18:4).
4. Gibeon] in the tribe of Benjamin (Jos_18:25). To sacrifice there] in 2 Chronicles 13 it is stated that the Tabernacle of the congregation was at Gibeon; if so, it must have been removed thither from Shiloh when the latter place was destroyed (Jer_7:12), or from Nob, to which it may have been conveyed from Shiloh. The ark which it had originally contained, was not restored to it when brought back by the Philistines (Is6), but put by David in a tent at Jerusalem.
7. I am but a little child] The words seem to imply that Solomon was quite youthful when he came to the throne; but the politic measures by which he secured his crown, as described in 1 Kings 2, suggest that he had attained to full manhood, and according to 1Ki_14:21 he left, after a reign of 40 years, a son who was 41 when his father died, and who therefore must have been born before his father became king (but see note there). Josephus gives Solomon's age at the beginning of his reign as
14. Go out or come in] i.e. pursue the active life of a man in his prime: cp. Num_27:17; 1Sa_18:13; Deu_31:2.
9. Solomon's prayer exhibits (a) a strong sense of responsibility and a conviction that high position involves corresponding duties; (b) a consciousness that truth and falsehood, right and wrong, are not always easy to distinguish, and that to discern between them there are needed special gifts of the heart and understanding; (c) that such gifts are derived from God, who bestows them in answer to prayer.
14. I will lengthen thy days] The promise was made on conditions which Solomon did not observe: see 1Ki_11:18.
15. The ark of the covenant] This had been placed by David in a tent at Jerusalem (2Sa_6:12-17). Solomon fitly inaugurated his reign by acts of religious worship at his capital as well as at Gibeon (1Ki_3:4). Burnt offerings.. peace offerings] see on 1Ki_8:12.
26. Her bowels] i.e. her heart. 27. Give her the living child] The pronounrefers not to the last speaker but to her rival (as LXX explains).
28. The wisdom of God] Solomon's wisdom was divine not only in its source but in its quality.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain 2. Jehovah Appears to Solomon His Prayer and the…
2. Jehovah Appears to Solomon His Prayer and the Answer
CHAPTER 3
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1. Affinity with Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s daughter (1Ki 3:1)
2. Solomon loved the LORD (1Ki 3:2-4)
3. Jehovah appears to Solomon (1Ki 3:5-15)
4. The wisdom granted and exemplified (1Ki 3:16-28)
We shall now see how the Lord kept His promise He made unto David in the establishment of his kingdom. After the execution of the demanded judgment Solomon entered into affinity with Pharaoh King of Egypt (probably the last King of the 21 Tanitic dynasty) and married his daughter. She was with him in David’s city until he made an end of building his own house, the house of the LORD and the wall of Jerusalem round about.” She was a Gentile and Jewish tradition states that she became a Jewish proselyte. This union was prophetic of the blessing Gentiles were to receive in union with Him whom Solomon typifies. It was grace which took up Pharaoh’s daughter and made her share the riches and honors of Solomon. And Solomon loved the LORD. At Gibeon he offered a thousand burnt offerings. Gibeon was one of the high places where the priests performed their functions (1Ch 16:36-40). The tabernacle and the brazen altar were there, but not the ark of the covenant. However, he also approached the ark and stood before it to render thanks unto Jehovah. (Another application may be made to the Jewish remnant of the end of the age the same way as Ruth typified that remnant. See Annotations on Ruth. That remnant is called through grace; the Jews through unbelief are in the same place as the Gentiles. The grace which saved and called the Gentiles will draw and call them and bring them into union with the King.)
A most blessed incident followed. As stated before Solomon was a youth when he was anointed king. Eusebius states that he was only 12 years old; Josephus gives his age as 15 years. He was probably not yet 20 years old when he became King. He felt deeply two things, his own littleness and his great responsibility in governing the multitude of people. It was while still at Gibeon that Jehovah appeared unto him in a dream and said: “Ask what I shall give you.” What grace this was, but it also searched his inner-most soul. And this offer was not made exclusively to Solomon. He who appeared unto Solomon and put this gracious question to him, when He was on earth clothed in the garb of a servant, yet greater than Solomon in all his glory, said: “Ask, and it shall be given you” (Mat 7:7). And again He said: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do” (Joh 14:13). It is faith’s prerogative to hear Him speak thus to our hearts and to make use of His great offer. Solomon’s answer is beautiful. He acknowledged God’s great mercy and kindness. Then he confessed his own weakness and helplessness. “I am but a little child; I know not how to go out or come in.” He speaks of his responsibility and duty towards God’s people and then utters his request: “Give therefore Thy servant an understanding heart to judge Thy people, that I may discern between good and bad, for who is able to judge this Thy so great a people?” It pleased the Lord as it always pleases Him when His people confess their littleness and expect help from Him. The request is granted. “So there was none like thee before thee, neither shall any arise like unto thee.” Wisdom from above filled his soul. The book of Proverbs bears witness to this great understanding the Lord gave to him. But He added much more; He gave him riches and honour. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness and all things shall be added unto you” (Mat 6:33). And the same Lord does still, to all who put their trust in Him, exceeding abundantly above all they ask or think. “He giveth us richly all things to enjoy” (1Ti 6:17). Then there was a conditional promise. “And if thou wilt walk in My ways, to keep My statutes, and My commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days” (verse 14). Alas! Solomon did not fulfill the condition. He forsook the Lord and died when he was not quite 60 years of age. He awoke and behold it was a dream. But it was more than a dream. That the prayer had been answered and that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment is evidenced in the incident which follows and which needs no further comment. In his wisdom he is a type of our Lord Jesus who is the wisdom of God. And the justice he administered in his kingdom is typical of the righteous judgment of our Lord when He rules as king over the earth. “He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears, but with righteousness shall He judge the poor” (Isa 11:1-4).
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Solomon at Gibeon
Solomon at Gibeon
v. 1. And Solomon made affinity, he entered into a family alliance through marriage, with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, making her his wife chiefly for political reasons, for the two kingdoms mere now equally powerful, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, for he was desirous of erecting his own palace, and the house of the Lord, the Temple, and the wall of Jerusalem round about, David having fortified only the upper city.
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v. 2. Only the people sacrificed in high places, against the spirit of the Law, Deu 12:2-5, because there was no house built unto the name of the Lord until those days, and the custom of going to Gibeon, to the Tabernacle, having fallen into disuse since the days of Samuel.
v. 3. And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David, his father, in all the precepts of the covenant; only he sacrificed and burned incense in high places, that having become the custom and now being evidently acceptable to Jehovah.
v. 4. And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, in a great inauguration festival; for that was the great high place, the most important height in the country and still the official sanctuary. A thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar, namely, through the priests. Cf 2Ch 1:2.
v. 5. In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, revealing himself in a vision; and God said, Ask what I shall give thee, for the prayer connected with the great sacrifice had pleaded for divine assistance in the work of his government.
v. 6. And Solomon said, Thou hast showed unto Thy servant David, my father, great mercy, he owed everything that he had to the bounty of Jehovah, according as he walked before Thee in truth and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart with thee; and Thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that Thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. All this came in consequence of the great Messianic promise in which it was included.
v. 7. And now, O Lord, my God, Thou hast made Thy servant king instead of David, my father; and I am but a little child, he felt that his youth and inexperience mere unfitted for the great and arduous tasks laid on him; I know not how to go out or come in, how to conduct his entire manner of life as sovereign.
v. 8. And Thy servant is in the midst of thy people which Thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude, he felt the responsibility and the obligation of governing the chosen people of Jehovah very keenly.
v. 9. Give therefore Thy servant an understanding heart, one ready to hear and understand every case presented to it properly, to judge Thy people, that I may discern between good and bad; for who is able to judge, by a mere natural ability and shrewdness, this thy so great a people?
v. 10. And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.
v. 11. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, the boon desired by the majority of men, neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies, military glory, all these being blessings which the world craves, but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment, to dispense justice in the proper manner,
v. 12. behold, I have done according to thy words, heard his prayer. Lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart, both in the possession of great knowledge and in being able to penetrate into difficult cases, so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any a rise like unto thee, equal to him in wisdom.
v. 13. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honor, military prestige, so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days, he would be more renowned than all the sovereigns of his time.
v. 14. And if thou wilt walk in my ways, this last promise being given with a condition, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days. This last promise was not fulfilled, because Solomon did not keep the condition.
v. 15. And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream, there could be no question of its being divinely sent. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, the visible token of God’s merciful presence, and offered up, by the priests, burnt offerings, and offered peace-offerings, to indicate the close fellowship that obtained between him and the covenant God, and made a feast to all his servants, a sacrificial meal in connection with the thank-offerings. To those who seek first of all the kingdom of God and His righteousness all other things are added by virtue of His free grace.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Solomon marries an Egyptian.
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Solomon allied himself by marriage with Pharaoh king of Egypt
Solomon became the son-in-law of Pharaoh king of Egypt so the two kings would work together and fight together against their enemies.
until he had finished building
She was still in the city of David after he had finished building.
the house of Yahweh
"the temple"
no house had yet been built
This can be translated in active form. AT: "no one had yet built a house" (See: Active or Passive)
for the name of Yahweh
The word "name" is a metonym for the person, and "for the name" refers to worshiping the person. AT: "in which people would worship Yahweh" (See: Metonymy)
walking in the statutes of David his father
How one lives one's life is spoken of as walking on a path. AT: "obeying the laws that David his father had made" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
Solomon
Pharaoh
king
Egypt
city of David
house
Yahweh
Jerusalem
sacrifice
high place
name
love
walk
statute
David
ancestor
incense
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 3:1 As was common in the ancient Near East,…
3:1 As was common in the ancient Near East, Solomon sealed a political alliance with the king of Egypt by marrying one of his daughters. The bestowal of an Egyptian princess and the city of Gezer to Solomon as a wedding present (9:16) demonstrated the Egyptians’ high regard for him. The pharaoh was probably Siamun, of Egypt’s weakened 21st dynasty. The alliance was mutually beneficial: Pharaoh gained access to trade routes through Israel, while Solomon increased security on his southern border. Apparently, Solomon had previously married the Ammonite Naamah (see 11:42-43 with 14:21). • City of David: This section of Jerusalem was the old Jebusite city in the southern portion of the eastern ridge. When Solomon extended his building activities northward, he built a special palace for Pharaoh’s daughter (7:8; 9:24; 2 Chr 8:11).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.