One Year Bible.

The Queen of Sheba

¹Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon, she came to test him with difficult questions. She arrived in Jerusalem with a very large caravan— with camels bearing spices, gold in abundance, and precious stones.

And she came to Solomon and spoke with him about all that was on her mind. ²And Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for him to explain.

³When the queen of Sheba saw the wisdom of Solomon, the palace he had built, ⁴the food at his table, the seating of his servants, the service and attire of his attendants, the attire of his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he presented at the house of the LORD, it took her breath away.

⁵She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your words and wisdom is true. ⁶But I did not believe the reports until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not half of the greatness of your wisdom was told to me. You have far exceeded the report I heard. ⁷How blessed are your men! How blessed are these servants of yours who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom! ⁸Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you to set you on His throne to be king for the LORD your God. Because your God loved Israel enough to establish them forever, He has made you king over them to carry out justice and righteousness.”

⁹Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, a great quantity of spices, and precious stones. There had never been such spices as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰(The servants of Hiram and of Solomon who brought gold from Ophir also brought algum wood and precious stones. ¹¹The king made the algum wood into steps for the house of the LORD and for the king’s palace, and into lyres and harps for the singers. Never before had anything like them been seen in the land of Judah.)

¹²King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired — whatever she asked — far more than she had brought the king. Then she left and returned to her own country, along with her servants.

Solomon’s Wealth and Splendor

¹³The weight of gold that came to Solomon each year was 666 talents, ¹⁴not including the revenue from the merchants and traders. And all the Arabian kings and governors of the land also brought gold and silver to Solomon.

¹⁵King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of hammered gold went into each shield. ¹⁶He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold; three hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷Additionally, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold. ¹⁸The throne had six steps, and a footstool of gold was attached to it. There were armrests on both sides of the seat, with a lion standing beside each armrest. ¹⁹Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like this had ever been made for any kingdom.

²⁰All King Solomon’s drinking cups were gold, and all the utensils of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. There was no silver, because it was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon. ²¹For the king had the ships of Tarshish that went with Hiram’s servants, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

²²So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. ²³All the kings of the earth sought an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom that God had put in his heart. ²⁴Year after year, each visitor would bring his tribute: articles of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.

²⁵Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots, and 12,000 horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. ²⁶He reigned over all the kings from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. ²⁷The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as abundant as sycamore in the foothills. ²⁸Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from all the lands.

The Death of Solomon

²⁹As for the rest of the acts of Solomon, from beginning to end, are they not written in the Records of Nathan the Prophet, in the Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the Visions of Iddo the Seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat? ³⁰Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. ³¹And Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. And his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

¹What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? ²Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? ³Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.

⁵For if we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. ⁶We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. ⁷For anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. ⁹For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. ¹⁰The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹²Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. ¹³Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

The Wages of Sin

¹⁵What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not! ¹⁶Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks be to God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed. ¹⁸You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

¹⁹I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.

²⁰For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to righteousness. ²¹What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death. ²²But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Submission to Authorities

¹Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which is from God. The authorities that exist have been appointed by God. ²Consequently, whoever resists authority is opposing what God has set in place, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

³For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Then do what is right, and you will have his approval. ⁴For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not carry the sword in vain. He is God’s servant, an agent of retribution to the wrongdoer.

⁵Therefore it is necessary to submit to authority, not only to avoid punishment, but also as a matter of conscience. ⁶This is also why you pay taxes. For the authorities are God’s servants, who devote themselves to their work. ⁷Pay everyone what you owe him: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

Love Fulfills the Law

⁸Be indebted to no one, except to one another in love. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. ⁹The commandments “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and any other commandments, are summed up in this one decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰Love does no wrong to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

The Day Is Near

¹¹And do this, understanding the occasion. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. ¹²The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. ¹³Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. ¹⁴Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

The Law of Liberty

¹Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on his opinions. ²For one person has faith to eat all things, while another, who is weak, eats only vegetables. ³The one who eats everything must not belittle the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted him. ⁴Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

⁵One person regards a certain day above the others, while someone else considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ⁶He who observes a special day does so to the Lord; he who eats does so to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.

⁷For none of us lives to himself alone, and none of us dies to himself alone. ⁸If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. ⁹For this reason Christ died and returned to life, that He might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

¹⁰Why, then, do you judge your brother? Or why do you belittle your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. ¹¹It is written:

“As surely as I live,

says the Lord,

every knee will bow before Me;

every tongue will confess to God.”

¹²So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

The Law of Love

¹³Therefore let us stop judging one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.

¹⁴I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. ¹⁵If your brother is distressed by what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother, for whom Christ died.

¹⁶Do not allow what you consider good, then, to be spoken of as evil. ¹⁷For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸For whoever serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

¹⁹So then, let us pursue what leads to peace and to mutual edification. ²⁰Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to let his eating be a stumbling block. ²¹It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything to cause your brother to stumble.

²²Keep your belief about such matters between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. ²³But the one who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that is not from faith is sin.