Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil…1 Kgs 3:9
David and Bathsheba had a son, “and he called his name Solomon. The LORD loved him” (2 Sam 12:24); “and he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and he named him Jedidiah, for the LORD’s sake” (2 Sam 12:25). This is in David, Lesson 6.
When David was old, “Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, ‘I will be king’” (1 Kgs 1:5). Nathan and Bathsheba went to David, and David said: “Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place” (1 Kgs 1:30). “Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the Tent, and anointed Solomon. They blew the trumpet; and all the people said, ‘Long live King Solomon!’” (1 Kgs 1:39). Adonijah came and bowed down to King Solomon, “and Solomon said to him, ‘Go to your house’” (1 Kgs 1:53).
Before he died, David told him: “I am going the way of all the earth. You be strong therefore, and show yourself a man” (1 Kgs 2:2); this is in David’s Life. After David’s death, Adonijah, Joab, and Shimei were put to death one after another (1 Kgs 2:25, 34, 46); “The kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon” (1 Kgs 2:46).
“Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt” (1 Kgs 3:1). “Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father, except that he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places” (1 Kgs 3:3). At Gibeon, in a dream by night, God said: “Ask for what I should give you” (1 Kgs 3:5); he said: “I am just a little child. I don’t know how to go out or come in” (1 Kgs 3:7), “Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil” (1 Kgs 3:9). God said: “I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches and honor” (1 Kgs 3:13). These events are in Lesson 1.
Two women came before the king over one living child, and the king said: “Give the first woman the living child, and definitely do not kill him. She is his mother” (1 Kgs 3:27); “All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice” (1 Kgs 3:28). This is in Lesson 2.
“Judah and Israel lived safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon” (1 Kgs 4:25). “God gave Solomon abundant wisdom, understanding, and breadth of mind like the sand that is on the seashore” (1 Kgs 4:29). “He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered one thousand five” (1 Kgs 4:32). “He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he also spoke of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish” (1 Kgs 4:33). “People of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, sent by all kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom” (1 Kgs 4:34).
Hiram king of Tyre “had always loved David” (1 Kgs 5:1). Solomon sent him word: “Behold, I intend to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD spoke to David my father” (1 Kgs 5:5); that promise is in David, Lesson 5. “The LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty together” (1 Kgs 5:12). “King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men” (1 Kgs 5:13).
“In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the LORD’s house” (1 Kgs 6:1). While he was building, the word of the LORD came to him: “I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel” (1 Kgs 6:13). “So he spent seven years building it” (1 Kgs 6:38). “Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house” (1 Kgs 7:1).
When the house was finished, the priests brought the ark into the inner sanctuary, and “the cloud filled the LORD’s house” (1 Kgs 8:10). Solomon stood before the altar, spread out his hands toward heaven, and prayed: “But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” (1 Kgs 8:27); “Yes, hear in heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive” (1 Kgs 8:30). When he had finished praying, he blessed the assembly: “There has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by Moses his servant” (1 Kgs 8:56). These events are in Lesson 3.
“The LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon” (1 Kgs 9:2), and said: “As for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness … then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever” (1 Kgs 9:4-5); and he also said: “But if you turn away from following me, you or your children … but go and serve other gods and worship them” (1 Kgs 9:6), this house too would be cast out of his sight (1 Kgs 9:7).
The queen of Sheba “heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the LORD’s name” and came to test him with hard questions (1 Kgs 10:1). She said: “Behold, not even half was told me!” (1 Kgs 10:7), and “Blessed is the LORD your God” (1 Kgs 10:9). This is in Lesson 4.
“So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom” (1 Kgs 10:23). “All the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart” (1 Kgs 10:24). “He had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen” (1 Kgs 10:26); “The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem” (1 Kgs 10:27); “The horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt” (1 Kgs 10:28).
“Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh” (1 Kgs 11:1); “He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines” (1 Kgs 11:3). “When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father was” (1 Kgs 11:4). “The LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice” (1 Kgs 11:9). The LORD said: “I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant” (1 Kgs 11:11); “Nevertheless, I will not do it in your days, for David your father’s sake” (1 Kgs 11:12). These events are in Lesson 5.
“The LORD raised up an adversary to Solomon: Hadad the Edomite” (1 Kgs 11:14); “God raised up an adversary to him, Rezon the son of Eliada” (1 Kgs 11:23). Jeroboam, a servant of Solomon, “also lifted up his hand against the king” (1 Kgs 11:26); the prophet Ahijah said to Jeroboam: “Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you” (1 Kgs 11:31). “Therefore Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam arose and fled into Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon” (1 Kgs 11:40).
“The time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years” (1 Kgs 11:42). “Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in his father David’s city; and Rehoboam his son reigned in his place” (1 Kgs 11:43). Afterward, “So Israel rebelled against David’s house to this day” (1 Kgs 12:19); “There was no one who followed David’s house, except for the tribe of Judah only” (1 Kgs 12:20).
Many years later, Nehemiah said to the people: “Didn’t Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless foreign women caused even him to sin” (Neh 13:26).
Jesus said: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin, yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these” (Matt 6:28-29).
Stephen, speaking before the council, said: “But Solomon built him a house. However, the Most High doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands” (Acts 7:47-48).
1 Kings His story begins in chapter 1, when David is old and makes him king, and ends with his death in chapter 11.
2 Chronicles Chapters 1–9 also tell of his reign, from his request for wisdom at Gibeon to his death.
Proverbs The book says, “The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel” (Prov 1:1); 25:1 says, “These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out”; 30:1 gives the words of Agur, and 31:1 the words of King Lemuel.
Song of Songs The book says, “The Song of songs, which is Solomon’s” (Song 1:1).
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Scripture: World English Bible.