Anno 1521.
As King Solomon prays a princely prayer to GOD, to all princes and lords for a good example.
V. 5. In the city of Gideon, God appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and said to him, "Ask of me what shall I give you?
V. 6 Solomon said, "My God, you have shown great favor to my father David, your servant, when he walked before you in truth and righteousness, and his heart was right with you; and you have kept this great favor for him, that you have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is now in the day.
V. 7. Now, dear God, my Lord, you have made me, your servant, a king in place of David my father; so I am a little youth who does not know when to go out or come in.
V. 8 So I, your servant, am in the midst of your chosen people, who are many, and cannot be numbered nor named before a great multitude.
V. 9 So give me, your servant, a listening heart, that I may judge your people,
and understand what is good and what is evil; for who can judge such a people as these, great and valiant?
V. 10. Such words pleased God that Solomon asked such things.
V. 11. And God said unto him, Because thou askest this, and askest not for long life, and askest not for riches, and askest not for the death of thine enemies, but askest for understanding, that thou mayest hear what thou shalt judge.
Behold, I do as thou hast asked. Behold, I give thee a wise and understanding heart; that before thee there was none like thee, neither shall there be any like thee after thee.
V. 13. Even those things which thou hast not asked, I give thee also, such riches and glories, that the like of thee among kings hath not been since time immemorial.
V. 14 And if thou wilt walk in my ways, and keep my statutes and my commandments, as David thy father walked, so will I prolong thy life.
2) This piece actually belongs as an appendix to the interpretation of the Magnificat, from which Melcher has separated the Leipzig edition and Walch has separated it, likewise the Erlangen edition. In the collective editions it is found: in the Wittenberg (1553), vol. VI, p. 33; in the Jena (1564), vol. I, p. 500d; in the Altenburg, vol. I, p. 475; in the Leipzig, vol. VII, p. 38 and in the Erlangen, vol. 52, p. 432. That we have not brought this prayer in its proper place, vol. VII, 1445, is due to the fact that we, prompted by the Erlangen edition (since the original edition was not available to us), were of the opinion that it was missing from the original. Compare our note vol. VII, 1445.