1 Kings 4:32

32 He spoke three thousand proverbs; and his songs were one thousand five.

1 Kings 4:32 Meaning and Commentary

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, called "the Song of Songs", being divine and spiritual, and dictated by the inspiration of the Spirit of God: he was both a moral philosopher and poet, as well as a botanist and naturalist, and well-skilled in medicine, as the following words suggest, ( 1 Kings 4:33 ) .

1 Kings 4:32 In-Context

30 Shlomo's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east, and all the wisdom of Mitzrayim.

31 For he was wiser than all men; than Etan the Ezrachite, and Heman, and Kalkol, and Darda, the sons of Machol: and his fame was in all the nations round about.

32 He spoke three thousand proverbs; and his songs were one thousand five.

33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Levanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, and of birds, and of creeping things, and of fish.

34 There came of all peoples to hear the wisdom of Shlomo, from all kings of the eretz, who had heard of his wisdom.