Bible Strands
1 Kings 3:1
Later, Solomon formed an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt by marrying his daughter. Solomon brought her to the City of David until he had finished building his palace and the house of the LORD, as well as the wall around Jerusalem.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Solomon's political and marital actions following his coronation. He notes Solomon's alliance with Pharaoh through marriage and the temporary residence of Pharaoh's daughter in the City of David before the temple, palace, and city wall were complete.
The words — וַ/יִּתְחַתֵּ֣ן (va/i.yit.cha.Ten) translates literally as "and he became son-in-law," denoting a marital alliance. וַ/יִּקַּ֣ח (va/i.yi.Kach) means "and he took," describing the physical relocation of Pharaoh's daughter into Jerusalem.
The thread — This marriage reappears in 1 Kings 9:24 when Pharaoh’s daughter moves to her own palace, and in 1 Kings 11:1 where Solomon's affection for foreign wives, including her, is recorded. The City of David is first identified as the captured fortress in 2 Samuel 5:7.
Why it lands — The text documents a political marriage that temporarily houses a foreign princess in Jerusalem before the temple's construction concludes. It requires the reader to observe the chronological delay in building the house of the LORD and the immediate diplomatic actions of Solomon's reign.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 9:24 As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her, he built the supporting terraces.
- 1 Kings 11:1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.
- 2 Samuel 5:7 Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion (that is, the City of David).
- 1 Kings 6:1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the house of the LORD.
- 1 Kings 9:15 This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon imposed to build the house of the LORD, his own palace, the supporting terraces, and the wall of Jerusalem, as well as Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.
- 2 Chronicles 2:1 Now Solomon purposed to build a house for the Name of the LORD and a royal palace for himself.
- 2 Chronicles 8:11 Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her. For he said, “My wife must not live in the house of David king of Israel, because the places the ark of the LORD has entered are holy.”
- 1 Chronicles 11:7 So David took up residence in the fortress; that is why it was called the City of David.
- 2 Chronicles 18:1 Now Jehoshaphat had an abundance of riches and honor, and he allied himself with Ahab by marriage.
- Ezra 5:11 And this is the answer they returned: “We are servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and completed.