A verse by verse commentary on 1 Kings 3 dealing with Solomon Asks for Wisdom and A Wise Ruling.

1. 1 KI GS 3 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Solomon Asks for Wisdom
1 Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of
Egypt and married his daughter. He brought her
to the City of David until he finished building his
palace and the temple of the Lord, and the wall
around Jerusalem.
BAR ES, "What Pharaoh is meant is uncertain. It must have been a predecessor of
Shishak (or Sheshonk), who invaded Judaea more than 40 years later 1Ki_14:25; and
probabilities are in favor, not of Psusennes II, the last king of Manetho’s 21st dynasty,
but of Psinaces, the predecessor of Psusennes. This, the Tanite dynasty, had become very
weak, especially toward its close, from where we may conceive how gladly it would ally
itself with the powerful house of David. The Jews were not forbidden to marry foreign
wives, if they became proselytes. As Solomon is not blamed for this marriage either here
or in 1 Kings 11, and as the idol temples which he allowed to be built 1Ki_11:5-7 were in
no case dedicated to Egyptian deities, it is to be presumed that his Egyptian wife adopted
her husband’s religion.
The city of David - The city, situated on the eastern hill, or true Zion, where the
temple was afterward built, over against the city of the Jehusites (1Ki_9:24; compare
2Ch_8:11).
CLARKE, "Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh - This was no doubt a political
measure in order to strengthen his kingdom, and on the same ground he continued his
alliance with the king of Tyre; and these were among the most powerful of his neighbors.
But should political considerations prevail over express laws of God? God had strictly
forbidden his people to form alliances with heathenish women, lest they should lead
their hearts away from him into idolatry. Let us hear the law: Neither shalt thou make
marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter
shalt thou take unto thy son; for they will turn away thy son from following me, etc.
Exo_34:16; Deu_7:3, Deu_7:4. Now Solomon acted in direct opposition to these laws;
and perhaps in this alliance were sown those seeds of apostacy from God and goodness
in which he so long lived, and in which he so awfully died.

2. Those who are, at all hazards, his determinate apologists, assume,
1. That Pharaoh’s daughter must have been a proselyte to the Jewish religion, else
Solomon would not have married her.
2. That God was not displeased with this match.
3. That the book of Song of Solomon, which is supposed to have been his
epithalamium, would not have found a place in the sacred canon had the spouse,
whom it all along celebrates, been at that time an idolatress.
4. That it is certain we nowhere in Scripture find Solomon blamed for this match. See
Dodd.
Now to all this I answer,
1. We have no evidence that the daughter of Pharaoh was a proselyte, no more than
that her father was a true believer. It is no more likely that he sought a proselyte
here than that he sought them among the Moabites, Hittites, etc., from whom he
took many wives.
2. If God’s law be positively against such matches, he could not possibly be pleased
with this breach of it in Solomon; but his law is positively against them, therefore
he was not pleased.
3. That the book of Song of Solomon being found in the sacred canon is, according to
some critics, neither a proof that the marriage pleased God, nor that the book was
written by Divine inspiration; much less that it celebrates the love between Christ
and his Church, or is at all profitable for doctrine, for reproof, or for edification in
righteousness.
4. That Solomon is most expressly reproved in Scripture for this very match, is to me
very evident from the following passages: Did Not Solomon, king of Israel, Sin by
these things? Yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was
beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless even him
did outlandish women cause to sin; Neh_13:26. Now it is certain that Pharaoh’s
daughter was an outlandish woman; and although it be not expressly said that
Pharaoh’s daughter is here intended, yet there is all reasonable evidence that she is
included; and, indeed, the words seem to intimate that she is especially referred to.
In 1Ki_3:3 it is said, Solomon Loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David;
and Nehemiah says, Did not Solomon, king of Israel, Sin By These Things, who
Was Beloved of His God; referring, most probably, to this early part of Solomon’s
history. But supposing that this is not sufficient evidence that this match is spoken
against in Scripture, let us turn to 1Ki_11:1, 1Ki_11:2, of this book, where the cause
of Solomon’s apostasy is assigned; and there we read, But King Solomon loved
many Strange Women, Together with the Daughter of Pharaoh, women of the
Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites: of the nations
concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in unto
them; neither shall they come in unto you; for surely they will turn away your
heart after their gods: Solomon Clave unto These in Love. Here the marriage with
Pharaoh’s daughter is classed most positively with the most exceptionable of his
matrimonial and concubinal alliances: as it no doubt had its predisposing share in
an apostacy the most unprecedented and disgraceful.
Should I even be singular, I cannot help thinking that the reign of Solomon began
rather inauspiciously: even a brother’s blood must be shed to cause him to sit securely

3. on his throne, and a most reprehensible alliance, the forerunner of many others of a
similar nature, was formed for the same purpose. But we must ever be careful to
distinguish between what God has commanded to be done, and what was done through
the vile passions and foolish jealousies of men. Solomon had many advantages, and no
man ever made a worse use of them.
GILL, "And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt,.... Pharaoh
was a common name of the kings of Egypt, of whom no mention is made in Scripture
from the times of Moses until this time; which may seem strange, when it is considered
that that kingdom was a potent one, and near the land of Canaan; but it was governed by
a race of kings in this period of time, of whom, as Diodorus Siculus (i) says, there is
nothing worthy of relation. The name of this Pharaoh, according to Eupolemus (k), an
Heathen writer, was Vaphres; for he says, that David contracted a friendship with this
king, and he relates some letters which passed between him and Solomon, concerning
sending him workmen for the building of the temple, which are still preserved; but
Calvisius (l) thinks it was Sesostris; what this affinity was is next observed:
and took Pharaoh's daughter: that is, married her; who, according to Ben Gersom,
was proselyted first to the Jewish religion; which is very probable, or otherwise it can
hardly be thought Solomon would marry her; and as the forty fifth psalm, Psa_45:1, and
the book of Canticles, supposed to be written on that occasion, seem to confirm; to
which may be added, that it does not appear she ever enticed or drew him into idolatry;
for, of all the idols his wives drew him into the worship of, no mention is made of any
Egyptian deities. The Jews say (m) Rome was built the same day Solomon married
Pharaoh's daughter, but without foundation: this was not Solomon's first wife; he was
married to Naamah the Ammonitess before he was king, for he had Rehoboam by her a
year before that for Solomon reigned only forty years, and Rehoboam, who succeeded
him, was forty one years of age when he began to reign, 1Ki_11:41;
and brought her into the city of David; the fort of Zion:
until he had made an end of building his own house: which was thirteen years in
building, and now seems to have been begun, 1Ki_7:1;
and the house of the Lord; the temple, which according: to the Jewish chronology
(n), was begun building before his marriage of Pharaoh's daughter, and was seven years
in building; and therefore this marriage must be in the fourth year of his reign; for then
he began to build the temple, 1Ki_6:37; and so it must be, since Shimei lived three years
in Jerusalem before he was put to death, after which this marriage was, 1Ki_2:37;
and the wall of Jerusalem round about; all which he built by raising a levy on the
people, 1Ki_9:15; and when these buildings were finished, he built a house for his wife,
but in the mean while she dwelt in the city of David.
HE RY 1-4, "We are here told concerning Solomon,
I. Something that was unquestionably good, for which he is to be praised and in which
he is to be imitated. 1. He loved the Lord, 1Ki_3:3. Particular notice was taken of God's
love to him, 2Sa_12:24. He had his name from it: Jedidiah - beloved of the Lord. And
here we find he returned that love, as John, the beloved disciple, was most full of love.

4. Solomon was a wise man, a rich man; yet the brightest encomium of him is that which is
the character of all the saints, even the poorest, He loved the Lord, so the Chaldee; all
that love God love his worship, love to hear from him and speak to him, and so to have
communion with him. 2. He walked in the statutes of David his father, that is, in the
statutes that David gave him, 1Ki_2:2, 1Ki_2:3; 1Ch_28:9, 1Ch_28:10 (his dying father's
charge was sacred, and as a law to him), or in God's statutes, which David his father
walked in before him; he kept close to God's ordinances, carefully observed them and
diligently attended them. Those that truly love God will make conscience of walking in
his statutes. 3. He was very free and generous in what he did for the honour of God.
When he offered sacrifice he offered like a king, in some proportion to his great wealth, a
thousand burnt-offerings, 1Ki_3:4. Where God sows plentifully he expects to reap
accordingly; and those that truly love God and his worship will not grudge the expenses
of their religion. We may be tempted to say, To what purpose is this waste? Might not
these cattle have been given to the poor? But we must never think that wasted which is
laid out in the service of God. It seems strange how so many beasts should be burnt upon
one altar in one feast, though it continued seven days; but the fire on the altar is
supposed to be more quick and devouring than common fire, for it represented that
fierce and mighty wrath of God which fell upon the sacrifices, that the offerers might
escape. Our God is a consuming fire. Bishop Patrick quotes it as a tradition of the Jews
that the smoke of the sacrifices ascended directly in a straight pillar, and was not
scattered, otherwise it would have choked those that attended, when so many sacrifices
were offered as were here.
II. Here is something concerning which it may be doubted whether it was good or no.
1. His marrying Pharaoh's daughter, 1Ki_3:1. We will suppose she was proselyted,
otherwise the marriage would not have been lawful; yet, if so, surely it was not advisable.
He that loved the Lord should, for his sake, have fixed his love upon one of the Lord's
people. Unequal matches of the sons of God with the daughters of men have often been
of pernicious consequence; yet some think that he did this with the advice of his friends,
that she was a sincere convert (for the gods of the Egyptians are not reckoned among the
strange gods which his strange wives drew him in to the worship of, 1Ki_11:5, 1Ki_11:6),
and that the book of Canticles and the 45th Psalm were penned on this occasion, by
which these nuptials were made typical of the mystical espousals of the church to Christ,
especially the Gentile church. 2. His worshipping in the high places, and thereby
tempting the people to do so too, 1Ki_3:2, 1Ki_3:3. Abraham built his altars on
mountains (Gen_12:8; Gen_22:2), and worshipped in a grove, Gen_21:33. Thence the
custom was derived, and was proper, till the divine law confined them to one place,
Deu_12:5, Deu_12:6. David kept to the ark, and did not care for the high places, but
Solomon, though in other things he walked in the statutes of his father, in this came
short of him. He showed thereby a great zeal for sacrificing, but to obey would have been
better. This was an irregularity. Though there was as yet no house built, there was a tent
pitched, to the name of the Lord, and the ark ought to have been the centre of their
unity. It was so by divine institution; from it the high places separated; yet while they
worshipped God only, and in other things according to the rule, he graciously
overlooked their weakness, and accepted their services; and it is owned that Solomon
loved the Lord, though he burnt incense in the high places, and let not men be more
severe than God is.
JAMISO , "1Ki_3:1. Solomon marries Pharaoh’s daughter.
Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh — This was a royal title, equivalent to

5. “sultan,” and the personal name of this monarch is said to have been Vaphres. The
formation, on equal terms, of this matrimonial alliance with the royal family of Egypt,
shows the high consideration to which the Hebrew kingdom had now arisen. Rosellini
has given, from the Egyptian monuments, what is supposed to be a portrait of this
princess. She was received in the land of her adoption with great eclat; for the Song of
Solomon and the forty-fifth Psalm are supposed to have been composed in honor of this
occasion, although they may both have a higher typical reference to the introduction of
the Gentiles into the church.
and brought her into the city of David — that is, Jerusalem. She was not
admissible into the stronghold of Zion, the building where the ark was (Deu_23:7, Deu_
23:8). She seems to have been lodged at first in his mother’s apartments (Son_3:4; Son_
8:2), as a suitable residence was not yet provided for her in the new palace (1Ki_7:8;
1Ki_9:24; 2Ch_8:11).
building ... the wall of Jerusalem round about — Although David had begun
(Psa_51:18), it was, according to Josephus, reserved for Solomon to extend and
complete the fortifications of the city. It has been questioned whether this marriage was
in conformity with the law (see Exo_34:16; Deu_7:3; Ezr_10:1-10; Neh_13:26). But it is
nowhere censured in Scripture, as are the connections Solomon formed with other
foreigners (1Ki_11:1-3); whence it may be inferred that he had stipulated for her
abandonment of idolatry, and conforming to the Jewish religion (Psa_45:10, Psa_45:11).
K&D, "Solomon's marriage and the religious state of the kingdom. - 1Ki_3:1. When
Solomon had well secured his possession of the throne (1Ki_2:46), he entered into
alliance with Pharaoh, by taking his daughter as his wife. This Pharaoh of Egypt is
supposed by Winer, Ewald, and others to have been Psusennes, the last king of the
twenty-first (Tanitic) dynasty, who reigned thirty-five years; since the first king of the
twenty-second (Bubastic) dynasty, Sesonchis or Sheshonk, was certainly the Shishak
who conquered Jerusalem in the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign (1Ki_14:25-26). The
alliance by marriage with the royal family of Egypt presupposes that Egypt was desirous
of cultivating friendly relations with the kingdom of Israel, which had grown into a
power to be dreaded; although, as we know nothing more of the history of Egypt at that
time than the mere names of the kings (as given by Manetho), it is impossible to
determine what may have been the more precise grounds which led the reigning king of
Egypt to seek the friendship of Israel. There is, at any rate, greater probability in this
supposition than in that of Thenius, who conjectures that Solomon contracted this
marriage because he saw the necessity of entering into a closer relationship with this
powerful neighbour, who had a perfectly free access to Palestine. The conclusion of this
marriage took place in the first year of Solomon's reign, though probably not at the very
beginning of the reign, but not till after his buildings had been begun, as we may infer
from the expression ‫ּות‬‫נ‬ ְ‫ב‬ ִ‫ל‬ ‫ּו‬‫ת‬ּ ַⅴ ‫ד‬ ַ‫ע‬ (until he had made an end of building). Moreover,
Solomon had already married Naamah the Ammonitess before ascending the throne,
and had had a son by her (compare 1Ki_14:21 with 1Ki_11:42-43). - Marriage with an
Egyptian princess was not a transgression of the law, as it was only marriages with
Canaanitish women that were expressly prohibited (Exo_34:16; Deu_7:3), whereas it
was allowable to marry even foreign women taken in war (Deu_21:10.). At the same
time, it was only when the foreign wives renounced idolatry and confessed their faith in
Jehovah, that such marriages were in accordance with the spirit of the law. And we may
assume that this was the case even with Pharaoh's daughter; because Solomon adhered

6. so faithfully to the Lord during the first years of his reign, that he would not have
tolerated any idolatry in his neighbourhood, and we cannot find any trace of Egyptian
idolatry in Israel in the time of Solomon, and, lastly, the daughter of Pharaoh is
expressly distinguished in 1Ki_11:1 from the foreign wives who tempted Solomon to
idolatry in his old age. The assertion of Seb. Schmidt and Thenius to the contrary rests
upon a false interpretation of 1Ki_11:1. - ”And he brought her into the city of David, till
he had finished the building of his palace,” etc. Into the city of David: i.e., not into the
palace in which his father had dwelt, as Thenius arbitrarily interprets it in opposition to
2Ch_8:11, but into a house in the city of David or Jerusalem, from which he brought her
up into the house appointed for her after the building of his own palace was finished
(1Ki_9:24). The building of the house of Jehovah is mentioned as well, because the
sacred tent for the ark of the covenant was set up in the palace of David until the temple
was finished, and the temple was not consecrated till after the completion of the building
of the palace (see at 1Ki_8:1). By the building of “the wall of Jerusalem” we are to
understand a stronger fortification, and possibly also the extension of the city wall (see
at 1Ki_11:27).
BE SO , "1 Kings 3:1. Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh — As being a
powerful neighbour. And took Pharaoh’s daughter — To wife, which was not
unlawful, if she was first instructed in, and made a proselyte to, the Jewish religion,
as, in all probability, she was. For Solomon was not yet fallen from God, but loved
the Lord, and walked in the statutes of David, (1 Kings 3:3,) and therefore would
not have married a gross idolater, which would have been directly contrary to God’s
law, and most pernicious in its consequences. It is true he afterward loved many
strange women, and the wives he married alienated his heart from Jehovah, and
drew him in to worship strange gods: but the gods of the Egyptians are not
reckoned among them, nor does it appear that Pharaoh’s daughter was one of the
wives whose example or conversation had such a pernicious influence. On the
contrary, it is likely she was a worshipper of the true God, and that Solomon’s
taking her to wife was designed by God to be a type of Christ calling his church to
himself and to the true religion, not only from among the Jews, but even out of the
Gentile world. This, it is thought, plainly appears from the forty-fifth Psalm, and the
book of Canticles. And brought her into the city of David — Into David’s palace
there. Until he had made an end of building the house of the Lord — The temple
designed for the worship and honour of God. And the wall of Jerusalem round
about — Which, though in some sort built by David, yet Solomon is here said to
build, either because he made it higher and stronger, in which sense
ebuchadnezzar is said to have built Babylon, (Daniel 4:30,) or because he built
another wall besides the former, for after this time Jerusalem was encompassed with
more walls than one.
COFFMA , "THE BEGI I G OF THE REIG OF SOLOMO
( ote: 1 Kings 3:3-11 are devoted to a discussion of the reign of Solomon)
In a sense, the previous chapter gave us the beginning of Solomon's reign, but it was
concerned chiefly with his "liquidation" of potential enemies such as Shimei and

7. Abiathar and with his carrying out of David's sentence of death upon Joab. Here,
we have the actual beginning of Solomon's reign, which is usually described in the
most complimentary terms. As LaSor said, "For some strange reason Christian
literature has idealized Solomon, so that he hardly resembles the scriptural
portrait."[1]
It should be remembered that Solomon did OT build his glorious empire; he only
inherited it, and that he at once sowed the seeds of its destruction culminating in the
near-total loss of it as soon as he died. His vaunted "wisdom" was not demonstrated
by any noticeable application of it in his own undisciplined life. He violated with
abandon the commandments of God: (1) which forbade his multiplying wives for
himself; (2) the amassing of silver and gold; and (3) the accumulation of vast
numbers of war-horses (Deuteronomy 17:16-17). In addition to all this, he became a
gross idolater. Even that marvelous temple which he built, and to which God indeed
accommodated himself for the sake of his people, was never, in any ultimate sense,
the will of God, as a reference to 1 Samuel 8 clearly indicates.
Despite the consummate wickedness of Solomon and his scandalous reign, however,
the Jewish people were completely captivated and enamoured by it, an infatuation
which they never outgrew; because, even in the times of the Messiah, Jesus Christ
our Lord, they desired nothing either in heaven or upon earth as much as they
desired the restoration of that old Solomonic empire. Furthermore, their rejection of
Christ himself was, in the last analysis, due solely to their realization that the
Saviour's "Kingdom of Heaven" was something utterly different from the earthly
kingdom of Solomon.
"The shipwreck of Solomon is surely the most terrible tragedy in all the world."[2]
His Book of Ecclesiastes is a pessimistic description of the whole world, and even of
life itself. "All rivers ran into Solomon's sea: wisdom and knowledge, wine and
women, wealth and fame, music and songs; he tried them all but found them `vanity
and vexation of spirit,' simply because he left God out of his life."[3] It would be
wonderful to know that he repented and turned his life back to God, but there is no
record of it. He never wrote a penitential psalm as did his father (Psalms 51). He
was a strange contradiction in that all of his wisdom did not teach him self-control;
and out of that harem of a thousand pagan women, the only thing Solomon received
from it was a senseless egotistical fool for a son who at once lost the vast majority of
that so-called `glorious' empire.
SOLOMO BECAME THE SO -I -LAW OF PHARAOH!
"And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's
daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of
building his own house, and the house of Jehovah, and the wall of Jerusalem round
about. Only the people sacrificed in the high places, because there was no house
built for the name of Jehovah until those days. And Solomon loved Jehovah,
walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in
the high places."

8. "Pharaoh's daughter" (1 Kings 3:1) Gates identified this Pharaoh as being, "Either
the last of the 21st Dynasty of Egyptian rulers or the first of the 22nd Dynasty."[4]
Most scholars declare him to be "unknown." The significance of this note is that it
was unlawful for an Israelite to marry a foreign woman unless she changed her
religion to that of her husband's nation. Even then, the permission to marry foreign
women was usually related to captives taken in war. "But, at the same time, it was
permitted only when the foreign wives renounced their idolatry and confessed their
faith in Jehovah. It was only then that such marriages were in accordance with the
spirit of God's law."[5]
Keil and other scholars, "Assume that this was the case in Solomon's marriage with
Pharaoh's daughter," but this writer cannot allow the accuracy of such an
assumption. Keil pleaded Solomon's love of Jehovah, as stated in 1 Kings 3:2, as the
basis of his assumption; but those words appear to have been applicable only to a
very short period of Solomon's reign. And the uncertainty of the date of this
marriage leaves the question doubtful of whether or not it came within that very
brief period of Solomon's loving Jehovah and keeping his commandments. As LaSor
noted: "This account of the marriage has no chronological intention."[6]
Jamieson was of the opinion that the Song of Solomon and Psalms 45 were both
composed in honor of this, marriage of Solomon to the daughter of Pharaoh.[7]
"Only he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places" (1 Kings 3:3). Christian
students should beware of the tenderness with which many scholars comment on
Solomon's sins. Jamieson, for example, with regard to this passage wrote, "The
word `only' here is not to be understood as a qualifying circumstance that reflected
any degree of censure upon Solomon,"[8] to which it must be replied that it could
not possibly reflect anything else.
Leviticus 17:9 makes it clear enough that worshipping Jehovah at the high places of
Canaan was sinful. As Hammond stated it, "Israel's continuing to violate this sacred
prohibition was among the sins that "God winked at (Acts 17:30)."[9] The excuse
for this sin, already given in 1 Kings 3:2, was that, " o house had been built for the
name of Jehovah in those days." However, that was only an excuse; because, in the
first place God never desired a house (Temple) (2 Samuel 8) nor did he ever approve
of David's notion of building one.
COKE, ". And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh— There are many who blame
this action of Solomon's; observing, that whatever augmentation of power he might
promise himself from this alliance, he certainly ran the hazard of having his religion
corrupted. Others, however, have observed, that as the sacred Scriptures commend
the beginning of Solomon's reign, in all other respects except the people's sacrificing
in high places, which might be the rather tolerated because there was no house built
unto the name of the Lord in those days, 1 Kings 3:2 and as they gave him this
character, that he loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, 1

9. Kings 3:2 he would never have done an act so directly contrary to the laws of God as
marrying an idolatrous princess, had she not been first proselyted to the Jewish
faith. The Scriptures, indeed, take notice of the gods of the Moabites, Ammonites,
and Sidonians, for whom Solomon, in compliance with his strange wives, built
places of worship. See chap. 11: But as there is no mention made of any Gods of the
Egyptians, it seems very likely that this princess, when she was espoused to
Solomon, quitted the religion of her ancestors, to which Psalms 45:10-11 is thought
to allude in its primary sense. However this be, it is certain that no where in
Scripture do we find Solomon reproved for this match; nor can we think that his
book of Canticles, which is supposed to be in its primary sense his Epithalamium,
would have found a place in the sacred canon, had the spouse, whom it all along
celebrates, been at that time an idolatress. It may seem somewhat strange, that in all
the history of the Jews, from the time of Moses to that of Solomon, no mention
should be made of the kings of Egypt, as if they had no concern in the affairs of
Canaan, but were wholly diverted some other way: but for this their own historians
account, when they tell us, that during this space of time the "Egyptian kings did
nothing worthy recording." Diodor. Biblioth. lib. 1: p. 29. Clemens Alexandrinus, in
a passage taken from Alexander Polyhistor, tells us, that the proper name of this
Egyptian king, whose daughter Solomon married, was Vaphres. See Calmet.
ELLICOTT, "(1) Pharaoh king of Egypt.—At this time it would appear, from the
Egyptian records and traditions, that Egypt was weak and divided, and that what is
called the twenty-first dynasty of the Tanite kings was ruling in Lower Egypt. This,
and a corresponding abeyance (judging from the monuments) of Assyrian power,
gave scope for the rise to sudden greatness and wealth of the Israelite kingdom
under Solomon, and probably induced the Egyptian king of those days to consent to
an alliance which, at other times, the greatness of the Pharaohs might have spumed.
o fault is found with the alliance by the sacred historian, for the Egyptians were
never looked upon with the same aversion as the strange women of the Canaanite
races. As, moreover, it is not in any way connected with Solomon’s subsequent
declension into idolatry, noticed in 1 Kings 11:1-8, it is not unlikely that the new
queen literally acted on the call of the Psalmist (Psalms 45:10) to “forget her own
people and her father’s house.”
EBC, "THE BOY-KI G’S WISDOM
1 Kings 3:1-28
"An oracle is upon the lips of a king."- Proverbs 16:10 (Hebrews).
"A king that sitteth on the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his
eye."- Proverbs 20:8
"Ch’ei fu Re, che chiese senno Accioche Re sufficiente fosse." DA TE, Parad.,
13:95.

10. "Deos ipsos precor ut mihi ad finem usque vitae quietam et intelligentem humani
divinique juris mentem duint."-TAC., Ann., 4:38.
IT would have thrown an interesting light on the character and development of
Solomon, if we had been able to conjecture with any certainty what was his age
when the death of David made him the unquestioned king. The pagan historian
Eupolemos, quoted by Eusebius, says that he was twelve; Josephus asserts that he
was fifteen. If Rehoboam was indeed as old as forty-one when he came to the throne,
{1 Kings 14:21} Solomon can hardly have been less than twenty at his accession, for
in that case he must have been married before David’s death. {1 Kings 11:42} But
the reading "forty-one" in 1 Kings 14:21 is altered by some into "twenty-one," and
we are left in complete uncertainty. Solomon is called "a child," {1 Kings 3:7}
"young and tender"; {1 Chronicles 29:1} but his acts show the full vigor and
decision of a man.
The composite character of the Books of Kings leads to some disturbance of the
order of events, and 1 Kings 3:1-4 is perhaps inserted to explain Solomon’s sacrifice
at the high place of Gibeon, where stood the brazen altar of the old Tabernacle. But
no apology is needed for that act. The use of high places, even when they were
consecrated to the worship of Jehovah, was regarded in later days as involving
principles of danger, and became a grave offence in the eyes of all who took the
Deuteronomic standpoint. But high places to Jehovah, as distinct from those
dedicated to idols, were not condemned by the earlier prophets, and the resort to
them was never regarded as blameworthy before the establishment of the central
sanctuary.
After the frightful massacre of the descendants of Aaron at ob, the old
"Tabernacle of the congregation" and the great brazen altar of burnt offerings had
been removed to Gibeon from a city defiled by the blood of priests, {1 Samuel 22:17-
19} Gibeon stood on a commanding elevation within easy distance of Jerusalem, and
was henceforth regarded as "the great high place," until the Temple on Mount Zion
was finished. Thither Solomon went in that imposing civil, religious, and military
procession of which the tradition may be preserved in the name of Wady Suleiman
still given to the adjoining valley. There, with Oriental magnificence, like Xerxes at
Troy, he offered what the Greeks called a chiliombc, that is a tenfold hecatomb of
burnt offerings. This "thousandfold holocaust," as the Septuagint terms it, must
have been a stately and long-continued function, and in approval of his sacrifice
Jehovah granted a vision to the youthful king. Will the Lord be pleased with
thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil, when all the beasts of the
forest are His, and the cattle upon a thousand hills?" Thinkest thou," He asked, in
the words of the Psalmist, "that I will eat bull’s flesh or drink the blood of goats?"
o; but God always accepts a willing sacrifice in accordance with the purpose and
sincerity of the giver. In reward for the pure intention of the king He appeared to
Solomon in a dream, and said, "Ask what I shall give thee."
The Jews recognized three modes of Divine communication-by dreams, by Urim,

11. and by prophets. The highest and most immediate illumination was the prophetic.
The revelation by means of the primitive Urim and Thummim, the oracle and
jeweled breast-plate of the high priest, was the poorest, the most elementary, the
most liable to abuse. It was analogous to the method used by the Egyptian chief
priests, who wore round their necks a sapphire ornament called Thmei, or "truth,"
for purposes of divination. After the death of David the Urim and Thummim fell
into such absolute desuetude, as a survival of primitive times, that we do not read of
its being consulted again in a single instance. It is not so much as mentioned during
the five centuries of the history of the kings, and we do not hear of it afterwards.
Solomon never once inquired of the priests as David did repeatedly in the reign of
Solomon the voice of prophecy, too, was silent, until disasters began to cloud its
close. Times of material prosperity and autocratic splendor are unfavorable to the
prophet’s function, and sometimes, as in the days of Ahab, the prophets themselves
"philippised" in Jehovah’s name. But revelation by dreams occurs in all ages. In his
prophecy of the great future, Joel says, "Your old men shall see visions, your young
men shall dream dreams." It is true that dreams must always have a subjective
element, yet, as Aristotle says, "The visions of the noble are better than those of
common men." The dreams of night are reflections of the thoughts of day.
"Solomon worships God by day; God appears to Solomon by night. Well may we
look to enjoy God, when we have served him." Full of the thoughts inspired by an
intense devotion, and a yearning desire to rule aright, the sleeping soul of Solomon
became bright with eyes, and in his dream he made a worthy answer to the appeal
of God.
"Ask what I shall give thee!" That blessed and most loving offer is made to every
human soul. To the meanest of us all God flings open the treasuries of heaven. The
reason why we fatally lose them is because we are blinded by the glamour of
temptation, and snatch instead at glittering bubbles or Dead Sea fruits. We fail to
attain the best gifts, because so few of us earnestly desire them, and so many
disbelieve the offer that is made of them. Yet there is no living soul to which God has
not given the choice of good and evil. "He hath set fire and water before thee:
stretch forth thy hand unto whether thou wilt. Before man is life and death; and
whether him liketh shall be given him." (Sirach 15:16-17) Even when our choice is
not evil it is often desperately frivolous, and it is only too late that we rue the folly of
having rejected the better and chosen the worse.
"Damsels of Time the hypocritic days,
Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes,
And marching single in an endless file,
Bring diadems and fagots in their hands.
To each they offer gifts after his will, -
Bread, kingdoms, stars, and sky that holds them all.

12. I, in my pleached garden, watched the pomp,
Forgot my morning wishes; hastily
Took a few herbs and apples, and the Day
Turned and departed silent. I, too late,
Under her solemn fillet saw the scorn."
But Solomon made the wise choice. In his dream he thanked God for His mercifully
fulfilled promise to David his father, and with the touchingly humble confession, "I
am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in," he begged for an
understanding heart to judge between right and wrong in guiding his great and
countless people.
God was pleased with the noble, unselfish request. The youthful king might have
besought the boon of "many days," which was so highly valued before Christ had
brought life and immortality to light; or for riches, or for victory over his enemies.
Instead of this he had asked for "understanding, to discern judgment," and the
lesser gifts were freely accorded him. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." {Matthew 6:33} God
promised him that he should be a king of unprecedented greatness. He freely gave
him riches and honor, and, conditionally on his continued faithfulness, a long life.
The condition was broken, and Solomon was not more than sixty years old when he
was called before the God whom he forsook.
"And Solomon awoke, and behold it was a dream." But he knew well that it was
also more than a dream, and that "God giveth to His beloved even sleeping."
In reverential gratitude he offered a second sacrifice of burnt offerings before the
ark on Mount Zion, and added to them peace offerings, with which he made a great
feast to all his servants. Twice again did God appear to Solomon; but the second
time it was to warn, and the third time to condemn.
In the parallel account given by the chronicler, Solomon says, "Give me now
wisdom and knowledge," and God replies, "Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto
thee." There is a wide difference between the two things. Knowledge may come
while wisdom still lingers, and wisdom may exist in Divine abundance where
knowledge is but scant and superficial. The wise may be as ignorant as St. Antony,
or St. Francis of Assisi; the masters of those who know may show as little "wisdom
for a man’s self" as Abelard, or as Francis Bacon. "Among the Jews one set of terms
does service to express both intellectual and moral wisdom. The ‘wise’ man means
the righteous man; the ‘fool’ is one who is godless. Intellectual terms that describe
knowledge are also moral terms describing life." o doubt in the ultimate senses of
the words there can be no true knowledge, as there can be no perfect wisdom,

13. without goodness. This was a truth with which Solomon himself became deeply
impressed. "The fear of the Lord," he said, "is the beginning of wisdom but fools
despise knowledge and understanding." The lineaments of "a fool" are drawn in the
Book of Proverbs and they bear the impress of moral baseness and moral
aberrations.
To Solomon both boons were given, "wisdom and understanding exceeding much,
and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore." Of his many forms
of intellectual eminence I will speak later on. What he longed for most was evidently
moral insight and practical sagacity. He felt that "through justice shall the throne
be established."
1. Practical wisdom was eminently needed for the office of a judge. Judgeship was a
main function of Eastern royalty, and rulers were called Shophe-tim or judges. The
reality of the gift which Solomon had received from God was speedily to be tested.
Two harlots came before him. One had overlaid her child in the night, and stealing
the living child of the other she put her dead child in its place. There was no
evidence to be had. It was simply the bare word of one disreputable woman against
the bare word of the other. With instant decision, and a flash of insight into the
springs of human actions, Solomon gave the apparently childish order to cut the
children in two, and divide them between the claimants. The people laughed and the
delinquent accepted the horrible decision; but the mother of the living child yearned
for her babe, and she cried out, "O my lord, give, her the living babe, and no wise
slay it." "Give her the living babe, and in no wise slay it," murmured the king to
himself, repeating the mother’s words; and then he burst out with the triumphant
verdict, "Give her the living child! She is the mother thereof!"
The story has several parallels. It is said by Diodorus Siculus that when three youths
came before Ariopharnes, King of Thrace, each claiming to be the only son of the
King of the Cimmerians, he ordered them each to hurl a javelin at their father’s
corpse. Two obeyed, one refused, and Ariopharnes at once proclaimed him to be the
true son. Similarly an Indian story tells that a woman, before she bathed, left her
child on the bank of the pool, and a female demon carried it off. The goddess, before
whom each claimed the child, ordered them to pull it in two between them, and
consigned it to the mother who shuddered at the test. A judgment similarly founded
on filial instinct is attributed to the Emperor Claudius. A mother refused to
acknowledge her son; and as there were no proofs Claudius ordered her to marry
the youth, whereupon she was obliged to acknowledge that he was her son.
Modern critics, wise after the event, express themselves very slightingly of the
amount of intelligence required for the decision; but the people saw the value of the
presence of mind and rapid intuition which settled the question by bringing an
individual dilemma under the immediate arbitrament of a general law. They
rejoiced to recognize the practical wisdom which God had given to their young king.
The word Chokhmah, which is represented by one large section of Jewish literature,
implied the practical intelligence derived from insight or experience, the power to
govern oneself and others. Its conclusions were expressed chiefly in a gnomic form,

14. and they pass through various stages in the Sapiential Books of the Old Testament.
The chief books of the Chokhmah are the Books of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes,
followed by such books as "Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus." On the Divine side
Wisdom is the Spirit of God, regarded by man under the form of Providence;
{#/RAPC Wisdom of Solomon 1:4; Wisdom of Solomon 1:7; Wisdom of Solomon
7:7; Wisdom of Solomon 7:22; Wisdom of Solomon 9:17} and on the human side it is
trustworthy knowledge of the things that are (id. 7:17). It is, in fact, "a knowledge of
Divine and human things, and of their causes". {#/RAPC 4 Maccabees 2:16} This
branch of wisdom could be repeatedly shown by Solomon at the city gate and in the
hall of judgment.
2. His varied intellectual wisdom created deeper astonishment. He spake, we are
told, "of trees from the cedar which is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that
springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts and fowl and of creeping things
and of fishes." This knowledge has been misunderstood and exaggerated by later
tradition. It is expanded in the Book of Wisdom (Wisdom of Solomon 8:17) into a
perfect knowledge of cosmogony, astronomy, the alterations of solstices, the cycles of
years, the natures of wild beasts, the forces of spirits, the reasonings of men, the
diversities of plants. Solomon became to Eastern legend
"The warrior-sage, whose restless mind
Through nature’s mazes wandered unconfined,
Who every bird, and beast, and insect knew,
And spake of every plant that quaffs the dew."
His knowledge, however, does not seem to have been even empirically scientific. It
consisted in the moral and religious illustration of truth by emblems derived from
nature. He surpassed, we are told, the ethnic gnomic wisdom of all the children of
the East-the Arabians and Chaldaeans and all the vaunted scientific and mystic
wisdom of Egypt. Ethan and Heman were Levitic poets and musicians; Chalcol and
Darda were "sons of the choir," i.e., poets (Luther), or sacred singers; and all four
were famed for wisdom; but Solomon excelled them all. Of his one thousand and
five songs, the majority were probably secular. Only two psalms are even
traditionally assigned to him. Of his three thousand proverbs not more than two
hundred survive, even if all in the Book of Proverbs be his. Tradition adds that he
was a master of "riddles" or "dark sayings," by which he won largely in fines from
Hiram, whom he challenged for their solution, until the Tyrian king defeated him by
the aid of a sharp youth named Abdemon. Specimens of these riddles with their
answers may be found in the Book of Proverbs, {Proverbs 11:22; Proverbs 24:30-34;
Proverbs 25:25; Proverbs 26:8; Proverbs 30:15} for the Hebrew word "proverb"
(Mashal) probably means originally, an illustration. This book also contains various
ambiguous hard sayings of which the skilful construction awoke admiration and
stimulated thought. {E.g., Proverbs 6:10} The Queen of Sheba is said to have tested
Solomon by riddles. The tradition gradually spread in the East that Solomon was

15. also skilled in magic arts, that he knew the language of the birds, and possessed a
seal which gave him mastery over the genii. In the Book of Wisdom he is made to
say, "All such things as are either secret or manifest, them I know." Josephus
attributes to him the formulae and spells of exorcism, and in Ecclesiastes 2:8 the
words rendered "musical instruments" (shiddah and shiddoth; R.V, "concubines
very many") were understood by the Rabbis to mean that he was the lord over male
and female demons.
3. Far more precious than practical or intellectual ability is the gift of moral
wisdom, which Solomon so greatly appreciated but so imperfectly attained. Yet he
felt that "wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom." The world gives that
name to many higher and lower manifestations of capacity and attainment, but
wisdom is in Scripture the one law of all true life. In that magnificent outburst of
Semitic poetry, the twenty-eighth chapter of the Book of Job, after pointing out that
there is such a thing as natural knowledge-that there is a vein for the silver, and ore
of gold, and a place of sapphires, and reservoirs of subterranean fire-the writer
asks: "But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of
understanding?" After showing with marvelous power that it is beyond man’s
unaided search-that the depths and the seas say, "It is not in us," and destruction
and death have but heard the fame thereof with their ears - he adds with one great
crash of concluding music "GOD understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth
the place thereof And unto man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is
wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." {Job 28:23; Job 28:28} And
again we read, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." {Proverbs 1:7}
The sated cynic of the Book of the Ecclesiastes, or one who had studied, not without
dissatisfaction, his sad experience, adds, "Fear God, and keep His commandments:
for this is the whole duty of man." And in answer to the question "Who is a wise
man and endued with knowledge among you?" St. James, the Lord’s brother, who
had evidently been a deep student of the Sapiential literature, does not answer "He
who understands all mysteries," or, "He who speaks with the tongue of men or of
angels," but, "Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of
wisdom." Men whom the world has deemed wise have often fallen into utter
infatuation, as it is Written, "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness"; but
heavenly wisdom may belong to the most ignorant and simple hearted. It is "first
pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, without partiality and
without hypocrisy."
We should observe, however, that the Chokhmah, or wisdom-literature of the Jews,
while it incessantly exalts morality, and sometimes almost attains to a perception of
the spiritual life, was neither prophetic nor priestly in its character. It bears the
same relation to the teaching of the prophets on the one hand, and the priests on the
other, as morality does to religion and to externalism. Its teaching is loftier and
truer than the petty insistence of Pharisaism on meats and drinks and divers
washings, in that it deals with the weightier matters of the law; but it does not attain
to the passionate spirituality of the greater Hebrew seers. It cares next to nothing for
ritual, and therefore rises above the developed Judaism of the post-exilic epoch. It is
lofty and true inasmuch as it breathes the spirit of the Ten Commandments, but it

16. has not learnt the freedom of love and the beatitudes of perfect union with God. In
one word, it finds its culmination in Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus, rather than in the
spirit of the Sermon on the Mount and the Gospel of St. John.
We cannot better conclude this chapter than with the eulogy of the son of Sirach:
"Solomon reigned in a peaceable time and was honored; for God made all quiet
round about him, that he might build a house in His name and prepare His
sanctuary forever. How wise wast thou in thy youth, and as a flood, filled with
understanding! Thy soul covered the whole earth, and thou filledst it with dark
parables. Thy name went far unto the islands, and for thy peace thou wast beloved.
The countries marveled at thee for thy songs, and proverbs, and parables, and
interpretations. By the name of the Lord God, who is called the Lord God of Israel,
thou didst gather gold as tin, and didst multiply silver as lead (Sirach 47:13-18)."
PARKER, "Solomon"s Character
1 Kings 3:3
WHICH of these elements will conquer at the last? The sentence is divided into two
parts. There is only a semicolon between the one part and the other, so far as its
typographical relation is concerned; but the two parts are wide asunder morally as
far as the east is from the west. In which part of the sentence will Solomon die? This
is a question which concerns every man; for the same sentence may be employed in
describing the character of most of those who have in their hearts some good thing
towards the Lord God of Israel. Sometimes we go up as on wings of eagles. We run,
and are not weary; we walk, and are not faint. God seems to have given us great
strength, and riches ample and ever-enduring, so that the heart has no fear and the
spirit is unrestrained in prayer. Sometimes we go down into the place of night, the
very quarters of darkness, the very depths of gloom, where winter is born, where
sorrow sheds its tears, where iniquity comes with its broken petition, its half-selfish
prayer for forgiveness. In which of these conditions shall we finish life? That is the
question we put concerning Song of Solomon , and it is the inquiry we should put
concerning ourselves. Is this the morning twilight that grows into the perfect day: or
is it the evening twilight that deepens into uttermost darkness?
See how well Solomon begins. The very goodness of the beginning alarms us. That is
a sad thing to say, but considering life in all its breadth and tragedy, it seems a not
unnatural statement to make. How many fair mornings have died in tumultuous
sunsets! How many who began well have fallen out of the way, and are not found at
the last when the winners are counted one by one. And how many who began badly
come in late and say, Father, we have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and
are no more worthy to be called by any name of endearment or to have any place of
honour! Yet no doctrine can be founded upon either of these facts. They are simply
to be taken as phenomena, full of sharp suggestion and profound moral teaching.
See how well Solomon begins. When he went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, he slew a
thousand beasts, and burned them upon the great high place. In Gibeon Solomon

17. dreamed. When the Lord has his tenderest messages to deliver to us, does he not
cause a deep sleep to fall upon us, that we may have excluded from our vision and
imagination all things broad, vulgar, debasing, and misleading? When he would
send the angel into the garden, will he not send her through the gate of sleep? God
uses the dream as no nightmare, but as a moral medium, a highway into the soul"s
best thought. We shall see Solomon at his highest when we find him in a sleep into
which he has been put by the power of God. In answer to the divine inquiry
propounded in the dream, Solomon gives an outline of his own character and policy;
and looking at this answer, we ask again, Did Solomon begin well? And beginning
well, will he finish well? Hear him as he sleeps: he calls himself God"s "servant"; he
describes himself as "but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in."—( 1
Kings 3:7). Surely he will do well, a beginning like this must have a conclusion
worthy of its simplicity and pureness. He is king, yet servant; he is king, but not
God; he is king, but not master: he draws his lines definitely, he stands within his
bounds in an attitude of attention awaiting heaven"s will. What a sweet beginning!
Who would not baptise him then, in the name of the Father and the Son and the
Holy Ghost, three Persons in one God? He is worthy to be king. Wisdom is always
royal. Spiritual wisdom should always occupy the throne.
GUZIK, "A. God gives Solomon wisdom.
1. (1 Kings 3:1) Solomon marries an Egyptian princess.
ow Solomon made a treaty with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and married Pharaoh’s
daughter; then he brought her to the City of David until he had finished building his
own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall all around Jerusalem.
a. Solomon made a treaty with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and married Pharaoh’s
daughter: Marriage to fellow royalty was a common political strategy in the ancient
world, and continues to the modern age. It was not only because royalty wanted to
marry other royalty, but also because conflict between nations were avoided for the
sake of family ties.
i. This was not Solomon’s first marriage. 1 Kings 14:21 tells us that his son
Rehoboam came to the throne when he was 41 years old, and 1 Kings 11:42 tells us
that Solomon reigned 40 years. This means that Rehoboam was born to his mother -
a wife of Solomon named aamah the Amonitess - before he came to the throne and
before he married this daughter of Pharaoh.
ii. Solomon’s multiple marriages - and marriages to foreign women - will cause a
great disaster in his life. Later in the Book of ehemiah, ehemiah was angry and
frustrated because the people of Israel married with the pagan nations around
them. In rebuking the guilty, ehemiah remembered Solomon’s bad example: So I
contended with them and cursed them, struck some of them and pulled out their
hair, and made them swear by God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters as
wives to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or yourselves. Did not

18. Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no
king like him, who was beloved of his God; and God made him king over all Israel.
evertheless pagan women caused even him to sin. Should we then hear of your
doing all this great evil, transgressing against our God by marrying pagan women?”
( ehemiah 13:25-27)
iii. The foreign wives made Solomon more than a bad example - they ruined his
spiritual life. But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter
of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites;
from the nations of whom the LORD had said to the children of Israel, “You shall
not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts
after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives,
princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For
it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods;
and his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father
David. (1 Kings 11:1-4)
iv. 1 Kings 11:4 says this only happened when Solomon was old, but the pattern was
set with this first marriage to the Egyptian princess. It perhaps made political sense,
but not spiritual sense. “Such arranged marriages were a common confirmation of
international treaties, but this one was the beginning of Solomon’s spiritual
downfall.” (Wiseman)
v. 2 Samuel 3:3 tells us that David married the daughter of a foreign king: Maacah,
the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur. Marrying a foreign woman was not against
the Law of Moses - if she became a convert to the God of Israel. What did not ruin
David did ruin Solomon.
b. He brought her to the City of David: Though this was permitted under the Law of
Moses, it was not wise or good for Solomon to do. Later in his life, his foreign wives
were the reason his heart turned away from the LORD (1 Kings 11:4).
i. Old legends of Jewish rabbis say that on their wedding night, the Egyptian
princess cast a spell on Solomon and put a tapestry over their bed that looked like
the night sky with stars and constellations. The spell was intended to make Solomon
sleep, and when he did wake he looked up and thought the stars were still out and it
was still night so he went back to sleep. He slept on past 10:00 in the morning and
all Israel was grieved because Solomon kept the keys to the temple under his pillow
and they couldn’t have the morning sacrifice until he woke up. Finally his mother
Bathsheba roused him from sleep. (Cited in Ginzberg)
PULPIT, "THE BEGI I G OF SOLOMO 'S REIG .—In the preceding
chapter we have seen the establishment of Solomon's rule (verse 46) by the removal
of internal foes, i.e; of disaffected and rebellious subjects. In this we see him
strengthening his position by an external alliance, by a marriage with an Egyptian
princess. This event, however, is related here, not because the historian had this

19. connexion of ideas in his mind, but probably because the marriage came next in
order of time.
1 Kings 3:1
And Solomon made affinity [ ot "alliance" (as some have supposed) but
relationship. Lit; made himself son-in-law] with Pharaoh king of Egypt [which of
the Pharaohs this was, it is impossible to say with certainty. As, however, Shishak (1
Kings 11:40; 1 Kings 14:25) is undoubtedly the Sheshonk who succeeded to the
throne of Egypt in the 26th year of Solomon (Poole), and who was the first king of
the 22nd dynasty of Manetho, we may safely identify this Pharaoh with "a late king
of the 21st dynasty." It has been assumed (Bunsen, Ewald, Brugsch, al.) that it was
Psusennes II; the last king of that house, on the supposition that he reigned 35 years,
(as stated by Eusebius), but according to Africanus, his reign was limited to 14
years. It is wiser to say, therefore, with Mr. Poole (Dict. Bib; "Pharaoh") that this
Pharaoh "cannot yet be identified on Manetho's list." It is also impossible to decide
whether the alliance was first sought by Solomon with a view to win over a powerful
and dangerous neighbour (Thenius), to whose inroads his northern border was
exposed, and especially to counteract the influence (1 Kings 11:21) of Hadad
(Plumptre), or whether the marriage was proposed by Pharaoh because the 21st
dynasty "had then become very weak" (Rawlinson) and its head desired "friendly
relations with the kingdom of Israel, which had grown into a power to be dreaded"
(Keil). But we may reasonably suppose that the alliance "must have been to most
Israelites a very startling one" (Plumptre.) Egypt (Rahab, Psalms 89:10; Isaiah
51:9) was to every Israelite a name both of triumph and dread. The Pharaohs were
their ancestral foes], and took Pharaoh's daughter [A marriage such as this was not
without precedent (Genesis 41:45; Exodus 2:21; umbers 12:1; Matthew 1:5; Ruth
4:13), nor was it condemned by the Law, which only forbade intermarriage with the
nations of Canaan (Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3), and sanctioned the union of
an Israelite with a captive taken in war (Deuteronomy 21:13; cf. Deuteronomy
20:14). "At the same time, it was only when the foreign wives renounced idolatry,
that such marriages were in accordance with the spirit of the law" (Keil). As
Solomon at this period of his life faithfully observed the law, as he is never blamed
for this marriage, and as there is no trace whatever of the introduction of Egyptian
rites into Israel, it is a fair presumption that the Egyptian princess conformed to the
religion of her adopted country], and brought her into the city of David [2
Chronicles 8:11 speaks of her dwelling in "the house of David," i.e; it would seem,
the palace which David had occupied] until he had made an end [this hardly shows
that he had begun to build, as Keil infers. He did not begin building the Temple
until the fourth (1 Kings 6:1), nor his own house until the eleventh year (1 Kings
7:1) after his accession, and the marriage, though not at the very commencement of
his reign, can hardly have been delayed to the eleventh year, and may have taken
place before the death of Shimei] of building his own house [cf. 1 Kings 7:7] and the
house of the Lord [cf. 1 Kings 6:1-38.; 1 Kings 7:51] and the wall of Jerusalem
round about. [Probably, he both strengthened and extended the city walls, as
Josephus (Ant. 8.6. 1) affirms. Acc. to the LXX. addition to 1 Kings 12:1-33; it was
on this task that Jeroboam was employed (1 Kings 11:27; cf. 1 Kings 9:15). David

20. had fortified a part of the city (2 Samuel 5:9).
2 The people, however, were still sacrificing at the
high places, because a temple had not yet been
built for the ame of the Lord.
BAR ES, "The word “only” introduces a contrast. The writer means to say that there
was one exception to the flourishing condition of things which he has been describing,
namely, that “the people sacrificed in high-places.” (Compare the next verse.) The Law
did not forbid “high-places” directly, but only by implication. It required the utter
destruction of all the high-places which had been polluted by idolatrous rites Deu_12:2;
and the injunction to offer sacrifices nowhere except at the door of the tabernacle Lev_
17:3-5 was an indirect prohibition of them, or, at least, of the use which the Israelites
made of them; but there was some real reason to question whether this was a command
intended to come into force until the “place” was chosen “where the Lord would cause
His name to dwell.” (See Deu_12:11, Deu_12:14.) The result was that high-places were
used for the worship of Yahweh, from the time of the Judges downward Jdg_6:25; Jdg_
13:16; 1Sa_7:10; 1Sa_13:9; 1Sa_14:35; 1Sa_16:5; 1Ch_21:26, with an entire
unconsciousness of guilt on the part of those who used them. And God so far overlooked
this ignorance that He accepted the worship thus offered Him, as appears from the
vision vouchsafed to Solomon on this occasion. There were two reasons for the
prohibition of high-places; first, the danger of the old idolatry creeping back if the old
localities were retained for worship; and, secondly, the danger to the unity of the nation
if there should be more than one legitimate religious center. The existence of the
worship at high places did, in fact, facilitate the division of the kingdom.
CLARKE, "The people sacrificed in high places - Could there be any sin in this,
or was it unlawful till after the temple was built? for prophets, judges, the kings which
preceded Solomon, and Solomon himself, sacrificed on high places, such as Gibeon,
Gilgal, Shiloh, Hebron, Kirjath-jearim, etc. But after the temple was erected, it was sinful
to offer sacrifices in any other place; yet here it is introduced as being morally wrong,
and it is introduced, 1Ki_3:3, as being an exceptionable trait in the character of
Solomon. The explanation appears to be this: as the ark and tabernacle were still in
being, it was not right to offer sacrifices but where they were; and wherever they were,
whether on a high place or a plain, there sacrifices might be lawfully offered, previously
to the building of the temple. And the tabernacle was now at Gibeon, 2Ch_1:3. Possibly

21. the high places may be like those among the Hindoos, large raised-up terraces, on which
they place their gods when they bathe, anoint, and worship them. Juggernaut and
Krishnu have large terraces or high places, on which they are annually exhibited. But
there was no idol in the above case.
GILL, "Only the people sacrificed in high places,.... On the tops of their houses,
on hills and mountains, and particularly at the high place in Gibeon, where the
tabernacle was:
because there was no house built unto the name of the Lord until those
days; to which they were obliged to repair as afterwards, and there offer their sacrifices,
as the Lord had commanded, Deu_12:5.
JAMISO , "1Ki_3:2-5. High places being in use; his sacrifices at Gibeon.
K&D, "1Ki_3:2
“Only the people sacrificed upon high places, because there was not yet a house built
for the name of Jehovah until those days.” The limiting ‫ק‬ ַ‫,ר‬ only, by which this general
account of the existing condition of the religious worship is appended to what precedes,
may be accounted for from the antithesis to the strengthening of the kingdom by
Solomon mentioned in 1Ki_2:46. The train of thought is the following: It is true that
Solomon's authority was firmly established by the punishment of the rebels, so that he
was able to ally himself by marriage with the king of Egypt; but just as he was obliged to
bring his Egyptian wife into the city of David, because the building of his palace as not
yet finished, so the people, and (according to 1Ki_2:3) even Solomon himself, were only
able to sacrifice to the Lord at that time upon altars on the high places, because the
temple was not yet built. The participle ‫ים‬ ִ‫ח‬ ְ ַ‫ז‬ ְ‫מ‬ denotes the continuation of this religious
condition (see Ewald, §168, c.). The ‫ּות‬‫מ‬ ָ , or high places,
(Note: The opinion of Böttcher and Thenius, that ‫ה‬ ָ‫מ‬ ָ signifies a “sacred coppice,”
is only based upon untenable etymological combinations, and cannot be proved. And
Ewald's view is equally unfounded, viz., that “high places were an old Canaanaean
species of sanctuary, which at that time had become common in Israel also, and
consisted of a tall stone of a conical shape, as the symbol of the Holy One, and of the
real high place, viz., an altar, a sacred tree or grove, or even an image of the one God
as well” (Gesch. iii. p. 390). For, on the one hand, it cannot be shown that the tall
stone of a conical shape existed even in the case of the Canaanitish bamoth, and, on
the other hand, it is impossible to adduce a shadow of a proof that the Israelitish
bamoth, which were dedicated to Jehovah, were constructed precisely after the
pattern of the Baal's-bamoth of the Canaanites.)
were places of sacrifice and prayer, which were built upon eminences of hills, because
men thought they were nearer the Deity there, and which consisted in some cases
probably of an altar only, though as a rule there was an altar with a sanctuary built by
the side (‫ּות‬‫מ‬ ָ ‫ית‬ ֵ , 1Ki_13:32; 2Ki_17:29, 2Ki_17:32; 2Ki_23:19), so that ‫ה‬ ָ‫מ‬ ָ frequently
stands for ‫ה‬ ָ‫מ‬ ָ ‫ית‬ ֵ (e.g., 1Ki_11:7; 1Ki_14:23; 2Ki_21:3; 2Ki_23:8), and the ‫ה‬ ָ‫מ‬ ָ is also

22. distinguished from the ַ‫ח‬ ֵ ְ‫ז‬ ִ‫מ‬ (2Ki_23:15; 2Ch_14:2). These high places were consecrated
to the worship of Jehovah, and essentially different from the high places of the
Canaanites which were consecrated to Baal. Nevertheless sacrificing upon these high
places was opposed to the law, according to which the place which the Lord Himself had
chosen for the revelation of His name was the only place where sacrifices were to be
offered (Lev_17:3.); and therefore it is excused here on the ground that no house
(temple) had yet been built to the name of the Lord.
BE SO , "1 Kings 3:2. Only the people sacrificed in high places — Which were
groves, or other convenient places upon hills. In such places the patriarchs had been
wont to offer up their worship, and sacrifices to God; and from them this custom
was derived both to the Gentiles and the Jews; and in them the Gentiles sacrificed to
idols, and the Hebrews to the true God. But this custom was expressly forbidden by
God to his people, except in some extraordinary cases, and they were commanded to
offer their sacrifices and other oblations only in the place which the Lord should
choose, and where his tabernacle, altar, and ark should be, Leviticus 17:3-5;
Deuteronomy 12:10-14. It is, therefore, here mentioned as an exception to Solomon’s
integrity and glory, and the happiness of his reign, and as a blemish to his
government, that he permitted and practised what was thus so expressly forbidden.
Possibly he permitted it because he thought it better to allow of an error in a
circumstance, than occasion a neglect of God’s worship altogether, which he
apprehended would follow upon a severe prohibition of that practice. For the
people’s hearts were generally and constantly set upon these high places, as appears
from the following history; and they were not willing to submit to the trouble and
charge which the bringing their sacrifices to one place would cause, nor, indeed,
would they yield to it until the temple was built: and, as that was speedily to be
done, Solomon seems to have thought it more advisable to delay enforcing obedience
to God’s law in this point for the present, than by force to drive them to it. These,
however, and all other prudential considerations, ought to have given place to the
will and wisdom of God. Because there was no house built to the name of the Lord
— For his service, and to the honour, and praise, and glory of his name; that is, of
his majesty, and all his perfections, which were to be adored and manifested there.
But this reason for their sacrificing in high places was not sufficient; because there
was a tabernacle, to which they were as much confined as they were afterward to
the temple.
ELLICOTT, "(2) In high places.—The historian, writing from the point of view of
his own time, when, after the solemn consecration of the Temple, the worship at
“the high places,” which form natural sanctuaries, was forbidden, explains that
“because there was no house built unto the name of the Lord,” the people, and
Solomon himself, sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places. It is clear that
these high places were of two kinds—places of sacrifice to false gods, and
unauthorised sanctuaries of the Lord, probably associating His worship with visible

23. representations of Deity. The former class were, of course, absolute abominations,
like the high places of the Canaanite races, so sternly denounced in Deuteronomy
12:2-3. The prohibition of the other class of high places—constantly disobeyed by
some even of the better kings—appears to have had two distinct objects—(a) to
guard against all local corruptions of God’s service, and all idolatry, worshipping
Him (as at Bethel) under visible forms; (b) to prevent the breach of national unity,
by the congregation of the separate tribes round local sanctuaries. But besides these
objects, it served (c), as a very remarkable spiritual education for the worship of the
invisible God, without the aid of local and visible emblems of His presence, in
accordance with the higher prophetic teaching, and preparatory for the perfect
spirituality of the future. It is, indeed, hardly to be conceived that there should not
have been before the Captivity some places of non-sacrificial worship, in some
degree like the synagogues of the period after the exile, although not as yet
developed into a fully organised system. Unless we refer Psalms 74:8 to the
Maccabæan times, it must be supposed to describe the Chaldæan invasion, as
destroying not only the Temple, but also “all the houses of God”—properly
“assemblies,” and in our Bible version actually translated “synagogues “—“in the
land.” But these places of prayer and praise and instruction would be different in
their whole idea from the “high places” rivalling the Temple. Up to this time it is
clear that, even under Samuel and David, sacrificial worship elsewhere than in the
Tabernacle was used without scruple, though certainly alien from the spirit of the
Mosaic Law as to the supreme sacredness of the “place which God should choose to
place his name there.” (See, for example, 1 Samuel 7:10; 1 Samuel 13:9; 1 Samuel
14:35; 1 Samuel 16:5; 1 Chronicles 21:26.) After the solemn consecration of the
Temple, the circumstances and the character of such worship were altogether
changed.
GUZIK, "2. (1 Kings 3:2-4) Solomon’s great sacrifice.
Meanwhile the people sacrificed at the high places, because there was no house built
for the name of the LORD until those days. And Solomon loved the LORD, walking
in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at
the high places. ow the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the
great high place: Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.
a. People sacrificed at the high places, because there was no house built for the name
of the LORD: At this time, altars were allowed in Israel at various high places, as
long as those altars were unto the LORD and not corrupted by idolatry (as
commanded in Deuteronomy 16:21). When the temple was built, sacrifice was then
centralized at the temple.
b. Solomon loved the LORD . . . except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the
high places: There is good and bad in this assessment of Solomon. There is good in
that generally he walked in the statutes of his father David. There is bad in the
word, “except.”

24. i. At the same time, it seems that God showed mercy to those who violated this law
before the temple was built. “Could there be any sin in this, or was in unlawful till
after the temple was built? For prophets, judges, the kings which preceded
Solomon, and Solomon himself, sacrificed on high places, such as Gibeon, Gilgal,
Shiloh, Hebron, Kirath-jearin, etc. But after the temple was erected, it was sinful to
offer sacrifices in any other place.” (Clarke)
ii. Solomon did love the LORD - yet he also loved foreign wives who eventually
helped turn Solomon’s heart away from the LORD (1 Kings 11:4-10). “The perils of
mixed motives and a divided heart are terrible indeed.” (Morgan)
c. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar: This almost grotesque
amount of sacrifice demonstrated both Solomon’s great wealth and his heart to use
it to glorify God.
i. This was an important event marking the “ceremonial” beginning of Solomon’s
reign. According to 2 Chronicles 1:2-3, the entire leadership of the nation went with
Solomon to Gibeon.
d. ow the king went to Gibeon: Solomon made these special sacrifices at Gibeon
because that was the great high place. What made it different was that the
tabernacle was there, even though the ark of the covenant was in Jerusalem.
i. Tracking the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant in the Promised Land:
· Joshua brought both the ark and the tabernacle to Shiloh (Joshua 18)
· In the days of Eli the ark was captured and the tabernacle wrecked (1
Samuel 4, Psalms 78:60-64, Jeremiah 7:12; Jer_26:9)
· The ark came back to Kiriath-Jearim (1 Samuel 7:1-2)
· Saul restored the tabernacle at ob (1 Samuel 21)
· Saul moved the tabernacle to Gibeon (1 Chronicles 16:39-40)
· David brought the ark to Jerusalem and built a temporary tent for it (2
Samuel 6:17, 2 Chronicles 1:4)
ii. There were several reasons to explain why David did not bring the tabernacle
from Gibeon to Jerusalem:
· He may have believed if the tabernacle was there the people would be
satisfied with that and they would lose the passion and vision for the temple God
wanted built
· It may be that the tabernacle was only moved when it was absolutely

25. necessary - as when disaster came upon it at Shiloh or ob
· David simply focused on building the temple, not continuing the tabernacle
PULPIT, "Only [The word perhaps signifies "that there was one exception to the
flourishing condition of things which the writer has been describing" (Rawlinson),
though the people are nowhere blamed for sacrificing on the high places, and
Solomon's sacrifice at "the great high place "was full of blessing. The idea rather is
that just as he was obliged to bring his Egyptian wife into the city of David, because
his palace was not yet finished, so the people were compelled to sacrifice on the high
places, because the temple was not yet built (Keil), and "the place" where God
would put His name had only just been chosen (1 Chronicles 22:1)] the people
sacrificed [Heb. were sacrificing, i.e; habitually, constantly] in high places [All
nations have chosen hill tops for act of worship, perhaps as being nearer heaven.
"Even Abraham built an altar to the Lord on a mountain near Bethel (Genesis 12:7,
Genesis 12:8; cf. Genesis 22:2, Genesis 22:9; Genesis 31:54)." And the use of high
places for this purpose was not distinctly condemned in the Law. It is true the
Hebrews were commanded to have but one place of sacrifice (Le 17:9; Deuteronomy
12:5, Deuteronomy 12:11, Deuteronomy 12:13, Deuteronomy 12:26, Deuteronomy
12:27; cf. Joshua 22:29), and this no doubt was, if not an indirect prohibition, a
discouragement of such sanctuaries. It has been held, however, that this command
was purely prospective, and it is certainly remarkable that even when the Israelites
were settled in the promised land, and the tabernacle was set up (Joshua 18:1),
altars were constantly built and sacrifices offered on high places, and sometimes, as
in the case of Gideon ( 6:26), and Manoah ( 13:19, 13:20), by express Divine
command. Later on we find Samuel (1 Samuel 7:9, 1 Samuel 7:10; 1 Samuel 11:15; 1
Samuel 16:5), Saul (Hebrews 13:9; 14:35), David (1 Chronicles 21:26), Solomon and
Elijah (1 Kings 18:30), offering sacrifices in various places, which they could not
possibly have done had it seemed to them that this was condemned beforehand by
the Law. It is highly probable, therefore, that though the contemporaries of Joshua
took a different view (as Joshua 22:15-31 proves), the men of a later age excused
themselves on the ground stated in the text, that "there was no house built unto the
name of the Lord." It has been held by some that "had they not sacrificed and burnt
incense on high places, they could not have sacrificed or burnt incense at all" (Bp.
Horsley); but this seems to overlook the fact that there was one place provided for
sacrifices—the door of the tabernacle -- and that for some reason or other they
sacrificed elsewhere. And the reason, no doubt, was the one assigned by the
historian. It should be added that this term "high place" ( ‫ָה‬‫מ‬ָ‫בּ‬ ) came to be used of
all places of worship, not only on heights, but even those in valleys (2 Kings 17:9;
Jeremiah 7:31; Jeremiah 32:35). The Bamah sometimes consisted of an altar only,
but as a rule, there was a shrine or sanctuary, erected hard by (1 Kings 13:32; 2
Kings 17:29; 2 Kings 23:19), the Beth-Bamah, for which the word Bamah is
sometimes loosely employed (1 Kings 11:7; 1 Kings 14:23; 2 Kings 21:3)], because
there was no house built unto the name of the Lord until those days.

26. 3 Solomon showed his love for the Lord by
walking according to the instructions given him
by his father David, except that he offered
sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.
GILL, "And Solomon loved the Lord,.... The worship of the Lord, as the Targum:
and which he showed by
walking in the statutes of David his father; in which his father walked, which were
the statutes of the Lord, or which he exhorted him to walk in, and were the same, 1Ki_
2:3;
only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places; besides that at Gibeon,
which it seems David did not.
JAMISO , "And Solomon loved the Lord — This declaration, illustrated by what
follows, affords undoubted evidence of the young king’s piety; nor is the word “only,”
which prefaces the statement, to be understood as introducing a qualifying circumstance
that reflected any degree of censure upon him. The intention of the sacred historian is to
describe the generally prevailing mode of worship before the temple was built. The
high places were altars erected on natural or artificial eminences, probably from the
idea that men were brought nearer to the Deity. They had been used by the patriarchs,
and had become so universal among the heathen that they were almost identified with
idolatry. They were prohibited in the law (Lev_17:3, Lev_17:4; Deu_12:13, Deu_12:14;
Jer_7:31; Eze_6:3, Eze_6:4; Hos_10:8). But, so long as the tabernacle was migratory
and the means for the national worship were merely provisional, the worship on those
high places was tolerated. Hence, as accounting for their continuance, it is expressly
stated (1Ki_3:2) that God had not yet chosen a permanent and exclusive place for his
worship.
K&D, "1Ki_3:3
Even Solomon, although he loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David,
i.e., according to 1Ki_2:3, in the commandments of the Lord as they are written in the
law of Moses, sacrificed and burnt incense upon high places. Before the building of the
temple, more especially since the tabernacle had lost its significance as the central place

27. of the gracious presence of God among His people, through the removal of the ark of the
covenant, the worship of the high places was unavoidable; although even afterwards it
still continued as a forbidden cultus, and could not be thoroughly exterminated even by
the most righteous kings (1Ki_22:24; 2Ki_12:4; 2Ki_14:4; 2Ki_15:4, 2Ki_15:35).
BE SO , "1 Kings 3:3. And Solomon loved — Or, Yet he loved, the Lord —
Although he miscarried in the matter of high places, yet, in the general, his heart
was right with God. Walking in the statutes — According to the statutes or
commands of God, which are here called the statutes of David; not only because
they were diligently practised by David, but also because the observation of them
was so earnestly pressed upon Solomon, and fortified with David’s authority and
command.
PULPIT, "And Solomon loved the Lord [thus keeping the first and great
commandment, the "Shema Israel" (Deuteronomy 6:5; cf. Deuteronomy 30:16;
Matthew 22:1-46 :87; Luke 10:27], walking in the statutes of David his father [i.e;
those which David had kept (Luke 10:6,Luke 10:14) and commanded him to keep
(Luke 2:4)]: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places. [These words
clearly show that the worship of the high places, although condoned, and indeed
accepted, by God (Luke 10:5) was not strictly lawful and right. It was an ignorance
that God winked at. The historian, remembering what the worship of the high
places became, notices this as an imperfection of Solomon's early reign, though he
does not say that such worship was sinful.
4 The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for
that was the most important high place, and
Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on
that altar.
BAR ES, "Gibeon - The transfer to Gibeon of the “tabernacle of the congregation,”
and the brass “altar of burnt offerings” made by Moses, which were removed there from
Nob (compare 1Sa_21:6, with marginal references “i,” “k”), had made it “the great high-
place,” more sacred, i. e., than any other in the holy land, unless it were Mount Zion
where the ark had been conveyed by David. For the position of Gibeon, see Jos_9:3 note.

28. A thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer - Solomon presented the
victims. The priests were the actual sacrificers 1Ki_8:5. A sacrifice of a thousand victims
was an act of royal magnificence suited to the greatness of Solomon. So Xerxes offered
1,000 oxen at Troy. If the offerings in this case were “whole burnt offerings,” and were
all offered upon the altar of Moses, the sacrifice must have lasted several days.
GILL, "And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there,.... About four or five
miles from Jerusalem; See Gill on 1Ki_2:28;
for that was the great high place; not that the place itself might be higher than
others that were used; but here were the tabernacle of Moses, and the altar; so that it
was a more dignified place, and more sacred because of them:
a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar; the brazen altar
of burnt offerings there; not at one time, but on several days successively; though Jarchi
says on one day; and which was a prodigious number, never was known the like, unless
at the dedication of the temple, 1Ki_8:63.
JAMISO , "the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there — The old tabernacle
and the brazen altar which Moses had made in the wilderness were there (1Ch_16:39;
1Ch_21:29; 2Ch_1:3-6). The royal progress was of public importance. It was a season of
national devotion. The king was accompanied by his principal nobility (2Ch_1:2); and,
as the occasion was most probably one of the great annual festivals which lasted seven
days, the rank of the offerer and the succession of daily oblations may help in part to
account for the immense magnitude of the sacrifices.
K&D, "Solomon's Sacrifice and Dream at Gibeon (cf. 2Ch_1:1-13). - To implore the
divine blessing upon his reign, Solomon offered to the Lord at Gibeon a great sacrifice -
a thousand burnt-offerings; and, according to 2Ch_1:2, the representatives of the whole
nation took part in this sacrificial festival. At that time the great or principal bamah was
at Gibeon (the present el Jib; see at Jos_9:3), namely, the Mosaic tabernacle (2Ch_1:3),
which is called ‫ה‬ ָ‫מ‬ ָ ַ‫,ה‬ because the ark of the covenant, with which Jehovah had bound up
His gracious presence, was not there now. “Upon that altar,” i.e., upon the altar of the
great bamah at Gibeon, the brazen altar of burnt-offering in the tabernacle (2Ch_1:6).
BE SO , "1 Kings 3:4. The king went to Gibeon — Because the tabernacle was
there, and the great brazen altar which Moses made. For after Shiloh was
destroyed, they were carried to ob; and the priests being there slain by Saul, they
were removed to Gibeon, 2 Chronicles 1:3-6. That was the great high place — The
most eminent and frequented; and, possibly, was a high and raised ground. A
thousand burnt-offerings did Solomon offer — This undoubtedly includes the
peace-offerings which were killed and dressed for the entertainment of the guests
who were invited to the sacrifices; for it can hardly be supposed that so many were
wholly consumed on the altar at one time of sacrificing.

29. COFFMA , ""I am but a little child" (1 Kings 3:7). This is usually understood to
mean that Solomon considered himself but a "little child" in the sense of his total
inexperience in judging the people, also as a reference to his youth upon coming to
the throne. As for his age when he became king, there seems to be quite a mystery.
The Septuagint (LXX) gives it at age twelve (1 Kings 2:12); Josephus gave it as age
fourteen;[10] and a popular scholarly guess is that he was about the age of twenty.
There seems to be no way that his age can be dogmatically established.
God, in ancient times, often appeared to men in dreams; but that was no positive
evidence of God's approval of the character of those to whom he appeared. Both
Pharaoh and ebuchadnezzar received prophetic dreams from God.
In this passage, Solomon asked God for wisdom that he might properly govern the
people; but God, pleased with that request, also promised him riches and honor.
This is emphasized in the next paragraph.
COKE, "1 Kings 3:4. To Gibeon—for that was the great high place— Of all the
high places where the people sacrificed, Gibeon was the great and celebrated one,
because the tabernacle and brazen altar were there. See 2 Chronicles 1:3. There is
no reason to suppose, that the thousand sacrifices which Solomon is said to have
made here, were offered in one day. The king, we may imagine, upon one of the
great festivals, went in procession with his nobles to pay his devotion in Gibeon.
Each of the great festivals lasted for seven days: but Solomon might stay much
longer at Gibeon, until, by the daily oblations, a thousand burnt-offerings were
consumed; and at the conclusion of this course of devotion, he might offer up his
ardent prayer to God for wisdom, as recorded in the next verses. See 2 Chronicles
1:7.
ELLICOTT, "(4) Gibeon.—The name itself, signifying “belonging to a hill,”
indicates its position on the central plateau of Israel, in the land of Benjamin,
whence rise several round hills, on one of which the town stood. There was now
reared the Tabernacle, with the brazen altar of sacrifice, to which the descendants
of the old Gibeonites were attached as “hewers of wood and drawers of water”
(Joshua 9:23). It was therefore naturally “the great high place.”
PULPIT, "And the king went to Gibeon [Joshua 9:3; Joshua 10:2; Joshua 18:25;
Joshua 21:17; 2 Samuel 21:1. ow known as El-Jib, a commanding eminence (as the
name implies) some six miles north of Jerusalem. Strictly, it consists of two heights,
on one of which, it is conjectured, the town stood, while the other was the high place.
Solomon was accompanied to Gibeon by "all the congregation," including the
captains, judges, governors, etc., after the precedent of 1 Samuel 11:15; cf. 2 Samuel
6:2. His object was also to supplicate the Divine blessing on his undertakings. If his
visit served at the same time as a farewell, or "honourable funeral to the

30. tabernacle" (Wordsw.) this was an accident]; for that was the great high place
[being the place of the tabernacle and brazen altar. In 1 Samuel 21:6 we find the
tabernacle at ob, though without the ark (1 Samuel 4:2). After the massacre of the
priests it lost the ephod (1 Samuel 22:20; 1 Samuel 23:6). It could hardly remain in a
spot stained by so much blood; but how or when it found its way to Gibeon, we do
not know. See 1 Chronicles 16:37, 1 Chronicles 16:39; 2 Chronicles 1:3-6]: a
thousand burnt offerings [such numbers were not infrequent at festivals. See on 1
Kings 8:62, and cf. 2 Chronicles 29:33, 2 Chronicles 29:34. Rawlinson reminds us
that "Xerxes offered 1000 oxen at Troy" (Herod. 7:43).] did Solomon offer [not, of
course, personally, as some (Ewald. e.g.) have sup. posed. He is said to have
"offered" them, because he (together with the congregation, perhaps) provided
them. The immense number alone shows that he cannot have offered in person. The
festival probably lasted for seven or eight days,but even then a thousand victims can
hardly have been offered whole ( ‫ֹלוֹת‬ ‫ע‬ ) unless the altar was greatly enlarged, or
additional temporary altars were erected. This latter supposition is not negatived by
the next words. See on 1 Kings 8:63, 1 Kings 8:64.] upon that altar.
5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon
during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask
for whatever you want me to give you.”
BAR ES, "The Lord appeared unto Solomon in a dream - Compare the
marginal references and Gen_15:1; Gen_28:12; Gen_37:5.
CLARKE, "The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream - This was the night
after he had offered the sacrifices, (see 2Ch_1:7), and probably after he had earnestly
prayed for wisdom; see Wis. 7:7: Wherefore I prayed, and understanding was given me: I
called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me. If this were the case, the dream
might have been the consequence of his earnest prayer for wisdom: the images of those
things which occupy the mind during the day are most likely to recur during the night;
and this, indeed, is the origin of the greater part of our dreams. But this appears to have
been supernatural.
Gregory Nyssen, speaking of different kinds of dreams, observes that our organs and
brain are not unlike a musical instrument; while the strings of such instruments have
their proper degree of tension, they give, when touched, a harmonious sound, but as
soon as they are relaxed or screwed down, they give no sound at all. During our waking

31. hours, our senses, touched by our reason, produce the most harmonious concert; but as
soon as we are asleep, the instrument is no longer capable of emitting any sound, unless
it happen that the remembrance of what passed during the day returns and presents
itself to the mind while we are asleep, and so forms a dream; just as the strings of an
instrument continue to emit feeble sounds for some time after the musician has ceased
to strike them. - See Greg. Nyss. De opificio hominis, cap. xii., p. 77. Oper. vol. i., edit.
Morell., Par. 1638.
This may account, in some measure, for common dreams: but even suppose we should
not allow that Solomon had been the day before earnestly requesting the gift of wisdom
from God, yet we might grant that such a dream as this might be produced by the
immediate influence of God upon the soul. And if Solomon received his wisdom by
immediate inspiration from heaven, this was the kind of dream that he had; a dream by
which that wisdom was actually communicated. But probably we need not carry this
matter so much into miracle: God might be the author of his extraordinary wisdom, as
he was the author of his extraordinary riches. Some say, “He lay down as ignorant as
other men, and yet arose in the morning wiser than all the children of men.” I think this
is as credible as that he lay down with a scanty revenue, and in the morning, when he
arose, found his treasury full. In short, God’s especial blessing brought him riches
through the medium of his own care and industry; as the inspiration of the Almighty
gave him understanding, while he gave his heart to seek and search out by his wisdom,
concerning all things under the sun, Ecc_1:13. God gave him the seeds of an
extraordinary understanding, and, by much study and research, they grew up under the
Divine blessing, and produced a plentiful harvest; but, alas! they did not continue to
grow.
GILL, "In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night,.... This
was not a common natural dream, but an extraordinary, divine, and supernatural one, a
prophetic dream, a night vision, such as God used to speak in to his prophets; in which
he had the full use of his reasoning powers, was under divine impressions, and in a
spiritual frame of mind, and in the exercise of grace; it was not a mere dream that the
Lord did appear to him, but he really did appear to him while sleeping and dreaming, by
some display of his glory in some way or another:
and God said, ask what I shall give thee; he did not hereby dream that God said to
him, but he really did say this; bid him ask what he would and it should be given him; he
knew what he designed to give, but he would have it asked of him, as he will be inquired
of by all his people to do that for them which he has intended and provided for them;
and it is encouragement enough for them to ask, since he has promised to give.
HE RY, "We have here an account of a gracious visit which God paid to Solomon,
and the communion he had with God in it, which put a greater honour upon Solomon
than all the wealth and power of his kingdom did.
I. The circumstances of this visit, 1Ki_3:5. 1. The place. It was in Gibeon; that was the
great high place, and should have been the only one, because there the tabernacle and
the brazen altar were, 2Ch_1:3. There Solomon offered his great sacrifices, and there
God owned him more than in any other of the high places. The nearer we come to the
rule in our worship the more reason we have to expect the tokens of God's presence.
Where God records his name, there he will meet us and bless us. 2. The time. It was by
night, the night after he had offered that generous sacrifice, 1Ki_3:4. The more we

32. abound in God's work the more comfort we may expect in him; if the day has been busy
for him, the night will be easy in him. Silence and retirement befriend our communion
with God. His kindest visits are often in the night, Psa_17:3. 3. The manner. It was in a
dream, when he was asleep, his senses locked up, that God's access to his mind might be
the more free and immediate. In this way God used to speak to the prophets (Num_12:6)
and to private persons, for their own benefit, Job_33:15, Job_33:16. These divine
dreams, no doubt, were plainly distinguishable from those in which there are divers
vanities, Ecc_5:7.
II. The gracious offer God made him of the favour he should choose, whatever it might
be, 1Ki_3:5. He saw the glory of God shine about him, and heard a voice saying, Ask
what I shall give thee. Not that God was indebted to him for his sacrifices, but thus he
would testify his acceptance of them, and signify to him what great mercy he had in store
for him, if he were not wanting to himself. Thus he would try his inclinations and put an
honour upon the prayer of faith. God, in like manner, condescends to us, and puts us in
the ready way to be happy by assuring us that we shall have what we will for the asking,
Joh_16:23; 1Jo_5:14. What would we more? Ask, and it shall be given you.
III. The pious request Solomon hereupon made to God. He readily laid hold of this offer.
Why do we neglect the like offer made to us, like Ahaz, who said, I will not ask? Isa_
7:12. Solomon prayed in his sleep, God's grace assisting him; yet it was a lively prayer.
What we are most in care about, and which makes the greatest impression upon us when
we are awake, commonly affects us when we are asleep; and by our dreams, sometimes,
we may know what our hearts are upon and how our pulse beats. Plutarch makes
virtuous dreams one evidence of increase in virtue. Yet this must be attributed to a
higher source. Solomon's making such an intelligent choice as this when he was asleep,
and the powers of reason were least active, showed that it came purely from the grace of
God, which wrought in him these gracious desires. If his reins thus instruct him in the
night season, he must bless the Lord who gave him counsel, Psa_16:7. Now, in this
prayer,
JAMISO , "In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream — It was
probably at the close of this season, when his mind had been elevated into a high state of
religious fervor by the protracted services. Solomon felt an intense desire, and he had
offered an earnest petition, for the gift of wisdom. In sleep his thoughts ran upon the
subject of his prayer, and he dreamed that God appeared to him and gave him the option
of every thing in the world - that he asked wisdom, and that God granted his request
(1Ki_3:9-12). His dream was but an imaginary repetition of his former desire, but God’s
grant of it was real.
K&D, "1Ki_3:5-8
The one thing wanting in the place of sacrifice at Gibeon, viz., the ark of the covenant
with the gracious presence of Jehovah, was supplied by the Lord in the case of this
sacrifice by a direct revelation in a dream, which Solomon received in the night following
the sacrifice. There is a connection between the question which God addressed to
Solomon in the dream, “What shall I give thee?” and the object of the sacrifice, viz., to
seek the help of God for his reign. Solomon commences his prayer in 1Ki_3:6 with an
acknowledgment of the great favour which the Lord had shown to his father David, and
had continued till now by raising his son to his throne (‫ה‬ֶ ַ‫ה‬ ‫ּום‬ ַⅴ, as it is this day: cf. 1Sa_