Old/New Testament

King Solomon speaks to his people

1 David's son Solomon made himself a strong ruler over his kingdom.^[a] The Lord his God was with Solomon, so that he became a great king.^[b]

² Solomon called all the people of Israel to come together. They included the army officers who had authority over 1,000 men, and those who had authority over 100 men. They also included the judges, the leaders in Israel and the leaders of families. ³ Then Solomon went with all those people to Gibeon town to worship God. The special tent that the Lord's servant Moses had made in the desert was there. It was the tent where God met with his people. ⁴ Before that, King David had brought God's Covenant Box from Kiriath-Jearim to Jerusalem. He had prepared a place for it in a tent there. ⁵ But the bronze altar that Bezalel had made was in Gibeon, in front of the Lord's tent. (Bezalel was the son of Uri, and the grandson of Hur.) So Solomon and the people went to meet the Lord there in Gibeon. ⁶ Solomon went up to the bronze altar which was in front of the Lord's special tent. He offered 1,000 burnt offerings on the altar to the Lord.

God meets with Solomon

⁷ That night, God showed himself to Solomon. God said, ‘Ask me to give you whatever you want.’

⁸ Solomon answered God, ‘You always showed your faithful love to my father David. Now you have chosen me to be king after him. ⁹ Now, Lord God, please do as you promised to my father David. You have chosen me to rule as king over a great nation with as many people as the dust on the ground. ¹⁰ So please give me wisdom and knowledge, so that I can be a good leader of these people. I will only be able to rule this great nation of your people if you do that for me.’

¹¹ God said to Solomon, ‘I am pleased that you have not asked to have riches or many valuable things. You have not asked me to give you great honour or for me to punish your enemies with death. You have not asked for a long life. Instead you asked me to give you wisdom and knowledge to rule over my people that I have chosen you to rule as king. ¹² Because of that, I will give to you wisdom and knowledge, as you asked. But I will also give you riches, valuable things and honour. You will have more of those than any king who has lived before you and more than any king who will live after you.’

¹³ Solomon left the special tent in Gibeon where God met with his people. He returned to Jerusalem. There he ruled over Israel as king.

Solomon buys horses and chariots

¹⁴ Solomon brought together many chariots and horses for his soldiers to ride. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses. He kept some of them in Jerusalem where he lived as king. He kept the others in cities that he had chosen for this. ¹⁵ While Solomon ruled as king, there was as much silver and gold in Jerusalem as stones! There was as much wood from cedar trees as there were fig trees that grew in the low hills in the west. ¹⁶ Solomon brought his horses from Egypt and from Kue. He sent traders to Kue to buy them for him. ¹⁷ They paid 600 pieces of silver for each chariot that they bought in Egypt. They paid 150 pieces of silver for each horse. They also sold chariots and horses to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Syria.^[c]

Solomon begins to build the temple

2 Solomon decided to build a house to give honour to the Lord's name. He also decided to build a royal palace for himself. ² He chose 70,000 men to carry the heavy things for the buildings, and 80,000 men to cut rocks in the hills. He also chose 3,600 men to lead these workers.

Solomon asks Huram for help

³ Solomon wrote this letter to King Huram of Tyre:

‘You helped my father King David when you sent him wood from cedar trees to build his palace. Please help me now. ⁴ I am ready to build a temple to give honour to the Lord my God. It will be a holy place that belongs to him. We Israelites will burn sweet incense for him there. We will put special bread there every day. We will burn sacrifices to the Lord our God every morning and every evening. We will also do that on Sabbath days, on New Moon festival days and on other special days that God has chosen. He has told us to do this for all time.

⁵ The house that I will build for our God will be a great temple, because he is greater than all gods. ⁶ I know that nobody can really build a house for our God. The whole sky, or even heaven itself, is not big enough to contain him. So I certainly cannot build a place for him to live in, but it will be a place where we can offer sacrifices to him.

⁷ Please send me a man who has special skills to work with gold, silver, bronze and iron, as well as with valuable red, purple and blue materials. He must also know how to cut pictures on metal. He will help my own workers here in Judah^[d] and in Jerusalem. They are workers with special skills that my father David chose to do this work.

⁸ Please send me wood from cedar trees, cypress trees and other strong trees from Lebanon. I know that your men have good skills to cut down trees in Lebanon. My own men will help your men with the work. ⁹ I will need you to send me a lot of wood because I am ready to build a large and beautiful temple. ¹⁰ I will pay your men who cut down the trees. To pay them, I will send 2,000 tons of wheat, 2,000 tons of barley, 450,000 litres of wine and 450,000 litres of olive oil.’

Huram replies to Solomon's letter

¹¹ King Huram of Tyre replied to Solomon with this letter:

‘Because the Lord loves his people, he has chosen you to be their king.’

¹² Huram also said, ‘Praise the Lord, Israel's God! He made the whole universe. He has now given a wise son to King David, a son who is clever and who understands things well. He will build a temple for the Lord and a royal palace for himself.

¹³ I have decided to send Huram-Abi to you. He is a wise man who has special skills. ¹⁴ His mother belonged to the tribe of Dan. His father came from Tyre. He knows how to work with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone and wood. He can also work with purple, blue and red materials, and with white linen. He can make all kinds of pictures on metal, if you show him what you want. He will help your own workers and the workers that your father King David chose.

¹⁵ Please sir, now send us the wheat, barley, olive oil and wine that you promised. ¹⁶ Then we will cut the wood that you need from the trees in Lebanon. We will tie the wood together to make boats. Then we will send them on the sea to Joppa. You can take the wood from there up to Jerusalem.’^[e]

Solomon chooses men to build the temple

¹⁷ Solomon counted all the foreign men who were living in Israel, as his father David had done. There were 153,600 foreign men. ¹⁸ He chose 70,000 of them to carry things for the buildings and 80,000 of them to cut rocks in the hills. He also chose 3,600 of them to lead the workers, to make sure that they finished the work properly.

Solomon begins to build

3 Then Solomon began to build the Lord's temple in Jerusalem. He built it on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had shown himself to his father David.^[f] David had prepared a place for the temple there, at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.^{[g] 2} Solomon began to build the temple on the second day of the second month of the fourth year that he ruled Israel as king.^[h]

³ The foundation for God's temple was 27 metres long and 9 metres wide. (They measured it in cubits.)

⁴ There was an entrance room at the front of the temple's big hall. It was as wide as the temple, 9 metres wide. It was 9 metres high.^[i] Solomon's workers covered the inside of the entrance room with pure gold.

⁵ They covered the walls inside the big hall with boards of cypress wood. Then they covered the boards with pure gold. They drew pictures of palm trees and chains on the walls. ⁶ They used valuable stones to make the temple beautiful. The gold that they used came from Parvaim. ⁷ They used gold to cover all parts of the temple: the beams for its roof, the entrances, the walls and the doors. They cut pictures of cherubs on the walls.

The Most Holy Place in the temple

⁸ Solomon's workers built the Most Holy Place in the temple. It was 9 metres long and 9 metres wide. That was how wide the temple itself was. They used about 20,000 kilograms of pure gold to cover its walls. ⁹ The gold nails weighed the same as 50 gold coins. They also covered the walls of the upstairs rooms with gold.

¹⁰ In the Most Holy Place, they made models of two cherubs. They covered them with gold. ^11-13 The cherubs stood side by side in the Most Holy Place. Their faces looked towards the big hall. Each cherub had two wings. Each wing was 2.2 metres long. They held their wings out so that one wing of each cherub touched a wing of the other cherub. The other wing of each cherub touched a wall of the Most Holy Place. The four wings of the two cherubs reached across 9 metres.

¹⁴ Solomon's workers used blue, purple and red material and good linen to make a special curtain. It had pictures of cherubs on it.

The two pillars

¹⁵ Solomon's workers made two pillars to stand at the front of the temple. They were 16 metres high.^[j] There was a piece on the top of each pillar that was 2.2 metres high.

¹⁶ They made images of chains around the top pieces of the pillars. They also made 100 images of pomegranates among the chains. ¹⁷ Then they put the two pillars at the entrance of the temple. One pillar stood on the south side of the entrance. The other pillar stood on the north side. Solomon called the pillar on the south side ‘Jakin’. He called the pillar on the north side ‘Boaz’.^[k]

The story about the shepherd

10 Jesus then said, ‘I tell you this: A shepherd keeps his sheep in a safe place with a wall round it. There is a gate into that safe place. Anyone who gets into that place by another way, not through the gate, is not the shepherd. That person is a robber. He comes to take away the sheep for himself. ² But the shepherd goes in through the gate. ³ The person who watches the gate opens it for the shepherd. The sheep recognize the shepherd's voice. He calls each of his own sheep by their name and he leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought out all his own sheep, he goes in front of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ They will not follow a stranger. They will run away from a stranger because they do not recognize his voice.’

⁶ Jesus told this story like a picture to teach the people. But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

Jesus is like the good shepherd

⁷ So Jesus spoke again. He said, ‘I tell you this: I am like the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All other men who came before me were like robbers.^[a] But the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹ I am like the gate. Everyone who comes in through me will be safe. They will be free to come in and to go out. And they will find plenty of food. ¹⁰ The robber only wants to take away my sheep. He wants to kill them. He comes only to destroy them. But I have come so that they can have true life. And so that they can have everything that they need.

¹¹ I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd would die so that he can save his sheep. ¹² Another man may take care of sheep so that he gets money. But the sheep do not belong to him. A man like that is not the shepherd. If a wolf comes, a man like that runs away when he sees it. He leaves the sheep in danger. Then the wolf attacks the sheep. It causes them to run away in all directions. ¹³ That man runs away because the sheep do not belong to him. He does not think that the sheep are important.

¹⁴ I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep, and they know me. ¹⁵ I know them in the same way that my Father knows me. And they know me in the same way that I know the Father. I will die so that I can save my sheep. ¹⁶ I also have other sheep, and I must bring them too. They do not belong to this group of sheep. But they also will listen to my voice. So all the sheep will become one group, and they will have one shepherd. ¹⁷ The Father loves me because I choose to die for my sheep. But after I give my life like that, I will become alive again. ¹⁸ Nobody can take my life away from me. Instead, I myself can choose to die. I have authority to do that. I also have authority to become alive again. My Father has said that I must do that.’

¹⁹ Again, the Jews could not agree about these things that Jesus said. ²⁰ Many of them said, ‘He has a demon in him and he is crazy. You should not listen to him!’ ²¹ But other people said, ‘A man with a demon in him could not teach like this! A demon could not make blind people able to see!’

The Jewish leaders do not believe in Jesus

²² It was the time for the Jewish Festival called Hanukkah.^[b] This happened in Jerusalem. It was winter.

²³ Jesus was walking in the yard of the temple, under a place with a roof. The place was called Solomon's porch.