1 Kings 3:5-9

3:5 One night in Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream. God said, “Tell me what I should give you.” 3:6 Solomon replied, “You demonstrated great loyalty to your servant, my father David, as he served you faithfully, properly, and sincerely. You have maintained this great loyalty to this day by allowing his son to sit on his throne. 3:7 Now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in my father David’s place, even though I am only a young man and am inexperienced. 3:8 Your servant stands among your chosen people; they are a great nation that is too numerous to count or number. 3:9 So give your servant a discerning mind 10  so he can make judicial decisions for 11  your people and distinguish right from wrong. 12  Otherwise 13  no one is able 14  to make judicial decisions for 15  this great nation of yours.” 16 

1 Kings 3:2

3:2 Now the people were offering sacrifices at the high places, 17  because in those days a temple had not yet been built to honor the Lord. 18 

1 Kings 2:9

2:9 But now 19  don’t treat him as if he were innocent. You are a wise man and you know how to handle him; 20  make sure he has a bloody death.” 21 

Psalms 27:4

27:4 I have asked the Lord for one thing –

this is what I desire!

I want to live 22  in the Lord’s house 23  all the days of my life,

so I can gaze at the splendor 24  of the Lord

and contemplate in his temple.

Luke 10:42

10:42 but one thing 25  is needed. Mary has chosen the best 26  part; it will not be taken away from her.”


tn Or “revealed himself.”

tn Heb “ask.”

tn Heb “did.”

tn Heb “walked before.”

tn Heb “in faithfulness and in innocence and in uprightness of heart with you.”

tn Heb “and you have kept to him this great loyalty and you gave to him a son [who] sits on his throne as this day.”

tn Heb “and I do not know going out or coming in.”

tn There is no verb expressed in the Hebrew text; “stands” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

tn Heb “your people whom you have chosen.”

10 tn Heb “a hearing heart.” (The Hebrew term translated “heart” often refers to the mental faculties.)

11 tn Heb “to judge.”

12 tn Heb “to understand between good and evil.”

13 tn Heb “for”; the word “otherwise” is used to reflect the logical sense of the statement.

14 tn Heb “who is able?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “no one.”

15 tn Heb “to judge.”

16 tn Heb “your numerous people.”

17 sn Offering sacrifices at the high places. The “high places” were places of worship that were naturally or artificially elevated.

18 tn Heb “for the name of the Lord.” The word “name” sometimes refers to one’s reputation or honor (thus the translation here, “to honor the Lord”). The “name” of the Lord sometimes designates the Lord himself, being indistinguishable from the proper name.

19 tc The Lucianic recension of the Old Greek and the Vulgate have here “you” rather than “now.” The two words are homonyms in Hebrew.

20 tn Heb “what you should do to him.”

21 tn Heb “bring his grey hair down in blood [to] Sheol.”

22 tn Heb “my living.”

23 sn The Lord’s house. This probably refers to the tabernacle (if one accepts Davidic authorship) or the temple (see Judg 19:18; 1 Sam 1:7, 24; 2 Sam 12:20; 1 Kgs 7:12, 40, 45, 51).

24 tn Or “beauty.”

25 tc Or, with some mss (Ì3 [א] B C2 L 070vid Ë1 33 [579] pc), “few things are needed – or only one” (as well as other variants). The textual problem here is a difficult one to decide. The shorter reading is normally preferred, but it is not altogether clear how the variants would arise from it. However, the reading followed in the translation has good support (with some internal variations) from a number of witnesses (Ì45,75 A C* W Θ Ψ Ë13 Ï lat sa).

26 tn Or “better”; Grk “good.” This is an instance of the positive adjective used in place of the superlative adjective. According to ExSyn 298, this could also be treated as a positive for comparative (“better”).