1 Kings 3:1--5:18
marriage <02859> [A.M. 2990. B.C. 1014. An. Ex. Is. 477. affinity.]
married <03947> [and took.]
City <05892> [the city.]
residence .... temple <01004> [his own.]
residence .... temple <01004> [the house.]
wall <02346> [the wall.]
people <05971> [the people.]
It was not right to offer sacrifices in any place but where the tabernacle and ark were; and wherever they were, whether on a high place or a plain, sacrifices might be lawfully offered, previously to building of the temple. The tabernacle was now at Gibeon, (2 Ch 1:3,) which was therefore called the great high place; whither we find Solomon, without censure, repaired to sacrifice.
temple <01004> [was no.]
demonstrated his loyalty <0157> [loved.]
<03212> [walking.]
sacrifices <02076> [only he.]
Gibeon <01391> [Gibeon.]
thousand <0505> [a thousand.]
Lord <03068> [the Lord.]
dream <02472> [in a dream.]
Tell me ..... give <07592 05414> [Ask what.]
servant <05650> [thy servant.]
great ..................... great <01419> [great.]
loyalty ..................... loyalty <02617> [mercy. or, bounty.]
<01980> [according.]
allowing <05414> [that.]
servant <05650> [thou hast.]
young <06996> [a little.]
inexperienced <03318> [to go.]
people ...... nation <05971> [thy people.]
count <04487> [cannot.]
give ... servant <05414 05650> [Give therefore.]
discerning <08085> [understanding. Heb. hearing.]
make judicial decisions ................ make judicial decisions <08199> [to judge.]
distinguish <0995> [discern.]
able <03201> [who is able.]
pleased <03190> [pleased.]
asked ...... make wise judicial ..... for ....... vengeance <07592> [hast not.]
[long life. Heb. many days. discern. Heb. hear.]
<06213> [I have done.]
give <05414> [I have given.]
succeed <0310> [neither.]
giving <05414> [And I.]
riches <06239> [riches.]
<0376> [shall not be. or, hath not been.]
<03212> [if thou.]
father <01> [as thy.]
long <0748> [I will lengthen.]
woke <03364> [awoke.]
before <06440> [before.]
peace offerings <08002> [peace offerings.]
feast <04960> [a feast.]
two prostitutes <0802 08147> [two women.]
<02181> [harlots.]
The word {zanoth,} rendered harlots, is here translated by the Targumist, the best judge in this case, {pundekon,} "tavern-keepers:" see on Jos 2:1.
Had these women been harlots, it is not likely that they would have dared to appear before Solomon; nor is it likely that such persons would have been permitted in the reign of David. Their husbands might at this time have been following their necessary occupations in distant parts.
stood <05975> [stood.]
master <0994 0113> [O my lord.]
middle <08432> [midnight.]
took <03947> [took.]
son ...................... baby <01121> [give.]
alive ................... alive <02416> [Nay.]
Cut <01504> [Divide.]
This was apparently a very strange decision; but Solomon saw that the only way to discover the real mother was by the affection and tenderness should would necessarily shew to her offspring. The plan was tried, and succeeded; and it was a proof of his sound judgment, penetration, and acquaintance with the human heart, or rather, of his extraordinary and supernatural wisdom. See ver. 28. The two following instances are in some faint manner to be compared to Solomon's decision, inasmuch as they also work upon the human sympathies. Suetonius, in his Life of the emperor Claudian, tells us, that this emperor discovered a woman to be the real mother of a young man, whom she refused to acknowledge, by commanding her to marry him, the proofs being doubtful on both sides; for, rather than commit incest, she confessed the truth. Diodorus Siculus also informs us, that Ariopharnes, king of Thrace, being appointed to decided between three young men, each of whom professed to be the son of the deceased king of the Cimmerians, and claimed the succession, discovered the real son by ordering each to shoot an arrow into the dead body of the king: two of them did this without hesitation; but the real son of the deceased monarch refused.
motherly instincts <07356> [her bowels.]
aroused <03648> [yearned. Heb. were hot.]
give .... living <05414 02416> [give her.]
respected <03372> [feared.]
wisdom <02451> [the wisdom.]
possessed <07130> [in him. Heb. in the midst of him. to do.]
Israel <03478> [over all Israel.]
officials <08269> [the princes.]
That is, great, chief, or principal men; for none of them were princes, in the common acceptation of the word.
Azariah <05838> [Azariah.]
priest <03548> [priest. or, chief officer.]
Shisha <07894> [Shisha.]
[Sheva.]
[Shavsha. scribes. or, secretaries. recorder. or, remembrancer.]
Benaiah <01141> [Benaiah.]
Zadok <06659> [Zadok.]
son ... Nathan ......... son ... Nathan <05416 01121> [son of Nathan.]
district <05324> [the officers.]
[the principal.]
king <04428> [the king's.]
Adoniram <0141> [Adoniram.]
[Adoram. tribute. or, levy.]
district <05324> [officers.]
These are doubtless to be considered as general receivers; for, as Sir John Chardin observes, "the revenues of the princes of the East are paid in the fruits and productions of the earth: there are no other taxes on the peasants."
Each <0259> [each man.]
Ben-Hur <01133> [The son of Hur. or, Ben-hur.]
Ben-Deker <01128> [The son of Dekar. or, Ben-dekar. Shaalbim.]
[Shaalabbin. Beth-shemesh.]
Ben-Hesed <01136> [The son of Hesed. or, Ben-hesed. Sochoh.]
Hepher <02660> [Hepher.]
Ben-Abinadab <01125> [The son of Abinadab. or, Ben-abinadab. Dor.]
Taanach <08590> [Taanach.]
Megiddo <04023> [Megiddo.]
Beth Shan ........ Beth Shan <01052> [Beth-shean.]
Zarethan <06891> [Zartanah.]
[Zarthan.]
[Zaretan. Jezreel.]
Abel Meholah <065> [Abel-meholah.]
Ben-Geber <01127> [The son of Geber. or, Ben-geber. Ramoth-gilead.]
villages <02333> [the towns.]
Argob <0709> [Argob.]
sixty large ... cities <08346 01419 05892> [threescore great cities.]
These were the fortified cities; their gates and bars being covered with plates of brass.
Mahanaim <04266> [Mahanaim. or, to Mahanaim.]
Naphtali <05321> [Naphtali.]
daughter <01323> [the daughter.]
Asher <0836> [Asher.]
Issachar <03485> [Issachar.]
Shimei <08096> [Shimei.]
Benjamin <01144> [Benjamin.]
land ..... territory ........ Sihon ................. area <05511 0776> [the country of Sihon.]
sand <02344> [as the sand.]
eat <0398> [eating.]
Solomon ............................ Solomon's <08010> [Solomon.]
<05066> [brought.]
consumed <03899> [provision. Heb. bread. measures. Heb. cors.]
ten ... fattened <06235 01277> [Ten fat.]
rams <0354> [harts.]
Dr. Shaw understands {ayil} as the name of the genus, including all the species of the deer kind, whether they are distinguished by round horns, as the stag, or by flat ones, as the fallow deer, or by the smallness of the branches, as the roe.
gazelles <06643> [roe-bucks.]
See note on De 15:22.
deer <03180> [fallow-deer.]
{Yachmur,} rendered {bubalus} by the Vulgate, probably the buffalo; and though "the flesh of a buffalo does not seem so well tasted as beef, being harder and more coarse," yet in our times, "persons of distinction, as well as the common people, and even the European merchants, eat a good deal of it, in the countries where that animal abounds." Niebuhr, Descrip. de l'Arab p. 146.
Gaza <05804> [Azzah.]
[Gaza. all the kings.]
peace <07965> [had peace.]
security <0983> [safely. Heb. confidently.]
everyone <0376> [every man.]
Dan <01835> [from Dan.]
4,000 ........ 12,000 <0505 0705> [forty thousand.]
district governors <05324> [those officers.]
<07409> [dromedaries. or, mules, or swift beasts.]
God <0430> [God.]
breadth <07341> [largeness.]
sand <02344> [as the sand.]
men <01121> [the children.]
wiser ............ sages ... Egypt <02451 04714> [the wisdom of Egypt.]
wiser <02449> [wiser.]
Ethan <0387> [Ethan.]
Heman <01968> [Heman.]
famous <08034> [his fame.]
composed <01696> [he spake.]
songs <07892> [songs.]
cedars <0730> [the cedar tree.]
The word {airez,} whence the Chaldee and Syriac {arzo,} and the Arabic and Ethiopic {arz,} and Spanish {alerze,} unquestionably denotes the cedar; it is thus rendered by the LXX. and other versions, [kedros,] and by the Vulgate {cedrus;} and the inhabitants of mount Lebanon still call it {ars.} The cedar is a large and nobel evergreen tree, and grows on the most elevated part of the mountain, is taller than the pine, and so thick that five men together could scarcely fathom one. It shoots out its branches at ten or twelve feet from the ground; they are large and distant from each other, and are perpetually green. The wood is of a brown colour, very solid and incorruptible, if preserved from wet. The tree bears a small cone, like that of the pine.
hyssop <0231> [the hyssop.]
animals <0929> [of beasts.]
Hiram ..................... Hiram <02438> [A.M. 2990. B.C. 1014. An. Ex. Is. 477. Hiram.]
[Huram. sent.]
Hiram ..................... Hiram <02438> [for Hiram.]
unable ... build <03201 01129> [could not.]
battles <04421> [the wars.]
<05414> [put.]
secure <05117> [hath given.]
<0559> [behold.]
<0559> [purpose. Heb. say. as the Lord.]
cedars <0730> [cedar trees.]
pay <07939 05414> [will I give hire.]
say <0559> [appoint. Heb. say. that there is not.]
Sidonians <06722> [Sidonians.]
worthy <01288> [Blessed.]
given <05414> [which hath.]
wise son <02450 01121> [a wise son.]
received <08085> [considered. Heb. heard. timber of fir.]
Lebanon <03844> [Lebanon.]
it <07760> [and I will.]
send <07971> [appoint. Heb. send. in giving food.]
cors ............. 20,000 baths <03734> [measures. Heb. cors.]
20,000 cors ............. 20,000 baths <06242 03734> [twenty measures.]
"Twenty thousand baths of oil" are mentioned in Chronicles; and the Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint also have here "twenty thousand measures." But as barley and wine are also spoken of there, it is probable that the wheat mentioned here, and the small quantity of fine oil, were intended for the use of Hiram's own family, while that in Chronicles was for his workmen.
promised ......... peace <01696 07965> [as he promised him.]
<08147> [they two.]
work crews <04522> [levy. Heb. tribute of men.]
work crews <04522> [the levy.]
month ........ month ...... months <02320> [a month.]
Adoniram <0141> [Adoniram.]
70,000 <07657> [threescore.]
These were all strangers, or proselytes, dwelling among the Israelites, as we learn from the paralled place in 2 Chron.
3,300 <07969 0505> [three thousand.]
In the parallel passage of Chronicles, it is "three thousand six hundred," which is also the reading of the Septuagint here.
valuable stones ........... stone <068 03368> [costly stones.]
Byblos <01382> [the stone-squarers. or, Giblites.]
