Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

This psalm is a song to sing on Sabbath days.

A song to praise God

²⁶ 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 put the others in cities that he had chosen for this.

²⁷ While Solomon ruled as king, there was as much silver 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. ²⁸ Solomon brought his horses from Egypt and from Kue. He sent traders to Kue to buy them for him. ²⁹ Each chariot that they bought in Egypt cost 600 pieces of silver. Each horse cost 150 pieces of silver. They also sold chariots and horses to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Syria.

The Lord punishes King Solomon

11 Solomon loved Pharaoh's daughter and many other foreign women. Those women were Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. ² The Lord had warned the Israelites about these nations. He said, ‘You must not marry people from these nations. If you do, they will cause you to worship their own gods.’ But Solomon did love these foreign women and he married them.

³ Solomon had 700 royal wives. He also had 300 slave wives.^[a] His wives caused him to turn away from the Lord. ⁴ When Solomon became old, his wives caused him to serve other gods. Solomon no longer completely loved the Lord his God as his father David had done.

⁵ Solomon worshipped Ashtoreth, the female god of the Sidonian people. He also worshipped Molech, the wicked god of the Ammonite people. ⁶ As a result, Solomon did things that the Lord said were evil. He did not serve the Lord faithfully as his father David had done. ⁷ On a hill east of Jerusalem Solomon built a place to worship false gods. He worshipped Chemosh, the wicked god of the Moabite people, and Molech, the wicked god of the Ammonite people. ⁸ Solomon also built places where his foreign wives could worship their gods. They burned incense and they offered sacrifices to their own gods in these places.

⁴ Abel believed God. So he offered a better sacrifice to God than Cain did. And because of Abel's faith, God accepted him as right with him. God said that he was happy with Abel's gifts. Because Abel trusted God, we can still learn from his faith. Abel died long ago, but it is like he is still speaking to us.^[a]

⁵ Enoch also believed God. Because of Enoch's faith, God took him away to heaven. He did not die like other people. As a result, nobody could ever find him, because God had taken him away. Before God took him away, it was clear that Enoch had made God happy.^[b]

⁶ Unless we trust God, it is impossible for us to make God happy. Anyone who comes to God must believe that God is there. They must also believe that God helps everyone who wants to know him.

⁷ Noah believed God too. God told Noah about bad things that would happen. Nobody could see what would happen, but Noah believed God's message. He was careful to do exactly what God told him. He built a large ship to save his family. As a result of his faith, Noah showed that everyone else in the world was wrong. Noah himself became one of those people that God accepted as right with him. They are right with God because they trust him.^[c]