Solomon’s Rule Consolidated

3 Now ^(A)Solomon ^[a]formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter ^(B)and brought her to the city of David ^(C)until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord, and ^(D)the wall around Jerusalem. ^2 (E)The people were still sacrificing on the high places, because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days.

³ Now ^(F)Solomon loved the Lord, ^(G)walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he was sacrificing and burning incense on the high places. ⁴ And ^(H)the king went to ^(I)Gibeon to sacrifice there, ^(J)because that was the great high place; Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. ^5 (K)In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon ^(L)in a dream at night; and God said, “^(M)Ask what you wish Me to give you.”

Solomon’s Prayer

⁶ Then Solomon said, “^(N)You have shown great faithfulness to Your servant David my father, ^(O)according as he walked before You in ^[b]truth, righteousness, and uprightness of heart toward You; and ^(P)You have ^[c]reserved for him this great faithfulness, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. ⁷ And now, Lord my God, ^(Q)You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet ^(R)I am like a little boy; ^(S)I do not know how to ^[d]go out or come in. ⁸ And ^(T)Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, ^(U)a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted. ⁹ So ^(V)give Your servant ^[e]an understanding heart to judge Your people, ^(W)to discern between good and evil. For who is capable of judging this ^[f]great people of Yours?”

God’s Answer

¹⁰ Now ^[g]it was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. ¹¹ And God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing, and have ^(X)not asked for yourself ^[h]a long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the lives of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice, ¹² behold, ^(Y)I have done according to your words. Behold, ^(Z)I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. ^13 (AA)I have also given you what you have not asked, both ^(AB)riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days. ¹⁴ And ^(AC)if you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will ^(AD)prolong your days.”

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

Solomon Wisely Judges

¹⁶ Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. ¹⁷ The one woman said, “Pardon me, my lord: ^[i]this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child ^[j]while she was in the house. ¹⁸ And it happened on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth to a child, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house. ¹⁹ Then this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him. ²⁰ So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep, and she laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast. ²¹ When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead! But when I examined him closely in the morning, behold, he was not my son, whom I had borne!” ²² Then the other woman said, “No! For the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” But ^[k]the first woman said, “No! For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.” So they spoke before the king.

²³ Then the king said, “^[l]The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one’; and ^[m]the other says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’” ²⁴ And the king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king. ²⁵ And the king said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” ²⁶ But the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for ^[n](AG)she was deeply stirred over her son, and she said, “Pardon me, my lord! Give her the living child, and by no means kill him!” But the other woman was saying, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; cut him!” ²⁷ Then the king replied, “Give ^[o]the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him. She is his mother.” ²⁸ When all Israel heard about the judgment which the king had ^[p]handed down, they feared the king, because ^(AH)they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to ^[q]administer justice.

Instruction for the Church

^20 (A)Brothers and sisters, ^(B)do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil ^(C)be infants, but in your thinking be mature. ²¹ In ^(D)the ^[a]Law it is written: “^(E)By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to Me,” says the Lord. ²² So then, tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but ^(F)prophecy is not for unbelievers, but for those who believe. ²³ Therefore if the whole church gathers together and all the people speak in tongues, and ^[b]outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that ^(G)you are insane? ²⁴ But if all ^(H)prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ^[c]outsider enters, he is ^(I)convicted by all, he is called to account by all; ^25 (J)the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will ^(K)fall on his face and worship God, ^(L)declaring that God is certainly among you.

^26 (M)What is the outcome then, ^(N)brothers and sisters? When you assemble, ^(O)each one has a ^(P)psalm, has a ^(Q)teaching, has a ^(R)revelation, has a ^(S)tongue, has an ^(T)interpretation. ^(U)All things are to be done for edification. ²⁷ If anyone speaks in a ^(V)tongue, it must be by two or at the most three, and each one in turn, and one is to ^(W)interpret; ²⁸ but if there is no interpreter, he is to keep silent in church; and have him speak to himself and to God. ²⁹ Have two or three ^(X)prophets speak, and have the others ^(Y)pass judgment. ³⁰ But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, then the first one is to keep silent. ³¹ For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be ^[d]exhorted; ³² and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; ³³ for God is not a God of ^(Z)confusion, but of peace.

As in ^(AA)all the churches of the ^[e](AB)saints, ³⁴ the women are to ^(AC)keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but ^(AD)are to subject themselves, just as ^(AE)the Law also says. ³⁵ If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is ^[f]improper for a woman to speak in church. ³⁶ Or was it from you that the word of God first went out? Or has it come to you only?

^37 (AF)If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or ^(AG)spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you ^(AH)are the Lord’s commandment. ³⁸ But if anyone does not recognize this, ^[g]he is not recognized.

³⁹ Therefore, my brothers and sisters, ^(AI)earnestly desire to ^(AJ)prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. ⁴⁰ But ^(AK)all things must be done properly and in an orderly way.

^21 [a](A)Now Solomon was ruling over all the kingdoms ^(B)from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; ^(C)they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²² Solomon’s ^[b]provision for one day was ^[c]thirty kors of fine flour and ^[d]sixty kors of meal, ²³ ten fat oxen, twenty ^[e]pasture-fed oxen, and a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened geese. ²⁴ For he was ruling over everything ^[f]west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah even to ^(D)Gaza, ^(E)over all the kings ^[g]west of the River; and ^(F)he had peace on all sides surrounding him. ^25 (G)So Judah and Israel lived securely, everyone under his vine and his fig tree, ^(H)from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. ^26 (I)Solomon had ^[h]forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. ²⁷ And those deputies provided food for King Solomon and all who came to King Solomon’s table, each in his month; they allowed nothing to be lacking. ²⁸ They also brought barley and straw for the war horses and ^(J)baggage horses to the place where it was required, each deputy according to his duty.

²⁹ Now ^(K)God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of ^[i]mind, ^(L)like the sand that is on the seashore. ³⁰ Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all ^(M)the ^[j]people of the east and ^(N)all the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹ For ^(O)he was wiser than all other people, more than ^(P)Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, ^(Q)Calcol, and ^[k]Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his ^[l]fame was known in all the surrounding nations. ^32 (R)He also told three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered 1,005. ³³ He told of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows on the wall; he told also of animals, birds, crawling things, and fish. ³⁴ People ^(S)came from all the ^[m]nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

The Unrighteous Manager

16 Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was ^[a]reported to him as ^(A)squandering his possessions. ² And he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ ³ And the manager said to himself, ‘What am I to do, since my ^[b]master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to ^[c]dig; I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’ ⁵ And he summoned each one of his ^[d]master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ And he said, ‘A hundred ^[e]jugs of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred ^[f]kors of wheat.’ He *said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸ And his ^[g]master complimented the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of ^(B)this age are more shrewd in relation to their own ^[h]kind than the ^(C)sons of light. ⁹ And I say to you, ^(D)make friends for yourselves by means of the ^[i](E)wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it ^[j]is all gone, ^(F)they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.

¹⁰ “^(G)The one who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much; and the one who is unrighteous in a very little thing is also unrighteous in much. ¹¹ Therefore if you have not ^[k]been faithful in the use of unrighteous ^[l](H)wealth, who will entrust the true wealth to you? ¹² And if you have not ^[m]been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? ^13 (I)No ^[n]servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and ^[o](J)wealth.”

¹⁴ Now the Pharisees, who were ^(K)lovers of money, were listening to all these things and ^(L)were ^[p]ridiculing Him. ¹⁵ And He said to them, “You are the ones who ^(M)justify yourselves in the sight of people, but ^(N)God knows your hearts; because that which is highly esteemed among people is detestable in the sight of God.

¹⁶ “^(O)The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John came; since that time ^(P)the gospel of the kingdom of God ^[q]has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. ^17 (Q)But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one ^[r]stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.

¹⁸ “^(R)Everyone who ^[s]divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is ^[t]divorced from a husband commits adultery.

The Rich Man and Lazarus

¹⁹ “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, enjoying himself in splendor every day. ²⁰ And a poor man named Lazarus ^(S)was laid at his gate, covered with sores, ²¹ and longing to be fed from the scraps which fell from the rich man’s table; not only that, the dogs also were coming and licking his sores. ²² Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to ^[u](T)Abraham’s arms; and the rich man also died and was buried. ²³ And in ^(U)Hades he raised his eyes, being in torment, and *saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his ^[v]arms. ²⁴ And he cried out and said, ‘^(V)Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in ^(W)this flame.’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that ^(X)during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. ²⁶ And ^[w]besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set, so that those who want to go over from here to you will not be able, nor will any people cross over from there to us.’ ²⁷ And he said, ‘Then I request of you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— ²⁸ for I have five brothers—in order that he may ^(Y)warn them, so that they will not come to this place of torment as well.’ ²⁹ But Abraham *said, ‘They have ^[x](Z)Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ ³⁰ But he said, ‘No, ^(AA)father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ ³¹ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”