And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.
Parallel translations
- WEB Your servant is among your people which you have chosen, a great people, that can’t be numbered or counted for multitude.
- BSB Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a people too numerous to count or number.
- NKJV And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted.
- NASB And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted.
- NLT And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted!
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
Solomon recognizes he rules God's own chosen people, too numerous to count. The greatness of the task deepens his sense of dependence.
Overview
Solomon sees the people not as his possession but as God's chosen nation, recalling the promises to Abraham of innumerable descendants. The vast responsibility of judging such a people drives him to seek what no man can supply on his own. His awareness that the kingdom belongs to God reframes leadership as stewardship before the true King.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Gen 15:5And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
- Gen 22:17That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
- Gen 13:16And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.
- 1 Chr 21:2And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.
- 1 Chr 27:23–24But David took not the number of them from twenty years old and under: because the LORD had said he would increase Israel like to the stars of the heavens.
- 1 Sam 12:22For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.
- Ps 78:71From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
- Deut 7:6–8For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
- 1 Chr 21:5–6And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
- Exod 19:5–6Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 3:8 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
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