Mark 15²¹Simon from Cyrene happened to be coming in from a farm, and they forced him to carry Jesus' cross. Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.

Jesus Is Nailed to a Cross
(Matthew 27.31-44; Luke 23.27-43; John 19.17-27)

²²The soldiers took Jesus to Golgotha, which means "Place of a Skull." ²³There they gave him some wine mixed with a drug to ease the pain, but he refused to drink it.
²⁴They nailed Jesus to a cross and gambled to see who would get his clothes. ²⁵It was about nine o'clock in the morning when they nailed him to the cross. ²⁶On it was a sign that told why he was nailed there. It read, "This is the King of the Jews." ^27-28The soldiers also nailed two criminals on crosses, one to the right of Jesus and the other to his left.
²⁹People who passed by said terrible things about Jesus. They shook their heads and shouted, "Ha! So you're the one who claimed you could tear down the temple and build it again in three days. ³⁰Save yourself and come down from the cross!"
³¹The chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses also made fun of Jesus. They said to each other, "He saved others, but he can't save himself. ³²If he is the Messiah, the king of Israel, let him come down from the cross! Then we will see and believe." The two criminals also said cruel things to Jesus.

The Death of Jesus
(Matthew 27.45-56; Luke 23.44-49; John 19.28-30)

³³About noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way until around three o'clock. ³⁴Then about that time Jesus shouted, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you deserted me?"
³⁵Some of the people standing there heard Jesus and said, "He is calling for Elijah." ³⁶One of them ran and grabbed a sponge. After he had soaked it in wine, he put it on a stick and held it up to Jesus. He said, "Let's wait and see if Elijah will come and take him down!" ³⁷Jesus shouted and then died.
³⁸At once the curtain in the temple tore in two from top to bottom.
³⁹A Roman army officer was standing in front of Jesus. When the officer saw how Jesus died, he said, "This man really was the Son of God!"
^40-41Some women were looking on from a distance. They had come with Jesus to Jerusalem. But even before this they had been his followers and had helped him while he was in Galilee. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joseph were two of these women. Salome was also one of them.

Jesus Is Buried
(Matthew 27.57-61; Luke 23.50-56; John 19.38-42)

⁴²It was now the evening before the Sabbath, and the Jewish people were getting ready for that sacred day. ⁴³A man named Joseph from Arimathea was brave enough to ask Pilate for the body of Jesus. Joseph was a highly respected member of the Jewish council, and he was also waiting for God's kingdom to come.
⁴⁴Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus was already dead, and he called in the army officer to find out if Jesus had been dead very long. ⁴⁵After the officer told him, Pilate let Joseph have Jesus' body.
⁴⁶Joseph bought a linen cloth and took the body down from the cross. He had it wrapped in the cloth, and he put it in a tomb that had been cut into solid rock. Then he rolled a big stone against the entrance to the tomb.
⁴⁷Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph were watching and saw where the body was placed.

Solomon Disobeys the LORD

1 Kings 11^1-2The LORD did not want the Israelites to worship foreign gods, so he had warned them not to marry anyone who was not from Israel.
Solomon loved his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt. But he also loved some women from Moab, Ammon, and Edom, and others from Sidon and the land of the Hittites. ^3-4Seven hundred of his wives were daughters of kings, but he also married three hundred other women.
As Solomon got older, some of his wives led him to worship their gods. He wasn't like his father David, who had worshiped only the LORD God. ⁵Solomon also worshiped Astarte the goddess of Sidon, and Milcom the disgusting god of Ammon. ⁶Solomon's father had obeyed the LORD with all his heart, but Solomon disobeyed and did what the LORD hated.
⁷Solomon built shrines on a hill east of Jerusalem to worship Chemosh the disgusting god of Moab, and Molech the disgusting god of Ammon. ⁸In fact, he built a shrine for each of his foreign wives, so all of them could burn incense and offer sacrifices to their own gods.
^9-10The LORD God of Israel had appeared to Solomon two times and warned him not to worship foreign gods. But Solomon disobeyed and did it anyway. This made the LORD very angry, ¹¹and he said to Solomon:

You did what you wanted and not what I told you to do. Now I'm going to take your kingdom from you and give it to one of your officials. ¹²But because David was your father, you will remain king as long as you live. I will wait until your son becomes king, then I will take the kingdom from him. ¹³When I do, I will still let him rule one tribe, because I have not forgotten that David was my servant and Jerusalem is my city.

Hadad Becomes an Enemy of Solomon

¹⁴Hadad was from the royal family of Edom, and here is how the LORD made him Solomon's enemy:
^15-16Some time earlier, when David conquered the nation of Edom, Joab his army commander went there to bury those who had died in battle. Joab and his soldiers stayed in Edom six months, and during that time they killed every man and boy who lived there.
^17-19Hadad was a boy at the time, but he escaped to Midian with some of his father's officials. At Paran some other men joined them, and they went to the king of Egypt. The king liked Hadad and gave him food, some land, and a house, and even let him marry the sister of Queen Tahpenes. ²⁰Hadad and his wife had a son named Genubath, and the queen let the boy grow up in the palace with her own children.
²¹When Hadad heard that David and Joab were dead, he said to the king, "Your Majesty, please let me go back to my own country."
²²"Why?" asked the king. "Do you want something I haven't given you?"
"No, I just want to go home."

Rezon Becomes an Enemy of Solomon

²³Here is how God made Rezon son of Eliada an enemy of Solomon:
Rezon had run away from his master, King Hadadezer of Zobah. ^24-25He formed his own small army and became its leader after David had defeated Hadadezer's troops. Then Rezon and his army went to Damascus, where he became the ruler of Syria and an enemy of Israel.
Both Hadad and Rezon were enemies of Israel while Solomon was king, and they caused him a lot of trouble.

The LORD Makes a Promise to Jeroboam

²⁶Jeroboam was from the town of Zeredah in Ephraim. His father Nebat had died, but his mother Zeruah was still alive. Jeroboam was one of Solomon's officials, but even he rebelled against Solomon. ²⁷Here is how it happened:
While Solomon's workers were filling in the land on the east side of Jerusalem and repairing the city walls, ²⁸Solomon noticed that Jeroboam was a hard worker. So he put Jeroboam in charge of the work force from Manasseh and Ephraim.
^29-30One day when Jeroboam was leaving Jerusalem, he met Ahijah, a prophet from Shiloh. No one else was anywhere around. Suddenly, Ahijah took off his new coat and ripped it into twelve pieces. ³¹Then he said:

Jeroboam, take ten pieces of this coat and listen to what the LORD God of Israel says to you. "Jeroboam, I am the LORD God, and I am about to take Solomon's kingdom from him and give you ten tribes to rule. ³²But Solomon will still rule one tribe, since he is the son of David my servant, and Jerusalem is my chosen city.

³³"Solomon and the Israelites are not like their ancestor David. They will not listen to me, obey me, or do what is right. They have turned from me to worship Astarte the goddess of Sidon, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of Ammon.

³⁴"Solomon is David's son, and David was my chosen leader, who did what I commanded. So I will let Solomon be king until he dies. ³⁵Then I will give you ten tribes to rule, ³⁶but Solomon's son will still rule one tribe. This way, my servant David will always have a descendant ruling in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to be worshiped.

³⁷"You will be king of Israel and will rule every nation you want. ³⁸I'll help you if you obey me. And if you do what I say, as my servant David did, I will always let someone from your family rule in Israel, just as someone from David's family will always rule in Judah. The nation of Israel will be yours.

³⁹"I will punish the descendants of David, but not forever."

⁴⁰When Solomon learned what the LORD had told Jeroboam, Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam. But he escaped to King Shishak of Egypt and stayed there until Solomon died.

Solomon Dies
(2 Chronicles 9.29-31)

⁴¹Everything else Solomon did while he was king is written in the book about him and his wisdom. ⁴²After he had ruled forty years from Jerusalem, ⁴³he died and was buried there in the city of his father David. His son Rehoboam then became king.

Israel Is Doomed

The LORD said:
Hosea 13 When your leaders spoke, everyone in Israel trembled
and showed great respect.
But you sinned by worshiping Baal,
and you were destroyed.
²Now you continue to sin by designing and making
idols of silver in the shape of calves.
You are told to sacrifice to these idols --
yes, even to kiss them.
³And so, all of you will vanish like the mist
or the dew of early morning,
or husks of grain in the wind
or smoke from a chimney.

⁴I, the LORD, have been your God
since the time you were in Egypt.
I am the only God you know,
the only one who can save.
⁵I took care of you in a thirsty desert.
⁶I fed you till you were satisfied,
then you became proud and forgot about me.
⁷Now I will attack like a lion, ambush you like a leopard,
⁸and rip you apart like a bear robbed of her cubs.
I will gnaw on your bones, as though I were a lion
or some other wild animal.
⁹Israel, you are done for. Don't expect help from me.
¹⁰You wanted a king and rulers. Where is your king now?
What cities have rulers?
¹¹In my anger, I gave you a king;
in my fury, I took him away.

Israel's Terrible Fate

The LORD said:
¹²Israel, your terrible sins are written down and stored away.
¹³You are like a senseless child
who refuses to be born at the proper time.
¹⁴Should I, the LORD, rescue you from death and the grave?
No! I call death and the grave to strike you like a plague.
I refuse to show mercy.

¹⁵No matter how much you prosper
more than the other tribes,
I, the LORD, will wipe you out,
just as a scorching desert wind
dries up streams of water.
I will take away your precious treasures.
¹⁶Samaria will be punished for turning against me.
It will be destroyed in war--
children will be beaten against rocks,
and pregnant women will be ripped open.