Solomon

Solomon is shown here consolidating his kingdom not through force but through communal worship, leading the entire nation's leadership to Gibeon to offer sacrifices at the ancient altar.

Solomon is invoked here as the source of the people's suffering — his labor demands and crushing policies are the specific complaint the assembly brings to Rehoboam, framing the entire negotiation.

Solomon is named alongside David as the benchmark for faithful rule — the three-year period of Rehoboam's stability is evaluated against both his father's and grandfather's walk with God.

Solomon is invoked here as the craftsman of the original gold shields — his legacy of God-given splendor is now the standard against which Rehoboam's bronze replacements are measured.

Solomon is organizing his massive workforce before a single stone is cut — assigning over 153,000 men to specific roles, demonstrating that his vision is matched by disciplined execution.

Solomon is highlighted here as the one who didn't choose this site himself — the text emphasizes that God selected Mount Moriah through prior acts of divine history long before Solomon was born.

Solomon is referenced here as the builder of the Temple and co-author of the organizational documents Josiah is following — his legacy provides the structural framework for the Passover service.

Solomon is invoked here as the builder of the now-destroyed Temple — his magnificent seven-year construction project, once filled with God's glory, reduced to ash, making the destruction a repudiation of everything his reign represented.

Solomon begins the Temple's furnishing by constructing the massive bronze altar — the first and most prominent object in the complex, establishing that atonement precedes all else.

Solomon is actively honoring his father's legacy here by placing David's dedicated silver, gold, and vessels into the Temple treasuries — completing the handoff between generations.

Solomon is addressing the entire assembly of Israel, opening his dedication speech by grounding the Temple moment in God's faithfulness to David — before asking anything, he rehearses what God has already done.

Solomon is the one whose finished prayer triggers God's dramatic response — fire falls the instant he stops speaking, validating his prayer and the Temple he built as genuinely chosen by God.

Solomon is actively rebuilding Hiram's gifted cities, capturing Hamath-zobah, and constructing a network of storage, fortified, and chariot cities across his entire domain.

Solomon is the object of the queen's famous journey — his reputation for wisdom has traveled so far that a foreign ruler crosses deserts to personally verify the reports.

Solomon responds to Adonijah's terrified asylum with measured restraint — offering conditional mercy rather than immediate execution, establishing his reign with a surprising display of wisdom from the start.

Solomon is the subject of the queen's visit — she has come personally to test him with hard questions and riddles, and he answers everything she puts before him without exception.

Solomon is the subject of a blunt opening indictment — his early devotion is now contrasted starkly with his practice of marrying hundreds of foreign women from nations God explicitly prohibited.

Solomon re-identifies himself as the Preacher-king who personally funded and conducted the ultimate experiment in human experience, lending his sweeping conclusion — that all striving is vapor — the weight of firsthand, unlimited-resource testing.

Solomon opens with the ruined-perfume image to make his central point visceral: small acts of foolishness can undo years of carefully built wisdom, reputation, and honor.

Solomon opens the section with the striking image of bread thrown on water — using it to argue that generous, seemingly reckless giving is actually the wisest response to an uncertain future.

Solomon is identified here as the Preacher whose voice carries Ecclesiastes — introduced in the opening frame as the author whose lifelong pursuit of wisdom under the sun culminates in this final chapter's urgent appeal.

Solomon is designing a deliberate experiment in pleasure, testing whether enjoyment can satisfy the soul — notably keeping his wisdom engaged throughout rather than abandoning himself recklessly.

Solomon is identified as the one naming life's contradictions — joy and grief, building and tearing down — not as philosophy but as a faithful description of what every person actually lives through.

Solomon is witnessing the tears of the oppressed and declaring that the absence of comfort compounds their suffering — his grief here is pastoral, not detached, as he names what no one else will.

Solomon, writing as 'The Teacher,' draws on his unmatched experience with wealth and power to frame this chapter's dual examination of how we approach God and what we do with money.

Solomon, writing as 'the Teacher,' has spent the preceding chapters systematically examining life's sources of meaning — pleasure, labor, wealth — and now arrives at his most unsettling conclusion: acquiring everything is no guarantee of enjoying anything.

Solomon opens this section with one of his most counterintuitive claims: that funerals are more valuable than parties because proximity to death strips away distraction and forces the living to reckon with what truly matters.

Solomon opens with a poetic portrait of what wisdom does to a person physically and socially — it softens them, lightens them, and gives their face a quiet clarity that sets them apart from the anxious and the striving.

Solomon delivers his hardest conclusion yet: that righteous and wicked alike share the same fate, refusing to soften the observation with false comfort or easy theology.

Solomon appears here as just one child among thirteen born in Jerusalem — unremarkable at this moment, though the reader knows he will go on to build the Temple and surpass all his brothers in legacy.

Solomon is the immediate fulfillment of God's promise — the son who will actually construct the Temple David longed to build — though the text's language of 'forever' stretches well beyond Solomon's reign.

Solomon is mentioned here as the one who will build the Temple on this exact site — the threshing floor David purchased in the aftermath of his worst mistake becomes the foundation of Israel's most sacred structure.

Solomon is receiving the defining charge of his life — learning for the first time (or in full detail) why he, not his father, is destined to build the Temple, and hearing the covenant promise God made about his reign and his relationship with God.

Solomon is named here as David's chosen successor, the formal transfer of royal authority that frees David to focus his remaining strength on organizing the Temple's personnel and worship structure.

Solomon is publicly identified here for the first time in this assembly as God's chosen builder of the Temple — David makes clear this is divine appointment, not parental favoritism.

Solomon is crowned king for the second time here, this time officially before the whole nation — the transition from David's reign made formal and public in the context of worship and sacrifice.

Solomon is listed here as one of Bathsheba's four sons — his appearance in the genealogy pointing forward to his role as the king God chose to build the Temple David was forbidden to construct.