1 Kings 4:34

The passage begins with God: “And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much.” Everything that follows about Solomon’s learning, his writings and his fame rests on that first clause. The name for God, ʼĕlôhîym, is plural in form, and when it names the true God it is a plural of majesty that usually takes a singular verb, as it does here. The verb nâthan is the ordinary word for giving, used across a very wide range of settings, and here God is the giver and Solomon the one who receives.

The gift answers a prayer. Early in his reign, at the high place of Gibeon, God appeared to Solomon in a dream and offered him whatever he would ask (1 Kings 3). Solomon felt the weight of leading God’s people, and he asked for “an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad” (1 Kings 3:9). He passed over wealth, long life and victory over his enemies, and God was pleased with the request. He promised Solomon the wisdom he had asked for and added riches and honor besides (1 Kings 3:12–13). Verse 29 is that promise kept.

By this point Solomon’s wisdom has already been seen at work, in the famous case of the two women (1 Kings 3:16–28) and in the ordering of a kingdom at peace from the Euphrates to the border of Egypt, with its officers and its daily provision (1 Kings 4:20–28). Solomon reigned from about 970 to 931 BC, at the height of Israel’s united kingdom. In his world wisdom was counted among the chief qualities of a king, because a king had to judge disputes and manage the affairs of a nation. God gave Solomon what the work required, and far more.

The rest of Scripture speaks of God the same way. Daniel praised God as the one who gives wisdom and knowledge (Daniel 2:20–21), and James tells anyone who lacks wisdom to ask God, who gives to all generously (James 1:5).

Verse 29 names three gifts. Wisdom, chokmâh, is wisdom in the good sense, and the word also covers skill. It is practical: the ability to judge soundly in real situations and to put knowledge to work in right living and right rule, which for a king meant above all giving justice. Understanding, tâbûwn, is intelligence or insight, the power to tell things apart and to grasp what lies at the bottom of a complicated matter. The two words often stand together, and between them they cover sound judgment and clear insight.

“Exceeding much” joins two Hebrew words. mᵉʼôd means very, greatly or exceedingly, and râbâh means to increase or to be many. Together they say that God gave these gifts in very great measure.

Verse 30 measures Solomon against the two great homes of learning that Israel knew. The word “wisdom” stands three times in this verse, once for Solomon and once each for the east and for Egypt, and his is set above both. “Excelled” is râbâh, the same verb that stands behind “much” in verse 29. Solomon’s wisdom was greater and more abundant than theirs.

“The children of the east country” is b’nei qedem, literally “the sons of the east”. bên is the ordinary word for a son, used in the widest sense for those who belong to a family or a people, and qedem means the front, and so the east, the direction where the sun rises. The phrase covers the peoples east of Israel, in Aram, Babylonia and the other lands of Mesopotamia and Arabia, who were known in Solomon’s day for learning in astronomy, mathematics and writing, and also for divination. Egypt, Mitsrayim, is a dual form naming Upper and Lower Egypt, and its learning was ancient and long established, in medicine, building and the running of a state.

These were the highest standards of human learning in Solomon’s world, and the wisdom God gave him passed them all. It was the wisdom God had promised him at Gibeon (1 Kings 3:12), and it surpassed the long-established learning of the great nations around him.

Verse 31 makes the claim wider still: “he was wiser than all men.” “Wiser” is ḥāḵam, the verb to be wise and to act wisely, from the same root as the noun chokmâh, and “men” is ʼâdâm, human beings, mankind as a whole. Solomon is set above every human being of his time.

Verse 32 turns the gift into something people could hear. “He spake” is dâbar, the ordinary verb to speak, mention or tell, so the proverbs come to us as things Solomon said. A proverb, mâshâl, is a saying, proverb, byword, parable or oracle. Strong’s ties the word, with an “apparently”, to a root of superiority in thought, and other lexicons place it under a root meaning to be like, or to speak in parables. Many proverbs work by comparison, setting one thing beside another to make a truth easy to remember. Solomon spoke three thousand of them, the work of a mind that watched life closely and put what it saw into lasting words about conduct, rule, human nature and God.

His songs, shîyr, numbered a thousand and five. The word is a general one for a song or poem meant to be sung, and it could include hymns of praise, laments, love songs, songs of history and songs that teach. The king who gave practical instruction also wrote poetry and music for worship and for the feelings of the heart. Proverbs teach and songs sing, and God’s gift of wisdom reached both.

This verse lies behind the long association of Israel’s wisdom books with Solomon. Much of the book of Proverbs, along with Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon, is traditionally linked with his name. Scripture honors other gifts of skill as God’s giving too, as when God filled Bezalel with his Spirit for skilled craftsmanship (Exodus 31:3), and Proverbs pictures wisdom itself present with God when he made the world (Proverbs 8:22–31).

Verse 33 shows how wide Solomon’s understanding reached. He spoke of trees, ʻêts, and the verse marks out their range with two plants at opposite ends. The cedar, ʼerez, grew on Lebanon, Lᵉbânôwn, “the white mountain”, named for its snow. It was famous for its great size, its long life, its strength, its fragrant wood and its resistance to decay, and it was prized as timber for great buildings, Solomon’s temple among them. Scripture uses it as a picture of strength and stability, as when the righteous are said to grow like a cedar in Lebanon (Psalm 92:12).

Hyssop, ʼêzôwb, is a small, shrubby plant, probably a kind of marjoram, that grows in the cracks of walls and in rocky crevices. It was humble and easily overlooked, yet it had an important place in Israel’s worship. It was used in the cleansing of a leper (Leviticus 14:4) and at the Passover, for applying the blood. Setting the greatest of trees beside this little plant names the whole by its two ends, everything from the greatest to the least, a figure called a merism. Solomon’s knowledge took in all of it.

He also spoke of animals, in four groups. Beasts, bᵉhêmâh, are the larger four-footed animals. Fowl, ʻôwph, are birds. Creeping things, remes, are reptiles or other quick-moving creatures, and fishes are dâg. Land, air, ground and water are all there. The verb is dâbar again, he spoke, and Solomon put what he observed into words for others to learn from.

So Solomon’s wisdom reached into the details of creation as well as into human affairs, and it reflected the wisdom of the Creator. The psalmist says, “O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches” (Psalm 104:24). Job says that the beasts will teach those who ask them (Job 12:7–9), and Paul writes that the invisible things of God are clearly seen in the things he has made (Romans 1:20).

The passage ends with the world coming to Solomon. “There came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth.” The verb “came” is bôwʼ, to go or come, used for every kind of arrival. “People” is ʻam, a people gathered as one body, and set beside “kings” it points to ordinary folk as well as rulers. Kings, melek, were heads of state, and their coming shows how much Solomon’s counsel was valued for justice and good government. Travel in that age was hard and dangerous, so each of these journeys said a great deal about Solomon’s name.

They came “to hear”. The verb is shâmaʻ, to hear with understanding and often with close attention, and the same verb stands in “which had heard”. They had heard of his wisdom from far away, and they came to hear it in person. Rulers in that world exchanged gifts and made visits as part of their dealings with one another, and these came for a further reason, to listen to Solomon.

This was God’s blessing on Solomon reaching past Israel’s borders, and with it the God of Israel became known among the nations. It is a partial fulfilment of the promise to Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed in him (Genesis 12:3), and a foretaste of God’s purpose to draw all nations to himself. Proverbs pictures Wisdom calling out to all people and declares her great worth (Proverbs 8:1–11).

Solomon’s wisdom was God’s gift, and it was great, but it belonged to a man who later fell. He turned to sin and idolatry, and his kingdom was divided after him (1 Kings 11:1–13). The wisest of kings still needed a wiser King.

Jesus Christ is wisdom itself. Paul calls him “the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24) and says that God has made him our wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:30), and in him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). Solomon received wisdom as a gift, and Christ is the eternal Word through whom all things were made (John 1:1–3), by whom and for whom all things were created and in whom they hold together (Colossians 1:16–17). Solomon spoke of cedar and hyssop, beast and fish, and the Son made every one of them. He came among us “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), and in the fulness of time God will gather all things together in him (Ephesians 1:10).

Jesus made the comparison himself. The Queen of the South came a long way to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and Jesus said, “a greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:42). People and kings travelled to Jerusalem to hear Solomon, and Christ calls all who labour to come to him (Matthew 11:28–30) and draws all people to himself (John 12:32). Solomon’s fame reached the nations round about, and the gospel of Christ is to be preached among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). Solomon’s proverbs guided daily life, and Christ has the words of eternal life (John 6:68). Solomon wrote a thousand and five songs, and the redeemed sing a new song of redemption (Revelation 5:9). The peace of Solomon’s reign was real, and it passed. The Son’s kingdom lasts for ever (Luke 1:33, Isaiah 9:6–7), a kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17).

This passage is first of all about God. Solomon asked for wisdom to serve God’s people well, and God answered with wisdom like the sand of the sea, added riches and honor besides, and made his servant’s name known among the nations. God keeps his word, and he keeps it with an open hand.

The passage also shows the breadth of God’s own wisdom. Every proverb Solomon spoke and every plant and animal he described came from the God who made them all in wisdom. The cedar on the mountain and the hyssop in the crack of a wall both belong to his work, and both were worth the attention of the wisest king in Israel.

And the passage holds out a promise. The wisdom that drew kings from all the earth to Jerusalem is found in full in Christ, in whom all its treasures are hid. James says that whoever lacks wisdom may ask God, who gives to all generously, and it shall be given (James 1:5).