1 Kings 3:5-9

3:5 One night in Gibeon the Lord appeared ¹  to Solomon in a dream. God said, “Tell ²  me what I should give you.” 3:6 Solomon replied, “You demonstrated ³  great loyalty to your servant, my father David, as he served ⁴  you faithfully, properly, and sincerely. ⁵  You have maintained this great loyalty to this day by allowing his son to sit on his throne. ⁶  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. ⁷  3:8 Your servant stands ⁸  among your chosen people; ⁹  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.”

[3:5]  ¹ tn Or “revealed himself.”

[3:5]  ² tn Heb “ask.”

[3:6]  ³ tn Heb “did.”

[3:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “walked before.”

[3:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “in faithfulness and in innocence and in uprightness of heart with you.”

[3:6]  ⁶ 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.”

[3:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “and I do not know going out or coming in.”

[3:8]  ⁸ tn There is no verb expressed in the Hebrew text; “stands” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[3:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “your people whom you have chosen.”

[3:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a hearing heart.” (The Hebrew term translated “heart” often refers to the mental faculties.)

[3:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to judge.”

[3:9]  ¹² tn Heb “to understand between good and evil.”

[3:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “for”; the word “otherwise” is used to reflect the logical sense of the statement.

[3:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “who is able?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “no one.”

[3:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to judge.”

[3:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your numerous people.”

[3:2]  ¹⁷ sn Offering sacrifices at the high places. The “high places” were places of worship that were naturally or artificially elevated.

[3:2]  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.

[2:9]  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.

[2:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “what you should do to him.”

[2:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “bring his grey hair down in blood [to] Sheol.”

[27:4]  ²² tn Heb “my living.”

[27:4]  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).

[27:4]  ²⁴ tn Or “beauty.”

[10:42]  ²⁵ tc Or, with some mss (̳ [א] B C² L 070^vid ˹ 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 (Ì^45,75 A C* W Θ Ψ Ë¹³ Ï lat sa).

[10:42]  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”).