Study Desk

Here I am among the people you have chosen to be your own, a people who are so many that they cannot be counted.

So give me the wisdom I need to rule your people with justice and to know the difference between good and evil. Otherwise, how would I ever be able to rule this great people of yours?"

and so he said to him, "Because you have asked for the wisdom to rule justly, instead of long life for yourself or riches or the death of your enemies,

But the other woman said, "No! The living child is mine, and the dead one is yours!" The first woman answered back, "No! The dead child is yours, and the living one is mine!" And so they argued before the king.

So send your men to Lebanon to cut down cedars for me. My men will work with them, and I will pay your men whatever you decide. As you well know, my men don't know how to cut down trees as well as yours do."

So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the cedar and pine logs that he wanted,

Each room in the lowest story was 7� feet wide, in the middle story 9 feet wide, and in the top story 10� feet wide. The Temple wall on each floor was thinner than on the floor below, so that the rooms could rest on the wall without having their beams built into it.

The stones with which the Temple was built had been prepared at the quarry, so that there was no noise made by hammers, axes, or any other iron tools as the Temple was being built.

So King Solomon finished building the Temple. He put in a ceiling made of beams and boards of cedar.

So Solomon finished building the Temple.

The cedar panels were decorated with carvings of gourds and flowers; the whole interior was covered with cedar, so that the stones of the walls could not be seen.

Both were of the same size and shape. Each had two wings, each wing 7� feet long, so that the distance from one wing tip to the other was 15 feet.

They were placed side by side in the Most Holy Place, so that two of their outstretched wings touched each other in the middle of the room, and the other two wings touched the walls.

The lily-shaped bronze capitals were on top of the columns. And so the work on the columns was completed.

Solomon did not have these bronze objects weighed, because there were too many of them, and so their weight was never determined.

So now, O God of Israel, let everything come true that you promised to my father David, your servant.

"But can you, O God, really live on earth? Not even all of heaven is large enough to hold you, so how can this Temple that I have built be large enough?

so that your people may obey you all the time they live in the land which you gave to our ancestors.

listen to his prayer. In heaven, where you live, hear him and do what he asks you to do, so that all the peoples of the world may know you and obey you, as your people Israel do. Then they will know that this Temple I have built is the place where you are to be worshiped.

may he make us obedient to him, so that we will always live as he wants us to live, keeping all the laws and commands he gave our ancestors.