1 Kings 4 Bible study: Like the sand by the sea

"King Solomon was king over all Israel" (4:1). Then comes a list: "These were the princes whom he had" (4:2). Some names are old ones. "Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder" (4:3) held the same office under David (2 Samuel 8:16, 2 Samuel 20:24). "Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army" (4:4), where Joab had been (2 Samuel 8:16), for in chapter 2 "The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his place over the army" (2:35). Some offices aren't in David's lists in 2 Samuel (2 Samuel 8:16-18 and 2 Samuel 20:23-26): "Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers" (4:5) (tap officers), and "Ahishar was over the household" (4:6). "Zabud the son of Nathan was chief minister, the king’s friend" (4:5) (tap chief minister and friend). "Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to forced labor" (4:6) (tap forced labor). David's second list had "Adoram" in that office (2 Samuel 20:24), and the Bible doesn't say whether they are one man. The chapter doesn't say which Nathan was the father of Azariah and of Zabud (4:5).

1 Kings 4:33→leads toMatthew 6:29

1 Kings 4 counts Solomon's riches and his wisdom: one day's provision was "thirty cors of fine flour, sixty measures of meal" (4:22), "Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots" (4:26), and "He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows out of the wall" (4:33). Teaching about anxiety (Matthew 6:25), Jesus said, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin" (Matthew 6:28), "yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these" (Matthew 6:29). "But if God so clothes the grass of the field… won’t he much more clothe you, you of little faith?" (Matthew 6:30). Luke gives the saying in slightly different words (Luke 12:27). Jesus names Solomon, but he doesn't cite 1 Kings 4 or say which part of Solomon's reign he means, and this chapter doesn't use the word glory, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some hear in Jesus' words a measure for this chapter's riches: the king whose table and stables it counts, and who spoke of trees from the cedar to the hyssop (4:33), "was not dressed like one of these" (Matthew 6:29). Others read 1 Kings 4 as the record of Solomon's reign and Jesus' words as his teaching against anxiety, and don't look from one to the other.

חוֹלcholsay KHOHL

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "sand". Strong's: "sand (as round or whirling particles)". 1 Kings uses it only twice, both in this chapter. The people are "numerous as the sand which is by the sea in multitude" (4:20), and God gives Solomon "breadth of mind like the sand that is on the seashore" (4:29). The LORD had promised Abraham offspring "like the sand which is on the seashore" (Genesis 22:17), and Jacob prayed the promise back: "make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which can’t be counted because there are so many" (Genesis 32:12). 4:20's Hebrew words are the ones Hushai used when he counseled that all Israel be gathered "as the sand that is by the sea for multitude" (2 Samuel 17:11).