Let Us Sing Songs of Praise

The Lord Appears to Solomon

9 ^(A)As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord ^(B)and the king's house and ^(C)all that Solomon desired to build, ^2 (D)the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. ³ And the Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, ^(E)by putting my name there forever. ^(F)My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. ⁴ And as for you, if you will ^(G)walk before me, ^(H)as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, ^5 (I)then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’ ^6 (J)But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, ^7 (K)then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, ^(L)and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, ^(M)and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. ⁸ And this house will become a heap of ruins.^[a] Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ^(N)‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ ⁹ Then they will say, ‘Because ^(O)they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the Lord has brought all this disaster on them.’”

Solomon's Other Acts

^10 (P)At the end of ^(Q)twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king's house, ¹¹ and Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. ¹² But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please him. ¹³ Therefore he said, “What kind of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” So they are called the land of ^(R)Cabul to this day. ¹⁴ Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents^[b] of gold.

¹⁵ And this is the account of ^(S)the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the Lord and his own house and ^(T)the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and ^(U)Hazor and ^(V)Megiddo and Gezer ¹⁶ (Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and had killed ^(W)the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to ^(X)his daughter, Solomon's wife; ¹⁷ so Solomon rebuilt Gezer) and ^(Y)Lower Beth-horon ¹⁸ and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah,^{[c] 19} and all the store cities that Solomon had, and ^(Z)the cities for his chariots, and the cities for ^(AA)his horsemen, and whatever Solomon ^(AB)desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. ²⁰ All the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel— ^21 (AC)their descendants who were left after them in the land, ^(AD)whom the people of Israel were unable to devote to destruction^[d]—^(AE)these Solomon drafted to be ^(AF)slaves, and so they are to this day. ²² But ^(AG)of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves. They were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders and his horsemen.

²³ These were the chief officers who were over Solomon's work: ^(AH)550 ^(AI)who had charge of the people who carried on the work.

²⁴ But ^(AJ)Pharaoh's daughter went up from the city of David to ^(AK)her own house that Solomon had built for her. ^(AL)Then he built ^(AM)the Millo.

²⁵ Three times a year Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar that he built to the Lord, making offerings with it^[e] before the Lord. So he finished the house.

²⁶ King Solomon built a fleet of ships at ^(AN)Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. ²⁷ And Hiram sent ^(AO)with the fleet his servants, seamen who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon. ²⁸ And they went to ^(AP)Ophir and brought from there gold, 420 talents, and they brought it to King Solomon.

The Resurrection

24 ^(A)But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, ^(B)taking the spices they had prepared. ² And they found ^(C)the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ While they were perplexed about this, behold, ^(D)two ^(E)men stood by them in dazzling apparel. ⁵ And as they were ^(F)frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? ⁶ He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, ^(G)while he was still in Galilee, ^7 (H)that the Son of Man ^(I)must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and ^(J)be crucified and on ^(K)the third day rise.” ⁸ And ^(L)they remembered his words, ⁹ and returning from the tomb they ^(M)told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰ Now it was ^(N)Mary Magdalene and ^(O)Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, ¹¹ but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and ^(P)they did not believe them. ¹² But ^(Q)Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw ^(R)the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

On the Road to Emmaus

¹³ That very day ^(S)two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles^[a] from Jerusalem, ¹⁴ and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. ¹⁵ While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. ^16 (T)But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. ¹⁷ And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. ¹⁸ Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” ¹⁹ And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was ^(U)a prophet ^(V)mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, ²⁰ and ^(W)how our chief priests and ^(X)rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. ²¹ But we had hoped that he was ^(Y)the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now ^(Z)the third day since these things happened. ²² Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. ^(AA)They were at the tomb early in the morning, ²³ and ^(AB)when they did not find his body, they came back saying that ^(AC)they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. ^24 (AD)Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” ²⁵ And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ^26 (AE)Was it not necessary that ^(AF)the Christ should suffer these things and enter into ^(AG)his glory?” ²⁷ And ^(AH)beginning with ^(AI)Moses and ^(AJ)all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

²⁸ So they drew near to the village to which they were going. ^(AK)He acted as if he were going farther, ²⁹ but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and ^(AL)the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. ³⁰ When he was at table with them, he took the bread and ^(AM)blessed and broke it and gave it to them. ^31 (AN)And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And ^(AO)he vanished from their sight. ³² They said to each other, ^(AP)“Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he ^(AQ)opened to us the Scriptures?” ³³ And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they ^(AR)found the eleven and ^(AS)those who were with them gathered together, ³⁴ saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and ^(AT)has appeared to Simon!” ³⁵ Then they told what had happened on the road, and ^(AU)how he was known to them in ^(AV)the breaking of the bread.