1 Kings 3:9

9 Give to your servant a listening heart to judge your people, to discern between good and bad, because who is able to judge this, your difficult people?"

1 Kings 3:9 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 3:9

Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart, to judge thy
people
Not an understanding of things spiritual, nor of things natural, though both were given him, but of things political, what related to the civil government, that he might be able to judge or rule the people of Israel in the best manner:

that I may discern between good and bad;
not merely between moral good and evil, of which he had a discernment; but between right and wrong in any case or controversy that came before him between man and man, that so he might be able to pass a right sentence, and do justice to every one:

for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?
who are so very numerous, and have so many causes to be heard and and those many of them very intricate and difficult; so that no man is equal to such arduous work, unless he has more than an ordinary capacity given him by the Lord.

1 Kings 3:9 In-Context

7 So then, O Yahweh, you are my God. You have made your servant king in place of David my father [though] I [am] a young boy. I do not know going out or coming in.

8 Your servant [is] in the middle of your people whom you have chosen; a great people who cannot be counted or numbered because of abundance.

9 Give to your servant a listening heart to judge your people, to discern between good and bad, because who is able to judge this, your difficult people?"

10 The word was good in the eyes of [the] Lord that Solomon had asked this thing.

11 And God said to him, "Because you have asked this thing and you did not ask for yourself {a long life} and you did not ask riches for yourself and you did not ask for the life of your enemies, but you have asked for yourself {the ability to make wise judgments};