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Beginning

Read the Bible from start to finish, from Genesis to Revelation.

Duration: 365 days

1 Kings 3-5

Chapter 3

Early Promise of Solomon’s Reign.^[a] ¹^(A)Solomon allied himself by marriage with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He married the daughter of Pharaoh and brought her to the City of David, until he should finish building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall around Jerusalem. ²The people were sacrificing on the high places, however, for up to that time no house had been built for the name of the Lord. ³Although Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, he offered sacrifice and burned incense on the high places.

⁴The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, because that was the great high place. Upon its altar Solomon sacrificed a thousand burnt offerings. ⁵In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said: Whatever you ask I shall give you. ⁶Solomon answered: “You have shown great kindness to your servant, David my father, because he walked before you with fidelity, justice, and an upright heart; and you have continued this great kindness toward him today, giving him a son to sit upon his throne. ⁷Now, Lord, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed David my father; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act— ⁸I, your servant, among the people you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. ⁹Give your servant, therefore, a listening heart to judge your people and to distinguish between good and evil. For who is able to give judgment for this vast people of yours?”

¹⁰The Lord was pleased by Solomon’s request. ¹¹So God said to him: Because you asked for this—you did not ask for a long life for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies—but you asked for discernment to know what is right— ¹²I now do as you request. I give you a heart so wise and discerning that there has never been anyone like you until now, nor after you will there be anyone to equal you. ¹³^(B)In addition, I give you what you have not asked for: I give you such riches and glory that among kings there will be no one like you all your days. ¹⁴And if you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and commandments, as David your father did, I will give you a long life. ¹⁵Solomon awoke; it was a dream! He went to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, sacrificed burnt offerings and communion offerings, and gave a feast for all his servants.

Solomon’s Listening Heart.^[b] ¹⁶Later, two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. ¹⁷One woman said: “By your leave, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth in the house while she was present. ¹⁸On the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were alone; no one else was in the house with us; only the two of us were in the house. ¹⁹This woman’s son died during the night when she lay on top of him. ²⁰So in the middle of the night she got up and took my son from my side, as your servant was sleeping. Then she laid him in her bosom and laid her dead son in my bosom. ²¹I rose in the morning to nurse my son, and he was dead! But when I examined him in the morning light, I saw it was not the son I had borne.” ²²The other woman answered, “No! The living one is my son, the dead one is yours.” But the first kept saying, “No! the dead one is your son, the living one is mine!” Thus they argued before the king. ²³Then the king said: “One woman claims, ‘This, the living one, is my son, the dead one is yours.’ The other answers, ‘No! The dead one is your son, the living one is mine.’” ²⁴The king continued, “Get me a sword.” When they brought the sword before the king, ²⁵he said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one woman and half to the other.” ²⁶^[c]The woman whose son was alive, because she was stirred with compassion for her son, said to the king, “Please, my lord, give her the living baby—do not kill it!” But the other said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours. Cut it in two!” ²⁷The king then answered, “Give her the living baby! Do not kill it! She is the mother.” ²⁸When all Israel heard the judgment the king had given, they were in awe of him, because they saw that the king had in him the wisdom of God for giving right judgment.

Chapter 4

Solomon’s Riches: Domestic Affairs.^[d] ¹Solomon was king over all Israel, ²and these were the officials he had in his service:

Azariah, son of Zadok, the priest;

³Elihoreph and Ahijah, sons of Shisha, scribes;

Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud, the chancellor;

⁴Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, in charge of the army;

Zadok and Abiathar, priests;

⁵Azariah, son of Nathan, in charge of the governors;

Zabud, son of Nathan, priest and companion to the king;

⁶Ahishar, master of the palace; and

Adoniram, son of Abda, in charge of the forced labor.

⁷^[e]Solomon had twelve governors over all Israel who supplied food for the king and his household, each having to provide for one month in the year. ⁸Their names were:^[f]

the son of Hur in the hill country of Ephraim;

⁹the son of Deker in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon Beth-hanan;

¹⁰the son of Hesed in Arubboth, as well as in Socoh and the whole region of Hepher;

¹¹the son of Abinadab, in all Naphath-dor; he was married to Taphath, Solomon’s daughter;

¹²Baana, son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo and all Beth-shean near Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah to beyond Jokmeam;

¹³the son of Geber in Ramoth-gilead, having charge of the villages of Jair, son of Manasseh, in Gilead; and of the district of Argob in Bashan—sixty large walled cities with gates barred with bronze;

¹⁴Ahinadab, son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;

¹⁵Ahimaaz, in Naphtali; he was married to Basemath, another daughter of Solomon;

¹⁶Baana, son of Hushai, in Asher and Aloth;

¹⁷Jehoshaphat, son of Paruah, in Issachar;

¹⁸Shimei, son of Ela, in Benjamin;

¹⁹Geber, son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and of Og, king of Bashan.

There was one governor besides, in the land of Judah.^[g] ²⁰^(C)Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sands by the sea; they ate and drank and rejoiced.

Chapter 5

Solomon’s Riches: International Affairs. ¹^[h]Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River^[i] to the land of the Philistines, down to the border of Egypt; they paid Solomon tribute and served him as long as he lived. ²^[j]Solomon’s provisions for each day were thirty kors of fine flour, sixty kors of meal, ³ten fatted oxen, twenty pasture-fed oxen, and a hundred sheep, not counting harts, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl. ⁴He had dominion over all the land west of the River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, and all its kings, and he had peace on all his borders round about. ⁵^(D)Thus Judah and Israel lived in security, everyone under their own vine and fig tree from Dan to Beer-sheba, as long as Solomon lived.

Solomon’s Riches: Chariots and Horses. ⁶^(E)Solomon had forty thousand stalls for horses for chariots and twelve thousand horsemen. ⁷^[k]The governors, one for each month, provided food for King Solomon and for all the guests at King Solomon’s table. They left nothing unprovided. ⁸For the chariot horses and draft animals also, each brought his quota of barley and straw to the required place.

Solomon’s Renown. ⁹^(F)Moreover, God gave Solomon wisdom, exceptional understanding, and knowledge, as vast as the sand on the seashore. ¹⁰Solomon’s wisdom surpassed that of all the peoples of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. ¹¹He was wiser than anyone else—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, or Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the musicians—and his fame spread throughout the neighboring peoples. ¹²Solomon also uttered three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five. ¹³He spoke of plants, from the cedar on Lebanon to the hyssop growing out of the wall, and he spoke about beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes. ¹⁴^(G)People from all nations came to hear Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

Preparations for the Temple.^[l] ¹⁵When Hiram, king of Tyre, heard that Solomon had been anointed king in place of his father, he sent an embassy to him; for Hiram had always been David’s friend.^[m] ¹⁶Solomon sent back this message to Hiram: ¹⁷^(H)“You know that David my father, because of the wars that beset him, could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God until such time as the Lord should put his enemies under the soles of his feet. ¹⁸But now the Lord, my God, has given me rest on all sides, without adversary or misfortune. ¹⁹^(I)So I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord, my God, as the Lord said to David my father: Your son whom I will put upon your throne in your place shall build the house for my name. ²⁰Give orders, then, to have cedars from the Lebanon cut down for me. My servants shall accompany yours, and I will pay you whatever you say for your servants’ wages. For you know that there is no one among us who is skilled in cutting timber like the Sidonians.” ²¹When Hiram had heard the words of Solomon, he was overjoyed, and said, “Blessed be the Lord this day, who has given David a wise son over this numerous people.” ²²^[n]Hiram then sent word to Solomon, “I have heard the proposal you sent me, and I will provide all the cedars and fir trees you desire. ²³My servants shall bring them down from the Lebanon to the sea, and I will arrange them into rafts in the sea and bring them wherever you say. There I will break up the rafts, and you shall take the lumber. You, for your part, shall furnish the provisions I desire for my household.” ²⁴So Hiram continued to provide Solomon with all the cedars and fir trees he desired, ²⁵while Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand kors of wheat to provide for his household, and twenty kors^[o] of hand-pressed oil. Solomon gave Hiram all this every year. ²⁶The Lord gave Solomon wisdom as he promised him. So there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made^[p] a covenant.

²⁷King Solomon raised thirty thousand forced laborers from all Israel.^[q] ²⁸He sent them to the Lebanon for a month in relays of ten thousand, so that they spent one month in the Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor. ²⁹Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountain, ³⁰in addition to three thousand three hundred overseers answerable to Solomon, who were in charge of the work and directed the people engaged in the work. ³¹By order of the king, fine, large blocks of stone were quarried to give the house a foundation of hewn stone. ³²Solomon’s and Hiram’s builders, along with others from Gebal,^[r] shaped them, and prepared the wood and stones for building the house.

Footnotes

3:1–15 The third major unit of the Solomon story depicts the bright beginning of his reign. It includes the narrator’s remarks about Solomon’s marriage and his building projects, and a divine appearance to Solomon. Compare 11:1–13, where the same themes recur, but in negative fashion. The story of the divine appearance is told also in 2 Chr 1:1–13.
3:16–5:14 The fourth major unit of the Solomon story shows how Solomon used the three gifts that the Lord gave him in 3:12–13: a listening heart (3:16–28), riches (4:1–5:8), universal renown (5:9–14). In each case his gifts benefited the populace, from the lowest classes (3:16–28) to his whole people (4:20; 5:5) to the whole world (5:9–14). Compare 9:26–10:29, where the same three gifts all redound to the benefit of Solomon himself.
3:26–27 The true mother reveals herself by an uncommon and tender word for the child, “baby.” With this, and the woman’s willingness to give up her child, Solomon realizes that she is the true mother, and quotes her words exactly in rendering his judgment.
4:1–5:8 The sub-unit on Solomon’s riches is organized around domestic affairs (4:1–20) and international affairs (5:1–5), with a short appendix on Solomon’s horses and chariots (5:6–8). Compare 9:26–10:29, where comparable elements reappear.
4:7–19 The administration of the kingdom thus initiated by Solomon continued in its main features for the duration of the monarchy in Israel and Judah. Note the use of “all Israel” to mean only the northern tribes (see also 5:27). Solomon’s exactions did not fall evenly on the whole people, but favored his own southern tribe of Judah. Eventually this inequity would lead to the dissolution of the union of Israel and Judah (12:1–19).
4:8–19 Several of the governors are identified only by their fathers’ names.
4:19 One governor…land of Judah: the royal territory of Judah had its own peculiar administration different from that of the twelve northern districts, each of which had to supply the king and his household with a month’s provisions of food each year (v. 7).
5:1–32 This translation follows the numeration of the Hebrew Bible, rather than the Vulgate; in many English translations, 5:1–14 is 4:21–34, and 5:15 is 5:1.
5:1 The River: that is, the Euphrates. This claim may be exaggerated, but “from the Euphrates to the border of Egypt” was the traditional description of the extent of the Davidic holdings.
5:2 The list of Solomon’s supplies may have originally belonged with the list of governors in 4:7–19, but the author has placed it here to imply that Solomon’s vassal kingdoms, not his own citizenry, supplied his vast daily needs. The daily provisions listed could have supported several thousand people. Kors: see note on Ez 45:14.
5:7 This verse suggests that the governors also saw to the provender for Solomon’s animals (v. 8).
5:15–32 The fifth major unit of the Solomon story explains the preparations Solomon made for the construction of the Temple. He negotiates with Hiram of Tyre for materiel (5:15–26), and conscripts a labor force for personnel (5:27–32). Compare 9:11–23, which returns to the same two themes after the Temple has been built and dedicated. 2 Chr 2:1–17 presents another version of the same material.
5:15 David’s friend: the term “to be a friend,” lit., “to love,” is political, and means that David and Hiram had been allies. The purpose of Hiram’s embassy is to determine whether Solomon is willing to continue the alliance. This unspoken agenda lies behind the negotiations about materials for the Temple, as the concluding v. 26 makes clear.
5:22–23 Although his reply is couched in polite, diplomatic language, Hiram renegotiates Solomon’s terms in his own favor. No Israelites are to enter Tyrian territory, and Solomon is not to pay the salary of Hiram’s laborers but rather to furnish “provisions” for his household—the same language used of the tribute Solomon received from his own vassals in v. 2.
5:25 Twenty kors: this means about two thousand gallons of the finest olive oil available, hand-pressed rather than produced in large olive presses, so that no debris (such as crushed olive pits, powder from the grinding stones) would contaminate the oil. Also see note on 2 Chr 2:9.
5:26 Made: lit., “cut.” The story of Solomon’s arrangements with Hiram is framed by references to political alliance between Israel and Tyre (vv. 15, 26). Since, in Hebrew idiom, Hiram and Solomon “cut” a covenant, this suggests that the agreement they reach for “cutting” wood (which clearly favors Hiram) reflects the terms of the larger treaty.
5:27 All Israel: see note on 4:7–19.
5:32 Gebal: Byblos.

New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.