Читать книгу The Story of Jesus The Christ - Helen Braun Hojt - Страница 5

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The first king was not a good raler; but after he died a young

man named David came to the throne, and David was a good

king. He tried to do as well as he could himself, and tried to

teach the people to obey the laws of their God.

David belonged to the tribe of Judah, and was born in Beth¬

lehem. He was only a shepherd boy when he was chosen to be

king, and for that reason he is often called the Shepherd King.

Although he left his country home and went to Jerusalem to live

when he was quite a young man, he never forgot the lessons he

learned in the fields of Bethlehem. He wrote beautiful songs that

show that while he stayed with the sheep, hour after hour, his

thoughts were about God and his goodness. It was thousands of

years ago that David lived, yet ever since that time people have

read and sung these songs, and we can read them now in that

part of the Bible called the Psalms. One of them begins, u The

Lord is my shepherd.» Perhaps you know it.

After David died, his son Solomon became king. He was very

rich, and knew so much that he has been called the wisest man

that ever lived. He built for the people a beautiful temple where

they could meet to worship God. When this temple was built

the people promised to always love and obey the God who had

been so good to them and to their fathers. If they had remem¬

bered this promise, and kept it, they would have been a strong

nation even now; but very soon they began to break God’s laws.

Some of them even began to pray to idols.

After King Solomon died things grew worse and worse, until

at last the Jews were conquered by other nations, their cities de¬

stroyed, and the people carried away to other countries. After a

time some were allowed to go back to Palestine to live, but there

has never been a real Jewish nation since that time, and that was

a great many years ago.

But the Jews kept up their courage; for their prophets had

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