Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageSo give Your servant a listening heart to govern Your people well — to discern between good and evil. For who could possibly govern this great people of Yours?
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GGive Your servant therefore a lev shomea to judge Your people — to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?
KJV
King James VersionGive therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?
BSB
Berean Standard BibleTherefore give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?”
Footnotes
*Lev shomea* (literally 'a hearing/listening heart') is the precise Hebrew of Solomon's request — not 'wisdom' in the abstract Greek philosophical sense of intellectual capacity, but the capacity to truly hear: to attend, perceive, and respond rightly to both YHWH and the people before him. The *lev* (heart) in Hebrew anthropology is the seat of will, intellect, and moral discernment — not mere emotion. And *shomea* (hearing/listening) implies active, responsive attentiveness — the posture of a student before a teacher, a servant before a master. Most translations render this 'understanding heart' or 'discerning heart,' which are defensible but lose the crucial auditory dimension: wisdom, for ancient Israel, began with hearing. FOG retains *lev shomea* untranslated; FOG Message renders 'a listening heart' to capture the same nuance accessibly.