The Daily Audio Bible

The Lord appears again to Solomon

9 Solomon had finished building the Lord's temple and the king's palace. He had built everything that he had wanted to build. ² Then the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.^{[a] 3} The Lord said to Solomon,

‘I have heard your prayer and how you have asked me to help you. I have made this temple that you have built a special place for me. People will worship me there for ever. I will always be there to watch over it.

⁴ You must continue to serve me honestly and obey me, as your father David did. Do everything that I have commanded you to do. Obey my rules and my laws.

⁵ If you serve me truly, I will cause one of your descendants to rule over Israel as king for all time. That is what I promised to your father David when I said, “There will always be someone from your family to rule Israel as king.”^{[b] 6} But if you or your descendants turn away from me, I will punish your people. I will do that if you do not obey the laws and rules that I have given to you. I will do it if you choose to serve and to worship other gods. ⁷ Then I will remove the Israelite people from the land that I have given to them. I will turn away from this temple that I have made a special place for people to worship me. People from all the other nations will insult the Israelites and they will laugh at them. ⁸ This temple will became a heap of stones. Everyone who sees it will be very surprised. They will laugh about it! They will ask, “Why has the Lord destroyed this land and this temple?” ⁹ People will answer, “He has done it because they have turned away from the Lord their God. He brought their ancestors out of Egypt. But they have chosen to worship other gods and to serve them. That is why the Lord has caused this trouble to happen to them.” ’

Other things that Solomon did

¹⁰ Solomon was building the Lord's temple and the king's palace for 20 years. ¹¹ After this, he gave 20 towns in Galilee to Hiram, the king of Tyre. Solomon did this because Hiram had given him all that he needed for the work. Hiram had given him cedar wood, pine wood and gold. ¹² So Hiram left Tyre and he went to Galilee, to see the towns that Solomon had given to him. But Hiram was not happy with them. ¹³ He said to Solomon, ‘My friend, you have given me some useless towns!’ Hiram called that region ‘Kabul Land’. It still has that name today.^{[c] 14} Hiram had sent to King Solomon about 4,000 kilograms of gold.

¹⁵ Solomon made people work on the buildings for him. This is how he used them to build the Lord's temple, the king's palace, the Millo and the wall around Jerusalem. They also did work on the towns called Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer. ¹⁶ Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had attacked Gezer and he had taken it. He had destroyed it with fire. He killed the Canaanites who lived there.^[d] Then he gave it as a gift to his daughter, when she married Solomon. ¹⁷ So Solomon built Gezer again. He also built Lower Beth-Horon, ¹⁸ Baalath and Tadmor, which were towns in the wilderness of Judah. ¹⁹ Solomon also made strong the cities where he stored things and the cities where he kept his chariots and horses. He built everything that he wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and everywhere in his kingdom.

²⁰ Solomon only made people who were not Israelites do the hard work for him. They were Canaanite people who still lived in the land after the Israelites took it for themselves. They were Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ²¹ The Israelites had not been able to remove all of these people, so their descendants remained in the land. So Solomon made them do hard work as his slaves. They are still slaves of the Israelites today. ²² But Solomon did not make any of the Israelites do the hard work. Instead, they served him as his soldiers, government officers and army officers. Some of the soldiers drove chariots and some were leaders of the chariot drivers. ²³ There were also officers who had authority over the slaves who did the work. There were 550 officers who led the work.

²⁴ Solomon had built a palace for his wife, Pharaoh's daughter. When the palace was ready, she came up from the City of David. After that, Solomon built the Millo.

²⁵ Three times every year Solomon offered burnt offerings and friendship offerings as sacrifices to the Lord. He did this on the altar that he had built for the Lord. With these offerings, he also burned incense to worship the Lord. So the temple became the place to worship the Lord.

²⁶ King Solomon also built ships at Ezion-Geber. This place is near Elath in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea. ²⁷ Hiram had sailors who knew how to sail ships on the sea. He sent some of these men to work with Solomon's sailors. ²⁸ They sailed to Ophir and they brought back about 14 tons of gold. They gave it to King Solomon.

The Queen of Sheba

10 The Queen of Sheba heard news that Solomon was a great king who served the Lord.^[e] So she came to ask Solomon some difficult questions to see how wise he was. ² She arrived at Jerusalem with a big group of servants. She had many camels that carried spices. They also carried a lot of gold and valuable jewels. When she came to Solomon, she talked to him about everything that was in her mind. ³ Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing that was too difficult for the king to explain to her. ⁴ The Queen of Sheba saw that Solomon was very wise.^[f] She saw the palace that he had built. ⁵ She saw all the food that he ate in his palace. She saw all his servants and officers and their beautiful clothes. She saw the servants who prepared his food and wine. She saw the burnt offerings that he offered in the Lord's temple. All these things caused her to hold her breath in surprise. ⁶ She said to the king, ‘In my own country I heard news about your wisdom and about all the things that you had done. Everything that I heard was true! ⁷ But I did not believe those things until I came here. Now I have seen everything with my own eyes, and it is true! Really, they told me less than half of what was true! You are even wiser and richer than the report that people told me. ⁸ God has blessed your people and your officers! They are always with you, and they can listen to your wise words. ⁹ So we praise the Lord your God! He is happy with you and he has chosen you to rule Israel. The Lord's love for Israel will continue for ever. So he has made you king to rule in a fair and honest way.’

¹⁰ The Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon more than 4,000 kilograms of gold, a lot of spices and many valuable jewels. Nobody has ever brought such a big number of spices as she gave to the king.

¹¹ Hiram's ships had brought gold from Ophir. They also brought from there large loads of good wood, and valuable jewels. ¹² The king used the wood to make steps for the Lord's temple and for the king's palace. He also used it to make harps and lyres for the musicians. Nobody has ever seen such valuable wood, even until today.

¹³ So King Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba all the gifts that he chose for her. He gave her everything that she wanted. Then she left Solomon and she returned to her own country with her servants.

Solomon's riches

¹⁴ Solomon received 25 tons of gold each year.

¹⁵ He also received money from traders, from the kings of Arabia and from the rulers of each region in Israel.

¹⁶ King Solomon's workers used gold to make 200 large shields. They hit the gold with hammers to make it flat. They used about four kilograms of gold to cover each shield. ¹⁷ They also made 300 small shields in the same way. They used about 2 kilograms of gold to cover each shield. He put these shields in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.^[g]

¹⁸ The king used ivory to make a large throne. He covered it with gold. ¹⁹ There were six steps up to the throne. The back of the throne was a round shape at the top. On both sides of the seat there were places for the king to put his arms. An image of a lion stood on each side of the throne. ²⁰ There were 12 more images of lions on the six steps. There was one lion at each end of every step. There was no throne like it in any other kingdom. ²¹ They used gold to make all King Solomon's cups that he drank from. In the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon, all the dishes and other things were made with gold. They used pure gold. They did not make anything with silver. In Solomon's time, people did not think that silver was very valuable.

²² The king had many large ships that could sail across the seas.^[h] They sailed with King Hiram's ships. Every three years they returned to Solomon with their loads. They brought to him gold, silver and ivory. They also brought apes and monkeys.^[i]

²³ King Solomon was richer and wiser than any other king in the world. ²⁴ People from every nation in the world wanted to talk to Solomon. They wanted to listen to the wisdom that God had given to him. ²⁵ Every year, people who came to visit Solomon brought him gifts. They brought things that were made from silver and gold, as well as clothes, weapons, spices, horses and mules.

²⁶ Solomon brought together many chariots and horses for his soldiers to ride. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses. He kept some of them in Jerusalem where he lived as king. He put the others in cities that he had chosen for this.

²⁷ While Solomon ruled as king, there was as much silver in Jerusalem as stones! There was as much wood from cedar trees as there were fig trees that grew in the low hills in the west. ²⁸ Solomon brought his horses from Egypt and from Kue. He sent traders to Kue to buy them for him. ²⁹ Each chariot that they bought in Egypt cost 600 pieces of silver. Each horse cost 150 pieces of silver. They also sold chariots and horses to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Syria.

¹⁴ The apostles who were in Jerusalem heard about all this. They heard that many people in Samaria had believed God's word. So they sent Peter and John to Samaria. ¹⁵ When these two apostles arrived in Samaria, they prayed for the people who now believed in Jesus. They asked God to give the new believers the Holy Spirit. ¹⁶ The Holy Spirit had not yet come to any of these people. When Philip had baptized them, he had just used the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ So Peter and John put their hands on the head of each believer, and they each received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸ Simon saw that God gave the Holy Spirit to people when the apostles put their hands on them. So he said to Peter and John, ‘Here is some money for you. ¹⁹ Please give me this same power. I want to put my hands on other people, so that they will receive the Holy Spirit.’

²⁰ Peter answered Simon, ‘I pray that God will destroy you and your money! You think that you can buy this gift with your money! It is very wrong for you to think that. It is God who gives that gift. ²¹ You cannot do the work which we are doing. God knows that you are not thinking the right things. ²² You must turn away from those very bad thoughts. Turn to the Lord and pray that he will forgive you. Then perhaps he will forgive you for these bad thoughts. ²³ You are very upset because you are jealous. I can see that sin rules your life.’

²⁴ Then Simon said to Peter and John, ‘Please, pray to the Lord God for me. Then none of these bad things that you have spoken about will happen to me.’

²⁵ Peter and John told the people about the Lord Jesus and they spoke God's message to them. Then they returned to Jerusalem. On their way, they went through many villages in Samaria and they told the people the good news about Jesus.

Philip meets a man from Ethiopia

²⁶ Then an angel of the Lord God came to Philip. He said, ‘Philip, go south to the road between Jerusalem and Gaza which goes through the wilderness.’^[a]

²⁷ So Philip started on his journey. While he was going along this road, he met an important officer from Ethiopia. This man had authority over the queen of Ethiopia's money. The queen was called Candace. The officer was travelling home from Jerusalem. He had been there to worship God.^[b]

²⁸ Now the man was travelling home again in his chariot. He was reading something from the book that God's prophet Isaiah wrote. ²⁹ The Holy Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go to that chariot and walk beside it.’

³⁰ So Philip ran to the cart as it went along. The officer was reading aloud from the prophet Isaiah's book and Philip heard him. So Philip asked the man, ‘Do you understand the things that you are reading about?’

³¹ The man answered, ‘I cannot understand it. I need someone to explain it to me.’ Then he said to Philip, ‘Come up here and sit with me in the cart.’

³² The officer was reading these words from the book of Isaiah:

³³ People did not respect him at all.

³⁴ The officer said to Philip, ‘Please tell me who the prophet Isaiah wrote about. Was he writing about himself or about another person?’ ³⁵ Then Philip explained to the man the words that Isaiah had written. Then he went on to tell him the good news about Jesus. ³⁶ As they were travelling along the road, they came to a place with some water. The man said to Philip, ‘Look! There is some water here. Please will you baptize me? Is there anything to stop you?’

[³⁷ Philip said to him, ‘I can baptize you if you really believe in Jesus.’ The man said to Philip, ‘I do believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’]^[d]

³⁸ The officer said to the man who was driving the chariot, ‘Stop the chariot!’ Then he went down with Philip into the water, and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ They both came up out of the water again. Immediately the Lord's Holy Spirit took Philip away from that place. The officer did not see Philip again. He continued his journey and he was very happy.

⁴⁰ Philip saw that he was now in Azotus.^[e] From there, he visited many towns and he told people the good news about Jesus. He did this as he went all the way to Caesarea.^[f]

A song to sing as we climb.

I have great trouble