⁹ Keep this in mind: The Teacher was considered wise, and he taught the people everything he knew. He listened carefully to many proverbs, studying and classifying them.

³² He composed some 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs.

The Purpose of Proverbs

1 These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel.

More Proverbs of Solomon

25 These are more proverbs of Solomon, collected by the advisers of King Hezekiah of Judah.

The Proverbs of Solomon

10 The proverbs of Solomon:

⁸ How happy your people^[a] must be! What a privilege for your officials to stand here day after day, listening to your wisdom!

Solomon Praises the Lord

¹² Then Solomon prayed, “O Lord, you have said that you would live in a thick cloud of darkness. ¹³ Now I have built a glorious Temple for you, a place where you can live forever!^[a]”

¹⁴ Then the king turned around to the entire community of Israel standing before him and gave this blessing: ¹⁵ “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who has kept the promise he made to my father, David. For he told my father, ¹⁶ ‘From the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have never chosen a city among any of the tribes of Israel as the place where a Temple should be built to honor my name. But I have chosen David to be king over my people Israel.’”

¹⁷ Then Solomon said, “My father, David, wanted to build this Temple to honor the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁸ But the Lord told him, ‘You wanted to build the Temple to honor my name. Your intention is good, ¹⁹ but you are not the one to do it. One of your own sons will build the Temple to honor me.’

²⁰ “And now the Lord has fulfilled the promise he made, for I have become king in my father’s place, and now I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the Lord promised. I have built this Temple to honor the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. ²¹ And I have prepared a place there for the Ark, which contains the covenant that the Lord made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt.”