Solomon asks for wisdom to govern
United Kingdom · Draft · BSB
Content revision: babdd0d5f6de850b · No editorial review date recorded
Date: Solomon’s reign · Before the temple is built
At Gibeon, Solomon asks God for discernment to govern the people. His judgment in the dispute over a living child demonstrates that wisdom. The following chapter describes administration, prosperity and the reach of his reputation.
The dream is at Gibeon; Solomon then returns to Jerusalem before the judgment scene. Chapter 4 summarizes the reign rather than dating all its prosperity to that visit. The opening marriage alliance and use of high places also complicate an entirely ideal portrait.
Primary Scripture
3:1 Later, Solomon formed an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt by marrying his daughter. Solomon brought her to the City of David until he had finished building his palace and the house of the LORD, as well as the wall around Jerusalem.
3:2 The people, however, were still sacrificing on the high places because a house for the Name of the LORD had not yet been built.
3:3 And Solomon loved the LORD and walked in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
3:4 Now the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for it was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on the altar there.
3:5 One night at Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!”
3:6 Solomon replied, “You have shown much loving devotion to Your servant, my father David, because he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart. And You have maintained this loving devotion by giving him a son to sit on his throne this very day.
3:7 And now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king in my father David’s place. But I am only a little child, not knowing how to go out or come in.
3:8 Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a people too numerous to count or number.
3:9 Therefore give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?”
3:10 Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had made this request.
3:11 So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this instead of requesting long life or wealth for yourself or death for your enemies—but you have asked for discernment to administer justice—
3:12 behold, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been another like you, nor will there ever be.
3:13 Moreover, I will give you what you did not request—both riches and honor—so that during all your days no man in any kingdom will be your equal.
3:14 So if you walk in My ways and keep My statutes and commandments, just as your father David did, I will prolong your days.”
3:15 Then Solomon awoke, and indeed it had been a dream. So he returned to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then he held a feast for all his servants.
3:16 At that time two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.
3:17 One woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house.
3:18 On the third day after I gave birth, this woman also had a baby. We were alone, with no one in the house but the two of us.
3:19 During the night this woman’s son died because she rolled over on him.
3:20 So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I was asleep. She laid him in her bosom and put her dead son at my bosom.
3:21 The next morning, when I got up to nurse my son, I discovered he was dead. But when I examined him, I realized that he was not the son I had borne.”
3:22 “No,” said the other woman, “the living one is my son and the dead one is your son.” But the first woman insisted, “No, the dead one is yours and the living one is mine.” So they argued before the king.
3:23 Then the king replied, “This woman says, ‘My son is alive and yours is dead,’ but that woman says, ‘No, your son is dead and mine is alive.’”
3:24 The king continued, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought him a sword,
3:25 and the king declared, “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”
3:26 Then the woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she yearned with compassion for her son. “Please, my lord,” she said, “give her the living baby. Do not kill him!” But the other woman said, “He will be neither mine nor yours. Cut him in two!”
3:27 Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. By no means should you kill him; she is his mother.”
3:28 When all Israel heard of the judgment the king had given, they stood in awe of him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.
4:1 So King Solomon ruled over Israel,
4:2 and these were his chief officials: Azariah son of Zadok was the priest;
4:3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, were secretaries; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the recorder;
4:4 Benaiah son of Jehoiada was in charge of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;
4:5 Azariah son of Nathan was in charge of the governors; Zabud son of Nathan was a priest and adviser to the king;
4:6 Ahishar was in charge of the palace; and Adoniram son of Abda was in charge of the forced labor.
4:7 Solomon had twelve governors over all Israel to provide food for the king and his household. Each one would arrange provisions for one month of the year,
4:8 and these were their names: Ben-hur in the hill country of Ephraim;
4:9 Ben-deker in Makaz, in Shaalbim, in Beth-shemesh, and in Elon-beth-hanan;
4:10 Ben-hesed in Arubboth (Socoh and all the land of Hepher belonged to him);
4:11 Ben-abinadab in Naphath-dor (Taphath, a daughter of Solomon, was his wife);
4:12 Baana son of Ahilud in Taanach, in Megiddo, and in all of Beth-shean next to Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah and on past Jokmeam;
4:13 Ben-geber in Ramoth-gilead (the villages of Jair son of Manasseh in Gilead belonged to him, as well as the region of Argob in Bashan with its sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars);
4:14 Ahinadab son of Iddo in Mahanaim;
4:15 Ahimaaz in Naphtali (he had married Basemath, a daughter of Solomon);
4:16 Baana son of Hushai in Asher and in Aloth;
4:17 Jehoshaphat son of Paruah in Issachar;
4:18 Shimei son of Ela in Benjamin;
4:19 Geber son of Uri in the land of Gilead, including the territories of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan. There was also one governor in the land of Judah.
4:20 The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore, and they were eating and drinking and rejoicing.
4:21 And Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These kingdoms offered tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.
4:22 Solomon’s provisions for a single day were thirty cors of fine flour, sixty cors of meal,
4:23 ten fat oxen, twenty range oxen, and a hundred sheep, as well as deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened poultry.
4:24 For Solomon had dominion over everything west of the Euphrates—over all the kingdoms from Tiphsah to Gaza—and he had peace on all sides.
4:25 Throughout the days of Solomon, Judah and Israel dwelt securely from Dan to Beersheba, each man under his own vine and his own fig tree.
4:26 Solomon had 4,000 stalls for his chariot horses and 12,000 horses.
4:27 Each month the governors in turn provided food for King Solomon and all who came to his table. They saw to it that nothing was lacking.
4:28 Each one also brought to the required place their quotas of barley and straw for the chariot horses and other horses.
4:29 And God gave Solomon wisdom, exceedingly deep insight, and understanding beyond measure, like the sand on the seashore.
4:30 Solomon’s wisdom was greater than that of all the men of the East, greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.
4:31 He was wiser than all men—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and wiser than Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread throughout the surrounding nations.
4:32 Solomon composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five.
4:33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing in the wall, and he taught about animals, birds, reptiles, and fish.
4:34 So men of all nations came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.
Related Scripture
Deuteronomy 1:16–17 · teaching
Moses charges judges to hear fairly and without partiality.
2 Chronicles 1:1–13 · parallel
Chronicles also describes Solomon’s request and explains the tabernacle’s presence at Gibeon.
Location evidence
El-Jib is identified with Gibeon. The marker locates the dream’s named locality, not its precise sanctuary or the later hearing in Jerusalem.
Event map marker: Identified site; [longitude, latitude] = [35.183351, 31.847451]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Gibeon: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.183351, 31.847451]. Classification source: editorial.
Jerusalem: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.234167, 31.776667]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible.info: Jerusalem (CC BY 4.0)
For the class
Why is Solomon’s request for discernment a request for the good of others?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/united-kingdom.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm