In You Do I Take Refuge
A lShiggaion1 of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.
1 O Lord my God, in you do I mtake refuge;
nsave me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
2 lest like oa lion they tear my soul apart,
rending it in pieces, with pnone to deliver.
3 O Lord my God, qif I have done this,
if there is rwrong in my hands,
4 if I have repaid smy friend2 with evil
or tplundered my enemy without cause,
5 let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,
and let him utrample my life to the ground
and lay my glory in the dust. Selah
6 vArise, O Lord, in your anger;
wlift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;
xawake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you;
over it return on high.
8 The Lord yjudges the peoples;
zjudge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.
9 Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
and may you establish the righteous—
you who atest bthe minds and hearts,3
O righteous God!
10 My shield is cwith God,
who saves dthe upright in heart.
11 God is ea righteous judge,
and a God who feels findignation every day.
12 If a man4 does not repent, God5 will gwhet his sword;
he has hbent and ireadied his bow;
13 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,
making his jarrows kfiery shafts.
14 Behold, the wicked man lconceives evil
and is lpregnant with mischief
and gives birth to lies.
15 He makes ma pit, digging it out,
and falls into the hole that he has made.
16 His nmischief returns upon his own head,
and on his own skull his violence descends.
17 I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness,
and I will osing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.
The Queen of Sheba
1 yNow when zthe queen of aSheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came bto test him with hard questions. 2 She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels cbearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. 3 And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. 4 And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, 5 the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her.
6 And she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, 7 but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard. 8 eHappy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! 9 fBlessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! gBecause the Lord loved Israel forever, he has made you king, hthat you may execute justice and righteousness.” 10 iThen she gave the king 120 talents1 of gold, and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as these that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
11 Moreover, jthe fleet of Hiram, which brought kgold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a very great amount of almug wood and precious stones. 12 And the king made of the almug wood supports for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, also lyres and harps for the singers. No such almug wood has come or been seen to this day.
13 And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what was given her by the bounty of King Solomon. So she turned and went back to her own land with her servants.
Solomon’s Great Wealth
14 lNow the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, 15 besides that which came from the explorers and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of the west and from the governors of the land. 16 King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold; 600 shekels2 of gold went into each shield. 17 And he made 300 mshields of beaten gold; three minas3 of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in nthe House of the Forest of Lebanon. 18 The king also made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold. 19 The throne had six steps, and the throne had a round top,4 and on each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing beside the armrests, 20 while twelve lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the six steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom. 21 All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of nthe House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. 22 For the king had oa fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.5
23 pThus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. 24 And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. 25 Every one of them brought his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, myrrh,6 spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year.
26 qAnd Solomon gathered together rchariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the schariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. 27 And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as tthe sycamore of the Shephelah. 28 And Solomon’s uimport of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s traders received them from Kue at a price. 29 A chariot could be imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150, and so through the king’s traders they were exported to all the kings of vthe Hittites and the kings of Syria.
