1 But king Solomon loved many foreign women, including the daughter of Pharaoh, and women of Moab, and of Ammon, and of Idumea, and of Sidon, and of the Hittites.
2 These were of the nations about whom the Lord said to the sons of Israel: “You shall not enter to them, and none of them shall enter to anyone of yours. For they will most certainly turn aside your hearts, so that you follow their gods.” And yet, to these Solomon was joined with a greatly enflamed love.
3 And for him, there were seven hundred wives, as if they were queens, and three hundred concubines. And the women turned aside his heart.
4 And when now he was old, his heart was perverted by the women, so that he followed strange gods. And his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.
5 For Solomon worshipped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the idol of the Ammonites.
6 And Solomon did what was not pleasing in the sight of the Lord. And he did not continue to follow the Lord, as his father David did.
7 Then Solomon built a shrine for Chemosh, the idol of Moab, on the mount that is opposite Jerusalem, and for Milcom, the idol of the sons of Ammon.
8 And he acted in this manner for all his foreign wives, who were burning incense and immolating to their gods.
9 And so, the Lord became angry with Solomon, because his mind had been turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,
10 and who had instructed him about this matter, lest he follow strange gods. But he did not observe what the Lord commanded to him.
11 And so, the Lord said to Solomon: “Because you have this with you, and because you have not kept my covenant and my precepts, which I commanded to you, I will tear apart your kingdom, and I will give it to your servant.
12 Yet truly, I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David. From the hand of your son, I will tear it away.
13 Neither will I take away the whole kingdom. Instead, I will grant one tribe to your son, for the sake of David, my servant, and Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
14 Then the Lord raised up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad of Idumea, from an offspring of the king who was in Idumea.
15 For when David was in Idumea, Joab, the leader of the military, had ascended to bury those who had been killed, and he had killed every male in Idumea.
16 And Joab remained in that place for six months, with all of Israel, until he had put to death every male in Idumea.
17 Then Hadad fled, he and some men of Idumea from among the servants of his father with him, so that he might enter into Egypt. But Hadad was then a little boy.
18 And when they had risen up from Midian, they went into Paran, and they took with them some men from Paran. And they went into Egypt, to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. And he gave him a house, and he appointed food for him, and he assigned land to him.
19 And Hadad found great favor before Pharaoh, so much so that he gave to him as wife, the sister of his own wife, queen Tahpenes.
20 And the sister of Tahpenes bore to him a son, Genubath. And Tahpenes raised him in the house of Pharaoh. And Genubath was living with Pharaoh and his sons.
21 And when Hadad had heard in Egypt that David had slept with his fathers, and that Joab, the leader of the military, had died, he said to Pharaoh, “Release me, so that I may go to my own land.”
22 And Pharaoh said to him, “But what is lacking to you with me, so that you would seek to go to your own land?” But he responded: “Nothing. Yet I beg you that you may release me.”
23 Also, God raised up against him an adversary, Rezon, the son of Eliada, who had fled from his lord, Hadad-Ezer, the king of Zobah.
24 And he gathered together men against him. And when David put those of Zobah to death, he became a leader of robbers. And they went away to Damascus, and they lived there. And they appointed him to be king of Damascus.
25 And he was an adversary to Israel during all the days of Solomon. And such is the evil of Hadad and of his hatred against Israel. And he reigned in Syria.
26 Also, there was Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother was named Zeruah, a widowed woman. He lifted up his hand against the king.
27 And this is the reason for his rebellion against him: that Solomon built up Millo, and that he filled in a deep hole in the city of David, his father.
28 Now Jeroboam was a valiant and powerful man. And perceiving the young man to be ingenious and industrious, Solomon appointed him as first ruler over the tributes of the entire house of Joseph.
29 And it happened, in that time, that Jeroboam departed from Jerusalem. And the prophet Ahijah, the Shilonite, wearing with a new cloak, found him on the way. And the two were alone in the field.
30 And taking his new cloak, with which he was covered, Ahijah tore it into twelve parts.
31 And he said to Jeroboam: “Take ten pieces for yourself. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and I will give to you ten tribes.
32 Yet one tribe shall remain with him, for the sake of my servant, David, as well as Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.
33 For he has abandoned me, and he has adored Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Chemosh, the god of Moab, and Milcom, the god of the sons of Ammon. And he has not walked in my ways, so that he would do justice before me, and so that he would carry out my precepts and judgments, as his father David did.
34 But I will not take the entire kingdom from his hand. Instead, I will establish him as the ruler during all the days of his life, for the sake of my servant David, whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my precepts.
35 But I will take away the kingdom from the hand of his son, and I will give to you ten tribes.
36 Then, to his son, I will give one tribe, so that there may remain a lamp for my servant David before me, for all days, in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen, so that my name would be there.
37 And I will take you up, and you shall reign over all that your soul desires. And you shall be king over Israel.
38 Therefore, if you will listen to all that I will command you, and if you will walk in my ways, and do what is right in my sight, keeping my commandments and my precepts, just as my servant David did, then I will be with you, and I will build for you a faithful house, in the way that I built a house for David, and I will deliver Israel to you.
39 And I will afflict the offspring of David over this, but truly not for all days.’ “
40 Therefore, Solomon wanted to kill Jeroboam. But he rose up and fled away to Egypt, to Shishak, the king of Egypt. And he was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.
41 Now the rest of the words of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom: behold, these are all written in the book of the words of the days of Solomon.
42 And the days that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem, over all of Israel, were forty years.
43 And Solomon slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David, his father. And Rehoboam, his son, reigned in his place.
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1 And it happened that, in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2 Son of man, speak to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to his people: To whom can you be compared in your greatness?
3 Behold, Assur is like the cedar of Lebanon, with fair branches, and full of leaves, and of high stature, and his summit has been elevated above the thick branches.
4 The waters have nourished him. The abyss has exalted him. Its rivers have flowed around his roots, and it has sent forth its streams to all the trees of the regions.
5 Because of this, his height was exalted above all the trees of the regions, and his groves were multiplied, and his own branches were elevated, because of the many waters.
6 And when he had extended his shadow, all the birds of the air made their nests in his branches, and all the beasts of the forest conceived their young under his foliage, and an assembly of the many peoples lived under his shadow.
7 And he was most beautiful in his greatness and in the expansion of his groves. For his root was near many waters.
8 The cedars in the Paradise of God were not higher than he was. The spruce trees were not equal to his summit, and the plane trees were not equal to his fullness. No tree in the Paradise of God was similar to him or to his beauty.
9 For I made him beautiful, and dense with many branches. And all the trees of delight, which were in the Paradise of God, were jealous of him.
10 Because of this, thus says the Lord God: Since he was sublime in height, and he made his summit green and dense, and his heart was exalted because of his height,
11 I have delivered him into the hands of the most powerful one among the Gentiles, so that he will deal with him. I have cast him out, in accord with his impiety.
12 And foreigners, and the most cruel among the nations, will cut him down. And they will cast him on the mountains. And his branches will fall in every steep valley, and his grove will be broken apart on every cliff of the earth. And all the peoples of the earth will withdraw from his shadow, and abandon him.
13 All the birds of the air lived upon his ruins, and all the beasts of the countryside were among his branches.
14 For this reason, none of the trees among the waters will exalt themselves because of their height, nor will they place their summits above the thick branches and foliage, nor will any of those that are irrigated stand out because of their height. For they have all been delivered unto death, to the lowest part of the earth, into the midst of the sons of men, those who descend into the pit.
15 Thus says the Lord God: In the day when he descended into hell, I led in grieving. I covered him with the abyss. And I held back its rivers, and I restrained the many waters. Lebanon was saddened over him, and all the trees of the field were struck together.
16 I shook the Gentiles with the sound of his ruin, when I led him down to hell, with those who were descending into the pit. And all the trees of delights, the finest and best in Lebanon, all that were irrigated with waters, were consoled in the deepest parts of the earth.
17 For they, too, will descend with him into hell, to those who have been slain by the sword. And the arm of each one will reside under his shadow, in the midst of the nations.
18 To whom can you be compared, O famous and sublime one, among the trees of pleasure? Behold, you have been brought down, with the trees of pleasure, to the lowest part of the earth. You will sleep in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who have been slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh, and all his multitude, says the Lord God.”
9 Help us, O God, our saviour: and for the glory of thy name, O Lord, deliver us: and forgive us our sins for thy name’s sake:
10 Lest they should say among the Gentiles: Where is their God? And let him be made known among the nations before our eyes, By the revenging the blood of thy servants, which hath been shed:
11 Let the sighing of the prisoners come in before thee. According to the greatness of thy arm, take possession of the children of them that have been put to death.
12 And render to our neighbours sevenfold in their bosom: the reproach wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.
13 But we thy people, and the sheep of thy pasture, will give thanks to thee for ever. We will shew forth thy praise, unto generation and generation.
27 But Barnabas took him aside and led him to the Apostles. And he explained to them how he had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken to him, and how, in Damascus, he had acted faithfully in the name of Jesus.
28 And he was with them, entering and departing Jerusalem, and acting faithfully in the name of the Lord.
29 He also was speaking with the Gentiles and disputing with the Greeks. But they were seeking to kill him.
30 And when the brothers had realized this, they brought him to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus.
31 Certainly, the Church had peace throughout all of Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and it was being built up, while walking in the fear of the Lord, and it was being filled with the consolation of the Holy Spirit.
32 Then it happened that Peter, as he traveled around everywhere, came to the saints who were living at Lydda.
33 But he found there a certain man, named Aeneas, who was a paralytic, who had lain in bed for eight years.
34 And Peter said to him: “Aeneas, the Lord Jesus Christ heals you. Rise up and arrange your bed.” And immediately he rose up.
35 And all who were living in Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they were converted to the Lord.
36 Now in Joppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which in translation is called Dorcas. She was filled with the good works and almsgiving that she was accomplishing.
37 And it happened that, in those days, she became ill and died. And when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room.
38 Now since Lydda was close to Joppa, the disciples, upon hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, asking him: “Do not be slow in coming to us.”
39 Then Peter, rising up, went with them. And when he had arrived, they led him to an upper room. And all the widows were standing around him, weeping and showing him the tunics and garments that Dorcas had made for them.
40 And when they had all been sent outside, Peter, kneeling down, prayed. And turning to the body, he said: “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes and, upon seeing Peter, sat up again.
41 And offering her his hand, he lifted her up. And when he had called in the saints and the widows, he presented her alive.
42 Now this became known throughout all of Joppa. And many believed in the Lord.
43 And it happened that he resided for many days in Joppa, with a certain Simon, a tanner.
