The Daily Audio Bible
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1 And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and magnified him to a high degree.
2 And Solomon gave orders to all Israel, to the captains of thousands, and of hundreds, and to the rulers, and to the judges of all Israel, and the heads of the families:
3 And he went with all the multitude to the high place of Gabaon, where was the tabernacle of the covenant of the Lord, which Moses the servant of God made, in the wilderness.
4 For David had brought the ark of God from Cariathiarim to the place, which he had prepared for it, and where he had pitched a tabernacle for it, that is, in Jerusalem.
5 And the altar of brass, which Beseleel the son of Uri the son of Hur had made, was there before the tabernacle of the Lord: and Solomon and all the assembly sought it:
6 And Solomon went up thither to the brazen altar, before the tabernacle of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up on it a thousand victims.
7 And behold that night God appeared to him, saying: Ask what thou wilt that I should give thee.
8 And Solomon said to God: Thou hast shewn great kindness to my father David: and hast made me king in his stead.
9 Now therefore, O Lord God, let thy word be fulfilled, which thou hast promised to David my father: for thou hast made me king over thy great people, which is as innumerable as the dust of the earth.
10 Give me wisdom and knowledge that I may come in and go out before thy people: for who can worthily judge this thy people, which is so great?
11 And God said to Solomon: Because this choice hath pleased thy heart, and thou hast not asked riches, and wealth, and glory, nor the lives of them that hate thee, nor many days of life: but hast asked wisdom and knowledge, to be able to judge my people, over which I have made thee king,
12 Wisdom and knowledge are granted to thee: and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and glory, so that none of the kings before thee, nor after thee, shall be like thee.
13 Then Solomon came from the high place of Gabaon to Jerusalem before the tabernacle of the covenant, and reigned over Israel.
14 And he gathered to himself chariots and horsemen, and he had a thousand four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen: and he placed them in the cities of the chariots, and with the king in Jerusalem.
15 And the king made silver and gold to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar trees as sycamores, which grow in the plains in great multitude.
16 And there were horses brought him from Egypt, and from Coa by the king's merchants, who went, and bought at a price,
17 A chariot of four horses for six hundred pieces of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty: in like manner market was made in all the kingdoms of the Hethites, and of the kings of Syria.
2 And Solomon determined to build a house to the name of the Lord, and a palace for himself.
2 And he numbered out seventy thousand men to bear burdens, and eighty thousand to hew stones in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them.
3 He sent also to Hiram king of Tyre, saying: As thou didst with David my father, and didst send him cedars, to build him a house, in which he dwelt:
4 So do with me that I may build a house to the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to burn incense before him, and to perfume with aromatical spices, and for the continual setting forth of bread, and for the holocausts, morning and evening, and on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and the solemnities of the Lord our God for ever, which are commanded for Israel.
5 For the house which I desire to build, is great: for our God is great above all gods.
6 Who then can be able to build him a worthy house? if heaven, and the heavens of heavens cannot contain him: who am I that I should be able to build him a house? but to this end only, that incense may be burnt before him.
7 Send me therefore a skillful man, that knoweth how to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, and in iron, in purple, in scarlet and in blue, and that hath skill in engraving, with the artificers, which I have with me in Judea and Jerusalem, whom David my father provided.
8 Send me also cedars, and fir trees, and pine trees from Libanus: for I know that thy servants are skillful in cutting timber in Libanus, and my servants shall be with thy servants,
9 To provide me timber in abundance. For the house which I desire to build, is to be exceeding great, and glorious.
10 And I will give thy servants the workmen that are to cut down the trees, for their food twenty thousand cores of wheat, and as many cores of barley, and twenty thousand measures of wine, and twenty thousand measures of oil.
11 And Hiram king of Tyre sent a letter to Solomon, saying: Because the Lord hath loved his people, therefore he hath made thee king over them.
12 And he added, saying: Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who hath given to king David a wise and knowing son, endued with understanding and prudence, to build a house to the Lord, and a palace for himself.
13 I therefore have sent thee my father Hiram, a wise and most skillful man,
14 The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, whose father was a Tyrian, who knoweth how to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, and in iron, and in marble, and in timber, in purple also, and violet, and silk and scarlet: and who knoweth to grave all sort of graving, and to devise ingeniously all that there may be need of in the work with thy artificers, and with the artificers of my lord David thy father.
15 The wheat therefore, and the barley and the oil, and the wine, which thou, my lord, hast promised, send to thy servants.
16 And we will cut down as many trees out of Libanus, as thou shalt want, and will convey them in floats by sea to Joppe: and it will be thy part to bring them thence to Jerusalem.
17 And Solomon numbered all the proselytes in the land of Israel, after the numbering which David his father had made, and they were found a hundred and fifty-three thousand and six hundred.
18 And he set seventy thousand of them to carry burdens on their shoulders, and eighty thousand to hew stones in the mountains: and three thousand and six hundred to be overseers of the work of the people.
3 And Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, in mount Moria, which had been shewn to David his father, in the place which David had prepared in the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
2 And he began to build in the second month, in the fourth year of his reign.
3 Now these are the foundations, which Solomon laid, to build the house of God, the length by the first measure sixty cubits, the breadth twenty cubits.
4 And the porch in the front, which was extended in length according to the measure of the breadth of the house, twenty cubits: and the height was a hundred and twenty cubits: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.
5 And the greater house he ceiled with deal boards, and overlaid them with plates of fine gold throughout: and he graved in them palm trees, and like little chains interlaced with one another.
6 He paved also the floor of the temple with most precious marble, of great beauty.
7 And the gold of the plates with which he overlaid the house, and the beams thereof, and the posts, and the walls, and the doors was of the finest: and he graved cherubims on the walls.
8 He made also the house of the holy of holies: the length of it according to the breadth of the temple, twenty cubits, and the breadth of it in like manner twenty cubits: and he overlaid it with plates of gold, amounting to about six hundred talents.
9 He made also nails of gold, and the weight of every nail was fifty sicles: the upper chambers also he overlaid with gold.
10 He made also in the house of the holy of holies two cherubims of image work: and he overlaid them with gold.
11 The wings of the cherubims were extended twenty cubits, so that one wing was five cubits long, and reached to the wall of the house: and the other was also five cubits long, and reached to the wing of the other cherub.
12 In like manner the wing of the other cherub, was five cubits long, and reached to the wall: and his other wing was five cubits long, and touched the wing of the other cherub.
13 So the wings of the two cherubims were spread forth, and were extended twenty cubits: and they stood upright on their feet, and their faces were turned toward the house without.
14 He made also a veil of violet, purple, scarlet, and silk: and wrought in it cherubims.
15 He made also before the doors of the temple two pillars, which were five and thirty cubits high: and their chapiters were five cubits.
16 He made also as it were little chains in the oracle, and he put them on the heads of the pillars: and a hundred pomegranates, which he put between the little chains.
17 These pillars he put at the entrance of the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left: that which was on the right hand, he called Jachin: and that on the left hand, Boot.
6 What shall we say, then? shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. For we that are dead to sin, how shall we live any longer therein?
3 Know you not that all we, who are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in his death?
4 For we are buried together with him by baptism into death; that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer.
7 For he that is dead is justified from sin.
8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live also together with Christ:
9 Knowing that Christ rising again from the dead, dieth now no more, death shall no more have dominion over him.
10 For in that he died to sin, he died once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God:
11 So do you also reckon, that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Let no sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so as to obey the lusts thereof.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of iniquity unto sin; but present yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of justice unto God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the law, but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
16 Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are whom you obey, whether it be of sin unto death, or of obedience unto justice.
17 But thanks be to God, that you were the servants of sin, but have obeyed from the heart, unto that form of doctrine, into which you have been delivered.
18 Being then freed from sin, we have been made servants of justice.
19 I speak an human thing, because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you have yielded your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity, unto iniquity; so now yield your members to serve justice, unto sanctification.
20 For when you were the servants of sin, you were free men to justice.
21 What fruit therefore had you then in those things, of which you are now ashamed? For the end of them is death.
22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end life everlasting.
23 For the wages of sin is death. But the grace of God, life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord.
16 The prayer of David. Hear, O Lord, my justice: attend to my supplication. Give ear unto my prayer, which proceedeth not from deceitful lips.
2 Let my judgment come forth from thy countenance: let thy eyes behold the things that are equitable.
3 Thou hast proved my heart, and visited it by night, thou hast tried me by fire: and iniquity hath not been found in me.
4 That my mouth may not speak the works of men: for the sake of the words of thy lips, I have kept hard ways.
5 Perfect thou my goings in thy paths: that my footsteps be not moved.
6 I have cried to thee, for thou, O God, hast heard me: O incline thy ear unto me, and hear my words.
7 shew forth thy wonderful mercies; thou who savest them that trust in thee.
8 From them that resist thy right hand keep me, as the apple of thy eye. Protect me under the shadow of thy wings.
9 From the face of the wicked who have afflicted me. My enemies have surrounded my soul:
10 They have shut up their fat: their mouth hath spoken proudly.
11 They have cast me forth and now they have surrounded me: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth.
12 They have taken me, as a lion prepared for the prey; and as a young lion dwelling in secret places.
13 Arise, O Lord, disappoint him and supplant him; deliver my soul from the wicked one: thy sword
14 From the enemies of thy hand. O Lord, divide them from the few of the earth in their life: their belly is filled from thy hidden stores. They are full of children: and they have left to their little ones the rest of their substance.
15 But as for me, I will appear before thy sight in justice: I shall be satisfied when thy glory shall appear.
20 Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayst be wise in thy latter end.
21 There are many thoughts in the heart of a man: but the will of the Lord shall stand firm.
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