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!

⁵ The Lord appeared to him in a dream that night and told him to ask for anything he wanted, and it would be given to him!

⁶ Solomon replied, “You were wonderfully kind to my father David because he was honest and true and faithful to you, and obeyed your commands. And you have continued your kindness to him by giving him a son to succeed him. ⁷ O Lord my God, now you have made me the king instead of my father David, but I am as a little child who doesn’t know his way around. ⁸ And here I am among your own chosen people, a nation so great that there are almost too many people to count! ⁹ Give me an understanding mind so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. For who by himself is able to carry such a heavy responsibility?”

¹⁰ The Lord was pleased with his reply and was glad that Solomon had asked for wisdom. ¹¹ So he replied, “Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people and haven’t asked for a long life, or riches for yourself, or the defeat of your enemies— ¹² yes, I’ll give you what you asked for! I will give you a wiser mind than anyone else has ever had or ever will have! ¹³ And I will also give you what you didn’t ask for—riches and honor! And no one in all the world will be as rich and famous as you for the rest of your life! ¹⁴ And I will give you a long life if you follow me and obey my laws as your father David did.”

¹² Later, in one of his talks, Jesus said to the people, “I am the Light of the world. So if you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, for living light will flood your path.”

¹³ The Pharisees replied, “You are boasting—and lying!”

¹⁴ Jesus told them, “These claims are true even though I make them concerning myself. For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you don’t know this about me. ¹⁵ You pass judgment on me without knowing the facts. I am not judging you now; ¹⁶ but if I were, it would be an absolutely correct judgment in every respect, for I have with me the Father who sent me. ¹⁷ Your laws say that if two men agree on something that has happened, their witness is accepted as fact. ¹⁸ Well, I am one witness, and my Father who sent me is the other.”

¹⁹ “Where is your father?” they asked.

Jesus answered, “You don’t know who I am, so you don’t know who my Father is. If you knew me, then you would know him too.”