April 16
1 Kings 10 - 11 (New International Version)
1 Kings 10
The Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon
1 When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon
and his relation to the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard
questions. 2 Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great
caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious
stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her
mind. 3 Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was
too hard for the king to explain to her. 4 When the queen
of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built,
5 the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the
attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings
he made at the temple of the LORD, she was overwhelmed.
6 She said to the king, "The report I
heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true.
7 But I did not believe these things until I came and saw
with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth
you have far exceeded the report I heard. 8 How happy your
men must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and
hear your wisdom! 9 Praise be to the LORD your God, who
has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the
LORD's eternal love for Israel, he has made you king, to maintain justice
and righteousness."
10 And she gave the king 120 talents of gold, large
quantities of spices, and precious stones. Never again were so many spices
brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
11 (Hiram's ships brought gold from Ophir; and from there
they brought great cargoes of almugwood and precious stones. 12
The king used the almugwood to make supports for the temple of the LORD and
for the royal palace, and to make harps and lyres for the musicians. So much
almugwood has never been imported or seen since that day.)
13 King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired
and asked for, besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty. Then
she left and returned with her retinue to her own country.
Solomon's Splendor
14 The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was
666 talents, 15 not including the revenues from merchants
and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the land.
16 King Solomon made two hundred large
shields of hammered gold; six hundred bekas of gold went into each shield.
17 He also made three hundred small shields of hammered
gold, with three minas of gold in each shield. The king put them in the
Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.
18 Then the king made a great throne inlaid with ivory and
overlaid with fine gold. 19 The throne had six steps, and
its back had a rounded top. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with a
lion standing beside each of them. 20 Twelve lions stood
on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like it had ever
been made for any other kingdom. 21 All King Solomon's
goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace of the
Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Nothing was made of silver, because silver
was considered of little value in Solomon's days. 22 The
king had a fleet of trading ships at sea along with the ships of Hiram. Once
every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and
baboons.
23 King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all
the other kings of the earth. 24 The whole world sought
audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart.
25 Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift—articles of
silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules.
26 Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had
fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the
chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. 27 The king
made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as
sycamore-fig trees in the foothills. 28 Solomon's horses
were imported from Egypt and from Kue—the royal merchants purchased them
from Kue. 29 They imported a chariot from Egypt for six
hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. They also
exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and of the Arameans.
1 Kings 11
Solomon's Wives
1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides
Pharaoh's daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.
2 They were from nations about which the LORD had told the
Israelites, "You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely
turn your hearts after their gods." Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them
in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and
three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 4
As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his
heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his
father had been. 5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of
the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6
So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD
completely, as David his father had done.
7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place
for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of
the Ammonites. 8 He did the same for all his foreign
wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.
9 The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had
turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.
10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods,
Solomon did not keep the LORD's command. 11 So the LORD
said to Solomon, "Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my
covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear
the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates.
12 Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do
it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will
give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of
Jerusalem, which I have chosen."
Solomon's Adversaries
14 Then the LORD raised up against Solomon an adversary,
Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom. 15 Earlier
when David was fighting with Edom, Joab the commander of the army, who had
gone up to bury the dead, had struck down all the men in Edom. 16
Joab and all the Israelites stayed there for six months, until they had
destroyed all the men in Edom. 17 But Hadad, still only a
boy, fled to Egypt with some Edomite officials who had served his father.
18 They set out from Midian and went to Paran. Then taking
men from Paran with them, they went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who
gave Hadad a house and land and provided him with food.
19 Pharaoh was so pleased with Hadad that he gave him a
sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes, in marriage. 20
The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son named Genubath, whom Tahpenes brought
up in the royal palace. There Genubath lived with Pharaoh's own children.
21 While he was in Egypt, Hadad heard that David rested
with his fathers and that Joab the commander of the army was also dead. Then
Hadad said to Pharaoh, "Let me go, that I may return to my own country."
22 "What have you lacked here that you want to go back to
your own country?" Pharaoh asked.
"Nothing," Hadad replied, "but do let me go!"
23 And God raised up against Solomon another adversary,
Rezon son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah.
24 He gathered men around him and became the leader of a
band of rebels when David destroyed the forces of Zobah ; the rebels went to
Damascus, where they settled and took control. 25 Rezon
was Israel's adversary as long as Solomon lived, adding to the trouble
caused by Hadad. So Rezon ruled in Aram and was hostile toward Israel.
Jeroboam Rebels Against Solomon
26 Also, Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against the king.
He was one of Solomon's officials, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, and his
mother was a widow named Zeruah.
27 Here is the account of how he
rebelled against the king: Solomon had built the supporting terraces and had
filled in the gap in the wall of the city of David his father. 28
Now Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw how well the young
man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the house
of Joseph.
29 About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem,
and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak.
The two of them were alone out in the country, 30 and
Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve
pieces. 31 Then he said to Jeroboam, "Take ten pieces for
yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'See, I am
going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon's hand and give you ten tribes.
32 But for the sake of my servant David and the city of
Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have
one tribe. 33 I will do this because they have forsaken me
and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the
Moabites, and Molech the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in my
ways, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my statutes and laws as
David, Solomon's father, did.
34 " 'But I will not take the whole kingdom out of
Solomon's hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake
of David my servant, whom I chose and who observed my commands and statutes.
35 I will take the kingdom from his son's hands and give
you ten tribes. 36 I will give one tribe to his son so
that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the
city where I chose to put my Name. 37 However, as for you,
I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you
will be king over Israel. 38 If you do whatever I command
you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my
statutes and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will
build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give
Israel to you. 39 I will humble David's descendants
because of this, but not forever.' "
40 Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to
Egypt, to Shishak the king, and stayed there until Solomon's death.
Solomon's Death
41 As for the other events of Solomon's reign—all he did
and the wisdom he displayed—are they not written in the book of the annals
of Solomon? 42 Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all
Israel forty years. 43 Then he rested with his fathers and
was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son succeeded
him as king.