June 10th

And it was told to King Solomon that Joab had fled to the tent of Yahweh, and behold, he is beside the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, fall upon him.”

So Benaiah came to the tent of Yahweh and said to him, “Thus the king has said, ‘Come out.’ ” But he said, “No, for I will die here.” And Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, “Thus spoke Joab, and thus he answered me.”

And the king said to him, “Do as he has spoken and fall upon him and bury him, that you may remove from me and from my father’s house the blood which Joab shed without cause.

And Yahweh will return his blood on his own head, because he fell upon two men more righteous and better than he and killed them with the sword, but my father David did not know it: Abner the son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah.

So shall their blood return on the head of Joab and on the head of his seed forever; but to David and his seed and his house and his throne, may there be peace from Yahweh forever.”

Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and fell upon him and put him to death, and he was buried at his own house in the wilderness.

And the king appointed Benaiah the son of Jehoiada over the army in his place, and the king appointed Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar.

Then the king sent and called for Shimei and said to him, “Build for yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there, and do not go out from there to any place.

Now it will be on the day you go out and cross over the brook Kidron, that you will know for certain that you shall surely die; your blood shall be on your own head.”

Shimei then said to the king, “The word is good. As my lord the king has said, so your servant will do.” So Shimei lived in Jerusalem many days.

But it happened at the end of three years, that two of the slaves of Shimei ran away to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath. And they told Shimei, saying, “Behold, your slaves are in Gath.”

Then Shimei arose and saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to Achish to search for his slaves. And Shimei went and brought his slaves from Gath.

And it was told to Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and had returned.

So the king sent and called for Shimei and said to him, “Did I not make you swear by Yahweh and solemnly warn you, saying, ‘You will know for certain that on the day you go out and go anywhere, you shall surely die’? And you said to me, ‘The word which I have heard is good.’

Why then have you not kept the oath of Yahweh, and the command which I have commanded you?”

The king also said to Shimei, “You know all the evil which you acknowledge in your heart, which you did to my father David; therefore Yahweh shall return your evil on your own head.

But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before Yahweh forever.”

So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he went out and fell upon him so that he died.

Thus the kingdom was established in the hands of Solomon.

Then Solomon formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the city of David until he had completed building his own house and the house of Yahweh and the wall around Jerusalem.

The people were still sacrificing on the high places because there was no house built for the name of Yahweh until those days.

And Solomon loved Yahweh, walking in the statutes of his father David, except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place; Solomon offered one thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

In Gibeon, Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream at night; and God said, “Ask what I should give to you.”

Then Solomon said, “You have shown great lovingkindness to Your slave David my father, according to how he walked before You in truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You; and You have kept for him this great lovingkindness, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.

So now, O Yahweh my God, You have made Your slave king in place of my father David, yet I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.

And Your slave is in the midst of Your people which You have chosen, a numerous people who are too many to be numbered or counted.

So give Your slave a listening heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this glorious people of Yours?”

And it was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing.

And God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to listen to justice,

behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you.

I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days.

Now if you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will prolong your days.”

Then Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and made peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.

Then two women who were harlots came to the king and stood before him.

And the one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.

And it happened on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth to a child, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house.

And this woman’s son died in the night because she lay on him.

So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom.

When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead; but when I looked at him carefully in the morning, behold, he was not my son, whom I had borne.”

Then the other woman said, “No! For the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” But the first woman said, “No! For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.” Thus they spoke before the king.

Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’ ”

And the king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king.

Then the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.”

Then the woman whose son was the living one spoke to the king, for she was deeply stirred with compassion over her son and said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!”

Then the king said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means put him to death. She is his mother.”

Then all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had handed down, and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.

So King Solomon was king over all Israel.

These were his officials:

Azariah the son of Zadok was the priest;

Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha were scribes;

Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder;

and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army;

and Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

and Azariah the son of Nathan was over the deputies;

and Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, was the king’s friend;

and Ahishar was over the household;

and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to forced labor.

Now Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, who sustained the king and his household; each man had to sustain them for a month in the year.

These are their names:

Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;

Ben-deker in Makaz and Shaalbim and Beth-shemesh and Elonbeth-hanan;

Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (Socoh was his and all the land of Hepher);

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine-grower.

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He cleans it so that it may bear more fruit.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

You are My friends if you do what I command you.

No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would abide, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

He who hates Me hates My Father also.

If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.