Then Shelomoh lay down with his ancestors and was buried in David his father’s town, and Rehab’am his son began to reign in place of him.

Rehab’am went to Shekem, because all Yisra’el had come to Shekem to make him king. When Yarob’am ben Nebat heard while he was still in Misrayim, where he had taken flight from before King Shelomoh (so Yarob’am lived in Misrayim), they sent and called for him. Yarob’am came with the entire congregation of Yisra’el and they spoke to Rehab’am: ;Your father – he made our yoke tough. So you, now, lighten something of your father’s tough servitude and of his heavy yoke that he put on us, and we’ll serve you.’

He said to them, ‘Go for three more days, and come back to me.’ The people went, and King Rehab’am took counsel with the elders who had been standing before Shelomoh his father when he was alive: ‘How do you counsel me to give back word to this people?’ They spoke to him, ‘If today you’ll be a servant to this people, and serve them, and answer them and speak good words to them, they’ll be your servants for all time.’

But he abandoned the elders’ counsel which they gave him and took counsel with the young men who grew up with him, who were standing before him. He said to them, ‘What are you going to counsel, so that we may give back word to this people who spoke to me, “Lighten something of the yoke that your father put on us”?’ The young men who grew up with him spoke with him: ‘You should say this to this people who spoke to you, “Whereas your father made our yoke heavy, you, lighten it from on us” – you should speak like this to them: “My little finger is thicker than my father’s hips. So now, whereas my father imposed a heavy yoke on you, I myself will add to your yoke. Whereas my father disciplined you with whips, I myself will discipline you with scorpions.”’

Yarob’am and the entire people came to Rehab’am on the third day as the king had spoken, ‘Come back to me on the third day’, and the king answered the people toughly. He abandoned the counsel of the elders that they had given him and spoke to them in accordance with the counsel of the young men: ‘Whereas my father made your yoke heavy, I myself will add to your yoke. Whereas my father disciplined you with whips, I myself will discipline you with scorpions.’ The king didn’t listen to the people, because it was a turn of affairs from Yahweh in order to implement his word, which Yahweh had spoken by means of Ahiyyah the Shilonite to Yarob’am ben Nebat. All Yisra’el saw that the king had not listened to them, and the people gave word back to the king:

What share do we have in David?
– we have no domain in ben Yishay [Jesse].
To your tents, Yisra’el;
now see to your own household, David.

So Yisra’el went to its tents… So Yisra’el has rebelled against David’s household until this day.

Goldingay, John;The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy,
For your mercy and for your truth’s sake. Amen

So in Shelomoh’s old age, his wives did turn his mind away after other gods. His mind became not perfect with Yahweh his God like the mind of David his father. Shelomoh followed Shameful Ashtar the god of the Tsidonites and Milkom the abomination of the Ammonites.

Shelomoh did what was bad in Yahweh’s eyes and did not fully follow Yahweh like David his father. Shelomoh built a shrine for Kemosh the abomination of Mo’ab on the mountain that’s facing Yerushalaim, and for the Shameful King, the abomination of the Ammonites. He did so for all his foreign wives who were burning incense and sacrificing to their gods. Yahweh showed himself angry with Shelomoh because his mind turned away from Yahweh the God of Yisra’el who had appeared to him twice 1and had given him orders about this thing, not to follow other gods. He didn’t keep what Yahweh ordered. Yahweh said to Shelomoh, ‘Since this has been with you, and you haven’t kept my pact and my decrees which I ordered you, I will tear the kingdom right away from you and give it to your servant. Yet in your days I won’t do it, for the sake of David your father; from the hand of your son I will tear it away. Only, the entire kingdom I will not tear away; one clan I will give to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Yerushalaim, which I chose.’

Goldingay, John. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

O Lord Jesus Christ,
stay beside me to defend me,
within me to guide me,
before me to lead me,
and above me to bless me,
that with you and in you,
I may live, and move and have my being,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

(unknown)

Since the queen of Sheba had been hearing report of Shelomoh in connection with Yahweh’s name, she came to test him with conundrums. She came to Yerushalaim with a very substantial force, camels carrying spices, very much gold and precious stones. She came to Shelomoh and spoke to him of everything that was in her mind, and Shelomoh told her about all the things she said. Nothing was concealed from the king that he didn’t tell her.

The queen of Sheba saw all Shelomoh’s smartness, the house that he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the standing of his ministers and their dress, his wine waiters, and his burnt offering that he would offer up at Yahweh’s house, and there was no longer any breath left in her.

She said to the king, ‘The thing was true that I heard in my country about your words and about your smartness. I didn’t trust in the words until I came and my eyes saw. But here, the half had not been told me. You have more smartness and good things than the report that I heard. The blessings of your people, the blessings of these servants of yours who are standing continually before you, listening to your smartness! May Yahweh your God be blessed, who delighted in you so as to put you on Yisra’el’s throne in Yahweh’s loyalty to Yisra’el, permanently. He made you king to exercise authority with faithfulness.’ She gave the king 120 talents of gold, very many spices and precious stones. There never again came spices in the quantity that the queen of Sheba gave King Shelomoh.

King Shelomoh himself gave the queen of Sheba all that she wanted, that she asked for, beyond what he gave her in accordance with what King Shelomoh possessed. Then she turned her face and went to her country, she and her servants.

Goldingay, John; GThe Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

Shelomoh stood before Yahweh’s altar in front of the entire congregation of Yisra’el and spread out his palms to the heavens. Will God really live on earth?

He said, ‘Yahweh, God of Yisra’el, there is no god like you in the heavens above or on the earth beneath, keeping pact and commitment for your servants who walk before you with their entire mind…

…Because will God truly live on the earth? There – the heavens, even the highest heavens, could not contain you, certainly not this house that I have built. But turn your face towards your servant’s plea and towards his prayer for grace, Yahweh my God, so as to listen to the resounding cry and to the plea that your servant is making before you today, so that your eyes are opened towards this house night and day, towards the place of which you’ve said, “My name will be there”, so as to listen to the plea that your servant makes towards this place. May you listen to the prayer for grace by your servant and your people Yisra’el, which they make towards this place. May you yourself listen towards the place where you live, towards the heavens, listen and pardon.

Goldingay, JohnThe Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art –
Thou my best thought, by day or by night;
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Then Shelomoh congregated Yisra’el’s elders
(all the heads of the clans, the Yisra’elites’ ancestral leaders)
to King Shelomoh in Yerushalaim,
to take up Yahweh’s pact chest from David’s Town (i.e. Tsiyyon [Zion]).
All the Yisra’elites congregated to King Shelomoh in the month of Etanim at the festival (i.e. the seventh month). All Yisra’el’s elders came and the priests carried the chest. They took up Yahweh’s chest, the appointment tent and all the sacred articles that were in the tent. The priests and the Levites took them up while King Shelomoh and the entire assembly of Yisra’el who had assembled to him were with him before the chest, sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be numbered and could not be counted because of the large number.

The priests brought Yahweh’s pact chest to its place, to the inner room of the house, to the very sacred place, under the sphinxes’ wings, because the sphinxes were spreading their wings to the chest’s place; the sphinxes screened the chest and its poles from above. The poles extended and the heads of the poles could be seen from the sacred place in front of the inner room, but they could not be seen outside. They have been there until this day. There was nothing in the chest, only the two stone tablets that Mosheh had set down there at Horeb, when Yahweh solemnized things with the Yisra’elites, when they got out from the country of Misrayim.

The priests were not able to stand to minister before the cloud, because Yahweh’s splendour was filling Yahweh’s house.

Then Shelomoh said: Yahweh has said he would dwell in a thundercloud.
I have indeed built a stately house for you,
an established place for you to live in to the ages.

Goldingay, John The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Lord, you have given me so much,
I ask for one more thing –
a grateful heart.

George Herbert

The days for David to die drew near, and he ordered Shelomoh his son:
‘I am going the way of all the earth.
You’re to be strong and be a man,
and to keep the charge of Yahweh your God
by walking in his ways,
by keeping his decrees, his orders, his rulings and his affirmations
as written in Mosheh’s [Moses’] instruction,
in order that you may thrive in everything you do
and everywhere you turn your face,
in order that Yahweh may implement his word which he spoke to me:
“If your sons keep watch over their way by walking before me in truthfulness
with their entire mind and with their entire being,
there will not be cut off for you someone on Yisra’el’s throne.”

So David lay down with his ancestors and was buried in David’s Town.
The time that David reigned over Yisra’el was forty years.
In Hebron he reigned seven years;
in Yerushalaim he reigned thirty-three years.

Shelomoh sat on David his father’s throne and his kingship was well established.

Goldingay, John The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me
Be thou a smooth path below me
Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me
Today – tonight -forever
Amen.

St Columba

Abshalom met up with David’s servants while Abshalom was riding on a mule. The mule came under the tangle of a big oak and his head caught hold of the oak. He was given up between the heavens and the earth as the mule that was under him passed on.

Yo’ab said, ‘I won’t wait for you, therefore.’ He took three sticks into his fist and plunged them into Abshalom’s heart. While he was still alive in the heart of the oak,

David was sitting between the two gateways. The lookout at the gateway roof went to the wall. He lifted up his eyes and looked: there, a man running alone. The lookout called and told the king. The king said, ‘If he’s alone, there’s news on his lips.’ He continued to draw nearer…

The king said, ‘Come round; take your stand there.’ He came round and halted, and there, the Kushite was coming. The Kushite said, ‘May my lord the king receive the news that Yahweh has acted with authority for you today from the hand of all the people who rose up against you.’

The king said to the Kushite, ‘Is it well with the boy, with Abshalom?’ The Kushite said, ‘May my lord the king’s enemies and all who rise up against you to do something bad be like the boy.’

The king shook. He went up to the upper story of the gateway and wailed. As he went he said this: ‘My son Abshalom, my son, my son Abshalom, if only I had died, I in place of you, Abshalom, my son, my son.’

It was told Yo’ab, ‘Here, the king is wailing and has taken up grieving over Abshalom.’ The deliverance that day turned to grieving for the entire company when the company heard that day, ‘The king is in pain over his son.’ The company stole in when they came into the town that day, as a company that has battled steals in ashamed when they’ve fled in the battle, while the king covered his face. The king cried out in a loud voice, ‘My son, Abshalom, Abshalom, my son, my son’.

Goldingay, John; The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Audio file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/59w7ijw46iibnbv/05_03.mp3?dl=0

O Love, O God who created me, in your love recreate me.
O Love, who redeemed me,
fill up in me whatever part of your love
has fallen into neglect within me.
O Love, O God, who first loved me,
grant that with my whole heart,
and with my whole soul,
and with my whole strength,
I may love you.

Gertrude the Great

Some of 2 Sam 15 &16

Someone came telling David, ‘The Yisra’elites’ mind has gone after Abshalom.’

David said to all his servants who were with him in Yerushalaim, ‘Get up, let’s take flight, because there’ll be no escape group for us from before Abshalom. Hurry, go, so he doesn’t hurry and catch up with us and hurl something bad upon us and strike the town down with the mouth of the sword.’

….while David was going up the Olives Ascent, wailing as he was going up, with his head covered; he was walking barefoot, while the entire company that was with him covered each one his head. They went up wailing as they were going up.

King David came as far as Bahurim and there, someone from the kin-group of Sha’ul’s household was going out from there. His name was Shim’i ben Gera. As he went out he was slighting and pelting David and all King David’s servants with stones, with the entire company and all the strong men at his right and at his left.

Shim’i said this as he slighted him: ‘Get out, get out, you man of bloodshed, you scoundrel! Yahweh is giving back to you all the bloodshed in the household of Sha’ul, in whose place you became king. Yahweh has given the kingship into the hand of Abshalom your son, and here you are, in a bad situation, because you’re a man of bloodshed.’

Abishay ben Tseruyah said to the king, ‘Why should this dead dog slight my lord the king? I shall pass on, please, and remove his head!’ But the king said, ‘What do you and I have in common, you sons of Tseruyah? He can slight in this way because Yahweh has said to him, “Slight David.” Who is to say, “Why have you done that?”?’

David said to Abishay and to all his servants, ‘Here, my son who came out from inside me, is seeking my life. How much more now a Binyaminite? Let him be. He can slight, because Yahweh has said it to him. Maybe Yahweh will look at the waywardness done to me and Yahweh will give back good to me in place of his slighting this day.’ David and his men went on their way, while Shim’i was going along the side of the mountain alongside him, slighting and pelting him with stones alongside him and throwing earth as he went.

Goldingay, John; The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Teach us, good Lord,
to serve thee as thou deservest;
to give and not to count the cost;
to fight and not to heed the wounds;
to toil and not to seek for rest;
to labour and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

St Ignatius

But the thing that David did was bad in Yahweh’s eyes.

So Yahweh sent Natan to David. He came to him and said to him, ‘There were two men in a town, one wealthy, one destitute. The wealthy man had a very large flock and herd. The destitute man didn’t have anything except one small ewe that he had acquired. He had let it live and it had grown up with him and with his children, all together. It used to eat from his bit, drink from his cup and sleep in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. A traveller came to the wealthy man, but he spared taking something from his flock or from his herd to prepare for the man on a journey who had come to him. He took the destitute man’s ewe and prepared it for the man who had come to him.’

David’s anger raged right up at the man. He said to Natan, ‘As Yahweh lives, the man who did this deserves death. He should make good fourfold for the ewe on account of the fact that he did this thing, and since he didn’t spare.’

Natan said to David, ‘You’re the man. Yahweh the God of Yisra’el has said this: “I myself anointed you as king over Yisra’el. I myself rescued you from Sha’ul’s hand. I gave you your lord’s household and your lord’s wives into your arms. I gave you the household of Yisra’el and Yehudah. If that’s little, I would have added to you as much again as these. Why did you despise Yahweh’s word by doing what is bad in my eyes? Uriyyah the Hittite you struck down with the sword and his wife you took as your wife. Him you killed, with the sword of the Ammonites. So now the sword won’t depart from your household, permanently, because of the fact that you despised me and took Uriyyah the Hittite’s wife to be a wife for you.”

Yahweh has said this: “Here, I’m going to make something bad arise for you from your household. I shall take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbour. He’ll sleep with your wives before the eyes of this sun. Because you yourself acted in secret, but I myself will do this thing before all Yisra’el and before the sun.”’

David said to Natan, ‘I’ve acted wrongly against Yahweh.’

Natan said to David, ‘Yes. Because Yahweh has made your wrongdoing pass on, you will not die. Nevertheless, because you’ve totally disdained (the enemies of) Yahweh by this act, yes, the child born to you will definitely die.’ And Natan went home. Yahweh struck the child to whom Uriyyah’s wife gave birth for David, and it became ill. David sought God for the boy. David made a fast and came and stayed the night and lay on the ground. The elders in his household got up over him to make him get up from the ground but he wasn’t willing, and he didn’t eat a meal with them.

Goldingay, John; The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Grant, Lord,
that we may hold to you without parting,
worship you without wearying,
serve you without failing;
faithfully seek you,
happily find you,
and forever possess you,
the only God,blessed now and for ever.
Amen

St Anselm

At the turn of the year, at the time when the kings go out, David sent Yo’ab and his servants with him, and all Yisra’el, and they devastated the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, while David was staying in Yerushalaim.

During evening time David got up from his bed and walked about on the roof of the king’s house, and from on the roof saw a woman bathing. The woman was very good-looking. David sent and enquired about the woman. They said, ‘She’s Bat-sheba bat Eli’am, the wife of Uriyyah the Hittite, isn’t she?’

David sent envoys, got her, and she came to him. He slept with her, while she was making herself sacred from her taboo, and she went back to her house. The woman got pregnant, and she sent and told David, ‘I’m pregnant.’

David sent to Yo’ab, ‘Send Uriyyah the Hittite to me.’ Yo’ab sent Uriyyah to David. So Uriyyah came to him, and David asked him about how well things were with Yo’ab and how well things were with the company and how well things were with the battle.

Then David said to Uriyyah, ‘Go down to your house and bathe your feet.’ Uriyyah went out from the king’s house, and a present from the king followed him. But Uriyyah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all his lord’s servants. He didn’t go down to his house. They told David, ‘Uriyyah didn’t go down to his house.’

David said to Uriyyah, ‘Didn’t you come from a journey? Why didn’t you go down to your house?’ Uriyyah said to David, ‘The chest and Yisra’el and Yehudah are staying at Sukkot, and my lord Yo’ab and my lord’s servants are camped on the face of the fields, and should I myself come to my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? By your life, by your very life, if I were to do this thing . . .’ David said to Uriyyah, ‘Stay here today, too, and tomorrow I’ll send you off.’ So Uriyyah stayed in Yerushalaim that day.

Next day David called for him, he ate before him and drank, and he got him drunk. But in the evening he went out to lie in his bed with his lord’s servants. He didn’t go down to his house. So in the morning David wrote a letter to Yo’ab and sent it by the hand of Uriyyah. He wrote in the letter, ‘Place Uriyyah near the front of the fiercest battle, and pull back from after him so he may be struck down and die.’

So when Yo’ab was keeping watch on the town, he put Uriyyah in the place where he knew that there were forceful men. The men of the town came out and battled against Yo’ab, and of the company some of David’s servants fell. Uriyyah the Hittite also died.

Yo’ab sent and told David all the things about the battle. He ordered the envoy: ‘When you finish speaking all the things about the battle to the king, if the king’s temper rises and he says to you, “Why did you go up to the town to battle? Didn’t you know that they would shoot from on the wall? Who struck down Abimelek ben Y erubbeshet? Wasn’t it a woman who threw down an upper millstone on him from on the wall and he died at Tebets? Why did you go up to the wall?” then you are to say, “Your servant Uriyyah the Hittite also died.”’

The envoy went, and came and told David all that Yo’ab had sent him with. The envoy said to David, ‘The men prevailed against us and came out against us into the fields. Then we were against them as far as the entrance of the gateway. But the archers shot at your servants from on the wall and some of the king’s servants died; and your servant Uriyyah the Hittite also died.’ David said to the envoy, ‘Say this to Yo’ab: “This thing is not to be bad in your eyes, because the sword devours one way and another way. Make your battle stronger against the town and tear it down.” Strengthen him.’

But the thing David had done was bad in Yahweh’s eyes.

Goldingay, John The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Thank you, dear Jesus,
for all you have given me,
for all you have taken away from me,
for all you have left me.

Thomas More (c.1478-1535)