Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

David wrote this psalm.

The king's song^[a]

Solomon builds his palace

7 Solomon was also building a palace for himself. After 13 years, he finished it.^{[a] 2} He built the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.^[b] It was 46 metres long, 23 metres wide and 14 metres high. It had four rows of pillars. On top of them were beams. They used cedar wood to make the pillars and the beams. ³ They also used cedar wood to make the roof. They put the roof on top of the pillars and the beams. There were 45 beams, with 15 beams in each row. ⁴ There were three rows of windows on each side of the room. They were opposite each other, in groups of three windows. ⁵ All the doors had square corners and four sides. There were three doors in each group.

⁶ Solomon also built a Hall of Pillars. It was 23 metres long and 14 metres wide. There was an entrance room at the front of the hall. The entrance room also had pillars and a roof.

⁷ Solomon also built a Throne Room. He covered the walls with cedar boards, from the floor to the ceiling. He called it the Hall of Justice. He judged people's arguments in that room.

⁸ Solomon also built a house for himself to live in. It was in a yard behind the Hall of Justice. It was like the other buildings. He also built a house like it for his wife who was the king of Egypt's daughter.

⁹ Solomon's workers used valuable, large stones to make all the buildings, from the front to the great yard that was behind. They cut the stones to the right size and shape with special saws. They used these stones for the foundations and all the way up to the roof.

¹⁰ They made the foundations with very large, valuable stones. The stones were 3.5 metres or 4.5 metres long. ¹¹ On top of the foundation they used the best stones that they cut to the right size. They also used beams of cedar wood. ¹² There was a wall around the great yard. This had three rows of special stones, then a row of cedar beams, and so on. It was like the wall around the yard of the Lord's temple and the entrance room.

⁹ One of Jacob's sons was called Joseph. Jacob was more kind to Joseph than to his other sons. For this reason, Joseph's brothers did not like him. So one day they took Joseph and they sold him as a slave. The men that bought Joseph took him to Egypt. There he became the slave of an important man. All this time, God took care of Joseph. ¹⁰ God saved him from all his troubles and he helped him to live in a wise way. Because of that, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, liked Joseph. He saw that Joseph was very wise. So Pharaoh gave Joseph authority to rule Egypt and everyone in the king's own house.

¹¹ Then there was a famine everywhere in Egypt and in Canaan. Everyone was very hungry and they suffered a lot. Our ancestors also had no food to eat. ¹² Jacob heard news that Pharaoh had stored a lot of wheat in Egypt. So he sent his sons there to buy food from Pharaoh. This was the first time that they went to Egypt.

¹³ Later, Jacob sent his sons back to Egypt for a second time. This time, Joseph told his brothers who he really was. As a result, Pharaoh came to know about Joseph's family. ¹⁴ After this, Joseph sent a message to his father, that he should also come to Egypt with his whole family. At that time, there were 75 people in Jacob's family.

¹⁵ So Jacob went to Egypt with all his family. Jacob and his 12 sons, our ancestors, lived there until they died.^[a]

¹⁶ When the people of Israel left Egypt, they carried with them the dead bodies of Joseph and his family. They took them back to Shechem and they buried them in a hole for dead people there. Abraham had bought that ground in Shechem from the family of a man called Hamor. He had paid Hamor the right money for it.’^[b]