Bible Strands
1 Kings 3:8
Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a people too numerous to count or number.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Solomon addresses God immediately after being installed as king, acknowledging his youth and lack of administrative experience. He speaks at this moment to frame his subsequent request for wisdom rather than wealth or long life.
The words — The phrase בְּתוֹךְ עַמְּךָ (be-Tokh 'am-mekha) literally means "in the midst of your people." Solomon pairs this with רָב (rav) to denote the nation as "numerous" or "great" in size.
The thread — The imagery of an uncountable people directly parallels God’s covenant promises to Abraham recorded in Genesis 15:5, 13:16, and 22:17. These references trace the demographic fulfillment of the patriarchal promise into the established monarchy.
Why it lands — The text states that the chosen population is too numerous to count, making human governance inherently insufficient. This requires the reader to accept that leadership demands reliance on divine provision rather than personal capability.
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 thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.
Cross-references
- Genesis 15:5 And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”
- Genesis 13:16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if one could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.
- Genesis 22:17 I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.
- 1 Chronicles 21:2 So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan and bring me a report, so that I may know their number.”
- Exodus 19:5 Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.
- Deuteronomy 7:6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.
- 1 Samuel 12:22 Indeed, for the sake of His great name, the LORD will not abandon His people, because He was pleased to make you His own.
- 1 Chronicles 21:5 And Joab reported to David the total number of the troops. In all Israel there were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword, including 470,000 in Judah.
- 1 Chronicles 27:23 David did not count the men aged twenty or under, because the LORD had said that He would make Israel as numerous as the stars of the sky.
- Psalms 78:71 from tending the ewes He brought him to be shepherd of His people Jacob, of Israel His inheritance.