One Year Bible.

Solomon’s Prayer for Wisdom

¹Later, Solomon formed an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt by marrying his daughter. Solomon brought her to the City of David until he had finished building his palace and the house of the LORD, as well as the wall around Jerusalem.

²The people, however, were still sacrificing on the high places because a house for the Name of the LORD had not yet been built. ³And Solomon loved the LORD and walked in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

⁴Now the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for it was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on the altar there.

⁵One night at Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!”

⁶Solomon replied, “You have shown much loving devotion to Your servant, my father David, because he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart. And You have maintained this loving devotion by giving him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

⁷And now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king in my father David’s place. But I am only a little child, not knowing how to go out or come in. ⁸Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a people too numerous to count or number.

⁹Therefore 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?”

¹⁰Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had made this request. ¹¹So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this instead of requesting long life or wealth for yourself or death for your enemies — but you have asked for discernment to administer justice — ¹²behold, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been another like you, nor will there ever be.

¹³Moreover, I will give you what you did not request — both riches and honor — so that during all your days no man in any kingdom will be your equal. ¹⁴So if you walk in My ways and keep My statutes and commandments, just as your father David did, I will prolong your days.”

¹⁵Then Solomon awoke, and indeed it had been a dream. So he returned to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then he held a feast for all his servants.

Solomon Judges Wisely

¹⁶At that time two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.

¹⁷One woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house. ¹⁸On the third day after I gave birth, this woman also had a baby. We were alone, with no one in the house but the two of us. ¹⁹During the night this woman’s son died because she rolled over on him. ²⁰So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I was asleep. She laid him in her bosom and put her dead son at my bosom. ²¹The next morning, when I got up to nurse my son, I discovered he was dead. But when I examined him, I realized that he was not the son I had borne.”

²²“No,” said the other woman, “the living one is my son and the dead one is your son.”

But the first woman insisted, “No, the dead one is yours and the living one is mine.” So they argued before the king.

²³Then the king replied, “This woman says, ‘My son is alive and yours is dead,’ but that woman says, ‘No, your son is dead and mine is alive.’”

²⁴The king continued, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought him a sword, ²⁵and the king declared, “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”

²⁶Then the woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she yearned with compassion for her son. “Please, my lord,” she said, “give her the living baby. Do not kill him!”

But the other woman said, “He will be neither mine nor yours. Cut him in two!”

²⁷Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. By no means should you kill him; she is his mother.”

²⁸When all Israel heard of the judgment the king had given, they stood in awe of him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.

Solomon’s Prayer for Wisdom

¹Now Solomon son of David established himself securely over his kingdom, and the LORD his God was with him and highly exalted him.

²Then Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, to the judges, and to every leader in all Israel— the heads of the families. ³And Solomon and the whole assembly went to the high place at Gibeon because it was the location of God’s Tent of Meeting, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness.

⁴Now David had brought the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to the place he had prepared for it, because he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. ⁵But the bronze altar made by Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, was in Gibeon before the tabernacle of the LORD. So Solomon and the assembly inquired of Him there.

⁶Solomon offered sacrifices there before the LORD on the bronze altar at the Tent of Meeting, where he offered a thousand burnt offerings.

⁷That night God appeared to Solomon and said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!”

⁸Solomon replied to God: “You have shown much loving devotion to my father David, and You have made me king in his place. ⁹Now, O LORD God, let Your promise to my father David be fulfilled. For You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. ¹⁰Now grant me wisdom and knowledge, so that I may lead this people. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?”

¹¹God said to Solomon, “Since this was in your heart instead of requesting riches or wealth or honor for yourself or death for your enemies — and since you have not even requested long life but have asked for wisdom and knowledge to govern My people over whom I have made you king — ¹²therefore wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you. And I will also give you riches and wealth and honor unlike anything given to the kings before you or after you.”

¹³So Solomon went to Jerusalem from the high place in Gibeon, from before the Tent of Meeting, and he reigned over Israel.

Solomon’s Riches

¹⁴Solomon accumulated 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. ¹⁵The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as abundant as sycamore in the foothills.

¹⁶Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Kue; the royal merchants purchased them from Kue. ¹⁷A chariot could be imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. Likewise, they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Aram.

The Parable of the Banquet

¹Once again, Jesus spoke to them in parables: ²“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³He sent his servants to call those he had invited to the banquet, but they refused to come.

⁴Again, he sent other servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

⁵But they paid no attention and went away, one to his field, another to his business. ⁶The rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.

⁷The king was enraged, and he sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city. ⁸Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited were not worthy. ⁹Go therefore to the crossroads and invite to the banquet as many as you can find.’

¹⁰So the servants went out into the streets and gathered everyone they could find, both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹But when the king came in to see the guests, he spotted a man who was not dressed in wedding clothes. ¹²‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’

But the man was speechless.

¹³Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹⁴For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Paying Taxes to Caesar

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went out and conspired to trap Jesus in His words. ¹⁶They sent their disciples to Him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that You are honest and that You teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You seek favor from no one, because You pay no attention to external appearance. ¹⁷So tell us what You think: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

¹⁸But Jesus knew their evil intent and said, “You hypocrites, why are you testing Me? ¹⁹Show Me the coin used for the tax.”

And they brought Him a denarius.

²⁰“Whose image is this,” He asked, “and whose inscription?”

²¹“Caesar’s,” they answered.

So Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

²²And when they heard this, they were amazed. So they left Him and went away.

The Sadducees and the Resurrection

²³That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and questioned Him. ²⁴“Teacher,” they said, “Moses declared that if a man dies without having children, his brother is to marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. ²⁵Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died without having children. So he left his wife to his brother. ²⁶The same thing happened to the second and third brothers, down to the seventh. ²⁷And last of all, the woman died. ²⁸In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? For all of them were married to her.”

²⁹Jesus answered, “You are mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. ³⁰In the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven. ³¹But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what God said to you: ³²‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

³³When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

The Greatest Commandment

³⁴And when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they themselves gathered together. ³⁵One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with a question: ³⁶“Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?”

³⁷Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Whose Son Is the Christ?

⁴¹While the Pharisees were assembled, Jesus questioned them: ⁴²“What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is He?”

“David’s,” they answered.

⁴³Jesus said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord’? For he says:

⁴⁴‘The Lord said to my Lord,

“Sit at My right hand

until I put Your enemies

under Your feet.”’

⁴⁵So if David calls Him ‘Lord,’ how can He be David’s son?”

⁴⁶No one was able to answer a word, and from that day on no one dared to question Him any further.