1 Kings 4:32

And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five.

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
spake	וַיְדַבֵּ֕ר vay.da.Ber	H1696	perhaps properly · conjunction + verb, piel sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
three	שְׁלֹ֥שֶׁת she.Lo.shet	H7969	three · noun, common both genders singular construct
thousand	אֲלָפִ֖ים 'a.la.Fim	H505	hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alph… · noun, common both genders plural absolute
proverbs	מָשָׁ֑ל ma.Shal	H4912	properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
songs	שִׁיר֖וֹ shi.Ro	H7892	a song · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
thousand	וָאָֽלֶף va.'A.lef	H505	hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alph… · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular absolute
five	חֲמִשָּׁ֥ה cha.mi.Shah	H2568	five · noun, common both genders singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Proverbs 1:1-31 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;
Song of Solomon 1:1-17 The song of songs, which is Solomon’s.
Matthew 13:35 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been ke…
Ecclesiastes 12:9 And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 4:29–end

Solomon's wisdom was more his glory than his wealth, and here we have a general account of it. I. The fountain of his wisdom: God gave it him, Kg1 4:29. He owns it himself. Pro 2:6, The Lord giveth wisdom. He gives the powers of reason (Job 38:36), preserves and improves them. The ordinary advances of them are owing to his providence, the sanctification of them to his grace, and this extraordinary pitch at which they arrived in Solomon to a special grant of his favour to him in answer to prayer. II. The fulness of it: He had wisdom and understanding, exceeding much, great knowledge of distant countries and the histories of former times, a quickness of thought, strength of memory, and clearne…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Kings 4:32

he spake three thousand proverbs--embodying his moral sentiments and sage observations on human life and character. songs . . . a thousand and five-- Psalm 72, 127, 132, and the Song of Songs are his.

Adam Clarke on 1 Kings 4:32

He spake three thousand proverbs - The book of Proverbs, attributed to Solomon, contain only about nine hundred or nine hundred and twenty-three distinct proverbs; and if we grant with some that the first nine chapters are not the work of Solomon, then all that can be attributed to him is only about six hundred and fifty. Of all his one thousand and five songs or poems we have only one, the book of Song of Solomon, remaining, unless we include Psa 127:1-5, Except the Lord build the house, etc., which in the title is said to be by or for him, though it appears more properly to be a psalm of direction, left him by his father David, relative to the building of the temple.

John Gill on 1 Kings 4:32

And he spake three thousand proverbs,.... Wise sayings, short and pithy sentences, instructive in morality and civil life; these were not written as the book of Proverbs, but spoken only, and were taken from his lips, and spread by those that heard them for the use of others, but in process of time were lost; whereas the above book, being written under divine inspiration, is preserved: and his songs were a thousand and five; some things that were useful to improve the minds and morals of men he delivered in verse, to make them more pleasant and agreeable, that they might be the more easily received and retained in memory; but of all his songs, the most: excellent is the book of Canticles, c…

The Church Fathers

Of his three thousand proverbs a single book is left, while all the others perished during the captivity. And of his one thousand and five songs we still possess a single one, that is the Song of Songs.
— Ishodad of Merv, BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 4:32

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Music — Jubal was the inventor of musical instruments (Gen. 4:21). The Hebrews were much given to the cultivation of music. Their whole history and literature afford abundant evidence of this. After the…
Philosophy — It is the object of the following article to give some account (I.) of that development of thought among the Jews which answered to the philosophy of the West; (II.) of the systematic progress of…
Proverbs, Book of — A collection of moral and philosophical maxims of a wide range of subjects presented in a poetic form. This book sets forth the “philosophy of practical life. It is the sign to us that the Bible does…
Solomon — Peaceful, (Heb. Shelomoh), David’s second son by Bathsheba, i.e., the first after their legal marriage (2 Sam. 12). He was probably born about B.C. 1035 (1 Chr. 22:5; 29:1). He succeeded his father…
Books · Not extant, but mentioned in scripture: Natural history by Solomon — Not extant, but mentioned in scripture: Natural history by Solomon
Song · General references — General references
Wisdom · Of — Of
Wise Men · General references — General references

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

1 Kings 4:32

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 4:29–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Kings 4:32

Adam Clarke on 1 Kings 4:32

John Gill on 1 Kings 4:32

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

1 Kings 4:32

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 4:29–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Kings 4:32

Adam Clarke on 1 Kings 4:32

John Gill on 1 Kings 4:32

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Kings 4:29–end

Tyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Kings 4:32-34

Rashi on 1 Kings 4:19