put thee to death with the sword. Now therefore, hold him not guiitless, for thou art a wise man; and thou wilt know what thou oughtest to do unto him, and thou shalt bring his hoar head down to the grave with blood.

And David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. And the days that David reigned were forty years. Seven years he reigned in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem.

CHAPTER VI

THE REIGN OF SOLOMON

THE ACCESSION OF REHOBOAM AND THE DIVISION

OF THE KINGDOM

SECTION I.-Solomon establishes his rule by putting to death Adonijah and Joab. Makes alliance with Egypt, and marries Pharaoh's daughter. Dreams that Yahweh endows him with great wisdom. Judges justly between two women. Appoints his Cabinet and household officials. Contracts with Hiram, king of Tyre, for materials and workmen for building the Temple of Yahweh. Description of the Temple and its furnishings. Builds his own palace and that of the Egyptian princess. The installing of the ark in the Temple; the dedication of the Temple, and Solomon's address to the people. (1 Kings, ii, 12-iv, 7; v, 7, 8, 15, 19a, 20, 22-25, 26b, 32; vi, 1b-10, 15-20, 22, 29, 31-38; vii, 13, 15-18, 20b-45, 47, 57; viii, 1, 3b, 4, 7-9a, 10, 55-66.)

Materials: Besides popular traditions, much written matter; "Acts of Solomon", "Sayings of the Seers", and other works now lost; also, undoubtedly, State and Temple Records.

And Solomon sat upon the throne of David his father. Then Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon. And she said: Comest thou peaceably? and he said: Peaceably. He said, moreover: I have somewhat to say unto thee. And she said: Say on. And he said: Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me that I should reign; howbeit, the kingdom is turned about, and is become my brother's, for it was his from Yahweh. And now, I ask one petition of thee; deny me not. And she said unto him: Say on. And he said: Speak, I pray thee, unto Solomon the king,-for he will not say thee nay,-that he give me Abishag the Shunammite to wife. And Bathsheba said: Well, I will speak for thee unto the king.

Bathsheba, therefore, went unto King Solomon, to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed down before her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a throne to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand. Then she said: I ask one small petition of thee; deny me not. And the king said unto her: Ask on, my mother; for I will not deny thee. And she said: Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah thy brother to wife. And king Solomon answered and said unto his mother: And why dost thou ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also, for he is my elder brother; even for him and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah. Then king Solomon sware by Yahweh, saying: God do so unto me, and more also, if Adonijah hath not spoken this against his own life. Now therefore, as Yahweh liveth, who hath established me and set me on the throne of David my father,

and who hath made me a house as He promised, surely Adonijah shall be put to death this day. And King Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell upon him so that he died.

And unto Abiathar the priest said the king: Get thee to Anathoth unto thine own fields, for thou art deserving of death; but I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou didst bear the ark of Yahweh before David my father, and because thou wast afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted. So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto Yahweh; that the word of Yahweh might be fulfilled which He spake concerning the house of Eli, at Shiloh.

And the tidings came to Joab, for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom. And Joab fled unto the Tabernacle of Yahweh, and laid hold on the horns of the altar. And it was told king Solomon: Joab is fled unto the tabernacle of Yahweh, and behold, he is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying: Go, fall upon him. And Benaiah came to the tabernacle of Yahweh, and said unto him: Thus saith the king: Come forth. And he said: Nay, but I will die here. And Benaiah brought back word unto the king, saying: Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me. And the king said unto him: Do as he hath said, and fall upon him and bury him; that thou mayest take away the blood, which Joab shed without cause, from me and from my father's house. And Yahweh will return his blood upon his own head, because he fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword, and my father David knew it not, Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah. So shall their blood return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever; but unto David and unto his seed and unto his house, and unto his throne, shall there be peace for ever from Yahweh. Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and fell upon him, and slew him; and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness. And the king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his room over the host; and Zadok the priest did the king put in the room of Abiathar.

And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him: Build thee a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there; and go not thence any whither. For on the day thou goest out, and dost pass over the brook Kidron, know thou for certain that thou shalt surely die; thy blood shall be upon thine own head. And Shimei said unto the king: The saying is good; as the king my lord hath said, so will thy servant do, and Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days.

And it came to pass, at the end of three years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away unto Achish, son of Maachah, king of Gath. And Shimei arose and saddled his ass and went to Achish to seek his servants; and Shimei went and brought his servants from Gath. And it was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and was come back. And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him: Did I not make thee to swear by Yahweh, and forewarn thee, saying: Know for certain, that on the day thou goest out and walkest abroad any whither, thou shalt surely die? and thou saidst unto me: The saying is good; I have heard it. Why then hast thou not kept the oath of Yahweh, and the commandment that I charged thee with? The king said moreover to Shimei: Thou knowest all the wickedness which thou didst to David my father; therefore Yahweh shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head. But king Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before Yahweh for ever. So the

king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he went out and fell upon him, so that he died.

So the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon. And Solomon became allied to the Pharaoh of Egypt by marriage, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the House of Yahweh, and the wall of Jerusalem round about. Only the people sacrificed in the high places, because there was no house built for the name of Yahweh until those days. And Solomon loved Yahweh, walking in the statutes of David his father; only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.

And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place; a thousand burnt-offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar. In Gibeon Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said: Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said: Thou hast shown unto Thy servant David my father great kindness. And now, O my God, Yahweh, Thou hast made Thy servant king instead of David my father; and I am but a child; I know not how to go out or to come in. Give Thy servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge Thy people, that I may choose aright between good and evil; for who is able to judge this Thy great people? And the speech pleased Yahweh, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him: Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, neither hast asked riches for thyself nor hast asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern justice; behold, I have done according to thy word. Lo, I have given thee a wise and understanding heart. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honor.

And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. And he returned to Jerusalem.

Then came there unto the king two women that were harlots, and stood before him. And the one woman said: O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. And it came to pass the third day after I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also; and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house save we two in the house. And this woman's child died in the night, because she overlay it. And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me while thy handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead; but when I had looked well at it in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I did bear. And the other woman said: Nay, but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. Thus they spake before the king.

Then said the king: The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead; and the other saith: Nay, but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. And the king said: Fetch me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. And the king said: Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her heart yearned upon her son, and she said: O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: But the other said: It shall be neither thine nor mine; divide it. Then the king answered and said: Give her the living child and in no wise slay it; she is the mother thereof. And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had

judged; and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.

So king Solomon was king over all Israel. And these were the princes that he had. Azariah the son of Zadok, the priest; Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder; and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests; and Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers; and Zabud the son of Nathan was chief minister and the king's friend; and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda, was over the levy.

And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided victuals for the king and his household; each man had to make provision for a month in the year, and one officer was over all the officers in the land. And these officers provided victual for king Solomon, and for all that came unto king Solomon's table, each man in his month; they let nothing be lacking. Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds brought they into the place where it should be, every man according to his charge.

Hiram, king of Tyre, sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father; for Hiram was ever a lover of David. And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying: I purpose to build a house to the name of Yahweh my God. Now therefore, command thou that they hew me cedar-trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants; and I will give thee hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt say; for thou knowest that there are not among us any that hath skill to hew timber like unto the Zidonians. And Hiram sent unto Solomon, saying: I have heard that which thou hast sent unto me; I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of cypress. My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will make them into rafts to go by sea unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and thou shalt receive them. And thou shalt accomplish my desire in giving food for my household. So Hiram gave Solomon timber of cedar and timber of cypress according to all his desire; and Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of beaten oil; thus gave Solomon to Hiram, year by year. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together.

And king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men. And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by course; a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home; and Adoniram was over the levy. And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare burdens, and fourscore thousand that were hewers in the mountains; besides Solomon's chief officers that were over the work,-three thousand and three hundred who bare rule over the people that wrought in the work. And the king commanded, and they quarried great stones to lay the foundations of the house with cut stone. And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the Gebalites did fashion them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house.

Now it came to pass in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, he began to build the house of Yahweh; and the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits. And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house.