³² King David then said, “Call in the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada for me.”^(A) So they came into the king’s presence. ³³ The king said to them, “Take my servants^(B) with you, have my son Solomon ride on my own mule,^(C) and take him down to Gihon.^{(D) 34} There, the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan are to anoint him as king over Israel.^(E) You are to blow the ram’s horn^(F) and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ ^{(G) 35} You are to come up after him, and he is to come in and sit on my throne. He is the one who is to become king in my place; he is the one I have commanded to be ruler^(H) over Israel and Judah.”^(I)

³⁶ “Amen,” Benaiah son of Jehoiada replied to the king. “May the Lord, the God of my lord the king, so affirm it.^{(J) 37} Just as the Lord was with my lord the king,^(K) so may he^[a] be with Solomon and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.”^(L)

³⁸ Then the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites^(M) went down, had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and took him to Gihon. ³⁹ The priest Zadok took the horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon.^(N) Then they blew the ram’s horn,^(O) and all the people proclaimed, “Long live King Solomon!” ^{(P) 40} All the people went up after him, playing flutes and rejoicing with such a great joy^(Q) that the earth split open from the sound.^[b]

The Lord Appears to Solomon

3 Solomon made an alliance^[a] with Pharaoh king of Egypt by marrying Pharaoh’s daughter.^(A) Solomon brought her to the city of David^(B) until he finished building his palace,^(C) the Lord’s temple,^(D) and the wall surrounding Jerusalem.^{(E) 2} However, the people were sacrificing on the high places,^(F) because until that time a temple for the Lord’s name^(G) had not been built. ³ Solomon loved the Lord^(H) by walking in the statutes of his father David,^(I) but he also sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

⁴ The king went to Gibeon^(J) to sacrifice there because it was the most famous high place. He offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.^{(K) 5} At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon^(L) in a dream at night.^(M) God said, “Ask.^(N) What should I give you?”

⁶ And Solomon replied, “You have shown great and faithful love to your servant, my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, righteousness, and integrity.^[b] You have continued this great and faithful love for him by giving him a son to sit on his throne,^(O) as it is today.^(P)

⁷ “Lord my God, you have now made your servant king in my father David’s place.^(Q) Yet I am just a youth with no experience in leadership.^{[c](R) 8} Your servant is among your people you have chosen,^(S) a people too many to be numbered or counted.^{(T) 9} So give your servant a receptive heart to judge^(U) your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?” ^(V)

¹⁰ Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had requested this. ¹¹ So God said to him, “Because you have requested this and did not ask for long life^[d] or riches for yourself,^(W) or the death^[e] of your enemies, but you asked discernment for yourself to administer justice,^{(X) 12} I will therefore do what you have asked.^(Y) I will give you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has never been anyone like you before and never will be again.^{(Z) 13} In addition, I will give you what you did not ask for: both riches and honor,^(AA) so that no king will be your equal during your entire life.^{(AB) 14} If you walk in my ways and keep my statutes and commands just as your father David did, I will give you a long life.”^(AC)

¹⁵ Then Solomon woke up^(AD) and realized it had been a dream.^(AE) He went to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the Lord’s covenant,^(AF) and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.^(AG) Then he held a feast^(AH) for all his servants.

Solomon’s Wisdom and Literary Gifts

²⁹ God gave Solomon wisdom, very great insight, and understanding^(A) as vast as the sand on the seashore. ³⁰ Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East,^(B) greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.^{(C) 31} He was wiser than anyone^(D)—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite,^(E) and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, sons of Mahol.^(F) His reputation extended to all the surrounding nations.^(G)

Solomon’s Blessing

⁵⁴ When Solomon finished praying this entire prayer and petition to the Lord, he got up from kneeling before the altar of the Lord, with his hands spread out toward heaven,^{(D) 55} and he stood and blessed the whole congregation of Israel^(E) with a loud voice: ⁵⁶ “Blessed be the Lord! He has given rest^(F) to his people Israel according to all he has said. Not one of all the good promises he made through his servant Moses has failed.^{(G) 57} May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors. May he not abandon us or leave us^{(H) 58} so that he causes us to be devoted^[a] to him,^(I) to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, which he commanded our ancestors. ⁵⁹ May my words with which I have made my petition before the Lord be near the Lord our God day and night. May he uphold his servant’s cause and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires.^{(J) 60} May all the peoples of the earth know that the Lord is God. There is no other!^{(K) 61} Be wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord our God^(L) to walk in his statutes and to keep his commands, as it is today.”

The Lord’s Response

9 When Solomon finished building the temple of the Lord,^(A) the royal palace, and all that Solomon desired to do,^{(B) 2} the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time just as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.^{(C) 3} The Lord said to him:

I have heard your prayer and petition you have made before me. I have consecrated this temple you have built, to put^[a] my name there forever;^(D) my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.^(E)

⁴ As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and in what is right, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and ordinances,^{(F) 5} I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.^(G)

⁶ If you or your sons turn away from following me and do not keep my commands—my statutes that I have set before you—and if you go and serve other gods and bow in worship to them,^{(H) 7} I will cut off Israel from the land I gave them,^(I) and I will reject^[b] the temple I have sanctified for my name.^(J) Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.^(K)

Solomon’s Unfaithfulness to God

11 King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter:^(A) Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women^{(B) 2} from the nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, and they must not intermarry with you, because they will turn your heart away to follow their gods.”^(C) To these women Solomon was deeply attached^[a] in love. ³ He had seven hundred wives who were princesses and three hundred who were concubines,^(D) and they turned his heart away.^(E)

⁴ When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods. He was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God, as his father David had been.^(F)

⁹ The Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.^{(A) 10} He had commanded him about this, so that he would not follow other gods, but Solomon did not do what the Lord had commanded.^(B)

¹¹ Then the Lord said to Solomon, “Since you have done this^[a] and did not keep my covenant and my statutes, which I commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.^{(C) 12} However, I will not do it during your lifetime for the sake of your father David;^(D) I will tear it out of your son’s hand. ¹³ Yet I will not tear the entire kingdom away from him. I will give one tribe to your son^(E) for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem that I chose.”