Solomon's Prayer for Wisdom

3 ^(A)Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into ^(B)the city of David until he had finished ^(C)building his own house ^(D)and the house of the Lord ^(E)and the wall around Jerusalem. ^2 (F)The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the Lord.

³ Solomon ^(G)loved the Lord, ^(H)walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places. ⁴ And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, ^(I)for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. ^5 (J)At Gibeon ^(K)the Lord appeared to Solomon ^(L)in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” ⁶ And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because ^(M)he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and ^(N)have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. ⁷ And now, O Lord my God, ^(O)you have made your servant king in place of David my father, ^(P)although I am but a little child. I do not know ^(Q)how to go out or come in. ^8 (R)And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, ^(S)too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. ^9 (T)Give your servant therefore an understanding mind ^(U)to govern your people, that I may ^(V)discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”

¹⁰ It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. ¹¹ And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, ¹² behold, ^(W)I now do according to your word. Behold, ^(X)I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. ^13 (Y)I give you also what you have not asked, ^(Z)both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. ¹⁴ And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, ^(AA)as your father David walked, then ^(AB)I will lengthen your days.”

¹⁵ And Solomon ^(AC)awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.

Solomon's Wisdom

¹⁶ Then two prostitutes came to the king ^(AD)and stood before him. ¹⁷ The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. ¹⁸ Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. And we were alone. There was no one else with us in the house; only we two were in the house. ¹⁹ And this woman's son died in the night, because she lay on him. ²⁰ And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while your servant slept, and laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast. ²¹ When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning, behold, he was not the child that I had borne.” ²² But the other woman said, “No, the living child is mine, and the dead child is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine.” Thus they spoke before the king.

²³ Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; and the other says, ‘No; but your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’” ²⁴ And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought before the king. ²⁵ And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” ²⁶ Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because ^(AE)her heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.” ²⁷ Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.” ²⁸ And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that ^(AF)the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.

Solomon's Officials

4 King Solomon was king over all Israel, ² and these were his high officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was ^(AG)the priest; ³ Elihoreph and Ahijah the sons of Shisha were secretaries; ^(AH)Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder; ^4 (AI)Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was in command of the army; ^(AJ)Zadok and Abiathar were priests; ⁵ Azariah the son of Nathan was over ^(AK)the officers; Zabud the son of Nathan was priest and ^(AL)king's friend; ⁶ Ahishar was in charge of the palace; and ^(AM)Adoniram the son of Abda was in charge of ^(AN)the forced labor.

⁷ Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household. Each man had to make provision for one month in the year. ⁸ These were their names: Ben-hur, in ^(AO)the hill country of Ephraim; ⁹ Ben-deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elonbeth-hanan; ¹⁰ Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (to him belonged Socoh and all the land of Hepher); ¹¹ Ben-abinadab, in all ^(AP)Naphath-dor (he had Taphath the daughter of Solomon as his wife); ¹² Baana the son of Ahilud, in ^(AQ)Taanach, Megiddo, and all ^(AR)Beth-shean that is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, and from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as the other side of Jokmeam; ¹³ Ben-geber, ^(AS)in Ramoth-gilead (he had ^(AT)the villages of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and he had ^(AU)the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars); ¹⁴ Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; ¹⁵ Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he had taken Basemath the daughter of Solomon as his wife); ¹⁶ Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth; ¹⁷ Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar; ^18 (AV)Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin; ¹⁹ Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, ^(AW)the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan. And there was one governor who was over the land.

Solomon's Wealth and Wisdom

²⁰ Judah and Israel were as many ^(AX)as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy. ^{21 [a] (AY)}Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the ^(AZ)Euphrates^[b] to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. ^(BA)They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²² Solomon's provision for one day was thirty cors^[c] of fine flour and sixty cors of meal, ²³ ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl. ²⁴ For he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates^[d] from Tiphsah to ^(BB)Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates. ^(BC)And he had peace on all sides around him. ²⁵ And Judah and Israel ^(BD)lived in safety, ^(BE)from Dan even to Beersheba, ^(BF)every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon. ^26 (BG)Solomon also had 40,000^[e] stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen. ²⁷ And those officers supplied provisions for King Solomon, and for all who came to King Solomon's table, each one in his month. They let nothing be lacking. ²⁸ Barley also and straw for the horses and ^(BH)swift steeds they brought to the place where it was required, each according to his duty.

^29 (BI)And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind ^(BJ)like the sand on the seashore, ³⁰ so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all ^(BK)the people of the east ^(BL)and all the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹ For he was ^(BM)wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. ^32 (BN)He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, ^(BO)and his songs were 1,005. ³³ He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. ³⁴ And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from ^(BP)all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.

Book Five

Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So

Paul in Corinth

18 After this Paul^[a] left Athens and went to Corinth. ² And he found a Jew named ^(A)Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife ^(B)Priscilla, because ^(C)Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, ³ and ^(D)because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. ⁴ And ^(E)he reasoned in the synagogue ^(F)every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.

^5 (G)When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul ^(H)was occupied with the word, ^(I)testifying to the Jews that the Christ was ^(J)Jesus. ⁶ And when they opposed and reviled him, ^(K)he shook out his garments and said to them, ^(L)“Your blood be on your own heads! ^(M)I am innocent. ^(N)From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” ⁷ And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius ^(O)Justus, ^(P)a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. ^8 (Q)Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together ^(R)with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. ⁹ And the Lord said to Paul ^(S)one night in ^(T)a vision, ^(U)“Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, ^10 (V)for I am with you, and ^(W)no one will attack you to harm you, for ^(X)I have many in this city who are my people.” ¹¹ And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

¹² But when Gallio was ^(Y)proconsul of Achaia, ^(Z)the Jews^[b] made a united attack on Paul and ^(AA)brought him before the tribunal, ¹³ saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to ^(AB)the law.” ¹⁴ But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious ^(AC)crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. ¹⁵ But ^(AD)since it is a matter of questions about words and names and ^(AE)your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.” ¹⁶ And he drove them from the tribunal. ¹⁷ And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.

Paul Returns to Antioch

¹⁸ After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of ^(AF)the brothers^[c] and set sail for Syria, and with him ^(AG)Priscilla and Aquila. At ^(AH)Cenchreae ^(AI)he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. ¹⁹ And they came to ^(AJ)Ephesus, and he left them there, but ^(AK)he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. ²⁰ When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. ²¹ But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you ^(AL)if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus.

²² When he had landed at Caesarea, he ^(AM)went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. ²³ After spending some time there, he departed and ^(AN)went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, ^(AO)strengthening all the disciples.

Apollos Speaks Boldly in Ephesus

²⁴ Now a Jew named ^(AP)Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, ^(AQ)competent in the Scriptures. ²⁵ He had been instructed in ^(AR)the way of the Lord. And ^(AS)being fervent in spirit,^[d] he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only ^(AT)the baptism of John. ²⁶ He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when ^(AU)Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him ^(AV)the way of God more accurately. ²⁷ And when he wished to cross to ^(AW)Achaia, ^(AX)the brothers encouraged him and ^(AY)wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, ^(AZ)he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, ²⁸ for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures ^(BA)that the Christ was Jesus.