Daily Text and Bible Reading: Friday, April 17 [Press play below]

3.1 Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He married Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the City of David until he finished building his own house, and the house of Jehovah, and the wall around Jerusalem.
3.2 But the people were still sacrificing on the high places, because until that time a house for the name of Jehovah had not yet been built.
3.3 Solomon continued to love Jehovah by walking in the statutes of David his father, except that he was sacrificing and making offerings smoke on the high places.
3.4 The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the most prominent high place. Solomon offered 1,000 burnt sacrifices on that altar.
3.5 In Gibeon Jehovah appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said: “Ask what you would like me to give you.”
3.6 At this Solomon said: “You have shown great loyal love toward your servant David my father as he walked before you in faithfulness and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart. You have continued to show him this great loyal love down to this day by giving him a son to sit on his throne.
3.7 And now, Jehovah my God, you have made your servant king in the place of David my father, though I am just a youth and I am inexperienced.
3.8 Your servant is among your people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that they cannot be numbered or counted.
3.9 So grant your servant an obedient heart to judge your people, to discern between good and bad, for who is able to judge this numerous people of yours?”
3.10 It was pleasing to Jehovah that Solomon had requested this.
3.11 God then said to him: “Because you requested this and you did not request for yourself long life or riches or the death of your enemies, but you requested understanding to hear judicial cases,
3.12 I will do what you asked. I will give you a wise and understanding heart, so that just as there has never been anyone like you before, there will never be anyone like you again.
3.13 Furthermore, what you have not requested I will give you, both riches and glory, so that there will be no other king like you in your lifetime.
3.14 And if you walk in my ways by keeping my regulations and my commandments, just as David your father walked, I will also give you a long life.”
3.15 When Solomon awoke, he realized that it had been a dream. Then he went to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of Jehovah and offered up burnt sacrifices and communion offerings and spread a feast for all his servants.
3.16 At that time two prostitutes came in to the king and stood before him.
3.17 The first woman said: “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in one house, and I gave birth while she was in the house.
3.18 On the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together, just the two of us; there was no one else with us in the house.
3.19 During the night this woman’s son died, because she lay on him.
3.20 So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while your slave girl was asleep and laid him in her arms, and she laid her dead son in my arms.
3.21 When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, I saw that he was dead. So I examined him closely in the morning and saw that it was not my son whom I had given birth to.”
3.22 But the other woman said: “No, my son is the living one, and your son is the dead one!” But the first woman was saying: “No, your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.” That is how they argued before the king.
3.23 Finally the king said: “This one says, ‘This is my son, the living one, and your son is the dead one!’ and that one says, ‘No, your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one!’”
3.24 The king said: “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword to the king.
3.25 The king then said: “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one woman and half to the other.”
3.26 At once the woman whose son was the living one pleaded with the king, for her compassions were stirred toward her son. She said: “Please, my lord! You should give her the living child! By no means put him to death!” But the other woman was saying: “He will be neither mine nor yours! Let them cut him in two!”
3.27 At that the king answered: “Give the living child to the first woman! By no means put him to death, for she is his mother.”
3.28 So all Israel heard about the judgment that the king had handed down, and they were in awe of the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was with him to execute justice.

4.1 King Solomon ruled over all Israel.
4.2 These were his high officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was the priest;
4.3 Elihoreph and Ahijah the sons of Shisha were secretaries; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder;
4.4 Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was in charge of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;
4.5 Azariah the son of Nathan was over the deputies; Zabud the son of Nathan was a priest and the king’s friend;
4.6 Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over those conscripted for forced labor.
4.7 Solomon had 12 deputies in charge of all Israel who provided the king and his household with food. Each one was responsible for providing the food for one month of the year.
4.8 These were their names: The son of Hur, in the mountainous region of Ephraim;
4.9 the son of Deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan;
4.10 the son of Hesed, in Arubboth (he had Socoh and all the land of Hepher);
4.11 the son of Abinadab, in all the slopes of Dor (Solomon’s daughter Taphath became his wife);
4.12 Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach, Megiddo, and all Beth-shean, which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah to the region of Jokmeam;
4.13 the son of Geber, in Ramoth-gilead (he had the tent villages of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; he also had the region of Argob, which is in Bashan: 60 large cities with walls and copper bars);
4.14 Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;
4.15 Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he took Basemath, another of Solomon’s daughters, as his wife);
4.16 Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;
4.17 Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;
4.18 Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin;
4.19 Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the land of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan. There was also one deputy in charge of all these other deputies in the land.
4.20 Judah and Israel were as numerous as the grains of sand by the sea; they were eating and drinking and rejoicing.
4.21 Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines and to the boundary of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.
4.22 Solomon’s food for each day was 30 cor measures of fine flour and 60 cor measures of flour,
4.23 10 fattened cattle, 20 pastured cattle, and 100 sheep, besides some stags, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened cuckoos.
4.24 For he controlled everything this side of the River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, including all the kings on this side of the River; and he enjoyed peace in every region, all around him.
4.25 Judah and Israel lived in security, everyone under his own vine and under his own fig tree, from Dan to Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon.
4.26 And Solomon had 4,000 stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 horses.
4.27 These deputies supplied food to King Solomon and to everyone who ate at the table of King Solomon. Each was responsible for his month and saw to it that nothing was lacking.
4.28 They also brought barley and straw wherever it was needed for the horses and for the teams of horses, each according to his quota.
4.29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and discernment in very great measure and a broadness of heart like the sand on the seashore.
4.30 Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt.
4.31 He was wiser than any other man, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; his fame spread among all the surrounding nations.
4.32 He composed 3,000 proverbs and his songs numbered 1,005.
4.33 He would speak about the trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows on the wall; he would speak about the animals, the birds, the creeping things, and the fish.
4.34 People from all the nations came to hear Solomon’s wisdom, including kings from all over the earth who had heard about his wisdom.

5.1 When Hiram the king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed as king in place of his father, he sent his servants to Solomon, for Hiram had always been a friend of David’s.
5.2 In turn Solomon sent word to Hiram:
5.3 “You well know that David my father was not able to build a house for the name of Jehovah his God because of the wars waged against him from every side until Jehovah put his enemies under the soles of his feet.
5.4 But now Jehovah my God has given me rest on all sides. There is no one opposing me and nothing bad happening.
5.5 So I intend to build a house for the name of Jehovah my God, just as Jehovah promised to David my father, saying: ‘Your son whom I will put on your throne in your place, he is the one who will build the house for my name.’
5.6 Now command your people to cut cedars of Lebanon for me. My servants will work with your servants, and I will pay the wages of your servants according to the rate you set, for you are aware that not one of us knows how to cut trees like the Sidonians.”
5.7 When Hiram heard Solomon’s words, he rejoiced greatly and said: “May Jehovah be praised today, for he has given David a wise son over this great people!”
5.8 So Hiram sent word to Solomon: “I have heard the message you sent to me. I will do all you desire in providing the cedar and juniper timbers.
5.9 My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will make them into log rafts to go by sea to the place that you designate to me. I will have them broken up there, and you can carry them away. In exchange, you will provide the food that I request for my household.”
5.10 So Hiram supplied all the timbers of cedar and juniper that Solomon desired.
5.11 And Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 cor measures of wheat as food supplies for his household and 20 cor measures of very fine olive oil. That was what Solomon gave Hiram year after year.
5.12 And Jehovah gave Solomon wisdom, just as He had promised him. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.
5.13 King Solomon conscripted men for forced labor out of all Israel; 30,000 men were conscripted.
5.14 He would send them to Lebanon in shifts of 10,000 each month. They would spend a month in Lebanon and two months at their homes; and Adoniram was over those conscripted for forced labor.
5.15 Solomon had 70,000 common laborers and 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains,
5.16 as well as Solomon’s 3,300 princely deputies who served as foremen to supervise the workmen.
5.17 At the king’s order, they quarried large stones, expensive stones, to lay the foundation of the house with hewn stones.
5.18 So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites did the cutting, and they prepared the timbers and the stones to build the house.