8 ¹ but Jesus walked out to the Mount of Olives. ² Then early the next morning he went to the temple. The people came to him, and he sat down^[a] and started teaching them.

³ The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of Moses brought in a woman who had been caught in bed with a man who wasn't her husband. They made her stand in the middle of the crowd. ⁴ Then they said, “Teacher, this woman was caught sleeping with a man who isn't her husband. ^5 (A) The Law of Moses teaches that a woman like this should be stoned to death! What do you say?”

⁶ They asked Jesus this question, because they wanted to test him and bring some charge against him. But Jesus simply bent over and started writing on the ground with his finger.

^7 (B) They kept on asking Jesus about the woman. Finally, he stood up and said, “If any of you have never sinned, then go ahead and throw the first stone at her!” ⁸ Once again he bent over and began writing on the ground. ⁹ The people left one by one, beginning with the oldest. Finally, Jesus and the woman were there alone.

¹⁰ Jesus stood up and asked her, “Where is everyone? Isn't there anyone left to accuse you?”

¹¹ “No sir,” the woman answered.

Then Jesus told her, “I am not going to accuse you either. You may go now, but don't sin anymore.”^[b]

Jesus Is the Light for the World

^12 (C) Once again Jesus spoke to the people. This time he said, “I am the light for the world! Follow me, and you won't be walking in the dark. You will have the light that gives life.”

^13 (D) The Pharisees objected, “You are the only one speaking for yourself, and what you say isn't true!”

¹⁴ Jesus replied:

Even if I do speak for myself, what I say is true! I know where I came from and where I am going. But you don't know where I am from or where I am going. ¹⁵ You judge in the same way that everyone else does, but I don't judge anyone. ¹⁶ If I did judge, I would judge fairly, because I would not be doing it alone. The Father who sent me is here with me. ^17 (E) Your Law requires two witnesses to prove that something is true. ¹⁸ I am one of my witnesses, and the Father who sent me is the other one.

¹⁹ “Where is your Father?” they asked.

“You don't know me or my Father!” Jesus answered. “If you knew me, you would know my Father.”

²⁰ Jesus said this while he was still teaching in the place where the temple treasures were stored. But no one arrested him, because his time had not yet come.^[c]

The Lord Makes Solomon Wise

(1 Kings 3.1-15)

1 King Solomon, the son of David, was now in complete control of his kingdom, because the Lord God had blessed him and made him a powerful king.

^2-5 (A) At that time, the sacred tent that Moses the servant of the Lord had made in the desert was still kept at Gibeon, and in front of the tent was the bronze altar that Bezalel^[a] had made.

One day, Solomon told the people of Israel, the army commanders, the officials, and the family leaders, to go with him to the place of worship at Gibeon, even though his father King David had already moved the sacred chest from Kiriath-Jearim to the tent that he had set up for it in Jerusalem. Solomon and the others went to Gibeon to worship the Lord, ⁶ and there at the bronze altar, Solomon offered a thousand animals as sacrifices to please the Lord.^[b]

⁷ God appeared to Solomon that night in a dream and said, “Solomon, ask for anything you want, and I will give it to you.”

⁸ Solomon answered:

Lord God, you were always loyal to my father David, and now you have made me king of Israel. ^9 (B) I am supposed to rule these people, but there are as many of them as there are specks of dust on the ground. So keep the promise you made to my father ¹⁰ and make me wise. Give me the knowledge I'll need to be the king of this great nation of yours.

¹¹ God replied:

Solomon, you could have asked me to make you rich or famous or to let you live a long time. Or you could have asked for your enemies to be destroyed. Instead, you asked for wisdom and knowledge to rule my people. ¹² So I will make you wise and intelligent. But I will also make you richer and more famous than any king before or after you.

¹³ Solomon then left Gibeon and returned to Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel.

Solomon's Wealth

(1 Kings 10.26-29)

^14 (C) Solomon had a force of 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses that he kept in Jerusalem and other towns.

¹⁵ While Solomon was king of Israel, there was silver and gold everywhere in Jerusalem, and cedar was as common as ordinary sycamore trees in the foothills.

^16-17 (D) Solomon's merchants bought his horses and chariots in the regions of Musri and Kue.^[c] They paid 600 pieces of silver for a chariot and 150 pieces of silver for a horse. They also sold horses and chariots to the Hittite and Syrian kings.

Solomon Asks Hiram To Help Build the Temple

(1 Kings 5.1-12)

2 Solomon decided to build a temple where the Lord would be worshiped, and also to build a palace for himself. ² He assigned 70,000 men to carry building supplies and 80,000 to cut stone from the hills. And he chose 3,600 men to supervise these workers.

³ Solomon sent the following message to King Hiram of Tyre:

Years ago, when my father David was building his palace, you supplied him with cedar logs. Now will you send me supplies? ⁴ I am building a temple where the Lord my God will be worshiped. Sweet-smelling incense will be burned there, and sacred bread will be offered to him. Worshipers will offer sacrifices to the Lord every morning and evening, every Sabbath, and on the first day of each month, as well as during all our religious festivals. These things will be done for all time, just as the Lord has commanded.

⁵ This will be a great temple, because our God is greater than all other gods. ^6 (E) No one can ever build a temple large enough for God—even the heavens are too small a place for him to live in! All I can do is build a place where we can offer sacrifices to him.

⁷ Send me a worker who can not only carve, but who can work with gold, silver, bronze, and iron, as well as make brightly colored cloth. The person you send will work here in Judah and Jerusalem with the skilled workers that my father has already hired.

⁸ I know that you have workers who are experts at cutting lumber in Lebanon. So would you please send me some cedar, pine, and juniper logs? My workers will be there to help them, ⁹ because I'll need a lot of lumber to build such a large and glorious temple. ¹⁰ I will pay your woodcutters 2,000 tons of wheat, the same amount of barley, 400,000 liters of wine, and that same amount of olive oil.

¹¹ Hiram sent his answer back to Solomon:

I know that the Lord must love his people, because he has chosen you to be their king. ¹² Praise the Lord God of Israel who made heaven and earth! He has given David a son who isn't only wise and smart, but who has the knowledge to build a temple for the Lord and a palace for himself.

¹³ I am sending Huram Abi to you. He is wise and very skillful. ¹⁴ His mother was from the Israelite tribe of Dan, and his father was from Tyre. Not only is Huram an expert at working with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, but he can also make colored cloth and fine linen. And he can carve anything if you give him a pattern to follow. He can help your workers and those hired by your father King David.

¹⁵ Go ahead and send the wheat, barley, olive oil, and wine you promised to pay my workers. ¹⁶ I will tell them to start cutting down trees in Lebanon. They will cut as many as you need, then tie them together into rafts, and float them down along the coast to Joppa. Your workers can take them to Jerusalem from there.

War and Victory

14 The Lord will have his day. And when it comes, everything that was ever taken from Jerusalem will be returned and divided among its people. ² But first, he will bring many nations to attack Jerusalem—homes will be robbed, women raped, and half of the population dragged off, though the others will be allowed to remain.

³ The Lord will attack those nations like a warrior fighting in battle. ⁴ He will take his stand on the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem, and the mountain will split in half, forming a wide valley that runs from east to west. ⁵ Then you people will escape from the Lord's mountain, through this valley, which reaches to Azal.^[a] You will run in all directions, just as everyone did when the earthquake struck^[b] in the time of King Uzziah of Judah. Afterwards, the Lord my God will appear with his holy angels.

⁶ It will be a bright day that won't turn cloudy or cold.^{[c] 7} And the Lord has decided when it will happen—this time of unending day.

^8 (A) In both summer and winter, life-giving streams will flow from Jerusalem, half of them to the Dead Sea in the east and half to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. ⁹ Then there will be only one Lord who rules as King and whose name is worshiped everywhere on earth.

^10-11 (B) From Geba down to Rimmon^[d] south of Jerusalem, the entire country will be turned into flatlands, with Jerusalem still towering above. Then the city will be full of people, from Benjamin Gate, Old Gate Place, and Hananel Tower in the northeast part of the city over to Corner Gate in the northwest and down to King's Wine Press in the south. Jerusalem will always be secure and will never again be destroyed.

¹² Here is what the Lord will do to those who attack Jerusalem: While they are standing there, he will make their flesh rot and their eyes fall from their sockets and their tongues drop out. ¹³ The Lord will make them go into a frenzy and start attacking each other, ^14-15 until even the people of Judah turn against those in Jerusalem.^[e] This same terrible disaster will also strike every animal nearby, including horses, mules, camels, and donkeys. Finally, everything of value in the surrounding nations will be collected and brought to Jerusalem—gold, silver, and piles of clothing.

^16 (C) Afterwards, the survivors from those nations that attacked Jerusalem will go there each year to worship the King, the Lord All-Powerful, and to celebrate the Festival of Shelters. ¹⁷ No rain will fall on the land of anyone in any country who refuses to go to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord All-Powerful. ^18-19 This horrible disaster will strike the Egyptians and everyone else who refuses to go there for the celebration.

^20-21 At that time the words “Dedicated to the Lord” will be engraved on the bells worn by horses. In fact, every ordinary cooking pot in Jerusalem will be just as sacred to the Lord All-Powerful as the bowls used at the altar. Any one of them will be acceptable for boiling the meat of sacrificed animals, and there will no longer be a need to sell special pots and bowls.^[f]