Mary and Martha Worship and Serve

³⁸ Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named ^(A)Martha welcomed Him into her house. ³⁹ And she had a sister called Mary, ^(B)who also ^(C)sat at ^[a]Jesus’ feet and heard His word. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”

⁴¹ And ^[b]Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. ⁴² But ^(D)one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

¹¹ that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, ^(A)to mind your own business, and ^(B)to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, ^12 (C)that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

The Comfort of Christ’s Coming

¹³ But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen ^[a]asleep, lest you sorrow ^(D)as others ^(E)who have no hope. ¹⁴ For ^(F)if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him ^(G)those who ^[b]sleep in Jesus.

¹⁵ For this we say to you ^(H)by the word of the Lord, that ^(I)we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are ^[c]asleep. ¹⁶ For ^(J)the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with ^(K)the trumpet of God. ^(L)And the dead in Christ will rise first. ^17 (M)Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them ^(N)in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus ^(O)we shall always be with the Lord. ^18 (P)Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Prayer for Safekeeping from Wickedness

A Psalm of David.

Solomon’s Additional Achievements^(A)

8 It ^(B)came to pass at the end of ^(C)twenty years, when Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house, ² that the cities which ^[a]Hiram had given to Solomon, Solomon built them; and he settled the children of Israel there. ³ And Solomon went to Hamath Zobah and seized it. ^4 (D)He also built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the storage cities which he built in ^(E)Hamath. ⁵ He built Upper Beth Horon and ^(F)Lower Beth Horon, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars, ⁶ also Baalath and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the chariot cities and the cities of the cavalry, and all that Solomon ^(G)desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

^7 (H)All the people who were left of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of Israel— ⁸ that is, their descendants who were left in the land after them, whom the children of Israel did not destroy—from these Solomon raised forced labor, as it is to this day. ⁹ But Solomon did not make the children of Israel ^[b]servants for his work. Some were men of war, captains of his officers, captains of his chariots, and his cavalry. ¹⁰ And others were chiefs of the officials of King Solomon: ^(I)two hundred and fifty, who ruled over the people.

¹¹ Now Solomon ^(J)brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the house he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places to which the ark of the Lord has come are holy.”

¹² Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had built before the vestibule, ¹³ according to the ^(K)daily rate, offering according to the commandment of Moses, for the Sabbaths, the New Moons, and the ^(L)three appointed yearly ^(M)feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹⁴ And, according to the ^[c]order of David his father, he appointed the ^(N)divisions of the priests for their service, ^(O)the Levites for their duties (to praise and serve before the priests) as the duty of each day required, and the ^(P)gatekeepers by their divisions at each gate; for so David the man of God had commanded. ¹⁵ They did not depart from the command of the king to the priests and Levites concerning any matter or concerning the ^(Q)treasuries.

¹⁶ Now all the work of Solomon was well-ordered ^[d]from the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was completed.

¹⁷ Then Solomon went to ^(R)Ezion Geber and ^[e]Elath on the seacoast, in the land of Edom. ^18 (S)And Hiram sent him ships by the hand of his servants, and servants who knew the sea. They went with the servants of Solomon to ^(T)Ophir, and acquired four hundred and fifty talents of gold from there, and brought it to King Solomon.

The Queen of Sheba’s Praise of Solomon^(U)

9 Now ^(V)when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with hard questions, having a very great retinue, camels that bore spices, gold in abundance, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart. ² So Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing so difficult for Solomon that he could not explain it to her. ³ And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, ⁴ the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his ^(W)cupbearers and their apparel, and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her.

⁵ Then she said to the king: “It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. ⁶ However I did not believe their words until I came and saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me. You exceed the fame of which I heard. ⁷ Happy are your men and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom! ⁸ Blessed be the Lord your God, who delighted in you, setting you on His throne to be king for the Lord your God! Because your God has ^(X)loved Israel, to establish them forever, therefore He made you king over them, to do justice and righteousness.”

⁹ And she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, spices in great abundance, and precious stones; there never were any spices such as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰ Also, the servants of Hiram and the servants of Solomon, ^(Y)who brought gold from Ophir, brought ^[f]algum wood and precious stones. ¹¹ And the king made walkways of the ^[g]algum wood for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, also harps and stringed instruments for singers; and there were none such as these seen before in the land of Judah.

¹² Now King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all she desired, whatever she asked, much more than she had brought to the king. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.

Solomon’s Great Wealth^(Z)

^13 (AA)The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, ¹⁴ besides what the traveling merchants and traders brought. And all the kings of Arabia and governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon. ¹⁵ And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of hammered gold went into each shield. ¹⁶ He also made three hundred shields of hammered gold; ^[h]three hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the ^(AB)House of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷ Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold. ¹⁸ The throne had six steps, with a footstool of gold, which were fastened to the throne; there were ^[i]armrests on either side of the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the armrests. ¹⁹ Twelve lions stood there, one on each side of the six steps; nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom.

²⁰ 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. ²¹ For the king’s ships went to ^(AC)Tarshish with the servants of ^[j]Hiram. Once every three years the ^[k]merchant ships came, bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and ^[l]monkeys.

²² So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. ²³ And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. ²⁴ Each man brought his present: articles of silver and gold, garments, ^(AD)armor, spices, horses, and mules, at a set rate year by year.

²⁵ Solomon ^(AE)had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.

^26 (AF)So he reigned over all the kings ^(AG)from ^[m]the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. ^27 (AH)The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar trees ^(AI)as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland. ^28 (AJ)And they brought horses to Solomon from Egypt and from all lands.

Death of Solomon^(AK)

^29 (AL)Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet, in the prophecy of ^(AM)Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of ^(AN)Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat? ^30 (AO)Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. ³¹ Then Solomon ^[n]rested with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.