Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

Ecclesiastes 7-12

7A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth.

²It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart.

³Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.

⁴The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.

⁵It is better to heed a wise man’s rebuke than to listen to the song of fools.

⁶Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools. This too is meaningless.

⁷Extortion turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

⁸The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.

⁹Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.

¹⁰Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.

¹¹Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing and benefits those who see the sun.

¹²Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: that wisdom preserves the life of its possessor.

¹³Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked?

¹⁴When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future.

¹⁵In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these: a righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.

¹⁶Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise- why destroy yourself?

¹⁷Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool- why die before your time?

¹⁸It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. The man who fears God will avoid all extremes .

¹⁹Wisdom makes one wise man more powerful than ten rulers in a city.

²⁰There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.

²¹Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you-

²²for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others.

²³All this I tested by wisdom and I said, “I am determined to be wise”- but this was beyond me.

²⁴Whatever wisdom may be, it is far off and most profound- who can discover it?

²⁵So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.

²⁶I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare.

²⁷“Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I have discovered: “Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things-

²⁸while I was still searching but not finding- I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all.

²⁹This only have I found: God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes.”

8Who is like the wise man? Who knows the explanation of things? Wisdom brightens a man’s face and changes its hard appearance.

²Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God.

³Do not be in a hurry to leave the king’s presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases.

⁴Since a king’s word is supreme, who can say to him, “What are you doing?”

⁵Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.

⁶For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a man’s misery weighs heavily upon him.

⁷Since no man knows the future, who can tell him what is to come?

⁸No man has power over the wind to contain it ; so no one has power over the day of his death. As no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

⁹All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own hurt.

¹⁰Then too, I saw the wicked buried-those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless.

¹¹When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong.

¹²Although a wicked man commits a hundred crimes and still lives a long time, I know that it will go better with God-fearing men, who are reverent before God.

¹³Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.

¹⁴There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: righteous men who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless.

¹⁵So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.

¹⁶When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe man’s labor on earth-his eyes not seeing sleep day or night-

¹⁷then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it.

9So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no man knows whether love or hate awaits him.

²All share a common destiny-the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good man, so with the sinner; as it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them.

³This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.

⁴Anyone who is among the living has hope -even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

⁵For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.

⁶Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.

⁷Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do.

⁸Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil.

⁹Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun- all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun.

¹⁰Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

¹¹I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.

¹²Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.

¹³I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me:

¹⁴There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siegeworks against it.

¹⁵Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man.

¹⁶So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.

¹⁷The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools.

¹⁸Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.

10As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

²The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.

³Even as he walks along the road, the fool lacks sense and shows everyone how stupid he is.

⁴If a ruler’s anger rises against you, do not leave your post; calmness can lay great errors to rest.

⁵There is an evil I have seen under the sun, the sort of error that arises from a ruler:

⁶Fools are put in many high positions, while the rich occupy the low ones.

⁷I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes go on foot like slaves.

⁸Whoever digs a pit may fall into it; whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake.

⁹Whoever quarries stones may be injured by them; whoever splits logs may be endangered by them.

¹⁰If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed but skill will bring success.

¹¹If a snake bites before it is charmed, there is no profit for the charmer.

¹²Words from a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but a fool is consumed by his own lips.

¹³At the beginning his words are folly; at the end they are wicked madness-

¹⁴and the fool multiplies words. No one knows what is coming- who can tell him what will happen after him?

¹⁵A fool’s work wearies him; he does not know the way to town.

¹⁶Woe to you, O land whose king was a servant and whose princes feast in the morning.

¹⁷Blessed are you, O land whose king is of noble birth and whose princes eat at a proper time- for strength and not for drunkenness.

¹⁸If a man is lazy, the rafters sag; if his hands are idle, the house leaks.

¹⁹A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything.

²⁰Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird of the air may carry your words, and a bird on the wing may report what you say.

11Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.

²Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.

³If clouds are full of water, they pour rain upon the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there will it lie.

⁴Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

⁵As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

⁶Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

⁷Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.

⁸However many years a man may live, let him enjoy them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything to come is meaningless.

⁹Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.

¹⁰So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigor are meaningless.

12Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them”-

²before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain;

³when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim;

⁴when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades; when men rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint;

⁵when men are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets; when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags himself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets.

⁶Remember him-before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well,

⁷and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

⁸“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Everything is meaningless!”

⁹Not only was the Teacher wise, but also he imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs.

¹⁰The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.

¹¹The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails-given by one Shepherd.

¹²Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.

¹³Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

¹⁴For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

Ecclesiastes 1-6

1The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

²“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”

³What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?

⁴Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

⁵The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.

⁶The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.

⁷All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

⁸All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.

⁹What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

¹⁰Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.

¹¹There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.

¹²I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

¹³I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men!

¹⁴I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

¹⁵What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.

¹⁶I thought to myself, “Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.”

¹⁷Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

¹⁸For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.

2I thought in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless.

²“Laughter,” I said, “is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?”

³I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly-my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.

⁴I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards.

⁵I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.

⁶I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.

⁷I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.

⁸I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well-the delights of the heart of man.

⁹I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

¹⁰I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.

¹¹Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

¹²Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done?

¹³I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness.

¹⁴The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both.

¹⁵Then I thought in my heart, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?” I said in my heart, “This too is meaningless.”

¹⁶For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die!

¹⁷So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

¹⁸I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.

¹⁹And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.

²⁰So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.

²¹For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.

²²What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun?

²³All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.

²⁴A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God,

²⁵for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

²⁶To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

3There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

²a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,

³a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,

⁴a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁵a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

⁶a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,

⁷a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,

⁸a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

⁹What does the worker gain from his toil?

¹⁰I have seen the burden God has laid on men.

¹¹He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

¹²I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.

¹³That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil-this is the gift of God.

¹⁴I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

¹⁵Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.

¹⁶And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment-wickedness was there, in the place of justice-wickedness was there.

¹⁷I thought in my heart, “God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed.”

¹⁸I also thought, “As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.

¹⁹Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath ; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless.

²⁰All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

²¹Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

²²So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?

4Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed- and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors- and they have no comforter.

²And I declared that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive.

³But better than both is he who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.

⁴And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

⁵The fool folds his hands and ruins himself.

⁶Better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.

⁷Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:

⁸There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. “For whom am I toiling,” he asked, “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?” This too is meaningless- a miserable business!

⁹Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:

¹⁰If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

¹¹Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?

¹²Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

¹³Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take warning.

¹⁴The youth may have come from prison to the kingship, or he may have been born in poverty within his kingdom.

¹⁵I saw that all who lived and walked under the sun followed the youth, the king’s successor.

¹⁶There was no end to all the people who were before them. But those who came later were not pleased with the successor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

5Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.

²Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.

³As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words.

⁴When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow.

⁵It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it.

⁶Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands?

⁷Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.

⁸If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still.

⁹The increase from the land is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields.

¹⁰Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.

¹¹As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them?

¹²The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep.

¹³I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner,

¹⁴or wealth lost through some misfortune, so that when he has a son there is nothing left for him.

¹⁵Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand.

¹⁶This too is a grievous evil: As a man comes, so he departs, and what does he gain, since he toils for the wind?

¹⁷All his days he eats in darkness, with great frustration, affliction and anger.

¹⁸Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him-for this is his lot.

¹⁹Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work-this is a gift of God.

²⁰He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.

6I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on men:

²God gives a man wealth, possessions and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not enable him to enjoy them, and a stranger enjoys them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.

³A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

⁴It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded.

⁵Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, it has more rest than does that man-

⁶even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?

⁷All man’s efforts are for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied.

⁸What advantage has a wise man over a fool? What does a poor man gain by knowing how to conduct himself before others?

⁹Better what the eye sees than the roving of the appetite. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

¹⁰Whatever exists has already been named, and what man is has been known; no man can contend with one who is stronger than he.

¹¹The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?

¹²For who knows what is good for a man in life, during the few and meaningless days he passes through like a shadow? Who can tell him what will happen under the sun after he is gone?

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

Proverbs 27-29

27Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

²Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips.

³Stone is heavy and sand a burden, but provocation by a fool is heavier than both.

⁴Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?

⁵Better is open rebuke than hidden love.

⁶Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.

⁷He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.

⁸Like a bird that strays from its nest is a man who strays from his home.

⁹Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of one’s friend springs from his earnest counsel.

¹⁰Do not forsake your friend and the friend of your father, and do not go to your brother’s house when disaster strikes you- better a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.

¹¹Be wise, my son, and bring joy to my heart; then I can answer anyone who treats me with contempt.

¹²The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.

¹³Take the garment of one who puts up security for a stranger; hold it in pledge if he does it for a wayward woman.

¹⁴If a man loudly blesses his neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse.

¹⁵A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day;

¹⁶restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand.

¹⁷As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

¹⁸He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who looks after his master will be honored.

¹⁹As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man.

²⁰Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are the eyes of man.

²¹The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but man is tested by the praise he receives.

²²Though you grind a fool in a mortar, grinding him like grain with a pestle, you will not remove his folly from him.

²³Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds;

²⁴for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations.

²⁵When the hay is removed and new growth appears and the grass from the hills is gathered in,

²⁶the lambs will provide you with clothing, and the goats with the price of a field.

²⁷You will have plenty of goats’ milk to feed you and your family and to nourish your servant girls.

28The wicked man flees though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

²When a country is rebellious, it has many rulers, but a man of understanding and knowledge maintains order.

³A ruler who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain that leaves no crops.

⁴Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law resist them.

⁵Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it fully.

⁶Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a rich man whose ways are perverse.

⁷He who keeps the law is a discerning son, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his father.

⁸He who increases his wealth by exorbitant interest amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor.

⁹If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable.

¹⁰He who leads the upright along an evil path will fall into his own trap, but the blameless will receive a good inheritance.

¹¹A rich man may be wise in his own eyes, but a poor man who has discernment sees through him.

¹²When the righteous triumph, there is great elation; but when the wicked rise to power, men go into hiding.

¹³He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

¹⁴Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord , but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.

¹⁵Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked man ruling over a helpless people.

¹⁶A tyrannical ruler lacks judgment, but he who hates ill-gotten gain will enjoy a long life.

¹⁷A man tormented by the guilt of murder will be a fugitive till death; let no one support him.

¹⁸He whose walk is blameless is kept safe, but he whose ways are perverse will suddenly fall.

¹⁹He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.

²⁰A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.

²¹To show partiality is not good- yet a man will do wrong for a piece of bread.

²²A stingy man is eager to get rich and is unaware that poverty awaits him.

²³He who rebukes a man will in the end gain more favor than he who has a flattering tongue.

²⁴He who robs his father or mother and says, “It’s not wrong”- he is partner to him who destroys.

²⁵A greedy man stirs up dissension, but he who trusts in the Lord will prosper.

²⁶He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe.

²⁷He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.

²⁸When the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding; but when the wicked perish, the righteous thrive.

29A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed-without remedy.

²When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.

³A man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father, but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth.

⁴By justice a king gives a country stability, but one who is greedy for bribes tears it down.

⁵Whoever flatters his neighbor is spreading a net for his feet.

⁶An evil man is snared by his own sin, but a righteous one can sing and be glad.

⁷The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.

⁸Mockers stir up a city, but wise men turn away anger.

⁹If a wise man goes to court with a fool, the fool rages and scoffs, and there is no peace.

¹⁰Bloodthirsty men hate a man of integrity and seek to kill the upright.

¹¹A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.

¹²If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials become wicked.

¹³The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: The Lord gives sight to the eyes of both.

¹⁴If a king judges the poor with fairness, his throne will always be secure.

¹⁵The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.

¹⁶When the wicked thrive, so does sin, but the righteous will see their downfall.

¹⁷Discipline your son, and he will give you peace; he will bring delight to your soul.

¹⁸Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.

¹⁹A servant cannot be corrected by mere words; though he understands, he will not respond.

²⁰Do you see a man who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

²¹If a man pampers his servant from youth, he will bring grief in the end.

²²An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered one commits many sins.

²³A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.

²⁴The accomplice of a thief is his own enemy; he is put under oath and dare not testify.

²⁵Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.

²⁶Many seek an audience with a ruler, but it is from the Lord that man gets justice.

²⁷The righteous detest the dishonest; the wicked detest the upright.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

Proverbs 25-26

25These are more proverbs of Solomon, copied by the men of Hezekiah king of Judah:

²It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.

³As the heavens are high and the earth is deep, so the hearts of kings are unsearchable.

⁴Remove the dross from the silver, and out comes material for the silversmith;

⁵remove the wicked from the king’s presence, and his throne will be established through righteousness.

⁶Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence, and do not claim a place among great men;

⁷it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,” than for him to humiliate you before a nobleman. What you have seen with your eyes

⁸do not bring hastily to court, for what will you do in the end if your neighbor puts you to shame?

⁹If you argue your case with a neighbor, do not betray another man’s confidence,

¹⁰or he who hears it may shame you and you will never lose your bad reputation.

¹¹A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.

¹²Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold is a wise man’s rebuke to a listening ear.

¹³Like the coolness of snow at harvest time is a trustworthy messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the spirit of his masters.

¹⁴Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of gifts he does not give.

¹⁵Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone.

¹⁶If you find honey, eat just enough- too much of it, and you will vomit.

¹⁷Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house- too much of you, and he will hate you.

¹⁸Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow is the man who gives false testimony against his neighbor.

¹⁹Like a bad tooth or a lame foot is reliance on the unfaithful in times of trouble.

²⁰Like one who takes away a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar poured on soda, is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.

²¹If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.

²²In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.

²³As a north wind brings rain, so a sly tongue brings angry looks.

²⁴Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

²⁵Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.

²⁶Like a muddied spring or a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way to the wicked.

²⁷It is not good to eat too much honey, nor is it honorable to seek one’s own honor.

²⁸Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.

26Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, honor is not fitting for a fool.

²Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest.

³A whip for the horse, a halter for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools!

⁴Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.

⁵Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.

⁶Like cutting off one’s feet or drinking violence is the sending of a message by the hand of a fool.

⁷Like a lame man’s legs that hang limp is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.

⁸Like tying a stone in a sling is the giving of honor to a fool.

⁹Like a thornbush in a drunkard’s hand is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.

¹⁰Like an archer who wounds at random is he who hires a fool or any passer-by.

¹¹As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.

¹²Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

¹³The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!”

¹⁴As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed.

¹⁵The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth.

¹⁶The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer discreetly.

¹⁷Like one who seizes a dog by the ears is a passer-by who meddles in a quarrel not his own.

¹⁸Like a madman shooting firebrands or deadly arrows

¹⁹is a man who deceives his neighbor and says, “I was only joking!”

²⁰Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.

²¹As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.

²²The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s inmost parts.

²³Like a coating of glaze over earthenware are fervent lips with an evil heart.

²⁴A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but in his heart he harbors deceit.

²⁵Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart.

²⁶His malice may be concealed by deception, but his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.

²⁷If a man digs a pit, he will fall into it; if a man rolls a stone, it will roll back on him.

²⁸A lying tongue hates those it hurts, and a flattering mouth works ruin.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

1 Kings 9; 2 Chronicles 8

1 Kings 9

9When Solomon had finished building the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do,

²the Lord appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

³The Lord said to him: “I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

⁴“As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws,

⁵I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’

⁶“But if you or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them,

⁷then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples.

⁸And though this temple is now imposing, all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’

⁹People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them-that is why the Lord brought all this disaster on them.’ “

¹⁰At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings-the temple of the Lord and the royal palace-

¹¹King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and pine and gold he wanted.

¹²But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them.

¹³“What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?” he asked. And he called them the Land of Cabul, a name they have to this day.

¹⁴Now Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents of gold.

¹⁵Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the Lord ‘s temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer.

¹⁶(Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire. He killed its Canaanite inhabitants and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.

¹⁷And Solomon rebuilt Gezer.) He built up Lower Beth Horon,

¹⁸Baalath, and Tadmor in the desert, within his land,

¹⁹as well as all his store cities and the towns for his chariots and for his horses -whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and throughout all the territory he ruled.

²⁰All the people left from the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (these peoples were not Israelites),

²¹that is, their descendants remaining in the land, whom the Israelites could not exterminate -these Solomon conscripted for his slave labor force, as it is to this day.

²²But Solomon did not make slaves of any of the Israelites; they were his fighting men, his government officials, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and charioteers.

²³They were also the chief officials in charge of Solomon’s projects-550 officials supervising the men who did the work.

²⁴After Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace Solomon had built for her, he constructed the supporting terraces.

²⁵Three times a year Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord , burning incense before the Lord along with them, and so fulfilled the temple obligations.

²⁶King Solomon also built ships at Ezion Geber, which is near Elath in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.

²⁷And Hiram sent his men-sailors who knew the sea-to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s men.

²⁸They sailed to Ophir and brought back 420 talents of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.

2 Chronicles 8

8At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built the temple of the Lord and his own palace,

²Solomon rebuilt the villages that Hiram had given him, and settled Israelites in them.

³Solomon then went to Hamath Zobah and captured it.

⁴He also built up Tadmor in the desert and all the store cities he had built in Hamath.

⁵He rebuilt Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth Horon as fortified cities, with walls and with gates and bars,

⁶as well as Baalath and all his store cities, and all the cities for his chariots and for his horses -whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and throughout all the territory he ruled.

⁷All the people left from the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (these peoples were not Israelites),

⁸that is, their descendants remaining in the land, whom the Israelites had not destroyed-these Solomon conscripted for his slave labor force, as it is to this day.

⁹But Solomon did not make slaves of the Israelites for his work; they were his fighting men, commanders of his captains, and commanders of his chariots and charioteers.

¹⁰They were also King Solomon’s chief officials-two hundred and fifty officials supervising the men.

¹¹Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her, for he said, “My wife must not live in the palace of David king of Israel, because the places the ark of the Lord has entered are holy.”

¹²On the altar of the Lord that he had built in front of the portico, Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord ,

¹³according to the daily requirement for offerings commanded by Moses for Sabbaths, New Moons and the three annual feasts-the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles.

¹⁴In keeping with the ordinance of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their duties, and the Levites to lead the praise and to assist the priests according to each day’s requirement. He also appointed the gatekeepers by divisions for the various gates, because this was what David the man of God had ordered.

¹⁵They did not deviate from the king’s commands to the priests or to the Levites in any matter, including that of the treasuries.

¹⁶All Solomon’s work was carried out, from the day the foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid until its completion. So the temple of the Lord was finished.

¹⁷Then Solomon went to Ezion Geber and Elath on the coast of Edom.

¹⁸And Hiram sent him ships commanded by his own officers, men who knew the sea. These, with Solomon’s men, sailed to Ophir and brought back four hundred and fifty talents of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

Psalm 134, 146-150

PSALM 134

¹Praise the Lord , all you servants of the Lord who minister by night in the house of the Lord .

²Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord .

³May the Lord , the Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.

PSALM 146

¹Praise the Lord . Praise the Lord , O my soul.

²I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

³Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.

⁴When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.

⁵Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God,

⁶the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them- the Lord , who remains faithful forever.

⁷He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free,

⁸the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous.

⁹The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

¹⁰The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord .

PSALM 147

¹Praise the Lord . How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

²The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel.

³He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

⁴He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.

⁵Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.

⁶The Lord sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground.

⁷Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp.

⁸He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.

⁹He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call.

¹⁰His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man;

¹¹the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.

¹²Extol the Lord , O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion,

¹³for he strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you.

¹⁴He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.

¹⁵He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.

¹⁶He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes.

¹⁷He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast?

¹⁸He sends his word and melts them; he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.

¹⁹He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel.

²⁰He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws. Praise the Lord .

PSALM 148

¹Praise the Lord . Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights above.

²Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his heavenly hosts.

³Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars.

⁴Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies.

⁵Let them praise the name of the Lord , for he commanded and they were created.

⁶He set them in place for ever and ever; he gave a decree that will never pass away.

⁷Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,

⁸lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding,

⁹you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars,

¹⁰wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds,

¹¹kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth,

¹²young men and maidens, old men and children.

¹³Let them praise the name of the Lord , for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.

¹⁴He has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his saints, of Israel, the people close to his heart. Praise the Lord .

PSALM 149

¹Praise the Lord . Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints.

²Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the people of Zion be glad in their King.

³Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and harp.

⁴For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.

⁵Let the saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds.

⁶May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands,

⁷to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,

⁸to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron,

⁹to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all his saints. Praise the Lord .

PSALM 150

¹Praise the Lord . Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.

²Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.

³Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre,

⁴praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute,

⁵praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.

⁶Let everything that has breath praise the Lord . Praise the Lord .

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

2 Chronicles 6-7; Psalm 136

2 Chronicles 6-7

6Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud;

²I have built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.”

³While the whole assembly of Israel was standing there, the king turned around and blessed them.

⁴Then he said: “Praise be to the Lord , the God of Israel, who with his hands has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to my father David. For he said,

⁵‘Since the day I brought my people out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel to have a temple built for my Name to be there, nor have I chosen anyone to be the leader over my people Israel.

⁶But now I have chosen Jerusalem for my Name to be there, and I have chosen David to rule my people Israel.’

⁷“My father David had it in his heart to build a temple for the Name of the Lord , the God of Israel.

⁸But the Lord said to my father David, ‘Because it was in your heart to build a temple for my Name, you did well to have this in your heart.

⁹Nevertheless, you are not the one to build the temple, but your son, who is your own flesh and blood-he is the one who will build the temple for my Name.’

¹⁰“The Lord has kept the promise he made. I have succeeded David my father and now I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the Lord promised, and I have built the temple for the Name of the Lord , the God of Israel.

¹¹There I have placed the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with the people of Israel.”

¹²Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.

¹³Now he had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had placed it in the center of the outer court. He stood on the platform and then knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.

¹⁴He said: “O Lord , God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth-you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way.

¹⁵You have kept your promise to your servant David my father; with your mouth you have promised and with your hand you have fulfilled it-as it is today.

¹⁶“Now Lord , God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, ‘You shall never fail to have a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons are careful in all they do to walk before me according to my law, as you have done.’

¹⁷And now, O Lord , God of Israel, let your word that you promised your servant David come true.

¹⁸“But will God really dwell on earth with men? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!

¹⁹Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence.

²⁰May your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, this place of which you said you would put your Name there. May you hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place.

²¹Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.

²²“When a man wrongs his neighbor and is required to take an oath and he comes and swears the oath before your altar in this temple,

²³then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing down on his own head what he has done. Declare the innocent not guilty and so establish his innocence.

²⁴“When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you and when they turn back and confess your name, praying and making supplication before you in this temple,

²⁵then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to them and their fathers.

²⁶“When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them,

²⁷then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance.

²⁸“When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when enemies besiege them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come,

²⁹and when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel-each one aware of his afflictions and pains, and spreading out his hands toward this temple-

³⁰then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive, and deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of men),

³¹so that they will fear you and walk in your ways all the time they live in the land you gave our fathers.

³²“As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm-when he comes and prays toward this temple,

³³then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.

³⁴“When your people go to war against their enemies, wherever you send them, and when they pray to you toward this city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name,

³⁵then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.

³⁶“When they sin against you-for there is no one who does not sin-and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive to a land far away or near;

³⁷and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity and say, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong and acted wickedly’;

³⁸and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity where they were taken, and pray toward the land you gave their fathers, toward the city you have chosen and toward the temple I have built for your Name;

³⁹then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their pleas, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people, who have sinned against you.

⁴⁰“Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.

⁴¹“Now arise, O Lord God, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. May your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, may your saints rejoice in your goodness.

⁴²O Lord God, do not reject your anointed one. Remember the great love promised to David your servant.”

7When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

²The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it.

³When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord , saying, “He is good; his love endures forever.”

⁴Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord .

⁵And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand head of cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the people dedicated the temple of God.

⁶The priests took their positions, as did the Levites with the Lord ‘s musical instruments, which King David had made for praising the Lord and which were used when he gave thanks, saying, “His love endures forever.” Opposite the Levites, the priests blew their trumpets, and all the Israelites were standing.

⁷Solomon consecrated the middle part of the courtyard in front of the temple of the Lord , and there he offered burnt offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings, because the bronze altar he had made could not hold the burnt offerings, the grain offerings and the fat portions.

⁸So Solomon observed the festival at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him-a vast assembly, people from Lebo Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt.

⁹On the eighth day they held an assembly, for they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and the festival for seven days more.

¹⁰On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people to their homes, joyful and glad in heart for the good things the Lord had done for David and Solomon and for his people Israel.

¹¹When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace,

¹²the Lord appeared to him at night and said: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.

¹³“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,

¹⁴if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

¹⁵Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.

¹⁶I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

¹⁷“As for you, if you walk before me as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws,

¹⁸I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.’

¹⁹“But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them,

²⁰then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples.

²¹And though this temple is now so imposing, all who pass by will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’

²²People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord , the God of their fathers, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them-that is why he brought all this disaster on them.’ ”

Psalm 136

¹Give thanks to the Lord , for he is good. His love endures forever.

²Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever.

³Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever.

⁴to him who alone does great wonders, His love endures forever.

⁵who by his understanding made the heavens, His love endures forever.

⁶who spread out the earth upon the waters, His love endures forever.

⁷who made the great lights- His love endures forever.

⁸the sun to govern the day, His love endures forever.

⁹the moon and stars to govern the night; His love endures forever.

¹⁰to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt His love endures forever.

¹¹and brought Israel out from among them His love endures forever.

¹²with a mighty hand and outstretched arm; His love endures forever.

¹³to him who divided the Red Sea asunder His love endures forever.

¹⁴and brought Israel through the midst of it, His love endures forever.

¹⁵but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea; His love endures forever.

¹⁶to him who led his people through the desert, His love endures forever.

¹⁷who struck down great kings, His love endures forever.

¹⁸and killed mighty kings- His love endures forever.

¹⁹Sihon king of the Amorites His love endures forever.

²⁰and Og king of Bashan- His love endures forever.

²¹and gave their land as an inheritance, His love endures forever.

²²an inheritance to his servant Israel; His love endures forever.

²³to the One who remembered us in our low estate His love endures forever.

²⁴and freed us from our enemies, His love endures forever.

²⁵and who gives food to every creature. His love endures forever.

²⁶Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

1 Kings 8; 2 Chronicles 5

1 Kings 8

8Then King Solomon summoned into his presence at Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark of the Lord ‘s covenant from Zion, the City of David.

²All the men of Israel came together to King Solomon at the time of the festival in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month.

³When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark,

⁴and they brought up the ark of the Lord and the Tent of Meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The priests and Levites carried them up,

⁵and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted.

⁶The priests then brought the ark of the Lord ‘s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim.

⁷The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its carrying poles.

⁸These poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today.

⁹There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.

¹⁰When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord .

¹¹And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.

¹²Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud;

¹³I have indeed built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.”

¹⁴While the whole assembly of Israel was standing there, the king turned around and blessed them.

¹⁵Then he said: “Praise be to the Lord , the God of Israel, who with his own hand has fulfilled what he promised with his own mouth to my father David. For he said,

¹⁶‘Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel to have a temple built for my Name to be there, but I have chosen David to rule my people Israel.’

¹⁷“My father David had it in his heart to build a temple for the Name of the Lord , the God of Israel.

¹⁸But the Lord said to my father David, ‘Because it was in your heart to build a temple for my Name, you did well to have this in your heart.

¹⁹Nevertheless, you are not the one to build the temple, but your son, who is your own flesh and blood-he is the one who will build the temple for my Name.’

²⁰“The Lord has kept the promise he made: I have succeeded David my father and now I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the Lord promised, and I have built the temple for the Name of the Lord , the God of Israel.

²¹I have provided a place there for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with our fathers when he brought them out of Egypt.”

²²Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven

²³and said: “O Lord , God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below-you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way.

²⁴You have kept your promise to your servant David my father; with your mouth you have promised and with your hand you have fulfilled it-as it is today.

²⁵“Now Lord , God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, ‘You shall never fail to have a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons are careful in all they do to walk before me as you have done.’

²⁶And now, O God of Israel, let your word that you promised your servant David my father come true.

²⁷“But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!

²⁸Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day.

²⁹May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place.

³⁰Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.

³¹“When a man wrongs his neighbor and is required to take an oath and he comes and swears the oath before your altar in this temple,

³²then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants, condemning the guilty and bringing down on his own head what he has done. Declare the innocent not guilty, and so establish his innocence.

³³“When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and when they turn back to you and confess your name, praying and making supplication to you in this temple,

³⁴then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to their fathers.

³⁵“When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them,

³⁶then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance.

³⁷“When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come,

³⁸and when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel-each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart, and spreading out his hands toward this temple-

³⁹then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of all men),

⁴⁰so that they will fear you all the time they live in the land you gave our fathers.

⁴¹“As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name-

⁴²for men will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm-when he comes and prays toward this temple,

⁴³then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.

⁴⁴“When your people go to war against their enemies, wherever you send them, and when they pray to the Lord toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name,

⁴⁵then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.

⁴⁶“When they sin against you-for there is no one who does not sin-and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive to his own land, far away or near;

⁴⁷and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their conquerors and say, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly’;

⁴⁸and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to you toward the land you gave their fathers, toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name;

⁴⁹then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.

⁵⁰And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offenses they have committed against you, and cause their conquerors to show them mercy;

⁵¹for they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of that iron-smelting furnace.

⁵²“May your eyes be open to your servant’s plea and to the plea of your people Israel, and may you listen to them whenever they cry out to you.

⁵³For you singled them out from all the nations of the world to be your own inheritance, just as you declared through your servant Moses when you, O Sovereign Lord , brought our fathers out of Egypt.”

⁵⁴When Solomon had finished all these prayers and supplications to the Lord , he rose from before the altar of the Lord , where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven.

⁵⁵He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying:

⁵⁶“Praise be to the Lord , who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses.

⁵⁷May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers; may he never leave us nor forsake us.

⁵⁸May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep the commands, decrees and regulations he gave our fathers.

⁵⁹And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the Lord , be near to the Lord our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day’s need,

⁶⁰so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other.

⁶¹But your hearts must be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.”

⁶²Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the Lord .

⁶³Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the Lord : twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the temple of the Lord .

⁶⁴On that same day the king consecrated the middle part of the courtyard in front of the temple of the Lord , and there he offered burnt offerings, grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings, because the bronze altar before the Lord was too small to hold the burnt offerings, the grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings.

⁶⁵So Solomon observed the festival at that time, and all Israel with him-a vast assembly, people from Lebo Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt. They celebrated it before the Lord our God for seven days and seven days more, fourteen days in all.

⁶⁶On the following day he sent the people away. They blessed the king and then went home, joyful and glad in heart for all the good things the Lord had done for his servant David and his people Israel.

2 Chronicles 5

5When all the work Solomon had done for the temple of the Lord was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated-the silver and gold and all the furnishings-and he placed them in the treasuries of God’s temple.

²Then Solomon summoned to Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark of the Lord ‘s covenant from Zion, the City of David.

³And all the men of Israel came together to the king at the time of the festival in the seventh month.

⁴When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the Levites took up the ark,

⁵and they brought up the ark and the Tent of Meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The priests, who were Levites, carried them up;

⁶and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted.

⁷The priests then brought the ark of the Lord ‘s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim.

⁸The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and covered the ark and its carrying poles.

⁹These poles were so long that their ends, extending from the ark, could be seen from in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today.

¹⁰There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.

¹¹The priests then withdrew from the Holy Place. All the priests who were there had consecrated themselves, regardless of their divisions.

¹²All the Levites who were musicians-Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives-stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets.

¹³The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the Lord . Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang: “He is good; his love endures forever.” Then the temple of the Lord was filled with a cloud,

¹⁴and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

1 Kings 7; 2 Chronicles 4

1 Kings 7

7It took Solomon thirteen years, however, to complete the construction of his palace.

²He built the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long, fifty wide and thirty high, with four rows of cedar columns supporting trimmed cedar beams.

³It was roofed with cedar above the beams that rested on the columns-forty-five beams, fifteen to a row.

⁴Its windows were placed high in sets of three, facing each other.

⁵All the doorways had rectangular frames; they were in the front part in sets of three, facing each other.

⁶He made a colonnade fifty cubits long and thirty wide. In front of it was a portico, and in front of that were pillars and an overhanging roof.

⁷He built the throne hall, the Hall of Justice, where he was to judge, and he covered it with cedar from floor to ceiling.

⁸And the palace in which he was to live, set farther back, was similar in design. Solomon also made a palace like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married.

⁹All these structures, from the outside to the great courtyard and from foundation to eaves, were made of blocks of high-grade stone cut to size and trimmed with a saw on their inner and outer faces.

¹⁰The foundations were laid with large stones of good quality, some measuring ten cubits and some eight.

¹¹Above were high-grade stones, cut to size, and cedar beams.

¹²The great courtyard was surrounded by a wall of three courses of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams, as was the inner courtyard of the temple of the Lord with its portico.

¹³King Solomon sent to Tyre and brought Huram,

¹⁴whose mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali and whose father was a man of Tyre and a craftsman in bronze. Huram was highly skilled and experienced in all kinds of bronze work. He came to King Solomon and did all the work assigned to him.

¹⁵He cast two bronze pillars, each eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits around, by line.

¹⁶He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the tops of the pillars; each capital was five cubits high.

¹⁷A network of interwoven chains festooned the capitals on top of the pillars, seven for each capital.

¹⁸He made pomegranates in two rows encircling each network to decorate the capitals on top of the pillars. He did the same for each capital.

¹⁹The capitals on top of the pillars in the portico were in the shape of lilies, four cubits high.

²⁰On the capitals of both pillars, above the bowl-shaped part next to the network, were the two hundred pomegranates in rows all around.

²¹He erected the pillars at the portico of the temple. The pillar to the south he named Jakin and the one to the north Boaz.

²²The capitals on top were in the shape of lilies. And so the work on the pillars was completed.

²³He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it.

²⁴Below the rim, gourds encircled it-ten to a cubit. The gourds were cast in two rows in one piece with the Sea.

²⁵The Sea stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east. The Sea rested on top of them, and their hindquarters were toward the center.

²⁶It was a handbreadth in thickness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held two thousand baths.

²⁷He also made ten movable stands of bronze; each was four cubits long, four wide and three high.

²⁸This is how the stands were made: They had side panels attached to uprights.

²⁹On the panels between the uprights were lions, bulls and cherubim-and on the uprights as well. Above and below the lions and bulls were wreaths of hammered work.

³⁰Each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles, and each had a basin resting on four supports, cast with wreaths on each side.

³¹On the inside of the stand there was an opening that had a circular frame one cubit deep. This opening was round, and with its basework it measured a cubit and a half. Around its opening there was engraving. The panels of the stands were square, not round.

³²The four wheels were under the panels, and the axles of the wheels were attached to the stand. The diameter of each wheel was a cubit and a half.

³³The wheels were made like chariot wheels; the axles, rims, spokes and hubs were all of cast metal.

³⁴Each stand had four handles, one on each corner, projecting from the stand.

³⁵At the top of the stand there was a circular band half a cubit deep. The supports and panels were attached to the top of the stand.

³⁶He engraved cherubim, lions and palm trees on the surfaces of the supports and on the panels, in every available space, with wreaths all around.

³⁷This is the way he made the ten stands. They were all cast in the same molds and were identical in size and shape.

³⁸He then made ten bronze basins, each holding forty baths and measuring four cubits across, one basin to go on each of the ten stands.

³⁹He placed five of the stands on the south side of the temple and five on the north. He placed the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner of the temple.

⁴⁰He also made the basins and shovels and sprinkling bowls. So Huram finished all the work he had undertaken for King Solomon in the temple of the Lord :

⁴¹the two pillars; the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars; the two sets of network decorating the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars;

⁴²the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network, decorating the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars);

⁴³the ten stands with their ten basins;

⁴⁴the Sea and the twelve bulls under it;

⁴⁵the pots, shovels and sprinkling bowls. All these objects that Huram made for King Solomon for the temple of the Lord were of burnished bronze.

⁴⁶The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan.

⁴⁷Solomon left all these things unweighed, because there were so many; the weight of the bronze was not determined.

⁴⁸Solomon also made all the furnishings that were in the Lord ‘s temple: the golden altar; the golden table on which was the bread of the Presence;

⁴⁹the lampstands of pure gold (five on the right and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary); the gold floral work and lamps and tongs;

⁵⁰the pure gold basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and censers; and the gold sockets for the doors of the innermost room, the Most Holy Place, and also for the doors of the main hall of the temple.

⁵¹When all the work King Solomon had done for the temple of the Lord was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated-the silver and gold and the furnishings-and he placed them in the treasuries of the Lord ‘s temple.

2 Chronicles 4

4He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high.

²He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it.

³Below the rim, figures of bulls encircled it-ten to a cubit. The bulls were cast in two rows in one piece with the Sea.

⁴The Sea stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east. The Sea rested on top of them, and their hindquarters were toward the center.

⁵It was a handbreadth in thickness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held three thousand baths.

⁶He then made ten basins for washing and placed five on the south side and five on the north. In them the things to be used for the burnt offerings were rinsed, but the Sea was to be used by the priests for washing.

⁷He made ten gold lampstands according to the specifications for them and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north.

⁸He made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north. He also made a hundred gold sprinkling bowls.

⁹He made the courtyard of the priests, and the large court and the doors for the court, and overlaid the doors with bronze.

¹⁰He placed the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner.

¹¹He also made the pots and shovels and sprinkling bowls. So Huram finished the work he had undertaken for King Solomon in the temple of God:

¹²the two pillars; the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars; the two sets of network decorating the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars;

¹³the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network, decorating the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars);

¹⁴the stands with their basins;

¹⁵the Sea and the twelve bulls under it;

¹⁶the pots, shovels, meat forks and all related articles. All the objects that Huram-Abi made for King Solomon for the temple of the Lord were of polished bronze.

¹⁷The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan.

¹⁸All these things that Solomon made amounted to so much that the weight of the bronze was not determined.

¹⁹Solomon also made all the furnishings that were in God’s temple: the golden altar; the tables on which was the bread of the Presence;

²⁰the lampstands of pure gold with their lamps, to burn in front of the inner sanctuary as prescribed;

²¹the gold floral work and lamps and tongs (they were solid gold);

²²the pure gold wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and censers; and the gold doors of the temple: the inner doors to the Most Holy Place and the doors of the main hall.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

1 Kings 5-6; 2 Chronicles 2-3

1 Kings 5-6

5When Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king to succeed his father David, he sent his envoys to Solomon, because he had always been on friendly terms with David.

²Solomon sent back this message to Hiram:

³“You know that because of the wars waged against my father David from all sides, he could not build a temple for the Name of the Lord his God until the Lord put his enemies under his feet.

⁴But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or disaster.

⁵I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the Lord my God, as the Lord told my father David, when he said, ‘Your son whom I will put on the throne in your place will build the temple for my Name.’

⁶“So give orders that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me. My men will work with yours, and I will pay you for your men whatever wages you set. You know that we have no one so skilled in felling timber as the Sidonians.”

⁷When Hiram heard Solomon’s message, he was greatly pleased and said, “Praise be to the Lord today, for he has given David a wise son to rule over this great nation.”

⁸So Hiram sent word to Solomon: “I have received the message you sent me and will do all you want in providing the cedar and pine logs.

⁹My men will haul them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will float them in rafts by sea to the place you specify. There I will separate them and you can take them away. And you are to grant my wish by providing food for my royal household.”

¹⁰In this way Hiram kept Solomon supplied with all the cedar and pine logs he wanted,

¹¹and Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household, in addition to twenty thousand baths , of pressed olive oil. Solomon continued to do this for Hiram year after year.

¹²The Lord gave Solomon wisdom, just as he had promised him. There were peaceful relations between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.

¹³King Solomon conscripted laborers from all Israel-thirty thousand men.

¹⁴He sent them off to Lebanon in shifts of ten thousand a month, so that they spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.

¹⁵Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hills,

¹⁶as well as thirty-three hundred foremen who supervised the project and directed the workmen.

¹⁷At the king’s command they removed from the quarry large blocks of quality stone to provide a foundation of dressed stone for the temple.

¹⁸The craftsmen of Solomon and Hiram and the men of Gebal cut and prepared the timber and stone for the building of the temple.

6In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord .

²The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high.

³The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple extended the width of the temple, that is twenty cubits, and projected ten cubits from the front of the temple.

⁴He made narrow clerestory windows in the temple.

⁵Against the walls of the main hall and inner sanctuary he built a structure around the building, in which there were side rooms.

⁶The lowest floor was five cubits wide, the middle floor six cubits and the third floor seven. He made offset ledges around the outside of the temple so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls.

⁷In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.

⁸The entrance to the lowest floor was on the south side of the temple; a stairway led up to the middle level and from there to the third.

⁹So he built the temple and completed it, roofing it with beams and cedar planks.

¹⁰And he built the side rooms all along the temple. The height of each was five cubits, and they were attached to the temple by beams of cedar.

¹¹The word of the Lord came to Solomon:

¹²“As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, carry out my regulations and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father.

¹³And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.”

¹⁴So Solomon built the temple and completed it.

¹⁵He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and covered the floor of the temple with planks of pine.

¹⁶He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.

¹⁷The main hall in front of this room was forty cubits long.

¹⁸The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen.

¹⁹He prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord there.

²⁰The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty wide and twenty high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar.

²¹Solomon covered the inside of the temple with pure gold, and he extended gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, which was overlaid with gold.

²²So he overlaid the whole interior with gold. He also overlaid with gold the altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary.

²³In the inner sanctuary he made a pair of cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high.

²⁴One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing five cubits-ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip.

²⁵The second cherub also measured ten cubits, for the two cherubim were identical in size and shape.

²⁶The height of each cherub was ten cubits.

²⁷He placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple, with their wings spread out. The wing of one cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room.

²⁸He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹On the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers.

³⁰He also covered the floors of both the inner and outer rooms of the temple with gold.

³¹For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood with five-sided jambs.

³²And on the two olive wood doors he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with beaten gold.

³³In the same way he made four-sided jambs of olive wood for the entrance to the main hall.

³⁴He also made two pine doors, each having two leaves that turned in sockets.

³⁵He carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers on them and overlaid them with gold hammered evenly over the carvings.

³⁶And he built the inner courtyard of three courses of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams.

³⁷The foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv.

³⁸In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications. He had spent seven years building it.

2 Chronicles 2-3

2Solomon gave orders to build a temple for the Name of the Lord and a royal palace for himself.

²He conscripted seventy thousand men as carriers and eighty thousand as stonecutters in the hills and thirty-six hundred as foremen over them.

³Solomon sent this message to Hiram king of Tyre: “Send me cedar logs as you did for my father David when you sent him cedar to build a palace to live in.

⁴Now I am about to build a temple for the Name of the Lord my God and to dedicate it to him for burning fragrant incense before him, for setting out the consecrated bread regularly, and for making burnt offerings every morning and evening and on Sabbaths and New Moons and at the appointed feasts of the Lord our God. This is a lasting ordinance for Israel.

⁵“The temple I am going to build will be great, because our God is greater than all other gods.

⁶But who is able to build a temple for him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain him? Who then am I to build a temple for him, except as a place to burn sacrifices before him?

⁷“Send me, therefore, a man skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, and in purple, crimson and blue yarn, and experienced in the art of engraving, to work in Judah and Jerusalem with my skilled craftsmen, whom my father David provided.

⁸“Send me also cedar, pine and algum logs from Lebanon, for I know that your men are skilled in cutting timber there. My men will work with yours

⁹to provide me with plenty of lumber, because the temple I build must be large and magnificent.

¹⁰I will give your servants, the woodsmen who cut the timber, twenty thousand cors of ground wheat, twenty thousand cors of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine and twenty thousand baths of olive oil.”

¹¹Hiram king of Tyre replied by letter to Solomon: “Because the Lord loves his people, he has made you their king.”

¹²And Hiram added: “Praise be to the Lord , the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth! He has given King David a wise son, endowed with intelligence and discernment, who will build a temple for the Lord and a palace for himself.

¹³“I am sending you Huram-Abi, a man of great skill,

¹⁴whose mother was from Dan and whose father was from Tyre. He is trained to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, stone and wood, and with purple and blue and crimson yarn and fine linen. He is experienced in all kinds of engraving and can execute any design given to him. He will work with your craftsmen and with those of my Lord , David your father.

¹⁵“Now let my Lord send his servants the wheat and barley and the olive oil and wine he promised,

¹⁶and we will cut all the logs from Lebanon that you need and will float them in rafts by sea down to Joppa. You can then take them up to Jerusalem.”

¹⁷Solomon took a census of all the aliens who were in Israel, after the census his father David had taken; and they were found to be 153,600.

¹⁸He assigned 70,000 of them to be carriers and 80,000 to be stonecutters in the hills, with 3,600 foremen over them to keep the people working.

3Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David.

²He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.

³The foundation Solomon laid for building the temple of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide (using the cubit of the old standard).

⁴The portico at the front of the temple was twenty cubits long across the width of the building and twenty cubits high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold.

⁵He paneled the main hall with pine and covered it with fine gold and decorated it with palm tree and chain designs.

⁶He adorned the temple with precious stones. And the gold he used was gold of Parvaim.

⁷He overlaid the ceiling beams, doorframes, walls and doors of the temple with gold, and he carved cherubim on the walls.

⁸He built the Most Holy Place, its length corresponding to the width of the temple-twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. He overlaid the inside with six hundred talents of fine gold.

⁹The gold nails weighed fifty shekels. He also overlaid the upper parts with gold.

¹⁰In the Most Holy Place he made a pair of sculptured cherubim and overlaid them with gold.

¹¹The total wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long and touched the temple wall, while its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the other cherub.

¹²Similarly one wing of the second cherub was five cubits long and touched the other temple wall, and its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the first cherub.

¹³The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, facing the main hall.

¹⁴He made the curtain of blue, purple and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim worked into it.

¹⁵In the front of the temple he made two pillars, which together were thirty-five cubits long, each with a capital on top measuring five cubits.

¹⁶He made interwoven chains and put them on top of the pillars. He also made a hundred pomegranates and attached them to the chains.

¹⁷He erected the pillars in the front of the temple, one to the south and one to the north. The one to the south he named Jakin and the one to the north Boaz.