When Solomon prayed for wisdom, surprisingly, he did not use the word “wisdom.” What he prayed for, according to the ESV, was “an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil” (1 Kings 3:9). In his affirmation of Solomon’s prayer, God summarized it as a request for “understanding to discern what is right” (1 Kings 3:11). Of course, “wisdom” is a perfectly fair one-word description of all this, and actually in the later version of the prayer that we have in 2 Chronicles 1:10-11, Solomon does ask explicitly for “wisdom.”
But it is worth noting the actual language used in 1 Kings 3. The ESV translation of “understanding mind” in v. 9 and “understanding” in v. 10 translates a Hebrew verb which really means “to hear” (shama). The two lines translated more literally say:
Give to your servant a hearing heart, to judge your people, to discern between good and evil
. . . you have asked for yourself to discern, to hear judgment (1 Kings 3:9, 11)
The verb “to hear” is pretty flexible, even in English. It can have the nuance of “understand” (as in “are you hearing me?”), or even “obey” or “heed.” So the ESV translation is not wrong. But I think maintaining the literal translation is better in this case. The more concrete “hear” reminds us that wisdom, discernment, or understanding, biblically conceived, is a matter first of all of hearing the word of the Lord. Wisdom in its biblical conception is not an abstract trait that some people just naturally have, but is a result of hearing the word of the Lord and digesting and embracing it. Solomon prays for a “hearing heart,” and God re-phrases this as a request to “hear judgment.” That is what wisdom is. It is receptive.
When we look at the book of Proverbs, Solomon’s great work, the connection between hearing the word and wisdom is everywhere. The wisdom of God, breathed through Solomon, comes to us in words, and it is these words that we must hear, and absorb, if we are to have wisdom. In fact, it would be hard to overstate the premium that Proverbs places on words and our real and active hearing of them.
Even a passing glance will confirm this:
In the prologue (Proverbs 1:1-7) the purpose of the book is stated as the provision of wisdom and instruction/discipline for the wise who “hear” (v. 5) “the sayings” and “the words of the wise” (v. 6). The first command in the book is a command for the son to “hear” the instruction of the father (v. 8; cf. 4:1). The second half of the first chapter is a portrait of Wisdom neglected, and in there Wisdom promises to “pour out her spirit,” which in the next line is defined as “I will make my words known to you” (v. 23; cf. 8:6-8). In chapter 2, where Solomon expounds on the value of wisdom, he describes it as a “receiving his words” and “treasuring up his commandments with you” (2:1).
Hearing the wise words of God will be protection against men of “perverted speech” (2:12) and from the adulteress with “her smooth words” (2:16; cf. 5:3 and 6:24). According to Solomon, wisdom does not come from experience, which seems to be the almost universal assumption of people today, but from concretely hearing, absorbing, memorizing—and Proverbs is full of commands to memorize its content (e.g. 2:1, 3:1, 4:4, 4:21)—and heeding the word of the Lord. Wisdom is a matter of knowing which voice and whose words to listen to (cf. Colossians 2:3-4). Experience may end up being an effective teacher, true enough, but Proverbs aims to persuade us to hear wisdom before we find ourselves with a storehouse of bitter experience. Biblical wisdom majors on prevention.
The importance of hearing is in fact unmistakable throughout the Bible.
Jesus himself commands us, “Take care how you hear” (Luke 8:18).
Hearing is foundational to the Law of Israel: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:4-6).
In the prophets, God again calls heaven and earth to hear: “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: ‘Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me’” (Isaiah 1:2).
The word of the gospel, the wisdom of God, also comes by way of hearing: “[O]ur gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction… when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (1 Thessalonians 1:5, 2:13).
We also have an apostolic command to hear:
Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls (James 1:19-21).
Solomon’s request for a “hearing heart” was not a request to magically become some kind of insightful sage, but for ears to hear the word of God, for a heart that absorbs its specific content, and acts accordingly. That is the fear of the Lord, and that is wisdom. Hearing God’s judgments would allow Solomon to discern right and wrong because hearing/heeding the Law, according to Deuteronomy 4:6, would be the people’s wisdom in the sight of the nations. And so for us, in hearing the word of the Lord, particularly the word of Christ in the gospel, we hear the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:30).
