Skip to content

Passage Research

1 Kings 3 — Sermon Preparation

Below is a research summary for 1 Kings 3, drawn from openly licensed scholarly databases — original-language morphology, classic sermons from the church fathers through the Puritans, and ancient geography data.

28
verses
472 / 163
Hebrew words / lemmas
7
classic sermon excerpts
3
preachers & commentators

1 Kings 3 in the Hebrew

Distinctive vocabulary of this chapter, based on original-language morphology.

Hebrew Transliteration Strong's Count Glosses
מוּת mûwth H4191 11 die, kill
שָׁאַל shâʼal H7592 8 inquire, request
חַי chay H2416 8 alive, raw
שְׁלֹמֹה Shᵉlômôh H8010 7 Shelomah
אִשָּׁה ʼishshâh H802 7 woman
נָתַן nâthan H5414 8 give, put
יָלַד yâlad H3205 6 bear young, beget

How preachers through history handled this text

7 public-domain excerpts on 1 Kings 3, from the church fathers to the Puritans.

Matthew Henry 4 Alexander MacLaren 2 John Wesley 1

“An instance of Solomon's wisdom is given. Notice the difficulty of the case. To find out the true mother, he could not try which the child loved best, and therefore tried which loved the child best: the mother's sincerity will be tried, when the child is in danger. Let parents show their love to their children, especially by taking care of their souls, and snatching them as brands out of the burning. By this and other instances of the wisdom with which God endued him, Solomon had great reputation among his people. …”

— Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise), on 1 Kings 3:16–30 (Public Domain)

Places in the text

Based on ancient-geography data

  • City of David — 1 Kgs 3:1
  • Egypt — 1 Kgs 3:1
  • Jerusalem — 1 Kgs 3:1
  • Gibeon — 1 Kgs 3:4

Need the complete sermon prep report on this passage?

Greek exegesis, historical background, current scholarship, sermon outlines, illustrations — a complete PDF report on 1 Kings 3, delivered in 45 minutes.