JOAB IS EXECUTED FOR MURDER.

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On his return Solomon sent for him, and reminding him of the conditions on which his life had been spared, to which he had himself assented, commanded Banaias to put him to death.

Solomon, says the Holy Scripture, loved the Lord, walking in the precepts of David his father; and as he went to Gabaon to hold a solemn sacrifice to the Lord,

the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, saying, "Ask what thou wilt that I should give thee." And Solomon said :

SOLOMON'S PRAYER FOR WISDOM.

Thou hast shown great mercy to Thy servant David my father, even as he walked before Thee in truth, and justice, and an upright heart with Thee: and Thou hast kept thy great mercy for him, and hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.

And now, O Lord God, Thou hast made Thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a child, and know not how to go out and come in.

And Thy servant is in the midst of the people which Thou hast chosen, an immense people, which cannot be numbered or counted for multitude.

Give therefore to Thy servant an understanding heart to judge Thy people and to discern between good and evil, for who shall be able to judge this Thy people which is so

numerous?

And the word was pleasing to the Lord, that Solomon had asked such a thing. to Solomon:

And the Lord said

THE ANSWER OF GOD TO SOLOMON.

Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, or riches, or the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself wisdom to discern judgment.

Behold I have done for thee according to thy words, and have given thee a wise and understanding heart, insomuch that there hath been no one like thee, before thee, nor shall arise after thee.

Yea, and the things also which thou didst not ask, I have given thee, to wit riches and glory, so that no one hath been like thee among the kings in all days heretofore.

And if thou wilt walk in my ways, and keep my precepts and my commandments, as thy father did, I will lengthen thy days.

4. The First Judgment of Solomon.

When Solomon returned from Gabaon, he sat upon his throne to give judgment, and two women came before him. One of them said: "I beseech thee, my lord, I and this woman dwelt in one house, and I became the mother of a child, with her in the chamber. And the third day after that, a child was born to her, and we were together, and no other person with us in the house, only we two. And this woman's child died in the night for in her sleep she overlaid him. And rising in the dead time of the night, she took my child from my side, while I thy handmaid was asleep, and

SOLOMON'S JUDGMENT.

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laid it in her bosom: and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold it was dead: but considering him more diligently when it was clear day, I found that it

was not mine which I bore." And the other woman answered: "It is not so as thou sayest, but thy child is dead, and mine is alive." On the contrary she said: "Thou liest: for my child liveth, and thy child is dead."

And in this manner they strove before the king. Then said the king: "The one saith, My child is alive, and thy child is dead,' and the other answereth, Nay, but thy child is dead, and mine liveth." " The king therefore said: “Bring me a sword." And when they had brought a sword before the king, "Divide," said he, "the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other." But the woman whose child was alive, said to the king (for her heart was moved for her child): "I beseech thee, my lord, give her the child alive, and do not kill it." But the other said: "Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it." The king answered and said: "Give the living child to this woman, and let it not be killed, for she is the mother thereof." And all Israel heard the judgment which the king had judged, and they feared the king, seeing that the wisdom of God was in him to give judgment.

§ 5. Solomon proceeds to build the Temple.

Together with the gift of wisdom, which God gave to Solomon, God also blessed his kingdom. "Juda and Israel dwelt without any fear, every one under his vine and under his fig-tree, all the days of Solomon." A people who love God will seek to turn all their wealth together with all the arts which spring up and flourish during peace, to promote the glory and splendour of the outward worship of God. It thus became one of the first duties of Solomon's peaceful reign, to proceed to build the temple which his father David had had in his heart to build, but was not suffered, because he was a man of war.

SOLOMON BEGINS TO BUILD THE TEMPLE.

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Solomon wrote a letter to Hiram, king of Tyre, who had always been his father's friend, requesting him to furnish workmen who were skilled in carving cedar wood, and to supply the cedar timber from the mountains of Lebanon, offering terms to which Hiram assented in a very friendly manner.

Vast numbers were employed upon the building of the temple. Thirty thousand men worked, ten thousand by turns every month, in hewing timber in the Mount Lebanon, seventy thousand in carrying burdens, and eighty thousand in stone quarries in the mountains, over all of whom were set a proportionate number of

Overseers.

DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON.

Familiarity with a large building fitted to be used in a northern climate for Christian worship, can only mislead the mind in forming an idea of the temple of Solomon. We must take Solomon's temple in detail, and consider the various purposes for which it was required, in order to obtain a just notion of its construction. In a general way it was an enlarged form of the tabernacle of Moses, built in stone, and secured with military defences like any other citadel.

As the worship of the Mosaic law consisted of bloody sacrifices of animals, such as oxen, sheep, and goats, Solomon's temple required one spacious quadrangle or court expressly for the purpose of holding and slaughtering these victims. The victims had their heads drawn down to a set of iron rings firmly fixed in the pavement, and it was the business of the priest officiating at the sacrifice to slaughter them with his own hand. A priest, then, in the time of Solomon, was a man who had to go to work very much the same as a butcher with his shirt sleeves tucked up, and from the death struggles of the animals slaughtered in it and from its being smeared with blood, this court of the general buildings of the temple, would necessarily have to be kept inaccessible to all, except to those who were immediately concerned with the work of slaughter. On great festivals, such as the Passover, the number of victims slaughtered was frequently so great that the space in this court did not suffice.

In a hot climate such as Jerusalem, a temple where the slaughter of victims for sacrifice was of daily occurrence, often in considerable numbers, would require a copious supply of water for the mere washing away the blood from the pavement, for cleansing the entrails of the victims and the parts of the sacrifices, besides