God gave Solomon abundant wisdom and understanding, and very great understanding, even as the sand that is on the seashore.
Parallel translations
- KJV And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.
- BSB And God gave Solomon wisdom, exceedingly deep insight, and understanding beyond measure, like the sand on the seashore.
- NKJV And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore.
- NASB Now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore.
- NLT God gave Solomon very great wisdom and understanding, and knowledge as vast as the sands of the seashore.
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
God gave Solomon immense wisdom, understanding, and breadth of mind. This is the fulfillment of God's gift promised at Gibeon.
Overview
Solomon's wisdom, likened to sand on the seashore, was a direct gift from God (1 Kings 3:12). It encompassed not only judicial insight but vast knowledge and breadth of understanding. This God-given wisdom points ultimately to Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- 1 Kgs 3:12behold, I have done according to your word. Behold, I have given you a wise and understanding heart; so that there has been no one like you before you, and after you none will arise like you.
- Jas 3:17But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
- 1 Kgs 4:20Judah and Israel were numerous as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry.
- Eccl 2:26For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
- Jas 1:5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.
- Jas 1:17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow.
- Prov 2:6For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
- 2 Chr 1:10–12Now give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this great people of yours?”
- Isa 60:5Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart will thrill and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you. The wealth of the nations will come to you.
- 1 Kgs 3:28All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king; for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do justice.
- Jer 33:22As the army of the sky can’t be counted, neither the sand of the sea measured; so I will multiply the offspring of David my servant, and the Levites who minister to me.’”
- Gen 41:49Joseph laid up grain as the sand of the sea, very much, until he stopped counting, for it was without number.
- Ps 119:34Give me understanding, and I will keep your law. Yes, I will obey it with my whole heart.
- Eccl 1:16I said to myself, “Behold, I have obtained for myself great wisdom above all who were before me in Jerusalem. Yes, my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.”
- Judg 7:12The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like locusts for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand which is on the seashore for multitude.
- 1 Kgs 10:23–24So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.
- Hab 1:9All of them come for violence. Their hordes face the desert. He gathers prisoners like sand.
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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 4:29 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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