Verse Lens · Concise explanation
1 Kings 3:4 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 4. 4And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse closes the thought unit with its stated result or transition: “And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand….” Its responsible meaning belongs to the complete movement “Solomon's alliance, devotion, and high-place worship.”
Solomon's first recorded policy is an Egyptian marriage
This verse is one part of that explanation in 1 Kings 3:1–4. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.
Read It With
- 1 Kings 3:1–4
Read 1 Kings 3:4 with 3:1–4. The selected wording supplies one closing in the thought unit with its stated result or transition; the surrounding verses supply the causes, responses, and outcome summarized here: Opens Solomon's reign with an Egyptian marriage alliance and unfinished royal, temple, and city construction; places Solomon's lavish sacrifice at Gibeon's prominent high place.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Within “Solomon's alliance, devotion, and high-place worship,” 1 Kings 3:4 closes the thought unit with its stated result or transition through the wording “And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand….” Its placement is governed by this reviewed relationship: 1 Kings 2:36–46 establishes this prior movement: Confines Shimei to a house in Jerusalem; closes the consolidation with Benaiah executing Shimei and Solomon holding the kingdom firmly. 1 Kings 3:1–4 continues the same royal, temple, household, prophetic, or military movement; that demonstrated relationship, rather than database adjacency alone, explains its placement.
Read 1 Kings 3:1–4 together
Why these verses belong together: Solomon's alliance, devotion, and high-place worship is the complete reviewed scene, prayer, oracle, list, or regnal notice bounded at 3:1–3:4.
Verse 1. 1 And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem round about.
Verse 2. 2 Only the people sacrificed in high places, because there was no house built unto the name of the LORD, until those days.
Verse 3. 3 And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.
Verse 4. 4 And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar.
What Remains True
Public power and worship remain accountable to truth, covenant faithfulness, affected people, and consequences rather than title, success, wealth, or majority support. This unit tests that truth through opens Solomon's reign with an Egyptian marriage alliance and unfinished royal, temple, and city construction; places Solomon's lavish sacrifice at Gibeon's prominent high place. In 1 Kings 3:4, the concrete line “And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand…” keeps that truth accountable to the narrated evidence.
Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read 1 Kings 3:1–4 — Solomon's alliance, devotion, and high-place worshipSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: 1 Kings 3:1–4, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Kings
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording and morphology used for lexical, grammatical, name, clause, and older-English checks; this is not a critical apparatus or historical proof.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Kgs.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 3:1–4
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: 1 Kings with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Only printed unit-level translation, lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and verse-numbering notes; silence is not evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible 1 Kings PDF, printed pp. 589–591, translation and translator notes for 3:1–4
Open source ↗