Solomon Requests Wisdom^(A)

3 Now ^(B)Solomon made ^[a]a treaty with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and married Pharaoh’s daughter; then he brought her ^(C)to the City of David until he had finished building his ^(D)own house, and ^(E)the house of the Lord, and ^(F)the wall all around Jerusalem. ^2 (G)Meanwhile the people sacrificed at the high places, because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days. ³ And Solomon ^(H)loved the Lord, ^(I)walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.

⁴ Now ^(J)the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, ^(K)for that was the great high place: Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. ^5 (L)At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon ^(M)in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask! What shall I give you?”

^6 (N)And Solomon said: “You have shown great mercy to Your servant David my father, because he ^(O)walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You; You have continued this great kindness for him, and You ^(P)have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. ⁷ Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a ^(Q)little child; I do not know how ^(R)to go out or come in. ⁸ And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You ^(S)have chosen, a great people, ^(T)too numerous to be numbered or counted. ^9 (U)Therefore give to Your servant an ^[b]understanding heart ^(V)to judge Your people, that I may ^(W)discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”

¹⁰ The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. ¹¹ Then God said to him: “Because you have asked this thing, and have ^(X)not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, ^12 (Y)behold, I have done according to your words; ^(Z)see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. ¹³ And I have also ^(AA)given you what you have not asked: both ^(AB)riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. ¹⁴ So ^(AC)if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, ^(AD)as your father David walked, then I will ^(AE)lengthen^[c] your days.”

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

Solomon’s Wise Judgment

¹⁶ Now two women who were harlots came to the king, and ^(AH)stood before him. ¹⁷ And one woman said, “O my lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house. ¹⁸ Then it happened, the third day after I had given birth, that this woman also gave birth. And we were together; ^[d]no one was with us in the house, except the two of us in the house. ¹⁹ And this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him. ²⁰ So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. ²¹ And when I rose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead. But when I had examined him in the morning, indeed, he was not my son whom I had borne.”

²² Then the other woman said, “No! But the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.”

And the first woman said, “No! But the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.”

Thus they spoke before the king.

²³ And the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son, who lives, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! But your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’ ” ²⁴ Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king. ²⁵ And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to one, and half to the other.”

²⁶ Then the woman whose son was living spoke to the king, for ^(AI)she yearned with compassion for her son; and she said, “O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him!”

But the other said, “Let him be neither mine nor yours, but divide him.”

²⁷ So the king answered and said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him; she is his mother.”

²⁸ And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered; and they feared the king, for they saw that the ^(AJ)wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.

Tongues a Sign to Unbelievers

²⁰ Brethren, ^(A)do not be children in understanding; however, in malice ^(B)be babes, but in understanding be mature.

^21 (C)In the law it is written:

says the Lord.

²² Therefore tongues are for a ^(E)sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophesying is not for unbelievers but for those who believe. ²³ Therefore if the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, ^(F)will they not say that you are ^[a]out of your mind? ²⁴ But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all. ^25 [b]And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report ^(G)that God is truly among you.

Order in Church Meetings

²⁶ How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, ^(H)has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. ^(I)Let all things be done for ^[c]edification. ²⁷ If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. ²⁸ But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God. ²⁹ Let two or three prophets speak, and ^(J)let the others judge. ³⁰ But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, ^(K)let the first keep silent. ³¹ For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. ³² And ^(L)the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. ³³ For God is not the author of ^[d]confusion but of peace, ^(M)as in all the churches of the saints.

^34 (N)Let ^[e]your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the ^(O)law also says. ³⁵ And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.

³⁶ Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached? ^37 (P)If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. ³⁸ But ^[f]if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant.

³⁹ Therefore, brethren, ^(Q)desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues. ^40 (R)Let all things be done decently and in order.

²¹ So ^(A)Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from ^(B)the^[a] River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. ^(C)They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

^22 (D)Now Solomon’s ^[b]provision for one day was thirty ^[c]kors of fine flour, sixty kors of meal, ²³ ten fatted oxen, twenty oxen from the pastures, and one hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl.

²⁴ For he had dominion over all the region on this side of ^[d]the River from Tiphsah even to Gaza, namely over ^(E)all the kings on this side of the River; and ^(F)he had peace on every side all around him. ²⁵ And Judah and Israel ^(G)dwelt^[e] safely, ^(H)each man under his vine and his fig tree, ^(I)from Dan as far as Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

^26 (J)Solomon had ^[f]forty thousand stalls of ^(K)horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. ²⁷ And ^(L)these governors, each man in his month, provided food for King Solomon and for all who came to King Solomon’s table. There was no lack in their supply. ²⁸ They also brought barley and straw to the proper place, for the horses and steeds, each man according to his charge.

²⁹ And ^(M)God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore. ³⁰ Thus Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men ^(N)of the East and all ^(O)the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹ For he was ^(P)wiser than all men—^(Q)than Ethan the Ezrahite, ^(R)and Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. ^32 (S)He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his ^(T)songs were one thousand and five. ³³ Also he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree of Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. ³⁴ And men of all nations, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom, ^(U)came to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

The Parable of the Unjust Steward

16 He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was ^[a]wasting his goods. ² So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an ^(A)account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’

³ “Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’

⁵ “So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ And he said, ‘A hundred ^[b]measures of oil.’ So 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?’ So he said, ‘A hundred ^[c]measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸ So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than ^(B)the sons of light.

⁹ “And I say to you, ^(C)make friends for yourselves by unrighteous ^[d]mammon, that when ^[e]you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. ^10 (D)He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. ¹¹ Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? ¹² And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your ^(E)own?

^13 (F)“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

The Law, the Prophets, and the Kingdom

¹⁴ Now the Pharisees, ^(G)who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they ^[f]derided Him. ¹⁵ And He said to them, “You are those who ^(H)justify yourselves ^(I)before men, but ^(J)God knows your hearts. For ^(K)what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

^16 (L)“The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. ^17 (M)And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one ^[g]tittle of the law to fail.

^18 (N)“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.

The Rich Man and Lazarus

¹⁹ “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and ^[h]fared sumptuously every day. ²⁰ But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, ²¹ desiring to be fed with ^[i]the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. ²² So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to ^(O)Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

²⁴ “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and ^(P)cool my tongue; for I ^(Q)am tormented in this flame.’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Son, ^(R)remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’

²⁷ “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, ²⁸ for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ ²⁹ Abraham said to him, ^(S)‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ ³⁰ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ ³¹ But he said to him, ^(T)‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, ^(U)neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”