⁵Now Adoni'jah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, “I will be king”;* and he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. ⁶His father had never at any time displeased him by asking, “Why have you done thus and so?” He was also a very handsome man; and he was born next after Ab'salom. ⁷He conferred with Jo'ab the son of Zeru'iah and with Abi'athar the priest; and they followed Adoni'jah and helped him. ⁸But Za'dok the priest, and Bena'iah the son of Jehoi'ada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shim'e-i, and Re'i, and David’s mighty men were not with Adoni'jah.

⁹Adoni'jah sacrificed sheep, oxen, and fatlings by the Serpent’s Stone, which is beside En-ro'gel, and he invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the royal officials of Judah, ¹⁰but he did not invite Nathan the prophet or Bena'iah or the mighty men or Solomon his brother.

¹¹Then Nathan said to Bathshe'ba the mother of Solomon, “Have you not heard that Adoni'jah the son of Haggith has become king and David our lord does not know it? ¹²Now therefore come, let me give you counsel, that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. ¹³Go in at once to King David, and say to him, ‘Did you not, my lord the king, swear to your maidservant, saying, “Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne”? Why then is Adoni'jah king?’ ¹⁴Then while you are still speaking with the king, I also will come in after you and confirm your words.”

¹⁵So Bathshe'ba went to the king into his chamber (now the king was very old, and Ab'ishag the Shu'nammite was ministering to the king). ¹⁶Bathshe'ba bowed and did obeisance to the king, and the king said, “What do you desire?” ¹⁷She said to him, “My lord, you swore to your maidservant by the LORD your God, saying, ‘Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne.’ ¹⁸And now, behold, Adoni'jah is king, although you, my lord the king, do not know it. ¹⁹He has sacrificed oxen, fatlings, and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the sons of the king, Abi'athar the priest, and Jo'ab the commander of the army; but Solomon your servant he has not invited. ²⁰And now, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are upon you, to tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. ²¹Otherwise it will come to pass, when my lord the king sleeps with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon will be counted offenders.”

²²While she was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet came in. ²³And they told the king, “Here is Nathan the prophet.” And when he came in before the king, he bowed before the king, with his face to the ground. ²⁴And Nathan said, “My lord the king, have you said, ‘Adoni'jah shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne’? ²⁵For he has gone down this day, and has sacrificed oxen, fatlings, and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the king’s sons, Jo'ab the commander^a of the army, and Abi'athar the priest; and behold, they are eating and drinking before him, and saying, ‘Long live King Adoni'jah!’ ²⁶But me, your servant, and Za'dok the priest, and Bena'iah the son of Jehoi'ada, and your servant Solomon, he has not invited. ²⁷Has this thing been brought about by my lord the king and you have not told your servants who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?”

²⁸Then King David answered, “Call Bathshe'ba to me.” So she came into the king’s presence, and stood before the king. ²⁹And the king swore, saying, “As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my soul out of every adversity, ³⁰as I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel, saying, ‘Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead’; even so will I do this day.” ³¹Then Bathshe'ba bowed with her face to the ground, and did obeisance to the king, and said, “May my lord King David live for ever!”

³²King David said, “Call to me Za'dok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Bena'iah the son of Jehoi'ada.” So they came before the king. ³³And the king said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gi'hon; ³⁴and let Za'dok the priest and Nathan the prophet there anoint him king over Israel; then blow the trumpet, and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ ³⁵You shall then come up after him, and he shall come and sit upon my throne; for he shall be king in my stead; and I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah.” ³⁶And Bena'iah the son of Jehoi'ada answered the king, “Amen! May the LORD, the God of my lord the king, say so. ³⁷As the LORD has been with my lord the king, even so may he be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.”

³⁸So Za'dok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Bena'iah the son of Jehoi'ada, and the Cher'ethites and the Pel'ethites, went down and caused Solomon to ride on King David’s mule, and brought him to Gi'hon. ³⁹There Za'dok the priest took the horn of oil from the tent, and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, “Long live King Solomon!” ⁴⁰And all the people went up after him, playing on pipes, and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth was split by their noise.

⁴¹Adoni'jah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they finished feasting. And when Jo'ab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, “What does this uproar in the city mean?” ⁴²While he was still speaking, behold, Jonathan the son of Abi'athar the priest came; and Adoni'jah said, “Come in, for you are a worthy man and bring good news.” ⁴³Jonathan answered Adoni'jah, “No, for our lord King David has made Solomon king; ⁴⁴and the king has sent with him Za'dok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Bena'iah the son of Jehoi'ada, and the Cher'ethites and the Pel'ethites; and they have caused him to ride on the king’s mule; ⁴⁵and Za'dok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king at Gi'hon; and they have gone up from there rejoicing, so that the city is in an uproar. This is the noise that you have heard. ⁴⁶Solomon sits upon the royal throne. ⁴⁷Moreover the king’s servants came to congratulate our lord King David, saying, ‘Your God make the name of Solomon more famous than yours, and make his throne greater than your throne.’ And the king bowed himself upon the bed. ⁴⁸And the king also said, ‘Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has granted one of my offspring^b to sit on my throne this day, my own eyes seeing it.’”

⁴⁹Then all the guests of Adoni'jah trembled, and rose, and each went his own way. ⁵⁰And Adoni'jah feared Solomon; and he arose, and went, and caught hold of the horns of the altar. ⁵¹And it was told Solomon, “Behold, Adoni'jah fears King Solomon; for behold, he has laid hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon swear to me first that he will not slay his servant with the sword.’” ⁵²And Solomon said, “If he prove to be a worthy man, not one of his hairs shall fall to the earth; but if wickedness is found in him, he shall die.” ⁵³So King Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the altar. And he came and did obeisance to King Solomon; and Solomon said to him, “Go to your house.”

⁵“Moreover you know also what Jo'ab the son of Zeru'iah did to me, how he dealt with the two commanders of the armies of Israel, Abner the son of Ner, and Ama'sa the son of Je'ther, whom he murdered, avenging^c in time of peace blood which had been shed in war, and putting innocent blood^d upon the belt about my^e loins, and upon the sandals on my^e feet. ⁶Act therefore according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace. ⁷But deal loyally with the sons of Barzil'lai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table; for with such loyalty they met me when I fled from Ab'salom your brother. ⁸And there is also with you Shim'e-i the son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahu'rim, who cursed me with a grievous curse on the day when I went to Ma''hana'im; but when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the LORD, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ ⁹Now therefore hold him not guiltless, for you are a wise man; you will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down with blood to Sheol.”

¹⁰Then David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. ¹¹And the time that David reigned over Israel was forty years; he reigned seven years in He'bron, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. ¹²So Solomon sat upon the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was firmly established.

¹³Then Adoni'jah the son of Haggith came to Bathshe'ba the mother of Solomon. And she said, “Do you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably.” ¹⁴Then he said, “I have something to say to you.” She said, “Say on.” ¹⁵He said, “You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel fully expected me to reign; however the kingdom has turned about and become my brother’s, for it was his from the LORD. ¹⁶And now I have one request to make of you; do not refuse me.” She said to him, “Say on.” ¹⁷And he said, “Please ask King Solomon—he will not refuse you—to give me Ab'ishag the Shu'nammite as my wife.” ¹⁸Bathshe'ba said, “Very well; I will speak for you to the king.”

¹⁹So Bathshe'ba went to King Solomon, to speak to him on behalf of Adoni'jah. And the king rose to meet her, and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne, and had a seat brought for the king’s mother; and she sat on his right. ²⁰Then she said, “I have one small request to make of you; do not refuse me.” And the king said to her, “Make your request, my mother; for I will not refuse you.” ²¹She said, “Let Ab'ishag the Shu'nammite be given to Adoni'jah your brother as his wife.” ²²King Solomon answered his mother, “And why do you ask Ab'ishag the Shu'nammite for Adoni'jah? Ask for him the kingdom also; for he is my elder brother, and on his side are Abi'athar^f the priest and Jo'ab the son of Zeru'iah.” ²³Then King Solomon swore by the LORD, saying, “God do so to me and more also if this word does not cost Adoni'jah his life! ²⁴Now therefore as the LORD lives, who has established me, and placed me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me a house, as he promised, Adoni'jah shall be put to death this day.” ²⁵So King Solomon sent Bena'iah the son of Jehoi'ada; and he struck him down, and he died.

²⁶And to Abi'athar the priest the king said, “Go to An'athoth, to your estate; for you deserve death. But I will not at this time put you to death, because you bore the ark of the Lord GOD before David my father, and because you shared in all the affliction of my father.” ²⁷So Solomon expelled Abi'athar from being priest to the LORD, thus fulfilling the word of the LORD which he had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shi'loh.

²⁸When the news came to Jo'ab—for Joab had supported Adoni'jah although he had not supported Ab'salom—Joab fled to the tent of the LORD and caught hold of the horns of the altar. ²⁹And when it was told King Solomon, “Jo'ab has fled to the tent of the LORD, and behold, he is beside the altar,” Solomon sent Bena'iah the son of Jehoi'ada, saying, “Go, strike him down.” ³⁰So Bena'iah came to the tent of the LORD, and said to him, “The king commands, ‘Come forth.’” But he said, “No, I will die here.” Then Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, “Thus said Jo'ab, and thus he answered me.” ³¹The king replied to him, “Do as he has said, strike him down and bury him; and thus take away from me and from my father’s house the guilt for the blood which Jo'ab shed without cause. ³²The LORD will bring back his bloody deeds upon his own head, because, without the knowledge of my father David, he attacked and slew with the sword two men more righteous and better than himself, Abner the son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Ama'sa the son of Je'ther, commander of the army of Judah. ³³So shall their blood come back upon the head of Jo'ab and upon the head of his descendants for ever; but to David, and to his descendants, and to his house, and to his throne, there shall be peace from the LORD for evermore.” ³⁴Then Bena'iah the son of Jehoi'ada went up, and struck him down and killed him; and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness. ³⁵The king put Bena'iah the son of Jehoi'ada over the army in place of Jo'ab, and the king put Za'dok the priest in the place of Abi'athar.

³⁶Then the king sent and summoned Shim'e-i, and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and do not go forth from there to any place whatever. ³⁷For on the day you go forth, and cross the brook Kidron, know for certain that you shall die; your blood shall be upon your own head.” ³⁸And Shim'e-i said to the king, “What you say is good; as my lord the king has said, so will your servant do.” So Shime-i dwelt in Jerusalem many days.

³⁹But it happened at the end of three years that two of Shim'e-i’s slaves ran away to A'chish, son of Ma'acah, king of Gath. And when it was told Shime-i, “Behold, your slaves are in Gath,” ⁴⁰Shim'e-i arose and saddled a donkey, and went to Gath to A'chish, to seek his slaves; Shime-i went and brought his slaves from Gath. ⁴¹And when Solomon was told that Shim'e-i had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and returned, ⁴²the king sent and summoned Shim'e-i, and said to him, “Did I not make you swear by the LORD, and solemnly admonish you, saying, ‘Know for certain that on the day you go forth and go to any place whatever, you shall die’? And you said to me, ‘What you say is good; I obey.’ ⁴³Why then have you not kept your oath to the LORD and the commandment with which I charged you?” ⁴⁴The king also said to Shim'e-i, “You know in your own heart all the evil that you did to David my father; so the LORD will bring back your evil upon your own head. ⁴⁵But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the LORD for ever.” ⁴⁶Then the king commanded Bena'iah the son of Jehoi'ada; and he went out and struck him down, and he died.

So the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.

³Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father; only, he sacrificed and burnt incense at the high places. ⁴And the king went to Gib'eon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings upon that altar. ⁵At Gib'eon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream* by night; and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” ⁶And Solomon said, “You have shown great and merciful love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and merciful love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. ⁷And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. ⁸And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered or counted for multitude. ⁹Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to govern this great people of yours?”

¹⁰It pleased the LORD that Solomon had asked this. ¹¹And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, ¹²behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. ¹³I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. ¹⁴And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”

¹⁵And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.

¹⁶Then two harlots came to the king, and stood before him. ¹⁷The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. ¹⁸Then on the third day after I was delivered, this woman also gave birth; and we were alone; there was no one else with us in the house, only we two were in the house. ¹⁹And this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on it. ²⁰And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your maidservant slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom. ²¹When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, it was dead; but when I looked at it closely in the morning, behold, it was not the child that I had borne.” ²²But the other woman said, “No, the living child is mine, and the dead child is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine.” Thus they spoke before the king.

²³Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; and the other says, ‘No; but your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’” ²⁴And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought before the king. ²⁵And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.” ²⁶Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means slay it.” But the other said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it.” ²⁷Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means slay it; she is its mother.” ²⁸And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered; and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him, to render justice.

⁷Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household; each man had to make provision for one month in the year. ⁸These were their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of E'phraim; ⁹Ben-de'ker, in Makaz, Sha-al'bim, Beth-she'mesh, and E'lonbeth-ha'nan; ¹⁰Ben-he'sed, in Arub'both (to him belonged Socoh and all the land of He'pher); ¹¹Ben-abin'adab, in all Na'phath-dor (he had Ta'phath the daughter of Solomon as his wife); ¹²Ba'ana the son of Ahi'lud, in Ta'anach, Megid'do, and all Beth-she'an which is beside Zar'ethan below Jezre'el, and from Beth-shean to A'bel-meho'lah, as far as the other side of Jok'meam; ¹³Ben-ge'ber, in Ra'moth-gil'ead (he had the villages of Ja'ir the son of Manas'seh, which are in Gilead, and he had the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars); ¹⁴Ahin'adab the son of Iddo, in Ma''hana'im; ¹⁵Ahi'ma-az, in Naph'tali (he had taken Bas'emath the daughter of Solomon as his wife); ¹⁶Ba'ana the son of Hu'shai, in Asher and Bea'loth; ¹⁷Jehosh'aphat the son of Paru'ah, in Is'sachar; ¹⁸Shim'e-i the son of E'la, in Benjamin; ¹⁹Geber the son of U'ri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Si'hon king of the Am'orites and of Og king of Bashan. And there was one officer in the land of Judah.

²⁰Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea; they ate and drank and were happy. ^21gSolomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philis'tines and to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²²Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cors of fine flour, and sixty cors of meal, ²³ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl. ²⁴For he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphra'tes from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates; and he had peace on all sides round about him. ²⁵And Judah and Israel dwelt in safety, from Dan even to Be'er-she'ba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon. ²⁶Solomon also had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. ²⁷And those officers supplied provisions for King Solomon, and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, each one in his month; they let nothing be lacking. ²⁸Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds they brought to the place where it was required, each according to his charge.

²⁹And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and largeness of mind like the sand on the seashore, ³⁰so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ez'rahite, and He'man, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the nations round about. ³²He also uttered three thousand proverbs;* and his songs were a thousand and five. ³³He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. ³⁴And men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.

⁷When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly, and said, “Blessed be the LORD this day, who has given to David a wise son to be over this great people.” ⁸And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, “I have heard the message which you have sent to me; I am ready to do all you desire in the matter of cedar and cypress timber. ⁹My servants shall bring it down to the sea from Lebanon; and I will make it into rafts to go by sea to the place you direct, and I will have them broken up there, and you shall receive it; and you shall meet my wishes by providing food for my household.” ¹⁰So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the timber of cedar and cypress that he desired, ¹¹while Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household, and twenty thousandⁱ cors of beaten oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year. ¹²And the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and the two of them made a treaty.

¹³King Solomon raised a levy of forced labor out of all Israel; and the levy numbered thirty thousand men. ¹⁴And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month in relays; they would be a month in Lebanon and two months at home; Adoni'ram was in charge of the levy. ¹⁵Solomon also had seventy thousand burden-bearers and eighty thousand hewers of stone in the hill country, ¹⁶besides Solomon’s three thousand three hundred chief officers who were over the work, who had charge of the people who carried on the work. ¹⁷At the king’s command, they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones. ¹⁸So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the men of Ge'bal did the hewing and prepared the timber and the stone to build the house.

⁷When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry; so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the temple, while it was being built.

⁸The entrance for the lowest^k story was on the south side of the house; and one went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle story to the third. ⁹So he built the house, and finished it; and he made the ceiling of the house of beams and planks of cedar. ¹⁰He built the structure against the whole house, each story^l five cubits high, and it was joined to the house with timbers of cedar.

¹¹Now the word of the LORD came to Solomon, ¹²“Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my ordinances and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. ¹³And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.”

¹⁴So Solomon built the house, and finished it. ¹⁵He lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the rafters^m of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the house with boards of cypress. ¹⁶He built twenty cubits of the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the rafters,^m and he built this within as an inner sanctuary, as the most holy place. ¹⁷The house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits long. ¹⁸The cedar within the house was carved in the form of gourds and open flowers; all was cedar, no stone was seen. ¹⁹The inner sanctuary he prepared in the innermost part of the house, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD. ²⁰The inner sanctuaryⁿ was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high; and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also made^o an altar of cedar. ²¹And Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across, in front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold. ²²And he overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. Also the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.

²³In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olivewood, each ten cubits high. ²⁴Five cubits was the length of one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the length of the other wing of the cherub; it was ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. ²⁵The other cherub also measured ten cubits; both cherubim had the same measure and the same form. ²⁶The height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was that of the other cherub. ²⁷He put the cherubim in the innermost part of the house; and the wings of the cherubim were spread out so that a wing of one touched the one wall, and a wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; their other wings touched each other in the middle of the house. ²⁸And he overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹He carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms. ³⁰The floor of the house he overlaid with gold in the inner and outer rooms.

³¹For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors of olivewood; the lintel and the doorposts formed a pentagon.^{p 32}He covered the two doors of olivewood with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; he overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubim and upon the palm trees.

³³So also he made for the entrance to the nave doorposts of olivewood, in the form of a square, ³⁴and two doors of cypress wood; the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. ³⁵On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold evenly applied upon the carved work. ³⁶He built the inner court with three courses of hewn stone and one course of cedar beams.

³⁷In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid, in the month of Ziv. ³⁸And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its parts, and according to all its specifications. He was seven years in building it.

⁷And he made the Hall of the Throne where he was to pronounce judgment, even the Hall of Judgment; it was finished with cedar from floor to rafters.^{s 8}His own house where he was to dwell, in the other court back of the hall, was of like workmanship. Solomon also made a house like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter whom he had taken in marriage. ⁹All these were made of costly stones, hewn according to measure, sawed with saws, back and front, even from the foundation to the coping, and from the court of the house of the LORD^t to the great court. ¹⁰The foundation was of costly stones, huge stones, stones of eight and ten cubits. ¹¹And above were costly stones, hewn according to measurement, and cedar. ¹²The great court had three courses of hewn stone round about, and a course of cedar beams; so had the inner court of the house of the LORD, and the vestibule of the house.

¹³And King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre. ¹⁴He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naph'tali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze; and he was full of wisdom, understanding, and skill, for making any work in bronze. He came to King Solomon, and did all his work.

¹⁵He cast two pillars of bronze. Eighteen cubits was the height of one pillar, and a line of twelve cubits measured its circumference; it was hollow, and its thickness was four fingers; the second pillar was the same.^{u 16}He also made two capitals of molten bronze, to set upon the tops of the pillars; the height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits. ¹⁷Then he made two^v nets of checker work with wreaths of chain work for the capitals upon the tops of the pillars; a net^w for the one capital, and a net^w for the other capital. ¹⁸Likewise he made pomegranates;^x in two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the capital that was upon the top of the pillar; and he did the same with the other capital. ¹⁹Now the capitals that were upon the tops of the pillars in the vestibule were of lily-work, four cubits. ²⁰The capitals were upon the two pillars and also above the rounded projection which was beside the network; there were two hundred pomegranates, in two rows round about; and so with the other capital. ²¹He set up the pillars at the vestibule of the temple; he set up the pillar on the south and called its name Ja'chin; and he set up the pillar on the north and called its name Boaz. ²²And upon the tops of the pillars was lily-work. Thus the work of the pillars was finished.

²³Then he made the molten sea; it was round, ten cubits from brim to brim, and five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference. ²⁴Under its brim were gourds, for thirty^y cubits, compassing the sea round about; the gourds were in two rows, cast with it when it was cast. ²⁵It stood upon twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; the sea was set upon them, and all their posterior parts were inward. ²⁶Its thickness was a handbreadth; and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily; it held two thousand baths.

²⁷He also made the ten stands of bronze; each stand was four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high. ²⁸This was the construction of the stands: they had panels, and the panels were set in the frames ²⁹and on the panels that were set in the frames were lions, oxen, and cherubim. Upon the frames, both above and below the lions and oxen, there were wreaths of beveled work. ³⁰Moreover each stand had four bronze wheels and axles of bronze; and at the four corners were supports for a laver. The supports were cast, with wreaths at the side of each. ³¹Its opening was within a crown which projected upward one cubit; its opening was round, as a pedestal is made, a cubit and a half deep. At its opening there were carvings; and its panels were square, not round. ³²And the four wheels were underneath the panels; the axles of the wheels were of one piece with the stands; and the height of a wheel was a cubit and a half. ³³The wheels were made like a chariot wheel; their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs, were all cast. ³⁴There were four supports at the four corners of each stand; the supports were of one piece with the stands. ³⁵And on the top of the stand there was a round band half a cubit high; and on the top of the stand its stays and its panels were of one piece with it. ³⁶And on the surfaces of its stays and on its panels, he carved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, according to the space of each, with wreaths round about. ³⁷After this manner he made the ten stands; all of them were cast alike, of the same measure and the same form.

³⁸And he made ten lavers of bronze; each laver held forty baths, each laver measured four cubits, and there was a laver for each of the ten stands. ³⁹And he set the stands, five on the south side of the house, and five on the north side of the house; and he set the sea at the southeast corner of the house.

⁴⁰Hiram also made the pots, the shovels, and the basins. So Hiram finished all the work that he did for King Solomon on the house of the LORD: ⁴¹the two pillars, the two bowls of the capitals that were on the tops of the pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the tops of the pillars; ⁴²and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were upon the pillars; ⁴³the ten stands, and the ten lavers upon the stands; ⁴⁴and the one sea, and the twelve oxen underneath the sea.

⁴⁵Now the pots, the shovels, and the basins, all these vessels in the house of the LORD, which Hiram made for King Solomon, were of burnished bronze. ⁴⁶In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zar'ethan. ⁴⁷And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because there were so many of them; the weight of the bronze was not found out.

⁴⁸So Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of the LORD: the golden altar, the golden table for the bread of the Presence, ⁴⁹the lampstands of pure gold, five on the south side and five on the north, before the inner sanctuary; the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, of gold; ⁵⁰the cups, snuffers, basins, dishes for incense, and firepans, of pure gold; and the sockets of gold, for the doors of the innermost part of the house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the nave of the temple.

⁵¹Thus all the work that King Solomon did on the house of the LORD was finished. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated, the silver, the gold, and the vessels, and stored them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD.

¹²Then Solomon said,

²²Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven; ²³and said,* “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing mercy to your servants who walk before you with all their heart; ²⁴who have kept with your servant David my father what you declared to him; yes, you spoke with your mouth, and with your hand have fulfilled it this day. ²⁵Now therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father what you have promised him, saying, ‘There shall never fail you a man before me to sit upon the throne of Israel, if only your sons take heed to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’ ²⁶Now therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you have spoken to your servant David my father.

²⁷“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house which I have built!* ²⁸Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you this day; ²⁹that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may listen to the prayer which your servant offers toward this place. ³⁰And hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place; yes, hear in heaven your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.

³¹“If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and comes and swears his oath before your altar in this house, ³²then hear in heaven, and act, and judge your servants, condemning the guilty by bringing his conduct upon his own head, and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

³³“When your people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against you, if they turn again to you, and acknowledge your name, and pray and make supplication to you in this house; ³⁴then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which you gave to their fathers.

³⁵“When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place, and acknowledge your name, and turn from their sin, when you afflict them, ³⁶then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and grant rain upon your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

³⁷“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in any^a of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is; ³⁸whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by any man or by all your people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hands toward this house; ³⁹then hear in heaven your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways (for you, you only, know the hearts of all the children of men); ⁴⁰that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.

⁴¹“Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for your name’s sake ⁴²(for they shall hear of your great name, and your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, ⁴³hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you; in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.

⁴⁴“If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the LORD toward the city which you have chosen and the house which I have built for your name, ⁴⁵then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

⁴⁶“If they sin against you—for there is no man who does not sin—and you are angry with them, and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near; ⁴⁷yet if they lay it to heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned, and have acted perversely and wickedly’; ⁴⁸if they repent with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name; ⁴⁹then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause ⁵⁰and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions which they have committed against you; and grant them compassion in the sight of those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them ⁵¹(for they are your people, and your heritage, which you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace). ⁵²Let your eyes be open to the supplication of your servant, and to the supplication of your people Israel, giving ear to them whenever they call to you. ⁵³For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be your heritage, as you declared through Moses, your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.”

⁵⁴Now as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and supplication to the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven; ⁵⁵and he stood, and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, ⁵⁶“Blessed be the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised; not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he uttered by Moses his servant. ⁵⁷The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers; may he not leave us or forsake us; ⁵⁸that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, which he commanded our fathers. ⁵⁹Let these words of mine, wherewith I have made supplication before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires; ⁶⁰that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other. ⁶¹Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day.”

⁶²Then the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the LORD. ⁶³Solomon offered as peace offerings to the LORD twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the sons of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD. ⁶⁴The same day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD; for there he offered the burnt offering and the cereal offering and the fat pieces of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the LORD was too small to receive the burnt offering and the cereal offering and the fat pieces of the peace offerings.

⁶⁵So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Ha'math to the Brook of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven days.^{b 66}On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they blessed the king, and went to their homes joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the LORD had shown to David his servant and to Israel his people.

¹⁰At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king’s house, ¹¹and Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. ¹²But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, they did not please him. ¹³Therefore he said, “What kind of cities are these which you have given me, my brother?” So they are called the land of Ca'bul to this day. ¹⁴Hiram had sent to the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold.

¹⁵And this is the account of the forced labor which King Solomon levied to build the house of the LORD and his own house and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Ha'zor and Megid'do and Gezer ¹⁶(Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burnt it with fire, and had slain the Canaanites who dwelt in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife; ¹⁷so Solomon rebuilt Gezer) and Lower Beth-ho'ron ¹⁸and Ba'alath and Ta'mar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah,^{d 19}and all the store-cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. ²⁰All the people who were left of the Am'orites, the Hittites, the Per'izzites, the Hi'vites, and the Jeb'usites, who were not of the sons of Israel—²¹their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the sons of Israel were unable to destroy utterly—these Solomon made a forced levy of slaves, and so they are to this day. ²²But of the sons of Israel Solomon made no slaves; they were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders and his horsemen.

²³These were the chief officers who were over Solomon’s work: five hundred and fifty, who had charge of the people who carried on the work.

²⁴But Pharaoh’s daughter went up from the city of David to her own house which Solomon had built for her; then he built the Millo.

²⁵Three times a year Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar which he built to the LORD, burning incense^e before the LORD. So he finished the house.

²⁶King Solomon built a fleet of ships at E'zion-ge'ber, which is near E'loth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of E'dom. ²⁷And Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, seamen who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon; ²⁸and they went to O'phir, and brought from there gold, to the amount of four hundred and twenty talents; and they brought it to King Solomon.

⁶And she said to the king, “The report was true which I heard in my own land of your affairs and of your wisdom, ⁷but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it; and behold, the half was not told me; your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report which I heard. ⁸Happy are your wives!^f Happy are these your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! ⁹Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the LORD loved Israel for ever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness.” ¹⁰Then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices, and precious stones; never again came such an abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹¹Moreover the fleet of Hiram, which brought gold from O'phir, brought from Ophir a very great amount of almug wood and precious stones. ¹²And the king made of the almug wood supports for the house of the LORD, and for the king’s house, lyres also and harps for the singers; no such almug wood has come or been seen, to this day.

¹³And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what was given her by the bounty of King Solomon. So she turned and went back to her own land, with her servants.

¹⁴Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, ¹⁵besides that which came from the traders and from the traffic of the merchants, and from all the kings of Arabia and from the governors of the land. ¹⁶King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. ¹⁷And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into each shield; and the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. ¹⁸The king also made a great ivory throne, and overlaid it with the finest gold. ¹⁹The throne had six steps, and at the back of the throne was a calf’s head, and on each side of the seat were arm rests and two lions standing beside the arm rests, ²⁰while twelve lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the six steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom. ²¹All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver, it was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. ²²For the king had a fleet of ships of Tar'shish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish* used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.^g

²³Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. ²⁴And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. ²⁵Every one of them brought his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year.

²⁶And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. ²⁷And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephe'lah. ²⁸And Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Ku'e, and the king’s traders received them from Kue at a price. ²⁹A chariot could be imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty; and so through the king’s traders they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.

⁹And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, ¹⁰and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the LORD commanded. ¹¹Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. ¹²Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. ¹³However I will not tear away all the kingdom; but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”

¹⁴*And the LORD raised up an adversary against Solomon, Ha'dad the E'domite; he was of the royal house in E'dom. ¹⁵For when David was in E'dom, and Jo'ab the commander of the army went up to bury the slain, he slew every male in Edom ¹⁶(for Jo'ab and all Israel remained there six months, until he had cut off every male in E'dom); ¹⁷but Ha'dad fled to Egypt, together with certain E'domites of his father’s servants, Hadad being yet a little child. ¹⁸They set out from Mid'ian and came to Par'an, and took men with them from Paran and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave him a house, and assigned him an allowance of food, and gave him land. ¹⁹And Ha'dad found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him in marriage the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tah'penes the queen. ²⁰And the sister of Tah'penes bore him Genu'bath his son, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh’s house; and Genubath was in Pharaoh’s house among the sons of Pharaoh. ²¹But when Ha'dad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers and that Jo'ab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me depart, that I may go to my own country.” ²²But Pharaoh said to him, “What have you lacked with me that you are now seeking to go to your own country?” And he said to him, “Only let me go.”

²³God also raised up as an adversary to him, Re'zon the son of Eli'ada, who had fled from his master Ha'dad-e'zer king of Zobah. ²⁴And he gathered men about him and became leader of a marauding band, after the slaughter by David; and they went to Damascus, and dwelt there, and made him king in Damascus. ²⁵He was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon, doing mischief as Ha'dad did; and he abhorred Israel, and reigned over Syria.

²⁶Jerobo'am the son of Ne'bat, an E'phraimite of Zer'edah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother’s name was Zeru'ah, a widow, also lifted up his hand against the king. ²⁷And this was the reason why he lifted up his hand against the king. Solomon built the Millo, and closed up the breach of the city of David his father. ²⁸The man Jerobo'am was very able, and when Solomon saw that the young man was industrious he gave him charge over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph. ²⁹And at that time, when Jerobo'am went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahi'jah the Shi'lonite found him on the road. Now Ahijah had clad himself with a new garment; and the two of them were alone in the open country. ³⁰Then Ahi'jah laid hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces. ³¹And he said to Jerobo'am, “Take for yourself ten pieces; for thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and will give you ten tribes ³²(but he shall have one tribe, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel), ³³because he has^h forsaken me, and worshiped Ash'toreth the goddess of the Sido'nians, Che'mosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the Am'monites, and has^h not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, as David his father did. ³⁴Nevertheless I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand; but I will make him ruler all the days of his life, for the sake of David my servant whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my statutes; ³⁵but I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand, and will give it to you, ten tribes. ³⁶Yet to his son I will give one tribe, that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put my name. ³⁷And I will take you, and you shall reign over all that your soul desires, and you shall be king over Israel. ³⁸And if you will listen to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, I will be with you, and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you. ³⁹And I will for this afflict the descendants of David, but not for ever.’” ⁴⁰Solomon sought therefore to kill Jerobo'am; but Jeroboam arose, and fled into Egypt, to Shi'shak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

⁴¹Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon? ⁴²And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. ⁴³And Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father; and Rehobo'am his son reigned in his stead.

⁶Then King Rehobo'am took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” ⁷And they said to him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants for ever.” ⁸But he forsook the counsel which the old men gave him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. ⁹And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put upon us’?” ¹⁰And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but please lighten it for us’; thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. ¹¹And now, whereas my father laid upon you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.’”

¹²So Jerobo'am and all the people came to Rehobo'am the third day, as the king said, “Come to me again the third day.” ¹³And the king answered the people harshly, and forsaking the counsel which the old men had given him, ¹⁴he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.” ¹⁵So the king did not listen to the people; for it was a turn of affairs brought about by the LORD that he might fulfil his word, which the LORD spoke by Ahi'jah the Shi'lonite to Jerobo'am the son of Ne'bat.

¹⁶And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king,

²¹When Rehobo'am came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. ²²But the word of God came to Shemai'ah the man of God: ²³“Say to Rehobo'am the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, ²⁴‘Thus says the LORD, You shall not go up or fight against your kinsmen the sons of Israel. Return every man to his home, for this thing is from me.’” So they listened to the word of the LORD, and went home again, according to the word of the LORD.

²⁵Then Jerobo'am built She'chem in the hill country of E'phraim, and dwelt there; and he went out from there and built Penu'el. ²⁶And Jerobo'am said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David; ²⁷if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehobo'am king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.” ²⁸So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods,* O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” ²⁹And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. ³⁰And this thing became a sin, for the people went to the one at Bethel and to the other as far as Dan.^{j 31}He also made houses on high places, and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites. ³²And Jerobo'am appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices upon the altar; so he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. ³³He went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and he ordained a feast for the sons of Israel, and went up to the altar to burn incense.

¹¹Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel. And his sons^k came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words also which he had spoken to the king, they told to their father. ¹²And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him the way which the man of God who came from Judah had gone. ¹³And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted it. ¹⁴And he went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak; and he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.” ¹⁵Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” ¹⁶And he said, “I may not return with you, or go in with you; neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place; ¹⁷for it was said to me by the word of the LORD, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.’” ¹⁸And he said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But he lied to him. ¹⁹So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.

²⁰And as they sat at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back; ²¹and he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you, ²²but have come back, and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread, and drink no water”; your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’” ²³And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. ²⁴And as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body. ²⁵And behold, men passed by, and saw the body thrown in the road, and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.

²⁶And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God, who disobeyed the word of the LORD; therefore the LORD has given him to the lion, which has torn him and slain him, according to the word which the LORD spoke to him.” ²⁷And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it. ²⁸And he went and found his body thrown in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey. ²⁹And the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it upon the donkey, and brought it back to the city,^l to mourn and to bury him. ³⁰And he laid the body in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!” ³¹And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. ³²For the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samar'ia, shall surely come to pass.”

³³After this incident Jerobo'am did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people; any who would, he consecrated to be priests of the high places. ³⁴And this thing became sin to the house of Jerobo'am, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.

⁴Jerobo'am’s wife did so; she arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahi'jah. Now Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were dim because of his age. ⁵And the LORD said to Ahi'jah, “Behold, the wife of Jerobo'am is coming to inquire of you concerning her son; for he is sick. Thus and thus shall you say to her.”

When she came, she pretended to be another woman. ⁶But when Ahi'jah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jerobo'am; why do you pretend to be another? For I am charged with heavy tidings for you. ⁷Go, tell Jerobo'am, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: “Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you leader over my people Israel, ⁸and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you; and yet you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments, and followed me with all his heart, doing only that which was right in my eyes, ⁹but you have done evil above all that were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods, and molten images, provoking me to anger, and have cast me behind your back; ¹⁰therefore behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jerobo'am, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will utterly consume the house of Jeroboam, as a man burns up dung until it is all gone. ¹¹Any one belonging to Jerobo'am who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and any one who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat; for the LORD has spoken it.”’ ¹²Arise therefore, go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. ¹³And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him; for he only of Jerobo'am shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something pleasing to the LORD, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam. ¹⁴Moreover the LORD will raise up for himself a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jerobo'am today. And henceforth^{m 15}the LORD will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their Ashe'rim, provoking the LORD to anger. ¹⁶And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jerobo'am, which he sinned and which he made Israel to sin.”

¹⁷Then Jerobo'am’s wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah. And as she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. ¹⁸And all Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Ahi'jah the prophet. ¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Jerobo'am, how he warred and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ²⁰And the time that Jerobo'am reigned was twenty-two years; and he slept with his fathers, and Na'dab his son reigned in his stead.

²¹Now Rehobo'am the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother’s name was Na'amah the Am'monitess. ²²And Judah did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. ²³For they also built for themselves high places, and pillars, and Ashe'rim on every high hill and under every green tree; ²⁴and there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD drove out before the sons of Israel.

²⁵In the fifth year of King Rehobo'am, Shi'shak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; ²⁶he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house; he took away everything. He also took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made; ²⁷and King Rehobo'am made in their stead shields of bronze, and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard, who kept the door of the king’s house. ²⁸And as often as the king went into the house of the LORD, the guard bore them and brought them back to the guardroom.

²⁹Now the rest of the acts of Rehobo'am, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ³⁰And there was war between Rehobo'am and Jerobo'am continually. ³¹And Rehobo'am slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His mother’s name was Na'amah the Am'monitess. And Abi'jam his son reigned in his stead.

⁹In the twentieth year of Jerobo'am king of Israel Asa began to reign over Judah, ¹⁰and he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Ma'acah the daughter of Abish'alom. ¹¹And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as David his father had done. ¹²He put away the male cult prostitutes out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. ¹³He also removed Ma'acah his mother from being queen mother because she had an abominable image made for Ashe'rah; and Asa cut down her image and burned it at the brook Kidron. ¹⁴But the high places were not taken away. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was wholly true to the LORD all his days. ¹⁵And he brought into the house of the LORD the votive gifts of his father and his own votive gifts, silver, and gold, and vessels.

¹⁶And there was war between Asa and Ba'asha king of Israel all their days. ¹⁷Ba'asha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ra'mah, that he might permit no one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. ¹⁸Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house, and gave them into the hands of his servants; and King Asa sent them to Ben-ha'dad the son of Tabrim'mon, the son of He'zi-on, king of Syria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying, ¹⁹“Let there be a league between me and you, as between my father and your father: behold, I am sending to you a present of silver and gold; go, break your league with Ba'asha king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.” ²⁰And Ben-ha'dad listened to King Asa, and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and conquered I'jon, Dan, A'bel-beth-ma'acah, and all Chin'neroth, with all the land of Naph'tali. ²¹And when Ba'asha heard of it, he stopped building Ra'mah, and he dwelt in Tirzah. ²²Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah, none was exempt, and they carried away the stones of Ra'mah and its timber, with which Ba'asha had been building; and with them King Asa built Ge'ba of Benjamin and Mizpah. ²³Now the rest of all the acts of Asa, all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But in his old age he was diseased in his feet. ²⁴And Asa slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father; and Jehosh'aphat his son reigned in his stead.

²⁵Nadab the son of Jerobo'am began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah; and he reigned over Israel two years. ²⁶He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin which he made Israel to sin.

²⁷Ba'asha the son of Ahi'jah, of the house of Is'sachar, conspired against him; and Baasha struck him down at Gib'bethon, which belonged to the Philis'tines; for Na'dab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon. ²⁸So Ba'asha killed him in the third year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his stead. ²⁹And as soon as he was king, he killed all the house of Jerobo'am; he left to the house of Jeroboam not one that breathed, until he had destroyed it, according to the word of the LORD which he spoke by his servant Ahi'jah the Shi'lonite; ³⁰it was for the sins of Jerobo'am which he sinned and which he made Israel to sin, and because of the anger to which he provoked the LORD, the God of Israel.

³¹Now the rest of the acts of Na'dab, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ³²And there was war between Asa and Ba'asha king of Israel all their days.

³³In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Ba'asha the son of Ahi'jah began to reign over all Israel at Tirzah, and reigned twenty-four years. ³⁴He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of Jerobo'am and in his sin which he made Israel to sin.

⁵Now the rest of the acts of Ba'asha, and what he did, and his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ⁶And Ba'asha slept with his fathers, and was buried at Tirzah; and E'lah his son reigned in his stead. ⁷Moreover the word of the LORD came by the prophet Je'hu the son of Hana'ni against Ba'asha and his house, both because of all the evil that he did in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jerobo'am, and also because he destroyed it.

⁸In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, E'lah the son of Ba'asha began to reign over Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned two years. ⁹But his servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him. When he was at Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was over the household in Tirzah, ¹⁰Zimri came in and struck him down and killed him, in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his stead.

¹¹When he began to reign, as soon as he had seated himself on his throne, he killed all the house of Ba'asha; he did not leave him a single male of his kinsmen or his friends. ¹²Thus Zimri destroyed all the house of Ba'asha, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke against Baasha by Je'hu the prophet, ¹³for all the sins of Ba'asha and the sins of E'lah his son which they sinned, and which they made Israel to sin, provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger with their idols. ¹⁴Now the rest of the acts of E'lah, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

¹⁵In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned seven days in Tirzah. Now the troops were encamped against Gib'bethon, which belonged to the Philis'tines, ¹⁶and the troops who were encamped heard it said, “Zimri has conspired, and he has killed the king”; therefore all Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp. ¹⁷So Omri went up from Gib'bethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah. ¹⁸And when Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the king’s house, and burned the king’s house over him with fire, and died, ¹⁹because of his sins which he committed, doing evil in the sight of the LORD, walking in the way of Jerobo'am, and for his sin which he committed, making Israel to sin. ²⁰Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and the conspiracy which he made, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

²¹Then the sons of Israel were divided into two parts; half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king, and half followed Omri. ²²But the people who followed Omri overcame the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath; so Tibni died, and Omri became king. ²³In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri began to reign over Israel, and reigned for twelve years; six years he reigned in Tirzah. ²⁴He bought the hill of Samar'ia* from She'mer for two talents of silver; and he fortified the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill.

²⁵Omri did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did more evil than all who were before him. ²⁶For he walked in all the way of Jerobo'am the son of Ne'bat, and in the sins which he made Israel to sin, provoking the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger by their idols. ²⁷Now the rest of the acts of Omri which he did, and the might that he showed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ²⁸And Omri slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samar'ia; and A'hab his son reigned in his stead.

²⁹In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, A'hab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samar'ia twenty-two years. ³⁰And A'hab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD more than all that were before him. ³¹And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jerobo'am the son of Ne'bat, he took for his wife Jez'ebel the daughter of Ethba'al king of the Sido'nians, and went and served Ba'al, and worshiped him. ³²He erected an altar for Ba'al in the house of Baal, which he built in Samar'ia. ³³And A'hab made an Ashe'rah. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. ³⁴In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho; he laid its foundation at the cost of Abi'ram his first-born, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.

⁸Then the word of the LORD came to him. ⁹“Arise, go to Zar'ephath, which belongs to Si'don, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” ¹⁰So he arose and went to Zar'ephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” ¹¹And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” ¹²And she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a pitcher; and now, I am gathering a couple of sticks, that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” ¹³And Eli'jah said to her, “Fear not; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make for yourself and your son. ¹⁴For thus says the LORD the God of Israel, ‘The jar of meal shall not be spent, and the pitcher of oil shall not fail, until the day that the LORD sends rain upon the earth.’” ¹⁵And she went and did as Eli'jah said; and she, and he, and her household ate for many days. ¹⁶The jar of meal was not spent, neither did the pitcher of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD which he spoke by Eli'jah.

¹⁷After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; and his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. ¹⁸And she said to Eli'jah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!” ¹⁹And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her bosom, and carried him up into the upper chamber, where he lodged, and laid him upon his own bed. ²⁰And he cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?” ²¹Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this child’s soul come into him again.” ²²And the LORD listened to the voice of Eli'jah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. ²³And Eli'jah took the child, and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and delivered him to his mother; and Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” ²⁴And the woman said to Eli'jah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.”

⁷And as Obadi'ah was on the way, behold, Eli'jah met him; and Obadiah recognized him, and fell on his face, and said, “Is it you, my lord Elijah?” ⁸And he answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your lord, ‘Behold, Eli'jah is here.’” ⁹And he said, “Wherein have I sinned, that you would give your servant into the hand of A'hab, to kill me? ¹⁰As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom whither my lord has not sent to seek you; and when they would say, ‘He is not here,’ he would take an oath of the kingdom or nation, that they had not found you. ¹¹And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Eli'jah is here.”’ ¹²And as soon as I have gone from you, the Spirit of the LORD will carry you I know not where; and so, when I come and tell A'hab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have revered the LORD from my youth. ¹³Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jez'ebel killed the prophets of the LORD, how I hid a hundred men of the LORD’s prophets by fifties in a cave, and fed them with bread and water? ¹⁴And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Eli'jah is here”’; and he will kill me.” ¹⁵And Eli'jah said, “As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.” ¹⁶So Obadi'ah went to meet A'hab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Eli'jah.

¹⁷When A'hab saw Eli'jah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” ¹⁸And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father’s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and followed the Ba'als. ¹⁹Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Ba'al* and the four hundred prophets of Ashe'rah, who eat at Jez'ebel’s table.”

²⁰So A'hab sent to all the sons of Israel, and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. ²¹And Eli'jah came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Ba'al, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. ²²Then Eli'jah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the LORD; but Ba'al’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. ²³Let two bulls be given to us; and let them choose one bull for themselves, and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it; and I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, and put no fire to it. ²⁴And you call on the name of your god and I will call on the name of the LORD; and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” And all the people answered, “It is well spoken.” ²⁵Then Eli'jah said to the prophets of Ba'al, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” ²⁶And they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Ba'al from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped about the altar which they had made. ²⁷And at noon Eli'jah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is musing, or he has gone aside, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” ²⁸And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. ²⁹And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice; no one answered, no one heeded.

³⁰Then Eli'jah said to all the people, “Come near to me”; and all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that had been thrown down; ³¹Eli'jah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD came, saying, “Israel shall be your name”; ³²and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD. And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. ³³And he put the wood in order, and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water, and pour it on the burnt offering, and on the wood.” ³⁴And he said, “Do it a second time”; and they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a third time”; and they did it a third time. ³⁵And the water ran round about the altar, and filled the trench also with water.

³⁶And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Eli'jah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. ³⁷Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. ³⁹And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.” ⁴⁰And Eli'jah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Ba'al; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Ki'shon, and killed them there.

⁴¹And Eli'jah said to A'hab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of the rushing of rain.” ⁴²So A'hab went up to eat and to drink. And Eli'jah went up to the top of Carmel; and he bowed himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees. ⁴³And he said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” And he went up and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” And he said, “Go again seven times.” ⁴⁴And at the seventh time he said, “Behold, a little cloud like a man’s hand is rising out of the sea.” And he said, “Go up, say to A'hab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you.’” ⁴⁵And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And A'hab rode and went to Jezre'el. ⁴⁶And the hand of the LORD was on Eli'jah; and he girded up his loins and ran before A'hab to the entrance of Jezre'el.

⁴But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am no better than my fathers.” ⁵And he lay down and slept under a broom tree; and behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” ⁶And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank, and lay down again. ⁷And the angel of the LORD came again a second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for you.” ⁸And he arose, and ate and drank, and walked in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb* the mount of God.

⁹And there he came to a cave, and lodged there; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Eli'jah?” ¹⁰He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” ¹¹And he said, “Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; ¹²and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. ¹³And when Eli'jah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Eli'jah?” ¹⁴He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” ¹⁵And the LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, you shall anoint Haz'ael to be king over Syria; ¹⁶and Je'hu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel; and Eli'sha the son of Sha'phat of A'bel-meho'lah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. ¹⁷And him who escapes from the sword of Haz'ael shall Je'hu slay; and him who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Eli'sha slay. ¹⁸Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Ba'al, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

¹⁹So he departed from there, and found Eli'sha the son of Sha'phat, who was plowing, with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Eli'jah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. ²⁰And he left the oxen, and ran after Eli'jah, and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again; for what have I done to you?” ²¹And he returned from following him, and took the yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Eli'jah, and ministered to him.

⁷Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, “Mark, now, and see how this man is seeking trouble; for he sent to me for my wives and my children, and for my silver and my gold, and I did not refuse him.” ⁸And all the elders and all the people said to him, “Do not heed or consent.” ⁹So he said to the messengers of Ben-ha'dad, “Tell my lord the king, ‘All that you first demanded of your servant I will do; but this thing I cannot do.’” And the messengers departed and brought him word again. ¹⁰Ben-ha'dad sent to him and said, “The gods do so to me, and more also, if the dust of Samar'ia shall suffice for handfuls for all the people who follow me.” ¹¹And the king of Israel answered, “Tell him, ‘Let not him that belts on his armor boast himself as he that puts it off.’” ¹²When Ben-ha'dad heard this message as he was drinking with the kings in the booths, he said to his men, “Take your positions.” And they took their positions against the city.

¹³And behold, a prophet came near to A'hab king of Israel and said, “Thus says the LORD, Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will give it into your hand this day; and you shall know that I am the LORD.” ¹⁴And A'hab said, “By whom?” He said, “Thus says the LORD, By the servants of the governors of the districts.” Then he said, “Who shall begin the battle?” He answered, “You.” ¹⁵Then he mustered the servants of the governors of the districts, and they were two hundred and thirty-two; and after them he mustered all the sons of Israel, seven thousand.

¹⁶And they went out at noon, while Ben-ha'dad was drinking himself drunk in the booths, he and the thirty-two kings who helped him. ¹⁷The servants of the governors of the districts went out first. And Ben-ha'dad sent out scouts, and they reported to him, “Men are coming out from Samar'ia.” ¹⁸He said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive.”

¹⁹So these went out of the city, the servants of the governors of the districts, and the army which followed them. ²⁰And each killed his man; the Syrians fled and Israel pursued them, but Ben-ha'dad king of Syria escaped on a horse with horsemen. ²¹And the king of Israel went out, and captured^p the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter.

²²Then the prophet came near to the king of Israel, and said to him, “Come, strengthen yourself, and consider well what you have to do; for in the spring the king of Syria will come up against you.”

²³And the servants of the king of Syria said to him, “Their gods are gods of the hills, and so they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. ²⁴And do this: remove the kings, each from his post, and put commanders in their places; ²⁵and muster an army like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot; then we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they.” And he listened to their voice, and did so.

²⁶In the spring Ben-ha'dad mustered the Syrians, and went up to A'phek, to fight against Israel. ²⁷And the sons of Israel were mustered, and were provisioned, and went against them; the sons of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the Syrians filled the country. ²⁸And a man of God came near and said to the king of Israel, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because the Syrians have said, “The LORD is a god of the hills but he is not a god of the valleys,” therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD.’” ²⁹And they encamped opposite one another seven days. Then on the seventh day the battle was joined; and the sons of Israel struck a hundred thousand Syrian foot soldiers in one day. ³⁰And the rest fled into the city of A'phek; and the wall fell upon twenty-seven thousand men that were left.

Ben-ha'dad also fled, and entered an inner chamber in the city. ³¹And his servants said to him, “Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings; let us put sackcloth on our loins and ropes upon our heads, and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will spare your life.” ³²So they belted sackcloth on their loins, and put ropes on their heads, and went to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-ha'dad says, ‘Please, let me live.’” And he said, “Does he still live? He is my brother.” ³³Now the men were watching for an omen, and they quickly took it up from him and said, “Yes, your brother Ben-ha'dad.” Then he said, “Go and bring him.” Then Ben-hadad came forth to him; and he caused him to come up into the chariot. ³⁴And Ben-ha'dad said to him, “The cities which my father took from your father I will restore; and you may establish bazaars for yourself in Damascus, as my father did in Samar'ia.” And A'hab said, “I will let you go on these terms.” So he made a covenant with him and let him go.

³⁵And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow at the command of the LORD, “Strike me, I beg you.” But the man refused to strike him. ³⁶Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as you have gone from me, a lion shall kill you.” And as soon as he had departed from him, a lion met him and killed him. ³⁷Then he found another man, and said, “Strike me, I beg you.” And the man struck him, hitting and wounding him. ³⁸So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, disguising himself with a bandage over his eyes. ³⁹And as the king passed, he cried to the king and said, “Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and behold, a soldier turned and brought a man to me, and said, ‘Keep this man; if by any means he be missing, your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.’ ⁴⁰And as your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” The king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it.” ⁴¹Then he made haste to take the bandage away from his eyes; and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets. ⁴²And he said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.’” ⁴³And the king of Israel went to his house resentful and sullen, and came to Samar'ia.

⁵But Jez'ebel his wife came to him, and said to him, “Why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no food?” ⁶And he said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezre'elite, and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it please you, I will give you another vineyard for it’; and he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’” ⁷And Jez'ebel his wife said to him, “Do you now govern Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let your heart be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezre'elite.”

⁸So she wrote letters in A'hab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who dwelt with Naboth in his city. ⁹And she wrote in the letters, “Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people; ¹⁰and set two* base fellows opposite him, and let them bring a charge against him, saying, ‘You have cursed God and the king.’ Then take him out, and stone him to death.” ¹¹And the men of his city, the elders and the nobles who dwelt in his city, did as Jez'ebel had sent word to them. As it was written in the letters which she had sent to them, ¹²they proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people. ¹³And the two base fellows came in and sat opposite him; and the base fellows brought a charge against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king.” So they took him outside the city, and stoned him to death with stones. ¹⁴Then they sent to Jez'ebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned; he is dead.”

¹⁵As soon as Jez'ebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to A'hab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezre'elite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.” ¹⁶And as soon as A'hab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab arose to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezre'elite, to take possession of it.

¹⁷Then the word of the LORD came to Eli'jah the Tishbite, saying, ¹⁸“Arise, go down to meet A'hab king of Israel, who is in Samar'ia; behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession. ¹⁹And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Have you killed, and also taken possession?”’ And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD: “In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood.”’”

²⁰A'hab said to Eli'jah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the LORD. ²¹Behold, I will bring evil upon you; I will utterly sweep you away, and will cut off from A'hab every male, bond or free, in Israel; ²²and I will make your house like the house of Jerobo'am the son of Ne'bat, and like the house of Ba'asha the son of Ahi'jah, for the anger to which you have provoked me, and because you have made Israel to sin. ²³And of Jez'ebel the LORD also said, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the bounds of Jezre'el.’ ²⁴Any one belonging to A'hab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and any one of his who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat.”

²⁵(There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like A'hab, whom Jez'ebel his wife incited. ²⁶He did very abominably in going after idols, as the Am'orites had done, whom the LORD cast out before the sons of Israel.)

²⁷And when A'hab heard those words, he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about dejectedly. ²⁸And the word of the LORD came to Eli'jah the Tishbite, saying, ²⁹“Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but in his son’s days I will bring the evil upon his house.”*

⁵And Jehosh'aphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the LORD.” ⁶Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle against Ra'moth-gil'ead, or shall I forbear?” And they said, “Go up; for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” ⁷But Jehosh'aphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the LORD of whom we may inquire?” ⁸And the king of Israel said to Jehosh'aphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD, Micai'ah the son of Imlah; but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehosh'aphat said, “Let not the king say so.” ⁹Then the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring quickly Micai'ah the son of Imlah.” ¹⁰Now the king of Israel and Jehosh'aphat the king of Judah were sitting on their thrones, wearing their robes, at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samar'ia; and all the prophets were prophesying before them. ¹¹And Zedeki'ah the son of Chena'anah made for himself horns of iron, and said, “Thus says the LORD, ‘With these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed.’” ¹²And all the prophets prophesied so, and said, “Go up to Ra'moth-gil'ead and triumph; the LORD will give it into the hand of the king.”

¹³And the messenger who went to summon Micai'ah said to him, “Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king; let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.” ¹⁴But Micai'ah said, “As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that I will speak.” ¹⁵And when he had come to the king, the king said to him, “Micai'ah, shall we go to Ra'moth-gil'ead to battle, or shall we forbear?” And he answered him, “Go up and triumph; the LORD will give it into the hand of the king.” ¹⁶But the king said to him, “How many times shall I adjure you that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?” ¹⁷And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd; and the LORD said, ‘These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.’” ¹⁸And the king of Israel said to Jehosh'aphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?” ¹⁹And Micai'ah said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; ²⁰and the LORD said, ‘Who will entice A'hab, that he may go up and fall at Ra'moth-gil'ead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another. ²¹Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ ²²And the LORD said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go forth and do so.’ ²³Now therefore behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the LORD has spoken evil concerning you.”

²⁴Then Zedeki'ah the son of Chena'anah came near and struck Micai'ah on the cheek, and said, “How did the Spirit of the LORD go from me to speak to you?” ²⁵And Micai'ah said, “Behold, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.” ²⁶And the king of Israel said, “Seize Micai'ah, and take him back to A'mon the governor of the city and to Jo'ash the king’s son; ²⁷and say, ‘Thus says the king, “Put this fellow in prison, and feed him with scant fare of bread and water, until I come in peace.”’” ²⁸And Micai'ah said, “If you return in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Hear, all you peoples!”

²⁹So the king of Israel and Jehosh'aphat the king of Judah went up to Ra'moth-gil'ead. ³⁰And the king of Israel said to Jehosh'aphat, “I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you wear your robes.” And the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle. ³¹Now the king of Syria had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, “Fight with neither small nor great, but only with the king of Israel.” ³²And when the captains of the chariots saw Jehosh'aphat, they said, “It is surely the king of Israel.” So they turned to fight against him; and Jehoshaphat cried out. ³³And when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him. ³⁴But a certain man drew his bow by chance, and struck the king of Israel between the scale armor and the breastplate; therefore he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn about, and carry me out of the battle, for I am wounded.” ³⁵And the battle grew hot that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Syrians, until at evening he died; and the blood of the wound flowed into the bottom of the chariot. ³⁶And about sunset a cry went through the army, “Every man to his city, and every man to his country!”

³⁷So the king died, and was brought to Samar'ia; and they buried the king in Samaria. ³⁸And they washed the chariot by the pool of Samar'ia, and the dogs licked up his blood, and the harlots washed themselves in it, according to the word of the LORD which he had spoken. ³⁹Now the rest of the acts of A'hab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he built, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ⁴⁰So A'hab slept with his fathers; and Ahazi'ah his son reigned in his stead.

⁴¹Jehosh'aphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of A'hab king of Israel. ⁴²Jehosh'aphat was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azu'bah the daughter of Shilhi. ⁴³He walked in all the way of Asa his father; he did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the LORD; yet the high places were not taken away, and the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. ⁴⁴Jehosh'aphat also made peace with the king of Israel.

⁴⁵Now the rest of the acts of Jehosh'aphat, and his might that he showed, and how he warred, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ⁴⁶And the remnant of the male cult prostitutes who remained in the days of his father Asa, he exterminated from the land.

⁴⁷There was no king in E'dom; a deputy was king. ⁴⁸Jehosh'aphat made ships of Tar'shish to go to O'phir for gold; but they did not go, for the ships were wrecked at E'zion-ge'ber. ⁴⁹Then Ahazi'ah the son of A'hab said to Jehosh'aphat, “Let my servants go with your servants in the ships,” but Jehoshaphat was not willing. ⁵⁰And Jehosh'aphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father; and Jeho'ram his son reigned in his stead.

⁵¹Ahazi'ah the son of A'hab began to reign over Israel in Samar'ia in the seventeenth year of Jehosh'aphat king of Judah, and he reigned two years over Israel. ⁵²He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jerobo'am the son of Ne'bat, who made Israel to sin. ⁵³He served Ba'al and worshiped him, and provoked the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger in every way that his father had done.