Day 175 of 365

1 Kgs 8:41–9:28

8:41 "Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he shall come out of a far country for your name's sake

8:42 (for they shall hear of your great name, and of your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm); when he shall come and pray toward this house;

8:43 hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.

8:44 "If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the Lord toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name;

8:45 then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

8:46 If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn't sin), and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near;

8:47 yet if they shall repent in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of those who carried them captive, saying, 'We have sinned, and have done perversely; we have dealt wickedly;'

8:48 if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name:

8:49 then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling place, and maintain their cause;

8:50 and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed against you; and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them

8:51 (for they are your people, and your inheritance, which you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron);

8:52 that your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant, and to the supplication of your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they cry to you.

8:53 For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be your inheritance, as you spoke by Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, Lord God."

8:54 It was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication to the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread forth toward heaven.

8:55 He stood, and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying,

8:56 "Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. There has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by Moses his servant.

8:57 May the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. Let him not leave us, nor forsake us;

8:58 that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his ordinances, which he commanded our fathers.

8:59 Let these my words, with which I have made supplication before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that he may maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel, as every day shall require;

8:60 that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord, he is God. There is none else.

8:61 "Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day."

8:62 The king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the Lord.

8:63 Solomon offered for the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to the Lord, two and twenty thousand head of cattle, and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord.

8:64 The same day the king made the middle of the court holy that was before the house of the Lord; for there he offered the burnt offering, and the meal offering, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too little to receive the burnt offering, and the meal offering, and the fat of the peace offerings.

8:65 So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before the Lord our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days.

8:66 On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had shown to David his servant, and to Israel his people.

9:1 It happened, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do,

9:2 that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

9:3 The Lord said to him, "I have heard your prayer and your supplication, that you have made before me. I have made this house holy, which you have built, to put my name there forever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.

9:4 As for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances;

9:5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, according as I promised to David your father, saying, 'There shall not fail you a man on the throne of Israel.'

9:6 But if you turn away from following me, you or your children, and not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;

9:7 then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

9:8 Though this house is so high, yet shall everyone who passes by it be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, 'Why has the Lord done thus to this land, and to this house?'

9:9 and they shall answer, 'Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold of other gods, and worshiped them, and served them. Therefore the Lord has brought all this disaster on them.'"

9:10 It happened at the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king's house

9:11 (now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire), that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

9:12 Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they did not please him.

9:13 He said, "What cities are these which you have given me, my brother?" He called them the land of Cabul to this day.

9:14 Hiram sent to the king one hundred twenty talents of gold.

9:15 This is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised, to build the house of the Lord, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

9:16 Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it for a portion to his daughter, Solomon's wife.

9:17 Solomon built Gezer, and Beth Horon the lower,

9:18 and Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land,

9:19 and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

9:20 As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel;

9:21 their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel were not able utterly to destroy, of them Solomon raised a levy of bondservants to this day.

9:22 But of the children of Israel Solomon made no bondservants; but they were the men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen.

9:23 These were the chief officers who were over Solomon's work, five hundred fifty, who bore rule over the people who labored in the work.

9:24 But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David to her house which Solomon had built for her: then he built Millo.

9:25 Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he built to the Lord three times a year, burning incense with them, on the altar that was before the Lord. So he finished the house.

9:26 King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion Geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

9:27 Hiram sent in the navy his servants, sailors who had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

9:28 They came to Ophir, and fetched from there gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.

Acts 6:1–15

1 Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, a complaint arose from the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily service.

2 The twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, "It is not appropriate for us to forsake the word of God and serve tables.

3 Therefore select from among you, brothers, seven men of good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

4 But we will continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the word."

5 These words pleased the whole multitude. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch;

6 whom they set before the apostles. When they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.

7 The word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly. A great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

8 Stephen, full of grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.

9 But some of those who were of the synagogue called "The Libertines," and of the Cyrenians, of the Alexandrians, and of those of Cilicia and Asia arose, disputing with Stephen.

10 They weren't able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.

11 Then they secretly induced men to say, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God."

12 They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and came against him and seized him, and brought him in to the council,

13 and set up false witnesses who said, "This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the Law.

14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us."

15 All who sat in the council, fastening their eyes on him, saw his face like it was the face of an angel.

Ps 75:1–10

1 We give thanks to you, God. We give thanks, for your Name is near. Men tell about your wondrous works.

2 When I choose the appointed time, I will judge blamelessly.

3 The earth and all its inhabitants quake. I firmly hold its pillars. Selah.

4 I said to the arrogant, "Do not boast!" I said to the wicked, "Do not lift up the horn.

5 Do not lift up your horn on high. Do not speak with a stiff neck."

6 For neither from the east, nor from the west, nor yet from the south, comes exaltation.

7 But God is the judge. He puts down one, and lifts up another.

8 For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out. Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very dregs.

9 But I will declare this forever: I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

10 I will cut off all the horns of the wicked, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.