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Psalm 72

1  Give the king your judgements, O God, ♦︎
   and your righteousness to the son of a king.
2  Then shall he judge your people righteously ♦︎
   and your poor with justice.
3  May the mountains bring forth peace, ♦︎
   and the little hills righteousness for the people.
4  May he defend the poor among the people, ♦︎
   deliver the children of the needy and crush the oppressor.
5  May he live as long as the sun and moon endure, ♦︎
   from one generation to another.
6  May he come down like rain upon the mown grass, ♦︎
   like the showers that water the earth.
7  In his time shall righteousness flourish, ♦︎
   and abundance of peace
      till the moon shall be no more.
8  May his dominion extend from sea to sea ♦︎
   and from the River to the ends of the earth.
9  May his foes kneel before him ♦︎
   and his enemies lick the dust.
10  The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall pay tribute; ♦︎
   the kings of Sheba and Seba shall bring gifts.
11  All kings shall fall down before him; ♦︎
   all nations shall do him service.
12  For he shall deliver the poor that cry out, ♦︎
   the needy and those who have no helper.
13  He shall have pity on the weak and poor; ♦︎
   he shall preserve the lives of the needy.
14  He shall redeem their lives from oppression and violence, ♦︎
   and dear shall their blood be in his sight.
15  Long may he live;
      unto him may be given gold from Sheba; ♦︎
   may prayer be made for him continually
      and may they bless him all the day long.
16  May there be abundance of grain on the earth,
      standing thick upon the hilltops; ♦︎
   may its fruit flourish like Lebanon
      and its grain grow like the grass of the field.
17  May his name remain for ever
      and be established as long as the sun endures; ♦︎
   may all nations be blest in him
      and call him blessed.
18  Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, ♦︎
   who alone does wonderful things.
19  And blessed be his glorious name for ever. ♦︎
   May all the earth be filled with his glory.
      Amen. Amen.

Solomon’s Errors

11King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, ²from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the Israelites, ‘You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you; for they will surely incline your heart to follow their gods;’ Solomon clung to these in love. ³Among his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. ⁴For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. ⁵For Solomon followed Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. ⁶So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not completely follow the Lord, as his father David had done. ⁷Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. ⁸He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrificed to their gods.

9 Then the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, ¹⁰and had commanded him concerning this matter, that he should not follow other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord commanded. ¹¹Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, ‘Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. ¹²Yet for the sake of your father David I will not do it in your lifetime; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. ¹³I will not, however, tear away the entire kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.’

¹²Pilate spoke to them again, ‘Then what do you wish me to do^* with the man you call^* the King of the Jews?’ ¹³They shouted back, ‘Crucify him!’ ¹⁴Pilate asked them, ‘Why, what evil has he done?’ But they shouted all the more, ‘Crucify him!’ ¹⁵So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.

The Soldiers Mock Jesus

16 Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters^*); and they called together the whole cohort. ¹⁷And they clothed him in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him. ¹⁸And they began saluting him, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ ¹⁹They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him. ²⁰After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

The Crucifixion of Jesus

21 They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus.