M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

11 King Shlomo loved many foreign women besides the daughter of Pharaoh. There were women from the Mo’avi, ‘Amoni, Edomi, Tzidoni and Hitti — ² nations about which Adonai had said to the people of Isra’el, “You are not to go among them or they among you, because they will turn your hearts away toward their gods.” But Shlomo was deeply attached to them by his love. ³ He had 700 wives, all princesses, and 300 concubines; and his wives turned his heart away. ⁴ For when Shlomo became old, his wives turned his heart away toward other gods; so that he was not wholehearted with Adonai his God, as David his father had been. ⁵ For Shlomo followed ‘Ashtoret the goddess of the Tzidoni and Milkom the abomination of the ‘Amoni. ⁶ Thus Shlomo did what was evil in Adonai’s view and did not fully follow Adonai, as David his father had done. ⁷ Shlomo built a high place for K’mosh the abomination of Mo’av on the hill on front of Yerushalayim, and another for Molekh the abomination of the people of ‘Amon. ⁸ This is what he did for all his foreign wives, who then offered and sacrificed to their gods. ⁹ So Adonai grew angry with Shlomo, because his heart had turned away from Adonai the God of Isra’el, who had appeared to him twice ¹⁰ and given him orders concerning this matter that he should not follow other gods. But he didn’t obey Adonai’s orders.

¹¹ So Adonai said to Shlomo, “Since this is what has been in your mind, and you haven’t kept my covenant and my regulations which I ordered you to obey, I will tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. ¹² However, for David your father’s sake I won’t do it while you are alive, but I will tear it away from your son. ¹³ Even then, I won’t tear away all the kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Yerushalayim, which I have chosen.”

¹⁴ Then Adonai raised up an adversary against Shlomo, Hadad the Edomi, of the royal line of Edom. ¹⁵ Back when David had been in Edom, and Yo’av the commander of the army had gone up to bury the dead, having killed every male in Edom ¹⁶ (for Yo’av and all Isra’el had stayed there six months, until he had eliminated every male in Edom), ¹⁷ Hadad had fled, he and a number of Edomi servants of his father’s with him, and gone into Egypt; at the time Hadad had been but a small boy. ¹⁸ On their way, they passed through Midyan and arrived in Pa’ran, took with them men from Pa’ran, and went on into Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt. He gave Hadad a house, saw to it that he had food and gave him land. ¹⁹ Hadad became a great favorite of Pharaoh, so that he gave him his own wife’s sister in marriage, that is, the sister of Tachp’neis the queen. ²⁰ The sister of Tachp’neis bore him G’nuvat his son, and Tachp’neis brought him up in Pharaoh’s own house, so that G’nuvat was in Pharaoh’s house along with Pharaoh’s sons. ²¹ When Hadad in Egypt heard that David slept with his ancestors and Yo’av the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me leave, so that I can return to my own country.” ²² Pharaoh asked him, “But what have you lacked with me that makes you want just now to go to your own country?” “Nothing in particular,” he replied, “but let me leave, anyway.”

²³ God raised up another adversary against Shlomo, Rezon the son of Elyada, who had fled from his lord Hadad‘ezer king of Tzovah ²⁴ when David killed the men from Tzovah. Rezon rallied men to himself and became the leader of a band of marauders; they went to Dammesek and settled there, while he became king of Dammesek. ²⁵ He remained an adversary as long as Shlomo lived, causing difficulties in addition to those of Hadad. He detested Isra’el and ruled Aram.

²⁶ Also Yarov‘am the son of N’vat, an Efrati from Tz’redah, whose mother’s name was Tz’ru‘ah, one of Shlomo’s servants, rebelled against the king. ²⁷ Here is the reason he rebelled against the king: Shlomo was building the Millo and closing the breach in [the wall of] the City of David his father. ²⁸ Now this Yarov‘am was a strong, energetic man; and Shlomo, seeing how serious the young man was, made him supervisor over all the work being done by the tribe of Yosef. ²⁹ Once, during this period, when Yarov‘am had gone out of Yerushalayim, the prophet Achiyah from Shiloh spotted him traveling. Achiyah was wearing a new cloak, and the two of them were alone in open country. ³⁰ Achiyah took hold of his new cloak that he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. ³¹ Then he said to Yarov‘am, “Take ten pieces for yourself! For here is what Adonai the God of Isra’el says: ‘I am going to tear the kingdom out of Shlomo’s hand, and I will give ten tribes to you. ³² But he will keep one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Yerushalayim, the city I have chosen from all the tribes of Isra’el. ³³ I will do this because they have abandoned me and worshipped ‘Ashtoret the goddess of the Tzidoni, K’mosh the god of Mo’av and Milkom the god of the people of ‘Amon. They haven’t lived according to my ways, so that they could do what was right in my view and obey my regulations and rulings, as did David his father. ³⁴ Nevertheless, I will not take the entire kingdom away from him; but I will make him prince as long as he lives, for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose, because he obeyed my mitzvot and regulations. ³⁵ However, I will take the kingdom away from his son and give ten tribes of it to you. ³⁶ To his son I will give one tribe, so that David my servant will always have a light burning before me in Yerushalayim, the city I chose for myself as the place to put my name. ³⁷ I will take you, and you will rule over everything you want; you will be king over Isra’el. ³⁸ Now if you will listen to all that I order you, live according to my ways and do what is right in my view, so that you observe my regulations and mitzvot, as David my servant did; then I will be with you, and I will build you a lasting dynasty, as I built for David; and I will give Isra’el to you. ³⁹ For this [offense] I will trouble David’s descendants, but not forever.” ⁴⁰ Because of this Shlomo tried to kill Yarov‘am; but Yarov‘am roused himself, fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and stayed in Egypt until the death of Shlomo.

⁴¹ Other activities of Shlomo, all he accomplished and his wisdom are recorded in the Annals of Shlomo. ⁴² The length of Shlomo’s reign in Yerushalayim over all Isra’el was forty years. ⁴³ Then Shlomo slept with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David his father, and Rechav‘am his son became king in his place.

2 Therefore, if you have any encouragement for me from your being in union with the Messiah, any comfort flowing from love, any fellowship with me in the Spirit, or any compassion and sympathy, ² then complete my joy by having a common purpose and a common love, by being one in heart and mind. ³ Do nothing out of rivalry or vanity; but, in humility, regard each other as better than yourselves — ⁴ look out for each other’s interests and not just for your own.

⁵ Let your attitude toward one another be governed by your being in union with the Messiah Yeshua:

¹² So, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed when I was with you, it is even more important that you obey now when I am away from you: keep working out your deliverance with fear and trembling,^{[b] 13} for God is the one working among you both the willing and the working for what pleases him. ¹⁴ Do everything without kvetching or arguing, ¹⁵ so that you may be blameless and pure children of God, without defect in the midst of a twisted and perverted generation,^[c] among whom you shine like stars in the sky, ¹⁶ as you hold on to the Word of Life. If you do this, I will be able to boast, when the Day of the Messiah comes, that I did not run or toil for nothing. ¹⁷ Indeed, even if my lifeblood is poured out as a drink offering over the sacrifice and service of your faith, I will still be glad and rejoice with you all. ¹⁸ Likewise, you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

¹⁹ But I hope in the Lord Yeshua to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I too may be cheered by knowing how you are doing. ²⁰ I have no one who compares with him, who will care so sincerely for your welfare — ²¹ people all put their own interests ahead of the Messiah Yeshua’s. ²² But you know his character, that like a child with his father he slaved with me to advance the Good News. ²³ So I hope to send him just as soon as I see how things will go with me, ²⁴ and I am confident in the Lord that before long I myself will come too.

²⁵ Also I considered it necessary to send you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow-worker and fellow-soldier, the emissary whom you sent to take care of my needs; ²⁶ since he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard he was ill. ²⁷ Indeed he was ill, close to death; but God had mercy on him — and not only on him, but also on me — otherwise I would have had sorrow piled on sorrow. ²⁸ Therefore, I am all the more eager to send him, so that you may rejoice when you see him again; and I, for my part, may be less sad. ²⁹ So give him a joyful welcome in the Lord; honor such people. ³⁰ For he risked his life and nearly died working for the Messiah, in order to give me the help you were not in a position to give.

41 He brought me to the sanctuary and measured at ten-and-a-half feet the thickness of the walls on either side of its entrance, which was [also] the thickness of [the walls surrounding] the “tent” [that is, the sanctuary together with the Especially Holy Place]. ² The width of the entrance was seventeen-and-a-half feet. The sides of the entrance were eight-and-three-quarters feet on the one side and the same on the other. He measured its length at seventy feet and its width at thirty-five feet.

³ Next, he went farther in [to the entranceway leading to the Especially Holy Place] and measured at three-and-a-half feet [the thickness of] each entrance support. He measured at ten-and-a-half feet the total thickness of the walls on either side of the entrance; and he measured at twelve-and-a-quarter feet the width of the entrance. ⁴ [Continuing into the inner room,] he said to me, “This is the Especially Holy Place.” He measured its length at thirty-five feet and its width at thirty-five feet along the wall nearest the sanctuary.

⁵ [On his way out,] he measured the thickness of the wall of the house at ten-and-a-half feet [at ground level], and the width of all the side-rooms surrounding the house, seven feet [at ground level]. ⁶ There were three floors of side-rooms, thirty on each floor; and the wall around the house was terraced, so that the side-rooms rested on the terraces and were not supported on [the vertical parts of] the wall. ⁷ The higher side-rooms surrounding the house were wider than the lower ones, as were the passageways next to the side-rooms on each floor; thus the width of the side-rooms plus that of the passageways increased as one went up from floor to floor. The ascent from the lowest floor to the highest was [by a ramp] through the middle floor.

⁸ I saw that the house had a raised pavement all around it which extended outward a full rod of ten-and-a-half feet from where the foundations of the side-rooms joined it.

⁹ The outer wall of the side-rooms was eight-and-three-quarters feet thick [at ground level], likewise the empty space left [between] the structure containing the side-rooms [and the house itself also measured eight-and-three quarters feet wide]. ¹⁰ On all sides around the house itself was a space thirty-five feet wide between it and the [block of] rooms [for the cohanim]. ¹¹ The doors of the side-rooms opened toward an empty space, one door facing north and the other facing south; the empty space was eight-and-three-quarters feet [wide] all around.

¹² The building on the west facing the separated yard had a[n interior] width of 122 1/2 feet, a[n interior] length of 157 1/2 feet and exterior walls eight-and-three-quarters feet thick all the way around.

¹³ He measured the length of the house at 175 feet; then a distance that included [the width of] the separated yard, [the interior width of] the building and [the thickness of] its [front and back exterior] walls, at 175 feet. ¹⁴ The distance along the facade of the house on the east through the separated yard[s to the north and south] was 175 feet. ¹⁵ He measured the length of the building facing the separated yard behind [the house], together with its galleries on both sides, at 175 feet.

The sanctuary, the inner place and the vestibules [leading from the house] to the courtyard, ¹⁶ as well as the thresholds, narrow windows and galleries around these three, had wood panelling around them as far as the thresholds and from the ground up to the windows; and the windows were covered. ¹⁷ From the area above the entrance to the interior of the house, as well as outside, and on the entire wall all the way around, both inside and outside, was a pattern ¹⁸ consisting of k’ruvim and palm trees, with a palm tree between every two k’ruvim. Every keruv had two faces; ¹⁹ so that there was the face of a man toward the palm tree on its one side and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on its other side — this was the pattern all the way around the house. ²⁰ The k’ruvim and palm trees ran from the ground to above the door, and likewise on the wall of the sanctuary. ²¹ As for the sanctuary, the door-frames were squared, and the appearance of the [Especially] Holy Place was like the appearance [I saw at the K’var River]. ²² The altar was of wood, five-and-a-quarter feet high and three-and-a-half feet long; its length and walls were also of wood. He said to me, “This is the table which is in the presence of Adonai.”

²³ The sanctuary had two doors, and the [Especially] Holy Place ²⁴ had two doors. The doors had two swinging leaves each — two leaves for the one door and two for the other. ²⁵ On them, that is, on the doors of the sanctuary, were carved k’ruvim and palm trees like those on the walls; and on the exterior facade of the outside entrance were thick beams of wood. ²⁶ There were narrow windows flanked by palm trees on both sides of the entrance; the side-rooms of the house and the thick beams also [had palm trees].