What Does 1 Kings 3:10 Mean?
The word was good in the eyes of the LORD, that Solomon had asked this thing.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.THE KEY
The same Hebrew word means both Solomon’s “speech” and the “thing” he asked for, so what pleases God is the substance of his request.
THE MEANING
A request for understanding is good in the LORD’s sight before any answer arrives. When you seek discernment to judge rightly, the substance of that desire matters beyond the words used to express it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that God is pleased only by completed outcomes dissolves here: the wisdom-seeking request itself is already called good.
THE ROOT
הַדָּבָר
haddavar
GROWS FROM
דבר
word, matter, or thing; the related verb means to speak
Hebrew repeats דָּבָר (davar, “word” or “matter”): “the davar was good” because Solomon asked for “this davar.” The KJV renders the first as “speech” and the second as “thing,” concealing how the verse joins what is spoken to the substance of the request.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: to speak or say
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the root, joining speech to the matter being requested.
devarim: words, matters, or affairs
דְּבָרִים
The plural preserves the root’s range: what is said and what is at issue belong to one word-family.
וַיִּיטַב
wayyitav
GROWS FROM
יטב
to be good, go well, or do good
“was good in the eyes of” in this verse is wayyitav. The Hebrew says the request “was good” in the LORD’s eyes. “Pleased” carries that evaluation: the request’s goodness is recognized in what Solomon asks for, before the outcome is given.
ALSO GROWS
tov: good or well
טוֹב
This familiar form makes the root’s goodness in the verse plain.
heitiv: to do good or make something go well
הֵיטִיב
The related verb shows the root’s movement from goodness as a quality to goodness expressed in action.
THE PATTERN
A request for wisdom and understanding is welcomed because discernment comes as a gift from God.
Show me your ways, LORD; teach me your paths.For the LORD gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and discernment.But if any of you is left behind in wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all without doubling and without taunting, and it will be given him.THE THREAD
And God said to him, Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself length of days, nor have you asked for riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the living soul of your enemies; but have asked for yourself understanding to discern, to hear and respond to judgment.The next verse names the request’s content: understanding to discern judgment, set against long life, riches, and the death of enemies. That contrast reveals why the request is called good: it seeks the capacity to judge rightly rather than private advantage.
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