The Great Commandment
(Matthew 22.34-40; Luke 10.25-28)

The Question about the Messiah
(Matthew 22.41-46; Luke 20.41-44)

³⁵As Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he asked the question, "How can the teachers of the Law say that the Messiah will be the descendant of David? ³⁶The Holy Spirit inspired David to say:
'The Lord said to my Lord:
Sit here at my right side
until I put your enemies under your feet.'
³⁷David himself called him 'Lord'; so how can the Messiah be David's descendant?"

Jesus Warns against the Teachers of the Law
(Matthew 23.1-36; Luke 20.45-47)

A large crowd was listening to Jesus gladly. ³⁸As he taught them, he said, "Watch out for the teachers of the Law, who like to walk around in their long robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplace, ³⁹who choose the reserved seats in the synagogues and the best places at feasts. ⁴⁰They take advantage of widows and rob them of their homes, and then make a show of saying long prayers. Their punishment will be all the worse!"

The Widow's Offering
(Luke 21.1-4)

⁴¹As Jesus sat near the Temple treasury, he watched the people as they dropped in their money. Many rich men dropped in a lot of money; ⁴²then a poor widow came along and dropped in two little copper coins, worth about a penny. ⁴³He called his disciples together and said to them, "I tell you that this poor widow put more in the offering box than all the others. ⁴⁴For the others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, put in all she had--she gave all she had to live on."

Solomon's Officials

1 Kings 4 Solomon was king of all Israel, ²and these were his high officials:
The priest: Azariah son of Zadok
³The court secretaries: Elihoreph and Ahijah, sons of Shisha
In charge of the records: Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud
⁴Commander of the army: Benaiah son of Jehoiada
Priests: Zadok and Abiathar
⁵Chief of the district governors: Azariah son of Nathan
Royal Adviser: the priest Zabud son of Nathan
⁶In charge of the palace servants: Ahishar
In charge of the forced labor: Adoniram son of Abda
⁷Solomon appointed twelve men as district governors in Israel. They were to provide food from their districts for the king and his household, each man being responsible for one month out of the year. ⁸The following are the names of these twelve officers and the districts they were in charge of:
Benhur: the hill country of Ephraim
⁹Bendeker: the cities of Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth Shemesh, Elon, and Beth Hanan
¹⁰Benhesed: the cities of Arubboth and Socoh and all the territory of Hepher
¹¹Benabinadab, who was married to Solomon's daughter Taphath: the whole region of Dor
¹²Baana son of Ahilud: the cities of Taanach, Megiddo, and all the region near Beth Shan, near the town of Zarethan, south of the town of Jezreel, as far as the city of Abel Meholah and the city of Jokmeam
¹³Bengeber: the city of Ramoth in Gilead, and the villages in Gilead belonging to the clan of Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, and the region of Argob in Bashan, sixty large towns in all, fortified with walls and with bronze bars on the gates
¹⁴Ahinadab son of Iddo: the district of Mahanaim
¹⁵Ahimaaz, who was married to Basemath, another of Solomon's daughters: the territory of Naphtali
¹⁶Baana son of Hushai: the region of Asher and the town of Bealoth
¹⁷Jehoshaphat son of Paruah: the territory of Issachar
¹⁸Shimei son of Ela: the territory of Benjamin
¹⁹Geber son of Uri: the region of Gilead, which had been ruled by King Sihon of the Amorites and King Og of Bashan
Besides these twelve, there was one governor over the whole land.

Solomon's Prosperous Reign

²⁰The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore; they ate and drank, and were happy. ²¹Solomon's kingdom included all the nations from the Euphrates River to Philistia and the Egyptian border. They paid him taxes and were subject to him all his life.
²²The supplies Solomon needed each day were 150 bushels of fine flour and 300 bushels of meal; ²³10 stall-fed cattle, 20 pasture-fed cattle, and 100 sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and poultry.
²⁴Solomon ruled over all the land west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah on the Euphrates as far west as the city of Gaza. All the kings west of the Euphrates were subject to him, and he was at peace with all the neighboring countries. ²⁵As long as he lived, the people throughout Judah and Israel lived in safety, each family with its own grapevines and fig trees.
²⁶Solomon had forty thousand stalls for his chariot horses and twelve thousand cavalry horses. ²⁷His twelve governors, each one in the month assigned to him, supplied the food King Solomon needed for himself and for all who ate in the palace; they always supplied everything needed. ²⁸Each governor also supplied his share of barley and straw, where it was needed, for the chariot horses and the work animals.
²⁹God gave Solomon unusual wisdom and insight, and knowledge too great to be measured. ³⁰Solomon was wiser than the wise men of the East or the wise men of Egypt. ³¹He was the wisest of all men: wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame spread throughout all the neighboring countries. ³²He composed three thousand proverbs and more than a thousand songs. ³³He spoke of trees and plants, from the Lebanon cedars to the hyssop that grows on walls; he talked about animals, birds, reptiles, and fish. ³⁴Kings all over the world heard of his wisdom and sent people to listen to him.

Solomon Prepares to Build the Temple
(2 Chronicles 2.1-18)

1 Kings 5 King Hiram of Tyre had always been a friend of David's, and when he heard that Solomon had succeeded his father David as king, he sent ambassadors to him. ²Solomon sent back this message to Hiram: ³"You know that because of the constant wars my father David had to fight against the enemy countries all around him, he could not build a temple for the worship of the LORD his God until the LORD had given him victory over all his enemies. ⁴But now the LORD my God has given me peace on all my borders. I have no enemies, and there is no danger of attack. ⁵The LORD promised my father David, 'Your son, whom I will make king after you, will build a temple for me.' And I have now decided to build that temple for the worship of the LORD my God. ⁶So send your men to Lebanon to cut down cedars for me. My men will work with them, and I will pay your men whatever you decide. As you well know, my men don't know how to cut down trees as well as yours do."
⁷Hiram was extremely pleased when he received Solomon's message, and he said, "Praise the LORD today for giving David such a wise son to succeed him as king of that great nation!" ⁸Then Hiram sent Solomon the following message: "I have received your message, and I am ready to do what you ask. I will provide the cedars and the pine trees. ⁹My men will bring the logs down from Lebanon to the sea and will tie them together in rafts to float them down the coast to the place you choose. There my men will untie them, and your men will take charge of them. On your part, I would like you to supply the food for my men."
¹⁰So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the cedar and pine logs that he wanted, ¹¹and Solomon provided Hiram with 100,000 bushels of wheat and 110,000 gallons of pure olive oil every year to feed his men.
¹²The LORD kept his promise and gave Solomon wisdom. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they made a treaty with each other.
¹³King Solomon drafted 30,000 men as forced labor from all over Israel, ¹⁴and put Adoniram in charge of them. He divided them into three groups of 10,000 men, and each group spent one month in Lebanon and two months back home. ¹⁵Solomon also had 80,000 stone cutters in hill country, with 70,000 men to carry the stones, ¹⁶and he placed 3,300 foremen in charge of them to supervise their work. ¹⁷At King Solomon's command they cut fine large stones for the foundation of the Temple. ¹⁸Solomon's and Hiram's workers and men from the city of Byblos prepared the stones and the timber to build the Temple.

Conspiracy in the Palace

Israel and the Nations

⁸The LORD says, "The people of Israel are like a half-baked loaf of bread. They rely on the nations around them ⁹and do not realize that this reliance on foreigners has robbed them of their strength. Their days are numbered, but they don't even know it. ¹⁰The arrogance of the people of Israel cries out against them. In spite of everything that has happened, they have not returned to me, the LORD their God. ¹¹Israel flits around like a silly pigeon; first her people call on Egypt for help, and then they run to Assyria! ¹²But I will spread out a net and catch them like birds as they go by. I will punish them for the evil they have done.
¹³"They are doomed! They have left me and rebelled against me. They will be destroyed. I wanted to save them, but their worship of me was false. ¹⁴They have not prayed to me sincerely, but instead they throw themselves down and wail as the heathen do. When they pray for grain and wine, they gash themselves like pagans. What rebels they are! ¹⁵Even though I was the one who brought them up and made them strong, they plotted against me. ¹⁶They keep on turning away from me to a god that is powerless. They are as unreliable as a crooked bow. Because their leaders talk arrogantly, they will die a violent death, and the Egyptians will laugh."