Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹² Praise him, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! ¹³ For he has fortified your gates against all enemies and blessed your children. ¹⁴ He sends peace across your nation and fills your barns with plenty of the finest wheat. ¹⁵ He sends his orders to the world. How swiftly his word flies. ¹⁶ He sends the snow in all its lovely whiteness, scatters the frost upon the ground, ¹⁷ and hurls the hail upon the earth. Who can stand before his freezing cold? ¹⁸ But then he calls for warmer weather, and the spring winds blow and all the river ice is broken. ¹⁹ He has made known his laws and ceremonies of worship to Israel— ²⁰ something he has not done with any other nation; they have not known his commands.

Hallelujah! Yes, praise the Lord!

⁷ That night God appeared to Solomon and told him, “Ask me for anything, and I will give it to you!”

⁸ Solomon replied, “O God, you have been so kind and good to my father David, and now you have given me the kingdom— ⁹ this is all I want! For you have fulfilled your promise to David my father and have made me king over a nation as full of people as the earth is full of dust! ¹⁰ Now give me wisdom and knowledge to rule them properly, for who is able to govern by himself such a great nation as this one of yours?”

¹¹ God replied, “Because your greatest desire is to help your people, and you haven’t asked for personal wealth and honor, and you haven’t asked me to curse your enemies, and you haven’t asked for a long life, but for wisdom and knowledge to properly guide my people— ¹² yes, I am giving you the wisdom and knowledge you asked for! And I am also giving you riches, wealth, and honor such as no other king has ever had before you! And there will never again be so great a king in all the world!”

¹³ Solomon then left the Tabernacle, returned down the hill, and went back to Jerusalem to rule Israel.

³² “However, no one, not even the angels in heaven, nor I myself,^[a] knows the day or hour when these things will happen; only the Father knows. ³³ And since you don’t know when it will happen, stay alert. Be on the watch for my return.^[b]

³⁴ “My coming^[c] can be compared with that of a man who went on a trip to another country. He laid out his employees’ work for them to do while he was gone and told the gatekeeper to watch for his return.

^35-37 “Keep a sharp lookout! For you do not know when I^[d] will come, at evening, at midnight, early dawn or late daybreak. Don’t let me find you sleeping. Watch for my return! This is my message to you and to everyone else.”