1 Kings 3:2-5:14
New Catholic Bible
2 [a]In the meantime, the people sacrificed upon the high places,[b] for a temple to the name of the Lord had not yet been built. 3 Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, except that he sacrificed and burned incense upon the high places.
4 The king went to Gibeon to perform a sacrifice there, for that was an important high place. Solomon offered up one thousand burnt offerings upon that altar.
5 The Lord appeared to Solomon that night in a dream at Gibeon. God said, “Ask me for whatever you want.” 6 Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, David, my father, because he walked before you in fidelity and righteousness. His heart was upright before you. You have even continued to show him this great kindness by having given him a son to sit upon his throne up to this very day. 7 Now, O Lord, my God, you have established your servant as king in the place of David, my father, but I am only a small child and do not know how to go out and come in. 8 Your servant is among the people you have chosen, a great people. There are so many of them that they cannot be numbered or counted. 9 Therefore, give your servant a discerning heart to judge your people and to distinguish between what is good and what is bad, for who would be able to judge this, your great people?”
10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked for this. 11 God said to him, “Because you have asked for this thing, and you have not asked for a long life for yourself, or that you be rich, or for the life of your enemies, but you asked for understanding to discern what is just, 12 behold, I am fulfilling your request. I will give you such a wise and understanding heart that there was never anyone like you before your times, nor will anyone like you rise up afterwards.[c]
13 “I will also give you those things for which you did not ask, both riches and honor, so that no other king will be like you as long as you live. 14 If you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and commandments, just as David, your father, walked, then I will prolong your life.”
15 Solomon woke up, and it had been a dream. He went to Jerusalem and stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. He offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and he celebrated a feast with all his servants.
16 Solomon’s Wisdom. Now two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 One of the women said, “O my lord, I and this woman live in the same house. I had a child while this woman was in the house.
18 “Three days after I had my child, this woman also had a child. We were there together, and there was no one else with us in the house, only the two of us. 19 This woman’s child died during the night because she rolled over upon it. 20 She got up in the middle of the night, and she took my son from my side while your servant was asleep. She put him by her breast, and she put her dead son by my breast. 21 When I got up the next morning to nurse my son, he was dead. I examined him carefully in the morning, and behold, it was not the son whom I had borne.”
22 The other woman said, “No! My son is the living one; your son is the dead one!” The first woman said, “No! Your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one!” They argued this way before the king.
23 The king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son, the living one, and that is your son, the dead one,’ while the other one says, ‘No! Your son is dead, my son is alive.’ ” 24 The king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword to the king. 25 The king said, “Divide the living child in two. Give one-half to one of them, and one-half to the other.”
26 The woman whose child was alive was moved to compassion for her son and she said to the king, “O my lord, give her the living child. Do not kill him!” But the other said, “Neither I nor you will have him. Cut him in two!”
27 The king then said, “Give her the living child. Do not kill him. She is his mother.” 28 When all of Israel heard about how the king had judged the case, they were filled with awe toward the king. They realized that he had the wisdom of God by the way he was able to judge properly.
Chapter 4
Solomon’s Wealth and Household. 1 King Solomon reigned over all of Israel. 2 These were his officials: Azariah, the son of Zadok, was the priest; 3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, were the scribes; Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, kept the records; 4 Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was the commander of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were the priests; 5 Azariah, the son of Nathan, was the director of the local officials; Zabud, the son of Nathan, was the king’s own priest and advisor; 6 Ahishar was the major-domo of the palace; and Adoniram, the son of Abda, was in charge of forced labor.
7 Solomon had twelve local officials in charge of all of Israel.[d] They provided food for the king and his household. Each of them was assigned to provide provisions for one month each year. 8 These are their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim; 9 Ben-deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan; 10 Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (Socoh and all the lands of Hepher belonged to it); 11 Ben-abinadab, (who was married to Taphath, the daughter of Solomon) in Naphath-dor; 12 Baana, the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and in all of Beth-shean, which lie alongside of Zarethan below Jezreel, running from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah and on across to Jokmeam; 13 Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (the towns of Jair, the son of Manasseh, in Gilead were his as well as the region of Argob in Bashan with its sixty large cities fortified with bronze gate bars); 14 Ahinadab, the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; 15 Ahimaaz, (who married Basemath, the daughter of Solomon) in Naphtali; 16 Baana, the son of Hushai, in Asher and Aloth; 17 Jehoshaphat, the son of Paruah, in Issachar; 18 Shimei, the son of Ela, in Benjamin; 19 and Geber, the son of Uri, in Gilead (the land of Sihon, the king of the Amorites, and of Og, the king of Bashan). He was the only district official in that territory.
20 The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the shore of the sea. They ate, and they drank, and they were happy. 21 Solomon ruled over all of the kingdoms in the land that extended from the river over to the land of the Philistines and down to the border with Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon for his entire lifetime.
22 Each day’s provision for Solomon included thirty cors[e] of fine flour, sixty cors of meal, 23 ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed cattle, and one hundred sheep, in addition to deer, gazelles, roebuck, and fatted fowl.
24 He ruled over all of this side of the river, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all of the kings on this side of the river. He had peace on every side.
25 Judah and Israel lived in safety from Dan to Beer-sheba, every man under his own vine and under his own fig tree, during the entire time of Solomon. 26 Solomon also had forty thousand stalls for his chariot horses, and twelve thousand horsemen.
27 Those officials provided food for King Solomon and for all of those who came to King Solomon’s table. Each one was assigned his month, and they saw to it that nothing was missing. 28 Each of them also brought his quota of barley and straw for the chariot horses and the other horses to the assigned place.
29 The Wisdom of Solomon. God granted Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, a largeness of heart that was as abundant as the sand on the shore of the sea. 30 The wisdom of Solomon was even greater than that of the wisdom of all of the men of the East and of the wisdom of Egypt. 31 He was wiser than any other person, including Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. His fame spread to all of the surrounding nations. 32 He proclaimed three thousand proverbs,[f] and he produced one thousand and five songs. 33 He was able to discourse upon trees, from the cedars of Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall. He also spoke about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. 34 Everyone came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, sent by kings from all over the world who had heard about his wisdom.
Chapter 5
Temple Plans. 1 Hiram, the king of Tyre, sent his servants to Solomon for he had heard that he had been anointed as king in his father’s place, for Hiram had always been a friend of David.[g] 2 Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, 3 “You know that David, my father, could not build a temple for the name of the Lord, his God, because he had to fight battles on every side until the Lord placed them under his feet. 4 Now the Lord, my God, has given me rest on every side, so that there are neither adversaries nor disasters. 5 I therefore intend to build a temple for the name of the Lord, my God, as the Lord foretold to David, my father, when he said, ‘Your son whom I will establish to take your place upon your throne will be the one who will build a temple for my name.’ 6 Give orders to cut cedars of Lebanon for me. My servants will work alongside your servants, and I will pay your servants whatever wage you set. You know that we have no one among us who is as skilled as the Sidonians in cutting down trees.”
7 When Hiram heard Solomon’s message, he rejoiced greatly. He said, “Blessed be the Lord today, for he has given David a wise son to rule over this great nation.” 8 Hiram sent word to Solomon, saying, “I have received the message you sent me, and I will do everything that you wish concerning the cedar trees and fir trees. 9 My servants will haul them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will float them across the water by rafts, bringing them to the place that you establish for me. They will be broken apart for you there, and you can take them away. You, in turn, can fulfill my desire by providing food for my household.”
10 So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar trees and fir trees that he desired, 11 and Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household and twenty cors of pure oil. This is what Solomon gave to Hiram every year. 12 The Lord gave Solomon wisdom, just as he had promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they made a covenant with each other.
13 [h]Then King Solomon raised up a labor force from all of Israel, and the labor force numbered thirty thousand men. 14 He sent ten thousand of them each month to Lebanon in shifts. They were in Lebanon for one month, and then they were home for two months. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.
Footnotes
- 1 Kings 3:2 The celebration of worship apart from the place where the Ark resided was not yet forbidden; the editor deplores it, however, because he could see from what happened that the practice had favored idolatry.
- 1 Kings 3:2 High places: continued a Canaanite practice; the worship of the Lord there was contaminated by the worship of Baal (Jdg 6:25f).
- 1 Kings 3:12 The Lord’s overwhelming gratuitous response to Solomon’s request for an understanding heart sets him apart forever and demonstrates the extent to which God blesses those who are faithful and serve with a clean heart.
- 1 Kings 4:7 All of Israel: in actuality this applied to the northern tribes who were expected to provide more than Judah in the south to the monarchy. This, among other inequities, would lead to the dissolution of the kingdom (see 1 Ki 12:1-19).
- 1 Kings 4:22 Cors: the largest Hebrew measure of solid weight; it has been calculated as being equivalent to between two hundred and four hundred liters.
- 1 Kings 4:32 Three thousand proverbs: many of Solomon’s wise sayings are found in the Book of Proverbs, in the Song of Songs, and in Ecclesiastes.
- 1 Kings 5:1 Friend of David: Hiram’s connection to David was more of a political than a social one. Solomon’s continuation of the alliance is woven into the deals made between them for the construction of the temple.
- 1 Kings 5:13 King Solomon’s wisdom was apparent in scheduling the workforce for monthly tours during the building of the temple. In this way, he was assured of a fresh supply of rested and willing workers. Solomon followed his father’s advice concerning his enemies (vv. 5-9).
