The wise king

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• Solomon Asks for Wisdom →Solomon marries Pharaoh's daughter. At the great high place of Gibeon God appears in a dream: "Ask what I shall give thee." Solomon asks for a listening heart to judge the people; God gives him wisdom, and riches and honor besides. Two women come with one living baby and one dead. "Divide the living child in two." The true mother gives up her claim, and Solomon gives her the child.
• The Kingdom's Administration →Solomon's officials and twelve district governors, each supplying the court for one month. A day's provisions: thirty measures of fine flour, sixty of meal, cattle, sheep and game. Peace "from Dan even to Beersheba." Solomon's wisdom exceeds the East and Egypt: three thousand proverbs, a thousand and five songs, and lore about trees, beasts, birds and fish.
• Ancient Mysteries and Echoes: Baal, Wisdom, Prophecy and Heavenly Assemblies →Solomon's wisdom, Elijah's contest with Baal and Micaiah's vision of the heavenly council all draw on ideas shared across the ancient Near East: royal wisdom, the storm god who gives rain, and the assembly of the gods. 1 Kings uses this shared language to make its own claims. Later legends about Solomon's magic and modern readings of these scenes as technology are assessed here too.
• Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? →A poem in three movements. Humans dig mines for silver, gold, iron and copper; they cut shafts far from people, dangle on ropes, overturn mountains, bring hidden things to light, ways no bird of prey has seen. "But where shall wisdom be found?" It cannot be bought with gold of Ophir, onyx, sapphire, coral or topaz of Ethiopia. The deep and the sea say it is not in them; Abaddon and Death have only heard a rumour. God alone knows its place, and said to humanity: "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding."
• Ecclesiastes 2: The Royal Experiment →The king tests pleasure (2:1–3) and builds on a royal scale: houses, vineyards, gardens and parks, pools to water forests, slaves, herds, silver, gold, singers (vv. 4–8). He denies himself nothing, and his wisdom stays with him (vv. 9–10). Looking back, he finds "no profit under the sun" (v. 11). Wisdom is better than folly as light is better than darkness, yet wise and fool die alike and are forgotten (vv. 12–17). He hates his toil because an unknown heir will take it (vv. 18–23). The chapter ends with the book's first call to enjoy food, drink and work as gifts "from the hand of God" (vv. 24–26).
• Investigation: Who Was Qoheleth? →The book calls its speaker Qoheleth, "son of David, king in Jerusalem," and never names Solomon. Jewish and Christian tradition long read it as Solomon's. Most modern scholars date its Hebrew to the Persian or Hellenistic period (roughly 5th–3rd centuries BC) and read the royal voice as a literary persona. This investigation separates the categories that are often blurred: the title, the persona, the narrator who frames him, the historical author, and the date of the earliest copies.
• Ecclesiastes 8: The King's Word and God's Work →Wisdom makes the face shine (8:1). Keep the king's command because of the oath of God; do not hurry out of his presence; "where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?" (vv. 2–4). There is a time and judgment for everything, but no one knows what will be or controls the day of death (vv. 5–8). Qoheleth sees the wicked buried and honored (or forgotten) in the city (v. 10); because sentence is not carried out quickly, people grow bold in evil (v. 11). He still knows "it shall be well with them that fear God" (vv. 12–13), yet sees the righteous treated as the wicked deserve and the wicked as the righteous deserve (v. 14). So he commends joy (v. 15). However hard anyone seeks, "a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun" (vv. 16–17).
• Investigation: Who Wrote the Song? →The heading reads "the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's," and Solomon is named six more times. Jewish and Christian tradition long held that Solomon wrote it. The Hebrew phrase can also mean "for" or "about" Solomon; the language has late features; the voice that dominates the poem is a woman's. This investigation separates the heading, the royal imagery, the date of the language, and the question of a woman's authorship.