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The Blue Letter Bible

1 Kings 3 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

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Solomon’s Prayer for Wisdom

(2Ch 1:2–13 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:1

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:1 - Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the LORD and the wall around Jerusalem.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:2

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:2 - The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:3

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:3 - Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:4

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:4 - And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:5

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:5 - At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:6

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:6 - And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:7

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:7 - And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:8

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:8 - And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:9

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:9 - Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:10

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:10 - It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:11

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:11 - And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right,

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:12

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:12 - behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:13

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:13 - I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:14

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:14 - And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:15

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:15 - And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.

Solomon’s Wisdom

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:16

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:16 - Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:17

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:17 - The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:18

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:18 - Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. And we were alone. There was no one else with us in the house; only we two were in the house.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:19

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:19 - And this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:20

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:20 - And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while your servant slept, and laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:21

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:21 - When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning, behold, he was not the child that I had borne.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:22

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:22 - But the other woman said, “No, the living child is mine, and the dead child is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine.” Thus they spoke before the king.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:23

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:23 - Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; and the other says, ‘No; but your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:24

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:24 - And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought before the king.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:25

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:25 - And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:26

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:26 - Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:27

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:27 - Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ki 3:28

Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 3:28 - And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.
See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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1 Kings Chapter 3 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation New International Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras