Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

(A psalm by David.)

A King and His Promises

Solomon's Palace Is Built

7 Solomon's palace took 13 years to build.

^2-3 Forest Hall was the largest room in the palace. It was 44 meters long, 22 meters wide, and 13.5 meters high, and was lined with cedar from Lebanon. It had 4 rows of cedar pillars, 15 in a row, and they held up 45 cedar beams. The ceiling was covered with cedar. ⁴ Three rows of windows on each side faced each other, ⁵ and there were three doors on each side near the front of the hall.

⁶ Pillar Hall was 22 meters long and 13.5 meters wide. A covered porch supported by pillars went all the way across the front of the hall.

⁷ Solomon's throne was in Justice Hall, where he judged cases. This hall was completely lined with cedar.

^8 (A) The section of the palace where Solomon lived was behind Justice Hall and looked exactly like it. He had a similar place built for his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt.

⁹ From the foundation all the way to the top, these buildings and the courtyard were made out of the best stones^[a] carefully cut to size, then smoothed on every side with saws. ¹⁰ The foundation stones were huge, good stones—some of them four and a half meters long and others three and a half meters long. ¹¹ The cedar beams and other stones that had been cut to size were on top of these foundation stones. ¹² The walls around the palace courtyard were made out of three layers of cut stones with one layer of cedar beams, just like the front porch and the inner courtyard of the temple.

^9 (A) These men were our ancestors.

Joseph was also one of our famous ancestors. His brothers were jealous of him and sold him as a slave to be taken to Egypt. But God was with him ^10 (B) and rescued him from all his troubles. God made him so wise that the Egyptian king Pharaoh thought highly of him. The king even made Joseph governor over Egypt and put him in charge of everything he owned.

^11 (C) Everywhere in Egypt and Canaan the grain crops failed. There was terrible suffering, and our ancestors could not find enough to eat. ¹² But when Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there for the first time. ^13 (D) It was on their second trip that Joseph told his brothers who he was, and the king learned about Joseph's family.

^14 (E) Joseph sent for his father and his relatives. In all, there were 75 of them. ^15 (F) His father went to Egypt and died there, just as our ancestors did. ^16 (G) Later their bodies were taken back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor.