Bible Strands
1 Kings 3:14
So if you walk in My ways and keep My statutes and commandments, just as your father David did, I will prolong your days.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Solomon immediately after granting him wisdom and promising riches and honor in the preceding verse. The speech occurs within the divine response to Solomon's dream at Gibeon, before Solomon awakens and returns to Jerusalem to worship.
The words — The Hebrew verb תֵּלֵךְ (te.Lekh) translates literally as "you will walk," paired with לִשְׁמֹר (li.sh.Mor) for "to keep." These terms establish the active, continuous requirement for the conditional promise.
The thread — This conditional structure mirrors the obedience standard in 1 Kings 15:5 and connects to the broader biblical pattern linking covenant faithfulness to longevity in Proverbs 3:2 and Psalms 91:16.
Why it lands — The text states that prolonged days are granted only if the listener walks in God's ways and keeps His statutes and commandments as David did. It requires the reader to accept that divine blessing operates on covenantal obedience rather than independent merit.
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 if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 3:2 for they will add length to your days, years and peace to your life.
- Psalms 91:16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation.”
- 1 Kings 15:5 For David had done what was right in the eyes of the LORD and had not turned aside from anything the LORD commanded all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
- Zechariah 3:7 “This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘If you walk in My ways and keep My instructions, then you will govern My house and will also have charge of My courts; and I will give you a place among these who are standing here.
- 1 Kings 2:3 And keep the charge of the LORD your God to walk in His ways and to keep His statutes, commandments, ordinances, and decrees, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you turn,
- 1 Kings 3:6 Solomon replied, “You have shown much loving devotion to Your servant, my father David, because he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart. And You have maintained this loving devotion by giving him a son to sit on his throne this very day.
- 2 Chronicles 34:2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.
- Proverbs 3:16 Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.
- Deuteronomy 5:16 Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
- 1 Kings 9:4 And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and uprightness, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances,