Study Desk

But someone told Solomon that Shimei had left Jerusalem and gone to Gath and back.

But the Lord will bless me and keep David's throne before him forever."

Lord my God, you have made me the king in my father's place, but I am like a small child. I don't have the wisdom I need to do what I must do.

But the other woman said, "No! The dead baby is yours, and the one still alive is mine!" But the first woman said, "No, you are wrong! The dead baby is yours! The one that is still alive is mine." So the two women argued in front of the king.

The second woman said, "Yes, cut him in two. Then neither of us will have him." But the first woman, the real mother, loved her son and said to the king, "Please, sir, don't kill the baby! Give him to her."

Geber son of Uri was governor of Gilead. There had been two kings in this area, King Sihon of the Amorites and King Og of Bashan, but Solomon appointed only one governor for that district.

But now the Lord my God has given me peace along all the borders of my country. I have no enemies, and my people are in no danger.

And so I ask you to help me. Send your men to Lebanon to cut down cedar trees for me. My servants will work with yours. I will pay you any price that you decide as your servants' wages, but I need your help. Our carpenters are not as good as the carpenters of Sidon."

The rooms touched the Temple wall, but their beams were not built into that wall. The Temple wall became thinner at the top, so the rooms on the upper floors were larger than the ones below them. The rooms on the bottom floor were 5 cubits wide. The rooms on the middle floor were 6 cubits wide. The rooms above that were 7 cubits wide.

Then Solomon said, "The Lord caused the sun to shine in the sky, but he chose to live in a dark cloud.

‘I brought my people, Israel, out of Egypt, but I had not yet chosen a city from among the tribes of Israel for a temple to honor me. And I had not chosen a man to be leader over my people, Israel. But now I have chosen Jerusalem to be the city where I will be honored. And I have chosen David to rule over my people, Israel.'

But the Lord said to my father, ‘I know that you want very much to build a temple to honor me, and it is good that you want to build it.

But you are not the one to build my temple. Your son will build my temple.'

"But, God, will you really live here with us on the earth? The whole sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you. Certainly this Temple that I built cannot contain you either.

But please listen to my prayer and my request. I am your servant, and you are the Lord my God. Hear this prayer that I am praying to you today.

They will be in that faraway land of their enemies, but they will turn back to you. They will feel sorry for their sins with their whole heart and soul. They will turn toward the land you gave their ancestors. They will look toward the city you chose and toward the Temple I built, and they will pray to you.

"But if you or your children stop following me, and don't obey the laws and commands that I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods, I will force Israel to leave the land that I have given to them. Israel will be an example to other people. Other people will make jokes about Israel. I made the Temple holy. It is the place where people honor me. But I will tear it down.

People will say, ‘This happened because they left the Lord their God. He brought their ancestors out of Egypt, but they decided to follow other gods. They worshiped and served those gods. That is why the Lord caused all these bad things to happen to them.'"

So Hiram traveled from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him. But Hiram was not pleased when he saw them.

The Israelites had not been able to destroy them, but Solomon forced them to work for him as slaves. They are still slaves today.