Day 104 of 364

^3:1Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into David’s city until he had finished building his own house, the LORD’s house, and the wall around Jerusalem. ^3:2However, the people sacrificed in the high places, because there was not yet a house built for the LORD’s name. ^3:3Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father, except that he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. ^3:4The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. ^3:5In Gibeon, the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask for what I should give you.” ^3:6Solomon said, “You have shown to your servant David my father great loving kindness, because he walked before you in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you. You have kept for him this great loving kindness, that you have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is today. ^3:7Now, LORD my God, you have made your servant king instead of David my father. I am just a little child. I don’t know how to go out or come in. ^3:8Your servant is among your people which you have chosen, a great people, that can’t be numbered or counted for multitude. ^3:9Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this great people of yours?” ^3:10This request pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. ^3:11God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have you asked for riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, ^3:12behold, I have done according to your word. Behold, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, and after you none will arise like you. ^3:13I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you for all your days. ^3:14If you will walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” ^3:15Solomon awoke; and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the LORD’s covenant, and offered up burnt offerings, offered peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants. ^3:16Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king, and stood before him. ^3:17The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house. I delivered a child with her in the house. ^3:18The third day after I delivered, this woman delivered also. We were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, just us two in the house. ^3:19This woman’s child died in the night, because she lay on it. ^3:20She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me while your servant slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. ^3:21When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead; but when I had looked at him in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I bore.” ^3:22The other woman said, “No! But the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” The first one said, “No! But the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.” They argued like this before the king. ^3:23Then the king said, “One says, ‘This is my son who lives, and your son is the dead one;’ and the other says, ‘No! But your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’” ^3:24The king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king. ^3:25The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.” ^3:26Then the woman whose the living child was spoke to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill him!” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide him.” ^3:27Then the king answered, “Give the first woman the living child, and definitely do not kill him. She is his mother.” ^3:28All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. ^4:1King Solomon was king over all Israel. ^4:2These were the princes whom he had: Azariah the son of Zadok, the priest; ^4:3Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder; ^4:4Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; ^4:5Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers; Zabud the son of Nathan was chief minister, the king’s friend; ^4:6Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to forced labor. ^4:7Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household. Each man had to make provision for a month in the year. ^4:8These are their names: Ben Hur, in the hill country of Ephraim; ^4:9Ben Deker, in Makaz, in Shaalbim, Beth Shemesh, and Elon Beth Hanan; ^4:10Ben Hesed, in Arubboth (Socoh and all the land of Hepher belonged to him); ^4:11Ben Abinadab, in all the height of Dor (he had Taphath, Solomon’s daughter, as wife); ^4:12Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth Shean which is beside Zarethan, beneath Jezreel, from Beth Shean to Abel Meholah, as far as beyond Jokmeam; ^4:13Ben Geber, in Ramoth Gilead (the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, belonged to him; and the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars, belonged to him); ^4:14Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; ^4:15Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also took Basemath the daughter of Solomon as wife); ^4:16Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth; ^4:17Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar; ^4:18Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin; ^4:19Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; and he was the only officer who was in the land. ^4:20Judah and Israel were numerous as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry. ^4:21Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life. ^4:22Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cors of fine flour, sixty measures of meal, ^4:23ten head of fat cattle, twenty head of cattle out of the pastures, and one hundred sheep, in addition to deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl. ^4:24For he had dominion over all on this side of the River, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings on this side of the River; and he had peace on all sides around him. ^4:25Judah and Israel lived safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. ^4:26Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. ^4:27Those officers provided food for King Solomon, and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, every man in his month. They let nothing be lacking. ^4:28They also brought barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds to the place where the officers were, each man according to his duty. ^4:29God gave Solomon abundant wisdom, understanding, and breadth of mind like the sand that is on the seashore. ^4:30Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. ^4:31For he was wiser than all men—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the nations all around. ^4:32He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered one thousand five. ^4:33He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he also spoke of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. ^4:34People of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, sent by all kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.