The Daily Audio Bible

Wealth and Wisdom

5 Now Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines up to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life. ² Solomon’s provision for one day was 30 measures of fine flour, 60 measures of meal, ³ 10 fat oxen, 20 pasture-fed oxen, 100 sheep, beside deer, gazelles, roebucks and fatted geese. ^{[a] 4} For he had dominion over the entire region west of the River, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings west of the River; and he had shalom on all sides around him. ⁵ So Judah and Israel lived securely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

⁶ Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen. ⁷ So those officers provided food for King Solomon and all who came to King Solomon’s table, each in his month. They let nothing be lacking. ⁸ They also brought barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds to the place where it should be, each according to his charge.

⁹ God gave Solomon wisdom and discernment in great measure, and a breadth of understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore. ¹⁰ Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. ¹¹ For he was wiser than all men—than Ethan the Ezrahite, or Heman, Calcol and Darda, sons of Mahol—and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. ¹² He also composed 3,000 proverbs and his songs were 1,005. ¹³ He also spoke about trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall, and he spoke about beasts, birds, creeping things and fish. ¹⁴ People came from everywhere to hear the wisdom of Solomon—from all kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

Hiram Offers Materials

¹⁵ Then King Hiram of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram was always a friend of David. ¹⁶ So Solomon sent word to Hiram saying: ¹⁷ “You know how my father David could not build a House for the Name of Adonai his God because of the wars around him on every side, until Adonai put them under the soles of my feet. ¹⁸ But now Adonai my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor bad incident. ¹⁹ So behold, I intend to build a House for the Name of Adonai my God, as Adonai spoke to my father David saying: ‘Your son, whom I will set upon your throne in your place, he will build the House for My Name.’

²⁰ “So now, command that they cut cedars from Lebanon for me. My servants will be with your servants, and I will give you wages for your servants according to whatever you say; for as you know, there is none among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”

²¹ When Hiram heard Solomon’s words, he rejoiced greatly and said: “Blessed be Adonai today, who has given to David a wise son over this great people.” ²² So Hiram sent word to Solomon saying: “I have heard the message that you sent to me. I will do all you desire concerning the cedar and cypress timber. ²³ My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place that you indicate to me. There I will break them up and you will carry them away. Then you will accomplish my desire by giving food for my household.”

²⁴ So Hiram kept providing Solomon with cedar and cypress timber, as much as he desired, ²⁵ and Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 measures of wheat for food for his household and 20 measures of beaten oil. Thus Solomon would give to Hiram year by year. ²⁶ Adonai gave Solomon wisdom as He promised him, so there was shalom between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them cut a covenant.

²⁷ King Solomon also imposed forced laborers from all Israel—the levy was 30,000 men. ²⁸ He sent them to Lebanon, in shifts of 10,000 a month: they would stay a month in Lebanon, then two months at home. Adoniram was over the forced labor. ²⁹ Solomon had 70,000 porters, and 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, ³⁰ besides Solomon’s chief officers that were over the work—3,300 who supervised the people who were doing the work. ³¹ Then the king commanded, and they quarried great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the House with cut stones. ³² So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders along with the Gebalites cut them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the House.

Building the Temple

6 Now it came to pass, 480 years after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv (which is the second month), that he began to build Adonai’s House. ² Now the House that King Solomon built for Adonai was 60 cubits^[b] long, 20 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. ³ The porch in front of the Sanctuary of the House was 20 cubits in length—corresponding to the breadth of the House—and its depth was ten cubits from the front of the House. ⁴ Also for the House he made windows with artistic frames. ⁵ Against the wall of the House he built a side-structure surrounding both the Temple and the inner Sanctuary; thus he made side-chambers all around. ⁶ The lowest story was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide. All around on the outside he provided offset ledges in the wall of the House, so that the beams would not be inserted into the walls of the House. ⁷ For the House, while being constructed, was built of stone finished at the quarry; with neither hammer, axe nor any iron tool heard in the House during its construction.

⁸ The doorway to the lowest story of the side chambers was on the right side of the House. They went up by winding stairs to the middle story, and from the middle to the third. ⁹ When he finished building the House, he covered the House with beams and planks of cedar. ¹⁰ He built the stories of the side-structure against the whole House, each five cubits high, and they were fastened to the House with timbers of cedar.

¹¹ Then the word of Adonai came to Solomon saying: ¹² “As for this House which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes, execute My ordinances and keep all My mitzvot by walking in them, then I will establish My word with you, which I spoke to your father David, ¹³ I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel.”^[c]

¹⁴ So Solomon built the House and finished it. ¹⁵ He paneled the walls of the House on the inside with cedar planks of cedar; from the floor of the House to the ceiling he overlaid on the inside with wood; and he overlaid the floor of the House with planks of cypress. ¹⁶ Then he partitioned off 20 cubits at the rear part of the House, using cedar boards from the floor to the ceiling, building it as the inner Sanctuary—the Holy of Holies. ¹⁷ The House, that is, the Sanctuary, was 40 cubits long in front of the inner Sanctuary. ¹⁸ The cedar of the interior of the House was carved as gourds and open flowers. All was cedar; no stone was visible.

¹⁹ He prepared an inner Sanctuary within the House, to set there the ark of the covenant of Adonai. ²⁰ The inner Sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in breadth and twenty cubits in height. He overlaid it with pure gold, and overlaid the cedar altar. ²¹ So Solomon overlaid the interior of the House with pure gold; and he drew chains of gold across the front of the inner Sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold. ²² So the entire House he overlaid with gold until the entire House was finished; even the entire altar by the inner Sanctuary he overlaid with gold.

²³ In the inner Sanctuary he made two cheruvim of olive wood, each ten cubits high. ²⁴ The length of one wing of the cheruv was five cubits and the length of the other wing of the cheruv was five cubits—ten cubits from the end of one wing to the end of the other, ²⁵ and the other cheruv was also ten cubits. Both cheruvim were the same in measure and form: ²⁶ the height of the one cheruv was ten cubits and so the other cheruv. ²⁷ Then he placed the cheruvim inside the inner House. When the wings of the cheruvim extended, the wing of the one touched one wall while the wing of the other cheruv touched the other wall, while their wings in the center of the House touched one another. ²⁸ He also overlaid the cheruvim with gold.

²⁹ Then he carved all the walls surrounding the House with carved engravings of cheruvim, palm trees and open flowers, in both the inner and outer rooms, ³⁰ and he also covered the floor of both the inner and the outer rooms of the House with gold. ³¹ For the entrance of the inner Sanctuary he made doors of olive wood, the frame of the doorposts having five angles. ³² As for the double doors of olive wood, he carved on them carvings of cheruvim, palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold. He beat out gold over the cheruvim and over the palm trees.

³³ He also made for the Temple entrance four-sided doorposts of olive wood ³⁴ and double doors of cypress wood. The two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. ³⁵ He carved cheruvim, palm trees and open flowers on them and overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the graven work. ³⁶ He built the inner court with three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beams.

³⁷ In the fourth year, in the month of Ziv, the foundation of the House of Adonai was laid, ³⁸ and in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul (which is the eighth month), the House was completed in all its parts and according to all its details. So he was seven years building it.

7 Then the kohen gadol said, “Are these things so?”

² Stephen declared, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. ³ He said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come here to the land that I will show you.’ ⁴ Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God moved him to this land where you now live. ⁵ He gave him no inheritance in it—not even a foothold—yet He promised ‘to give it to him as a possession to him and to his descendants after him,’ even though he had no child.

⁶ “But God spoke in this way, that his ‘descendants would be foreigners in a land belonging to others, and they would enslave and mistreat them for four hundred years. ⁷ But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’^[a]

⁸ “Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision.^[b] So he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and so Isaac with Jacob, and Jacob with the twelve patriarchs. ⁹ The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him. ¹⁰ He rescued him out of all his troubles and granted him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and all his household.

¹¹ “Famine and great suffering came over all Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers could find no food. ¹² But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. ¹³ On the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and his family became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ So Joseph sent and called for Jacob and all his relatives—seventy-five persons. ¹⁵ Jacob went down to Egypt and died, he and our fathers. ¹⁶ They were carried to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷ “But as the time drew near for the promise God had sworn to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt— ¹⁸ until ‘there arose another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph.’ ^{[c] 19} Dealing with our people with cruel cunning, this king mistreated our fathers and forced them to abandon their infants so they would not survive.

²⁰ “At this time Moses was born—extraordinary before God. For three months he was nurtured in his father’s house. ²¹ And when he was set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and raised him as her own son. ²² Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in his words and deeds.

²³ “When he was approaching forty years of age, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, Bnei-Yisrael. ²⁴ When he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he went to the defense of the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵ He was assuming that his brothers understood that by his hand God was delivering them, but they did not understand. ²⁶ So on the next day he appeared to them as they were fighting. He tried to reconcile them in shalom, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?’

²⁷ “But the one doing wrong to his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge over us? ²⁸ You don’t want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’ ^{[d] 29} At this remark, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

He Gives Sleep to His Children

Psalm 127