October 17, 2019

1 KINGS 10:14-11:8
10:14 Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty-six talents of gold,
10:15 Besides that which came through the traders and through the traffic of the merchants and through all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land.
10:16 And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold; he put six hundred shekels of gold upon each large shield.
10:17 And he made three hundred smaller shields of beaten gold; he put three minas of gold upon each smaller shield. And the king put them in the Lebanon Forest House.
10:18 And the king made a large ivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold.
10:19 The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was rounded at its back; and there were armrests on either side next to the place of the seat, and two lions stood next to the armrests.
10:20 And twelve lions stood there upon the six steps on either side. Nothing like it had ever been made in any kingdom.
10:21 And all King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the Lebanon Forest House were of pure gold; none were of silver, which was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon.
10:22 For the king had at sea a fleet from Tarshish as well as Hiram’s fleet. Once every three years the fleet from Tarshish came bearing gold and silver and ivory and apes and peacocks.
10:23 And King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in wealth and in wisdom.
10:24 And all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.
10:25 And they each brought their tribute, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and robes and weapons and spices, horses and mules, so much year by year.
10:26 And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen together; and he had a thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.
10:27 And the king caused silver to be as plentiful as stones in Jerusalem; and cedars, like the sycamores that are in the lowlands.
10:28 And the horses that Solomon had came from Egypt and from Kue; the king’s traders bought them from Kue at a fixed price.
10:29 A chariot could be imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver and a horse for a hundred and fifty shekels, and thus they brought them out to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria by their own means.

11:1 But King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter — Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,
11:2 From among the nations concerning which Jehovah had said to the children of Israel, You shall not go among them, nor shall they come among you, for they will surely turn your heart after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love.
11:3 And he had seven hundred princess wives and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.
11:4 And when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect toward Jehovah his God like the heart of David his father.
11:5 And Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable thing of the Ammonites.
11:6 And Solomon did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah and did not fully follow Jehovah as David his father had done.
11:7 Then Solomon built a high place to Chemosh the detestable thing of Moab in the mountain that is before Jerusalem and to Molech the detestable thing of the children of Ammon.
11:8 And so he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.