1Ki 3:9-28, 4:29-34, Ezr 4:15, 19, 5:17-6:1, Job 29:16 | TSK | STEP | Give therefore. understanding. Heb. hearing. to judge. discern. who is able.

harlots.The word {zanoth,} rendered harlots, is here translated by the Targumist, the best judge in this case, {pundekon,} "tavern-keepers:" see on Jos 2:1.

Jud 11:1Had these women been harlots, it is not likely that they would have dared to appear before Solomon; nor is it likely that such persons would have been permitted in the reign of David. Their husbands might at this time have been following their necessary occupations in distant parts.

stood.

Ex 18:13,16; Nu 27:2

O my lord.

Ge 43:20; Ro 13:7

midnight.

Job 24:13-17; Ps 139:11; Mt 13:25; Joh 3:20

took.

give.

Ge 21:7; 1Sa 1:23; La 4:3,4

Nay.

23,24

Divide.This was apparently a very strange decision; but Solomon saw that the only way to discover the real mother was by the affection and tenderness should would necessarily shew to her offspring. The plan was tried, and succeeded; and it was a proof of his sound judgment, penetration, and acquaintance with the human heart, or rather, of his extraordinary and supernatural wisdom. See ver. 28. The two following instances are in some faint manner to be compared to Solomon's decision, inasmuch as they also work upon the human sympathies. Suetonius, in his Life of the emperor Claudian, tells us, that this emperor discovered a woman to be the real mother of a young man, whom she refused to acknowledge, by commanding her to marry him, the proofs being doubtful on both sides; for, rather than commit incest, she confessed the truth. Diodorus Siculus also informs us, that Ariopharnes, king of Thrace, being appointed to decided between three young men, each of whom professed to be the son of the deceased king of the Cimmerians, and claimed the succession, discovered the real son by ordering each to shoot an arrow into the dead body of the king: two of them did this without hesitation; but the real son of the deceased monarch refused.

Pr 25:8

her bowels.

Ge 43:30; Isa 49:15; Jer 31:20; Ho 11:8; Php 1:8; 2:1; 1Jo 3:17

yearned. Heb. were hot.

Ps 39:3

give her.

Ro 1:31; 2Ti 3:3

feared.

Ex 14:31; Jos 4:14; 1Sa 12:18; 1Ch 29:24; Pr 24:21

the wisdom.

9-12; Ezr 7:25; Ec 7:19; Da 2:21,47; 5:11; 1Co 1:24,30; Col 2:3

in him. Heb. in the midst of him. to do.

Ps 72:2,4

1 Kings 4:29-34

God.

3:12,28; 10:23,24; 2Ch 1:10-12; Ps 119:34; Pr 2:6; Ec 1:16; 2:26

Jas 1:5,17; 3:17

largeness.

Isa 60:5

as the sand.

20; Ge 41:49; Jud 7:12; Jer 33:22; Hab 1:9

the children.

Ge 25:6; Job 1:3; Da 1:20; 4:7; 5:11,12; Mt 2:1,16

the wisdom of Egypt.

Isa 19:11,12; Ac 7:22

wiser.

3:12; Mt 12:42; Lu 11:31; Col 2:3

Ethan.

1Ch 15:19; Ps 89:1; *title

Heman.

1Ch 2:6; 6:33; 15:17; Ps 88:1; *title

his fame.

5:7; 10:1,6; 2Ch 9:23; Mt 4:24

he spake.

Pr 1:1-31:30; Ec 12:9; Mt 13:35

songs.

So 1:1-17

the cedar tree.The word {airez,} whence the Chaldee and Syriac {arzo,} and the Arabic and Ethiopic {arz,} and Spanish {alerze,} unquestionably denotes the cedar; it is thus rendered by the LXX. and other versions, [kedros,] and by the Vulgate {cedrus;} and the inhabitants of mount Lebanon still call it {ars.} The cedar is a large and nobel evergreen tree, and grows on the most elevated part of the mountain, is taller than the pine, and so thick that five men together could scarcely fathom one. It shoots out its branches at ten or twelve feet from the ground; they are large and distant from each other, and are perpetually green. The wood is of a brown colour, very solid and incorruptible, if preserved from wet. The tree bears a small cone, like that of the pine.

Nu 24:6; 2Ki 19:23; Ps 92:12

the hyssop.

Ex 12:22; Nu 19:18; Ps 51:7; Heb 9:19

of beasts.

Ge 1:20-25

10:1; 2Ch 9:1,23; Isa 2:2; Zec 8:23