⁴⁰ God having provided something better for us, that they should not be ^(A)made perfect apart from us.

⁸ In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the Lord before them.

¹³ Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for ^(A)new heavens and a ^(B)new earth in which righteousness dwells.

^21 (A)All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Not one was silver, for this was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon. ²² For the king had ^(B)merchant^[a] ships at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the merchant ^(C)ships came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and ^[b]monkeys. ²³ So ^(D)King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

²⁴ Now all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. ²⁵ Each man brought his present: articles of silver and gold, garments, armor, spices, horses, and mules, at a set rate year by year.

^26 (E)And Solomon ^(F)gathered chariots and horsemen; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he ^[c]stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem. ^27 (G)The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar trees as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland.

A Reign of Righteousness