Category: DAB Readings

Solomon Turns Away from God

11 ^(A)Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides the daughter of the king of Egypt he married Hittite women and women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon. ^2 (B)He married them even though the Lord had commanded the Israelites not to intermarry with these people, because they would cause the Israelites to give their loyalty to other gods. ³ Solomon married seven hundred princesses and also had three hundred concubines. They made him turn away from God, ⁴ and by the time he was old they had led him into the worship of foreign gods. He was not faithful to the Lord his God, as his father David had been. ⁵ He worshiped Astarte, the goddess of Sidon, and Molech, the disgusting god of Ammon. ⁶ He sinned against the Lord and was not true to him as his father David had been. ⁷ On the mountain east of Jerusalem he built a place to worship Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, and a place to worship Molech, the disgusting god of Ammon. ⁸ He also built places of worship where all his foreign wives could burn incense and offer sacrifices to their own gods.

^9-10 Even though the Lord, the God of Israel, had appeared to Solomon twice and had commanded him not to worship foreign gods, Solomon did not obey the Lord but turned away from him. So the Lord was angry with Solomon ¹¹ and said to him, “Because you have deliberately broken your covenant with me and disobeyed my commands, I promise that I will take the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your officials. ¹² However, for the sake of your father David I will not do this in your lifetime, but during the reign of your son. ¹³ And I will not take the whole kingdom away from him; instead, I will leave him one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have made my own.”

Solomon's Enemies

¹⁴ So the Lord caused Hadad, of the royal family of Edom, to turn against Solomon. ^15-16 Long before this, when David had conquered Edom, Joab the commander of his army had gone there to bury the dead. He and his men remained in Edom six months, and during that time they killed every male in Edom ¹⁷ except Hadad and some of his father's Edomite servants, who escaped to Egypt. (At that time Hadad was just a child.) ¹⁸ They left Midian and went to Paran, where some other men joined them. Then they traveled to Egypt and went to the king, who gave Hadad some land and a house and provided him with food. ¹⁹ Hadad won the friendship of the king, and the king gave his sister-in-law, the sister of Queen Tahpenes, to Hadad in marriage. ²⁰ She bore him a son, Genubath, who was raised by the queen in the palace, where he lived with the king's sons.

²¹ When the news reached Hadad in Egypt that David had died and that Joab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to the king, “Let me go back to my own country.”

²² “Why?” the king asked. “Have I failed to give you something? Is that why you want to go back home?”

“Just let me go,” Hadad answered the king. And he went back to his country.^[a]

As king of Edom, Hadad was an evil, bitter enemy of Israel.^[b]

²³ God also caused Rezon son of Eliada to turn against Solomon. Rezon had fled from his master, King Hadadezer of Zobah, ²⁴ and had become the leader of a gang of outlaws. (This happened after David had defeated Hadadezer and had slaughtered his Syrian allies.) Rezon and his gang went and lived in Damascus, where his followers made him king of Syria. ²⁵ He was an enemy of Israel during the lifetime of Solomon.

God's Promise to Jeroboam

²⁶ Another man who turned against King Solomon was one of his officials, Jeroboam son of Nebat, from Zeredah in Ephraim. His mother was a widow named Zeruah. ²⁷ This is the story of the revolt.

Solomon was filling in the land on the east side of Jerusalem and repairing the city walls. ²⁸ Jeroboam was an able young man, and when Solomon noticed how hard he worked, he put him in charge of all the forced labor in the territory of the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim. ²⁹ One day, as Jeroboam was traveling from Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh met him alone on the road in the open country. ³⁰ Ahijah took off the new robe he was wearing, tore it into twelve pieces, ³¹ and said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, because the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you, ‘I am going to take the kingdom away from Solomon, and I will give you ten tribes. ³² Solomon will keep one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen to be my own from the whole land of Israel. ³³ I am going to do this because Solomon has rejected me and has^[c] worshiped foreign gods: Astarte, the goddess of Sidon; Chemosh, the god of Moab; and Molech, the god of Ammon. Solomon has^[d] disobeyed me; he has done wrong and has not kept my laws and commands as his father David did. ³⁴ But I will not take the whole kingdom away from Solomon, and I will keep him in power as long as he lives. This I will do for the sake of my servant David, whom I chose and who obeyed my laws and commands. ³⁵ I will take the kingdom away from Solomon's son and will give you ten tribes, ³⁶ but I will let Solomon's son keep one tribe, so that I will always have a descendant of my servant David ruling in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen as the place where I am worshiped. ³⁷ Jeroboam, I will make you king of Israel, and you will rule over all the territory that you want. ³⁸ If you obey me completely, live by my laws, and win my approval by doing what I command, as my servant David did, I will always be with you. I will make you king of Israel and will make sure that your descendants rule after you, just as I have done for David. ³⁹ Because of Solomon's sin I will punish the descendants of David, but not for all time.’”

⁴⁰ And so Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but he escaped to King Shishak of Egypt and stayed there until Solomon's death.

The Death of Solomon^(C)

⁴¹ Everything else that Solomon did, his career, and his wisdom, are all recorded in The History of Solomon. ⁴² He was king in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years. ⁴³ He died and was buried in David's City, and his son Rehoboam succeeded him as king.

The Northern Tribes Revolt^(D)

12 Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all the people of northern Israel had gathered to make him king. ² When Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had gone to Egypt to escape from King Solomon, heard this news, he returned from^[e] Egypt. ³ The people of the northern tribes sent for him, and then they all went together to Rehoboam and said to him, ⁴ “Your father Solomon treated us harshly and placed heavy burdens on us. If you make these burdens lighter and make life easier for us, we will be your loyal subjects.”

⁵ “Come back in three days and I will give you my answer,” he replied. So they left.

⁶ King Rehoboam consulted the older men who had served as his father Solomon's advisers. “What answer do you advise me to give these people?” he asked.

⁷ They replied, “If you want to serve this people well, give a favorable answer to their request, and they will always serve you loyally.”

⁸ But he ignored the advice of the older men and went instead to the young men who had grown up with him and who were now his advisers. ⁹ “What do you advise me to do?” he asked. “What shall I say to the people who are asking me to make their burdens lighter?”

¹⁰ They replied, “This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's waist!’ ¹¹ Tell them, ‘My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with whips; I'll flog you with bullwhips!’”

¹² Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to King Rehoboam, as he had instructed them. ¹³ The king ignored the advice of the older men and spoke harshly to the people, ¹⁴ as the younger men had advised. He said, “My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with whips; I'll flog you with bullwhips!” ¹⁵ It was the will of the Lord to bring about what he had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh. This is why the king did not pay any attention to the people.

^16 (E)When the people saw that the king would not listen to them, they shouted, “Down with David and his family! What have they ever done for us? People of Israel, let's go home! Let Rehoboam look out for himself!”

So the people of Israel rebelled, ¹⁷ leaving Rehoboam as king only of the people who lived in the territory of Judah.

¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam sent Adoniram, who was in charge of the forced labor, to go to the Israelites, but they stoned him to death. At this, Rehoboam hurriedly got in his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Ever since that time the people of the northern kingdom of Israel have been in rebellion against the dynasty of David.

The Conversion of Saul^(A)

9 In the meantime Saul kept up his violent threats of murder against the followers of the Lord. He went to the High Priest ² and asked for letters of introduction to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he should find there any followers of the Way of the Lord, he would be able to arrest them, both men and women, and bring them back to Jerusalem.

³ As Saul was coming near the city of Damascus, suddenly a light from the sky flashed around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?”

⁵ “Who are you, Lord?” he asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you persecute,” the voice said. ⁶ “But get up and go into the city, where you will be told what you must do.”

⁷ The men who were traveling with Saul had stopped, not saying a word; they heard the voice but could not see anyone. ⁸ Saul got up from the ground and opened his eyes, but could not see a thing. So they took him by the hand and led him into Damascus. ⁹ For three days he was not able to see, and during that time he did not eat or drink anything.

¹⁰ There was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. He had a vision, in which the Lord said to him, “Ananias!”

“Here I am, Lord,” he answered.

¹¹ The Lord said to him, “Get ready and go to Straight Street, and at the house of Judas ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying, ¹² and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come in and place his hands on him so that he might see again.”

¹³ Ananias answered, “Lord, many people have told me about this man and about all the terrible things he has done to your people in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And he has come to Damascus with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who worship you.”

¹⁵ The Lord said to him, “Go, because I have chosen him to serve me, to make my name known to Gentiles and kings and to the people of Israel. ¹⁶ And I myself will show him all that he must suffer for my sake.”

¹⁷ So Ananias went, entered the house where Saul was, and placed his hands on him. “Brother Saul,” he said, “the Lord has sent me—Jesus himself, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here. He sent me so that you might see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ^18 (B)At once something like fish scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he was able to see again. He stood up and was baptized; ¹⁹ and after he had eaten, his strength came back.

Saul Preaches in Damascus

Saul stayed for a few days with the believers in Damascus. ²⁰ He went straight to the synagogues and began to preach that Jesus was the Son of God.

²¹ All who heard him were amazed and asked, “Isn't he the one who in Jerusalem was killing those who worship that man Jesus? And didn't he come here for the very purpose of arresting those people and taking them back to the chief priests?”

²² But Saul's preaching became even more powerful, and his proofs that Jesus was the Messiah were so convincing that the Jews who lived in Damascus could not answer him.

^23 (C)After many days had gone by, the Jews met together and made plans to kill Saul, ²⁴ but he was told of their plan. Day and night they watched the city gates in order to kill him. ²⁵ But one night Saul's followers took him and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

A Prayer of Humble Trust^[a]

⁴ Evil people listen to evil ideas, and liars listen to lies.

⁵ If you make fun of poor people, you insult the God who made them. You will be punished if you take pleasure in someone's misfortune.

God Appears to Solomon Again^(A)

9 After King Solomon had finished building the Temple and the palace and everything else he wanted to build, ^2 (B)the Lord appeared to him again, as he had in Gibeon. ³ The Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer. I consecrate this Temple which you have built as the place where I shall be worshiped forever. I will watch over it and protect it for all time. ⁴ If you will serve me in honesty and integrity, as your father David did, and if you obey my laws and do everything I have commanded you, ^5 (C)I will keep the promise I made to your father David when I told him that Israel would always be ruled by his descendants. ⁶ But if you or your descendants stop following me, disobey the laws and commands I have given you, and worship other gods, ⁷ then I will remove my people Israel from the land that I have given them. I will also abandon this Temple which I have consecrated as the place where I am to be worshiped. People everywhere will ridicule Israel and treat her with contempt. ^8 (D)This Temple will become a pile of ruins,^[a] and everyone who passes by will be shocked and amazed. ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this Temple?’ they will ask. ⁹ People will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt. They gave their allegiance to other gods and worshiped them. That is why the Lord has brought this disaster on them.’”

Solomon's Agreement with Hiram^(E)

¹⁰ It took Solomon twenty years to build the Temple and his palace. ¹¹ King Hiram of Tyre had provided him with all the cedar and pine and with all the gold he wanted for this work. After it was finished, King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the region of Galilee. ¹² Hiram went to see them, and he did not like them. ¹³ So he said to Solomon, “So these, my brother, are the towns you have given me!” For this reason the area is still called Cabul.^{[b] 14} Hiram had sent Solomon almost five tons of gold.

Further Achievements of Solomon^(F)

¹⁵ King Solomon used forced labor to build the Temple and the palace, to fill in land on the east side of the city, and to build the city wall. He also used it to rebuild the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. (¹⁶ The king of Egypt had attacked Gezer and captured it, killing its inhabitants and setting fire to the city. Then he gave it as a wedding present to his daughter when she married Solomon, ¹⁷ and Solomon rebuilt it.) Using his forced labor, Solomon also rebuilt Lower Beth Horon, ¹⁸ Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness of Judah, ¹⁹ the cities where his supplies were kept, the cities for his horses and chariots, and everything else he wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and elsewhere in his kingdom. ^20-21 For his forced labor Solomon used the descendants of the people of Canaan whom the Israelites had not killed when they took possession of their land. These included Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, whose descendants continue to be slaves down to the present time. ²² Solomon did not make slaves of Israelites; they served as his soldiers, officers, commanders, chariot captains, and cavalry.

²³ There were 550 officials in charge of the forced labor working on Solomon's various building projects.

²⁴ Solomon filled in the land on the east side of the city, after his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt, had moved from David's City to the palace Solomon built for her.

^25 (G)Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built to the Lord. He also burned incense^[c] to the Lord. And so he finished building the Temple.

²⁶ King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Eziongeber, which is near Elath on the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba, in the land of Edom. ²⁷ King Hiram sent some experienced sailors from his fleet to serve with Solomon's men. ²⁸ They sailed to the land of Ophir and brought back to Solomon about sixteen tons of gold.

The Visit of the Queen of Sheba^(H)

10 ^(I)The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's fame,^[d] and she traveled to Jerusalem to test him with difficult questions. ² She brought with her a large group of attendants, as well as camels loaded with spices, jewels, and a large amount of gold. When she and Solomon met, she asked him all the questions that she could think of. ³ He answered them all; there was nothing too difficult for him to explain. ⁴ The queen of Sheba heard Solomon's wisdom and saw the palace he had built. ⁵ She saw the food that was served at his table, the living quarters for his officials, the organization of his palace staff and the uniforms they wore, the servants who waited on him at feasts, and the sacrifices he offered in the Temple. It left her breathless and amazed. ⁶ She said to King Solomon, “What I heard in my own country about you^[e] and your wisdom is true! ⁷ But I couldn't believe it until I had come and seen it all for myself. But I didn't hear even half of it; your wisdom and wealth are much greater than what I was told. ⁸ How fortunate are your wives!^[f] And how fortunate your servants, who are always in your presence and are privileged to hear your wise sayings! ⁹ Praise the Lord your God! He has shown how pleased he is with you by making you king of Israel. Because his love for Israel is eternal, he has made you their king so that you can maintain law and justice.”

¹⁰ She presented to King Solomon the gifts she had brought: almost five tons of gold and a very large amount of spices and jewels. The amount of spices she gave him was by far the greatest that he ever received at any time.

(¹¹ Hiram's fleet, which had brought gold from Ophir, also brought from there a large amount of juniper wood and jewels. ¹² Solomon used the wood to build railings in the Temple and the palace, and also to make harps and lyres for the musicians. It was the finest juniper wood ever imported into Israel; none like it has ever been seen again.)

¹³ King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she asked for, besides all the other customary gifts that he had generously given her. Then she and her attendants returned to the land of Sheba.

King Solomon's Wealth^(J)

¹⁴ Every year King Solomon received over twenty-five tons of gold, ¹⁵ in addition to the taxes^[g] paid by merchants, the profits from trade, and tribute paid by the Arabian kings and the governors of the Israelite districts.

¹⁶ Solomon made two hundred large shields and had each one overlaid with almost fifteen pounds of gold. ¹⁷ He also made three hundred smaller shields, overlaying each one of them with nearly four pounds of gold. He had all these shields placed in the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon.^[h]

¹⁸ He also had a large throne made. Part of it was covered with ivory and the rest of it was covered with the finest gold. ^19-20 The throne had six steps leading up to it, with the figure of a lion at each end of every step, a total of twelve lions. At the back of the throne was the figure of a bull's head, and beside each of the two armrests was the figure of a lion. No throne like this had ever existed in any other kingdom.

²¹ All of Solomon's drinking cups were made of gold, and all the utensils in the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. No silver was used, since it was not considered valuable in Solomon's day. ²² He had a fleet of ocean-going ships sailing with Hiram's fleet. Every three years his fleet would return, bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys.

²³ King Solomon was richer and wiser than any other king, ²⁴ and the whole world wanted to come and listen to the wisdom that God had given him. ²⁵ Everyone who came brought him a gift—articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons, spices, horses, and mules. This continued year after year.

^26 (K)Solomon built up a force of fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand cavalry horses. Some of them he kept in Jerusalem and the rest he stationed in various other cities. ^27 (L)During his reign silver was as common in Jerusalem as stone, and cedar was as plentiful as ordinary sycamore in the foothills of Judah. ^28 (M)The king's agents controlled the export of horses from Musri^[i] and Cilicia,^{[j] 29} and the export of chariots from Egypt. They supplied the Hittite and Syrian kings with horses and chariots, selling chariots for 600 pieces of silver each and horses for 150 each.

¹⁴ The apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had received the word of God, so they sent Peter and John to them. ¹⁵ When they arrived, they prayed for the believers that they might receive the Holy Spirit. ¹⁶ For the Holy Spirit had not yet come down on any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸ Simon saw that the Spirit had been given to the believers when the apostles placed their hands on them. So he offered money to Peter and John, ¹⁹ and said, “Give this power to me too, so that anyone I place my hands on will receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰ But Peter answered him, “May you and your money go to hell, for thinking that you can buy God's gift with money! ²¹ You have no part or share in our work, because your heart is not right in God's sight. ²² Repent, then, of this evil plan of yours, and pray to the Lord that he will forgive you for thinking such a thing as this. ²³ For I see that you are full of bitter envy and are a prisoner of sin.”

²⁴ Simon said to Peter and John, “Please pray to the Lord for me, so that none of these things you spoke of will happen to me.”

²⁵ After they had given their testimony and proclaimed the Lord's message, Peter and John went back to Jerusalem. On their way they preached the Good News in many villages of Samaria.

Philip and the Ethiopian Official

²⁶ An angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get ready and go south^[a] to the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This road is not used nowadays.)^{[b] 27-28} So Philip got ready and went. Now an Ethiopian eunuch, who was an important official in charge of the treasury of the queen of Ethiopia, was on his way home. He had been to Jerusalem to worship God and was going back home in his carriage. As he rode along, he was reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to that carriage and stay close to it.” ³⁰ Philip ran over and heard him reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. He asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹ The official replied, “How can I understand unless someone explains it to me?” And he invited Philip to climb up and sit in the carriage with him. ^32 (A)The passage of scripture which he was reading was this:

³⁴ The official asked Philip, “Tell me, of whom is the prophet saying this? Of himself or of someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began to speak; starting from this passage of scripture, he told him the Good News about Jesus. ³⁶ As they traveled down the road, they came to a place where there was some water, and the official said, “Here is some water. What is to keep me from being baptized?” ^37 [c]

³⁸ The official ordered the carriage to stop, and both Philip and the official went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord took Philip away. The official did not see him again, but continued on his way, full of joy. ⁴⁰ Philip found himself in Azotus; he went on to Caesarea, and on the way he preached the Good News in every town.

A Prayer for Help

² A shrewd servant will gain authority over a master's worthless son and receive a part of the inheritance.

³ Gold and silver are tested by fire, and a person's heart is tested by the Lord.

Solomon's Palace

7 Solomon also built a palace for himself, and it took him thirteen years. ^2-3 The Hall of the Forest of Lebanon^[a] was 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. It had three^[b] rows of cedar pillars, 15 in each row, with cedar beams resting on them. The ceiling was of cedar, extending over storerooms, which were supported by the pillars. ⁴ On each of the two side walls there were three rows of windows. ⁵ The doorways and the windows^[c] had rectangular frames, and the three rows of windows in each wall faced the opposite rows.

⁶ The Hall of Columns was 75 feet long and 45 feet wide. It had a covered porch, supported by columns.

⁷ The Throne Room, also called the Hall of Judgment, where Solomon decided cases, had cedar panels from the floor to the rafters.^[d]

^8 (A)Solomon's own quarters, in another court behind the Hall of Judgment, were made like the other buildings. He also built the same kind of house for his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt.

⁹ All these buildings and the great court were made of fine stones from the foundations to the eaves. The stones were prepared at the quarry and cut to measure, with their inner and outer sides trimmed with saws. ¹⁰ The foundations were made of large stones prepared at the quarry, some of them twelve feet long and others fifteen feet long. ¹¹ On top of them were other stones, cut to measure, and cedar beams. ¹² The palace court, the inner court of the Temple, and the entrance room of the Temple had walls with one layer of cedar beams for every three layers of cut stones.

Huram's Task

¹³ King Solomon sent for a man named Huram, a craftsman living in the city of Tyre, who was skilled in bronze work. ¹⁴ His father, who was no longer living, was from Tyre, and had also been a skilled bronze craftsman; his mother was from the tribe of Naphtali. Huram was an intelligent and experienced craftsman. He accepted King Solomon's invitation to be in charge of all the bronze work.

The Two Bronze Columns^(B)

¹⁵ Huram cast two bronze columns, each one 27 feet tall and 18 feet in circumference,^[e] and placed them at the entrance of the Temple. ¹⁶ He also made two bronze capitals, each one 7½ feet tall, to be placed on top of the columns. ¹⁷ The top of each column was decorated with a design of interwoven chains^{[f] 18} and two rows of bronze pomegranates.

¹⁹ The capitals were shaped like lilies, 6 feet tall, ²⁰ and were placed on a rounded section which was above the chain design. There were 200 pomegranates in two rows around each^[g] capital.

²¹ Huram placed these two bronze columns in front of the entrance of the Temple: the one on the south side was named Jachin^[h] and the one on the north was named Boaz.^{[i] 22} The lily-shaped bronze capitals were on top of the columns.

And so the work on the columns was completed.

The Bronze Tank^(C)

²³ Huram made a round tank of bronze, 7½ feet deep, 15 feet in diameter, and 45 feet in circumference. ²⁴ All around the outer edge of the rim of the tank^[j] were two rows of bronze gourds, which had been cast all in one piece with the rest of the tank. ²⁵ The tank rested on the backs of twelve bronze bulls that faced outward, three facing in each direction. ²⁶ The sides of the tank were 3 inches thick. Its rim was like the rim of a cup, curving outward like the petals of a lily. The tank held about 10,000 gallons.

The Bronze Carts

²⁷ Huram also made ten bronze carts; each was 6 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 4½ feet high. ²⁸ They were made of square panels which were set in frames, ²⁹ with the figures of lions, bulls, and winged creatures on the panels; and on the frames, above and underneath the lions and bulls, there were spiral figures in relief. ³⁰ Each cart had four bronze wheels with bronze axles. At the four corners were bronze supports for a basin; the supports were decorated with spiral figures in relief. ³¹ There was a circular frame on top for the basin. It projected upward 18 inches from the top of the cart and 7 inches down into it. It had carvings around it. ³² The wheels were 25 inches high; they were under the panels, and the axles were of one piece with the carts. ³³ The wheels were like chariot wheels; their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all of bronze. ³⁴ There were four supports at the bottom corners of each cart, which were of one piece with the cart. ³⁵ There was a 9-inch band around the top of each cart; its supports and the panels were of one piece with the cart. ³⁶ The supports and panels were decorated with figures of winged creatures, lions, and palm trees, wherever there was space for them, with spiral figures all around. ³⁷ This, then, is how the carts were made; they were all alike, having the same size and shape.

^38 (D)Huram also made ten basins, one for each cart. Each basin was 6 feet in diameter and held 200 gallons. ³⁹ He placed five of the carts on the south side of the Temple, and the other five on the north side; the tank he placed at the southeast corner.

Summary List of Temple Furnishings^(E)

^40-45 Huram also made pots, shovels, and bowls. He completed all his work for King Solomon for the Lord's Temple. This is what he made:

All this equipment for the Temple, which Huram made for King Solomon, was of polished bronze. ⁴⁶ The king had it all made in the foundry between Sukkoth and Zarethan, in the Jordan Valley. ⁴⁷ Solomon did not have these bronze objects weighed, because there were too many of them, and so their weight was never determined.

^48 (F)Solomon also had gold furnishings made for the Temple: the altar, the table for the bread offered to God, ^49 (G)the ten lampstands that stood in front of the Most Holy Place, five on the south side and five on the north; the flowers, lamps, and tongs; ⁵⁰ the cups, lamp snuffers, bowls, dishes for incense, and the pans used for carrying live coals; and the hinges for the doors of the Most Holy Place and of the outer doors of the Temple. All these furnishings were made of gold.

^51 (H)When King Solomon finished all the work on the Temple, he placed in the Temple storerooms all the things that his father David had dedicated to the Lord—the silver, gold, and other articles.

^30 (A)“After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. ³¹ Moses was amazed by what he saw, and went near the bush to get a better look. But he heard the Lord's voice: ³² ‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and dared not look. ³³ The Lord said to him, ‘Take your sandals off, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. ³⁴ I have seen the cruel suffering of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans, and I have come down to set them free. Come now; I will send you to Egypt.’

^35 (B)“Moses is the one who was rejected by the people of Israel. ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?’ they asked. He is the one whom God sent to rule the people and set them free with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush. ^36 (C)He led the people out of Egypt, performing miracles and wonders in Egypt and at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert. ^37 (D)Moses is the one who said to the people of Israel, ‘God will send you a prophet, just as he sent me,^[a] and he will be one of your own people.’ ^38 (E)He is the one who was with the people of Israel assembled in the desert; he was there with our ancestors and with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and he received God's living messages to pass on to us.

³⁹ “But our ancestors refused to obey him; they pushed him aside and wished that they could go back to Egypt. ^40 (F)So they said to Aaron, ‘Make us some gods who will lead us. We do not know what has happened to that man Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.’ ^41 (G)It was then that they made an idol in the shape of a bull, offered sacrifice to it, and had a feast in honor of what they themselves had made. ^42 (H)So God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the stars of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

^44 (I)“Our ancestors had the Tent of God's presence with them in the desert. It had been made as God had told Moses to make it, according to the pattern that Moses had been shown. ^45 (J)Later on, our ancestors who received the tent from their fathers carried it with them when they went with Joshua and took over the land from the nations that God drove out as they advanced. And it stayed there until the time of David. ^46 (K)He won God's favor and asked God to allow him to provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.^{[b] 47 (L)}But it was Solomon who built him a house.

⁴⁸ “But the Most High God does not live in houses built by human hands; as the prophet says,

The Reward of Obedience to the Lord

³¹ Long life is the reward of the righteous; gray hair is a glorious crown.

³² It is better to be patient than powerful. It is better to win control over yourself than over whole cities.

³³ People cast lots to learn God's will, but God himself determines the answer.

Alliance with King Hiram

5 Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram had always been a friend of David. ² Then Solomon sent word to Hiram, saying, ³ “You know that David my father could not build a house (temple) for the Name (Presence) of the Lord his God because of the wars which surrounded him, until the Lord put his enemies under his feet.^{(A) 4} But now that the Lord my God has given me rest [from war] on every side, there is neither adversary nor misfortune [confronting me]. ⁵ Behold, I intend to build a house (temple) to the Name of the Lord my God, just as the Lord said to my father David: ‘Your son whom I will put on your throne in your place shall build the house for My Name and Presence.’ ⁶ So now, command that they cut cedar trees from Lebanon for me, and my servants will join your servants, and I will give you whatever wages you set for your servants. For you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the men of Sidon.”

⁷ When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be the Lord this day, who has given David a wise son [to be king] over this great people.” ⁸ So Hiram sent word to Solomon, saying, “I have heard the message which you sent to me; I will do everything you wish concerning the cedar and cypress timber. ⁹ My servants will bring the logs down from Lebanon to the [Mediterranean] sea, and I will have them made into rafts to go by sea to the place (port) that you direct me; then I will have them broken up there, and you shall carry them away. Then you shall ^[a]return the favor by providing food for my household.” ¹⁰ So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar and cypress timber he desired, ¹¹ and Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 ^[b]kors of wheat as food for his household, and 20 kors of pure [olive] oil. Solomon gave all these to Hiram each year. ¹² The Lord gave Solomon wisdom, just as He promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.

Conscription of Laborers

¹³ King Solomon levied forced laborers from all Israel; and the forced laborers numbered 30,000 men. ¹⁴ He sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in shifts; one month they were in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced laborers. ¹⁵ Solomon had 70,000 burden bearers (transporters) and 80,000 stonemasons in the hill country [of Judah], ¹⁶ besides Solomon’s 3,300 chief deputies who were in charge of the project and who were in charge of the people doing the work. ¹⁷ The king gave orders, and they quarried great ^[c]stones, valuable stones, to lay the foundation of the house (temple) with cut stones. ¹⁸ So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the men of ^[d]Gebal cut and chiseled the stones, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house (temple).

The Building of the Temple

6 ^[e]Now it came about in the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv (April-May) which is the second month, that he began to build the Lord’s house (temple). ² The length of the house which King Solomon built for the Lord was ^[f]sixty cubits (90 ft.), its width twenty (30 ft.), and its height thirty cubits (45 ft.). ³ The porch in front of the main room of the house (temple) was twenty cubits long, corresponding to the width of the house, and its depth in front of the house was ten cubits. ⁴ He also made framed (artistic) window openings for the house. ⁵ Against the wall of the house he built ^[g]extensions around the walls of the house, around both the main room (Holy Place) and the ^[h]Holy of Holies; and he made side chambers all around. ⁶ The lowest story was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for he made offsets (niches) in the walls all around on the outside of the house so that the supporting beams would not be inserted into the walls of the house.

⁷ While it was being built, the house was built of stone prepared and finished (precut) at the quarry, and no hammer, axe, or iron tool of any kind was heard in the house while it was under construction.

⁸ The entrance to the lowest side chamber was on the right [or south] side of the house; and they would go up winding stairs to the middle [level], and from the middle to the third. ⁹ So Solomon built the house (temple) and finished it, and roofed the house with beams and boards of cedar. ¹⁰ Then he built the extensions [of rooms] against the entire house, each [story] five cubits high; and they were attached to the house with timbers of cedar.

¹¹ Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying, ¹² “Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes and execute My precepts and keep all My commandments by walking in them, then I will carry out My word (promises) with you which I made to David your father. ¹³ I will dwell among the sons (descendants) of Israel, and will not abandon My people Israel.”

¹⁴ So Solomon built the house (temple) and finished it. ¹⁵ He built the walls of the interior of the house [that is, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies] with boards of cedar, from the floor of the house to the rafters of the ceiling. He overlaid the interior with wood, and he overlaid the floor of the house with boards of cypress. ¹⁶ He built twenty cubits on the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the ceiling; he built its interior as the [inner] sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. ¹⁷ The [rest of the] house, that is, the temple in front of the Holy of Holies, was forty cubits long. ¹⁸ The cedar on the house within had wood carvings in the shape of gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was visible. ¹⁹ Then he prepared the Holy of Holies within the house in order to put the ark of the covenant of the Lord there. ²⁰ The Holy of Holies was twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in height (a cube), and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid the cedar altar [with gold]. ²¹ Solomon overlaid the interior of the house with pure gold, and he drew ^[i]chains of gold across the front of the Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary), and he overlaid it with gold. ²² Then he overlaid the entire house with gold, until the whole house was finished. He also overlaid the entire [incense] altar which was by the Holy of Holies with gold.

²³ Within the Holy of Holies he made two ^[j]cherubim (sculptured figures) of olive wood, each ten cubits high. ^24 [k]One wing of the cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing was also five cubits long; it was ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. ²⁵ The [wingspan of the] other cherub was also ten cubits. The measurements and cut (shape) of the two cherubim were the same; ²⁶ the height of the one cherub was ten cubits, as was the other. ²⁷ He put the cherubim [above the ark] inside the innermost room of the house, and their wings were spread out so that the wing of the one touched one wall, and the wing of the other cherub was touching the other wall; and their inner wings were touching ^[l]each other in the middle of the house. ²⁸ Solomon also overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹ He carved all the walls of the house all around with carved engravings of cherubim, palm-shaped decorations, and open flowers, [both] the inner and the outer sanctuaries. ³⁰ He overlaid the floor of the house with gold, [both] the inner and outer sanctuaries.

³¹ For the entrance of the Holy of Holies he made two [folding] doors of olive wood, the lintel (header above the door) and five-sided doorposts (frames). ³² So he made two doors of olive wood, and he carved on them carvings of cherubim, palm-shaped decorations, and open flowers; and overlaid them with gold; and he hammered out overlays of gold on the cherubim and palm decorations.

³³ Also he made for the entrance of the [outer] sanctuary (the Holy Place) four-sided doorposts (frames) of olive wood ³⁴ and two doors of cypress wood; the two leaves of the one door turned on pivots and were folding, and the two leaves of the other door also turned on pivots. ³⁵ He carved cherubim, palm-shaped decorations, and open flowers on the doors, and overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the carved work. ³⁶ He built the inner courtyard with three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beams.

³⁷ In the fourth year [of King Solomon’s reign] the foundation of the Lord’s house was laid, in the [second] month, Ziv (April-May). ³⁸ In the eleventh year [of King Solomon’s reign] in the month of Bul (October-November), that is, the eighth month, the house was finished throughout all its parts and in accordance with all its specifications. So he built it in seven years.

Stephen’s Defense

7 Now the ^[a]high priest asked [Stephen], “Are these charges true?”

² And he answered, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory [the Shekinah, the radiance of God] appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,^{(A) 3} and He said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.’^{(B) 4} Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God sent him to this country in which you now live.^{(C) 5} But He did not give him inheritable property, not even enough ground to take a step on, yet He promised that He would give it to Him as a possession, and to his descendants after him.^{(D) 6} And this is, in effect, what God spoke [to him]: That his descendants would be aliens (strangers) in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. ⁷ ‘And I will judge any nation to whom they will be in bondage,’ said God, ‘and after that they will come out and serve Me [in worship] in this place.’^{(E) 8} And God gave Abraham a covenant [a formal agreement to be strictly observed] of [which] circumcision [was the sign]; and so [under these circumstances] Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac [became the father] of ^[b]Jacob, and Jacob [became the father] of the ^[c]twelve patriarchs.^(F)

⁹ “The [ten elder] patriarchs, overwhelmed with jealousy, sold [their younger brother] Joseph into [slavery in] Egypt; but God was with him,^{(G) 10} and He rescued him from all his suffering, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made Joseph governor over Egypt and over his entire household.^(H)

¹¹ “Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great distress and our fathers could not find food [for their households and livestock].^{(I) 12} But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time.^{(J) 13} And on the second visit Joseph identified himself to his brothers, and Joseph’s family and background were revealed to Pharaoh.^{(K) 14} Then Joseph sent and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all.^{(L) 15} And Jacob (Israel) went down into Egypt, and ^[d]there he died, as did our fathers;^{(M) 16} and [from Egypt] ^[e]their bodies were taken back to Shechem and placed in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.^(N)

¹⁷ “But as the time [for the fulfillment] of the promise which God had made to Abraham was approaching, the [Hebrew] people increased and multiplied in Egypt,^{(O) 18} until [the time when] there arose another king over egypt who did not know joseph [nor his history and the merit of his service to Egypt].^{(P) 19} He shrewdly exploited our race and mistreated our fathers, forcing them to expose their [male] babies so that they would die.^{(Q) 20} It was at this [critical] time that Moses was born; and he was lovely in the sight of God, and for three months he was nourished in his father’s house.^{(R) 21} Then when he was set outside [to die], Pharaoh’s daughter rescued him and claimed him for herself, and cared for him as her own son.^{(S) 22} So Moses was educated in all the wisdom and culture of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds. ²³ But when he reached the age of forty, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. ²⁴ And when he saw one [of them] being treated unfairly, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking and killing the Egyptian. ²⁵ He expected his countrymen to understand that God was granting them freedom through him [assuming that they would accept him], but they did not understand. ²⁶ Then on the next day he suddenly appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong one another?’ ²⁷ But the man who was injuring his neighbor pushed Moses away, saying, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge over us? ²⁸ Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹ At this remark Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons.^(T)

Prosperity Comes from the Lord.

A Song of ^[a]Ascents. Of Solomon.

³ Now Solomon loved the Lord, walking [at first] in the statutes of David his father, except [for the fact that] he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places [ignoring the law that required all sacrifices to be offered at the tabernacle].^{(A) 4} The king went to Gibeon [near Jerusalem, where the tabernacle and the bronze altar stood] to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. ⁵ In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night; and God said, “Ask [Me] what I shall give you.”

Solomon’s Prayer

⁶ Then Solomon said, “You have shown Your servant David my father great lovingkindness, because he walked before You in faithfulness and righteousness and with uprightness of heart toward You; and You have kept for him this great lovingkindness, in that You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is today. ⁷ So now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of David my father; and as for me, I am but a little boy [^[a]in wisdom and experience]; I do not know how to go out or come in [that is, how to conduct business as a king]. ⁸ Your servant is among Your people whom You have chosen, a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted. ⁹ So give Your servant an understanding mind and a hearing heart [with which] to judge Your people, so that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge and rule this great people of Yours?”^(B)

God’s Answer

¹⁰ Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. ¹¹ God said to him, “Because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself a long life nor for wealth, nor for the lives of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to recognize justice, ¹² behold, I have done as you asked. I have given you a wise and discerning heart (mind), so that no one before you was your equal, nor shall anyone equal to you arise after you. ¹³ I have also given you what you have not asked, both wealth and honor, so that there will not be anyone equal to you among the kings, for all your days. ¹⁴ If you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and My commandments, as your father David ^[b]did, then I will lengthen your days.”

¹⁵ Then Solomon awoke, and he realized that it was a dream. He came [back] to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; he offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and he prepared a feast for all his servants.^(C)

Solomon Wisely Judges

¹⁶ Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. ¹⁷ And the one woman said, “O my lord, this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. ¹⁸ And on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. And we were [alone] together; no one else was with us in the house, just we two. ¹⁹ Now this woman’s son died during the night, because she lay on him [and smothered him]. ²⁰ So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from [his place] beside me while your maidservant was asleep, and laid him on her bosom, and laid her dead son on my bosom. ²¹ When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead. But when I examined him carefully in the morning, behold, it was not my son, the one whom I had borne.” ²² Then the other woman said, “No! For my son is the one who is living, and your son is the dead one.” But the first woman said, “No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.” [This is how] they were speaking before the king.

²³ Then the king said, “This woman says, ‘This is my son, the one who is alive, and your son is the dead one’; and the other woman says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the one who is alive.’” ²⁴ Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king. ²⁵ Then the king said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to the one [woman] and half to the other.” ²⁶ Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for she was deeply moved over her son, “O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; cut him!” ²⁷ Then the king said, “Give the first woman [who is pleading for his life] the living child, and by no means kill him. She is his mother.” ²⁸ When all [the people of] Israel heard about the judgment which the king had made, they [were in awe and reverently] feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was within him to administer justice.

Solomon’s Officials

4 King Solomon was king over all [the people of] Israel. ² These were his [chief] officials: Azariah the ^[c]son of Zadok was the high priest; ³ Elihoreph and Ahijah the sons of Shisha, were scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder [of important events]; ⁴ Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was in command of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; ⁵ Azariah the son of Nathan was in charge of the deputies; Zabud the son of Nathan was priest and was the king’s friend [and trusted advisor]; ⁶ Ahishar was in charge of the household (palace); and Adoniram the son of Abda was in charge of the forced labor.

⁷ Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, who ^[d]secured provisions for the king and his household; each man had to provide for a month in the year. ⁸ These were their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of [the tribe of] Ephraim; ⁹ Ben-deker in Makaz and Shaalbim and Beth-shemesh and Elon-beth-hanan; ¹⁰ Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (to him belonged Socoh and all the land of Hepher); ¹¹ Ben-abinadab, in all the hills of Dor (Taphath, Solomon’s daughter, was his wife); ¹² Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach, Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah as far as beyond Jokmeam; ¹³ Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (the villages of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead belonged to him, also the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars); ¹⁴ Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; ¹⁵ Ahimaaz, in [the tribe of] Naphtali (he also married Basemath, Solomon’s daughter); ¹⁶ Baana the son of Hushai, in [the tribe of] Asher and Bealoth; ¹⁷ Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in [the tribe of] Issachar; ¹⁸ Shimei the son of Ela, in [the tribe of] Benjamin; ¹⁹ Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; and he was the only officer who was in the land.

Solomon’s Power, Wealth and Wisdom

²⁰ [The people of] Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is in abundance by the sea; they were eating and drinking and rejoicing.

^21 [e]Now Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the [Euphrates] River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute (money) and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²² Solomon’s food [for the royal household] for one day was thirty ^[f]kors of finely milled flour, sixty kors of wheat flour, ²³ ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed oxen, a hundred sheep not counting fallow deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl. ²⁴ For he was ruling over everything west of the [Euphrates] River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the [Euphrates] River; and he had peace on all sides around him. ²⁵ Judah and Israel lived in security, every man under his vine and fig tree [in peace and prosperity], from Dan [in the north] to Beersheba [in the south], during all the days of Solomon.^{(D) 26} Solomon also had ^[g]40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen. ²⁷ Those deputies provided food for King Solomon and for all [the staff] who came to King Solomon’s table, each in his month; they let nothing be lacking. ²⁸ They also brought the barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds (warhorses, chargers) to the place where it was needed, each man according to his assignment.

²⁹ Now God gave Solomon [exceptional] wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand of the seashore. ³⁰ Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹ For he was wiser ^[h]than all [other] men, [wiser] than ^[i]Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. His fame was known in all the surrounding nations. ³² He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. ³³ He spoke of trees, from the cedar which is in Lebanon to the hyssop [vine] that grows on the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and fish. ³⁴ People came from all the peoples (nations) to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

Choosing of the Seven

6 Now about this time, when the number of disciples was increasing, a complaint was made by the ^[a]Hellenists (Greek-speaking Jews) against the [^[b]native] Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. ² So the ^[c]Twelve called the disciples together and said, “It is not appropriate for us to neglect [teaching] the word of God in order to serve tables and manage the distribution of food. ³ Therefore, brothers, choose from among you seven men with good reputations [men of godly character and moral integrity], full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. ⁴ But we will [continue to] devote ourselves [steadfastly] to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” ⁵ The suggestion pleased the whole congregation; and they selected ^[d]Stephen, a man full of faith [in Christ Jesus], and [filled with and led by] the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas (Nikolaos), a proselyte (Gentile convert) from Antioch. ⁶ They brought these men before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them [to dedicate and commission them for this service].

⁷ And the message of God kept on growing and spreading, and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem; and a large number of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith [accepting Jesus as Messiah and acknowledging Him as the Source of eternal salvation].

⁸ Now Stephen, full of grace (divine blessing, favor) and power, was doing great wonders and signs (attesting miracles) among the people. ⁹ However, some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (freed Jewish slaves), both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and [the province of] Asia, rose up and questioned and argued with Stephen. ¹⁰ But they were not able to successfully withstand and cope with the wisdom and the intelligence [and the power and inspiration] of the Spirit by whom he was speaking. ¹¹ Then [to attack him another way] they secretly instructed men to say, “We have heard this man [Stephen] speak blasphemous (slanderous, sacrilegious, abusive) words against Moses and against God.” ¹² And they provoked and incited the people, as well as the elders and the scribes, and they came up to Stephen and seized him and brought him before the Council (Sanhedrin, Jewish High Court). ¹³ They presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and the Law [of Moses]; ¹⁴ for we have heard him say that this Jesus the Nazarene will tear down this place and will change the traditions and customs which Moses handed down to us.” ¹⁵ Then all those who were sitting in the Council, stared [intently] at him, and they saw that Stephen’s face was like the face of an angel.

Thanksgiving for Return from Captivity.

A Song of ^[a]Ascents.

David’s Charge to Solomon

2 When David’s time to die approached, he gave instructions to Solomon his son, saying, ² “I am going the way of all the earth [as dust to dust]. Be strong and prove yourself a man. ³ Keep the charge of the Lord your God, [that is, fulfill your obligation to] walk in His ways, keep His statutes, His commandments, His precepts, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, so that you may succeed in everything that you do and wherever you turn, ⁴ so that the Lord may fulfill His ^[a]promise concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons are careful regarding their way [of life], to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and mind and with all their soul, you shall not fail to have a man (descendant) on the throne of Israel.’

⁵ Now you also know what Joab the son of Zeruiah [my sister] did to me, and what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner and to Amasa the son of Jether, [both of] whom he murdered; ^[b]avenging the blood of war in [a time of] peace. And he put the [innocent] blood of war [of Abner and Amasa] on his ^[c]belt that was around his ^[d]waist, and on his sandals on his feet. ⁶ So act in accordance with your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to Sheol (the place of the dead) in peace. ⁷ But be gracious and kind to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who [have the honor to] eat at your table; for they met me [with kindness] when I fled from your brother Absalom.^{(A) 8} And look, you have with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite of Bahurim; he is the one who cursed me with a sinister curse the day I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at the Jordan [on my return], and I swore to him by the Lord, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ ⁹ But now do not let him go unpunished, for you are a wise man; and you will know what to do to him, and you will bring his gray head down to Sheol [covered] with blood.”

Death of David

¹⁰ So David lay down with his fathers [in death] and was buried in the ^[e]City of David. ¹¹ The time that David reigned over Israel was forty years: he reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. ¹² Then Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established.

¹³ Now Adonijah the son of [David and] Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. She said, “Do you come in peace?” And he said, “In peace.” ¹⁴ Then he said, “I have something to say to you.” And she said, “Speak.” ¹⁵ So he said, “You know that the kingdom belonged to me [as the eldest living son] and all Israel ^[f]looked to me and expected me to be king. However, the kingdom has passed [from me] and became my brother’s, for it was his from the Lord. ¹⁶ So now I am making one request of you; do not ^[g]refuse me.” And she said to him, “Speak.” ¹⁷ He said, “Please speak to King Solomon, for he will not refuse you; ask that he may give me Abishag the Shunammite as a wife.”^{(B) 18} Bathsheba replied, “Very well; I will speak to the king for you.”

Adonijah Executed

¹⁹ So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. And the king rose to meet her, bowed before her, and sat down on his throne; then he had a throne set for her, the king’s mother, and she sat on his right. ²⁰ Then she said, “I am making one small request of you; do not refuse me.” And the king said to her, “Ask, my mother, for I will not refuse you.” ²¹ So she said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to your brother Adonijah as a wife.” ²² King Solomon answered and said to his mother, “And why are you asking for ^[h]Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask the kingdom for him also—since he is my older brother—[ask it] for him and for Abiathar the priest and Joab the son of Zeruiah [his supporters]!” ²³ Then King Solomon swore by the Lord, saying, “May God do the same to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not requested this [deplorable] thing against his own ^[i]life. ²⁴ So now, as the Lord lives, who has established me and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me a house as He promised, Adonijah shall indeed be put to death today.” ²⁵ So King Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he ^[j]struck Adonijah and he died.

²⁶ Then the king said to Abiathar the priest, “Go to Anathoth to your own fields, for you ^[k]certainly deserve to die; but I will not put you to death this day, because you carried the ark of the Lord God before my father David, and you suffered everything that my father endured.” ²⁷ So Solomon dismissed Abiathar [a descendant of Eli] from being priest to the Lord, fulfilling the word of the Lord, which He had spoken concerning the house (descendants) of Eli in Shiloh.^(C)

Joab Executed

²⁸ Now the news reached Joab, for Joab had supported and followed Adonijah, although he had not followed Absalom. So Joab fled to the [sacred] tent of the Lord and took hold of the horns of the altar [to seek asylum]. ²⁹ King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the tent of the Lord and was at that moment beside the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, ^[l]strike him down.” ³⁰ So Benaiah came to the tent of the Lord and told Joab, “This is what the king commands, ‘Come out of there.’” But Joab said, “No, for I will die here.” Then Benaiah brought word to the king again, saying, “This is what Joab said, and this is how he answered me.” ³¹ The king said to him, “Do as he has said. ^[m]Strike him down and bury him, so that you may remove from me and from my father’s house the innocent blood which Joab shed. ³² The Lord will return his bloody deeds upon his own head, because he struck down two men more righteous and honorable than he and killed them with the sword, without my father David knowing: Abner the son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah. ³³ So shall their blood return on the head of Joab and the heads of his descendants forever. But for David, his descendants, his house, and his throne, may there be peace from the Lord forever.” ³⁴ So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up [to the tabernacle] and struck and killed Joab, and he was buried at his own house in the wilderness [of Judah]. ³⁵ The king appointed Benaiah the son of Jehoiada over the army in Joab’s place, and appointed Zadok the priest in place of Abiathar.

Shimei Executed

³⁶ Now the king sent word and called for Shimei and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there. Do not go from there to ^[n]any other place. ³⁷ For on the day you leave and cross over the ^[o]Brook Kidron, know for certain that you shall surely die; your blood shall be on your own head.” ³⁸ Shimei said to the king, “The word (ruling) is good. As my lord the king has said, so will your servant do.” So Shimei lived in Jerusalem for many days.

³⁹ But it happened after three years, that two of Shimei’s servants ran away to Achish the son of Maacah, the king of ^[p]Gath. And Shimei was told, “Behold, your [runaway] servants are in Gath.” ⁴⁰ So Shimei arose, saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to [King] Achish to look for his servants. And Shimei went and brought them back from Gath. ⁴¹ Now Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and had returned. ⁴² So the king sent word and called for Shimei and said to him, “Did I not make you swear by the Lord and solemnly warn you, saying, ‘Know for certain that on the day you leave [Jerusalem] and go anywhere, you shall surely die’? And you said to me, ‘The word (ruling) I have heard is good.’ ⁴³ Why then have you not kept the oath of the Lord, and the command which I gave you?” ⁴⁴ The king also said to Shimei, “You are aware in your own heart of all the evil you did to my father David; so the Lord shall return your evil on your own head. ⁴⁵ But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever.” ⁴⁶ So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck down Shimei, and he died.

So the kingdom was established in the hands of Solomon.

Solomon’s Rule Consolidated

3 Now Solomon became a son-in-law to Pharaoh king of Egypt [and formed an alliance] by ^[q]taking Pharaoh’s daughter [in marriage]. He brought her to the ^[r]City of David [where she remained temporarily] until he had finished building his own house (palace) and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem. ² But [in the meantime] the people were still sacrificing [to God] on the high places (hilltops) [as the pagans did to their idols], for there was no [permanent] house yet built for the ^[s]Name of the Lord.

Fate of Ananias and Sapphira

5 Now a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, ² and with his wife’s full knowledge [and complicity] he kept back some of the proceeds, bringing only a ^[a]portion of it, and set it at the apostles’ feet. ³ But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and [secretly] keep back for yourself some of the proceeds [from the sale] of the land? ⁴ As long as it remained [unsold], did it not remain your own [to do with as you pleased]? And after it was sold, was the money not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this act [of hypocrisy and deceit] in your heart? You have not [simply] lied to people, but to God.” ⁵ And hearing these words, Ananias fell down suddenly and died; and great fear and awe gripped those who heard of it. ⁶ And the young men [in the congregation] got up and wrapped up the body, and carried it out and buried it.

⁷ Now after an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. ⁸ Peter asked her, “Tell me whether you sold your land for so much?” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” ⁹ Then Peter said to her, “How could you two have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Look! The feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.” ¹⁰ And at once she fell down at his feet and died; and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. ¹¹ And great fear and awe gripped the whole church, and all who heard about these things.

¹² At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders (attesting miracles) were continually taking place among the people. And by common consent they all met together [at the temple] in [the covered porch called] Solomon’s portico. ¹³ But none of the rest [of the people, the non-believers] dared to associate with them; however, the people were holding them in high esteem and were speaking highly of them. ¹⁴ More and more believers in the Lord, crowds of men and women, were constantly being added to their number, ¹⁵ to such an extent that they even carried their sick out into the streets and put them on cots and sleeping pads, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on one of them [with healing power]. ¹⁶ And the people from the towns in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing the sick and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all being healed.

Imprisonment and Release

¹⁷ But the ^[b]high priest stood up, along with all his associates (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy and resentment. ¹⁸ They arrested the apostles and put them in a public jail. ¹⁹ But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, and leading them out, he said, ²⁰ “Go, stand and continue to tell the people in the temple [courtyards] the whole message of this Life [the eternal life revealed by Christ and found through faith in Him].” ²¹ When they heard this, they went into the temple [courtyards] about daybreak and began teaching.

Now when the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Council (Sanhedrin, Jewish High Court), even all the council of elders of the sons of Israel, and sent word to the prison for the apostles to be brought [before them]. ²² But when the officers arrived, they did not find them in the prison; and they came back and reported, ²³ “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened [the doors], we found no one inside.” ²⁴ Now when the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard these things, they were greatly perplexed, wondering what would come of this. ²⁵ But someone came and told them, “The men whom you put in prison are standing [right here] in the temple [area], teaching the people!” ²⁶ Then the captain went with the officers and brought them back, without hurting them (because they were afraid of the people, worried that they might be stoned).

²⁷ So they brought them and presented them before the Council (Sanhedrin, Jewish High Court). The high priest questioned them, ²⁸ saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this ^[c]Man’s blood on us [by accusing us as His murderers].” ²⁹ Then Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men [we have no other choice]. ³⁰ The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a ^[d]cross [and you are responsible].^{(A) 31} God exalted Him to His right hand as Prince and Savior and Deliverer, in order to grant repentance to Israel, and [to grant] forgiveness of sins. ³² And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has bestowed on those who obey Him.”

Gamaliel’s Counsel

³³ Now when they heard this, they were infuriated and they intended to kill the apostles. ³⁴ But a Pharisee named ^[e]Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law [of Moses], highly esteemed by all the people, stood up in the Council (Sanhedrin, Jewish High Court) and ordered that the men be taken outside for a little while. ³⁵ Then he said to the Council, “Men of Israel, be careful in regard to what you propose to do to these men. ³⁶ For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody [of importance], and a group of about four hundred men allied themselves with him. But he was killed, and all who followed him were scattered and came to nothing. ³⁷ After this man, Judas the Galilean rose up, [and led an uprising] during the time of the census, and drew people after him; he was also killed, and all his followers were scattered. ³⁸ So in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or action is of men [merely human in origin], it will fail and be destroyed; ³⁹ but if it is of God [and it appears that it is], you will not be able to stop them; or else you may even be found fighting against God!”

⁴⁰ The Council (Sanhedrin, Jewish High Court) took his advice; and after summoning the apostles, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and released them. ⁴¹ So they left the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy [dignified by indignity] to suffer shame for [the sake of] His name. ⁴² And every single day, in the temple [area] and in homes, they did not stop teaching and telling the good news of Jesus as the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed).

The Lord Surrounds His People.

A Song of ^[a]Ascents.

David in Old Age

1 Now King David was ^[a]old, advanced in years; they covered him with clothes, but he could not get warm. ² So his servants said to him, “Let a young virgin be found for my lord the king and let her attend him and become his nurse; let her lie against your chest, so that my lord the king may feel warm.” ³ So they searched for a beautiful girl throughout the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the ^[b]Shunammite, and brought her to the king. ⁴ The girl was very beautiful; and she became the king’s nurse and served him, but the king ^[c]was not intimate with her.

⁵ Then Adonijah the son of [David’s wife] Haggith exalted himself, saying, “I [the eldest living son] will be king.” So [following Absalom’s example] he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.^{(A) 6} His father [David] had ^[d]never rebuked him at any time by asking, “Why have you done this?” Adonijah was also a very handsome man, and he was born after Absalom. ⁷ He had conferred with ^[e]Joab the son of Zeruiah [David’s half sister] and with Abiathar the priest; and they followed Adonijah and helped him. ⁸ But Zadok the priest, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and David’s ^[f]most formidable warriors did not side with Adonijah [in his desire to become king].

⁹ Adonijah sacrificed sheep and oxen and fattened steers by the Stone of Zoheleth, which is beside [the well] En-rogel; and he invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the men of Judah, the king’s servants [to this feast].^{(B) 10} But he did not invite Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, the most formidable warriors, or his brother Solomon.

Nathan and Bathsheba

¹¹ Then Nathan spoke to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, “Have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith has become king, and David our lord does not know about it? ¹² Come now, please let me advise you and save your life and the life of your son Solomon.^{(C) 13} Go at once to King David and say to him, ‘Did you not, my lord, O king, swear to your maidservant, saying, “Solomon your son shall certainly be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne”? Why then has Adonijah become king?’ ¹⁴ Behold, while you are still there speaking with the king, I will come in after you and confirm your words.”

¹⁵ So Bathsheba went to the king in his bedroom. Now the king was very old and weak, and Abishag the Shunammite was attending the king. ¹⁶ So Bathsheba bowed down and paid respect to the king. And the king said, “^[g]What do you wish?” ¹⁷ She said to him, “My lord, you swore by the Lord your God to your maidservant, saying, ‘Solomon your son shall certainly be king after me and he shall sit on my throne.’ ¹⁸ But now, behold, Adonijah is [acting as] king; and now [as things stand], my lord the king, you do not know it. ¹⁹ He has sacrificed oxen and fattened steers and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the king’s sons and Abiathar the priest and Joab the commander of the army [to a feast], but he did not invite your servant Solomon. ²⁰ Now as for you, my lord the king, the eyes of all ^[h]Israel are on you [waiting for you] to tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. ²¹ Otherwise it will come about when my lord the king lies down [in death] with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon will be considered ^[i]political enemies.”

²² While she was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet came in. ²³ The king was told, “Here is Nathan the prophet.” And when he came before the king, he bowed before the king with his face to the ground. ²⁴ Then Nathan said, “My lord the king, have you said, ‘Adonijah shall be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne’? ²⁵ Because he has gone down today [to En-Rogel] and has sacrificed oxen and fattened steers and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the king’s sons, the commanders of the army and Abiathar the priest [to this feast]; and [right now] they are eating and drinking in his presence; and they say, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’ ²⁶ But he has not invited me, your servant, nor Zadok the priest, nor Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, nor your servant Solomon. ²⁷ If this thing has been done by my lord the king, why have you not shown your servants who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?”

²⁸ King David answered, “Call Bathsheba to me.” And she came into the king’s presence and stood before him. ²⁹ Then the king swore an oath and said, “As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my soul from all distress, ³⁰ even as I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, saying, ‘Solomon your son shall certainly be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place’; I will indeed do so this very day.” ³¹ Bathsheba bowed down with her face to the ground, and laid herself face down before the king and said, “May my lord King David live forever!”

³² Then King David said, “Call Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada to me.” And they came before the king. ³³ The king told them, “Take the ^[j]servants of your lord with you and have Solomon my son ^[k]ride on my own mule, and bring him down to [the spring at] ^[l]Gihon [in the Kidron Valley]. ³⁴ Let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there as king over Israel. Then blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ ³⁵ Then you shall come up [to Jerusalem] after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne and he shall reign as king in my place; for I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and Judah.” ³⁶ Benaiah [the overseer of the king’s bodyguards], the son of Jehoiada answered the king and said, “Amen! (So be it!) May the Lord, the God of my lord the king, say so too. ^37 [m]Just as the Lord has been with my lord the king, so may He be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David!”

Solomon Anointed King

³⁸ So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites [the king’s bodyguards] went down [from Jerusalem] and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and brought him to [the spring at] Gihon. ³⁹ Zadok the priest took a horn of [olive] oil from the [sacred] tent and anointed Solomon. They blew the trumpet, and all the people said, “Long live King Solomon!” ⁴⁰ All the people went up after him, and they were playing on flutes and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth shook and seemed to burst open with their [joyful] sound.

⁴¹ Now Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they finished eating. When Joab heard the trumpet sound, he said, “^[n]Why is the city in such an uproar?” ⁴² While he was still speaking, behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest arrived. And Adonijah said, “Come in, for you are a valiant and trustworthy man and you bring good news.”^{(D) 43} But Jonathan replied to Adonijah, “No, on the contrary, our lord King David has made Solomon king! ⁴⁴ The king has sent him with Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites; and they have had him ride on the king’s [own royal] mule. ⁴⁵ Also, Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon, and they have come up from there celebrating, so the city is in an uproar. This is the noise which you have heard. ⁴⁶ Besides, Solomon has taken his seat on the throne of the kingdom. ⁴⁷ Moreover, the king’s servants came to bless (congratulate) our lord King David, saying, ‘May ^[o]your God make the name of Solomon better (more famous) than your name and make his throne greater than your throne.’ And the king bowed himself [before God] upon the bed. ⁴⁸ The king has also said this: ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has granted one [of my descendants] to sit on my throne today and allowed my eyes to see it.’”

⁴⁹ Then all Adonijah’s guests were terrified [of being branded as traitors] and stood up and left the feast, and each one went on his way. ⁵⁰ And Adonijah feared Solomon, and he got up and went [to the tabernacle on Mt. Zion] and took hold of the horns of the altar [seeking asylum]. ⁵¹ Now Solomon was told, “Behold, Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon, and behold, he has grasped the horns of the altar [seeking God’s protection], saying, ‘King Solomon must swear to me today that he will not kill his servant with the sword.’” ⁵² Solomon said, “If he [proves he] is a worthy man, not even one of his hairs shall fall to the ground; but if wickedness is found in him, he shall die.” ⁵³ So King Solomon sent [soldiers], and they brought Adonijah down from the altar [that was in front of the tabernacle]. And he came and bowed down to King Solomon, and Solomon said to him, “Go to your house.”

Peter and John Arrested

4 And while Peter and John were talking to the people, the priests and the captain [who was in charge of the temple area and] of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, ² being extremely disturbed and thoroughly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in [the case of] Jesus the resurrection of the dead. ³ So they arrested them and put them in jail until the next day, because it was evening. ⁴ But many of those who heard the message [of salvation] believed [in Jesus and accepted Him as the Christ]. And the number of the men came to be about 5,000.

⁵ On the next day, their magistrates and elders and scribes (Sanhedrin, Jewish High Court) were gathered together in Jerusalem; ⁶ and ^[a]Annas the high priest was there, and ^[b]Caiaphas and ^[c]John and Alexander, and all others who were of high-priestly descent. ⁷ When they had put the men in ^[d]front of them, they repeatedly asked, “By what sort of power, or in what name [that is, by what kind of authority], did you do this [healing]?” ⁸ Then Peter, filled with [the power of] the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people [members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish High Court], ⁹ if we are being put on trial today [to interrogate us] for a good deed done to [benefit] a disabled man, as to how this man has been restored to health, ¹⁰ let it be known and clearly understood by all of you, and by all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you [demanded be] crucified [by the Romans and], whom God raised from the dead—in this name [that is, by the authority and power of Jesus] this man stands here before you in good health. ¹¹ This Jesus is the stone which was despised and rejected by you, the builders, but which became the ^[e]chief Cornerstone.^{(A) 12} And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among people by which we must be saved [for God has provided the world no alternative for salvation].”

Threat and Release

¹³ Now when the men of the Sanhedrin (Jewish High Court) saw the confidence and boldness of Peter and John, and grasped the fact that they were ^[f]uneducated and untrained [ordinary] men, they were astounded, and began to recognize that they had been with Jesus. ¹⁴ And seeing the man who had been healed standing there with them, they had nothing to say in reply. ¹⁵ But after ordering them to step out of the Council [chamber], they began to confer among themselves, ¹⁶ saying, “What are we to do with these men? For the fact that an extraordinary miracle has taken place through them is public knowledge and clearly evident to all the residents of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. ¹⁷ But to keep it from spreading further among the people and the nation, let us [sternly] warn them not to speak again to anyone in this name.” ¹⁸ So they sent for them, and commanded them not to speak [as His representatives] or teach at all in the name of Jesus [using Him as their authority]. ¹⁹ But Peter and John replied to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you and obey you rather than God, you must judge [for yourselves]; ²⁰ for we, on our part, cannot stop telling [people] about what we have seen and heard.” ²¹ When the rulers and Council members had threatened them further, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because [of their fear] of the people, for they were all praising and glorifying and honoring God for what had happened; ²² for the man to whom this sign (attesting miracle) of healing had happened was more than forty years old.

²³ After Peter and John were released, they returned to their own [people] and reported everything that the chief priests and elders had said to them. ²⁴ And when they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said, “O Sovereign Lord [having complete power and authority], it is You who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything that is in them,^{(B) 25} who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David, Your servant, said,

²⁷ For in this city there were gathered together against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, ²⁸ to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined [before the creation of the world] to occur [and so without knowing it, they served Your own purpose]. ²⁹ And now, Lord, observe their threats [take them into account] and grant that Your bond-servants may declare Your message [of salvation] with great confidence, ³⁰ while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders (attesting miracles) take place through the name [and the authority and power] of Your holy Servant and Son Jesus.” ³¹ And when they had prayed, the place where they were meeting together was shaken [a sign of God’s presence]; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness and courage.

Sharing among Believers

³² Now the company of believers was of one heart and soul, and not one [of them] claimed that anything belonging to him was [exclusively] his own, but everything was common property and for the use of all. ³³ And with great ability and power the apostles were continuously testifying to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace [God’s remarkable lovingkindness and favor and goodwill] rested richly upon them all. ³⁴ There was not a needy person among them, because those who were owners of land or houses were selling them, and bringing the proceeds of the sales ³⁵ and placing the money down at the apostles’ feet. Then it was distributed to each as anyone had need.

³⁶ Now Joseph, a Levite and native of Cyprus, who was surnamed ^[g]Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement), ³⁷ sold a field belonging to him and brought the money and set it at the apostles’ feet.

Praise for Rescue from Enemies.

A Song of ^[a]Ascents. Of David.

²⁴ Asahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty; then Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem, ²⁵ Shammah of Harod, Elika of Harod, ²⁶ Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh of Tekoa, ²⁷ Abiezer of Anathoth, Mebunnai the Hushathite, ²⁸ Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai of Netophah, ²⁹ Heleb the son of Baanah of Netophah, Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the Benjamites, ³⁰ Benaiah of Pirathon, Hiddai of the brooks of Gaash, ³¹ Abi-albon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the Barhumite, ³² Eliahba of Shaalbon, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan, ³³ Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Ararite, ³⁴ Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai the son of Maacah, Eliam the son of Ahithophel of Giloh, ³⁵ Hezro (Hezrai) of Carmel, Paarai the Arbite, ³⁶ Igal the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite, ³⁷ Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai of Beeroth, armor bearer of Joab the son of Zeruiah, ³⁸ Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, ³⁹ Uriah the Hittite—thirty-seven in all.

The Census Taken

24 Now again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and ^[a]He incited David against them to say, “Go, ^[b]count [the people of] Israel and Judah.” ² So the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan [in the north] to Beersheba [in the south], and conduct a census of the people, so that I may know the number of the people.” ³ But Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as there are, and let the eyes of my lord the king see it; but why does my lord the king ^[c]want to do this thing?” ⁴ Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So they went from the king’s presence to take a census of the people of Israel. ⁵ They crossed over the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the south side of the city which is in the middle of the river valley [of the Arnon] toward Gad, and on toward Jazer. ⁶ Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon, ⁷ and they came to the stronghold of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites, and they went out to the south of Judah, to Beersheba. ⁸ So when they had gone about through all the land [taking the census], they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. ⁹ And Joab gave the sum of the census of the people to the king. In Israel there were 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000.

¹⁰ But David’s heart (conscience) troubled him after he had counted the people. David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the sin of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” ¹¹ When David got up in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, ¹² “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the Lord, “I am giving you three choices; select one of them for yourself, and I will do it to you.”’” ¹³ So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your enemies as they pursue you? Or shall there be three days of pestilence (plague) in your land? Now consider this and decide what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.” ¹⁴ Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hands of man.”

Pestilence Sent

¹⁵ So the Lord sent a pestilence (plague) [lasting three days] upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. ¹⁶ When the [avenging] angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the disaster and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now relax your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. ¹⁷ When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he spoke to the Lord and said, “Behold, I [alone] am the one who has sinned and done wrong; but these sheep (people of Israel), what have they done [to deserve this]? Please let Your hand be [only] against me and my father’s house (family).”

David Builds an Altar

¹⁸ Then Gad [the prophet] came to David that day and said to him, “Go up, set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite [where you saw the angel].” ¹⁹ So David went up according to Gad’s word, as the Lord commanded. ²⁰ Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; and he went out and bowed before the king with his face toward the ground. ²¹ Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the Lord, so that the plague may be held back from the people.” ²² Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for the burnt offering, and threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. ²³ All of this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God be favorable to you.” ²⁴ But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.” So David purchased the ^[d]threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. ²⁵ David built an altar to the Lord there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord was moved [to compassion] by [David’s] prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.

Healing the Lame Beggar

3 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.), ² and a man who had been unable to walk from birth was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at that gate of the temple which is called ^[a]Beautiful, so that he could beg alms from those entering the temple. ³ So when he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking [them] for coins. ⁴ But Peter, along with John, stared at him intently and said, “Look at us!” ⁵ And the man began to pay attention to them, eagerly expecting to receive something from them. ⁶ But Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have; but what I do have I give to you: In the name (authority, power) of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—[begin now to] walk and go on walking!” ⁷ Then he seized the man’s right hand with a firm grip and raised him up. And at once his feet and ankles became strong and steady, ⁸ and with a leap he stood up and began to walk; and he went into the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. ⁹ All the people saw him walking and praising God; ¹⁰ and they recognized him as the very man who usually sat begging for coins at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement and were mystified at what had happened to him.

Peter’s Second Sermon

¹¹ Now while he was still holding on to Peter and John, all the people, utterly amazed, ran together and crowded around them at the covered porch called Solomon’s portico. ¹² And Peter, seeing this, said to the people, “You men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Why are you staring at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? ¹³ The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Servant and Son Jesus [doing Him this honor], the One whom you handed over and disowned and rejected before Pilate, when he had decided to release Him.^{(A) 14} But you disowned and denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for [the pardon of] a murderer to be granted to you. ¹⁵ But you killed the Prince (Author, Originator, Source) of life, whom God raised [bodily] from the dead. To this [fact] we are witnesses [for we have seen the risen Christ]. ¹⁶ And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health and complete wholeness in your presence.

¹⁷ “Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance [not fully aware of what you were doing], just as your rulers did also. ¹⁸ And so God has fulfilled what He foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ (Messiah, Anointed) would suffer. ¹⁹ So repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, regret past sins] and return [to God—seek His purpose for your life], so that your sins may be wiped away [blotted out, completely erased], so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord [restoring you like a cool wind on a hot day]; ²⁰ and that He may send [to you] Jesus, the Christ, who has been appointed for you, ²¹ whom heaven must keep until the time for the [complete] restoration of all things about which God promised through the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. ²² Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a Prophet ^[b]like me from your countrymen; you shall listen to Him and obey everything He tells you. ²³ And it will be that every person that does not listen to and heed that Prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.’^{(B) 24} Indeed, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also announced these days. ²⁵ You are the sons (descendants) of the prophets and [heirs] of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed (descendant) all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’^{(C) 26} It was for you first of all that God raised up His Servant and Son [Jesus], and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”^(D)

Prayer for the Lord’s Help.

A Song of ^[a]Ascents.

David’s Last Song

23 Now these are the last words of David.

His Mighty Men

⁸ These are the names of the mighty men (warriors) whom David had: Josheb-basshebeth, a Tahchemonite, chief of the ^[a]captains, also called Adino the Eznite (spear) because of the ^[b]eight hundred men killed [by him] at one time.^{(B) 9} Next to him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the son of Ahohi. He was one of the three mighty men with David when they taunted and defied the Philistines assembled there for battle, and the men of Israel had gone. ¹⁰ Eleazar stood up and struck down the Philistines until his hand was weary and clung to the sword. The Lord brought about a great victory that day; the people returned after him only to take the spoil [of the slain].

¹¹ Next to Eleazar was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines were gathered into an army where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the people [of Israel] fled from the Philistines. ¹² But he took his stand in the center of the plot and defended it and struck down the Philistines; and the Lord brought about a great victory.

¹³ Then three of the thirty chief men went down and came to David at harvest time in the cave of Adullam, while an army of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. ¹⁴ David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. ¹⁵ And David had a craving and said, “Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!” ¹⁶ So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, and drew water from the well of Bethlehem by the gate, and carried and brought it to David. But he would not drink it, but poured it out [in worship] to the Lord. ¹⁷ And he said, “Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should drink this. [Is it not the same as] the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?” So he would not drink it. These things the ^[c]three mighty men did.

¹⁸ Now Abishai the brother of Joab the son of Zeruiah was chief of the ^[d]thirty. He wielded his spear against three hundred men and killed them, and gained a reputation beside the three. ¹⁹ He was the most honored of the thirty, so he became their commander; however, he did not attain to the [greatness of the] three.

²⁰ Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done many notable acts, killed two [famous] warriors of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day. ²¹ And he killed an Egyptian, an impressive and handsome man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but Benaiah went down to him with a club, snatched the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand and killed the man with his own spear. ²² These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and gained a reputation beside the three mighty men. ²³ He was honored among the thirty, but he did not attain to the [greatness of the] three. David appointed him over his guard.

The Day of Pentecost

2 When the day of ^[a]Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, ² and suddenly a sound came from heaven like a rushing violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ There appeared to them tongues resembling fire, which were being distributed [among them], and they rested on each one of them [as each person received the Holy Spirit]. ⁴ And they were all filled [that is, diffused throughout their being] with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other ^[b]tongues (different languages), as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out [clearly and appropriately].

⁵ Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout and God-fearing men from every nation under heaven. ⁶ And when this sound was heard, a crowd gathered, and they were bewildered because each one was hearing those in the upper room speaking in his own language or dialect. ⁷ They were completely astonished, saying, “Look! Are not all of these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ Then how is it that each of us hears in our own language or native dialect? ⁹ [Among us there are] Parthians, Medes and Elamites, and people of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and ^[c]Asia [Minor], ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and the visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes (Gentile converts to Judaism), ¹¹ Cretans and Arabs—we all hear them speaking in our [native] tongues about the mighty works of God!” ¹² And they were beside themselves with amazement and were greatly perplexed, saying one to another, “What could this mean?” ¹³ But others were laughing and joking and ridiculing them, saying, “They are full of sweet wine and are drunk!”

Peter’s Sermon

¹⁴ But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be explained to you; listen closely and pay attention to what I have to say. ¹⁵ These people are not drunk, as you assume, since it is [only] the third hour of the day (9:00 a.m.); ¹⁶ but this is [the beginning of] what was spoken of through the prophet Joel:

²² “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man accredited and pointed out and attested to you by God with [the power to perform] miracles and wonders and signs which God worked through Him in your [very] midst, just as you yourselves know— ²³ this Man, when handed over [to the Roman authorities] according to the predetermined decision and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross and put to death by the hands of lawless and godless men. ²⁴ But God raised Him up, releasing Him and bringing an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in death’s power. ²⁵ For David says of Him,

²⁹ “Brothers, I may confidently and freely say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. ³⁰ And so, being a prophet and knowing fully that God had sworn to him with an oath that He would seat one of his descendants on his throne,^{(C) 31} he foresaw and spoke [prophetically] of the resurrection of the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed), that He was not abandoned [in death] to Hades (the realm of the dead), nor did His body undergo decay.^{(D) 32} God raised this Jesus [bodily from the dead], and of that [fact] we are all witnesses. ³³ Therefore having been exalted ^[d]to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this [blessing] which you both see and hear. ³⁴ For David did not ascend into the heavens, yet he himself says,

³⁶ Therefore let all the house of Israel recognize beyond all doubt that God has made Him both Lord and Christ (Messiah, Anointed)—this Jesus whom you crucified.”

The Ingathering

³⁷ Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart [with remorse and anxiety], and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what are we to do?” ³⁸ And Peter said to them, “Repent [change your old way of thinking, turn from your sinful ways, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah] and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ because of the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise [of the Holy Spirit] is for you and your children and for all who are far away [including the Gentiles], as many as the Lord our God calls to Himself.”^{(F) 40} And Peter solemnly testified and continued to admonish and urge them with many more words, saying, “^[g]Be saved from this crooked and unjust generation!” ⁴¹ So then, those who accepted his message were baptized; and on that day about ^[h]3,000 souls were added [to the body of believers]. ⁴² They were continually and faithfully devoting themselves to the instruction of the apostles, and to fellowship, to ^[i]eating meals together and to prayers.

⁴³ A sense of awe was felt by ^[j]everyone, and many wonders and signs (attesting miracles) were taking place through the apostles. ⁴⁴ And all those who had believed [in Jesus as Savior] ^[k]were together and had all things in common [considering their possessions to belong to the group as a whole]. ⁴⁵ And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing the proceeds with all [the other believers], as anyone had need. ⁴⁶ Day after day they met in the temple [area] continuing with one mind, and breaking bread in various private homes. They were eating their meals together with joy and generous hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God continually, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord kept adding to their number daily those who were being saved.

Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem.

A Song of ^[a]Ascents. Of David.

¹⁴ Now Joab went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, even Beth-maacah, and all the Berites; and they assembled and also went after Sheba. ¹⁵ And ^[a]the army of Joab came and besieged Sheba in Abel Beth-maacah, and they built up an ^[b]assault ramp against the city, and it stood against the outer rampart; and all the people who were with Joab were wreaking destruction to make the wall fall. ¹⁶ Then a wise woman cried out from the city, “Hear, hear! Tell Joab, ‘Come here so that I may speak to you.’” ¹⁷ So when he approached her, the woman asked, “Are you Joab?” He answered, “I am.” Then she said to him, “Listen to the words of your maidservant.” He answered, “I am listening.” ¹⁸ Then she said, “In the past people used to say, ‘They will certainly ask advice at Abel,’ and so they settled the dispute. ¹⁹ I am one of the peaceable and faithful in Israel. You are seeking to destroy a city, and a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up (devour) the inheritance of the Lord?” ²⁰ Joab answered, “Far be it, far be it from me that I would swallow up or destroy! ²¹ That is not true. But a man of the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand [in rebellion] against King David. Only hand him over, and I will leave the city.” And the woman said to Joab, “Behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall.” ²² Then the woman in her wisdom went to all the people [to inform them of the agreement]. And they beheaded Sheba the son of Bichri and threw his head [down] to Joab. So he blew the trumpet [signaling the end of the attack], and they dispersed from the city, every man to his own tent. And Joab returned to Jerusalem to [David] the king.^(A)

²³ Now Joab was [commander] over the entire army of Israel; Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was [commander] over the Cherethites and Pelethites [the king’s bodyguards]; ²⁴ Adoram was over the forced labor; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder; ²⁵ Sheva was the scribe; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests; ²⁶ also Ira the Jairite was a priest to David.

Gibeonite Revenge

21 There was famine in the days of David for three consecutive years; and David sought the presence (face) of the Lord [asking the reason]. The Lord replied, “It is because of Saul and his bloody house, because ^[c]he put the Gibeonites to death.” ² So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the sons (descendants) of Israel but of the remnant (survivors) of the Amorites. The Israelites had sworn [an oath] to [spare] them, but Saul in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah had sought to strike down the Gibeonites). ³ So David said to the Gibeonites, “What should I do for you? How can I make it good so that you will bless the Lord’s inheritance (Israel)?” ⁴ The Gibeonites said to him, “We will not accept silver or gold belonging to Saul or his household (descendants); nor is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.” David said, “I will do for you whatever you say.” ⁵ So they said to the king, “The man who consumed us and planned to exterminate us from remaining in any territory of Israel, ⁶ let seven men [chosen] from his sons (descendants) be given to us and we will hang them before the Lord [that is, put them on display, impaled with broken legs and arms] in ^[d]Gibeah of Saul, the chosen one of the Lord.” And the king said, “I will give them.”

⁷ But the king spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the Lord’s oath that was between David and Saul’s son Jonathan. ⁸ So the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons of ^[e]Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite. ⁹ He handed them over to the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the Lord, and the seven died together. They were put to death in the first days of the grain harvest, the beginning of the barley harvest [in the spring].

¹⁰ Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest [in the spring] until [the autumn] rain fell on them; and she allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on their bodies by day, nor the beasts of the field [to feed on them] by night. ¹¹ David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the ^[f]concubine of Saul, had done. ¹² Then David went and took the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the open square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them on the day when the Philistines had killed Saul in Gilboa. ¹³ He brought up the bones of Saul and of Jonathan his son from there, and they gathered the bones of those who had been hanged [with their arms and legs broken]. ¹⁴ They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father; and they did all that the king commanded. After that, God was moved by prayer for the land.

¹⁵ Now the Philistines were at war again with Israel. David went down with his servants, and as they fought against the Philistines, David became weary. ¹⁶ Then Ishbi-benob, who was among the descendants of the giant, the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels (six pounds) of bronze, was armed with a new sword, and he intended to kill David. ¹⁷ But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to David’s aid, and struck and killed the Philistine. Then David’s men swore to him, “You shall not go out again with us to battle, so that you do not extinguish the lamp of Israel.”

¹⁸ After this, there was war again with the Philistines at Gob (Gezer). At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph (Sippai), who was among the descendants of the giant. ¹⁹ There was war with the Philistines again at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, a Bethlehemite, killed Goliath the Gittite, whose spear shaft was like a weaver’s beam. ²⁰ There was war at Gath again, where there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; he also was a descendant of the giants. ²¹ And when he taunted and defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, killed him. ²² These four [warriors] were descended from the giant in Gath, and they fell by the hands of David and his servants.

Introduction

1 The first ^[a]account I made, Theophilus, was [a continuous report] about all the things that Jesus began to do and to ^[b]teach^{(A) 2} until the day when He ascended to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given instruction to the apostles (special messengers) whom He had chosen. ³ To these [men] He also showed Himself alive after His suffering [in Gethsemane and on the cross], by [a series of] many infallible proofs and unquestionable demonstrations, appearing to them over a period of forty days and talking to them about the things concerning the kingdom of God. ⁴ While being together and eating with them, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Of which,” He said, “you have heard Me speak.^{(B) 5} For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized and empowered and united with the Holy Spirit, not long from now.”

⁶ So when they had come together, they asked Him repeatedly, “Lord, are You at this time reestablishing the kingdom and restoring it to Israel?” ⁷ He said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power and ability when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be My witnesses [to tell people about Me] both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.”

The Ascension

⁹ And after He said these things, He was caught up as they looked on, and a cloud took Him up out of their sight. ¹⁰ While they were looking intently into the sky as He was going, two men in white clothing suddenly stood beside them, ¹¹ who said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This [same] Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will return in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”

The Upper Room

¹² Then the disciples returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet (Olive Grove), which is near Jerusalem, [only] a Sabbath day’s journey (less than one mile) away. ¹³ When they had entered the city, they went upstairs to the upper room where they were staying [indefinitely]; that is, Peter, and John and [his brother] James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew (Nathanael) and Matthew, ^[c]James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas (Thaddaeus) the son of James. ¹⁴ All these with one mind and one purpose were continually devoting themselves to prayer, [waiting together] along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

¹⁵ Now on one of these days Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters (a gathering of about a hundred and twenty believers was there) and he said, ¹⁶ “Brothers and sisters, it was necessary that the Scripture be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the lips of David [king of Israel] about Judas [Iscariot], who acted as guide to those who arrested Jesus. ¹⁷ For he (Judas) was counted among us and received his share [by divine allotment] in this ministry.” ¹⁸ (Now Judas Iscariot ^[d]acquired a piece of land [indirectly] with the [money paid him as a] reward for his treachery, and falling headlong, his body burst open in the middle and all his intestines poured out. ¹⁹ All the people in Jerusalem learned about this, so in their own dialect—Aramaic—they called the piece of land Hakeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) ²⁰ “For in the book of Psalms it is written,

and [again],

²¹ So of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus spent with us, ²² beginning with the baptism by John [at the outset of Jesus’ ministry] until the day when He was taken up from us—one of these men must become a witness with us [to testify] of His resurrection.” ²³ And they put forward two men, Joseph, the one called Barsabbas (who was surnamed Justus), and Matthias. ²⁴ They prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know all hearts [their thoughts, motives, desires], show us which one of these two You have chosen ²⁵ to occupy this ministry and apostleship which Judas left to go to his own place [of evil].” ²⁶ And they ^[e]cast lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.

The Lord the Keeper of Israel.

A Song of ^[a]Ascents.