Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 3:3
And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.
3. walking in the statutes of David his father ] These are the observances which David had enjoined in 1Ki 2:3. There they are called ‘the charge of the Lord,’ and are here named ‘of David,’ because David had been diligent in their observance. So in 2Ki 17:8, ‘the statutes of the heathen’ means that idolatrous worship which the heathen nations practised.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1Ki 3:3
Solomon loved the Lord.
Love begets love
It is a process of induction. Put a piece of iron in the presence of an electrified body, and that piece of iron for a time becomes electrified. It is changed into a temporary magnet in the mere presence of a permanent magnet, and as long as you leave the two side by side they are both magnets alike. Remain side by side with Christ who loved us, and you, too, will become a permanent, attractive force. This is the inevitable effect of love. (H. Drummond.)
Love must be paid in kind
As water is cast into a pump, when the springs lie low, to bring up more water, so God sheddeth abroad His love into our hearts, that our love may rise up to Him again by way of gratitude and recompense. How idle is it then, to hope to chide ourselves into loving God! The price of love is love; the origin of it is not found in law or in a sense of duty, but in love, or a return of gratitude. When the sun of eternal love melts the glaciers of the soul, then the rivers of affection flow; but if the rocks of ice could all be broken to shivers with hammers, not a drop of affection would stream forth. Only a sense of Divine love will ever create love to God in the heart. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
And, or, yet, although he mistook and miscarried himself in the matter of high places, yet in the general his heart was right with God, and he both loved him with inward affection, and walked with him in outward conversation and worship.
In the statutes of David, i.e. according to the statutes or commands of God, which are here called the statutes of David, not only because they were so freely chosen, and heartily loved, and diligently practised by David, but also because the observation of them was so earnestly pressed upon Solomon, and fortified with Davids authority and command: see 1Ki 2:2-4; 1Ch 28:8,9.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. And Solomon loved the LordThisdeclaration, illustrated by what follows, affords undoubted evidenceof the young king’s piety; nor is the word “only,” whichprefaces the statement, to be understood as introducing a qualifyingcircumstance that reflected any degree of censure upon him. Theintention of the sacred historian is to describe the generallyprevailing mode of worship before the temple was built. The
high places were altarserected on natural or artificial eminences, probably from the ideathat men were brought nearer to the Deity. They had been used by thepatriarchs, and had become so universal among the heathen that theywere almost identified with idolatry. They were prohibited in the law(Lev 17:3; Lev 17:4;Deu 12:13; Deu 12:14;Jer 7:31; Eze 6:3;Eze 6:4; Hos 10:8).But, so long as the tabernacle was migratory and the means for thenational worship were merely provisional, the worship on those highplaces was tolerated. Hence, as accounting for their continuance, itis expressly stated (1Ki 3:2)that God had not yet chosen a permanent and exclusive place for hisworship.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Solomon loved the Lord,…. The worship of the Lord, as the Targum: and which he showed by
walking in the statutes of David his father; in which his father walked, which were the statutes of the Lord, or which he exhorted him to walk in, and were the same, 1Ki 2:3;
only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places; besides that at Gibeon, which it seems David did not.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
3. Solomon loved the Lord This further shows that the sacrificing in high places was not the result of alienation from Jehovah.
Statutes of David Customs, usages, and laws of religious conduct practiced by David. But it does not appear that David ever sacrificed or burnt incense in high places. The contrary is implied in this verse; and it is more than intimated that though this worship was tolerated because not offered to false gods, and because there was no house yet built to Jehovah, still both Solomon and his people were censurable for allowing it such great extent and prominence, and thereby paving the way for future idolatry in Israel. It would have been safer and better to have sacrificed only before the ark of the covenant, as Solomon did after his return from Gibeon, (1Ki 3:15😉 or else only at Gibeon, where the tabernacle was. 1Ch 16:39.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
(3) And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.
This is a beautiful, but short account of Solomon. He loved the Lord. A volume could not say more. Reader! do not forget that the love of any man towards the Lord is an evidence of the Lord’s love to him; for the apostle saith, we love God because he first loved us. And as the Lord sent by Nathan on the birth of Solomon, and called his name Jedediah, which signifies beloved of the Lord; this therefore is abundantly plain. 2Sa 12:25 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Ki 3:3 And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.
Ver. 3. And Solomon loved, the Lord. ] Being first loved by him, his Jedidiah, his darling: for our love to God is but the reflex of his to us first. 1Jn 4:19
Only he sacrificed, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
statutes of David. Contrast “the statutes of Omri” (Mic 6:16), and”statutes of the heathen” (2Ki 17:8).
high places. Not necessarily idolatrous (see note on 1Ki 3:2, and compare 1Ch 16:39; 1Ch 21:29. 2Ch 1:3, 2Ch 1:13), though perhaps copied from Canaanites. Practice too deeply rooted for even Asa and Hezekiah to remove. Josiah it was who finally desecrated them. Anglo-Saxon = Hoes. Gibeon = a high place, where the Tabernacle was. Compare Jos 9:3. 2Sa 2:12, 2Sa 2:13.
offer = offer up. See App-43.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
loved: Deu 6:5, Deu 10:12, Deu 30:6, Deu 30:16, Deu 30:20, 2Sa 12:24, 2Sa 12:25, Psa 31:23, Mat 22:37, Mar 12:29, Mar 12:30, Rom 8:28, 1Co 8:3, Jam 1:12, Jam 2:5, 1Jo 4:19, 1Jo 4:20, 1Jo 5:2, 1Jo 5:3
walking: 1Ki 3:6, 1Ki 3:14, 1Ki 2:3, 1Ki 2:4, 1Ki 11:34, 1Ki 15:3, 1Ch 28:8, 1Ch 28:9, 2Ch 17:3-5, Joh 14:15, Joh 14:21
only he: 1Ki 15:14, 1Ki 22:43, 2Ki 12:3, 2Ki 14:4, 2Ki 15:4, 2Ki 15:35, 2Ki 18:4, 2Ki 18:22
Reciprocal: 1Ch 14:4 – Solomon
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Ki 3:3. And Solomon loved Or, Yet he loved, the Lord Although he miscarried in the matter of high places, yet, in the general, his heart was right with God. Walking in the statutes According to the statutes or commands of God, which are here called the statutes of David; not only because they were diligently practised by David, but also because the observation of them was so earnestly pressed upon Solomon, and fortified with Davids authority and command.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3:3 And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his {c} father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.
(c) For his father had commanded him to obey the Lord and walk in his ways, 1Ki 2:3.