The Birth of Jesus Christ

1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when¹ Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his ^rbetrothed,² who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.³

The Shepherds and the Angels

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an ^sangel of the Lord appeared to them, and the ^tglory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, ^u“Fear not, for behold, I bring you ^vgood news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 ^wFor ^xunto you is born this day ^yin the city of David a ^zSavior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a ^asign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, ^dglorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Prayer for Spiritual Strength

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family¹ in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the ^ariches of his glory he may grant you to be ^bstrengthened with power through his Spirit in your ^cinner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being ^drooted and ^egrounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and ^fheight and depth, 19 and to know the ^glove of Christ that ^hsurpasses knowledge, that ⁱyou may be filled with all the ^jfullness of God.

20 ^kNow to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power ^lat work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Waw

The Lord Appears to Solomon

1 ^tAs soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all that Solomon desired to build, 2 the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, ^uas he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 And the Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by ^vputting my name there forever. My ^weyes and my heart will be there for all time. 4 And as for you, ^xif you will walk before me, ^yas David your father walked, ^zwith integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, 5 then I will ^aestablish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ^b‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’ 6 But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and ^cthe house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a ^dproverb and a byword among all peoples. 8 And this house will become a heap of ruins.¹ Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will ^ehiss, and they will say, ^f‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 9 Then they will say, ‘Because they ^gabandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the Lord has ^hbrought all this disaster on them.’”

Solomon’s Other Acts

10 ⁱAt the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the ^jhouse of the Lord and the ^kking’s house, 11 and Hiram king of Tyre had ^lsupplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 12 But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please him. 13 Therefore he said, “What kind of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” So they are called the land of ^mCabul ⁿto this day. 14 Hiram had sent to the king ^o120 talents² of gold.

15 And this is the account of the ^pforced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the Lord and his own house and the ^qMillo and the ^rwall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer 16 (Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and had killed the ^sCanaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to ^this daughter, Solomon’s wife; 17 so Solomon rebuilt Gezer) and Lower Beth-horon 18 and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah,³ 19 and all the store cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his ^uchariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 20 All the people who were left of ^vthe Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel— 21 their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel were unable to devote to destruction⁴—^wthese Solomon drafted to be slaves, and so they are to this day. 22 But ^xof the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves. They were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders and his horsemen.

23 These were the ^ychief officers who were over Solomon’s work: 550 who had charge of the people who carried on the work.

24 But Pharaoh’s daughter went up ^zfrom the city of David to ^aher own house that Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Millo.

25 ^bThree times a year Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and peace offerings on the ^caltar that he built to the Lord, making offerings with it⁵ before the Lord. So he finished the house.

26 King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. 27 And Hiram sent with the ^dfleet his servants, seamen who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon. 28 And they went to ^eOphir and brought from there gold, 420 talents, and they brought it to King Solomon.

The Queen of Sheba

1 ^fNow when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. 2 She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. 3 And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. 4 And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the ^gwisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, 5 the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her.

6 And she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, 7 but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard. 8 Happy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! 9 ^hBlessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness.” 10 Then she gave the king ⁱ120 talents⁶ of gold, and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as these that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

11 Moreover, the ^jfleet of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a very great amount of almug wood and precious stones. 12 And the king made of the almug wood supports for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, also lyres and harps for the singers. No such almug wood has come or been seen ^kto this day.

13 And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what was given her by the bounty of King Solomon. So she turned and went back to her own land with her servants.

Solomon’s Great Wealth

14 ^lNow the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, 15 besides that which came from the explorers and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of the west and from the governors of the land. 16 King Solomon made 200 large ^mshields of beaten gold; 600 shekels⁷ of gold went into each shield. 17 And he made 300 shields of beaten gold; three minas⁸ of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the ⁿHouse of the Forest of Lebanon. 18 The king also made a great ^oivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold. 19 The throne had six steps, and the throne had a round top,⁹ and on each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing beside the armrests, 20 while twelve lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the six steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom. 21 All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. 22 For the king had a fleet of ^pships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.¹⁰

23 Thus King Solomon ^qexcelled all the kings of the earth in riches and ^rin wisdom. 24 And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. 25 Every one of them brought his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, myrrh,¹¹ spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year.

26 ^sAnd Solomon gathered together ^tchariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. 27 And the king made ^usilver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the ^vsycamore of the Shephelah. 28 And Solomon’s import of ^whorses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s traders received them from Kue at a price. 29 A chariot could be imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150, and so through the king’s traders they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.