Today's Readings and Stuff -- Saturday, 01 June 2019

May recedes into the past.  Unfortunately.  June now.  First official day of Summer, the Solstice, is only three weeks from now.  Things go downhill from there.

Wife is still sick perhaps more so.  She had very little rest last night, so I essentially had none either.  And "taking care of everything" can wear anyone down, eventually.  I'm not done in, not yet, but the stress and strain is becoming noticeable.  We will most definitely be calling the doctor office first thing Monday.  The office is officially open at 09:00, so we'll be calling around 09:01.  I truly fear that she's transitioning into a bout of pneumonia, which has often happened.  Often.  The underlying asthma doesn't help.

Lots of thoughts in the night, too many of them dark ones.  More later, perhaps.  Or not. 

Atop all that, and perhaps trivial in comparison, is the big get-together tonight that I will be missing.  It marks the 50th anniversary of the graduation of my high school class.  Big to-do, dinner and drinks and all that.  In a joint that is like a hall that the Masons use.  Not going.  Hadn't planned to do so, actually.  I haven't seen most of those people in 50 years, wasn't liked then, don't feel like driving so far to pay for the privilege of being with people who hated me then, and don't feel much like pretending to some neat memories.  I hope they have fun.  Not me.  But it does make a person consider the path of the last five decades, and it's not all positive. 


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Today, chapters 9 and 10 in 1st Kings.  The Temple in Jerusalem has been built, furnished, dedicated, and placed into service.  This may be regarded as the high point of Solomon's rule.  After this, matters begin to unravel.


1st Kings 9

1And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do,

2That the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon.

3And the Lord said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.

4And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments:

5Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.

6But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:

7Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:

8And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and to this house?

9And they shall answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil.

10And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord, and the king's house,

11(Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

12And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not.

13And he said, What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day.

14And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold.

15And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the Lord, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

16For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon's wife.

17And Solomon built Gezer, and Beth–horon the nether,

18And Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land,

19And all the cities of store that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

20And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel,

21Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto this day.

22But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen.

23These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon's work, five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work.

24But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Millo.

25And three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar which he built unto the Lord, and he burnt incense upon the altar that was before the Lord. So he finished the house.

26And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion–geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom.

27And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

28And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.

1st Kings 10

1And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions.

2And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.

3And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not.

4And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built,

5And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit in her.

6And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.

7Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.

8Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom.

9Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the Lord loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice.

10And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.

11And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones.

12And the king made of the almug trees pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king's house, harps also and psalteries for singers: there came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this day.

13And king Solomon gave unto the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.

14Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold,

15Beside that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffick of the spice merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the country.

16And king Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold: six hundred shekels of gold went to one target.

17And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pound of gold went to one shield: and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

18Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold.

19The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind: and there were stays on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays.

20And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps: there was not the like made in any kingdom.

21And 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: it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.

22For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.

23So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom.

24And all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.

25And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year.

26And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem.

27And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycomore trees that are in the vale, for abundance.

28And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king's merchants received the linen yarn at a price.

29And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty: and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means.