2 Chron. 8:1–18

8:1 After twenty years, during which Solomon built the Lord’s temple and his royal palace, 2Solomon rebuilt the cities that Huram had given him and settled Israelites there. 3Solomon went to Hamath Zobah and seized it. 4He built up Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage cities he had built in Hamath. 5He made upper Beth Horon and lower Beth Horon fortified cities with walls and barred gates, 6and built up Baalath, all the storage cities that belonged to him, and all the cities where chariots and horses were kept. He built whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout his entire kingdom.

7Now several non-Israelite peoples were left in the land after the conquest of Joshua, including the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 8Their descendants remained in the land (the Israelites were unable to wipe them out). Solomon conscripted them for his work crews, and they continue in that role to this very day. 9Solomon did not assign Israelites to these work crews; the Israelites served as his soldiers, officers, charioteers, and commanders of his chariot forces. 10These men worked for King Solomon as supervisors; there were a total of 250 of them who were in charge of the people.

11Solomon moved Pharaoh’s daughter up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her, for he said, “My wife must not live in the palace of King David of Israel, for the places where the ark of the Lord has entered are holy.”

12Then Solomon offered burnt sacrifices to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had built in front of the temple’s porch. 13He observed the daily requirements for sacrifices that Moses had specified for Sabbaths, new moon festivals, and the three annual celebrations—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Shelters. 14As his father David had decreed, Solomon appointed the divisions of the priests to do their assigned tasks, the Levitical orders to lead worship and help the priests with their daily tasks, and the divisions of the gatekeepers to serve at their assigned gates. This was what David the man of God had ordered. 15They did not neglect any detail of the king’s orders pertaining to the priests, Levites, and treasuries.

16All the work ordered by Solomon was completed, from the day the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid until it was finished; the Lord’s temple was completed.

17Then Solomon went to Ezion Geber and to Elat on the coast in the land of Edom. 18Huram sent him ships and some of his sailors, men who were well acquainted with the sea. They sailed with Solomon’s men to Ophir and took from there 450 talents of gold, which they brought back to King Solomon.

Ps. 78:36–72

78:36 But they deceived him with their words

and lied to him.

37They were not really committed to him,

and they were unfaithful to his covenant.

38Yet he is compassionate.

He forgives sin and does not destroy.

He often holds back his anger

and does not stir up his fury.

39He remembered that they were made of flesh

and were like a wind that blows past and does not return.

40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness

and insulted him in the wastelands.

41They again challenged God

and offended the Holy One of Israel.

42They did not remember what he had done,

how he delivered them from the enemy,

43when he performed his awesome deeds in Egypt

and his acts of judgment in the region of Zoan.

44He turned their rivers into blood,

and they could not drink from their streams.

45He sent swarms of biting insects against them,

as well as frogs that overran their land.

46He gave their crops to the grasshopper,

the fruit of their labor to the locust.

47He destroyed their vines with hail

and their sycamore-fig trees with driving rain.

48He rained hail down on their cattle

and hurled lightning bolts down on their livestock.

49His raging anger lashed out against them.

He sent fury, rage, and trouble

as messengers who bring disaster.

50He sent his anger in full force.

He did not spare them from death;

he handed their lives over to destruction.

51He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,

the firstfruits of their reproductive power in the tents of Ham.

52Yet he brought out his people like sheep;

he led them through the wilderness like a flock.

53He guided them safely along, and they were not afraid;

but the sea covered their enemies.

54He brought them to the border of his holy land,

to this mountainous land that his right hand acquired.

55He drove the nations out from before them;

he assigned them their tribal allotments

and allowed the tribes of Israel to settle down.

56Yet they challenged and defied God Most High

and did not obey his commands.

57They were unfaithful and acted as treacherously as their ancestors;

they were as unreliable as a malfunctioning bow.

58They made him angry with their pagan shrines

and made him jealous with their idols.

59God heard and was angry;

he completely rejected Israel.

60He abandoned the sanctuary at Shiloh,

the tent where he lived among men.

61He allowed the symbol of his strong presence to be captured;

he gave the symbol of his splendor into the hand of the enemy.

62He delivered his people over to the sword

and was angry with his chosen nation.

63Fire consumed their young men,

and their virgins remained unmarried.

64Their priests fell by the sword,

but their widows did not weep.

65But then the Lord awoke from his sleep;

he was like a warrior in a drunken rage.

66He drove his enemies back;

he made them a permanent target for insults.

67He rejected the tent of Joseph;

he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.

68He chose the tribe of Judah

and Mount Zion, which he loves.

69He made his sanctuary as enduring as the heavens above,

as secure as the earth, which he established permanently.

70He chose David, his servant,

and took him from the sheepfolds.

71He took him away from following the mother sheep,

and made him the shepherd of Jacob, his people,

and of Israel, his chosen nation.

72David cared for them with pure motives;

he led them with skill.

Luke 7:18–35

7:18 John’s disciples informed him about all these things. So John called two of his disciples 19and sent them to Jesus to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” 20When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?’” 21At that very time Jesus cured many people of diseases, sicknesses, and evil spirits, and granted sight to many who were blind. 22So he answered them, “Go tell John what you have seen and heard: The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news proclaimed to them. 23Blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

24When John’s messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 25What did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Look, those who wear soft clothing and live in luxury are in the royal palaces! 26What did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 27This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ 28I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he is.” 29(Now all the people who heard this, even the tax collectors, acknowledged God’s justice because they had been baptized with John’s baptism. 30However, the Pharisees and the experts in religious law rejected God’s purpose for themselves because they had not been baptized by John.)

31“To what then should I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to one another,

“‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance;

we wailed in mourning, yet you did not weep.’

33For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ 34The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him, a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”