How blessed are your men! How blessed are these servants of yours who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom!
Parallel translations
- WEB Happy are your men, happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you, who hear your wisdom.
- KJV Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom.
- NKJV Happy are your men and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom!
- NASB Blessed are your men, and blessed are these servants of yours who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom!
- NLT How happy your people must be! What a privilege for your officials to stand here day after day, listening to your wisdom!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The queen pronounced Solomon's servants happy for the privilege of hearing his wisdom daily. It highlights the blessing of constant nearness to true wisdom.
Overview
She counted blessed those who stood continually before the king and drank in his wise words. Proximity to such wisdom was itself a gift. This points beyond Solomon to the deeper blessedness of those who abide near Christ and continually hear His words, for to dwell in the presence of perfect wisdom is the highest privilege of all.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Prov 8:34Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at the posts of my doorway.
- Prov 10:21The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of judgment.
- Luke 11:31The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and now One greater than Solomon is here.
- Prov 3:13–14Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who acquires understanding,
- Prov 13:20He who walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.
- 2 Chr 9:7–8How blessed are your men! How blessed are these servants of yours who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom!
- Luke 10:39–42She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to His message.
- Luke 11:28But He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Solomon's glory, wisdom, and temple where God's presence dwells are a shadow of the greater Son of David — 'one greater than Solomon is here' — and of the true Temple, Christ himself.
How 1 Kings 10:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.