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1 Kings4:29–34

Solomon’s Wisdom

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1 Kings 4:29–34 — Solomon’s Wisdom. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

29

And God gave Solomon wisdom, exceedingly deep insight, and understanding beyond measure, like the sand on the seashore.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’ĕ·lō·hîm way·yit·tên liš·lō·mōh ḥāḵ·māh mə·’ōḏ har·bêh ū·ṯə·ḇū·nāh lêḇ wə·rō·ḥaḇ ka·ḥō·wl ’ă·šer ‘al- śə·p̄aṯ hay·yām

Word by word14 · parsed
אֱלֹהִ֨ים’ĕ·lō·hîmAnd GodH430
√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseNounmasculine plural
וַיִּתֵּן֩way·yit·têngaveH5414
√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
nâthan — to give, put, set The governing verb of the whole unit, and a consecutive imperfect that reports a completed act. The Pulpit Commentary reads it as the discharge of a promise already made in 1 Kings 3:12, so that this paragraph is not a compliment paid to Solomon but a receipt entered against God's word. Wisdom here is donated property, which is exactly why it can later be squandered.
לִשְׁלֹמֹ֛הliš·lō·mōhSolomonH8010
√ Shᵉlômôh — Shelomah, David's successorPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
חָכְמָ֧הḥāḵ·māhwisdomH2451
√ chokmâh — wisdom (in a good sense)Nounfeminine singular
chokmâh — wisdom (in a good sense) K&D distinguish this from the next noun: chokmâh is "practical wisdom, ability to decide what is the judicious and useful course to pursue." Ellicott presses further, that wisdom in the scriptural sense "is properly the attribute of God, and then, by His gifts of revelation and inspiration, reflected in man." It is the same noun that will be twice repeated of the nations in v. 30 and twice more in v. 34, so the unit measures a borrowed attribute against every rival store of it.
מְאֹ֑דmə·’ōḏexceedinglyH3966
√ mᵉʼôd — properly, vehemence, iAdverb
הַרְבֵּ֣הhar·bêhdeepH7235
√ râbâh — to increase (in whatever respect)VerbHifilInfinitive absolute
וּתְבוּנָ֖הū·ṯə·ḇū·nāhinsightH8394
√ tâbûwn — intelligenceConjunctive wawNounfeminine singular
tâbûwn — intelligence, discernment K&D: "keenness of understanding to arrive at the correct solution of difficult and complicated problems." The Pulpit Commentary glosses it "discernment, penetration." Paired with chokmâh, it names the analytic edge that the judgment scene of 1 Kings 3 had just displayed in public.
לֵ֔בlêḇand understandingH3820
√ lêb — the heartNounmasculine singular
lêb — the heart In Hebrew anthropology the seat of thought and will, not of sentiment. Ellicott treats "largeness of heart" as "clearly capacity of knowledge," distinguished from wisdom itself as a means from its end; Barnes calls it simply "what we call great capacity." It is the same organ Solomon had asked for as a "hearing heart" in the previous chapter.
וְרֹ֣חַבwə·rō·ḥaḇbeyond measureH7341
√ rôchab — width (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct
rôchab — width, breadth Spatial width applied to an organ of thought. Barnes observes that the following measure-phrase is ordinarily used of numerical multitude (as at 1 Kings 4:20) and that "its use here to express mere amplitude or greatness is unique." The metaphor is of a vessel enlarged, which says nothing yet about what will be poured into it.
כַּח֕וֹלka·ḥō·wllike the sandH2344
√ chôwl — sand (as round or whirling particles)Preposition-k, ArticleNounmasculine singular
chôwl — sand (as whirling particles) The covenant measure. The Pulpit Commentary lists the same expression at Genesis 22:17, Genesis 32:12, Genesis 41:49, Joshua 11:4 and Judges 7:12; K&D call it "a proverbial expression for an innumerable multitude." At 1 Kings 4:20 the sand measured Israel's population; here, four verses later, the identical image measures one man's mind, and Poole notices that sand is at once immeasurable in bulk and minutely particular in its grains.
אֲשֶׁ֖ר’ă·šerH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
עַל־‘al-onH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
שְׂפַ֥תśə·p̄aṯthe seashoreH8193
√ sâphâh — the lip (as a natural boundary)Nounfeminine singular construct
הַיָּֽם׃hay·yām. . .H3220
√ yâm — a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of waterArticleNounmasculine singular
yâm — sea The boundary term of the image; the sand is countable only against something that ends it.
30

Solomon’s wisdom was greater than that of all the men of the East, greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

šə·lō·mōh ḥā·ḵə·maṯ wat·tê·reḇ mê·ḥā·ḵə·maṯ kāl- bə·nê- qe·ḏem ū·mik·kōl ḥā·ḵə·maṯ miṣ·rā·yim

Word by word10 · parsed
שְׁלֹמֹ֔הšə·lō·mōhSolomon’sH8010
√ Shᵉlômôh — Shelomah, David's successorNounpropermasculine singular
חָכְמַ֣תḥā·ḵə·maṯwisdomH2451
√ chokmâh — wisdom (in a good sense)Nounfeminine singular construct
וַתֵּ֙רֶב֙wat·tê·reḇwas greater thanH7235
√ râbâh — to increase (in whatever respect)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person feminine singular
râbâh — to increase (in whatever respect) A verb of growth used for comparison. The narrator does not say Solomon was cleverer; he says his wisdom grew past a boundary. Ellicott reads the whole paragraph as "a general growth of wisdom, a largeness of knowledge, and an outburst of literature, of which, as usual with great men, Solomon is at once the child and the leader."
מֵֽחָכְמַ֖תmê·ḥā·ḵə·maṯ[that]H2451
√ chokmâh — wisdom (in a good sense)Preposition-mNounfeminine singular construct
כָּל־kāl-of allH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct
בְּנֵי־bə·nê-the menH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural construct
bên — a son, in the widest sense (subject, nation, quality) Here purely idiomatic: a class of persons, not a lineage.
קֶ֑דֶםqe·ḏemof the EastH6924
√ qedem — the front, of place (absolutely, the fore part, relatively the East) or time (antiquity)Nounmasculine singular
qedem — the fore part, the East, antiquity The wisdom named is real wisdom, not a foil. Ellicott points to Job as expressly one of these men of the East (Job 1:3) and says their utterances show "large knowledge of nature and of man, speculating on the deepest moral questions." Cambridge adds that from this same quarter the wise men later came to Bethlehem. Scripture concedes that the nations have wisdom; it disputes only where the fountain is.
וּמִכֹּ֖לū·mik·kōlgreater than allH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeConjunctive waw, Preposition-mNounmasculine singular construct
חָכְמַ֥תḥā·ḵə·maṯthe wisdomH2451
√ chokmâh — wisdom (in a good sense)Nounfeminine singular construct
מִצְרָֽיִם׃miṣ·rā·yimof EgyptH4714
√ Mitsrayim — Mitsrajim, iNounproperfeminine singular
Mitsrayim — Egypt The proverbial seat of learning. Barnes catalogues it as "magic, geometry, medicine, astronomy, architecture, and a dreamy mystic philosophy"; K&D note that it "embraced natural science as well," which is precisely the field Solomon is said to enter in v. 33. Poole and Gill both route the point through Acts 7:22, where Moses is learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.
31

He was wiser than all men—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and wiser than Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread throughout the surrounding nations.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yeḥ·kam mik·kāl hā·’ā·ḏām mê·’ê·ṯān hā·’ez·rā·ḥî wə·hê·mān wə·ḵal·kōl wə·ḏar·da‘ bə·nê mā·ḥō·wl šə·mōw way·hî- ḇə·ḵāl- sā·ḇîḇ hag·gō·w·yim

Word by word15 · parsed
וַיֶּחְכַּם֮way·yeḥ·kamHe was wiserH2449
√ châkam — to be wise (in mind, word or act)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
châkam — to be wise (in mind, word or act) Strong's gloss keeps all three channels, and the unit spends them in order: mind here, word in v. 32, act throughout the reign. The verb is stative, so it reports a condition rather than an achievement, consistent with v. 29's verb of giving.
מִכָּל־mik·kālthan allH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholePreposition-mNounmasculine singular construct
הָֽאָדָם֒hā·’ā·ḏāmmenH120
√ ʼâdâm — ruddy iArticleNounmasculine singular
ʼâdâm — man, mankind The widest possible field of comparison, and the one place the text risks an absolute. Benson and Poole alike stop the superlative short at "the first and second Adam," that is, at unfallen man and at Christ, which is a theological restriction the Hebrew itself does not state; the article permits their reading without requiring it.
מֵאֵיתָ֣ןmê·’ê·ṯānwiser than EthanH387
√ ʼÊythân — Ethan, the name of four IsraelitesPreposition-mNounpropermasculine singular
ʼÊythân — Ethan A rare name (Strong's H387, eight verses in all). Ethan and Heman reappear as Davidic musicians at 1 Chronicles 15:17 and 15:19, and as the named authors of Psalms 88 and 89, where both are titled Ezrahite. Whether the wise men of this verse are those singers is exactly what the commentators cannot settle.
הָאֶזְרָחִ֗יhā·’ez·rā·ḥîthe EzrahiteH250
√ ʼEzrâchîy — an Ezrachite or descendant of ZerachArticleNounpropermasculine singular
ʼEzrâchîy — an Ezrahite, descendant of Zerach A very rare gentilic, only three verses in the canon, and the hinge of the whole identification problem. K&D argue that ʼezrâchî is "another form of" the Zerahite name "lengthened by א prosthet," so that Levites could be styled Ezrahite through incorporation into the Judahite family of Zerah; Cambridge answers that "there is no possibility of deciding."
וְהֵימָ֧ןwə·hê·mānand wiser than HemanH1968
√ Hêymân — Heman, the name of at least two IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
וְכַלְכֹּ֛לwə·ḵal·kōlCalcolH3633
√ Kalkôl — Calcol, an IsraeliteConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
וְדַרְדַּ֖עwə·ḏar·da‘and DardaH1862
√ Dardaʻ — Darda, an IsraeliteConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
בְּנֵ֣יbə·nêthe sonsH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural construct
מָח֑וֹלmā·ḥō·wlof MaholH4235
√ Mâchôwl — Machol, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular
Mâchôwl — Machol (dance, pipe) K&D record that it "cannot be determined whether מחול is a proper name or an appellative noun," citing Hiller's appeal to "daughters of song" in Ecclesiastes 12:4 for the appellative sense. If appellative, these rivals of Solomon were singers, and the paragraph's next verse (his thousand and five songs) is a contest on their own ground.
שְׁמ֥וֹšə·mōwAnd his fameH8034
√ shêm — an appellation, as amark or memorial of individualityNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
shêm — an appellation, a mark or memorial of individuality The reach of the name, not the man, is what crosses borders; v. 34 will show what the name pulls in behind it.
וַיְהִֽי־way·hî-spreadH1961
√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
בְכָֽל־ḇə·ḵāl-throughoutH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholePreposition-bNounmasculine singular construct
סָבִֽיב׃sā·ḇîḇthe surroundingH5439
√ çâbîyb — (as noun) a circle, neighbour, or environsAdverb
הַגּוֹיִ֖םhag·gō·w·yimnationsH1471
√ gôwy — a foreign nationArticleNounmasculine plural
gôwy — a foreign nation The nations enter the account here as audience, and stay through v. 34.
32

Solomon composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·ḏab·bêr šə·lō·šeṯ ’ă·lā·p̄îm mā·šāl šî·rōw way·hî wā·’ā·lep̄ ḥă·miš·šāh

Word by word8 · parsed
וַיְדַבֵּ֕רway·ḏab·bêrSolomon composedH1696
√ dâbar — perhaps properly, to arrangeConjunctive wawVerbPielConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
dâbar — perhaps properly, to arrange (Piel: to speak) Strong's root sense, to arrange or set in order, sits oddly well under a Piel used for uttering three thousand ordered sayings. The same verb governs v. 33 twice. Wisdom in this unit is not a mood but an utterance, and the Hebrew never says it was written down.
שְׁלֹ֥שֶׁתšə·lō·šeṯthreeH7969
√ shâlôwsh — threeNumbermasculine singular construct
אֲלָפִ֖ים’ă·lā·p̄îmthousandH505
√ ʼeleph — hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alphabet, and this eventually used as a numeral) a thousandNumbermasculine plural
ʼeleph — a thousand Round numbers in a chronicler's register; the "and five" is what makes them look like a count rather than a flourish.
מָשָׁ֑לmā·šālproverbsH4912
√ mâshâl — properly, a pithy maxim, usually of metaphorical natureNounmasculine singular
mâshâl — a pithy maxim, usually metaphorical The genre word for the wisdom books. Barnes reckons that "less certainly than one thousand out of the three" survive in the book of Proverbs; Geneva's marginal note supposes the rest "perished in the captivity of Babylon." That two thousand sayings of the wisest man are simply gone is a fact the text does not apologize for, and Poole draws the right conclusion elsewhere: Scripture was not given to teach philosophy but to make men wise to salvation.
שִׁיר֖וֹšî·rōwand his songsH7892
√ shîyr — a songNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
shîyr — a song The same lexeme stands in the title of Psalm 88, ascribed to Heman the Ezrahite, one of the very rivals named in v. 31. Of the thousand and five, Cambridge, Barnes and K&D between them can point only to the Song of Songs and Psalms 72 and 127, and Cambridge cautions that "the titles are of small authority."
וַיְהִ֥יway·hînumberedH1961
√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
וָאָֽלֶף׃wā·’ā·lep̄a thousandH505
√ ʼeleph — hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alphabet, and this eventually used as a numeral) a thousandConjunctive wawNumbermasculine singular
חֲמִשָּׁ֥הḥă·miš·šāhand fiveH2568
√ châmêsh — fiveNumbermasculine singular
33

He spoke of trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing in the wall, and he taught about animals, birds, reptiles, and fish.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·ḏab·bêr ‘al- hā·‘ê·ṣîm min- hā·’e·rez ’ă·šer bal·lə·ḇā·nō·wn wə·‘aḏ hā·’ê·zō·wḇ ’ă·šer yō·ṣê baq·qîr way·ḏab·bêr ‘al- hab·bə·hê·māh wə·‘al- hā·‘ō·wp̄ wə·‘al- hā·re·meś wə·‘al- had·dā·ḡîm

Word by word21 · parsed
וַיְדַבֵּר֮way·ḏab·bêrHe spokeH1696
√ dâbar — perhaps properly, to arrangeConjunctive wawVerbPielConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
dâbar — to speak (Piel) Note what is not said: no verb of writing, no book. K&D infer that "speaking of plants and animals presupposes observations and researches in natural science," which is a fair inference; the text reports only the speech.
עַל־‘al-ofH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
הָֽעֵצִים֒hā·‘ê·ṣîmtreesH6086
√ ʻêts — a tree (from its firmness)ArticleNounmasculine plural
מִן־min-fromH4480
√ min — properly, a part ofPreposition
הָאֶ֙רֶז֙hā·’e·rezthe cedarH730
√ ʼerez — a cedar tree (from the tenacity of its roots)ArticleNounmasculine singular
ʼerez — a cedar tree (from the tenacity of its roots) The upper limit of the vegetable world. Barnes: the Lebanon cedars "were the most magnificent of all the trees known to the Hebrews, and hence, represent in the Old Testament the grandest of vegetable productions," citing Psalm 104:16, Song of Solomon 5:15 and Ezekiel 31:3. Solomon will shortly be buying these same cedars from Hiram to build the temple, so the tree he can describe is the tree he must import.
אֲשֶׁ֣ר’ă·šerH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
בַּלְּבָנ֔וֹןbal·lə·ḇā·nō·wnin LebanonH3844
√ Lᵉbânôwn — Lebanon, a mountain range in PalestinePreposition-b, ArticleNounproperfeminine singular
וְעַד֙wə·‘aḏtoH5704
√ ʻad — as far (or long, or much) as, whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until) or degree (equally with)Conjunctive wawPreposition
הָאֵז֔וֹבhā·’ê·zō·wḇthe hyssopH231
√ ʼêzôwb — hyssopArticleNounmasculine singular
ʼêzôwb — hyssop A rare lexeme (ten verses in all) and, in almost every other occurrence, a ritual instrument: the bunch that applies the Passover blood at Exodus 12:22, the cleansing of the leper at Leviticus 14:4, the red heifer's ashes at Numbers 19:6. Here alone it is an object of study rather than a means of purgation. Thenius, reported by K&D and followed by the Pulpit Commentary, argues for a wall-moss (orthotrichum saxatile) on the ground that true hyssop is too large to be a fit antithesis to the cedar.
אֲשֶׁ֥ר’ă·šerH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
יֹצֵ֖אyō·ṣêgrowingH3318
√ yâtsâʼ — to go (causatively, bring) out, in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively, direct and proximVerbQalParticiplemasculine singular
yâtsâʼ — to go or come out A participle of habitual action, holding the small plant in the act of emerging from the wall.
בַּקִּ֑ירbaq·qîrin the wallH7023
√ qîyr — a wall (as built in a trench)Preposition-b, ArticleNounmasculine singular
וַיְדַבֵּר֙way·ḏab·bêrand he taughtH1696
√ dâbar — perhaps properly, to arrangeConjunctive wawVerbPielConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
עַל־‘al-aboutH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
הַבְּהֵמָ֣הhab·bə·hê·māhanimalsH929
√ bᵉhêmâh — properly, a dumb beastArticleNounfeminine singular
bᵉhêmâh — properly, a dumb beast First of the four classes, and the one the king is least like: the contrast between a beast that cannot speak and a king who speaks of it runs under the whole verse.
וְעַל־wə·‘al-. . .H5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsConjunctive wawPreposition
הָע֔וֹףhā·‘ō·wp̄birdsH5775
√ ʻôwph — a bird (as covered with feathers, or rather as covering with wings), often collectivelyArticleNounmasculine singular
וְעַל־wə·‘al-. . .H5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsConjunctive wawPreposition
הָרֶ֖מֶשׂhā·re·meśreptilesH7431
√ remes — a reptile or any other rapidly moving animalArticleNounmasculine singular
remes — a reptile or any other rapidly moving animal A rare class-word (seventeen verses), used in the creation and flood accounts. Barnes identifies this fourfold list as "the usual Biblical division of the animal kingdom," citing Genesis 1:26, Genesis 9:2 and Psalm 148:10; Cambridge notes "the same classes are mentioned in the account of the creation." Solomon's survey therefore runs along the seams of Genesis 1, a man of dust naming again what the first man was set over.
וְעַל־wə·‘al-. . .H5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsConjunctive wawPreposition
הַדָּגִֽים׃had·dā·ḡîmand fishH1709
√ dâg — a fish (often used collectively)ArticleNounmasculine plural
dâg — a fish (often collective) The sea closes the list, as it closed the image of v. 29.
34

So men of all nations came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

mik·kāl hā·‘am·mîm way·yā·ḇō·’ū šā·mə·‘ū ’eṯ- šə·lō·mōh mê·’êṯ ḥā·ḵə·mā·ṯōw kāl- mal·ḵê hā·’ā·reṣ ’ă·šer liš·mō·a‘ ’êṯ ḥā·ḵə·maṯ

Word by word15 · parsed
מִכָּל־mik·kālSo men of allH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholePreposition-mNounmasculine singular construct
הָ֣עַמִּ֔יםhā·‘am·mîmnationsH5971
√ ʻam — a people (as a congregated unit)ArticleNounmasculine plural
ʻam — a people (as a congregated unit) Plural and articular: whole communities, not curious individuals.
וַיָּבֹ֙אוּ֙way·yā·ḇō·’ūcameH935
√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
bôwʼ — to go or come in (wide application) The unit's closing motion reverses its opening one: in v. 29 God gives downward to one man, in v. 34 the nations come inward to that man. K&D note that the queen of Sheba's visit in 1 Kings 10 "furnishes a historical proof of this," that is, the narrator is summarizing in advance what he will later narrate once.
שָׁמְע֖וּšā·mə·‘ūto listenH8085
√ shâmaʻ — to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etcVerbQalPerfectthird person common plural
shâmaʻ — to hear intelligently, with attention or obedience Report reaching a distance is what moves the kings; the same root is Israel's own covenant imperative in the Shema. Here the nations do what the word asks, and they do it toward a son of David.
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
שְׁלֹמֹ֑הšə·lō·mōhto Solomon’sH8010
√ Shᵉlômôh — Shelomah, David's successorNounpropermasculine singular
מֵאֵת֙mê·’êṯ. . .H854
√ ʼêth — properly, nearness (used only as a preposition or an adverb), nearPreposition-mDirect object marker
חָכְמָתֽוֹ׃סḥā·ḵə·mā·ṯōwwisdomH2451
√ chokmâh — wisdom (in a good sense)Nounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular
כָּל־kāl-sent by allH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct
מַלְכֵ֣יmal·ḵêthe kingsH4428
√ melek — a kingNounmasculine plural construct
melek — a king The comparison has escalated across the unit: wiser than the sages of the East (v. 30), wiser than the named wise of Israel (v. 31), and now sought by the crowned. Benson notes that this "puts an honour upon human learning."
הָאָ֔רֶץhā·’ā·reṣof the earthH776
√ ʼerets — the earth (at large, or partitively a land)ArticleNounfeminine singular
ʼerets — the earth, or a land The scope word the reader must size. Poole restrains it to the neighbouring kingdoms; the narrator leaves it open, and the chapter ends with the nations looking at Israel, which is where Genesis 12:3 pointed.
אֲשֶׁ֥ר’ă·šerwhoH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
לִשְׁמֹ֕עַliš·mō·a‘had heardH8085
√ shâmaʻ — to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etcPreposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct
אֵ֖ת’êṯH853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
חָכְמַ֣תḥā·ḵə·maṯof his wisdomH2451
√ chokmâh — wisdom (in a good sense)Nounfeminine singular construct
chokmâh — wisdom The unit's first noun is also its last, and both times it is something received: given to Solomon in v. 29, heard from Solomon in v. 34. Between those two verbs sits everything he did with it.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The verb that governs everything: God gave — 4:29

The paragraph opens with וַיִּתֵּן, a verb of giving placed before its subject, and the Pulpit Commentary reads it as the discharge of a promise already made at 1 Kings 3:12. Three nouns follow: חָכְמָה (practical wisdom), תְּבוּנָה (penetration), רֹחַב לֵב (breadth of heart). K&D separate them precisely, the first as "ability to decide what is the judicious and useful course to pursue," the second as "keenness of understanding to arrive at the correct solution of difficult and complicated problems," the third as "mental capacity to embrace the most diverse departments of knowledge." Ellicott ranks them rather than merely distinguishing them, treating understanding and largeness of heart as means to wisdom, "the one being the capacity of wisdom within, the other the education of that capacity from without," and that ranking is his inference from sense, not from the Hebrew, which simply coordinates. Barnes notes something the English cannot show: the sand-measure is a formula for numerical multitude (it counted Israel just nine verses earlier, at 1 Kings 4:20), and "its use here to express mere amplitude or greatness is unique." Poole hears the image both ways at once, vast and minute: sand "cannot be numbered or measured," and yet "consists of the smallest parts." ⚙ The grammar carries a warning the praise does not: what is given by nâthan is held, not owned.

ii. Measured against the nations, and against Israel's own wise — 4:30-4:31

The comparison runs outward, then inward. Outward first: בְּנֵי־קֶדֶם and Egypt, and neither is mocked. Ellicott says of the men of the East that Job was one of them, and that their sayings show "large knowledge of nature and of man, speculating on the deepest moral questions"; of Egypt he says its wisdom was "a part of a more advanced and elaborate civilisation, enriched by learning and culture." Barnes lists its content (magic, geometry, medicine, astronomy, architecture) and then declines to inflate Solomon: "The writer only means to say that his wisdom was truer and more real than all the much-praised wisdom of Egypt." Then inward, to four Israelite names, and here the record breaks down. Ellicott, K&D, the Pulpit Commentary and Cambridge all work the same problem: are Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol and Darda the four sons of Zerah in 1 Chronicles 2:6, or the Levitical singers of 1 Chronicles 15, or neither? K&D harmonize by incorporation, arguing that ʼezrâchî is a prosthetic form of the Zerahite name and that Levites could be reckoned into a Judahite house as Elkanah was reckoned an Ephraimite. Cambridge simply reports that "there is no possibility of deciding," and the Pulpit Commentary, after five hundred words of argument, concedes that the question "is one of so much nicety that it is hardly possible to come to a positive conclusion." Benson and Poole, meanwhile, take the superlative מִכָּל־הָאָדָם as broadly as it can be taken and stop it only at "the first and second Adam."

iii. Three thousand sayings, and what the canon kept — 4:32

The verb is וַיְדַבֵּר, he spoke; Gill insists these proverbs "were not written as the book of Proverbs, but spoken only, and were taken from his lips." מָשָׁל is wider than English "proverb": Ellicott spreads it across parable, proverb, riddle and figurative poetry, and Cambridge calls the Hebrew mashal "more of the character of a parable, or wise comparison, than what we commonly call by that name." Of the three thousand, Barnes reckons "less certainly than one thousand" survive; of the thousand and five songs, the Pulpit Commentary says all have perished except the Song of Solomon and possibly Psalms 72 and 127. Geneva guesses a mechanism, that they "perished in the captivity of Babylon," which is conjecture. Ellicott draws the conclusion that matters: "the Old Testament Canon is not a collection of chance fragments of a scanty literature, but ... out of a literature, which at this time, at any rate, was large and copious, deliberate selections by prophetic authority were made." Cambridge adds the one textual datum: the Septuagint counts five thousand songs, Josephus agrees with the Hebrew. ⚙ The loss is not an embarrassment to the text; it is the text's own filing system showing.

iv. From cedar to hyssop: a man of dust naming the world — 4:33

The merism מִן־הָאֶרֶז ... וְעַד הָאֵזוֹב claims the whole field by naming its ends, and Geneva glosses it in five words: "From the highest to the lowest." K&D put it exactly: the two are "placed in antithesis, the former as the largest and most glorious of trees, the latter as the smallest and most insignificant of plants, to embrace the whole of the vegetable kingdom." They add Thenius's proposal that אֵזוֹב here is a wall-moss rather than true hyssop, since true hyssop is not small enough to make the contrast bite, and the Pulpit Commentary follows him. The animals then come in four articular collectives, and Barnes identifies them as "the usual Biblical division of the animal kingdom," citing Genesis 1:26, Genesis 9:2 and Psalm 148:10; Cambridge says the same classes stand "in the account of the creation." Poole states the limit of the whole enterprise without flinching: "all which discourses are lost, without any impeachment of the perfection of the Holy Scriptures; which were not inspired and written to teach men philosophy or physic, but only to make men wise to salvation." JFB agrees and adds a reason: the greater part of them "perished in the Babylonish captivity, probably because they were not inspired." Gill records that the Targum read the cedar and hyssop allegorically of the kings of David's house and of the Messiah, which is a later reading, not a claim of this verse.

v. The nations come to hear — 4:34

The chapter closes with motion toward Jerusalem: וַיָּבֹאוּ מִכָּל־הָעַמִּים לִשְׁמֹעַ, and they came from all the peoples to hear. K&D note the rarity of the thing, that the fame of wisdom "brought many strangers to Jerusalem, and all the more because of its rarity at that time, especially among princes," and that the queen of Sheba in 1 Kings 10 is the narrated proof of this summary. Poole restrains "all kings of the earth" to the neighbouring kings on the strength of the relative clause that follows, and Benson agrees, adding that the verse "puts an honour upon human learning." Cambridge observes that the Septuagint inserts extra material here drawn from 1 Kings 3:1 and 9:16, so that even the paragraph's ending is textually unsettled. Henry, reading the whole paragraph at once, makes the redemptive turn the commentators nearly all make: "Solomon was herein a type of Christ, in whom are hid all treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Offered to be tested. Read the six verses as one sentence and the subject never changes: God gave. Everything Solomon has in this paragraph arrives in v. 29 by a verb of donation, and everything the nations get in v. 34 arrives by hearing. Between the giving and the hearing there is a great deal of Solomon, three thousand sayings, a thousand and five songs, cedars and wall-moss and beasts and fish, and the narrator counts it all with evident admiration. But he never once says Solomon produced wisdom; the verbs are given, became-great, was-wise, spoke. The text is showing us a reservoir, not a spring. And the reservoir empties. Barnes can find under a third of the proverbs; the Pulpit Commentary can find one song and two disputed psalms; Poole says flatly that the discourses are lost, and JFB guesses why, "probably because they were not inspired." The canon kept what God gave and let go what Solomon merely knew, which is the same judgment the narrative will pass on the man himself eleven chapters later. So the paragraph reads, in its own construction, as a warning dressed as a commendation: a heart wide as the sand at the sea's lip can hold the whole created order and still not hold its owner. Poole's image is the one to keep, that sand is at once immeasurable and made of the smallest possible parts, vast and unable to cohere. What finally holds is not the breadth of the heart but the hand that filled it, and the nations who came to hear did better than the king who spoke, because they came.

The text never says Solomon produced wisdom; it says God gave it, and he spoke it, and most of it is gone. (This line is ⚙ synthesis, not Scripture.)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Four names, one genealogy, and a scribe's slip verbal / quotation — confirmed

The four rivals of v. 31, אֵיתָן, הֵימָן, כַּלְכֹּל, דַּרְדַּע, stand in the same order at 1 Chronicles 2:6 as sons of Zerah son of Judah, with Dara for Darda. The Verifier confirms the shared lexemes, and Calcol is the decisive one: it occurs in only two verses in the whole Hebrew Bible, these two. K&D judge the difference between דּרע and דּרדּע "attributable to a copyist's error" and cannot say which form is original. The Pulpit Commentary notes that the names "are practically the same" and "occur in the same order," but refuses a positive conclusion, since the chronicler's names would be great-grandsons of Jacob, centuries before Solomon. ⚙ The verbal link between the two verses is as secure as a link can be; what it proves about the men is not.

1 Chronicles 2:6 · 1 Chronicles 2:8

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H3633 Kalkôl (in 2 vv, i.e. only this verse and 1 Chron 2:6), H387 ʼÊythân (in 8 vv), H1968 Hêymân (in 15 vv). A rare shared proper-name cluster in identical order; verbal, but a name list, not a quotation of one text by the other.

Ezrahite: the psalm titles that name two of the four verbal / quotation — confirmed

The gentilic הָאֶזְרָחִי occurs in only three verses of the canon: here, and in the titles of Psalm 88 (Heman the Ezrahite) and Psalm 89 (Ethan the Ezrahite). The Verifier records the shared lexemes; the rarity does the work. Ellicott presses the coincidence, noting that Heman is also called "the king's seer in the words of the Lord" at 1 Chronicles 25:5 and that his psalm "is singularly full of thought, moral speculation, and sense of mystery in life and death." Cambridge is cooler, saying there is no possibility of deciding whether these are the same men. ⚙ If they are, then two of the four men Solomon is said to surpass are canonical authors, and the wisdom he outgrew is wisdom the church still sings.

Psalm 88:1 · Psalm 89:1

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H250 ʼEzrâchîy (in 3 vv, rare), H387 ʼÊythân (in 8 vv), H1968 Hêymân (in 15 vv), plus H7892 shîyr at Ps 88:1 against this unit's v. 32. Rare lexeme link; no quotation is claimed in either direction.

The singers David set over the song flagged — verify source

Ethan and Heman appear again as Levites appointed over the music when the ark came up to the city of David. K&D place Heman as a Korahite of Kohath and a grandson of Samuel, Ethan as a Merarite and "the president of the Levitical vocal choirs in the time of David," and they defend the double identity by the incorporation argument: as the Levite of Judges 17:7 is reckoned to Judah and Elkanah the Levite is called an Ephraimite at 1 Samuel 1:1, so these could be styled Ezrahite. Cambridge answers that Ethan is there son of Kushaiah and Heman son of Joel, and that no decision is possible. ⚙ The link is real at the level of the names; the identification is contested, and we mark it as such rather than tiering it verbal.

1 Chronicles 15:17 · 1 Chronicles 15:19 · 1 Chronicles 6:44

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H387 ʼÊythân (in 8 vv) and H1968 Hêymân (in 15 vv). The lexical overlap is certain, but the identification of these Levitical singers with the sages of 1 Kings 4:31 is disputed in the sources themselves (K&D for, Cambridge and Pulpit undecided), so the connection is flagged rather than claimed.

Cedar and hyssop: the two ends of the world, and the two ends of a cleansing structural / thematic — confirmed

Cedar wood and hyssop stand together, in that order, in the purification rites: the cleansing of a leper and of a leprous house at Leviticus 14:4, 6, 49, 51, 52, and the red heifer at Numbers 19:6. Solomon's merism takes the same two plants and makes them the outer limits of the vegetable kingdom, as K&D describe. ⚙ The pairing is the same; the use is not. In Leviticus the two are held in one hand to carry blood and water over an unclean thing; in 1 Kings they are the first and last entries in a catalogue. Gill records that the Targum turned the verse allegorical, reading the trees of the kings of David's house and of the Messiah, which is a later reading and we record it as such.

Leviticus 14:4 · Leviticus 14:6 · Numbers 19:6

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H231 ʼêzôwb (in 10 vv, rare), H730 ʼerez (in 69 vv), H6086 ʻêts (in 288 vv). The rare hyssop lexeme co-occurring with cedar is a genuine verbal collocation, but neither text cites the other and the two uses are unrelated in function, so we tier this structural rather than verbal.

Beast, bird, creeping thing, fish: the fourfold division of the creatures structural / thematic — confirmed

The four classes of v. 33 are not Solomon's coinage. Barnes calls them "the usual Biblical division of the animal kingdom" and points to Genesis 1:26, Genesis 9:2 and Psalm 148:10; Cambridge notes that "the same classes are mentioned in the account of the creation"; K&D call them "the four principal classes into which the Hebrews divided the animal kingdom." The Verifier finds the same cluster of lexemes in the shaking of all flesh at Ezekiel 38:20 and in Habakkuk's complaint that men are made "as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them." ⚙ The same four classes carry dominion in Genesis, judgment in Ezekiel, and rulerlessness in Habakkuk. Here a king surveys them and names them, which is what the first man was given to do.

Ezekiel 38:20 · Habakkuk 1:14

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H7431 remes (in 17 vv), H1709 dâg (in 18 vv), H5775 ʻôwph (in 70 vv), H3220 yâm (in 339 vv). A shared taxonomic formula, not a quotation; the further link to Genesis 1:26 is cited by Barnes and Cambridge, not computed by the Verifier.

A greater than Solomon, and a queen who came from the ends of the earth typological

Verse 34 states the pattern the Gospels later invoke: peoples come from far off to hear the wisdom of a son of David, and the narrator will give the pattern a face in 1 Kings 10. Jesus takes up exactly this episode, "The queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment ... for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here." Henry reads the whole paragraph that way, that "Christ's fame shall spread through all the earth, and men of all nations shall come to him." ⚙ Because this is a Greek text read against a Hebrew one, no shared Strong's number can exist between them and we do not claim a verbal tier; the link is figural, resting on an explicit New Testament appeal to the Solomon narrative rather than on a quoted clause.

Matthew 12:42 · Luke 11:31

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek against Hebrew), so shared Strong's lexemes are impossible by definition and no verbal tier is available. The basis is the Gospel's own explicit appeal to the Solomon narrative of 1 Kings 4:34 and 1 Kings 10. Ancient and widely-held; Henry and Benson both read this unit this way.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

A greater than Solomon is here ancient/widely-held

⚙ The unit builds a shape rather than a prophecy: a son of David endowed by God, speaking in מָשָׁל, and the peoples travelling to hear. Every part of that shape returns in the Gospels with one term changed. The Lord teaches in parables, which is the very genre Cambridge says the Hebrew mashal names, "more of the character of a parable, or wise comparison, than what we commonly call by that name"; the queen of the South comes from the ends of the earth to Solomon and is made the judge of a generation that would not come to a greater; and Henry states the received reading plainly, that "Solomon was herein a type of Christ, in whom are hid all treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Benson ends his note on v. 34 the same way. The difference the New Testament insists on is not degree but source: Solomon received wisdom, and Christ is it.

Matthew 12:42 · Luke 11:31 · Matthew 13:34

The treasures hid, and the wisdom made ours ancient/widely-held

⚙ 1 Kings 4:32 and 33 are an inventory of wisdom that is now lost: two thousand proverbs gone, a thousand songs gone, the whole natural history gone. Henry sets the loss against a keeping, that in Christ are hid all treasures of wisdom and knowledge, "and hid for us, for he is made of God to us, wisdom," which is Paul's language at 1 Corinthians 1:30 and Colossians 2:3. Gill, commenting on the giving in v. 29, makes the same move backwards from James 1:5: "whatsoever solid wisdom and understanding is in any man, it is from the liberal hand of God, the fountain of wisdom." ⚙ The point is not that Solomon's learning was worthless but that it was not safe anywhere in him. What is hid in Christ is not lost by being hid; what was stored in Solomon perished with the century.

Colossians 2:3 · 1 Corinthians 1:30 · James 1:5

Wise men from the East, come again novel

⚙ Verse 30 measures Solomon against "all the sons of the East," and Cambridge, glossing that phrase, reaches forward on its own: "From the same quarter came ‘the wise men’ unto Bethlehem when Christ was born." Ellicott identifies these easterners as the world of Job, awed and monotheistic but outside the Abrahamic covenant. ⚙ Read figurally, the two scenes are the same journey run twice: eastern wisdom travelling west toward a son of David, first to hear and go home, then to worship and go home another way. We mark this novel as a reading of 1 Kings 4:30, since no ancient source we hold makes the verse itself point to Matthew 2; Cambridge merely notes the shared quarter of the compass, and that is all the weight it will bear.

Matthew 2:1

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. The Hebrew of these six verses is not in dispute at any point that changes the sense, but three reported variants should be on the record, all of them from the sources and not from us. (1) At v. 31 K&D judge the difference between דּרע (Dara, 1 Chronicles 2:6) and דּרדּע (Darda, here) "attributable to a copyist's error," and say that because the name occurs nowhere else "it cannot be decided whether Dara or Darda is the correct form"; the Pulpit Commentary adds that many manuscripts, with the Syriac and Arabic, read Darda in Chronicles. (2) At v. 32 Cambridge reports that the Septuagint numbers the songs at five thousand while Josephus agrees with the Hebrew text's thousand and five. (3) At v. 34 Cambridge reports that the Vatican Septuagint inserts here material otherwise found at 1 Kings 3:1 and 9:16, concerning Pharaoh's daughter and the taking of Gezer, and correspondingly omits it at 9:16.

Alignment. The Berean interlinear supplied in our brief orders its word indices to follow the English rendering, not the Hebrew clause order, and in v. 29 it distributes the construct pair רֹחַב לֵב across the glosses "beyond measure" and "and understanding." Our literal renderings are built from the Hebrew order; where we differ from the gloss column, it is for that reason and not because a different text is being read.

What is genuinely uncertain. The identity of Ethan, Heman, Calcol and Darda is unresolved in the sources themselves, and we have deliberately flagged rather than asserted the connection to David's Levitical singers. The identity of אֵזוֹב in v. 33 is unsettled: Gill lists mint, marjoram, houseleek, wallflower and maidenhair as proposals, while Thenius (through K&D) and the Pulpit Commentary argue for a wall-moss on the grounds of the contrast with the cedar. The scope of "all kings of the earth" in v. 34 is read universally by some and restrictively by Poole; the Hebrew noun אֶרֶץ carries both.

Sources handled with care. Gill's report of the tradition identifying Ethan with Abraham, Heman with Moses and Chalcol with Joseph, and his report of the Targum's allegory of the cedar and hyssop, are relayed by him as traditions and are recorded here as such, not as exegesis of the Hebrew. Geneva's note that the lost proverbs perished in the Babylonian captivity is a conjecture ("are thought"), as is JFB's explanation that they were not preserved "because they were not inspired." Cambridge's and Josephus's accounts of Solomon's exorcisms and magical books are late embellishment; K&D document the growth of that legend and we make no use of it. Our own ⚙ reading of the paragraph as a commendation shaped like a warning is synthesis offered to be tested, and depends on reading 1 Kings 4:29 in the light of 1 Kings 11, which this unit does not itself cite.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)