Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A psalm; a song; for the day of rest—a holy day.
92 It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to make music to praise your name, O Most High.
2 It is good to announce your mercy in the morning
and your faithfulness in the evening
3 on a ten-stringed instrument and a harp
and with a melody on a lyre.
4 You made me find joy in what you have done, O Lord.
I will sing joyfully about the works of your hands.
12 Righteous people flourish like palm trees
and grow tall like the cedars in Lebanon.
13 They are planted in the Lord’s house.
They blossom in our God’s courtyards.
14 Even when they are old, they still bear fruit.
They are always healthy and fresh.
15 They make it known that the Lord is decent.
He is my rock.
He is never unfair.
26 Solomon built up ⌞his army⌟ with chariots and war horses. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 war horses. He stationed ⌞some⌟ in chariot cities and ⌞others⌟ with himself in Jerusalem. 27 The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedars as plentiful as fig trees in the foothills.
28 Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Kue. The king’s traders bought them from Kue for a fixed price. 29 Each chariot was imported from Egypt for 15 pounds of silver and each horse for 6 ounces of silver. For the same price they obtained horses to export to all the Hittite and Aramean kings.
Solomon’s Idolatry
11 King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter. He loved Hittite women and women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon. 2 They came from the nations about which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “Never intermarry with them. They will surely tempt you to follow their gods.” But Solomon was obsessed with their love. 3 He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 wives who were concubines.[a] 4 In his old age, his wives tempted him to follow other gods. He was no longer committed to the Lord his God as his father David had been. 5 Solomon followed Astarte (the goddess of the Sidonians) and Milcom (the disgusting idol of the Ammonites). 6 So Solomon did what the Lord considered evil. He did not wholeheartedly follow the Lord as his father David had done. 7 Then Solomon built an illegal worship site on the hill east of Jerusalem for Chemosh (the disgusting idol of Moab) and for Molech (the disgusting idol of the Ammonites). 8 He did these things for each of his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
4 Faith led Abel to offer God a better sacrifice than Cain’s sacrifice. Through his faith Abel received God’s approval, since God accepted his sacrifices. Through his faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
5 Faith enabled Enoch to be taken instead of dying. No one could find him, because God had taken him. Scripture states that before Enoch was taken, God was pleased with him. 6 No one can please God without faith. Whoever goes to God must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
7 Faith led Noah to listen when God warned him about the things in the future that he could not see. He obeyed God and built a ship to save his family. Through faith Noah condemned the world and received God’s approval that comes through faith.
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