1 Kings 3

Solomon more than doubled the size of Jerusalem when he added the Temple complex, his palace, and other adjacent buildings as a northern extension to the City of David. David’s Jerusalem was built on just the lower part of the ridge above the Kidron Valley. Solomon pushed the boundary of the city higher on the ridge. David’s Jerusalem was about 6 hectares, which translates into about 15 acres. That’s about a dozen football fields with end zones. Solomon’s Jerusalem was about 13 hectares, or 32 acres, more than two dozen football fields.

So what? They apparently had a tent worship center, perhaps much like Moses and the Israelites had, with a portable altar where priests offered the people’s sacrifices. It’s where Solomon went to offer sacrifices after his vivid dream.

Bible writers weren’t usually tolerant of countryside shrines. This is often where people worshiped other gods. God ordered his people to get rid of them: “Destroy all the shrines and worship centers devoted to other gods. You’ll find them scattered throughout the Canaanite nations: on mountains, hills, and under towering shade trees” (Deuteronomy 12:2). Instead, many Israelites adopted the practice. It was more convenient to worship at the neighborhood shrine, than to travel days and nights to Jerusalem. Some seemed to worship God at the open-air shrines. Others worshiped other gods. Some apparently worshiped both—God and gods.

Gibeon has been identified with a dirt mount of ruins called Tel el-Jib less than a day’s walk west of Jericho. For one reason, archaeologists found jar handles stamped “Gibeon.” The city was on hills overlooking the Jordan River Valley, about 16 miles (25 km) away. Gibeon was one kilometer higher (over half a mile) than the Jericho plains. Gibeon elevation: 2,425 feet, 739 meters. Elevation of Jericho: -846 feet, -258 meters. Gibeon’s ruins are  now on the northern outskirts of today’s Jerusalem. But in Solomon’s time, it was about seven miles north, roughly a two-hour walk. The headline about this city came from centuries before Solomon. Gibeon citizens survived the Israelite invasion by tricking Joshua into a peace treaty (Joshua 9). They said they lived in a faraway land. We could call it the Land of Fibbers, not too far away.

Many scholars say the numbers are an exaggeration, perhaps to emphasize Solomon’s love for God. A burnt offering was the most common animal sacrifice. Worshipers burned the entire animal. See Leviticus 1.

These dreams were sometimes known more literally as “visions of the night” (Zechariah 1:8; Job 33:4). But in daylight, they were often described as a trance (Acts 10:10).

Does anyone see the irony in Solomon’s request for what seems to have started humanity’s problem, according to Genesis? The talking garden snake told Eve if she ate the forbidden fruit, “You’ll be smart enough to know right from wrong” (Genesis 3:5). A few verses later, after Adam and Eve sampled the forbidden fruit, God confirms, “Humans know right from wrong, just as we do. We need to make sure they don’t eat fruit from the tree of life. If they do, they will live forever” (3:22).

Also known as the Ark of the Covenant, Israel’s most sacred object. It was a wooden chest covered in gold. It held the stone tablets with the 10 laws written in some fashion. The Hebrew language didn’t seem to exist in the time of Moses.

A peace offering, described in Leviticus 3, is one of several prescribed offerings in Jewish tradition. When Jewish people wanted to give thanks to God for something, such as good health or safety, they would sacrifice a sheep, goat, cow, or bull. They would burn part of the animal, including the kidneys and fat covering the intestines. They would eat the rest in celebration, often with family and friends. It takes a fair number of hungry people to eat a cow. But people were eager to eat meat because it was rare in Bible times for common folks to eat meat, many Bible scholars say.

Heads or tails? We’re left to wonder if Solomon really would have split the baby, or if he knew enough about mothers to realize that no mentally stable mother would agree to the killing of her child.