King Solomon: Asking for Wisdom, Then Turning Away

The throne of Israel was being fought over when King David had grown old. Adonijah, son of Haggith, made himself king with the support of Joab and the priest Abiathar. He held a sacrificial feast near En-rogel, but the prophet Nathan, Benaiah, David's warriors and Solomon, his younger brother, were not invited.

The prophet Nathan acted at once. He advised Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, to remind David of his oath that Solomon would be king. Bathsheba went in to the king, then Nathan came in and confirmed her words. David swore by the LORD to carry out that promise that very day.

At David's command, the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan and Benaiah brought Solomon on the king's own mule down to Gihon. Zadok anointed him with oil, the horn was blown, and the people shouted to welcome their king. Imagine the flutes and the cheering so loud that, as Scripture puts it, the earth seemed to split with the noise.

The news reached Adonijah's feast. His guests scattered, and Adonijah, terrified, took hold of the horns of the altar until Solomon let him go home. As his death drew near, David charged Solomon to be faithful to the LORD and to live by the law of Moses. Then David died and was buried in the City of David.

Solomon honored his mother by setting a throne for her at his right hand. But when Adonijah, through Bathsheba, asked for Abishag as his wife, Solomon saw it as an attempt to seize the throne, and Adonijah was put to death. Abiathar was removed from office; Joab and Shimei were also put to death. The kingdom was firmly established in Solomon's hand.

Solomon loved the LORD. One day he went to Gibeon, the most renowned high place, and offered a thousand burnt offerings on the altar there. That night he had a dream.

In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, "Ask something of me and I will give it to you." (1 Kgs 3:5)

New American Bible: 1 Kgs 1:1–3:28; 1 Kgs 8:1-66; 1 Kgs 9:1–11:43

Solomon remembered God's great kindness to David, then admitted his own limits: “O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act.” (1 Kgs 3:7) Perhaps he felt the throne was too heavy for his young shoulders.

He did not ask for a long life, for riches or for the lives of his enemies. He asked for a listening heart to judge God's people and to tell good from evil. The request pleased the Lord. God gave him a heart full of wisdom and understanding, and also the riches and glory he had not asked for.

Soon afterward two women came before the king. They lived in the same house and had both just given birth, but one baby had died in the night. Each claimed to be the mother of the living child. Imagine the room falling silent as the king called for a sword and ordered the baby cut in two.

The true mother was moved with pity. She begged that the baby be given to the other woman rather than be killed, while the other woman agreed to the order. The child was not harmed. The king gave him to the woman who wanted to save him, for she was his mother. All Israel saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.

Solomon then built the house of the LORD in Jerusalem. When the ark of the covenant was brought up from the City of David, which is Zion, into the holy of holies, a cloud filled the house. The priests could not stand to minister, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD. Then Solomon stood before the altar and stretched out his hands toward heaven.

His prayer was humble: “"Can it indeed be that God dwells among men on earth? If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built!” (1 Kgs 8:27) He asked God to hear the prayers offered in that house, to forgive his people, and to listen even to foreigners, so that all the peoples of the earth might know his name.

The LORD appeared to Solomon a second time. His prayer was heard, but a lasting throne depended on his being faithful as David had been. Later the queen of Sheba came to test Solomon with riddles. Solomon answered all her questions, and the queen praised the LORD, who had made him king to carry out justice and righteousness.

But his story does not end at the summit. Solomon loved many foreign women, and Scripture records: “When Solomon was old his wives had turned his heart to strange gods, and his heart was not entirely with the LORD, his God, as the heart of his father David had been.” (1 Kgs 11:4) He even built high places for Chemosh and Molech.

The LORD was angry, because Solomon's heart had turned away even though God had appeared to him twice. God said that the kingdom would be torn from the hand of his son, yet one tribe would remain, for the sake of David and of Jerusalem. The prophet Ahijah tore his cloak into twelve pieces and gave ten to Jeroboam, who later fled to Egypt.

Solomon reigned forty years in Jerusalem over all Israel. He died and was buried in the City of David, his father, and Rehoboam his son became king in his place.

Background to King Solomon's Story

The First Book of Kings records that before the house of the LORD was built, the people still offered sacrifice at the high places, and Gibeon was the greatest of them. Pope John Paul II describes Gibeon as the place of worship that Solomon went up to at the beginning of his reign.

The house of the LORD became the home of the ark of the covenant, the chest holding the two stone tablets of the covenant from the time of Moses. Hiram, king of Tyre, helped Solomon with cedar, fir wood and gold. According to 1 Kings, the house of the LORD and the king's palace were finished after twenty years.

Pope John Paul II notes that in the biblical tradition Solomon is seen as the just and wise king par excellence. He lived some ten centuries before the author of the Book of Wisdom, yet he was regarded as the founder of the wisdom tradition. For this reason, according to tradition, later wisdom writings were linked to his name.

The Meaning of a Listening Heart Today

In his Angelus of July 24, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI observed that the young Solomon took on a heavy task, yet did not ask for a long life, riches or the defeat of his enemies. According to the Pope, a listening heart is a conscience able to hear the voice of truth and so to tell good from evil. This example applies to everyone, because everyone has a conscience.

Pope Francis teaches that wisdom is the first gift of the Holy Spirit, the grace of seeing everything with the eyes of God. Pope John Paul II adds that wisdom is not mere intelligence but a sharing in the mind of God. The Fathers of the Church, following Saint Paul, saw Christ as the Wisdom of God.

The end of Solomon's story is honest too. Wisdom is a gift that must be guarded by faithfulness; a heart that once asked for wisdom can turn aside when it no longer clings wholly to the Lord. Yet God stays faithful to his promise to David. For teenagers and young adults, choices about friendships, relationships and priorities slowly shape the direction of the heart.

This story is retold by the Light of Saints editorial team from the Catholic edition of Scripture and the Church sources listed, with the help of AI, and checked by an editor. Some of the atmosphere and the characters' feelings are our portrayal. For the full text, read the passage in Scripture.