The Daily Audio Bible

David dies

2 David knew that he would soon die. So this is what he said to his son Solomon:

² ‘Soon I will die, as everyone must die one day. Be strong and brave, as a man should be. ³ Do what the Lord your God tells you to do. Live in a way that pleases him. Obey his rules, commands and laws that Moses has written down in his books of God's Law. Then everything that you do will go well, wherever you go. ⁴ The Lord will also do what he has promised me that he will do. He promised this to me:

“Your descendants must be careful in how they live. They must serve me faithfully with all their mind and strength. If they do that, one of your descendants will always rule Israel as king.”

⁵ Do not forget what Zeruiah's son Joab did to me. He killed the two leaders of Israel's armies, Ner's son Abner^[a] and Jether's son Amasa.^[b] Joab killed them as if they were his enemies in a war. But there was no war. So he is guilty of their deaths when they had done nothing wrong. Their blood is on his belt and on his shoes. ⁶ So you should punish him in a way that you think is right. Do not let him die in peace as an old man.

⁷ Be kind to the sons of Barzillai, who lived in Gilead. Let them eat meals at your table. Help them, because they helped me when I was running away from your brother Absalom.^[c]

⁸ Remember that Shimei is still there to give you trouble.^[d] He is the son of Gera who came from Bahurim, and he belonged to Benjamin's tribe. When I went to Mahanaim, he prayed that terrible things would happen to me. But when he came to meet me at the Jordan River, I made a promise to him. I promised him in the Lord's name that I would not punish him with death. ⁹ But remember that he is guilty! You are a wise man, so you will know what to do to him. Even if he is an old man, make sure that he has a violent death.’

¹⁰ Then David died. They buried him in the City of David. ¹¹ David had ruled Israel as king for 40 years. He ruled for seven years in Hebron. Then he ruled for 33 years in Jerusalem.

Solomon makes his kingdom strong

¹² So Solomon ruled as king on the throne of his father David. His kingdom became strong.

¹³ Haggith's son Adonijah visited Bathsheba, Solomon's mother. She asked him, ‘Do you come in peace?’ He answered, ‘Yes, I come in peace.’ ¹⁴ Then he said, ‘I want to say something to you.’ She replied, ‘Tell me.’

¹⁵ Adonijah said, ‘You know that the kingdom should belong to me. All the Israelite people thought that I should be their king. But everything changed, and now my brother is the king instead of me. The Lord decided that he should be king. ¹⁶ Now I have one thing to ask you. Please do not refuse me.’ Bathsheba replied, ‘Tell me.’

¹⁷ So Adonijah said, ‘Please ask King Solomon to give me Abishag, the girl from Shunem, to be my wife. He will do it if you ask him.’ ¹⁸ Bathsheba said, ‘I will speak to the king on your behalf.’

¹⁹ So Bathsheba went to King Solomon, to speak on behalf of Adonijah. The king stood up to meet her. He bent his head down to respect her. Then he sat on his throne. He commanded his servants to bring another throne for his mother. So she sat down at his right side. ²⁰ She said, ‘I have one small thing to ask you. Please do not refuse to do it for me.’ The king said to her, ‘Ask me, mother! I will not refuse you!’ ²¹ So she said, ‘Please let your brother Adonijah marry Abishag, the girl from Shunem.’ ²² But King Solomon said to his mother, ‘You are asking me to give Abishag to Adonijah as his wife! You should also ask me to give my kingdom to him, my older brother! That would be the same thing. Then he would rule together with Abiathar the priest and Zeruiah's son Joab!’^[e]

²³ Then King Solomon made this strong promise in the Lord's name. He said, ‘Because Adonijah has asked to have Abishag as his wife, I will certainly punish him with death. If I do not do that, I pray that God will punish me instead! ²⁴ As surely as the Lord lives, Adonijah must die today. The Lord has done everything that he promised to me. He has made me strong so that now I rule on the throne of my father David. And my descendants will continue to rule as kings after me.’

²⁵ So King Solomon commanded Jehoiada's son Benaiah to kill Adonijah. So Adonijah died.

²⁶ Then the king said to Abiathar the priest, ‘Go back to your fields in Anathoth. You also deserve to die. But I will not kill you now because you served my father David. You carried the Covenant Box of the Almighty Lord when David was king. Also, the trouble that happened to my father happened to you too.’

²⁷ Solomon sent Abiathar away so that he was no longer a priest who served the Lord. That was the punishment that the Lord had said would happen to Eli's family. So what the Lord had promised at Shiloh now happened.^[f]

²⁸ When Adonijah had tried to become king, Joab had joined with him. (But he had not joined with Absalom.) Joab heard the news about what had happened to Adonijah and Abiathar. So he hurried to the Lord's holy tent. He took hold of the horns of the altar there. ²⁹ King Solomon heard that Joab had gone to the altar in the Lord's holy tent. He commanded Jehoiada's son Benaiah, ‘Go there! Knock Joab down to kill him!’ ³⁰ So Benaiah went to the Lord's holy tent. When he arrived there, he said to Joab, ‘The king says, “Come out!” ’ But Joab answered, ‘No! I will die here!’

So Benaiah sent a message to tell the king what Joab had said.

³¹ The king replied, ‘Do as Joab said. Kill him there and bury him. He has killed people who did not deserve to die. Punish Joab with death. Then I and my father's family will no longer be guilty for the cruel murders that he has done. ³² The Lord will now punish him because of the murders that he did. He used his sword to attack and kill two men, but he did not tell my father David about it. He murdered Ner's son Abner, the leader of Israel's army. He also murdered Jether's son Amasa, the leader of Judah's army. Both those men were better and more honest than Joab was. ³³ Joab and his descendants will always receive the punishment for those murders. But the Lord will cause David's descendants, his family and his kingdom to enjoy peace always.’

³⁴ So Jehoiada's son Benaiah went to the holy tent and he punished Joab with death. They buried Joab at his home in the wilderness.

³⁵ Then the king chose Benaiah to be the leader of the army instead of Joab. The king also chose Zadok to be the priest instead of Abiathar.

³⁶ Then the king told Shimei to come to him. He said to Shimei, ‘Build a house for yourself here in Jerusalem. Live in it all the time. Never leave to go anywhere else. ³⁷ If you ever leave the city and you cross the Kidron stream, you will certainly die. That will be a death that you choose for yourself.’ ³⁸ Shimei said to the king, ‘My lord the king, your words are good. I will do as you have decided.’

So Shimei lived in Jerusalem for a long time. ³⁹ But after three years, two of his slaves ran away. They went to Achish, who was the son of Maakah, the king of Gath. Someone told Shimei, ‘Your slaves are in Gath.’ ⁴⁰ So Shimei prepared his donkey and he left home. He went to Achish in Gath to look for his slaves. He found them and he brought them back from Gath. ⁴¹ Someone told Solomon that Shimei had travelled from Jerusalem to Gath and now he had returned. ⁴² So the king told Shimei to come to him. He said to Shimei, ‘You made a strong promise to me in the Lord's name. I am sure that you remember that! I warned you never to leave Jerusalem. I said that if you went anywhere else, you would certainly die. You said to me at that time, “I agree with what you have said.” ⁴³ But you have not done what you promised to do in the Lord's name. You should have obeyed my command.’

⁴⁴ The king also said to Shimei, ‘I know that you remember how you insulted my father David. Now the Lord will punish you because of the evil things that you did. ⁴⁵ But the Lord will bless me, King Solomon. David's descendants will continue to serve the Lord as kings for ever.’

⁴⁶ Then the king commanded Jehoiada's son Benaiah to punish Shimei with death. So Benaiah went and he killed Shimei.

So Solomon now ruled the kingdom with complete authority.

Solomon asks for wisdom

3 Solomon made an agreement with Pharaoh, who was the king of Egypt.^[g] Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter. He brought her to live in the City of David.^[h] She lived there until Solomon could finish building his own house, the Lord's temple, and the wall around Jerusalem.

² Because there was not yet a temple where people could give honour to the Lord, they offered sacrifices at altars in other places.

Ananias and Sapphira

5 But there was a man called Ananias among the group of believers. His wife was called Sapphira. Together they sold one of their fields. ² Ananias gave part of the money that he received to the apostles. But he kept part of the money for himself. Sapphira knew all about what Ananias had done.^[a]

³ Peter said to Ananias, ‘Ananias, Satan wanted you to tell a lie and you have obeyed him. You have told a lie to the Holy Spirit. That is a bad thing to do! You sold your field, but you did not give us all the money. You kept part of it for yourselves.^{[b] 4} Before you sold the field, it belonged to you. And after you sold the field, the money was yours. You could choose what to do with it. But you chose to do a very bad thing. You did not only tell a lie to us men. You have told a lie to God.’

⁵ As soon as he heard Peter say this, Ananias fell down and he died. When people heard what had happened, they were all very afraid. ⁶ Some young men came into the room. They put cloths around Ananias's dead body and they carried it outside. Then they buried it.

⁷ About three hours later, Ananias's wife, Sapphira, came into the room. She did not know what had happened to her husband. ⁸ Peter asked Sapphira, ‘Was this all the money that you and your husband received for your field?’ ‘Yes,’ Sapphira answered. ‘That was all the money that we received.’

⁹ Peter said to her, ‘It was wrong for you and your husband to do this bad thing. You agreed together to tell a lie to the Holy Spirit of the Lord God. Listen! The men who have just buried your husband are at the door again now. They will carry your body out too.’

¹⁰ Immediately, Sapphira fell down in front of Peter and she died. Then the young men came into the room. They saw that Sapphira was dead. So they carried her outside and they buried her body next to her husband. ¹¹ The whole group of believers, and many other people, heard about what had happened to Ananias and Sapphira. They were all very afraid.

The apostles do some powerful things for the people to see

¹² At that time, the apostles were doing many miracles that showed God's power among the people. All the believers often met together in the yard of the temple in a place called Solomon's porch. ¹³ The other people were afraid to meet with the group of believers. But people respected the believers very much. ¹⁴ More and more people became believers and they joined the group. So now many men and women believed in the Lord Jesus.

¹⁵ As a result, people carried their sick friends into the streets and put them on beds and mats. They hoped that Peter would pass that way and make their sick friends well again. They just wanted Peter's shadow to touch them.^{[c] 16} Many people also came into Jerusalem from the small towns near the city. They brought their sick friends with them. Some of those sick people had bad spirits that gave them trouble. God caused all these sick people to become well again.

The most important priest puts the apostles in prison

¹⁷ People liked the apostles very much. So the most important priest and his friends who belonged to the Sadducees' group were very jealous. ¹⁸ These important men took hold of the apostles and they put them in the city's prison. ¹⁹ But during the night, one of the Lord God's angels came and he opened the prison gates. He led the apostles out of the prison. ²⁰ The angel said to them, ‘Go and stand in the yard of the temple. Tell the people everything about this new life that God gives.’

²¹ The apostles did what the angel told them to do. At dawn they went into the yard of the temple. They began to teach the people there.

Then the most important priest and his friends arrived. They told the group of Jewish leaders to meet with them. All the most important people in Israel were in that group. Then they sent their police to the prison to bring the apostles to the meeting place. ²² But when the police arrived at the prison, they did not find the apostles there. So the police returned to the Jewish leaders and they told them the news. ²³ They said, ‘We arrived at the prison. We saw that the soldiers had locked the gates. They were standing at the gates and they were watching carefully. But when we opened the gates of the prison, we did not find anyone there!’^[d]

²⁴ The leader of the police of the temple and the leaders of the priests heard the news. They could not understand what had happened. They were afraid of what might happen next.

²⁵ Then a man came to the leaders. He said to them, ‘Listen! Those men that you put in the prison are now standing in the yard of the temple. They are teaching the people there.’ ²⁶ So the leader of the police took his men with him to find the apostles. They took hold of the apostles to take them back to the Jewish leaders. But they did not hurt them because they were afraid of the people. They thought that the people might be angry. They might throw stones at them to kill them.

²⁷ The police brought the apostles into the meeting room. They made them stand in front of the group of Jewish leaders. The most important priest said to the apostles, ²⁸ ‘We told you that you must not teach people any more with the authority of Jesus. But now look at what you have done! Now people everywhere in Jerusalem have heard your teaching. You also want people to think that we are guilty for the death of Jesus.’

²⁹ Peter and the other apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than obey people. ³⁰ You fixed Jesus to a cross so that he died. But then the God of our ancestors caused him to become alive again. ³¹ God raised Jesus and he put him in the most important place at his right side. Jesus is now the one who leads us and the one who saves us. He has made a way for the people of Israel to turn back to God. He wants us to stop doing wrong things. Then God will forgive us for our sins. ³² We tell people about what happened to Jesus. We ourselves saw these things. Now God has given his Holy Spirit to people who obey him. The Holy Spirit also shows that these things are true.’

³³ The group of Jewish leaders heard what the apostles said to them. They were so angry that they wanted to kill the apostles. ³⁴ But one man did not agree. He was called Gamaliel and he was a Pharisee, a teacher of the Law. All the people agreed that he was a good man. Gamaliel stood up in front of the group of Jewish leaders. He told the police to take the apostles out of the room. ³⁵ When they had gone, Gamaliel spoke to the group of leaders: ‘Men of Israel! Think carefully about what you want to do to these men. ³⁶ Remember what happened to Theudas a few years ago. That man told everyone, “I am a very important leader.” As a result, about 400 men joined his group. But then somebody killed him, and all his men went away. Nobody heard any more about them. ³⁷ Later, Judas from Galilee appeared at the time when the Romans were making a list of everyone's names.^[e] Many people also came to help him fight against the Romans. But somebody killed him. His men also ran away and nothing more happened.^[f]

³⁸ Now think about what is happening with these men. I tell you it would be better to leave them alone. Let them go free. If their message only comes from human ideas, all their work will fail. ³⁹ But perhaps what they are doing really does come from God himself. If that is true, then you cannot stop them. You might even find that you are fighting against God!’

⁴⁰ The Jewish leaders agreed with Gamaliel. They told the apostles to come back into the room. They told the police to hit them with whips. Then they said to the apostles, ‘You must not use the authority of Jesus to teach the people.’ After that, they let the apostles go free.^[g]

⁴¹ The apostles went away from the meeting of the Jewish leaders. They were very happy because they thought to themselves, ‘These leaders have done bad things to us because we obey Jesus. That shows that God accepts us as his people.’

⁴² Every day the apostles continued to teach people about Jesus. They spoke in people's homes and in the yard of the temple. All the time, they told people the good news that Jesus is God's Messiah.

A song to sing as we climb.