Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter — a marriage alliance, the ordinary way kings sealed treaties, and a sign of how far Israel's standing had risen; the text does not name the Pharaoh, and the study does not guess. She is brought into the city of David until Solomon finishes three works: his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem. The narrator will return to her: a house built for her (7:8), the city of Gezer given as her dowry (9:16), and her move up from the city of David (9:24). She is the first of his wives the narrative mentions.

Here the narrator makes no judgment. Readers should not miss, though, what comes later: king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh (11:1), and his wives turned away his heart (11:4). Deuteronomy 17:16-17 had warned that a king must not cause the people to return to Egypt nor multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away. The study notes that Egypt is not among the nations named in Deuteronomy 7:1-3, and that some read this first marriage as permitted; but 1 Kings 11:1 sets her at the head of the list. The chapter opens with a seed the story will let grow.

Only the people sacrificed in high places, because there was no house built unto the name of the LORD, until those days (v. 2). High places were hilltop shrines, many of them older than Israel. Deuteronomy 12:5, 13-14 had looked for the place which the LORD your God shall choose, and the narrator writes as one who knows the temple will be that place. He is gentle: there was no house yet. But his only is a reservation, and it is repeated of the king: Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places. Love and a qualification, side by side, in the first verse that weighs his heart.

The study notes that Solomon loved the LORD is high praise; few people in Scripture are described this way in so many words. Readers should also mark that the same verb returns in 1 Kings 11:1 — Solomon loved many strange women. The book will measure kings by the high places for centuries (e.g. 15:14; 22:43), and the first king measured is Solomon. Readers have differed on how serious the only is here, since even Samuel sacrificed at a high place (1 Samuel 9:12-14) before the temple existed. The narrator seems to say: this was understandable, and it was not the best, and it was where the trouble would begin.

The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar (v. 4). Chronicles explains why Gibeon was great: the tabernacle of Moses and the bronze altar stood there (1 Chronicles 16:39-40; 2 Chronicles 1:3-6), while the ark was in Jerusalem. A thousand burnt offerings is a king's worship — the whole animal given, none eaten. Then, at night, a gift Solomon did not seek: the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. An open question, from God, to a young king.

Readers have rightly seen the verse as a test as much as a gift. What a man asks for when he may ask anything shows what he loves. The LORD had said to His anointed in Psalm 2:8, Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance; Jesus will say Ask, and it shall be given you (Matthew 7:7). The study notes that God speaks first, and that the dream comes after costly worship; but it does not suggest that the thousand offerings bought the gift. The narrator says simply that the LORD appeared, as He had to the patriarchs (Genesis 26:24), and gave a king the freedom to choose.

Solomon begins not with his need but with God's faithfulness: Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy — the Hebrew word often rendered mercy or kindness, the covenant love of 2 Samuel 7:15 — and thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day (v. 6). The first thing he sees in his own kingship is a promise kept to someone else. Readers should mark that he describes David as walking in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart — a generous summary of a complicated life, which the LORD Himself will echo in 1 Kings 9:4 (in integrity of heart, and in uprightness).

I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in. Solomon was not literally a child; the text does not give his age, and the phrase is a confession of inexperience. To go out and come in is the language of leadership — Moses prayed for a man who would go out before them... and... go in before them (Numbers 27:17), and Israel loved David because he went out and came in before them (1 Samuel 18:16). A great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude (v. 8) recalls the promise to Abraham (Genesis 13:16). Humility is where his request begins.

Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people. The Hebrew is often noted to read literally a hearing heart — a heart that listens — and the study offers that as the plain sense of the words: wisdom begins in attention, to God and to the people who come for judgment. To judge here means to govern and to settle disputes, the king's chief work in Israel. That I may discern between good and bad — what the woman of Tekoah said David could do as an angel of God (2 Samuel 14:17). And note the motive: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? Thy people, not his own.

The verse has been read as a model prayer for any who are given charge of others — parents, pastors, judges, teachers. It asks not to be served but to serve well. Readers have long set it beside James 1:5, If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God... and it shall be given him, and beside Proverbs 2:6, the LORD giveth wisdom. The study notes too what Solomon does not ask, which verse 11 lists: long life, riches, the life of his enemies — and that after chapter 2 he had real enemies to think of. He asks instead for the inner gift that would let him rule others rightly.

The speech pleased the LORD (v. 10). God names what Solomon did not ask — long life... riches... the life of thine enemies — and what he did: understanding to discern judgment (v. 11). I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee (v. 12). Then the overflow: I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour. The shape of the promise has been heard by many in Jesus' words, seek ye first the kingdom of God... and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33).

One gift is conditional: if thou wilt walk in my ways... as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days (v. 14). Wisdom, riches and honour are given; long life is offered on terms. Readers should hold this with 1 Kings 2:4 and 6:12: the LORD's gifts to Solomon are real, and obedience remains required. And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream (v. 15) — the phrase used of Pharaoh's dream (Genesis 41:7). He goes up to Jerusalem and stands before the ark of the covenant, with burnt and peace offerings and a feast for his servants. The narrator lets the king end the night where the ark was, not at Gibeon.

The narrator now shows the gift at work in a case no one could prove. Two women, that were harlots (v. 16), share a house; each has borne a son, three days apart; there was no stranger with us in the house (v. 18) — no witness. One child died in the night, because she overlaid it (v. 19), and each woman claims the living one. The king hears both and repeats their words back to them (v. 23), then: Bring me a sword... Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other (vv. 24-25). The study notes that the king gives these women the same hearing he would give anyone; the text says no more about them.

Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son — the phrase used of Joseph's heart toward Benjamin (Genesis 43:30). O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. The other says, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. The sword never falls; it only uncovers the hearts. Love would rather lose the child than see it die; jealousy would rather no one have it. Readers have long heard Isaiah 49:15, Can a woman forget her sucking child...?, in the true mother's cry, and the study offers that as a fitting echo.

Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof (v. 27). The king repeats the true mother's words as his verdict. And all 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 judgment. The narrator ties the story back to the dream: what God gave at Gibeon is seen in Jerusalem, at a hearing for two women with no witnesses. Feared here is taken by many as reverence for a just ruler rather than terror; Proverbs 20:8 says a king that sitteth in the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes.

The study notes that the wisdom of God in this chapter is practical: not learning, but the power to do judgment — to find the truth and do right by the weak. Deuteronomy 1:17 had told Israel's judges, ye shall hear the small as well as the great. Here the king hears the smallest, and the whole nation learns that justice is to be had at the throne. Readers should hold this high point in mind when the book turns to Solomon's horses, gold and wives; the wisdom of chapter 3 was a gift for serving the people, and the later chapters will ask what became of it.