The Lord greatly magnified Solomon before all Israel and bestowed on him greater majesty than any king of Israel before him.

Rehoboam married Mahalath the daughter of David’s son Jerimoth and of Abihail, the daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab.

In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the Lord’s temple and repaired them.

The Lord protects those residing outside their native land; he lifts up the fatherless and the widow, but he opposes the wicked.

to keep the poor from getting fair treatment, and to deprive the oppressed among my people of justice, so they can steal what widows own, and loot what belongs to orphans.

You will not be buried with them, because you destroyed your land and killed your people. The offspring of the wicked will never be mentioned again.

You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, or the poor, nor should anyone secretly plot evil against his fellow human being.’

The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with unwashed hands?”

“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

So Simeon, directed by the Spirit, came into the temple courts, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what was customary according to the law,

You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will have some of you put to death.

The one who belongs to God listens and responds to God’s words. You don’t listen and respond, because you don’t belong to God.”

Now the Jewish religious leaders refused to believe that he had really been blind and had gained his sight until at last they summoned the parents of the man who had become able to see.

I tell you the solemn truth, whoever accepts the one I send accepts me, and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God’s will.

and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross – through him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

but now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him –

By faith, even though Sarah herself was barren and he was too old, he received the ability to procreate, because he regarded the one who had given the promise to be trustworthy.

After some years have passed, they will form an alliance. Then the daughter of the king of the south will come to the king of the north to make an agreement, but she will not retain her power, nor will he continue in his strength. She, together with the one who brought her, her child, and her benefactor will all be delivered over at that time.

And the Lord God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”