Bible Commentaries

Solomon's Marriage; Worship and Sacrifice at Gibeon; and Wise Judicial Sentence - 1 Kings 3

The establishment of the government in the hands of Solomon having beennoticed in 1 Kings 2, the history of his reign commences with an account of hismarriage to an Egyptian princess, and with a remark concerning the stateof the kingdom at the beginning of his reign (1 Kings 2:1-3). There then follows adescription of the solemn sacrifice and prayer at Gibeon, by whichSolomon sought to give a religious consecration to his government, and tosecure the assistance of the Lord and His blessing upon it, and obtainedthe fulfilment of his desire (1 Kings 2:4-15). And then, as a practical proof of thespirit of his government, we have the sentence through which he displayedthe wisdom of his judicial decisions in the sight of all the people (1 Kings 2:16-28).

Solomon's marriage and the religious state of the kingdom. - 1 Kings 3:1. When Solomon had well secured his possession of the throne (1 Kings 2:46), he entered into alliance with Pharaoh, by taking his daughter as hiswife. This Pharaoh of Egypt is supposed by Winer, Ewald, and others tohave 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 Shishakwho conquered Jerusalem in the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign (1 Kings 14:25-26). The alliance by marriage with the royal family of Egyptpresupposes that Egypt was desirous of cultivating friendly relations withthe 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 timethan the mere names of the kings (as given by Manetho), it is impossibleto determine what may have been the more precise grounds which led thereigning king of Egypt to seek the friendship of Israel. There is, at anyrate, greater probability in this supposition than in that of Thenius, whoconjectures that Solomon contracted this marriage because he saw thenecessity of entering into a closer relationship with this powerfulneighbour, who had a perfectly free access to Palestine. The conclusion ofthis marriage took place in the first year of Solomon's reign, thoughprobably not at the very beginning of the reign, but not till after hisbuildings had been begun, as we may infer from the expression לבנות כּלּתו עד (until he had made an end of building). Moreover, Solomon had already married Naamah the Ammonitess beforeascending the throne, and had had a son by her (compare 1 Kings 14:21 with 1 Kings 11:42-43). - Marriage with an Egyptian princess was not atransgression of the law, as it was only marriages with Canaanitish womenthat were expressly prohibited (Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3), whereas it wasallowable to marry even foreign women taken in war (Deuteronomy 21:10.). Atthe same time, it was only when the foreign wives renounced idolatry andconfessed their faith in Jehovah, that such marriages were in accordancewith the spirit of the law. And we may assume that this was the case evenwith Pharaoh's daughter; because Solomon adhered so faithfully to theLord during the first years of his reign, that he would not have toleratedany idolatry in his neighbourhood, and we cannot find any trace ofEgyptian idolatry in Israel in the time of Solomon, and, lastly, the daughterof Pharaoh is expressly distinguished in 1 Kings 11:1 from the foreignwives who tempted Solomon to idolatry in his old age. The assertion of Seb. Schmidt and Thenius to the contrary rests upon afalse interpretation of 1 Kings 11:1. - ”And he brought her into the city ofDavid, till he had finished the building of his palace,” etc. Into the city ofDavid: i.e., not into the palace in which his father had dwelt, as Theniusarbitrarily interprets it in opposition to 2 Chronicles 8:11, but into a house inthe city of David or Jerusalem, from which he brought her up into thehouse appointed for her after the building of his own palace was finished(1 Kings 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 palaceof David until the temple was finished, and the temple was notconsecrated till after the completion of the building of the palace (see at 1 Kings 8:1). By the building of “the wall of Jerusalem” we are tounderstand a stronger fortification, and possibly also the extension of thecity wall (see at 1 Kings 11:27).

1 Kings 3:2

“Only the people sacrificed upon high places, because there wasnot yet a house built for the name of Jehovah until those days.” Thelimiting רק, only, by which this general account of the existingcondition of the religious worship is appended to what precedes, may beaccounted for from the antithesis to the strengthening of the kingdom bySolomon mentioned in 1 Kings 2:46. The train of thought is the following:It is true that Solomon's authority was firmly established by thepunishment of the rebels, so that he was able to ally himself by marriagewith the king of Egypt; but just as he was obliged to bring his Egyptianwife into the city of David, because the building of his palace as not yetfinished, so the people, and (according to 1 Kings 2:3) even Solomon himself, wereonly able to sacrifice to the Lord at that time upon altars on the highplaces, because the temple was not yet built. The participle מזבּחים denotes the continuation of this religious condition (see Ewald,§168, c.). The בּמות, or high places,

(Note: The opinion of Böttcher and Thenius, that בּמה signifies a “sacred coppice,”is only based upon untenableetymological combinations, and cannot be proved. And Ewald's viewis equally unfounded, viz., that “high places were an old Canaanaeanspecies of sanctuary, which at that time had become common inIsrael also, and consisted of a tall stone of a conical shape, as thesymbol of the Holy One, and of the real high place, viz., an altar, asacred 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 tallstone of a conical shape existed even in the case of the Canaanitishbamoth, and, on the other hand, it is impossible to adduce a shadow ofa proof that the Israelitish bamoth, which were dedicated to Jehovah,were constructed precisely after the pattern of the Baal's-bamoth ofthe Canaanites.)

were places of sacrifice and prayer, which were built upon eminences ofhills, because men thought they were nearer the Deity there, and whichconsisted in some cases probably of an altar only, though as a rule therewas an altar with a sanctuary built by the side (בּמות בּית, 1 Kings 13:32; 2 Kings 17:29, 2 Kings 17:32; 2 Kings 23:19), so that בּמה frequently stands for בּמה בּית (e.g., 1 Kings 11:7; 1 Kings 14:23; 2 Kings 21:3; 2 Kings 23:8), and the בּמה is also distinguishedfrom the מזבּח (2 Kings 23:15; 2 Chronicles 14:2). These high places were consecrated to the worship of Jehovah, andessentially different from the high places of the Canaanites which wereconsecrated to Baal. Nevertheless sacrificing upon these high places wasopposed to the law, according to which the place which the Lord Himselfhad chosen for the revelation of His name was the only place wheresacrifices were to be offered (Leviticus 17:3.); and therefore it is excused hereon the ground that no house (temple) had yet been built to the name of theLord.

1 Kings 3:3

Even Solomon, although he loved the Lord, walking in the statutesof his father David, i.e., according to 1 Kings 2:3, in the commandments ofthe Lord as they are written in the law of Moses, sacrificed and burntincense upon high places. Before the building of the temple, moreespecially since the tabernacle had lost its significance as the central placeof the gracious presence of God among His people, through the removal ofthe ark of the covenant, the worship of the high places was unavoidable;although even afterwards it still continued as a forbidden cultus, and couldnot be thoroughly exterminated even by the most righteous kings (1 Kings 22:24; 2 Kings 12:4; 2 Kings 14:4; 2 Kings 15:4, 2 Kings 15:35).

Solomon's Sacrifice and Dream at Gibeon (cf. 2 Chronicles 1:1-13). - To implorethe divine blessing upon his reign, Solomon offered to the Lord at Gibeon agreat sacrifice - a thousand burnt-offerings; and, according to 2 Chronicles 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 elJib; see at Joshua 9:3), namely, the Mosaic tabernacle (2 Chronicles 1:3), whichis called הבּמה, because the ark of the covenant, with whichJehovah had bound up His gracious presence, was not there now. “Uponthat altar,” i.e., upon the altar of the great bamah at Gibeon, the brazenaltar of burnt-offering in the tabernacle (2 Chronicles 1:6).

1 Kings 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, wassupplied by the Lord in the case of this sacrifice by a direct revelation in adream, which Solomon received in the night following the sacrifice. Thereis a connection between the question which God addressed to Solomon inthe dream, “What shall I give thee?” and the object of the sacrifice, viz., toseek the help of God for his reign. Solomon commences his prayer in 1 Kings 3:6 with an acknowledgment of the great favour which the Lord had shown tohis father David, and had continued till now by raising his son to histhrone (הזּה כּיּום, as it is this day: cf. 1 Samuel 22:8; Deuteronomy 8:18, etc.); and then, in 1 Kings 3:7-9, in the consciousness of hisincapacity for the right administration of government over so numerous apeople, he asks the Lord for an obedient heart and for wisdom to rule Hispeople. ועתּה introduces the petition, the reasons assigned forwhich are, (1) his youth and inexperience, and (2) the greatness ormultitude of the nation to be governed. I am, says he, קטן נער, i.e., an inexperienced youth (Solomon was only about twentyyears old): “I know not to go out and in,” i.e., how to behave myself asking, or govern the people (for ובא צאת compare thenote on Numbers 27:17). At 1 Kings 3:8 he describes the magnitude of the nation inwords which recall to mind the divine promises in Genesis 13:16 and Genesis 32:13, toindicate how gloriously the Lord has fulfilled the promises which He madeto the patriarchs.

1 Kings 3:9

ונתתּ, therefore give. The prayer (commencing withועתּה in 1 Kings 3:7) is appended in the form of an apodosis to thecircumstantial clauses וגו ואנכי and וגו ועבדּך, which contain the grounds of the petition. שׁמע לב, a hearing heart, i.e., a heart giving heed to the law and right of God,“to judge Thy people, (namely) to distinguish between good and evil (i.e.,right and wrong).” “For who could judge this Thy numerous people,” sc. unless Thou gavest him intelligence? כּבד, heavy in multitude:in the Chronicles this is explained by גּדול.

1 Kings 3:10-12

This prayer pleased God well. “Because thou hast asked this,and hast not asked for thyself long life, nor riches, nor the life (i.e., thedestruction) of thy foes,” all of them good things, which the world seeksto obtain as the greatest prize, “but intelligence to hear judgment (i.e., tofoster it, inasmuch as the administration of justice rests upon aconscientious hearing of the parties), behold I have done according to thyword” (i.e., fulfilled thy request: the perfect is used, inasmuch as thehearkening has already begun; for הנּה in this connection compareEwald, §307, e.), “and given thee a wise and understanding heart.” Thewords which follow, “so that there has been none like thee before thee,”etc., are not to be restricted to the kings of Israel, as Clericus supposes,but are to be understood quite universally as applying to all mankind (cf. 1 Kings 5:9-11).

1 Kings 3:13-14

In addition to this, according to the promise that to him whoseeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness all other things shallbe added (Matthew 6:33), God will also give him the earthly blessings, forwhich he has not asked, and that in great abundance, viz., riches andhonour such as no king of the earth has had before him; and if he adherefaithfully to God's commandments, long life also (והארכתּי, inthis case I have lengthened). This last promise was not fulfilled, becauseSolomon did not observe the condition (cf. 1 Kings 11:42).

1 Kings 3:15

Then Solomon awoke, and behold it was a dream; i.e., a dreamproduced by God, a revelation by dream, or a divine appearance in adream. חלום as in Numbers 12:6. - Solomon thanked the Lord againfor this promise after his return to Jerusalem, by offering burnt-offeringsand thank-offerings before the ark of the covenant, i.e., upon the altar atthe tent erected for the ark upon Zion, and prepared a meal for all hisservants (viz., his court-servants), i.e., a sacrificial meal of the שׁלמים. - This sacrificial festival upon Zion is omitted in the Chronicles, aswell as the following account in Numbers 12:16 -28; not, however, because in thechronicler's opinion no sacrifices had any legal validity but such as wereoffered upon the altar of the Mosaic tabernacle, as Thenius fancies, thoughwithout observing the account in 1 Chronicles 21:26., which overthrows thisassertion, but because this sacrificial festival had no essential significancein relation to Solomon's reign.

Solomon's Judicial Wisdom. - As a proof that the Lord had bestowed uponSolomon unusual judicial wisdom, there is appended a decision of his in avery difficult case, in which Solomon had shown extraordinary intelligence. Two harlots living together in one house had each given birth to a child,and one of them had “overlaid” her child in the night while asleep(עליו שׁכבה אשׁר, because she had lainupon it), and had then placed her dead child in the other one's bosom andtaken her living child away. When the other woman looked the nextmorning at the child lying in her bosom, she saw that it was not her ownbut the other woman's child, whereas the latter maintained the opposite. As they eventually referred the matter in dispute to the king, and each onedeclared that the living child was her own, the king ordered a sword to bebrought, and the living child to be cut in two, and a half given to each. Then the mother of the living child, “because her bowels yearned upon herson,” i.e., her maternal love was excited, cried out, “Give her (the other)the living child, but do not slay it;” whereas the latter said, “It shall beneither mine nor thine, cut it in pieces.”

Solomon saw from this which was the mother of the living child, andhanded it over to her.

(Note: Grotius observes on this: “The ἀγχίνοια of Solomon wasshown by this to be very great. There is a certain similarity in theaccount of Ariopharnis, king of the Thracians, who, when threepersons claimed to be the sons of the king of the Cimmerii, decidedthat he was the son who would not obey the command to cast javelinsat his father's corpse. The account is given by Diodorus Siculus.”)

This judicial decision convinced all the people that Solomon was endowedwith divine wisdom for the administration of justice.