The One Year Bible TLB (126 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
Those who trust in the Lord are steady as Mount Zion, unmoved by any circumstance.
2
Just as the mountains surround and protect Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds and protects his people.
3
For the wicked shall not rule the godly, lest the godly be forced to do wrong.
4
O Lord, do good to those who are good, whose hearts are right with the Lord;
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but lead evil men to execution. And let Israel have quietness and peace.
Before every man there lies a wide and pleasant road he thinks is right, but it ends in death.
June 8(Solomon loved the Lord and followed all of his father David’s instructions except that he continued to sacrifice in the hills and to offer incense there.)
4
The most famous of the hilltop altars was at Gibeon, and now the king went there and sacrificed one thousand burnt offerings!
5
The Lord appeared to him in a dream that night and told him to ask for anything he wanted, and it would be given to him!
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Solomon replied, “You were wonderfully kind to my father David because he was honest and true and faithful to you, and obeyed your commands. And you have continued your kindness to him by giving him a son to succeed him.
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O Lord my God, now you have made me the king instead of my father David, but I am as a little child who doesn’t know his way around.
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And here I am among your own chosen people, a nation so great that there are almost too many people to count!
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Give me an understanding mind so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. For who by himself is able to carry such a heavy responsibility?”
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The Lord was pleased with his reply and was glad that Solomon had asked for wisdom.
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So he replied, “Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people and haven’t asked for a long life, or riches for yourself, or the defeat of your enemies—
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yes, I’ll give you what you asked for! I will give you a wiser mind than anyone else has ever had or ever will have!
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And I will also give you what you didn’t ask for—riches and honor! And no one in all the world will be as rich and famous as you for the rest of your life!
14
And I will give you a long life if you follow me and obey my laws as your father David did.”
15
Then Solomon woke up and realized it had been a dream. He returned to Jerusalem and went into the Tabernacle. And as he stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, he sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then he invited all of his officials to a great banquet.
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Soon afterwards two young prostitutes came to the king to have an argument settled.
17-18
“Sir,” one of them began, “we live in the same house, just the two of us, and recently I had a baby. When it was three days old, this woman’s baby was born too.
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But her baby died during the night when she rolled over on it in her sleep and smothered it.
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Then she got up in the night and took my son from beside me while I was asleep, and laid her dead child in my arms and took mine to sleep beside her.
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And in the morning when I tried to feed my baby it was dead! But when it became light outside, I saw that it wasn’t my son at all.”
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Then the other woman interrupted, “It certainly was her son, and the living child is mine.”
“No,” the first woman said, “the dead one is yours and the living one is mine.” And so they argued back and forth before the king.
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Then the king said, “Let’s get the facts straight: both of you claim the living child, and each says that the dead child belongs to the other.
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All right, bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought to the king.
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Then he said, “Divide the living child in two and give half to each of these women!”
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Then the woman who really was the mother of the child, and who loved him very much, cried out, “Oh no, sir! Give her the child—don’t kill him!”
But the other woman said, “All right, it will be neither yours nor mine; divide it between us!”
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Then the king said, “Give the baby to the woman who wants him to live, for she is the mother!”
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Word of the king’s decision spread quickly throughout the entire nation, and all the people were awed as they realized the great wisdom God had given him.
4:
1-6
Here is a list of King Solomon’s cabinet members:
Azariah (son of Zadok) was the High Priest;
Elihoreph and Ahijah (sons of Shisha) were secretaries;
Jehoshaphat (son of Ahilud) was the official historian and in charge of the archives;
Benaiah (son of Jehoiada) was commander-in-chief of the army;
Zadok and Abiathar were priests;
Azariah (son of Nathan) was secretary of state;
Zabud (son of Nathan) was the king’s personal priest and special friend;
Ahishar was manager of palace affairs;
Adoniram (son of Abda) was superintendent of public works.
7
There were also twelve officials of Solomon’s court—one man from each tribe—responsible for requisitioning food from the people for the king’s household. Each of them arranged provisions for one month of the year.
8-19
The names of these twelve officers were:
Ben-hur, whose area for this taxation was the hill country of Ephraim;
Ben-deker, whose area was Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan;
Ben-hesed, whose area was Arubboth, including Socoh and all the land of Hepher;
Ben-abinadab (who married Solomon’s daughter, the princess Taphath), whose area was the highlands of Dor;
Baana (son of Ahilud), whose area was Taanach and Megiddo, all of Beth-shean near Zarethan below Jezreel, and all the territory from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah and over to Jokmeam;
Ben-geber, whose area was Ramoth-gilead, including the villages of Jair (the son of Manasseh) in Gilead; and the region of Argob in Bashan, including sixty walled cities with bronze gates;
Ahinadab (the son of Iddo), whose area was Mahanaim;
Ahimaaz (who married Princess Basemath, another of Solomon’s daughters), whose area was Naphtali;
Baana (son of Hushai), whose areas were Asher and Bealoth;
Jehoshaphat (son of Paruah), whose area was Issachar;
Shimei (son of Ela), whose area was Benjamin;
Geber (son of Uri), whose area was Gilead, including the territories of King Sihon of the Amorites and King Og of Bashan.
A general manager supervised these officials and their work.
20
Israel and Judah were a wealthy, populous, contented nation at this time.
21
King Solomon ruled the whole area from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and down to the borders of Egypt. The conquered peoples of those lands sent taxes to Solomon and continued to serve him throughout his lifetime.
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The daily food requirements for the palace were 195 bushels of fine flour, 390 bushels of meal,
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10 oxen from the fattening pens, 20 pasture-fed cattle, 100 sheep, and, from time to time, deer, gazelles, roebucks, and plump fowl.
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His dominion extended over all the kingdoms west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah to Gaza. And there was peace throughout the land.
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Throughout the lifetime of Solomon, all of Judah and Israel lived in peace and safety; and each family had its own home and garden.
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Solomon owned forty thousand chariot horses and employed twelve thousand charioteers.
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Each month the tax officials provided food for King Solomon and his court,
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also the barley and straw for the royal horses in the stables.
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God gave Solomon great wisdom and understanding, and a mind with broad interests.
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In fact, his wisdom excelled that of any of the wise men of the East, including those in Egypt.
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He was wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and he was famous among all the surrounding nations.
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He was the author of 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs.
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He was a great naturalist, with interest in animals, birds, snakes, fish, and trees—from the great cedars of Lebanon down to the tiny hyssop which grows in cracks in the wall.
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And kings from many lands sent their ambassadors to him for his advice.
But with the believers multiplying rapidly, there were rumblings of discontent. Those who spoke only Greek complained that their widows were being discriminated against, that they were not being given as much food in the daily distribution as the widows who spoke Hebrew.
2
So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers.
“We should spend our time preaching, not administering a feeding program,” they said.
3
“Now look around among yourselves, dear brothers, and select seven men, wise and full of the Holy Spirit, who are well thought of by everyone; and we will put them in charge of this business.
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Then we can spend our time in prayer, preaching, and teaching.”
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This sounded reasonable to the whole assembly, and they elected the following: Stephen (a man unusually full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicolaus of Antioch (a Gentile convert to the Jewish faith, who had become a Christian).
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These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them and laid their hands on them in blessing.
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God’s message was preached in ever-widening circles, and the number of disciples increased vastly in Jerusalem; and many of the Jewish priests were converted too.
8
Stephen, the man so full of faith and the Holy Spirit’s power,
*
did spectacular miracles among the people.
9
But one day some of the men from the Jewish cult of “The Freedmen” started an argument with him, and they were soon joined by Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria in Egypt, and the Turkish provinces of Cilicia, and Asia Minor.
10
But none of them was able to stand against Stephen’s wisdom and spirit.
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So they brought in some men to lie about him, claiming they had heard Stephen curse Moses, and even God.
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This accusation roused the crowds to fury against Stephen, and the Jewish leaders
*
arrested him and brought him before the Council.
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The lying witnesses testified again that Stephen was constantly speaking against the Temple and against the laws of Moses.
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They declared, “We have heard him say that this fellow Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the Temple and throw out all of Moses’ laws.”
15
At this point everyone in the Council chamber saw Stephen’s face become as radiant as an angel’s!
When Jehovah brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream!
2
How we laughed and sang for joy. And the other nations said, “What amazing things the Lord has done for them.”
3
Yes, glorious things! What wonder! What joy!
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May we be refreshed
*
as by streams in the desert.
5
Those who sow tears shall reap joy.
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Yes, they go out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, and return singing, carrying their sheaves.
Hunger is good—if it makes you work to satisfy it!
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Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece.
*
June 9King Hiram of Tyre had always been a great admirer of David, so when he learned that David’s son Solomon was the new king of Israel, he sent ambassadors to extend congratulations and good wishes.
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Solomon replied with a proposal about the Temple of the Lord he wanted to build. His father David, Solomon pointed out to Hiram, had not been able to build it because of the numerous wars going on, and he had been waiting for the Lord to give him peace.
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“But now,” Solomon said to Hiram, “the Lord my God has given Israel peace on every side; I have no foreign enemies or internal rebellions.
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So I am planning to build a Temple for the Lord my God, just as he instructed my father that I should do. For the Lord told him, ‘Your son, whom I will place upon your throne, shall build me a Temple.’
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Now please assist me with this project. Send your woodsmen to the mountains of Lebanon to cut cedar timber for me, and I will send my men to work beside them, and I will pay your men whatever wages you ask; for as you know, no one in Israel can cut timber like you Sidonians!”
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Hiram was very pleased with the message from Solomon. “Praise God for giving David a wise son to be king of the great nation of Israel,” he said.
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Then he sent this reply to Solomon: “I have received your message and I will do as you have asked concerning the timber. I can supply both cedar and cypress.
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My men will bring the logs from the Lebanon mountains to the Mediterranean Sea and build them into rafts. We will float them along the coast to wherever you need them; then we will break the rafts apart and deliver the timber to you. You can pay me with food for my household.”
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So Hiram produced for Solomon as much cedar and cypress timber as he desired,
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and in return Solomon sent him an annual payment of 125,000 bushels of wheat for his household and 96 gallons of pure olive oil.
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So the Lord gave great wisdom to Solomon just as he had promised. And Hiram and Solomon made a formal alliance of peace.
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Then Solomon drafted thirty thousand laborers from all over Israel,
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and rotated them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month, so that each man was a month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was the general superintendent of this labor camp.
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Solomon also had seventy thousand additional laborers, eighty thousand stonecutters in the hill country,
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and thirty-three hundred foremen.
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The stonecutters quarried and shaped huge blocks of stone—a very expensive job—for the foundation of the Temple.
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Men from Gebal helped Solomon’s and Hiram’s builders in cutting the timber and making the boards, and in preparing the stone for the Temple.
6:
1
It was in the spring of the fourth year of Solomon’s reign that he began the actual construction of the Temple. (This was 480 years after the people of Israel left their slavery in Egypt.)
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The Temple was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty-five feet high.
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All along the front of the Temple was a porch thirty feet long and fifteen feet deep.
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Narrow windows were used throughout.
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An annex of rooms was built along the full length of both sides of the Temple against the outer walls.
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These rooms were three stories high, the lower floor being 7
1
/
2
feet wide, the second floor 9 feet wide, and the upper floor 10
1
/
2
feet wide. The rooms were connected to the walls of the Temple by beams resting on blocks built out from the wall—so the beams were not inserted into the walls themselves.
7
The stones used in the construction of the Temple were prefinished at the quarry, so the entire structure was built without the sound of hammer, ax, or any other tool at the building site.
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The bottom floor of the side rooms was entered from the right side of the Temple, and there were winding stairs going up to the second floor; another flight of stairs led from the second to the third.
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After completing the Temple, Solomon paneled it all, including the beams and pillars, with cedar.
10
As already stated, there was an annex on each side of the building, attached to the Temple walls by cedar timbers. Each story of the annex was 7
1
/
2
feet high.
11-12
Then the Lord sent this message to Solomon concerning the Temple he was building: “If you do as I tell you to and follow all of my commandments and instructions, I will do what I told your father David I would do:
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I will live among the people of Israel and never forsake them.”
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At last the Temple was finished.
15
The entire inside, from floor to ceiling, was paneled with cedar, and the floors were made of cypress boards.
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The thirty-foot inner room at the far end of the Temple—the Most Holy Place—was also paneled from the floor to the ceiling with cedar boards.
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The remainder of the Temple—other than the Most Holy Place—was sixty feet long.
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Throughout the Temple the cedar paneling laid over the stone walls was carved with designs of rosebuds and open flowers.
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The inner room was where the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord was placed.
20
This inner sanctuary was thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and thirty feet high. Its walls and ceiling were overlaid with pure gold, and Solomon made a cedar-wood altar for this room.
21-22
Then he overlaid the interior of the remainder of the Temple—including the cedar altar—with pure gold; and he made gold chains to protect the entrance to the Most Holy Place.
23-28
Within the inner sanctuary Solomon placed two statues of Guardian Angels
*
made from olive wood, each fifteen feet high. They were placed so that their outspread wings reached from wall to wall, while their inner wings touched each other at the center of the room; each wing was 7
1
/
2
feet long, so each Angel measured fifteen feet from wing tip to wing tip. The two Angels were identical in all dimensions, and each was overlaid with gold.
29
Figures of Guardian Angels, palm trees, and open flowers were carved on all the walls of both rooms of the Temple,
30
and the floor of both rooms was overlaid with gold.
31
The doorway to the inner sanctuary was a five-sided opening,
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and its two olive-wood doors were carved with Guardian Angels, palm trees, and open flowers, all overlaid with gold.
33
Then he made square doorposts of olive wood for the entrance to the Temple.
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There were two folding doors of cypress wood, and each door was hinged to fold back upon itself.
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Angels, palm trees, and open flowers were carved on these doors and carefully overlaid with gold.
36
The wall of the inner court had three layers of hewn stone and one layer of cedar beams.
37
The foundation of the Temple was laid in the month of May in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign,
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and the entire building was completed in every detail in November of the eleventh year of his reign. So it took seven years to build.
Then the High Priest asked him, “Are these accusations true?”
2
This was Stephen’s lengthy reply: “The glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Iraq
*
before he moved to Syria,
3
and told him to leave his native land, to say good-bye to his relatives and to start out for a country that God would direct him to.
4
So he left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran, in Syria, until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land of Israel,
5
but gave him no property of his own, not one little tract of land.
“However, God promised that eventually the whole country would belong to him and his descendants—though as yet he had no children!
6
But God also told him that these descendants of his would leave the land and live in a foreign country and there become slaves for 400 years.
7
‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God told him, ‘and afterwards my people will return to this land of Israel and worship me here.’
8
“God also gave Abraham the ceremony of circumcision at that time, as evidence of the covenant between God and the people of Abraham. And so Isaac, Abraham’s son, was circumcised when he was eight days old. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of the twelve patriarchs of the Jewish nation.
9
These men were very jealous of Joseph and sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him,
10
and delivered him out of all of his anguish, and gave him favor before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. God also gave Joseph unusual wisdom so that Pharaoh appointed him governor over all Egypt, as well as putting him in charge of all the affairs of the palace.
11
“But a famine developed in Egypt and Canaan, and there was great misery for our ancestors. When their food was gone,
12
Jacob heard that there was still grain in Egypt, so he sent his sons
*
to buy some.
13
The second time they went, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, and they were introduced to Pharaoh.
14
Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his brothers’ families to come to Egypt, seventy-five persons in all.
15
So Jacob came to Egypt, where he died, and all his sons.
16
All of them were taken to Shechem and buried in the tomb Abraham bought from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father.
17-18
“As the time drew near when God would fulfill his promise to Abraham to free his descendants from slavery, the Jewish people greatly multiplied in Egypt; but then a king was crowned who had no respect for Joseph’s memory.
19
This king plotted against our race, forcing parents to abandon their children in the fields.
20
“About that time Moses was born—a child of divine beauty. His parents hid him at home for three months,
21
and when at last they could no longer keep him hidden and had to abandon him, Pharaoh’s daughter found him and adopted him as her own son,
22
and taught him all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he became a mighty prince and orator.
23
“One day as he was nearing his fortieth birthday, it came into his mind to visit his brothers, the people of Israel.
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During this visit he saw an Egyptian mistreating a man of Israel. So Moses killed the Egyptian.
25
Moses supposed his brothers would realize that God had sent him to help them, but they didn’t.
26
“The next day he visited them again and saw two men of Israel fighting. He tried to be a peacemaker. ‘Gentlemen,’ he said, ‘you are brothers and shouldn’t be fighting like this! It is wrong!’
27
“But the man in the wrong told Moses to mind his own business. ‘Who made
you
a ruler and judge over us?’ he asked.
28
‘Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’
29
“At this, Moses fled the country and lived in the land of Midian, where his two sons were born.”
Unless the Lord builds a house, the builders’ work is useless. Unless the Lord protects a city, sentries do no good.
2
It is senseless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, fearing you will starve to death; for God wants his loved ones to get their proper rest.
3
Children are a gift from God; they are his reward.
4
Children born to a young man are like sharp arrows to defend him.
5
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. That man shall have the help he needs when arguing with his enemies.
*
An evil man sows strife; gossip separates the best of friends.
29
Wickedness loves company—and leads others into sin.
*
30
The wicked man stares into space with pursed lips, deep in thought, planning his evil deeds.