Bible Strands
1 Kings 4:20
The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore, and they were eating and drinking and rejoicing.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the demographic scale and daily prosperity of Judah and Israel immediately after listing Solomon’s provincial governors and before detailing the geographic extent of his political dominion.
The words — רַבִּ֔ים (rabim) means “numerous” or “multitude,” paired with כַּ/ח֥וֹל (ka/chol) meaning “like sand,” which quantifies the population size.
The thread — This population description mirrors the covenantal language in Genesis 22:17 and Genesis 32:12, where descendants are multiplied like the sand of the sea, and aligns with Solomon’s earlier observation in 1 Kings 3:8 that the chosen people are too numerous to count.
Why it lands — The verse makes a concrete historical claim about population growth and material abundance, requiring the reader to evaluate the narrative’s assertion that national stability and prosperity are directly tied to Solomon’s administrative structure.
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
Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking, and making merry.
Cross-references
- 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 Kings 3:8 Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a people too numerous to count or number.
- Genesis 32:12 But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”
- 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 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.”
- 1 Samuel 30:16 So he led David down, and there were the Amalekites spread out over all the land, eating, drinking, and celebrating the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and the land of Judah.
- 1 Chronicles 12:39 They spent three days there eating and drinking with David, for their relatives had provided for them.
- Job 1:18 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
- Psalms 72:3 May the mountains bring peace to the people, and the hills bring righteousness.
- Proverbs 14:28 A large population is a king’s splendor, but a lack of subjects is a prince’s ruin.