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THE TENTH
MONTH IN THE NAME
OF THE FATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, On this day died Solomon, the king, the son of David, who reigned in Jerusalem, over Judah and Israel; and the name of his mother was Bersabeh. And after God had rebuked David for taking her from her husband, He slew his first child; and then David lay with her, and she conceived and bore him a son, and he called his name “Solomon.” And when he was twelve years old, and had grown up, and his father David the king had become old, Bersabeh (Bathsheba) went into the royal chamber and prostrated herself before the king; and he said unto her, “What hath befallen thee?” And she said unto him, “O my lord the king, thou didst swear to thine handmaid by thy God, saying, Thy son Solomon shall reign after me, and shall sit upon my throne.” And the king swore, saying, “As God liveth, Who hath redeemed my soul from all my tribulation, according as I swear unto thee before the Lord God of Israel, saying, Thy son Solomon shall reign after me, [even so shall it be].” And Bersabeh (Bathsheba) bowed before the face of the king, and said, “My lord the king, live for ever!” And David said, “Call Zadok the priest to me, and Benaiah, the son of Yodahe (Jehoiada), and Nathan the prophet”; and they came to the king. And the king said unto them, “Take the servants of your lord with you, and set my son Solomon upon my mule, and take him down to Gihon, and anoint him there, and make him king over Israel (I Kings 1:33). And blow the trumpet and say, ‘[Long] live the royal father Solomon’; and come up, and follow him. He shall rise up on my throne because I have commanded that he shall reign in my stead over Judah and Israel.” And Zadok the priest, and Benaiah, the son of Yodahe (Jehoiada), and Nathan the prophet, and the Cherethite, and the Perethite, went down, and they set Solomon on the mule of King David, and they took him into Gihon. And Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the Tabernacle, and anointed Solomon, and he blew the horn, and all the people said, “[Long] live the royal father Solomon.” And Solomon sat on the royal seat, and the servants of the king came and gave thanks to their lord David, the king and they said unto him, “May God make good [to rest] on the name of Solomon, and make his throne greater than thine!” And the king prostrated himself on his bed, and spoke thus: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel Who hath given me this day seed to sit upon my throne whilst mine eyes can see!” And David told Solomon his son the path of righteousness, and he committed him to safe keeping, because of Joab and Shimei, the son of Gera; and David died. And the Wisdom of Solomon was very much greater than that of the children of Israel who had been before him, and that of the wise men of Egypt; and he judged all kingdoms, and the peoples brought him gifts all the days of his life. And his provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and sixty measures of crushed grain, and ten fat oxen and twenty unstalled oxen, and one hundred sheep, and harts, and roebucks, and fallow deer and fatted fowl. And he had forty thousand horses which drew chariots, and ten (twelve ?) thousand horsemen. And Solomon sacrificed in Gibeon ten hundred offerings. And God appeared unto him in a dream and said unto him, “Ask thou a petition.” And Solomon said unto Him, “Thou, O God, didst show mercy unto Thy servant David, my father, since he walked righteously before Thee, and Thou hast made his son to sit on his throne. Now, I am a little child, and I know not my coming in or my going out, and Thy servant is among a great and innumerable people; and he hath no heart wherewith to hear and to administer righteous judgment to Thy people.” And God said unto him, “Because thou hast asked Me for the power to understand judgment, and hast neither asked Me for many days [of life], nor for much riches, behold I have given thee a heart and wisdom the like of which no man before thee hath ever had, and none who shall rise up after thee shall ever have. And what thou didst not ask of Me I give thee, riches and glory (honor) so great that there shall be no man in the kingdom like unto thee.” After this Solomon went to Jerusalem and he stood up before the Ark of the Law of God, and offered the sacrifices of peace. That day there stood up before him two women who were harlots, and one of them said, “Hear me, O lord, I and this woman live in the same house, and we have brought forth children. On the third day whilst we were sleeping, she lay upon her son and killed him, and she took my child from my breast and said unto me, ‘He is my child’; and the other woman said, “It is my son who is alive.’” And the king said, “Bring a butcher’s knife and cut the child in twain, and give one half of him to this woman, and one half of him to that.” And the woman whose son was alive answered and said, “Give him to her alive, and do not kill him”; and Solomon said, “Give the living child unto her who said, Do not kill him.” When Israel heard they were afraid before the face of the king, when they saw the wisdom of God, which was upon him. And he spoke three thousand proverbs and [wrote] five hundred songs. In the fourth year [of his reign] he founded the house of God, in the month of Sane, in the second month, [and it was finished] in the eleventh year; and it was sixty cubits long, and twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. When Solomon had finished the building of the house of God, he gathered together the elders of Israel and made them to bring the Ark of God from the city of David into Zion, in the month of ‘Atamen (Ethanim). and the priests carried the Ark, and the tabernacle of witness, and the king and all Israel slaughtered countless sheep and oxen before the Ark. And the priests brought it into its place within the shrine of the holy of holies, under the wings of the Cherubim, which were spread out; and the wings of the Cherubim were over the place of the Ark. And Solomon stood up before the altar of God, before the companies of Israel, and he lifted up his hand to heaven, and prayed, and he made petitions to God in many prayers. And when he had finished his prayers God made the sun to appear in heaven, and the king blessed all the companies of Israel, and he slaughtered the peace offerings of God, four thousand oxen and one thousand sheep; and the king made provision for the house of God. And God appeared unto Solomon a second time, even as He appeared unto him in Gibeon, and He said unto him, “I have heard thy prayer and the petition which thou hast made to Me, and I will do for thee according to thy prayer and petition.” And Solomon reigned forty years, and [he lived] twelve years before he reigned; and all the days of his life were two and fifty years. And he died in peace. Salutation to Solomon. And on this day also died the holy father Abba Nob, the confessor. This saint was a devoted monk and fighter in one of the monasteries of Upper Egypt. And when many martyrs had shed their blood under the tortures of Diocletian, and [the people] had carried away their bodies, they remembered Saint Abba Nob, and brought him to Arianus, governor of Antinoe. And the governor said unto him, “Cast incense to Apollo, and cast away this thy garb of the monk.” And the saint answered and said unto him, “This shall never be done by me, and I will never abandon my Lord Jesus Christ, and I will not worship idols of stone.” And the governor tortured him with every kind of torture, and the saint endured them by the might of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then the governor banished him to Five Cities, and [the governor] cast him into a pit; and he lived therein for seven years, until God blotted out Diocletian and made Constantine, the righteous, emperor. And Constantine sent out an Edict into all countries ordering his officers to release all those who were in prison for the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; and he commanded them to bring these prisoners to him, so that he might be blessed by them. And he said unto his messengers, “If ye cannot bring them all, bring to me their honored ones, and those who are learned, and the elders among them, so that they may bless me, and lay their hand upon my head, and especially those who are well known, that is to say, Abba Zacharias from the city of Ahnas, and Maximus from the city of the Fayyum, and Agabius from the city of Dakhnin, and Abba Nob from the city of Balaos.” And the emperor’s messenger went round about in all the countries, and the officers brought out all those who were shut up in prison, and they rejoiced and glorified God and sang to Him. And the messenger of the emperor sought for Abba Nob, but the holy man having been expelled from Five Cities (Pentapolis), had gone to the city of Basla, opposite his city, where he lived and wore apparel of iron. And the messenger of the emperor found him, and took him with him, and he made him embark in a boat, and at length he arrived at the city of Antinoe. And the Christians gathered together, and there were four bishops among them, and they made Abba Nob a priest against his will; and he consecrated the Offering and administered to the people the Holy Mysteries. And when he had finished the Office he cried out and said, “Holiness to the holy ones! Let him that is holy receive holiness! God be with you all!” Then he saw our Lord Jesus Christ sitting upon the altar, and He forgave the sins of the people who were penitent. After this the saints followed the apostle to the emperor; now they were in number two and sixty. And they made ready for them two and sixty chariots, and each of them rode upon a chariot. And as they passed along the road, virgins came forth from the nunneries, which were there, and welcomed them; and the virgins were in number seven hundred, and they sang to the saints until they were out of sight. And when the saints came to the Emperor Constantine, he commanded his servants to wash them with water, and to array them in new apparel, before they entered his presence; and they did as he commanded. Now Saint Abba Nob did not wash himself with water, neither did he change his apparel. Then the saints entered the presence of the emperor, and he was blessed by them, and he kissed their wounds, and he paid them honor and gave them much money, but they would take nothing from him except sacred furniture and vestments for the churches. And after he had been blessed by them, and had embraced them, he set them on their way and said farewell to them; and they returned to their country in peace. And Saint Abba Nob went to his monastery and finished his fight nobly, and he departed to Christ, Whom he loved. Salutation to Abba Nob. And on this day also is celebrated the commemoration of Markora, and Thomas, and Philip.
Glory
be to God Who is glorified in His Saints.
Amen. |
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