Study Desk

Even so, Adonai my God, pay attention to your servant's prayer and plea, listen to the cry and prayer that your servant is praying before you,

then hear from heaven, act and judge your servants, paying back the wicked, so that his way of life devolves on his own head, and vindicating the one who is right, giving him what his righteousness deserves.

"When they sin against you, and in consequence the sky is shut, so that there is no rain; then if they pray toward this place, acknowledge your name and turn from their sin when you have brought them low;

so that they will fear you and therefore live according to your ways throughout the time they live in the land you gave our ancestors.

then hear from heaven, from where you live; and act in accordance with everything about which the foreigner is calling to you; so that all the peoples of the earth will know your name and fear you, as does your people Isra'el, and so that they will know that this house which I have built bears your name.

"If they sin against you — for there is no one who doesn't sin — and you are angry with them and hand them over to the enemy, so that they carry them off captive to a land far away or nearby;

so that the cohanim could not enter the house of Adonai ; because the glory of Adonai filled Adonai 's house.

So Shlomo celebrated the festival at that time for seven days, together with all Isra'el, an enormous gathering; [they had come all the way] from the entrance of Hamat to the Vadi [of Egypt].

If I shut up the sky, so that there is no rain; or if I order locusts to devour the land; or if I send an epidemic of sickness among my people;

For now I have chosen and consecrated this house, so that my name can be there forever; my eyes and heart will always be there.

This house, now so exalted — everyone passing by will be shocked at the sight of it and will ask, ‘Why has Adonai done this to this land and to this house?'

As David his father had ordered, he appointed the divisions of the cohanim for their service and the L'vi'im to their tasks — to praise and to perform their service in the presence of the cohanim according to each day's requirements. He also appointed the gatekeepers by their divisions to be at every gate, for David the man of God had so ordered.

Blessed be Adonai your God, who took pleasure in you to put you on his throne, so that you could be king for Adonai your God. Because of your God's love for Isra'el, to establish them forever, he has made you king over them, to administer law and judgment."

So King Shlomo surpassed all the kings on earth in both wealth and wisdom.

They sent and summoned him, so Yarov‘am and all Isra'el came and said to Rechav‘am,

He said to them, "Come back to me after three days." So the people left.

He said to them, "What advice would you give me, so that we can give an answer to these people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father laid on us'?"

So Yarov‘am and all the people came to Rechav‘am the third day, as the king had requested by saying, "Come to me again the third day";

So the king didn't listen to the people; and that was something God brought about, so that Adonai could fulfill his word, which he had spoken through Achiyah from Shiloh to Yarov‘am the son of N'vat.

When all Isra'el [saw] that the king wasn't listening to them, the people answered the king, "Do we have any share in David? We have no heritage in the son of Yishai! Everyone to your tents, Isra'el! Care for your own house, David!" So all Isra'el left for their tents.