Verse 4
SOLOMON’S WISE CHOICE, 1 Kings 3:4-15.
4. Gibeon The modern el-Jib, a few miles northwest of Jerusalem. See note on Joshua 9:3.
That was the great high place The most distinguished and sacred of all the heights on which the people were wont to sacrifice, for there were the tabernacle and the brazen altar. 2 Chronicles 1:3; 2 Chronicles 1:5.
A thousand burnt offerings This great number corresponded with the thousands of the congregation that went with Solomon to the high place, (see 1 Chronicles 1:2-3,) and also denoted the national significance of the occasion. So at the dedication of the temple Solomon offered twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep, or, as elsewhere expressed, “Sheep and oxen, that could not be told nor numbered for multitude.” See 1 Kings 8:5; 1 Kings 8:63. We are not to suppose that all these offerings were made at the same instant or by one person; still less that Solomon offered them with his own hands. Scores of priests officiated on such occasions, and the sacred festival lasted many days.
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