M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

4 King Solomon was king over all Israel. ² These were the princes whom he had: Azariah the son of Zadok, the priest; ³ Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder; ⁴ Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; ⁵ Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers; Zabud the son of Nathan was chief minister, the king’s friend; ⁶ Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to forced labor.

⁷ Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household. Each man had to make provision for a month in the year. ⁸ These are their names: Ben Hur, in the hill country of Ephraim; ⁹ Ben Deker, in Makaz, in Shaalbim, Beth Shemesh, and Elon Beth Hanan; ¹⁰ Ben Hesed, in Arubboth (Socoh and all the land of Hepher belonged to him); ¹¹ Ben Abinadab, in all the height of Dor (he had Taphath, Solomon’s daughter, as wife); ¹² Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth Shean which is beside Zarethan, beneath Jezreel, from Beth Shean to Abel Meholah, as far as beyond Jokmeam; ¹³ Ben Geber, in Ramoth Gilead (the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, belonged to him; and the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars, belonged to him); ¹⁴ Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; ¹⁵ Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also took Basemath the daughter of Solomon as wife); ¹⁶ Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth; ¹⁷ Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar; ¹⁸ Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin; ¹⁹ Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; and he was the only officer who was in the land.

²⁰ Judah and Israel were numerous as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry. ²¹ Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life. ²² Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cors^[a] of fine flour, sixty measures of meal, ²³ ten head of fat cattle, twenty head of cattle out of the pastures, and one hundred sheep, in addition to deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl. ²⁴ For he had dominion over all on this side the River, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings on this side the River; and he had peace on all sides around him. ²⁵ Judah and Israel lived safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. ²⁶ Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. ²⁷ Those officers provided food for King Solomon, and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, every man in his month. They let nothing be lacking. ²⁸ They also brought barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds to the place where the officers were, each man according to his duty. ²⁹ God gave Solomon abundant wisdom, understanding, and breadth of mind like the sand that is on the seashore. ³⁰ Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹ For he was wiser than all men—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the nations all around. ³² He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered one thousand five. ³³ He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he also spoke of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. ³⁴ People of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, sent by all kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

5 Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the place of his father, and Hiram had always loved David. ² Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, ³ “You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of Yahweh his God because of the wars which were around him on every side, until Yahweh put his enemies under the soles of his feet. ⁴ But now Yahweh my God has given me rest on every side. There is no enemy and no evil occurrence. ⁵ Behold, I intend to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, as Yahweh spoke to David my father, saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place shall build the house for my name.’ ⁶ Now therefore command that cedar trees be cut for me out of Lebanon. My servants will be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants according to all that you say. For you know that there is nobody among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”

⁷ When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly, and said, “Blessed is Yahweh today, who has given to David a wise son to rule over this great people.” ⁸ Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, “I have heard the message which you have sent to me. I will do all your desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning cypress timber. ⁹ My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea. I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place that you specify to me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and you will receive them. You will accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household.”

¹⁰ So Hiram gave Solomon cedar timber and cypress timber according to all his desire. ¹¹ Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cors^[b] of wheat for food to his household, and twenty cors^[c] of pure oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year. ¹² Yahweh gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty together.

¹³ King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men. ¹⁴ He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses: for a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home; and Adoniram was over the men subject to forced labor. ¹⁵ Solomon had seventy thousand who bore burdens, and eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains, ¹⁶ besides Solomon’s chief officers who were over the work: three thousand three hundred who ruled over the people who labored in the work. ¹⁷ The king commanded, and they cut out large stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with worked stone. ¹⁸ Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites cut them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house.

2 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, ² in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. ³ We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; ⁸ for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not of works, that no one would boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

¹¹ Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision” (in the flesh, made by hands), ¹² that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation, ¹⁵ having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it. ¹⁷ He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, ²⁰ being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone; ²¹ in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; ²² in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

35 Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, ³ and tell it, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you. I will make you a desolation and an astonishment. ⁴ I will lay your cities waste, and you will be desolate. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.

⁵ “‘“Because you have had a perpetual hostility, and have given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end, ⁶ therefore, as I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “I will prepare you for blood, and blood will pursue you. Since you have not hated blood, therefore blood will pursue you. ⁷ Thus I will make Mount Seir an astonishment and a desolation. I will cut off from it him who passes through and him who returns. ⁸ I will fill its mountains with its slain. The slain with the sword will fall in your hills and in your valleys and in all your watercourses. ⁹ I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.

¹⁰ “‘“Because you have said, ‘These two nations and these two countries will be mine, and we will possess it,’ although Yahweh was there, ¹¹ therefore, as I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “I will do according to your anger, and according to your envy which you have shown out of your hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them when I judge you. ¹² You will know that I, Yahweh, have heard all your insults which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, ‘They have been laid desolate. They have been given to us to devour.’ ¹³ You have magnified yourselves against me with your mouth, and have multiplied your words against me. I have heard it.” ¹⁴ The Lord Yahweh says: “When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. ¹⁵ As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so I will do to you. You will be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’”

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah.