Solomon Asks for Wisdom

3 Then Solomon made a marriage agreement with Pharaoh the king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the city of David. She stayed there until he had finished building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall around Jerusalem. ² The people were still giving their different gifts on altars, because no house had yet been built for the name of the Lord.

³ Now Solomon loved the Lord. He walked in the Laws of his father David. But he gave gifts and burned special perfume on different altars. ⁴ The king went to give a gift on the altar in worship at Gibeon, for that was where the most important altar was. Solomon gave a thousand burnt gifts on that altar. ⁵ The Lord came to Solomon in a special dream in Gibeon during the night. God said, “Ask what you wish Me to give you.” ⁶ Then Solomon said, “You have shown great loving-kindness to Your servant David my father because he was faithful and right and good and pure in heart before You. And You have kept for him this great and lasting love. You have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. ⁷ Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child. I do not know how to start or finish. ⁸ Your servant is among Your people which You have chosen. They are many people. There are too many people to number. ⁹ So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and know the difference between good and bad. For who is able to judge Your many people?”

¹⁰ It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. ¹¹ God said to him, “You have asked this, and have not asked for a long life for yourself. You have not asked for riches, or for the life of those who hate you. But you have asked for understanding to know what is right. Because you have asked this, ¹² I have done what you said. See, I have given you a wise and understanding heart. No one has been like you before, and there will be no one like you in the future. ¹³ I give you what you have not asked, also. I give you both riches and honor. So there will be no king like you all your days. ¹⁴ And if you walk in My ways and keep My Laws and Word as your father David did, I will allow you to live a long time.”

¹⁵ Solomon awoke, and saw it was a dream. He came to Jerusalem and stood before the Lord’s special box of the agreement. There he gave burnt gifts and peace gifts, and made a special supper for all his servants.

Solomon’s Wisdom

¹⁶ Then two women who sold the use of their bodies came to the king and stood in front of him. ¹⁷ One of the women said, “O my lord, this woman and I live in the same house. And I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. ¹⁸ On the third day after I gave birth, this woman gave birth to a child also. And we were alone. There was no one else with us in the house. There were only the two of us. ¹⁹ This woman’s son died during the night, because she lay on him. ²⁰ So she got up in the night and took my son from my side while I was asleep. She laid him in her arms, and her dead son in my arms. ²¹ When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, I saw that he was dead. But when I came nearer and looked, I saw that he was not my son who was born to me.” ²² Then the other woman said, “No! The living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” But the first woman said, “No! The dead one is your son and the living one is my son.” They spoke this way in front of the king.

²³ Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one.’ The other says, ‘No! Your son is the dead one. My son is the living one.’” ²⁴ And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword to the king. ²⁵ And the king said, “Divide the living child in two. Give half to the one woman and half to the other.” ²⁶ Then the mother of the living child had much pity for her son and said to the king, “O, my lord, give her the living child. Do not kill him.” But the other woman said, “He will not be mine or yours. Divide him.” ²⁷ Then the king answered and said, “Give the first woman the living child. Do not kill him. She is his mother.” ²⁸ When all Israel heard how the king had decided, they were afraid of him. For they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do what is right and fair.

Solomon’s Leaders

4 Now King Solomon was the king of all Israel. ² These were the king’s men. Azariah the son of Zadok was the religious leader. ³ Shisha’s sons Elihoreph and Ahijah were the heads of meetings. Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the one who wrote down the things of the nation. ⁴ Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was captain of the army. Zadok and Abiathar were religious leaders. ⁵ Azariah the son of Nathan was over the leaders. Zabud the son of Nathan was a religious leader and the king’s friend. ⁶ Ahishar was head of the king’s house. And Adoniram the son of Abda was head of the men who were made to work.

⁷ Solomon had twelve men over all Israel, who brought food for the king and those of his house. Each man had to bring food for one month in the year. ⁸ These were their names. There was Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim, ⁹ and Ben-deker in Makaz. There were Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, Elonbeth-hanan, ¹⁰ Ben-hesed in Arrubboth (Socoh and all the land of Hepher belonged to him), ¹¹ and Ben-abinadab in all Naphath-Dor (Solomon’s daughter Taphath was his wife). ¹² There was Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo and all Beth-shean which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah as far as the other side of Jokmeam. ¹³ There was Bengeber in Ramoth-gilead. (The towns of Manasseh’s son Jair which are in Gilead were his. And he had the land of Argob in Bashan, where there were sixty big cities with walls and locks of brass.) ¹⁴ There was Ahinadab the son of Iddo in Mahanaim, ¹⁵ Ahimaaz in Naphtali (who married Solomon’s daughter Basemath), ¹⁶ and Baana the son of Hushai in Asher and Bealoth. ¹⁷ And there was Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah in Issachar, ¹⁸ Shimei the son of Ela in Benjamin, ¹⁹ and Geber the son of Uri in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan. He was the only leader in the land.

Solomon’s Riches

²⁰ There were many people in Judah and Israel, as much as the sand beside the sea. They were eating and drinking and full of joy.

²¹ Solomon ruled over all the nations from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and to the land of Egypt. They brought taxes and worked for Solomon all the days of his life. ²² The food brought to Solomon for one day was 300 baskets of fine flour, 600 baskets of seeds, ²³ ten fat bulls, twenty grass-fed bulls, 100 sheep, and deer, gazelles, roebucks and fat birds. ²⁴ Solomon ruled over everything west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah to Gaza. He ruled over all the kings west of the Euphrates. And he had peace around him on all sides. ²⁵ So Judah and Israel were safe. Every man was safe under his vine and fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. ²⁶ Solomon had 40,000 rooms for his war-wagon horses, and 12,000 horsemen. ²⁷ Those leaders brought food for King Solomon and all who came to his table, each during his month. They made sure nothing was missing. ²⁸ They brought barley and straw for the fast horses and the war-wagon horses, where it was needed. Each man did the work he had been given to do.

²⁹ God gave Solomon wisdom and much understanding and learning, as much as the sand beside the sea. ³⁰ Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹ He was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol, Darda, and the sons of Mahol. His name was known in all the nations around him. ³² He spoke 3,000 wise sayings and wrote 1,005 songs. ³³ He spoke of trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows on the wall. He spoke of animals, birds, things that moved upon the ground, and fish. ³⁴ Men came from all nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon. They came from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.