Today's Reading

¹Then Solomon said, "The Lord has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

²But I have built you a house of habitation, and a place for you to dwell in forever."

³The king turned his face, and blessed all the assembly of Israel: and all the assembly of Israel stood.

⁴He said, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David my father, and has with his hands fulfilled it, saying,

⁵'Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house in, that my name might be there; nor did I choose any man to be the leader over my people Israel:

⁶but I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel.'

⁷Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁸But the Lord said to David my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart:

⁹nevertheless you shall not build the house; but your son who shall come forth out of your body, he shall build the house for my name.'

¹⁰"The Lord has performed his word that he spoke; for I have risen up in the place of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹¹There I have set the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord, which he made with the children of Israel."

¹²He stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands

¹³(for Solomon had made a bronze scaffold, five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and on it he stood, and kneeled down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven;)

¹⁴and he said, "Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven, or on earth; you who keep covenant and loving kindness with your servants, who walk before you with all their heart;

¹⁵who have kept with your servant David my father that which you promised him: yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is this day.

¹⁶"Now therefore, Lord, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him, saying, 'There shall not fail you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.'

¹⁷Now therefore, Lord, the God of Israel, let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant David.

¹⁸"But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven can't contain you; how much less this house which I have built!

¹⁹Yet have respect for the prayer of your servant, and to his supplication, Lord my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you;

²⁰that your eyes may be open toward this house day and night, even toward the place where you have said that you would put your name; to listen to the prayer which your servant shall pray toward this place.

²¹Listen to the petitions of your servant, and of your people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: yes, hear from your dwelling place, even from heaven; and when you hear, forgive.

²²"If a man sin against his neighbor, and an oath is laid on him to cause him to swear, and he comes and swears before your altar in this house;

²³then hear from heaven, and do, and judge your servants, bringing retribution to the wicked, to bring his way on his own head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.

²⁴"If your people Israel be struck down before the enemy, because they have sinned against you, and shall turn again and confess your name, and pray and make supplication before you in this house;

²⁵then hear from heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers.

²⁶"When the sky is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you; if they pray toward this place, and confess your name, and turn from their sin, when you afflict them:

²⁷then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.

²⁸"If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is;

²⁹whatever prayer and supplication be made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who shall know every man his own plague and his own sorrow, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house:

³⁰then hear from heaven, your dwelling place and forgive, and render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know; (for you, even you only, know the hearts of the children of men;)

³¹that they may fear you, to walk in your ways, so long as they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.

³²"Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he shall come from a far country for your great name's sake, and your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm; when they shall come and pray toward this house:

³³then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, and fear you, as does your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.

³⁴"If your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to you toward this city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name;

³⁵then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

³⁶"If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn't sin), and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to a land far off or near;

³⁷yet if they shall repent themselves in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly;'

³⁸if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have carried them captive, and pray toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, and the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name:

³⁹then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling place, their prayer and their petitions, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.

⁴⁰"Now, my God, let, I beg you, your eyes be open, and let your ears be attentive, to the prayer that is made in this place.

⁴¹"Now therefore arise, Lord God, into your resting place, you, and the ark of your strength: let your priests, Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in what is good.

⁴²"Lord God, do not turn away the face of your anointed. Remember your loving kindnesses to David your servant."

¹Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house.

²The priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house.

³All the children of Israel looked on, when the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord was on the house; and they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshiped, and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, "For he is good; for his loving kindness endures for ever."

⁴Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord.

⁵King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand head of cattle, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated God's house.

⁶The priests stood, according to their positions; the Levites also with instruments of music of the Lord, which David the king had made to give thanks to the Lord, when David praised by their ministry, saying "For his loving kindness endures for ever." The priests sounded trumpets before them; and all Israel stood.

⁷Moreover Solomon made the middle of the court holy that was before the house of the Lord; for there he offered the burnt offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offering, and the meal offering, and the fat.

⁸So Solomon held the feast at that time seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt.

⁹On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly: for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days.

¹⁰On the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that the Lord had shown to David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.

¹¹Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord, and the king's house: and he successfully completed all that came into Solomon's heart to make in the house of the Lord, and in his own house.

¹²The Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him, "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice.

¹³"If I shut up the sky so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;

¹⁴if my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

¹⁵Now my eyes shall be open, and my ears attentive, to the prayer that is made in this place.

¹⁶For now have I chosen and made this house holy, that my name may be there forever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.

¹⁷"As for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances;

¹⁸then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, according as I covenanted with David your father, saying, 'There shall not fail you a man to be ruler in Israel.'

¹⁹But if you turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;

²⁰then I will pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

²¹This house, which is so high, everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall say, 'Why has the Lord done thus to this land, and to this house?'

²²They shall answer, 'Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and took other gods, worshiped them, and served them. Therefore he has brought all these disasters on them.'"

¹It happened at the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the house of the Lord, and his own house,

²that the cities which Huram had given to Solomon, Solomon built them, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there.

³Solomon went to Hamath Zobah, and prevailed against it.

⁴He built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the storage cities, which he built in Hamath.

⁵Also he built Beth Horon the upper, and Beth Horon the lower, fortified cities, with walls, gates, and bars;

⁶and Baalath, and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

⁷As for all the people who were left of the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel;

⁸of their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel did not consume, of them Solomon conscripted forced labor to this day.

⁹But of the children of Israel, Solomon made no servants for his work; but they were men of war, and chief of his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen.

¹⁰These were the chief officers of king Solomon, even two-hundred fifty, who ruled over the people.

¹¹Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David to the house that he had built for her; for he said, "My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places where the ark of the Lord has come are holy."

¹²Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord, which he had built before the porch,

¹³even as the duty of every day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the Sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the set feasts, three times in the year, in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tents.

¹⁴He appointed, according to the ordinance of David his father, the divisions of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their offices, to praise, and to minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required; the doorkeepers also by their divisions at every gate: for so had David the man of God commanded.

¹⁵They did not depart from the commandment of the king to the priests and Levites concerning any matter, or concerning the treasures.

¹⁶Now all the work of Solomon was prepared to the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord, and until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was completed.

¹⁷Then went Solomon to Ezion Geber, and to Eloth, on the seashore in the land of Edom.

¹⁸Huram sent him ships and servants who had knowledge of the sea by the hands of his servants; and they came with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and fetched from there four hundred fifty talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon.

¹There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

²For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made you free from the law of sin and of death.

³For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;

⁴that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

⁵For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

⁶For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace;

⁷because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can it be.

⁸Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.

¹⁰If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

¹¹But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

¹²So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

¹³For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.

¹⁵For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"

¹⁶The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God;

¹⁷and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.

¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us.

¹⁹For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

²⁰For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope

²¹that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

²²For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.

²³Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.

²⁴For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees?

²⁵But if we hope for that which we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

²⁶In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we do not know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

²⁷He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit's mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.

²⁸We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

²⁹For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

³⁰Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.

³¹What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

³²He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?

³³Who could bring a charge against God's chosen ones? It is God who justifies.

³⁴Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

³⁶Even as it is written, "For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter."

³⁷No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

³⁸For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹ Those who trust in the Lord are as Mount Zion, which can't be moved, but remains forever.

²As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people from this time forth and forevermore.

³For the scepter of wickedness won't remain over the allotment of the righteous; so that the righteous won't use their hands to do evil.

⁴Do good, Lord, to those who are good, to those who are upright in their hearts.

⁵But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways, The Lord will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be on Israel.

¹The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel:

²to know wisdom and instruction; to discern the words of understanding;

³to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity;

⁴to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young man:

⁵that the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; that the man of understanding may attain to sound counsel:

⁶to understand a proverb, and parables, the words and riddles of the wise.

⁷The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.

⁸My son, listen to your father's instruction, and do not forsake your mother's teaching:

⁹for they will be a garland to grace your head, and chains around your neck.

¹⁰My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.

¹¹If they say, "Come with us, Let's lie in wait for blood; let's lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;

¹²let's swallow them up alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down into the pit.

¹³We'll find all valuable wealth. We'll fill our houses with spoil.

¹⁴You shall cast your lot among us. We'll all have one purse."

¹⁵My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your foot from their path,

¹⁶for their feet run to evil. They hurry to shed blood.

¹⁷For in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird:

¹⁸but these lie in wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives.

¹⁹So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners.

²⁰Wisdom calls aloud in the street. She utters her voice in the public squares.

²¹She calls at the head of noisy places. At the entrance of the city gates, she utters her words:

²²"How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge?

²³Turn at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make known my words to you.

²⁴Because I have called, and you have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one has paid attention;

²⁵but you have ignored all my counsel, and wanted none of my reproof;

²⁶I also will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you;

²⁷when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when your disaster comes on like a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come on you.

²⁸Then will they call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me;

²⁹because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord.

³⁰They wanted none of my counsel. They despised all my reproof.

³¹Therefore they will eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own schemes.

³²For the backsliding of the simple will kill them. The careless ease of fools will destroy them.

³³But whoever listens to me will dwell securely, and will be at ease, without fear of harm."