Bible in a Year.

On day 145, 1 Kings 3 highlights Solomon's famous wisdom in judging with justice and discernment. In 2 Chronicles 4-5, the preparation and dedication of God's temple are carried out with reverence and praise. Psalm 64 reminds us that God protects the righteous from evildoers and hears the prayers of those who trust in Him.

1. And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon, and he made affinity with Pharao the king of Egypt: for he took his daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about.

2. But yet the people sacrificed in the high places: far there was no temple built to the name of the Lord until that day.

3. And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the precepts of David his father, only he sacrificed in the high places: and burnt incense.

4. He went therefore to Gabaon, to sacrifice there: for that was the great high place: a thousand victims for holocausts did Solomon offer upon that altar in Gabaon.

5. And the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, saying : Ask what thou wilt that I should give thee.

6. And Solomon said: Thou hast shewn great mercy to thy servant David my father, even at, he walked before thee in truth, and justice, and an upright heart with thee: and thou hast kept thy great mercy for him, and hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.

7. And now, O Lord God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a child, and know not how to go out and come in.

8. And thy servant is in the midst of the people which thou hast chosen, an immense people, which cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.

9. Give therefore to thy servant an understanding heart, to judge thy people, and discern between good and evil. For who shall be able to judge this people, thy people which is so numerous?

10. And the word was pleasing to the Lord that Solomon had asked such a thing.

11. And the Lord said to Solomon: Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life or riches, nor the lives of thy enemies, but hast asked for thyself wisdom to discern judgment,

12. Behold I have done for thee according to thy words, and have given thee a wise and understanding heart, insomuch that there hath been no one like thee before thee, nor shall arise after thee.

13. Yea and the things also which thou didst not ask, I have given thee: to wit riches and glory, as that no one hath been like thee among the kings in all days heretofore.

14. And if thou wilt walk in my ways, and Beep my precepts, and my commandments, as thy father walked, I will lengthen thy days.

15. And Solomon awaked, and perceived that it was a dream: and when he was come to Jerusalem, he stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered holocausts, and sacrificed victims of peace offerings, and made a great feast for all his servants.

16. Then there came two women that were harlots, to the king, and stood before him:

17. And one of them said: I beseech thee, my lord, I and this woman dwelt in one house, and I was delivered of a child with her in the chamber.

18. And the third day, after that I was delivered, she also was delivered, and we were together, and no other person with us in the house, only we two.

19. And this woman's child died in the night: for in her sleep she overlaid him.

20. And rising in the dead time of the night, she took my child from my side, while I thy handmaid was asleep, and laid it in her bosom: and laid her dead child in my bosom.

21. And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold it was dead: but considering him more diligently when it was clear day, I found that it was not mine which I bore.

22. And the other woman answered: It is not so as thou sayest, but thy child is dead, and mine is alive. On the contrary she said: Thou liest: for my child liveth, and thy child is dead. And in this manner they strove before the king.

23. Then said the king: The one saith, My child is alive, and thy child is dead. And the other answereth: Nay, but thy child is dead, and mine liveth.

24. The king therefore said: Bring me a sword. And when they had brought a sword before the king,

25. Divide, said he, the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.

26. But the woman whose child was alive, said to the king, (for her bowels were moved upon her child,) I beseech thee, my lord, give her the child alive, and do not kill it. But the other said: Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.

27. The king answered, and said: Give the living child to this woman, and let it not be killed, for she is the mother thereof.

28. And all Israel heard the judgment which the king had judged, and they feared the king, seeing that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment.

Chapter 4

1. He made also an altar of brass twenty cubits long, and twenty cubits broad, and ten cubits high.

1. 1omon made in the house of the Lord.

2. Also a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass: it was five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits compassed it round about.

3. And under it there was the likeness of oxen, and certain engravings on the outside of ten cubits compassed the belly of the sea, as it were with two rows.

4. And the oxen were cast: and the sea itself was set upon the twelve oxen, three of which looked toward the north, and other three toward the west: and other three toward the south, and the other three that remained toward the east, and the sea stood upon them: and the hinder parts of the oxen were in- ward under the sea.

5. Now the thickness of it was a handbreadth, and the brim of it was like the brim of a cup, or of a crisped lily: and it held three thousand measures.

6. He made also ten lavers: and he see five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them all such things as they mere to offer for holocausts: but the sea was for the priests to wash in.

7. And he made ten golden candlesticks, according to the form which they were commanded to be made by: and he set them in the temple, five on the right hand, and five on the left.

8. Moreover also ten tables: and he set them in the temple, five on the right side, and five on the left. Also a hundred bowls of gold.

9. He made also the court of the priests, and a great hall, and doors in the hall, which he covered with brass.

10. And he set the sea on the right side over against the east toward the south.

11. And Hiram made caldrons, and fleshhooks, and bowls: and finished all the king's work in the house of God:

12. That is to say, the two pillars, and the pommels, and the chapiters, and the network, to cover the chapiters over the pommels.

13. And four hundred pomegranates, and two wreaths of network, so that two rows of pomegranates were joined to each wreath, to cover the pommels, and the chapiters of the pillars.

14. He made also bases, and lavers, which he set upon the bases:

15. One sea, and twelve oxen under the sea;

16. And the caldrons, and fleshhooks, and bowls. All the vessels did Hiram his father make for Solomon in the house of the Lord of the finest brass.

17. In the country near the Jordan did the king cast them, in a clay ground between Sochot and Saredatha.

18. And the multitude of vessels was innumerable, so that the weight of the brass was not known.

19. And Solomon made all the vessels for the house of God, and the golden altar, and the tables, upon which were the leaves of proposition,

20. The candlesticks also of most pure gold with their lamps to give light before the oracle, according to the manner.

21. And certain flowers, and lamps, and golden tongs: all were made of the finest gold.

22. The vessels also for the perfumes, and the censers, and the bowls, and the mortars, of pure gold. And he graved the doors of the inner temple, that is, for the holy of holies: and the doors of the temple without were of gold. And thus all the work was finished which So

Chapter 5

1. Then Solomon brought in all the things that David his father had vowed, the silver, and the gold, and all the vessels he put among the treasures of the house of God.

2. And after this he gathered together the ancients of Israel, and all the princes of the tribes, and the heads of the families, of the children of Israel to Jerusalem, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Sion.

3. And all the men of Israel came to the king in the solemn day of the seventh month.

4. And when all the ancients of Israel were come, the Levites took up the ark,

5. And brought it in, together with all the furniture of the tabernacle. And the priests with the Levites carried the vessels of the sanctuary, which were in the tabernacle.

6. And king Solomon and all the assembly of Israel, and all that were gathered together before the ark, sacrificed rams, and oxen without number: so great was the multitude of the victims.

7. And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord into its place, that is, to the oracle of the temple, into the holy of holies under the wings of the cherubims:

8. So that the cherubims spread their wings over the place, in which the ark was set, and covered the ark itself and its staves.

9. Now the ends of the staves wherewith the ark was carried, because they were some thing longer, were seen before the oracle: but if a man were a little outward, he could not see them. So the ark has been there unto this day.

10. And there was nothing else in the ark but the two tables which Moses put there at Horeb when the Lord gave the law to the children of Israel, at their coming out of Egypt.

11. Now when the priests were come out of the sanctuary, (for all the priests that could be found there, mere sanctified: and as yet at that time the courses and orders of the ministries were not divided among them,)

12. Both the Levites and the singing men, that is, both they that were under Asaph, and they that were under Heman, and they that were under Idithun, with their sons, and their brethren, clothed with fine linen, sounded with cymbals, and psalteries, and harps, standing on the east side of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests, sounding with trumpets.

13. So when they all sounded together, both with trumpets, and voice, and cymbals, and organs, and with divers kind of musical instruments, and lifted up their voice on high : the sound was heard afar off, so that when they began to praise the Lord, and to say: Give glory to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever: the house of God was filled with a cloud.

14. Nor could the priests stand and minister by reason of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.

1. Unto the end, a psalm for David.

2. Hear, O God, my prayer, when I make supplication to thee : deliver my soul from the fear of the enemy.

3. Thou hast protected me from the assembly of the malignant; from the multitude of the workers of iniquity.

4. For they have whetted their tongues like a sword; they have bent their bow a bitter thing,

5. to shoot in secret the undefiled.

6. They will shoot at him on a sudden, and will not fear: they are resolute in wickedness. They have talked of hiding snares; they have said: Who shall see them?

7. They have searched after iniquities: they have failed in their search. Man shall come to a deep heart:

8. and God shall be exalted. The arrows of children are their wounds:

9. and their tongues against them are made weak. All that saw them were troubled;

10. and every man was afraid. And they declared the works of God: and understood his doings.

11. The just shall rejoice in the Lord, and shall hope in him: and all the upright in heart shall be praised.