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Psalm 83

Prayer for Judgement on Israel’s Foes

A Song. A Psalm of Asaph.
¹ O God, do not keep silence;
   do not hold your peace or be still, O God!
² Even now your enemies are in tumult;
   those who hate you have raised their heads.
³ They lay crafty plans against your people;
   they consult together against those you protect.
⁴ They say, ‘Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;
   let the name of Israel be remembered no more.’
⁵ They conspire with one accord;
   against you they make a covenant—
⁶ the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
   Moab and the Hagrites,
⁷ Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
   Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
⁸ Assyria also has joined them;
   they are the strong arm of the children of Lot.
          Selah

⁹ Do to them as you did to Midian,
   as to Sisera and Jabin at the Wadi Kishon,
¹⁰ who were destroyed at En-dor,
   who became dung for the ground.
¹¹ Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
   all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
¹² who said, ‘Let us take the pastures of God
   for our own possession.’

¹³ O my God, make them like whirling dust,^*
   like chaff before the wind.
¹⁴ As fire consumes the forest,
   as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,
¹⁵ so pursue them with your tempest
   and terrify them with your hurricane.
¹⁶ Fill their faces with shame,
   so that they may seek your name, O Lord.
¹⁷ Let them be put to shame and dismayed for ever;
   let them perish in disgrace.
¹⁸ Let them know that you alone,
   whose name is the Lord,
   are the Most High over all the earth.

²³Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord, succeeding his father David as king; he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him. ²⁴All the leaders and the mighty warriors, and also all the sons of King David, pledged their allegiance to King Solomon. ²⁵The Lord highly exalted Solomon in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel.

2 Chronicles

Solomon Requests Wisdom

1Solomon son of David established himself in his kingdom; the Lord his God was with him and made him exceedingly great.

Solomon Consolidates His Reign

13 Then Adonijah son of Haggith came to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. She asked, ‘Do you come peaceably?’ He said, ‘Peaceably.’ ¹⁴Then he said, ‘May I have a word with you?’ She said, ‘Go on.’ ¹⁵He said, ‘You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel expected me to reign; however, the kingdom has turned about and become my brother’s, for it was his from the Lord. ¹⁶And now I have one request to make of you; do not refuse me.’ She said to him, ‘Go on.’ ¹⁷He said, ‘Please ask King Solomon—he will not refuse you—to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife.’ ¹⁸Bathsheba said, ‘Very well; I will speak to the king on your behalf.’

19 So Bathsheba went to King Solomon, to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. The king rose to meet her, and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne, and had a throne brought for the king’s mother, and she sat on his right. ²⁰Then she said, ‘I have one small request to make of you; do not refuse me.’ And the king said to her, ‘Make your request, my mother; for I will not refuse you.’ ²¹She said, ‘Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to your brother Adonijah as his wife.’ ²²King Solomon answered his mother, ‘And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom as well! For he is my elder brother; ask not only for him but also for the priest Abiathar and for Joab son of Zeruiah!’ ²³Then King Solomon swore by the Lord, ‘So may God do to me, and more also, for Adonijah has devised this scheme at the risk of his life! ²⁴Now therefore as the Lord lives, who has established me and placed me on the throne of my father David, and who has made me a house as he promised, today Adonijah shall be put to death.’ ²⁵So King Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he struck him down, and he died.

26 The king said to the priest Abiathar, ‘Go to Anathoth, to your estate; for you deserve death. But I will not at this time put you to death, because you carried the ark of the Lord God before my father David, and because you shared in all the hardships my father endured.’ ²⁷So Solomon banished Abiathar from being priest to the Lord, thus fulfilling the word of the Lord that he had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.

28 When the news came to Joab—for Joab had supported Adonijah though he had not supported Absalom—Joab fled to the tent of the Lord and grasped the horns of the altar. ²⁹When it was told King Solomon, ‘Joab has fled to the tent of the Lord and now is beside the altar’, Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, ‘Go, strike him down.’ ³⁰So Benaiah came to the tent of the Lord and said to him, ‘The king commands, “Come out.” ’ But he said, ‘No, I will die here.’ Then Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, ‘Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.’ ³¹The king replied to him, ‘Do as he has said, strike him down and bury him; and thus take away from me and from my father’s house the guilt for the blood that Joab shed without cause. ³²The Lord will bring back his bloody deeds on his own head, because, without the knowledge of my father David, he attacked and killed with the sword two men more righteous and better than himself, Abner son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah. ³³So shall their blood come back on the head of Joab and on the head of his descendants for ever; but to David, and to his descendants, and to his house, and to his throne, there shall be peace from the Lord for evermore.’ ³⁴Then Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and struck him down and killed him; and he was buried at his own house near the wilderness. ³⁵The king put Benaiah son of Jehoiada over the army in his place, and the king put the priest Zadok in the place of Abiathar.

36 Then the king sent and summoned Shimei, and said to him, ‘Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and live there, and do not go out from there to any place whatever. ³⁷For on the day you go out, and cross the Wadi Kidron, know for certain that you shall die; your blood shall be on your own head.’ ³⁸And Shimei said to the king, ‘The sentence is fair; as my lord the king has said, so will your servant do.’ So Shimei lived in Jerusalem for many days.

39 But it happened at the end of three years that two of Shimei’s slaves ran away to King Achish son of Maacah of Gath. When it was told Shimei, ‘Your slaves are in Gath’, ⁴⁰Shimei arose and saddled a donkey, and went to Achish in Gath, to search for his slaves; Shimei went and brought his slaves from Gath. ⁴¹When Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and returned, ⁴²the king sent and summoned Shimei, and said to him, ‘Did I not make you swear by the Lord, and solemnly adjure you, saying, “Know for certain that on the day you go out and go to any place whatever, you shall die”? And you said to me, “The sentence is fair; I accept.” ⁴³Why then have you not kept your oath to the Lord and the commandment with which I charged you?’ ⁴⁴The king also said to Shimei, ‘You know in your own heart all the evil that you did to my father David; so the Lord will bring back your evil on your own head. ⁴⁵But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord for ever.’ ⁴⁶Then the king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada; and he went out and struck him down, and he died.

So the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.

Solomon’s Prayer for Wisdom

3Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt; he took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David, until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem. ²The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the Lord.

3 Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David; only, he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places. ⁴The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt-offerings on that altar.

2 Solomon summoned all Israel, the commanders of the thousands and of the hundreds, the judges, and all the leaders of all Israel, the heads of families. ³Then Solomon, and the whole assembly with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for God’s tent of meeting, which Moses the servant of the Lord had made in the wilderness, was there. ⁴(But David had brought the ark of God up from Kiriath-jearim to the place that David had prepared for it; for he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem.) ⁵Moreover, the bronze altar that Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, had made was there in front of the tabernacle of the Lord. And Solomon and the assembly inquired at it. ⁶Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before the Lord, which was at the tent of meeting, and offered a thousand burnt-offerings on it.

⁵At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, ‘Ask what I should give you.’ ⁶And Solomon said, ‘You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart towards you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. ⁷And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. ⁸And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. ⁹Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?’

10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. ¹¹God said to him, ‘Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, ¹²I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. ¹³I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honour all your life; no other king shall compare with you. ¹⁴If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life.’

15 Then Solomon awoke; it had been a dream. He came to Jerusalem, where he stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. He offered up burnt-offerings and offerings of well-being, and provided a feast for all his servants.

7 That night God appeared to Solomon, and said to him, ‘Ask what I should give you.’ ⁸Solomon said to God, ‘You have shown great and steadfast love to my father David, and have made me succeed him as king. ⁹O Lord God, let your promise to my father David now be fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. ¹⁰Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can rule this great people of yours?’ ¹¹God answered Solomon, ‘Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked for possessions, wealth, honour, or the life of those who hate you, and have not even asked for long life, but have asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself that you may rule my people over whom I have made you king, ¹²wisdom and knowledge are granted to you. I will also give you riches, possessions, and honour, such as none of the kings had who were before you, and none after you shall have the like.’ ¹³So Solomon came from^* the high place at Gibeon, from the tent of meeting, to Jerusalem. And he reigned over Israel.