²⁷ Just then His disciples came and they wondered (were surprised, astonished) to find Him talking with a woman [a married woman]. However, not one of them asked Him, What are You inquiring about? or What do You want? or, Why do You speak with her?

²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar and went away to the town. And she began telling the people,

²⁹ Come, see a Man Who has told me everything that I ever did! Can this be [is not this] the Christ? [Must not this be the Messiah, the Anointed One?]

³⁰ So the people left the town and set out to go to Him.

³¹ Meanwhile, the disciples urged Him saying, Rabbi, eat something.

³² But He assured them, I have food (nourishment) to eat of which you know nothing and have no idea.

³³ So the disciples said one to another, Has someone brought Him something to eat?

³⁴ Jesus said to them, My food (nourishment) is to do the will (pleasure) of Him Who sent Me and to accomplish and completely finish His work.

³⁵ Do you not say, It is still four months until harvest time comes? Look! I tell you, raise your eyes and observe the fields and see how they are already white for harvesting.

³⁶ Already the reaper is getting his wages [he who does the cutting now has his reward], for he is gathering fruit (crop) unto life eternal, so that he who does the planting and he who does the reaping may rejoice together.

³⁷ For in this the saying holds true, One sows and another reaps.

³⁸ I sent you to reap a crop for which you have not toiled. Other men have labored and you have stepped in to reap the results of their work.

³⁹ Now numerous Samaritans from that town believed in and trusted in Him because of what the woman said when she declared and testified, He told me everything that I ever did.

⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans arrived, they asked Him to remain with them, and He did stay there two days.

⁴¹ Then many more believed in and adhered to and relied on Him because of His personal message [what He Himself said].

⁴² And they told the woman, Now we no longer believe (trust, have faith) just because of what you said; for we have heard Him ourselves [personally], and we know that He truly is the Savior of the world, the Christ.

⁴³ But after these two days Jesus went on from there into Galilee—

⁴⁴ Although He Himself declared that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

⁴⁵ However, when He came into Galilee, the Galileans also welcomed Him and took Him to their hearts eagerly, for they had seen everything that He did in Jerusalem during the Feast; for they too had attended the Feast.

⁴⁶ So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son was lying ill in Capernaum.

⁴⁷ Having heard that Jesus had come back from Judea into Galilee, he went away to meet Him and began to beg Him to come down and cure his son, for he was lying at the point of death.

⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to him, Unless you see signs and miracles happen, you [people] never will believe (trust, have faith) at all.

⁴⁹ The king’s officer pleaded with Him, Sir, do come down at once before my little child is dead!

⁵⁰ Jesus answered him, Go in peace; your son will live! And the man put his trust in what Jesus said and started home.

⁵¹ But even as he was on the road going down, his servants met him and reported, saying, Your son lives!

⁵² So he asked them at what time he had begun to get better. They said, Yesterday during the seventh hour (about one o’clock in the afternoon) the fever left him.

⁵³ Then the father knew that it was at that very hour when Jesus had said to him, Your son will live. And he and his entire household believed (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on Jesus).

⁵⁴ This is the second sign (wonderwork, miracle) that Jesus performed after He had come out of Judea into Galilee.

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2 When David’s time to die was near, he charged Solomon his son, saying,

² I go the way of all the earth. Be strong and show yourself a man;

³ Keep the charge of the Lord your God, walk in His ways, keep His statutes, His commandments, His precepts, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may do wisely and prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn,

⁴ That the Lord may fulfill His promise to me, saying, If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and mind and with all their soul, there shall not fail you [to have] a man on the throne of Israel.

⁵ You know also what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether, whom he murdered, avenging in time of peace blood shed in war, and putting innocent blood of war on the girdle on his loins and on the sandals of his feet.

⁶ Do therefore according to your wisdom, but let not his hoary head go down to Sheol (the place of the dead) in peace.

⁷ But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite and let them be among those who eat at your table; for with such kindness they met me when I fled because of Absalom your brother.^(A)

⁸ And you have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at the Jordan [on my return], and I swore to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put you to death with the sword.

⁹ So do not hold him guiltless; for you are a wise man and know what you should do to him. His hoary head bring down to the grave with blood.

¹⁰ So David slept with his fathers and was buried in the City of David.

¹¹ David reigned over Israel forty years—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

¹² Then Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established.

¹³ Adonijah, the son of [David and] Haggith, came to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon. She said, Do you come peaceably? And he said, Peaceably.

¹⁴ He said, I have something to say to you. And she said, Say on.

¹⁵ He said, You know that the kingdom belonged to me [as the eldest living son], and all Israel looked to me to reign. However, the kingdom has passed from me to my brother; for it was his from the Lord.

¹⁶ Now I make one request of you; do not deny me. And she said, Say on.

¹⁷ He said, I pray you, ask King Solomon, for he will not refuse you, to give me Abishag the Shunammite to be my wife.^(B)

¹⁸ And Bathsheba said, Very well; I will speak for you to the king.

¹⁹ So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose to meet her, bowed to her, sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set at his right hand for her, the king’s mother.

²⁰ Then she said, I have one small request to make of you; do not refuse me. The king said to her, Ask on, my mother, for I will not refuse you.

²¹ She said, Give Abishag the Shunammite to Adonijah your brother to be his wife.

²² King Solomon answered his mother, And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also—for he is my elder brother—[ask it] even for him and for [his supporters] Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah.

²³ Then King Solomon swore by the Lord, saying, May God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not requested this against his own life.

²⁴ Therefore, as the Lord lives, Who has established me and set me on the throne of David my father and Who has made me a house as He promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day.

²⁵ So King Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who attacked [Adonijah] and he died.

²⁶ And to Abiathar the priest the king said, Get to Anathoth to your own estate; for you deserve death, but I will not put you to death now, because you bore the ark of the Lord God before my father David and were afflicted in all my father endured.

²⁷ So Solomon expelled Abiathar [descendant of Eli] from being priest to the Lord, fulfilling the word of the Lord which He spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.^(C)

²⁸ When the news came to Joab, for Joab had followed Adonijah though he had not followed Absalom, [he] fled to the tent (tabernacle) of the Lord and caught hold of the horns of the altar [before it].

²⁹ King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the tent of the Lord and was at the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, strike him down.

³⁰ So Benaiah came to the tent of the Lord and told Joab, The king commands, Come forth. But Joab said, No, I will die here. Then Benaiah brought the king word again, Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.

³¹ The king said to him, Do as he has said. Strike him down and bury him, that you may take away from [me and from] my father’s house the innocent blood which Joab shed.

³² The Lord shall return his bloody deeds upon his own head, for he fell upon two men more [uncompromisingly] righteous and honorable than he and slew them with the sword, without my father knowing of it: Abner son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah.

³³ So shall their blood return upon the head of Joab and of his descendants forever. But upon David, his descendants, his house, and his throne, there shall be peace from the Lord forever.

³⁴ So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and struck and killed Joab, and he was buried at his own house in the wilderness.

³⁵ The king put Benaiah son of Jehoiada in Joab’s place over the army and put Zadok the priest in place of Abiathar.

³⁶ The king sent for Shimei and said to him, Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and dwell there, and do not leave there.

³⁷ For on the day you go out and pass over the brook Kidron, know with certainty that you shall die; your blood shall be upon your own head.

³⁸ And Shimei said to the king, The saying is good. As my lord the king has said, so your servant will do. And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days.

³⁹ But after three years, two of Shimei’s servants ran away to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath. And Shimei was told, Behold, your [runaway] servants are in Gath.

⁴⁰ So Shimei arose, saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to King Achish to seek his servants, and brought them from Gath.

⁴¹ It was told Solomon that Shimei went from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned.

⁴² And the king sent for Shimei and said to him, Did I not make you swear by the Lord and warn you, saying, Know with certainty, on the day you go out and walk abroad anywhere, you shall surely die? And you said to me, I have heard your word. It is accepted.

⁴³ Why then have you not kept the oath of the Lord and the command with which I have charged you?

⁴⁴ The king also said to Shimei, You are aware in your own heart of all the evil you did to my father David; so the Lord will return your evil upon your own head.

⁴⁵ But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever.

⁴⁶ So the king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who went out and struck down Shimei, and he died. And the kingdom was established in the hands of Solomon.

3 And Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt and took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the City of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord, and the wall around Jerusalem.

² But the people sacrificed [to God] in the high places [as the heathen did to their idols], for there was no house yet built to the ^[a]Name of the Lord.

³ Solomon loved the Lord, walking [at first] in the statutes and practices of David his father, only he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.

⁴ The king went to Gibeon [near Jerusalem, where stood the tabernacle and the bronze altar] to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. One thousand burnt offerings Solomon offered on that altar.

⁵ In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, ^[b]Ask what I shall give you.

⁶ Solomon said, You have shown to Your servant David my father great mercy and loving-kindness, according as he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart with You; and You have kept for him this great kindness and steadfast love, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne this day.

⁷ Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of David my father, and I am ^[c]but a lad [in wisdom and experience]; I know not how to go out (begin) or come in (finish).

⁸ Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people who cannot be counted for multitude.

⁹ So give Your servant an understanding mind and a hearing heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge and rule this Your great people?^(D)

¹⁰ It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this.

¹¹ God said to him, Because you have asked this and have not asked for long life or for riches, nor for the lives of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to recognize what is just and right,

¹² Behold, I have done as you asked. I have given you a wise, discerning mind, so that no one before you was your equal, nor shall any arise after you equal to you.

¹³ I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings equal to you all your days.

¹⁴ And if you will go My way, keep My statutes and My commandments as your father David did, then I will lengthen your days.

¹⁵ Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. He came to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.

¹⁶ Then two women who had become mothers out of wedlock came and stood before the king.

¹⁷ And one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house.

¹⁸ And the third day after I was delivered, this woman also was delivered. And we were together; no stranger was with us, just we two in the house.

¹⁹ And this woman’s child died in the night because she lay on him.

²⁰ And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me while your handmaid slept and laid him in her bosom and laid her dead child in my bosom.

²¹ And when I rose to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I had considered him in the morning, behold, it was not the son I had borne.

²² But the other woman said, No! But the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son! And this one said, No! But the dead son is your son, and the living is my son. Thus they spoke before the king.

²³ The king said, One says, This is my son that is alive and yours is the dead one. The other woman says, No! But your son is the dead one and mine is the living one.

²⁴ And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword to 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 mother of the living child said to the king, for she yearned over her son, O my lord, give her the living baby, and by no means slay him. But the other said, Let him not be mine or yours, but divide him.

²⁷ Then the king said, Give her [who pleads for his life] the living baby, and by no means slay him. She is the child’s mother.

²⁸ And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had made, and they stood in awe of him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.