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3 Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places.(A) 4 The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.(B) 5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I should give you.”(C) 6 And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you, and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne today.(D) 7 And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.(E) 8 And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted.(F) 9 Give your servant, therefore, an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil, for who can govern this great people of yours?”(G)
10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11 God said to him, “Because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or for the life of your enemies but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right,(H) 12 I now do according to your word. Indeed, I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you, and no one like you shall arise after you.(I) 13 I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you.(J) 14 If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life.”(K)
15 Then Solomon awoke; it had been a dream. He came to Jerusalem, where he stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. He offered up burnt offerings and offerings of well-being and provided a feast for all his servants.(L)
Solomon’s Wisdom in Judgment
16 Later, two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 The one woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house.(M) 18 Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together; there was no one else with us in the house; only the two of us were in the house. 19 Then this woman’s son died in the night because she lay on him. 20 She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant slept. She laid him at her breast and laid her dead son at my breast.(N) 21 When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, I saw that he was dead, but when I looked at him closely in the morning, clearly it was not the son I had borne.” 22 But the other woman said, “No, the living son is mine, and the dead son is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead son is yours, and the living son is mine.” So they argued before the king.
23 Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son who is alive, and your son is dead,’ while the other says, ‘Not so! Your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’ ” 24 So the king said, “Bring me a sword,” and they brought a sword before the king. 25 The king said, “Divide the living boy in two; then give half to the one and half to the other.” 26 But the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because compassion for her son burned within her, “Please, my lord, give her the living boy; certainly do not kill him!” The other said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it.”(O) 27 Then the king responded, “Give her the living boy; do not kill him. She is his mother.” 28 All Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to execute justice.(P)
Solomon’s Administrative Officers
4 King Solomon was king over all Israel, 2 and these were his high officials: Azariah son of Zadok was the priest; 3 Elihoreph and Ahijah sons of Shisha were secretaries; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder; 4 Benaiah son of Jehoiada was in command of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; 5 Azariah son of Nathan was over the officials; Zabud son of Nathan was priest and king’s friend;(Q) 6 Ahishar was in charge of the palace; and Adoniram son of Abda was in charge of the forced labor.
7 Solomon had twelve officials over all Israel who provided food for the king and his household; each one had to make provision for one month in the year. 8 These were their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;(R) 9 Ben-deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan;(S) 10 Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (to him belonged Socoh and all the land of Hepher);(T) 11 Ben-abinadab, in all Naphath-dor (he had Taphath, Solomon’s daughter, as his wife);(U) 12 Baana son of Ahilud, in Taanach, Megiddo, and all Beth-shean, which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, and from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as the other side of Jokmeam;(V) 13 Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (he had the villages of Jair son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and he had the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars);(W) 14 Ahinadab son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;(X) 15 Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he had taken Basemath, Solomon’s daughter, as his wife);(Y) 16 Baana son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;(Z) 17 Jehoshaphat son of Paruah, in Issachar; 18 Shimei son of Ela, in Benjamin;(AA) 19 Geber son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of King Sihon of the Amorites and of King Og of Bashan. And there was one garrison in the land.(AB)
Magnificence of Solomon’s Rule
[[20 Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea; they ate and drank and were happy.(AC) 21 [a]Solomon was sovereign over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, even to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.[b](AD)]]
22 Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cors of choice flour and sixty cors of meal, 23 ten fat oxen and twenty pasture-fed cattle, one hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl. 24 For he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates,[c] and he had peace on all sides.(AE) 25 During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all of them under their vines and fig trees.(AF) 26 Solomon also had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots and twelve thousand horsemen.(AG) 27 Those officials supplied provisions for King Solomon and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, each one in his month; they let nothing be lacking.(AH) 28 They also brought to the required place barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds, each according to his charge.
Fame of Solomon’s Wisdom
29 God gave Solomon very great wisdom, discernment, and breadth of understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore,(AI) 30 so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt.(AJ) 31 He was wiser than anyone else, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, children of Mahol; his fame spread throughout all the surrounding nations.(AK) 32 He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five.(AL) 33 He would speak of trees, from the cedar that is in the Lebanon to the hyssop that grows in the wall; he would speak of animals, and birds, and reptiles, and fish. 34 People came from all the nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.(AM)
Seven Chosen to Serve
6 Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.(A) 2 And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.[a] 3 Therefore, brothers and sisters, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task,(B) 4 while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” 5 What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.(C) 6 They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.(D)
7 The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.(E)
The Arrest of Stephen
8 Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. 10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit[b] with which he spoke.(F) 11 Then they secretly instigated some men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”(G) 12 They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. 13 They set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law,(H) 14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth[c] will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.”(I) 15 And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
Psalm 126
A Harvest of Joy
A Song of Ascents.
26 The appetite of workers works for them;
their hunger urges them on.
27 Scoundrels concoct evil,
and their speech is like a scorching fire.(A)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.