The Daily Audio Bible

³ Solomon loved Yahweh, by walking in the statutes of David his father; only he was sacrificing and offering incense on the high places. ⁴ So the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice, for the great high place was there. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

Solomon’s Request for Wisdom

⁵ Yahweh appeared to Solomon at Gibeon in a dream at night, and God said, “Ask what I should give to you.” ⁶ Then Solomon said, “You have shown great loyal love with your servant David my father, as he walked before you in faithfulness and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart with you. You have shown for him this great loyal love, and you have given a son to him who is sitting on his throne as it is this day. ⁷ So then, O Yahweh, you are my God. You have made your servant king in place of David my father though I am a young boy. I do not know going out or coming in. ⁸ Your servant is in the middle of your people whom you have chosen; a great people who cannot be counted or numbered because of abundance. ⁹ Give to your servant a listening heart to judge your people, to discern between good and bad, because who is able to judge this, your difficult people?”

¹⁰ The word was good in the eyes of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. ¹¹ And God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing and you did not ask for yourself a long life^[a] and you did not ask riches for yourself and you did not ask for the life of your enemies, but you have asked for yourself the ability to make wise judgments;^{[b] 12} behold, I do hereby do according to your word. I hereby give you a wise and discerning heart; there was no one like you before you, nor afterwards will one like you arise. ¹³ Too, what you have not asked I give to you: both riches and honor, so that no man among the kings will be like you all of your days. ¹⁴ If you will walk in my ways by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David your father walked, then I will lengthen your days.” ¹⁵ Then Solomon awoke, and look, it was a dream, and he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and he offered burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings, and he held a feast for all of his servants.

Solomon’s Wisdom Tested: The Two Prostitutes

¹⁶ Then two prostitutes came to the king, and they stood before him. ¹⁷ The one woman said, “Please my lord, I and this woman are living in one house, and I gave birth, with her in the house. ¹⁸ It happened on the third day after my giving birth, this woman also gave birth, and we were together. There was not anyone with us in the house, only the two of us were in the house. ¹⁹ Then the son of this woman died in the night because she laid on him. ²⁰ So she got up in the middle of the night, and she took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep, and she put him in her lap, and she put her dead son in my lap. ²¹ When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead! When I looked closely at him in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I had borne.” ²² Then the other woman said, “No, for my son is the living one, and your son is the dead one.” The other kept on saying, “No, for your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one,” and so they argued in front of the king. ²³ Then the king said, “This one is saying, ‘This is my son, the living one, but your son is the dead one,’ and the other one keeps saying, ‘But no! Your son is the dead one, and my son is living!’” ²⁴ So the king said, “Bring me a sword,” and they brought the sword before the king. ²⁵ Then the king said, “Divide the living child into two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” ²⁶ Then the woman whose son was the living one spoke to the king because her compassion was aroused for her son, and she said, “Please, my lord, give her the living child, but certainly do not kill him!” The other one was saying, “As for me, so for you! Divide him!” ²⁷ Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to her, and do not kill him; she is his mother.” ²⁸ When all of Israel heard the judgment that the king had rendered, they stood in awe^[c] of the king, because they realized that the wisdom of God was in him to execute justice.

Solomon’s Wisdom: Political Administration

4 King Solomon was king over all Israel. ² Now these are the officials who were his: Azariah the son of Zadok was the priest. ³ Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, were the secretaries; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder. ⁴ Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army, and Zadok and Abiathar were priests. ⁵ Azariah the son of Nathan was over the governors, and Zabud the son of Nathan was a priest, an advisor to the king. ⁶ Ahishar was over the palace, and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the forced labor. ⁷ Solomon had twelve governors over all Israel, and they sustained the king and his palace, each one was to sustain for each month of the year.^{[d] 8} These are their names: Ben-Hur was in the hill country of Ephraim. ⁹ Ben-Deker was in Makaz and in Shaalbim and in Beth-Shemesh and Elon of Beth-Hanan. ¹⁰ Ben-Hesed was in the Arubbot; Socoh and all the land of Hepher were his. ¹¹ Ben-Abinadab was in all of Naphat of Dor; Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife. ¹² Baanah the son of Ahilud was in Taanach and Megiddo and all Beth-Shean which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, of Beth-Shean up to Abel-Meholah up to the other side of Jokmeam. ¹³ Ben-Geber was in Ramoth-Gilead; the villages of Jair, the son of Manasseh which are in the Gilead were his, and the region of Argob which is in the Bashan, sixty great cities, with walls having crossbars of bronze, were his. ¹⁴ Ahinadab the son of Iddo was in Mahanaim. ¹⁵ Ahimaaz was in Naphtali; he moreover also had taken Basemath the daughter of Solomon as wife. ¹⁶ Baanah the son of Hushai was in Asher and Bealoth. ¹⁷ Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah was in Issachar. ¹⁸ Shimei the son of Ela was in Benjamin. ¹⁹ Geber the son of Uri was in the land of Gilead, the land of Sihon, the king of the Amorites, and of Og, the king of Bashan; one governor which was over the land. ²⁰ Judah and Israel were as many as the sand which is on the seashore in abundance, eating and drinking and rejoicing!

Solomon’s Wisdom: Prosperity

^21 [e] Now Solomon was ruling over all the kingdoms from the River^[f] to the land of the Philistines, and up to the border of Egypt, who were bringing tribute and were serving Solomon all the days of his life. ²² The food of Solomon for one day was thirty dry measures of choice meal and sixty dry measures of flour; ²³ ten stall-fed oxen and twenty pasture-fed oxen and a hundred sheep, besides deer and buck gazelles and roebucks and well-fed fowls. ²⁴ For he was ruling over all the west of the River^[g] from Tiphsah up to Gaza, over all the kings west of the River;^[h] and he had peace from every side all around. ²⁵ Judah and Israel lived in security, each man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan as far as Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

²⁶ Now Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his war chariots and twelve thousand horsemen. ²⁷ These governors sustained King Solomon and all who came near to the table of King Solomon, each in his month; they did not omit anything. ²⁸ The barley and the straw for the horses and for packhorses they brought to the place where they were, each according to his share.

Solomon’s Wisdom: Literature, Zoology, Biology, Dendrology

²⁹ God gave wisdom to Solomon and very great discernment, as well as breadth of understanding,^[i] as the sand which is on the edge of the seashore. ³⁰ The wisdom of Solomon was greater than the wisdom of all the people^[j] of the east and more than all the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹ He was wiser than all the men: Ethan the Ezrahite; Heman, Calcol, and Darda the children of Mahol; and he was very well known.^{[k] 32} He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five. ³³ He spoke concerning the trees, from the cedar which is in Lebanon up to the hyssop which grows on the wall; he also spoke concerning the animals, concerning the birds, concerning the creeping things, and concerning the fish. ³⁴ They came from all the nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon; from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

The First Seven Deacons Appointed

6 Now in these days, as^[a] the disciples were increasing in number,^[b] a complaint arose by the Greek-speaking Jews^[c] against the Hebraic Jews^[d] because^[e] their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.^{[f] 2} So the twelve summoned the community of disciples and^[g] said, “It is not desirable that we neglect the word of God to serve tables. ³ So, brothers, select from among you seven men of good reputation,^[h] full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we will put in charge of this need. ⁴ But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” ⁵ And the statement pleased the whole group, and they chose Stephen (a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit), and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus (a convert from Antioch), ⁶ whom they stood before the apostles. And they prayed and^[i] placed their^[j] hands on them.

⁷ And the word of God kept spreading, and the number of disciples in Jerusalem was increasing greatly, and a large number of priests began obeying^[k] the faith.

Stephen Arrested

⁸ Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. ⁹ But some of those from the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called),^[l] both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia,^[m] stood up and^[n] disputed with Stephen. ¹⁰ And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. ¹¹ Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God!” ¹² And they incited the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came up and^[o] seized him and brought him^[p] to the Sanhedrin.^{[q] 13} And they put forward false witnesses who said, “This man does not stop speaking words against the holy place^[r] and the law! ¹⁴ For we have heard him saying that this Nazarene Jesus will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed down to us.” ¹⁵ And as they^[s] looked intently at him, all those who were sitting in the Sanhedrin^[t] saw his face was like the face of an angel.

A Prayer for Restoration

A song of ascents.^[a]