1 Kings 3:10

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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וַיִּיטַ֥ב

yâṭab

H3190

“and · to be good”

Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 112× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 4:7

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 863

to be good, be pleasing, be well, be glad - (Qal) - to be glad, be joyful - to be well placed - to be well for, be well with, go well with - to be pleasing, be pleasing to - (Hiphil) - to make glad, rejoice - to do good to, deal well with - to do well, do thoroughly - to make a thing good or right or beautiful - to do well, do right

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

10: words
9: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
5 nouns
1 pronoun
1 conjunction
1 particle

Verb forms

וַיִּיטַ֥ב Qal · Sequential Imperfect
שָׁאַ֣ל Qal · Perfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

הַדָּבָ֖ר word H1697 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 11 words from the Hebrew and 12 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 10 Hebrew tokens and 10 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to 1 Kings 3:10 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Proverbs 15:8 The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, But the prayer of the upright is his delight.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew 1 Kings 3:10 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיִּיטַ֥ב הַדָּבָ֖ר בְּעֵינֵ֣י אֲדֹנָ֑י כִּ֚י שָׁאַ֣ל שְׁלֹמֹ֔ה אֶת הַדָּבָ֖ר הַזֶּֽה

The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 1 Kings 3:10 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἀρέσκω ἐνώπιον κύριος ὅτι αἰτέω σαλωμών ὁ ῥῆμα οὗτος

And it was pleasing before the Lord, that Solomon asked this thing.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וּשְׁפַר פִּתְגָמָא קֳדָם יְיָ אֲרֵי שְׁאַל שְׁלֹמֹה יַת פִּתְגָמָא הָדֵין:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on 1 Kings 3:10 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

1Ki 3:10 And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.

Ver. 10. That Solomon had asked this thing.] He could not have so done, had not God given him to do it. He accepteth and crowneth his own gifts in us.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

1Ki 3:10. The speech pleased the Lord — For it manifested a disinterested mind and a public spirit, that desired, above all things, the honour of God and the good of his people, and to direct his conduct aright and to do justice.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

3:10-12 God was pleased with Solomon’s unselfish request and granted him a wise and understanding heart. These incomparable qualities are demonstrated in the next section (3:16-28) and as Solomon sets up his administration (ch 4), business dealings, building activities, international relations, and worship practices (chs 5–10).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

the speech pleased the Lord--It was Solomon's waking prayers that God heard and requited, but the acceptance was signified in this vision.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

John Gill's Exposition

And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. Understanding in the affairs of civil government; since he had respect not to his own private benefit and advantage, but the good of the people he governed, and the honour and glory of God, who had set him over them, they being his chosen people, and whose vicegerent he was.

And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. Understanding in the affairs of civil government; since he had respect not to his own private benefit and advantage, but the good of the people he governed, and the honour and glory of God, who had set him over them, they being his chosen people, and whose vicegerent he was.

1 Kings 3:11

kg1 3:11

kg1 3:11

kg1 3:11And God said unto him,.... Being yet in a dream:

because thou hast asked this thing; wisdom for government:

and hast not asked for thyself long life; which is naturally desired by men, and always reckoned a great temporal blessing, and especially to be wished for by a king living in great pomp and splendour:

neither hast asked riches for thyself; to support his grandeur; for though David his father had left him much, yet not for himself, but for the building of the temple:

nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; victory over them, and to have it in his power to take away their lives when he pleased; which kings, and especially tyrants, are desirous of, such as are ambitious, haughty, and revengeful:

but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; where the right of a cause lay, that so he might make a right judgment of it, and pass a righteous sentence, a sentence not to the injury of any.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Although Solomon’s choice was made “in a dream” 1Ki 3:5, we must regard it as springing from his will in some degree, and therefore as indicative of his moral character.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

How such a dreaming prayer could please God See Poole "1Ki 3:5", See Poole "1Ki 3:6".

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

And the speech (Heb. thing; same word as below) pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing, Though in a dream the judgment and will were not suspended. Our dreams accord with our waking thoughts. This would have been Solomon"s choice at any time.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

General Information:

God gives Solomon wisdom and more.

the life of your enemies

The "life" is a metonym for the power to kill. AT: "the power to kill your enemies" (See: Metonymy)

now I will do all you asked of me when you gave me your request

"I will do what you asked me to do when you spoke with me"

I give you a wise and an understanding heart

The heart is a metonym for what a person thinks and desires. AT: "I make you able to be wise and to understand many things" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

Solomon

lord

life

discern

just

wise

raise

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

1 Kings, in the Historical, opens this verse with 10 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is yâṭab (“to be good”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word yâṭab carries the sense “to be good.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Proverbs 15:8, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “word” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«וַיִּיטַ֥ב» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 10 Hebrew ↔ 10 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 6 words in this verse.
“word” occurs 2× in this single verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 10 words in this verse.