Atlas Biblica

    1 Kings · 28 verses

    1 Kings 3

    Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

    The chapter

    What happens here

    Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

    Solomon’s great judgment begins with a sword, a proposed division of the living child, and one woman’s alarming agreement to the arrangement.

    A king at the high placevv. 1–4

    Solomon begins with an alliance: Pharaoh’s daughter is brought to the City of David while palace, temple, and wall remain unfinished. The people are still using the high places, and Solomon does so as well, though the chapter says that he loves the LORD and walks in David’s statutes. At Gibeon, the great high place, he offers a thousand burnt offerings—a quantity with the unmistakable air of a royal flourish.

    The request in the dreamvv. 5–15

    At Gibeon, the LORD appears to Solomon in a dream and offers him an open request. Solomon answers with a striking account of his own position: king in David’s place, yet “only a little child,” surrounded by a people too numerous to count. He asks not for wealth, long life, or the death of enemies, but for an understanding heart to judge. The request pleases the Lord, who grants wisdom, then adds riches and honor besides. Solomon wakes, returns to Jerusalem, worships before the ark, and gives a feast to his servants; the dream has acquired a very practical sequel.

    The sword and the childvv. 16–28

    The next case brought before the king is a quarrel between two women who live in the same house, each claiming the living baby. The account is painfully domestic: a child dies in the night, another child is moved, and morning reveals the substitution. With no witness supplied and no explanation for why this is the case before him, Solomon asks for a sword and proposes an answer that is both monstrous and diagnostic. The true mother surrenders her claim to save the child; the other accepts the cutting. Solomon gives the living baby to the woman whose compassion betrayed her motherhood. Israel stands in awe, having seen the wisdom of God in the king’s judgment—a wisdom that arrived wearing a remarkably alarming disguise.

    The text

    Read it

    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. 1 Kgs 3:1Later, Solomon formed an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt by marrying his daughter. Solomon brought her to the City of David until he had finished building his palace and the house of the LORD, as well as the wall around Jerusalem.

    2. 1 Kgs 3:2The people, however, were still sacrificing on the high places because a house for the Name of the LORD had not yet been built.

    3. 1 Kgs 3:3And Solomon loved the LORD and walked in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

    4. 1 Kgs 3:4Now the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for it was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on the altar there.

    5. 1 Kgs 3:5One night at Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!”

    6. 1 Kgs 3:6Solomon replied, “You have shown much loving devotion to Your servant, my father David, because he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart. And You have maintained this loving devotion by giving him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

    7. 1 Kgs 3:7And now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king in my father David’s place. But I am only a little child, not knowing how to go out or come in.

    8. 1 Kgs 3:8Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a people too numerous to count or number.

    9. 1 Kgs 3:9Therefore give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?”

    10. 1 Kgs 3:10Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had made this request.

    11. 1 Kgs 3:11So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this instead of requesting long life or wealth for yourself or death for your enemies—but you have asked for discernment to administer justice—

    12. 1 Kgs 3:12behold, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been another like you, nor will there ever be.

    13. 1 Kgs 3:13Moreover, I will give you what you did not request—both riches and honor—so that during all your days no man in any kingdom will be your equal.

    14. 1 Kgs 3:14So if you walk in My ways and keep My statutes and commandments, just as your father David did, I will prolong your days.”

    15. 1 Kgs 3:15Then Solomon awoke, and indeed it had been a dream. So he returned to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then he held a feast for all his servants.

    16. 1 Kgs 3:16At that time two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.

    17. 1 Kgs 3:17One woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house.

    18. 1 Kgs 3:18On the third day after I gave birth, this woman also had a baby. We were alone, with no one in the house but the two of us.

    19. 1 Kgs 3:19During the night this woman’s son died because she rolled over on him.

    20. 1 Kgs 3:20So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I was asleep. She laid him in her bosom and put her dead son at my bosom.

    21. 1 Kgs 3:21The next morning, when I got up to nurse my son, I discovered he was dead. But when I examined him, I realized that he was not the son I had borne.”

    22. 1 Kgs 3:22“No,” said the other woman, “the living one is my son and the dead one is your son.” But the first woman insisted, “No, the dead one is yours and the living one is mine.” So they argued before the king.

    23. 1 Kgs 3:23Then the king replied, “This woman says, ‘My son is alive and yours is dead,’ but that woman says, ‘No, your son is dead and mine is alive.’”

    24. 1 Kgs 3:24The king continued, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought him a sword,

    25. 1 Kgs 3:25and the king declared, “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”

    26. 1 Kgs 3:26Then the woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she yearned with compassion for her son. “Please, my lord,” she said, “give her the living baby. Do not kill him!” But the other woman said, “He will be neither mine nor yours. Cut him in two!”

    27. 1 Kgs 3:27Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. By no means should you kill him; she is his mother.”

    28. 1 Kgs 3:28When all Israel heard of the judgment the king had given, they stood in awe of him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 272 passages were voted onto 21 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 9James 1:5Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
    • 121 John 5:14–15And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
    • 51 Kings 9:2the LORD appeared to him a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.
    • 13Ephesians 3:20Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,
    • 9Hebrews 5:14But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil.
    • 9Proverbs 16:16How much better to acquire wisdom than gold! To gain understanding is more desirable than silver.
    • 12Ecclesiastes 1:16I said to myself, “Behold, I have grown and increased in wisdom beyond all those before me who were over Jerusalem, and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.”
    • 9John 5:30I can do nothing by Myself; I judge only as I hear. And My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
    • 13Matthew 6:33But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.
    • 9Proverbs 2:3–9if you truly call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding,
    • 12Matthew 12:42The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and now One greater than Solomon is here.
    • 52 Chronicles 1:7–12That night God appeared to Solomon and said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!”
    • 5Numbers 12:6He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, will reveal Myself to him in a vision; I will speak to him in a dream.
    • 13Proverbs 3:16Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.
    • 5John 14:13–14And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
    • 121 Kings 5:12And the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as He had promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.

    Onward

    Keep reading

    Next chapter1 Kings 434 verses.Named heredaughter of PharaohEverything the graph connects to this name.Book1 KingsAll 22 chapters.Every bookThe Bible66 books, 1,189 chapters.