1 Kings 3:28

3:28 When all Israel heard about the judicial decision which the king had rendered, they respected ¹  the king, for they realized ²  that he possessed supernatural wisdom ³  to make judicial decisions.

1 Kings 4:29-31

4:29 God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment; the breadth of his understanding ⁴  was as infinite as the sand on the seashore. 4:30 Solomon was wiser than all the men of the east and all the sages of Egypt. ⁵  4:31 He was wiser than any man, including Ethan the Ezrahite or Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. He was famous in all the neighboring nations. ⁶ 

1 Kings 4:2

4:2 These were his officials:

Azariah son of Zadok was the priest.

1 Kings 9:3-4

9:3 The Lord said to him, “I have answered ⁷  your prayer and your request for help that you made to me. I have consecrated this temple you built by making it my permanent home; ⁸  I will be constantly present there. ⁹  9:4 You must serve me with integrity and sincerity, just as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations. ¹⁰ 

Ecclesiastes 12:9

Concluding Epilogue: Qoheleth’s Advice is Wise

12:9 Not only was the Teacher wise, ¹¹ 

but he also taught knowledge to the people;

he carefully evaluated ¹²  and arranged ¹³  many proverbs.

Matthew 12:42

12:42 The queen of the South ¹⁴  will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon – and now, ¹⁵  something greater than Solomon is here!

[3:28]  ¹ tn Heb “feared,” perhaps in the sense, “stood in awe of.”

[3:28]  ² tn Heb “saw.”

[3:28]  ³ tn Heb “the wisdom of God within him.”

[4:29]  ⁴ tn Heb “heart,” i.e., mind. (The Hebrew term translated “heart” often refers to the mental faculties.)

[4:30]  ⁵ tn Heb “the wisdom of Solomon was greater than the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.”

[4:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “his name was in all the surrounding nations.”

[9:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “I have heard.”

[9:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “by placing my name there perpetually” (or perhaps, “forever”).

[9:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “and my eyes and my heart will be there all the days.”

[9:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “As for you, if you walk before me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, by doing all which I commanded you, [and] you keep my rules and my regulations.” Verse 4 is actually a lengthy protasis (“if” section) of a conditional sentence, the apodosis (“then” section) of which appears in v. 5.

[12:9]  ¹¹ sn Eccl 12:9-12 fits the pattern of a concluding colophon that draws from a conventional stock of ancient Near Eastern scribal practices and vocabulary. See M. A. Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation, 29–31.

[12:9]  ¹² tn Heb “he weighed and studied.” The verbs וְאִזֵּן וְחִקֵּר (vÿ’izzen vekhiqqer, “he weighed and he explored”) form a hendiadys (a figurative expression in which two separate terms used in combination to convey a single idea): “he studiously weighed” or “carefully evaluated.” The verb וְאִזֵּן (conjunction + Piel perfect 3rd person masculine singular from II אָזַן (’azan) “to weigh; to balance”) is related to the noun מֹאזֵן (mo’zen) “balances; scales” used for weighing money or commercial items (e.g., Jer 32:10; Ezek 5:1). This is the only use of the verb in the OT. In this context, it means “to weigh” = “to test; to prove” (BDB 24 s.v. מאזן) or “to balance” (HALOT 27 II אָזַן). Cohen suggests, “He made an examination of the large number of proverbial sayings which had been composed, testing their truth and worth, to select those which he considered deserving of circulation” (A. Cohen, The Five Megilloth [SoBB], 189).

[12:9]  ¹³ tn The verb תָּקַן (taqan, “to make straight”) connotes “to put straight” or “to arrange in order” (HALOT 1784 s.v. תקן; BDB 1075 s.v. תָּקַן).This may refer to Qoheleth’s activity in compiling a collection of wisdom sayings in an orderly manner, or writing the wisdom sayings in a straightforward, direct manner.

[12:42]  ¹⁴ sn On the queen of the South see 1 Kgs 10:1-3 and 2 Chr 9:1-12, as well as Josephus, Ant. 8.6.5-6 (8.165-175). The South most likely refers to modern southwest Arabia, possibly the eastern part of modern Yemen, although there is an ancient tradition reflected in Josephus which identifies this geo-political entity as Ethiopia.

[12:42]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “behold.”