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Take a breath, find your place, and read deeply. Discover the joy of reading God’s word with the Immerse New Living Translation (NLT) Bible.
This daily Bible podcast will take you through the Bible in a year following the Immerse Bible Reading Experience. So grab your family and small group and go through the Bible in a year together with Immerse. Each of the 6 volumes is available online or at your favorite Christian bookstore.
Ethan: Welcome To Immerse: The
Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 200 and 17.
It took Solomon 20 years to build the
Lord's temple and his own royal palace.
At the end of that time, he
gave 20 towns in the land of
Galilee to King Hiram of Tyre.
Hiram had previously provided all
the cedar and cypress, timber and
gold that Solomon had requested,
but when Hiram came from tire to
see the town, Solomon had given him.
He was not at all pleased with them.
What kind of towns are these?
My brother, he asked.
So Hiram called that area
cable, which means worthless
as it is still known today.
Nevertheless, Hiram paid
Solomon 9,000 pounds of gold.
This is the account of the forced
labor that King Solomon conscripted
to build the Lord's temple, the royal
Palace, the supporting terraces.
The wall of Jerusalem and the
cities of Hazo, Megiddo, and geezer.
Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had
attacked and captured geezer killing the
Canaanite population and burning it down.
He gave the city to his daughter as a
wedding gift when she married Solomon.
So Solomon rebuilt the city of Geezer.
He also built up the towns of
Lower Beth Horon, Bela, and Tamar
in the wilderness within his land.
He built towns as supply centers and
constructed towns where his chariots
and horses could be stationed.
He built everything he desired in
Jerusalem and Lebanon, and throughout
his entire realm, there were still
some people living in the land who were
not Israelites, including Amorites,
Hittites, Percys hives, and Debu sites.
These were descendants of the
nations whom the people of Israel
had not completely destroyed.
So Solomon conscripted them as slaves and
they serve as forced laborers to this day.
But Solomon did not conscript any
of the Israelites for forced labor.
Instead, he assigned them to
serve as fighting men, government
officials, officers, and captains
in his army, commanders of
his chariots and charioteers.
Solomon appointed 550 of them
to supervise the people working
on his various projects.
Solomon moved his wife, Pharaoh's
daughter from the city of David to
the new palace he had built for her.
Then he constructed the supporting
terraces three times each year.
Solomon presented burnt offerings
and peace offerings on the
altar he had built for the Lord.
He also burned incense to the Lord.
And so he finished the work
of building the temple.
King Solomon also built a fleet of
ships at EA Easy and giber a port
near El Lath in the land of Edam
along the shore of the Red Sea, Hiram
sent experienced crews of sailors to
sail the ships with Solomon's men.
They sailed to ER and brought back
to Solomon some 16 tons of gold.
When the Queen of Sheba heard of
Solomon's fame, which brought honor
to the name of the Lord, she came
to test him with hard questions.
She arrived in Jerusalem with a large
group of attendants and a great caravan
of camels loaded with spices, large
quantities of gold and precious jewels.
When she met with Solomon, she talked with
him about everything she had on her mind.
Solomon had answers for all her questions.
Nothing was too hard for
the king to explain to her.
When the Queen of Sheba realized how very
wise Solomon was and when she saw the
palace he had built, she was overwhelmed.
She was also amazed at the food on
his tables, the organization of his
officials and their splendid clothing,
the cup bearers and the burnt offerings
Solomon made at the temple of the
Lord, she exclaimed to the king.
Everything I heard in my country about
your achievements and wisdom is true.
I didn't believe what was said until I
arrived here and saw it with my own eyes.
In fact, I had not heard the half of it.
Your wisdom and prosperity are
far beyond what I was told,
how happy your people must be.
What a privilege for your
officials to stand here day after
day, listening to your wisdom.
Praise the Lord your God who delights
in you and has placed you on the
throne of Israel because of the
Lord's eternal love for Israel.
He has made you king so you can
rule with justice and righteousness.
Then she gave the king a gift of
9,000 pounds of gold, great quantities
of spices and precious jewels.
Never again were so many spices
brought in as those the Queen
of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
In addition, rim's ships brought gold from
OER and they also brought rich cargoes
of red sandalwood and precious jewels.
The the king used the sandalwood to
make railings for the temple of the Lord
and the royal palace, and to construct
liars and harps for the musicians.
Never before or since has there
been such a supply of sandalwood?
King Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba,
whatever she asked for, besides all the
customary gifts he had so generously
given then she and all her attendance
returned to their own land each year.
Solomon received about 25 tons of gold.
This did not include the
additional revenue he received
from merchants and traders.
All the kings of Arabia and the
governors of the land, king Solomon
made 200 large shields of hammered
gold each weighing more than 15 pounds.
He also made 300 smaller
shields of hammered gold, each
weighing near four pounds.
The king placed these shields in
the palace of the forest of Lebanon.
Then the king made a huge throne decorated
with ivory and overlaid with fine gold.
The throne had six steps
and a rounded back.
There were armrests on both sides
of the seat and the figure of a lion
stood on each side of the throne.
There were also 12 other lions, one
standing on each end of the six steps.
No other throne in all the
world could be compared with it.
All of King Solomon's drinking cups were
solid gold as were all the utensils in
the palace of the forest of Lebanon.
They were not made of silver, for
silver was considered worthless.
In Solomon's day, the king had a
fleet of trading ships of Tarshish
that sailed with rim's fleet.
Once every three years, the
ships returned loaded with gold,
silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.
So King Solomon became richer and
wiser than any other king on earth.
People from every nation came
to consult him and to hear
the wisdom God had given him.
Year after year, everyone
who visited brought him gifts
of silver and gold clothing,
weapons, spices, horses and mules.
Solomon built up a huge
force of chariots and horses.
He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses.
He stationed some of them in the chariot
cities and some near him in Jerusalem.
The king made silver as plentiful in
Jerusalem as stone and valuable cedar
timber was as common as the sycamore fig
trees that grow in the foothills of Judah.
Solomon's horses were imported
from Egypt and from Sia.
The King's traders acquired them
from Sia at the standard price.
At that time, chariots from Egypt could
be purchased for 600 pieces of silver
and horses for 150 pieces of silver.
They were then exported to the kings
of the Hittites and the Kings of Aram.
This concludes today's
immerse reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.