1 Kings 3:7

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁵One night at Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, "Ask, and I will give it to you!" ⁶Solomon 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. ⁷And 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.⁸Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a people too numerous to count or number. ⁹Therefore 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?" ¹⁰Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had made this request. ¹¹So 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- ¹²behold, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. ¹³Moreover, 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. ¹⁴So if you walk in My ways and keep My statutes and commandments, just as your father David did, then I will prolong your days."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

thou hast: Daniel 2:21, Daniel 4:25, Daniel 4:32, Daniel 5:18, Daniel 5:21

a little: 1 Chronicles 29:1, Job 32:6-8, Ecclesiastes 10:16, Jeremiah 1:6, Matthew 18:3, Matthew 18:4

to go: Numbers 27:17, Deuteronomy 31:2, 1 Samuel 18:16, 2 Samuel 5:2, Psalms 121:8, John 10:3, John 10:4, John 10:9

Reciprocal: Exodus 3:11 - General Deuteronomy 1:12 - General Judges 11:11 - uttered 1 Kings 1:37 - As the 1 Kings 2:2 - and show 1 Kings 2:24 - set me 1 Chronicles 4:10 - God granted 1 Chronicles 22:5 - Solomon 2 Chronicles 1:9 - for thou hast 2 Chronicles 6:10 - I am risen 2 Chronicles 34:1 - eight years Isaiah 3:4 - children Matthew 18:2 - General Acts 1:21 - went Acts 9:28 - coming James 1:5 - any

Cross-References

Genesis 2:25
And the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.

Genesis 3:5
"For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Genesis 3:10
"I heard Your voice in the garden," he replied, "and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself."

Genesis 3:11
"Who told you that you were naked?" asked the LORD God. "Have you eaten of the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?"

Deuteronomy 28:34
You will be driven mad by the sights you see.

2 Kings 6:20
When they had entered Samaria, Elisha said, "O LORD, open the eyes of these men that they may see." Then the LORD opened their eyes, and they looked around and discovered they were in Samaria.

Isaiah 28:20
Indeed, the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket too small to wrap around you.

Isaiah 59:6
Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their deeds are sinful deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.

Luke 16:23
In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham from afar, with Lazarus by his side.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father,.... Removed by death, in whose stead he reigned by the appointment of God, and through his overruling providence, notwithstanding the attempts made to prevent it, and therefore to God he ascribes it:

and I [am but] a little child; not in age and stature, but in knowledge and understanding; for though his father called him a wise man, and he was judged so by others, and really was one, yet in his own opinion and thought of himself such was his modesty and humility, that he was but a child as to his intellectual powers and capacity for government: some understand this of age; and the Jews commonly say he was but twelve years of age when he was anointed king, which they reckon thus; that he was born at the time that Ammon ravished Tamar, two years after which was Absalom's sheep shearing, when he slew Amnon, on which he fled to Geshur, and was there three years; here are five years; he returned thence and was at Jerusalem two years; lo, seven years; he rebelled and was slain, and after that there was a famine of three years, which make ten; and in the year following David numbered the people, which was nine or ten months in doing; the next year he died, which was the fortieth of his reign, in all twelve years; so reckon Jarchi and Kimchi; and Eupolemus, an Heathen writer n, is express for it, who says, that David, when he had reigned forty years, delivered up the kingdom to Solomon his son, being then twelve years of age, which he must receive from the tradition of the Jews; the same is said by several of the ancient fathers, as Ignatius o and Jerom p; but this cannot be fact; for, if so, his son Rehoboam must be born to him when he was but eleven years of age; :-; it is best therefore to interpret this of the sense he had of the weakness of his understanding, and of his incapacity for government, as the next clause explains it:

I know not [how] to go out or come in; in the administration of government, to execute his office as a king, in allusion to shepherds, as kings are sometimes called, going in and out before their sheep.

n Apud Euseb. ut supra. (Praeparat. Evangel. l. 9. c. 30, 31, 32.) o Epist. ad Magnesios, p. 141. Ed. Voss. p Epist. Rufino & Vitali, fol. 24, 25. tom. 3.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See 1 Kings 2:2 note, and on the hyperbole contained in the phrase “little child,” compare Genesis 43:8; Exodus 33:11.

How to go out or come in - This expression is proverbial for the active conduct of affairs. (See the marginal reference.)

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 3:7. I know not how to go out or come in. — I am just like an infant learning to walk alone, and can neither go out nor come in without help.