Thoughts and Reflections
In today’s reading, we have a review of Solomon’s life. In Ecclesiastes, it may give us a negative view of life, but it is an honest assessment. If this life is all this is, then all of what we live for is vanity. All is meaningless because nothing else endures. We will all be forgotten because this life is not all there is.
In these moments we are asked to surrender to the Lord and trust him.
About This Project
For the year 2022, I decided that my New Year’s Resolution was to read the whole Bible following the Bible in the Year plan presented by Fr. Mike Schmitz. It is a big and bold undertaking. You can follow along by subscribing. Feel free to look at previous day’s post and comment. It’s something we can all learn from together!
Daily Readings
1 Kings 10
1 The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame and came to test him with difficult questions.
2 She arrived in Jerusalem with a very large retinue, with camels laden with spices and an immense quantity of gold and precious stones. Having reached Solomon, she discussed with him everything that she had in mind,
3 and Solomon had an answer for all her questions; not one of them was too obscure for the king to answer for her.
4 When the queen of Sheba saw how very wise Solomon was, the palace which he had built,
5 the food at his table, the accommodation for his officials, the organisation of his staff and the way they were dressed, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings which he presented in the Temple of Yahweh, it left her breathless,
6 and she said to the king, ‘The report I heard in my own country about your wisdom in handling your affairs was true then!
7 Until I came and saw for myself, I did not believe the reports, but clearly I was told less than half: for wisdom and prosperity, you surpass what was reported to me.
8 How fortunate your wives are! How fortunate these courtiers of yours, continually in attendance on you and listening to your wisdom!
9 Blessed be Yahweh your God who has shown you his favour by setting you on the throne of Israel! Because of Yahweh’s everlasting love for Israel, he has made you king to administer law and justice.’
10 And she presented the king with a hundred and twenty talents of gold and great quantities of spices and precious stones; no such wealth of spices ever came again as those which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
11 Similarly, Hiram’s fleet, which brought the gold from Ophir, also brought back great cargoes of almug timber and precious stones.
12 Of the almug timber the king made supports for the Temple of Yahweh and for the royal palace, and harps and lyres for the musicians; no more of this almug timber has since come or been seen to this day.
13 And King Solomon, in his turn, presented the queen of Sheba with everything that she expressed a wish for, besides those presents which he gave her with a munificence worthy of King Solomon. After which, she went home to her own country, she and her servants.
14 The weight of gold received annually by Solomon amounted to six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,
15 besides what tolls and foreign trade, as well as everything the Arab kings and the provincial governors brought in.
16 King Solomon made two hundred great shields of beaten gold, six hundred shekels of gold going into one shield;
17 also three hundred small shields of beaten gold, three mina of gold going into one shield; and the king put these into the House of the Forest of Lebanon.
18 The king also made a great ivory throne which he overlaid with refined gold.
19 The throne had six steps, a back with a rounded top, and arms on each side of the seat; two lions stood beside the arms,
20 and twelve lions stood on each side of the six steps. Nothing like it has ever been made in any other kingdom.
21 All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the plate in the House of the Forest of Lebanon was of pure gold; silver was little thought of in Solomon’s days,
22 since the king had a fleet of Tarshish at sea with Hiram’s fleet, and once every three years the fleet of Tarshish would come back laden with gold and silver, ivory, apes and baboons.
23 For riches and for wisdom, King Solomon surpassed all kings on earth,
24 and the whole world consulted Solomon to hear the wisdom which God had implanted in his heart;
25 and everyone would bring a present with him: things made of silver, things made of gold, robes, armour, spices, horses and mules; and this went on year after year.
26 Solomon then built up a force of chariots and cavalry; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, these he stationed in the chariot towns and near the king in Jerusalem.
27 In Jerusalem the king made silver as common as stones, and cedar wood as plentiful as sycamore in the lowlands.
28 Solomon’s horses were imported from Muzur and Cilicia. The king’s dealers acquired them from Cilicia at the prevailing price.
29 A chariot was imported from Egypt for six hundred silver shekels and a horse from Cilicia for a hundred and fifty. They also supplied the Hittite and Aramaean kings, who all used them as middlemen.
Ecclesiastes 8
1 Who compares with the sage? Who else knows how to explain things? Wisdom lights up the face, enlivening a grim expression.
2 Obey the king’s command and, because of the divine promise,
3 be in no hurry to depart from it; do not be obstinate in a bad cause, since the king will do as he likes in any case.
4 Since the word of a king is sovereign, what is the point of saying, ‘Why do that?’
5 One who obeys the command will come to no harm; the heart of the sage knows the right moment and verdict,
6 for there is a right moment and verdict for everything; but misfortune lies heavy upon anyone
7 who does not know what the outcome will be, no one is going to say how things will turn out.
8 No one can control the wind and stop it from blowing, no one can control the day of death. From war there is no escape, no more can wickedness save the person who commits it.
9 I have seen all this to be so, having carefully studied everything taking place under the sun, while one person tyrannises over another to the former’s detriment.
10 And again, I have observed the wicked carried to their graves, and people leaving the holy place and, once out in the city, forgetting how the wicked used to behave; how futile this is too!
11 Because the sentence on the evil-doer is not carried out on the instant, people’s hearts are full of desire to do wrong.
12 The sinner who does wrong a hundred times lives on. But this too I know, that there is good in store for people who fear God, because they fear him,
13 but there is no good in store for the wicked because he does not fear God, and so, like a shadow, he will not prolong his days.
14 Another futile thing that happens on earth: upright people being treated as though they were wicked and wicked people being treated as though they were upright. To me this is one more example of futility.
15 And therefore I praise joy, since human happiness lies only in eating and drinking and in taking pleasure; this comes from what someone achieves during the days of life that God gives under the sun.
16 Having applied myself to acquiring wisdom and to observing the activity taking place in the world — for day and night our eyes enjoy no rest-
17 I have scrutinised God’s whole creation: you cannot get to the bottom of everything taking place under the sun; you may wear yourself out in the search, but you will never find it. Not even a sage can get to the bottom of it, even if he says that he has done so.
Ecclesiastes 9
1 Yes, I have applied myself to all this and experienced all this to be so: that is to say, that the upright and the wise, with their activities, are in the hands of God. We do not understand either love or hate, where we are concerned, both of them are
2 futile. And for all of us is reserved a common fate, for the upright and for the wicked, for the good and for the bad; whether we are ritually pure or not, whether we offer sacrifice or not: it is the same for the good and for the sinner, for someone who takes a vow, as for someone who fears to do so.
3 This is another evil among those occurring under the sun: that there should be the same fate for everyone. The human heart, however, is full of wickedness; folly lurks in our hearts throughout our lives, until we end among the dead.
4 But there is hope for someone still linked to the rest of the living: better be a live dog than a dead lion.
5 The living are at least aware that they are going to die, but the dead know nothing whatever. No more wages for them, since their memory is forgotten.
6 Their love, their hate, their jealousy, have perished long since, and they will never have any further part in what goes on under the sun.
7 So, eat your bread in joy, drink your wine with a glad heart, since God has already approved your actions.
8 At all times, dress in white and keep your head well scented.
9 Spend your life with the woman you love, all the days of futile life God gives you under the sun, throughout your futile days, since this is your lot in life and in the effort you expend under the sun.
10 Whatever work you find to do, do it with all your might, for there is neither achievement, nor planning, nor science, nor wisdom in Sheol where you are going.
11 Another thing I have observed under the sun: that the race is not won by the speediest, nor the battle by the champions; it is not the wise who get food, nor the intelligent wealth, nor the learned favour: chance and mischance befall them all.
12 We do not know when our time will come: like fish caught in the treacherous net, like birds caught in the snare, just so are we all trapped by misfortune when it suddenly overtakes us.
13 Here is another example of the wisdom I have acquired under the sun and it strikes me as important:
14 There was once a small town, with only a few inhabitants; a mighty king made war on it, laying siege to it and building great siege-works round it.
15 But there was in that town a poverty-stricken sage who by his wisdom saved the town. No one remembered this poor manafterwards.
16 So I say: Wisdom is more effective than brute force, but the wisdom of a poor man is not valued: no one listens to what he has to say.
17 The calm words of the wise make themselves heard above the shouts of someone commanding an army of fools.
18 Wisdom is worth more than weapons of war, but a single sin undoes a deal of good.
Psalm 8
1 [For the choirmaster On the . . . of Gath Psalm Of David] Yahweh our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the world! Whoever keeps singing of your majesty higher than the heavens,
2 even through the mouths of children, or of babes in arms, you make him a fortress, firm against your foes, to subdue the enemy and the rebel.
3 I look up at your heavens, shaped by your fingers, at the moon and the stars you set firm-
4 what are human beings that you spare a thought for them, or the child of Adam that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him little less than a god, you have crowned him with glory and beauty,
6 made him lord of the works of your hands, put all things under his feet,
7 sheep and cattle, all of them, and even the wild beasts,
8 birds in the sky, fish in the sea, when he makes his way across the ocean.
9 Yahweh our Lord, how majestic your name throughout the world!
