Meditate

1 Kings 4

4. Solomon's Officials

Solomon’s Administrative Officers

 4

King Solomon was king over all Israel,²and these were his high officials: Azariah son of Zadok was the priest;³Elihoreph and Ahijah sons of Shisha were secretaries; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder;⁴Benaiah son of Jehoiada was in command of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;⁵Azariah son of Nathan was over the officials; Zabud son of Nathan was priest and king’s friend;⁶Ahishar was in charge of the palace; and Adoniram son of Abda was in charge of the forced labor.

⁷ Solomon had twelve officials over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household; each one had to make provision for one month in the year.⁸These were their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;⁹Ben-deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan;¹⁰Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (to him belonged Socoh and all the land of Hepher);¹¹Ben-abinadab, in all Naphath-dor (he had Taphath, Solomon’s daughter, as his wife);¹²Baana son of Ahilud, in Taanach, Megiddo, and all Beth-shean, which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, and from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as the other side of Jokmeam;¹³Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (he had the villages of Jair son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and he had the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars);¹⁴Ahinadab son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;¹⁵Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he had taken Basemath, Solomon’s daughter, as his wife);¹⁶Baana son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;¹⁷Jehoshaphat son of Paruah, in Issachar;¹⁸Shimei son of Ela, in Benjamin;¹⁹Geber son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of King Sihon of the Amorites and of King Og of Bashan. And there was one official in the land of Judah.

Magnificence of Solomon’s Rule

²⁰ Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea; they ate and drank and were happy.²¹Solomon was sovereign over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, even to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²² Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cors of choice flour, and sixty cors of meal,²³ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture-fed cattle, one hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl.²⁴For he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates; and he had peace on all sides.²⁵During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all of them under their vines and fig trees.²⁶Solomon also had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.²⁷Those officials supplied provisions for King Solomon and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, each one in his month; they let nothing be lacking.²⁸They also brought to the required place barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds, each according to his charge.

Fame of Solomon’s Wisdom

²⁹ God gave Solomon very great wisdom, discernment, and breadth of understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore,³⁰so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt.³¹He was wiser than anyone else, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, children of Mahol; his fame spread throughout all the surrounding nations.³²He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five.³³He would speak of trees, from the cedar that is in the Lebanon to the hyssop that grows in the wall; he would speak of animals, and birds, and reptiles, and fish.³⁴People came from all the nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon; they came from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

Colossians 3:8-11

3. Rules for Holy Living

⁸But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth.⁹Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices¹⁰and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.¹¹In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

Psalm 109:16-31

109. Psalm 109

16

For he did not remember to show kindness,

but pursued the poor and needy

and the brokenhearted to their death.

17

He loved to curse; let curses come on him.

He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.

18

He clothed himself with cursing as his coat,

may it soak into his body like water,

like oil into his bones.

19

May it be like a garment that he wraps around himself,

like a belt that he wears every day.”

 

20

May that be the reward of my accusers from the Lord,

of those who speak evil against my life.

21

But you, O Lord my Lord,

act on my behalf for your name’s sake;

because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.

22

For I am poor and needy,

and my heart is pierced within me.

23

I am gone like a shadow at evening;

I am shaken off like a locust.

24

My knees are weak through fasting;

my body has become gaunt.

25

I am an object of scorn to my accusers;

when they see me, they shake their heads.

 

26

Help me, O Lord my God!

Save me according to your steadfast love.

27

Let them know that this is your hand;

you, O Lord, have done it.

28

Let them curse, but you will bless.

Let my assailants be put to shame; may your servant be glad.

29

May my accusers be clothed with dishonor;

may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle.

30

With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord;

I will praise him in the midst of the throng.

31

For he stands at the right hand of the needy,

to save them from those who would condemn them to death.