the Week of Proper 19 / Ordinary 24
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Daily Bible Reading
April 13 - Straight Thru the Bible
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1 Kings 9:10-11:25
Chapter 9
10 At the end of 20 years during which Solomon had built the two houses, the Lord 's temple and the royal palace(n)— 11 Hiram king of Tyre(o) having supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold(p) for his every wish(q)—King Solomon gave Hiram 20 towns in the land of Galilee. 12 So Hiram went out from Tyre to look over the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them. 13 So he said, "What are these towns you've given me, my brother?" So he called them the Land of Cabul,[d] as they are still called today.(r) 14 Now Hiram had sent the king 9,000 pounds[e] of gold.(s)
Solomon's Forced Labor
15 This is the account of the forced labor(t) that King Solomon had imposed to build the Lord 's temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces,(u) the wall of Jerusalem,(v) and Hazor,(w) Megiddo,(x) and Gezer.(y) 16 Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He then burned it down, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and gave it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife.(z) 17 Then Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon,(aa) 18 Baalath,(ab) Tamar[f][g] in the Wilderness of Judah, 19 all the storage cities that belonged to Solomon, the chariot cities,(ac) the cavalry cities,(ad) and whatever Solomon desired to build(ae) in Jerusalem, Lebanon, or anywhere else in the land of his dominion.
20 As for all the peoples who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not Israelites— 21 their descendants who remained in the land after them, those whom the Israelites were unable to completely destroy(af)—Solomon imposed forced labor on them; it is this way until today.(ag) 22 But Solomon did not consign the Israelites to slavery;(ah) they were soldiers, his servants, his commanders, his captains, and commanders of his chariots and his cavalry. 23 These were the deputies(ai) who were over Solomon's work: 550 who ruled over the people doing the work.(aj)
Solomon's Other Activities
24 Pharaoh's daughter moved from the city of David(ak) to the house that Solomon had built for her;(al) he then built the terraces.(am)
25 Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord , and he burned incense with them in the Lord 's presence.(an) So he completed the temple.(ao)
26 King Solomon put together a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber,(ap) which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom. 27 With the fleet, Hiram sent his servants, experienced seamen, along with Solomon's servants. 28 They went to Ophir(aq) and acquired gold there—16 tons[h]—and delivered it to Solomon.(ar)
Chapter 10
The Queen of Sheba
1 The queen of Sheba(a) heard about Solomon's fame(b) connected with the name of Yahweh and came to test him with difficult questions.(c) 2 She came to Jerusalem with a very large entourage, with camels bearing(d) spices, gold in great abundance, and precious stones.(e) She came to Solomon and spoke to him about everything that was on her mind. 3 So Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for the king to explain to her. 4 When the queen of Sheba observed all of Solomon's wisdom, the palace he had built,(f) 5 the food at his table,(g) his servants' residence, his attendants' service and their attire, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he offered at the Lord 's temple, it took her breath away.
6 She said to the king, "The report I heard in my own country about your words and about your wisdom is true. 7 But I didn't believe the reports until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, I was not even told half. Your wisdom and prosperity far exceed the report I heard.(h) 8 How happy are your men.[a] How happy are these servants of yours, who always stand in your presence hearing your wisdom.(i) 9 May Yahweh your God be praised! He delighted in you and put you on the throne of Israel,(j) because of the Lord 's eternal love for Israel.(k) He has made you king to carry out justice and righteousness."(l)
10 Then she gave the king four and a half tons[b] of gold,(m) a great quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again did such a quantity of spices arrive as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
11 In addition, Hiram's fleet that carried gold from Ophir brought from Ophir a large quantity of almug[c] wood and precious stones.(n) 12 The king made the almug wood into steps for the Lord 's temple and the king's palace and into lyres and harps for the singers. Never before had such almug wood come, and the like has not been seen again even to this very day.
13 King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba her every desire—whatever she asked—besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty. Then she, along with her servants, returned to her own country.(o)
Solomon's Wealth
14 The weight(p) of gold that came to Solomon annually was 25 tons,[d] 15 besides what came from merchants,(q) traders' merchandise, and all the Arabian kings and governors of the land.(r)
16 King Solomon made 200 large shields of hammered gold; 15 pounds[e] of gold went into each shield. 17 He made 300 small shields of hammered gold; about four pounds[f] of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.(s)
18 The king also made a large ivory throne and overlaid it with fine gold. 19 The throne had six steps; there was a rounded top at the back of the throne, armrests on either side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the armrests. 20 Twelve lions were standing there on the six steps, one at each end. Nothing like it had ever been made in any other kingdom.
21 All of King Solomon's drinking cups were gold, and all the utensils of the House of the Forest of Lebanon(t) were pure gold.(u) There was no silver, since it was considered as nothing in Solomon's time, 22 for the king had ships of Tarshish(v) at sea with Hiram's fleet, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.[g](w)
23 King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the world in riches and in wisdom.(x) 24 The whole world wanted an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom that God had put in his heart.(y) 25 Every man would bring his annual tribute: items[h] of silver and gold, clothing, weapons,[i] spices, and horses and mules.(z)
26 Solomon accumulated 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen(aa) and stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.(ab) 27 The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones,(ac) and he made cedar(ad) as abundant as sycamore in the Judean foothills. 28 Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt and Kue.[j] The king's traders bought them from Kue at the going price.(ae) 29 A chariot was imported from Egypt for 15 pounds[k] of silver, and a horse for about four pounds.[l] In the same way, they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Aram through their agents.(af)
Chapter 11
Solomon's Unfaithfulness to God
1 King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh's daughter:(a) Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women(b) 2 from the nations that the Lord had told the Israelites about, "Do not intermarry with them, and they must not intermarry with you, because they will turn you away from Me to their gods."(c) Solomon was deeply attached to these women and loved them. 3 He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines,(d) and they turned his heart away from the Lord .(e)
4 When Solomon was old, his wives seduced him to follow other gods. He was not completely devoted to Yahweh his God, as his father David had been.(f) 5 Solomon followed Ashtoreth,(g) the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom,(h) the detestable idol of the Ammonites.(i) 6 Solomon did what was evil in the Lord 's sight, and unlike his father David, he did not completely follow Yahweh.
7 At that time, Solomon built a high place(j) for Chemosh,(k) the detestable idol of Moab, and for Milcom,[a](l) the detestable idol of the Ammonites, on the hill across from Jerusalem.(m) 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who were burning incense and offering sacrifices to their gods.
9 The Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from Yahweh, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.(n) 10 He had commanded him about this, so that he would not follow other gods, but Solomon did not do what the Lord had commanded.(o)
11 Then the Lord said to Solomon, "Since you have done this[b] and did not keep My covenant and My statutes, which I commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.(p) 12 However, I will not do it during your lifetime because of your father David;(q) I will tear it out of your son's hand. 13 Yet I will not tear the entire kingdom away from him. I will give one tribe to your son(r) because of my servant David and because of Jerusalem that I chose."
Solomon's Enemies
14 So the Lord raised up(s) Hadad the Edomite as an enemy against Solomon. He was of the royal family in Edom. 15 Earlier, when David was in Edom, Joab, the commander of the army, had gone to bury the dead and had struck down every male in Edom. 16 For Joab and all Israel had remained there six months, until he had killed every male in Edom.(t) 17 Hadad fled to Egypt, along with some Edomites from his father's servants. At the time Hadad was a small boy. 18 Hadad and his men set out from Midian and went to Paran.(u) They took men with them from Paran and went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt,(v) who gave Hadad a house, ordered that he be given food, and gave him land. 19 Pharaoh liked Hadad so much that he gave him a wife, the sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes. 20 Tahpenes' sister gave birth to Hadad's son Genubath. Tahpenes herself weaned him in Pharaoh's palace, and Genubath lived there along with Pharaoh's sons.
21 When Hadad heard in Egypt that David rested with his fathers and that Joab, the commander of the army, was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, "Let me leave, so I can go to my own country."
22 But Pharaoh asked him, "What do you lack here with me for you to want to go back to your own country?"
"Nothing," he replied, "but please let me leave."
23 God raised up Rezon son of Eliada as an enemy(w) against Solomon. Rezon had fled from his master Hadadezer king of Zobah(x) 24 and gathered men to himself. He became captain of a raiding party when David killed the Zobaites. He[c] went to Damascus,(y) lived there, and became king in Damascus. 25 Rezon was Israel's enemy throughout Solomon's reign, adding to the trouble Hadad had caused. He ruled over Aram,[d](z) but he loathed Israel.
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