The Living Bible (108 page)

1 Kings
3

Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and married one of his daughters. He brought her to Jerusalem to live in the City of David until he could finish building his palace and the Temple and the wall around the city.

    
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 At that time the people of Israel sacrificed their offerings on altars in the hills, for the Temple of the Lord hadn’t yet been built.

    
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 (Solomon loved the Lord and followed all of his father David’s instructions except that he continued to sacrifice in the hills and to offer incense there.)
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 The most famous of the hilltop altars was at Gibeon, and now the king went there and sacrificed one thousand burnt offerings!
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 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!

    
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 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.
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 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.
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 And here I am among your own chosen people, a nation so great that there are almost too many people to count!
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 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?”

    
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 The Lord was pleased with his reply and was glad that Solomon had asked for wisdom.
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 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—
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 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!
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 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!
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 And I will give you a long life if you follow me and obey my laws as your father David did.”

    
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 Then Solomon woke up and realized it had been a dream. He returned to Jerusalem and went into the Tabernacle. And as he stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, he sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then he invited all of his officials to a great banquet.

    
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 Soon afterwards two young prostitutes came to the king to have an argument settled.

    
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 “Sir,” one of them began, “we live in the same house, just the two of us, and recently I had a baby. When it was three days old, this woman’s baby was born too.
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 But her baby died during the night when she rolled over on it in her sleep and smothered it.
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 Then she got up in the night and took my son from beside me while I was asleep, and laid her dead child in my arms and took mine to sleep beside her.
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 And in the morning when I tried to feed my baby it was dead! But when it became light outside, I saw that it wasn’t my son at all.”

    
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 Then the other woman interrupted, “It certainly was her son, and the living child is mine.”

    
“No,” the first woman said, “the dead one is yours and the living one is mine.” And so they argued back and forth before the king.

    
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 Then the king said, “Let’s get the facts straight: both of you claim the living child, and each says that the dead child belongs to the other.
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 All right, bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought to the king.
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 Then he said, “Divide the living child in two and give half to each of these women!”

    
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 Then the woman who really was the mother of the child, and who loved him very much, cried out, “Oh no, sir! Give her the child—don’t kill him!”

    
But the other woman said, “All right, it will be neither yours nor mine; divide it between us!”

    
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 Then the king said, “Give the baby to the woman who wants him to live, for she is the mother!”

    
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 Word of the king’s decision spread quickly throughout the entire nation, and all the people were awed as they realized the great wisdom God had given him.

1 Kings
4

Here is a list of King Solomon’s cabinet members:

    
Azariah (son of Zadok) was the High Priest;

    
Elihoreph and Ahijah (sons of Shisha) were secretaries;

    
Jehoshaphat (son of Ahilud) was the official historian and in charge of the archives;

    
Benaiah (son of Jehoiada) was commander-in-chief of the army;

    
Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

    
Azariah (son of Nathan) was secretary of state;

    
Zabud (son of Nathan) was the king’s personal priest and special friend;

    
Ahishar was manager of palace affairs;

    
Adoniram (son of Abda) was superintendent of public works.

    
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 There were also twelve officials of Solomon’s court—one man from each tribe—responsible for requisitioning food from the people for the king’s household. Each of them arranged provisions for one month of the year.

    
^8-19
 The names of these twelve officers were:

    
Ben-hur, whose area for this taxation was the hill country of Ephraim;

    
Ben-deker, whose area was Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan;

    
Ben-hesed, whose area was Arubboth, including Socoh and all the land of Hepher;

    
Ben-abinadab (who married Solomon’s daughter, the princess Taphath), whose area was the highlands of Dor;

    
Baana (son of Ahilud), whose area was Taanach and Megiddo, all of Beth-shean near Zarethan below Jezreel, and all the territory from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah and over to Jokmeam;

    
Ben-geber, whose area was Ramoth-gilead, including the villages of Jair (the son of Manasseh) in Gilead; and the region of Argob in Bashan, including sixty walled cities with bronze gates;

    
Ahinadab (the son of Iddo), whose area was Mahanaim;

    
Ahimaaz (who married Princess Basemath, another of Solomon’s daughters), whose area was Naphtali;

    
Baana (son of Hushai), whose areas were Asher and Bealoth;

    
Jehoshaphat (son of Paruah), whose area was Issachar;

    
Shimei (son of Ela), whose area was Benjamin;

    
Geber (son of Uri), whose area was Gilead, including the territories of King Sihon of the Amorites and King Og of Bashan.

    
A general manager supervised these officials and their work.

    
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 Israel and Judah were a wealthy, populous, contented nation at this time.
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 King Solomon ruled the whole area from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and down to the borders of Egypt. The conquered peoples of those lands sent taxes to Solomon and continued to serve him throughout his lifetime.

    
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 The daily food requirements for the palace were 195 bushels of fine flour, 390 bushels of meal,
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 10 oxen from the fattening pens, 20 pasture-fed cattle, 100 sheep, and, from time to time, deer, gazelles, roebucks, and plump fowl.

    
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 His dominion extended over all the kingdoms west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah to Gaza. And there was peace throughout the land.

    
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 Throughout the lifetime of Solomon, all of Judah and Israel lived in peace and safety; and each family had its own home and garden.

    
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 Solomon owned forty thousand chariot horses and employed twelve thousand charioteers.
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 Each month the tax officials provided food for King Solomon and his court,
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 also the barley and straw for the royal horses in the stables.

    
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 God gave Solomon great wisdom and understanding, and a mind with broad interests.
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 In fact, his wisdom excelled that of any of the wise men of the East, including those in Egypt.
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 He was wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and he was famous among all the surrounding nations.
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 He was the author of 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs.
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 He was a great naturalist, with interest in animals, birds, snakes, fish, and trees—from the great cedars of Lebanon down to the tiny hyssop which grows in cracks in the wall.
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 And kings from many lands sent their ambassadors to him for his advice.

1 Kings
5

King Hiram of Tyre had always been a great admirer of David, so when he learned that David’s son Solomon was the new king of Israel, he sent ambassadors to extend congratulations and good wishes.
^2-3
 Solomon replied with a proposal about the Temple of the Lord he wanted to build. His father David, Solomon pointed out to Hiram, had not been able to build it because of the numerous wars going on, and he had been waiting for the Lord to give him peace.

    
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 “But now,” Solomon said to Hiram, “the Lord my God has given Israel peace on every side; I have no foreign enemies or internal rebellions.
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 So I am planning to build a Temple for the Lord my God, just as he instructed my father that I should do. For the Lord told him, ‘Your son, whom I will place upon your throne, shall build me a Temple.’
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 Now please assist me with this project. Send your woodsmen to the mountains of Lebanon to cut cedar timber for me, and I will send my men to work beside them, and I will pay your men whatever wages you ask; for as you know, no one in Israel can cut timber like you Sidonians!”

    
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 Hiram was very pleased with the message from Solomon. “Praise God for giving David a wise son to be king of the great nation of Israel,” he said.
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 Then he sent this reply to Solomon: “I have received your message and I will do as you have asked concerning the timber. I can supply both cedar and cypress.
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 My men will bring the logs from the Lebanon mountains to the Mediterranean Sea and build them into rafts. We will float them along the coast to wherever you need them; then we will break the rafts apart and deliver the timber to you. You can pay me with food for my household.”

    
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 So Hiram produced for Solomon as much cedar and cypress timber as he desired,
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 and in return Solomon sent him an annual payment of 125,000 bushels of wheat for his household and 96 gallons of pure olive oil.
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 So the Lord gave great wisdom to Solomon just as he had promised. And Hiram and Solomon made a formal alliance of peace.

    
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 Then Solomon drafted thirty thousand laborers from all over Israel,
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 and rotated them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month, so that each man was a month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was the general superintendent of this labor camp.
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 Solomon also had seventy thousand additional laborers, eighty thousand stonecutters in the hill country,
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 and thirty-three hundred foremen.
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 The stonecutters quarried and shaped huge blocks of stone—a very expensive job—for the foundation of the Temple.
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 Men from Gebal helped Solomon’s and Hiram’s builders in cutting the timber and making the boards, and in preparing the stone for the Temple.