the Fourth Week of Advent
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Contemporary English Version
2 Chronicles 1
The Lord Makes Solomon Wise
1 King Solomon, the son of David, was now in complete control of his kingdom, because the Lord God had blessed him and made him a powerful king.2-5 At that time, the sacred tent that Moses the servant of the Lord had made in the desert was still kept at Gibeon, and in front of the tent was the bronze altar that Bezalel[a] had made.
One day, Solomon told the people of Israel, the army commanders, the officials, and the family leaders, to go with him to the place of worship at Gibeon, even though his father King David had already moved the sacred chest from Kiriath-Jearim to the tent that he had set up for it in Jerusalem. Solomon and the others went to Gibeon to worship the Lord, 6 and there at the bronze altar, Solomon offered a thousand animals as sacrifices to please the Lord.[b]
7 God appeared to Solomon that night in a dream and said, "Solomon, ask for anything you want, and I will give it to you."
8 Solomon answered:
Lord God, you were always loyal to my father David, and now you have made me king of Israel. 9 I am supposed to rule these people, but there are as many of them as there are specks of dust on the ground. So keep the promise you made to my father 10 and make me wise. Give me the knowledge I'll need to be the king of this great nation of yours.
11 God replied:
Solomon, you could have asked me to make you rich or famous or to let you live a long time. Or you could have asked for your enemies to be destroyed. Instead, you asked for wisdom and knowledge to rule my people. 12 So I will make you wise and intelligent. But I will also make you richer and more famous than any king before or after you.
13 Solomon then left Gibeon and returned to Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel.
Solomon's Wealth
14 Solomon had a force of one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses that he kept in Jerusalem and other towns.
15 While Solomon was king of Israel, there was silver and gold everywhere in Jerusalem, and cedar was as common as ordinary sycamore trees in the foothills.16-17 Solomon's merchants bought his horses and chariots in the regions of Musri and Kue.[c] They paid about fifteen pounds of silver for a chariot and almost four pounds of silver for a horse. They also sold horses and chariots to the Hittite and Syrian kings.
