Study Desk

Then ^(a)Solomon ^[a]formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter ^(b)and brought her to the city of David ^(c)until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and ^(d)the wall around Jerusalem.

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

Now ^(f)Solomon loved the Lord , ^(g)walking in the statutes of his father David, except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

^(h)The king went to ⁽ⁱ⁾Gibeon to sacrifice there, ^(j)for that was the great high place; Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

^(k)In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon ^(l)in a dream at night; and God said, "^(m)Ask what you wish Me to give you."

Then Solomon said, "⁽ⁿ⁾You have shown great lovingkindness to Your servant David my father, ^(o)according as he walked before You in ^[b]truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You; and ^(p)You have ^[c]reserved for him this great lovingkindness, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.

Now, O Lord my God, ^(q)You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet ^(r)I am but a little child; ^(s)I do not know how to go out or come in.

^(t)Your servant is in the midst of Your people which You have chosen, ^(u)a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted.

So ^(v)give Your servant ^[d]an understanding heart to judge Your people ^(w)to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this ^[e]great people of Yours?"

^[f]It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing.

God said to him, "Because you have asked this thing and have ^(x)not asked for yourself ^[g]long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself ^[h]discernment to understand justice,

behold, ^(y)I have done according to your words. Behold, ^(z)I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you.

^(aa)I have also given you what you have not asked, both ^(ab)riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days.

^(ac)If you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will ^(ad)prolong your days."

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

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

The one woman said, "Oh, my lord, ^[i]this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.

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

This woman's son died in the night, because she lay on it.

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

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

Then the other woman said, "No! For the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son." But ^[j]the first woman said, "No! For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son." Thus they spoke before the king.

Then the king said, "^[k]The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one'; and ^[l]the other says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.'"

The king said, "Get me a sword." So they brought a sword before the king.

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

Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for ^[m](ag)she was deeply stirred over her son and said, "Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him." But the other said, "He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!"

Then the king said, "Give ^[n]the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him. She is his mother."

When all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had ^[o]handed down, they feared the king, for ^(ah)they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to ^[p]administer justice.

Now King Solomon was king over all Israel.

These were his officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was ^(a)the priest;

Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha were secretaries; ^(b)Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder;

and ^(c)Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and ^(d)Abiathar were priests;

and Azariah the son of Nathan was over ^(e)the deputies; and Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, was the king's friend;

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

Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, who ^[a]provided for the king and his household; each man had to ^[b]provide for a month in the year.

These are their names: Ben-hur, in the ^(f)hill country of Ephraim;

Ben-deker in Makaz and ^(g)Shaalbim and ^(h)Beth-shemesh and Elonbeth-hanan;

Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (⁽ⁱ⁾Socoh was his and all the land of ^(j)Hepher);

Ben-abinadab, in all ^[c]the ^(k)height of Dor (Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife);

Baana the son of Ahilud, in ^(l)Taanach and Megiddo, and all ^(m)Beth-shean which is beside ⁽ⁿ⁾Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to ^(o)Abel-meholah as far as the other side of ^(p)Jokmeam;

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

Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in ^(t)Mahanaim;

^(u)Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also married Basemath the daughter of Solomon);

Baana the son of ^(v)Hushai, in Asher and ^[d]Bealoth;

Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;

^(w)Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin;

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

^(y)Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the ^[e]seashore in abundance; they were eating and drinking and rejoicing.

^[f](z)Now Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms ^(aa)from the ^[g]River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; ^(ab)they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

Solomon's ^[h]provision for one day was thirty ^[i]kors of fine flour and sixty ^[j]kors of meal,

ten fat oxen, twenty ^[k]pasture-fed oxen, a hundred sheep besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.

For he had dominion over everything ^[l]west of the ^[m]River, from Tiphsah even to ^(ac)Gaza, ^(ad)over all the kings ^[n]west of the ^[o]River; and ^(ae)he had peace on all sides around about him.

^(af)So Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his vine and his fig tree, ^(ag)from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

^(ah)Solomon had ^[p]40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen.

Those deputies ^[q]provided for King Solomon and all who came to King Solomon's table, each in his month; they left nothing lacking.

They also brought barley and straw for the horses and ^(ai)swift steeds to the place where it should be, each according to his charge.

Now ^(aj)God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of ^[r]mind, ^(ak)like the sand that is on the seashore.

Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all ^(al)the sons of the east and ^(am)all the wisdom of Egypt.

For ^(an)he was wiser than all men, than ^(ao)Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, ^(ap)Calcol and ^[s]Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his ^[t]fame was known in all the surrounding nations.

^(aq)He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005.

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

^[u]Men ^(ar)came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.