Questions about 1 Kings

67 honest questions people ask about 1 Kings, each answered from the verses. In Favor, they come up right where they arise as you read.

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1 Kings 1Bible study →

Had David really sworn that Solomon would reign, or was it Nathan's plan?
Wasn't the throne Adonijah's, as the older brother?
Why did Adonijah take hold of the horns of the altar?

1 Kings 2Bible study →

David swore Shimei would not die. Why does he tell Solomon to act?
Why did Solomon have Adonijah, Joab and Shimei put to death?
Wasn't the altar a place of safety?

1 Kings 3Bible study →

Was it wrong for Solomon to sacrifice at the high places?
Would the king really have divided the child?
Was Solomon wrong to marry Pharaoh's daughter?

1 Kings 4Bible study →

Is this the promise to Abraham kept?
Wasn't Abiathar sent away? Why is he listed as a priest?
Forty thousand stalls, or four thousand?

1 Kings 5Bible study →

Why couldn't David build the house himself?
Did Solomon make Israelites into forced laborers?
Were there 3,300 overseers, or 3,600?

1 Kings 6Bible study →

Why was no hammer or iron tool heard in the house?
What are the 480 years in 6:1?
Did the LORD promise to live in the building?

1 Kings 7Bible study →

Ten cubits across and thirty around?
Why do Kings and Chronicles describe the pillars and the sea differently?
Was Hiram's mother from Naphtali or from Dan?

1 Kings 8Bible study →

Did God live in the house Solomon built?
Was there anything in the ark besides the tablets?
How long was the feast, and when did the people go home?

1 Kings 9Bible study →

The LORD said "forever". How could the house then be cast out of his sight?
Did Solomon make Israelites into forced laborers?
Why does 2 Chronicles tell some of this differently?

1 Kings 10Bible study →

Was Solomon's wealth a blessing, or the start of his fall?
Did the queen of Sheba come to believe in the LORD?
Fourteen hundred chariots, and forty thousand stalls?

1 Kings 11Bible study →

Did Solomon turn back to the LORD before he died?
What did "but not forever" mean?
Why was the kingdom torn from Solomon's son, and not from Solomon?

1 Kings 12Bible study →

If it was "brought about from the LORD", did Rehoboam really choose?
Were Jeroboam's calves the golden calf of Exodus all over again?
Ten tribes for Jeroboam and one for David's house: where does Benjamin fit?

1 Kings 13Bible study →

Why was the man of God judged, when the chapter tells of no judgment on the prophet who lied?
How could the LORD's word come to the prophet who had just lied?
Why was he told not to eat, drink, or go back the same way?

1 Kings 14Bible study →

If "some good thing" was found in the child, why did he die?
Why did Jeroboam send his wife in disguise?
Was Judah any better than Israel?

1 Kings 15Bible study →

How can 1 Kings say Asa's heart was perfect when the high places stayed and he paid Ben Hadad?
Was Maacah Abijam's mother or Asa's?
Was Baasha doing the LORD's will when he struck the house of Jeroboam?

1 Kings 16Bible study →

What does 16:7 mean by "because he struck him"?
What happened to Hiel's sons?
When did Omri's twelve years begin?

1 Kings 17Bible study →

Did the widow's son die?
Why was Elijah sent to a widow outside Israel?
How long did the drought last?

1 Kings 18Bible study →

"In the third year" (18:1), or "three years and six months" (Luke 4:25)?
Elijah says, "I, even I only, am left" (18:22). What about the hundred prophets Obadiah hid?
At the brook Kishon (18:40). What does the Bible say about what Elijah did to the prophets of Baal?

1 Kings 19Bible study →

Why did Elijah ask to die, so soon after Carmel?
Was Elijah really the only one left?
What was the LORD showing Elijah in the wind, the earthquake, the fire and the still small voice?

1 Kings 20Bible study →

Why was the man who wouldn't strike the prophet killed by a lion?
What was wrong with letting Ben Hadad go?
Who were "the sons of the prophets"?

1 Kings 21Bible study →

Did Ahab know what Jezebel had done?
Was the word about the dogs kept at Ahab's death, or later?
Was Ahab's humbling real repentance?
Why would the evil come in his son's day and not Ahab's?

1 Kings 22Bible study →

"The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets" (22:23). How can that be, if God doesn't lie?
The LORD sent Elijah to tell Ahab that dogs would lick his blood "in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth" (21:19). Is that what 22:38 tells?
Why did Micaiah first tell the king, "Go up and prosper"?

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