1 Kings

1 Kings Quick Link – Go To Chapter:

 1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 1

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 1

Now King David was old; stricken with age, and they covered him with clothes, but he could not get warm.
2 So his servants said to him, “Let them search out a young virgin for my lord the king, and let her stand before the king and let her profit him; and let her lie in your bosom, that my lord the king may get heat.”
3 So they searched for a beautiful maiden throughout all the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king.
4 The girl was very beautiful, and she profited the king and served him, but the king knew her not.
5 Now Adoniyeh the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, “I will be king.”  So he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen with fifty men to run before him.
6 And his father had never grieved him at any time by saying, “Why do you so?” And he was also a very beautiful man, and he was born after Absalom.
7 He had conferred with Yehab the son of Zeruiyeh and with Abiathar the priest; and following Adoniyeh they helped him.
8 But Zadok the priest, Benayeh the son of Yehiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and the mighty men who belonged to David, were not with Adoniyeh.
9 And Adoniyeh sacrificed sheep and oxen and fatlings by the stone of Zoheleth, which is beside En-rogel, and he invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the men of Yehudah, the king’s servants.
10 But Nathan the prophet, Benayeh, the mighty men, and Solomon his brother he invited not.
11 Therefore Nathan spoke to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, “Have you not heard that Adoniyeh the son of Haggith has become king, and David our lord does not know?
12 So now come, please let me give you counsel and save your life, and the life of your son Solomon.
13 Go at once to King David and say to him, ‘Did you not, my lord, O king, swear to your handmaid, saying, “Surely Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne”? Why then has Adoniyeh become king?’
14 Behold, while you are still there speaking with the king, I will come in after you and confirm your words.”
15 So Bathsheba went in to the king in the bedroom, and the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite was serving the king.
16 And Bathsheba bowed and prostrated herself before the king.  And the king said, “What do you wish?”
17 And she said to him, “My lord, you swore to your handmaid by YEHOWAH your Elohim, saying, ‘Surely your son Solomon shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.’
18 Now, behold, Adoniyeh reigns; and now, my lord the king, you do not know it.
19 He has sacrificed oxen and fatlings and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the sons of the king and Abiathar the priest and Yehab the commander of the army, but he has not invited Solomon your servant.
20 As for you 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.
21 Otherwise it will come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon will be counted as offenders.”
22 And behold, while she was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet came in.
23 And they told the king, saying, “Behold, Nathan the prophet.”  And when he came in before the king, he bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.
24 And Nathan said, “My lord the king, have you said, ‘Adoniyeh shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne’?
25 For he has gone down this day and has sacrificed oxen and fatlings and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the king’s sons and the commanders of the army and Abiathar the priest, and behold, they are eating and drinking before him; and they say, ‘Long live King Adoniyeh!’
26 But me, even me your servant, and Zadok the priest and Benayeh the son of Yehoiada and your servant Solomon, he has not invited.
27 Is this thing done by my lord the king, and you have not shown to your servant who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?”
28 Then King David said, “Call Bathsheba to me.”  And she came into the king’s presence and stood before the king.
29 And the king swore, and said, “As YEHOWAH lives, Who has redeemed my life from all distress,
30 even as I swore to you by YEHOWAH the Elohim of Israel, saying, ‘Your son Solomon shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead’; I will indeed do so this day.”
31 Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the ground, and prostrated herself before the king and said, “May my lord King David live forever.”
32 Then King David said, “Call to me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benayeh the son of Yehiada.”  And they came into the king’s presence.
33 And the king said unto them, “Take with you the servants of your lord, and have my son Solomon ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon.
34 Let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there as king over Israel, and blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’
35 Then you shall come up after him, that he may come and sit upon my throne, for he shall be king in my place; and I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and Yehudah.”
36 And Benayeh the son of Yehiada answered the king and said, “Amen!  Thus may YEHOWAH, the Elohim of my lord the king, say!
37 As YEHOWAH has been with my lord the king, even so be He with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David!”
38 So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benayeh the son of Yehiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites went down and caused Solomon to ride on King David’s mule, and brought him to Gihon.
39 And Zadok the priest then took the horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon.  And they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, “Long live King Solomon!”
40 And all the people came up after him, and the people piped on flutes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth shook at their noise.
41 And Adoniyeh, and all the guests who were with him, heard it, as they made an end of eating, and when Yehab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, “Why is the city making such an uproar?”
42 While he was still speaking, behold, Yehnathan the son of Abiathar the priest came, and Adoniyeh said, “Come in, for you are a valiant man, and bring good news.”
43 But Yehnathan answered and said to Adoniyeh, “No!  Our lord King David has made Solomon king.
44 And the king has also sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benayeh the son of Yehiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites; and they have caused him to ride on the king’s mule.
45 And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon, and they have come up from there rejoicing, so that the city is in an uproar.  This is the noise that you have heard.
46 And also, Solomon is sitting on the throne of the kingdom.
47 Moreover, the king’s servants came to bless our lord King David, saying, ‘Elohim make the name of Solomon better than your name, and his throne greater than your throne!’  And the king bowed himself upon the bed.
48 And also thus said the king, ‘Blessed be YEHOWAH, the Elohim of Israel, Who has given one to sit on my throne this day; my own eyes even seeing it.'”
49 Then all the guests with Adoniyeh trembled and rose up, and every man went his way.
50 And Adoniyeh feared because of Solomon, and he rose up, and went, and took hold of the horns of the altar.
51 Now it was told Solomon, saying, “Behold, Adoniyeh fears King Solomon, for behold, he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon swear to me today that he will not put his servant to death with the sword.'”
52 And Solomon said, “If he is a worthy man, not one of his hairs will fall to the ground, but if evil is found in him, he will die.”
53 So King Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the altar.  And he came and bowed himself before King Solomon, and Solomon said to him, “Go to your house.”

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 2

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 2

Now the days of David drew near, that he should die, and he charged Solomon his son, saying,
2 “I go the way of all the earth.  Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man;
3 and keep the charge of YEHOWAH your Elohim, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes and His commandments, and His judgments and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses; that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn,
4 so that YEHOWAH may carry out His promise, which He spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your children take heed of their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you,’ said He, ‘a man on the throne of Israel.’
5 Moreover you also know what Yehab the son of Zeruiyeh did to me; what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel: to Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed.  He also shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war on his belt about his loins, and on his sandals on his feet.
6 Do therefore, according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray hair go down to the grave in peace.
7 But show kindness to the children of Barzillayeh the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table, for they came to me when I fled from Absalom your brother.
8 Behold, there is with you Shimei the son of Gera the Benyehminite, of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse on the day I went to Mahanaim, but he came down to me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by YEHOWAH, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’
9 Now therefore, hold him not guiltless, for you are a wise man, and you will know what to do to him; but bring his gray hair down to the grave with blood.”
10 And David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.
11 And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; He reigned seven years in Hebron and he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem.
12 And Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was established greatly.
13 And Adoniyeh the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon.  And she said, “Do you come peacefully?” And he said, “Peacefully.”
14 Then he said, “I have something to say to you.”  And she said, “Speak.”
15 So he said, “You know that the kingdom was mine and that all Israel set their faces on me that I should reign, but the kingdom has turned about and become my brother’s, for it was his from YEHOWAH.
16 And now I ask one petition of you; do not refuse me.”  And she said to him, “Speak.”
17 Then he said, “Please speak to Solomon the king, for he will not refuse you, that he may give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife.”
18 And Bathsheba said, “Agreed; I will speak to the king for you.”
19 Bathsheba therefore, went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adoniyeh.  And the king rose up to meet her, bowed himself to her, and sat down on his throne.  And he caused a throne to be set for the king’s mother, and she sat by his right hand.
20 Then she said, “I desire one small petition of you; do not refuse me.”  And the king said to her, “Ask, my mother, for I will not refuse you.”
21 And she said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adoniyeh your brother as wife.”
22 And King Solomon answered and said to his mother, “And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adoniyeh? Ask for him the kingdom also, for he is my older brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Yehab the son of Zeruiyeh!”
23 Then King Solomon swore by YEHOWAH, saying, “May Elohim do so to me and more also, if Adoniyeh has not spoken this word against his own life.
24 Now therefore, as YEHOWAH lives, Who has established me and set me on the throne of David my father, and Who has made me a house as He promised, surely Adoniyeh shall be put to death this day.”
25 And King Solomon sent by the hand of Benayeh the son of Yehiada; and he fell upon him so that he died.
26 And unto Abiathar the priest the king said, “Go to Anathoth; to your own fields, for you are worthy of death, but I will not at this time put you to death, because you carried the Ark of Adonay YEHOWAH before David my father, and because you were afflicted in everything with which my father was afflicted.”
27 So Solomon dismissed Abiathar from being priest unto YEHOWAH, in order to fulfill the word of YEHOWAH, which He had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.
28 Now the news came to Yehab, for Yehab had followed Adoniyeh, although he had not followed Absalom.  And Yehab fled to the tent of YEHOWAH and took hold of the horns of the altar.
29 And it was told King Solomon that Yehab had fled to the tent of YEHOWAH.  And behold, he is beside the altar.  Then Solomon sent Benayeh the son of Yehiada, saying, “Go, fall upon him.”
30 So Benayeh came to the tent of YEHOWAH and said to him, “Thus the king has said, ‘Come out!'”  But he said, “No, for I will die here.”  And Benayeh brought the king word again, saying, “Thus spoke Yehab, and thus he answered me.”
31 And the king said to him, “Do as he has spoken and fall upon him and bury him, that you may remove from me and from my father’s house the blood, which Yehab shed, without cause.
32 And YEHOWAH will return his own blood on his own head, because he fell upon two men more righteous and better than he; and killed them with the sword, without my father David’s knowledge: Abner the son of Ner, captain of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the army of Yehudah.
33 And their blood shall return on the head of Yehab, and on the head of his seed forever, but to David and his seed, and his house, and his throne, may there be peace from YEHOWAH forever.”
34 Then Benayeh the son of Yehiada went up and fell upon him and put him to death, and he was buried at his own house in the wilderness.
35 And the king appointed Benayeh the son of Yehiada over the army in his place, and the king appointed Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar.
36 Now the king sent and called for Shimei and said to him, “Build for yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there, and do not go out from there to any place,
37 for on the day you go out and cross over the brook Kidron, you will know for certain that you shall surely die; your blood shall be on your own head.”
38 Shimei then said to the king, “The word is good.  As my lord the king has said, so your servant will do.”  And Shimei lived in Jerusalem many days.
39 And it came to pass at the end of three years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath.  And they told Shimei, saying, “Behold, your servants are in Gath.”
40 Then Shimei rose up and saddled his ass, and went to Gath to Achish to look for his servants.  And Shimei went and brought his servants from Gath.
41 And it was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and had returned.
42 And the king sent and called for Shimei and said to him, “Did I not make you swear by YEHOWAH and testify unto you, saying, ‘Know for certain that on the day you depart and go anywhere, you shall surely die’? And you said to me, ‘The word which I have heard is good.’
43 Why then have you not kept the oath of YEHOWAH, and the commandment that I charged you with?”
44 And the king also said to Shimei, “You know all the evil of which your heart is aware, which you did to my father David; therefore YEHOWAH shall return your evil on your own head,
45 but King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before YEHOWAH forever.”
46 So the king commanded Benayeh the son of Yehiada, who went out and fell upon him so that he died.  Thus the kingdom was established in the hands of Solomon.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 3

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 3

Then Solomon arranged an alliance through marriage with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the city of David, until he had finished building his own house, and the house of YEHOWAH, and the wall around Jerusalem.
2 Only the people were sacrificing on the high places, because there was no house built for the Name of YEHOWAH until those days.
3 And Solomon loved YEHOWAH, walking in the statutes of his father David; except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
4 And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place; and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.
5 In Gibeon YEHOWAH appeared to Solomon in a dream at night, and Elohim said, “Ask what I shall give to you.”
6 And Solomon said, “You have shown Your servant David, my father, great loving-kindness, according as he walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward You.  And You have kept for him this great loving-kindness, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.
7 And now, O YEHOWAH my Elohim, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, yet I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.
8 And Your servant is in the midst of Your people, whom You have chosen; a great people that cannot be numbered or counted for multitude.
9 So give Your servant a heart to hear intelligently, to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil.  For who is able to judge this, Your so great a people?”
10 And the matter was pleasing in the eye of Adonay, that Solomon had asked this thing.
11 And Elohim said to him, “Because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment, to hear intelligently for judgment,
12 behold, I have done according to your words.  Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor after you shall one like you arise.
13 I have also given you what you have not asked; both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days.
14 If you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will prolong your days.”
15 And Solomon awoke.  And behold, it was a dream.  And he came to Jerusalem and stood before the Ark of the Covenant of Adonay, and offered burnt offerings and made peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.
16 Then came two women; whores, to the king, and stood before him.
17 And the one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house, and I begat a son while she was in the house.
18 And it came to pass on the third day after I begat, that this woman also begat a son, and we were together.  No stranger was with us in the house, only we two were in the house.
19 And this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on it.
20 So she rose up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me, while your handmaid slept, and laid my son in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom.
21 And when I rose up in the morning to suck my son, behold, he was dead.  But when I considered it carefully in the morning light, behold, it was not my son, whom I had begot.”
22 Then the other woman said, “No!  For the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.”  But the first woman said, “No!  For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.”  Thus they spoke before the king.
23 Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No!  For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.'”
24 The king said, “Get me a sword.”  So they brought a sword before the king.
25 The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give the half to the one and the half to the other.”
26 Then spoke the woman whose son was the living one to the king, for she was deeply stirred over her son and said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill him.”  But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!”
27 Then the king said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him.  She is his mother.”
28 All Israel heard of the judgment that the king had handed down, and they revered the king, for they saw that the wisdom of Elohim was in him to do justice.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 4

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 4

So King Solomon was king over all Israel.
2 And these were his officials:  Azariyeh the son of Zadok was the priest;
3 Elihoreph and Ahiyeh, the sons of Shisha were secretaries; Yehshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder;
4 and Benayeh the son of Yehiada was over the army; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests;
5 and Azariyeh the son of Nathan was over the officers; and Zabud the son of Nathan was principal officer, and the king’s friend;
6 and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the forced labor.
7 Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided for the king and his household; each man his month in the year had to make provision.
8 These are their names:  Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;
9 Ben-deker in Makaz and Shaalbim and Beth-shemesh and Elon-beth-hanan;
10 Ben-hesed, in Aruboth (Socoh was his and all the land of Hepher);
11 Ben-abinadab, in all the height of Dor (Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife);
12 Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach, (had Megiddo, and all Beth-shean, which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah as far as the other side of Jokmeam);
13 Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead, (had the towns of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead were his; the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and brass bars were his);
14 Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;
15 Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also married Basemath the daughter of Solomon);
16 Baana the son of Hushayeh, in Asher and Bealoth;
17 Yehshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;
18 Shimei the son of Ela, in Benyehmin;
19 Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead; the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan, and he was the only deputy who was in the land.
20 Yehudah and Israel were as many as the sand that is by the sea in multitude; eating and drinking and rejoicing.
21 And Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the river to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.
22 Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour and sixty measures of meal,
23 ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed cows, a hundred sheep besides harts, gazelles, fallow-deer, and fattened fowl.
24 For he had dominion over all on this side of the river, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings on this side of the River; and he had peace on all sides around about him.
25 So Yehudah and Israel dwelled safely; every man under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.
26 Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.
27 Those officers provided for King Solomon and all who came to King Solomon’s table, each in his month; they left nothing lacking.
28 They also brought barley and straw for the horses and dromedaries, to the place where it should be, each according to his charge.
29 And Elohim gave Solomon wisdom, and very great understanding, and largeness of heart; like the sand that is on the seashore.
30 And Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the children of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt,
31 for he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the nations round about.
32 And he also spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five.
33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he spoke also of animals and birds and creeping things and fish.
34 And they came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon; from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 5

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 5

And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father; for Hiram had always loved David.
2 And Solomon sent word to Hiram, saying,
3 “You know that David my father was unable to build a house unto the Name of YEHOWAH his Elohim, because of the wars that were about him on every side, until YEHOWAH put them under the soles of his feet.
4 But now YEHOWAH my Elohim has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor evil occurrence.
5 Behold, I purpose to build a house unto the Name of YEHOWAH my Elohim, as YEHOWAH spoke unto David my father, saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, he will build the house unto My name.’
6 Now therefore, command that they cut for me cedar trees from Lebanon, and my servants will be with your servants, and I will give you wage for your servants according to all that you appoint; for you know that there is none among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”
7 And it came to pass when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be YEHOWAH this day, Who has given to David a wise son over this great people.”
8 And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, “I have heard the things that you sent to me; I will do all that you desire concerning the cedar and cypress timber.
9 My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will convey them by sea in floats to the place that you shall appoint, and I will have them broken up there, and you shall carry them away.  And you shall accomplish my desire by giving food to my household.”
10 So Hiram gave Solomon as much as he desired of the cedar and cypress trees.
11 And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat as food for his household, and twenty measures of beaten oil; thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year.
12 And YEHOWAH gave Solomon wisdom, as He promised him, and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a league together.
13 Now King Solomon raised a levy from all Israel, and the levy was thirty thousand men.
14 And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month in courses; a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home.  And Adoniram was over the levy.
15 And Solomon had seventy thousand that transported the burden, and eighty thousand hewers of stone in the mountains,
16 besides the three thousand three hundred officers Solomon appointed to rule over the project, and rule over the people doing the work.
17 Then the king commanded, and they quarried great stones; costly stones; hewn stones, to lay the foundation of the house.
18 So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Giblites hewed them, and prepared the timbers and the stones to build the house.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 6

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 6

And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv which is the second month, that he began to build the house of YEHOWAH.
2 As for the house that King Solomon built for YEHOWAH, its length was sixty cubits and its width twenty cubits and its height thirty cubits.
3 And the porch in front of the temple of the house was twenty cubits in length, according to the breadth of the house, and the depth of it, along the front of the house, was ten cubits.
4 And for the house he made windows with narrow frames.
5 Against the wall of the house he built chambers round about the walls of the house, around both the temple and the inner sanctuary; thus he made side chambers round about.
6 The lowest story was five cubits wide, and the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for on the outside he made offsets in the wall of the house round about, in order that beams would not be inserted into the walls of the house.
7 The house, while it was being built, was built of stone made ready at the quarry, so that there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any iron tool, heard in the house while it was being built.
8 The doorway for the middle chambers was on the right side of the house; and they would go up by winding stairs to the middle story, and from the middle to the third.
9 So he built the house and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and rows of cedar.
10 And he built the chambers against the whole house, each five cubits high; and they were held to the house with timbers of cedar.
11 And the word of YEHOWAH came to Solomon saying,
12 “This house that you are building:  If you will walk in My statutes and execute My judgments and keep all My commandments by walking in them, then I will perform My word with you, which I spoke to David your father;
13 and I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel.”
14 So Solomon built the house and finished it.
15 And he built the walls of the house, on the inside, with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the ceiling, and he overlaid the walls on the inside with wood, and he overlaid the floor of the house with boards of cypress.
16 And he built twenty cubits in the rear part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the ceiling; he built them for it on the inside as the inner sanctuary; even as the most holy place.
17 And the house, that is, the temple in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits long.
18 And the cedar of the house within was carved with gourds and open blossoms; all was cedar, there was no stone seen.
19 And he prepared the inner sanctuary within the house, to set there the Ark of the Covenant of YEHOWAH.
20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in height, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid the altar with cedar.
21 So Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold.  And he made a partition of chains of gold across the front of the inner sanctuary; and he overlaid it with gold.
22 And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all of the house. Also the whole altar, which was by the inner sanctuary, he overlaid with gold.
23 And in the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high.
24 Five cubits was the wing of one cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub; from the end of one wing to the end of the other wing, ten cubits.
25 And the other cherub was ten cubits; both the cherubim were of the same measure and the same form,
26 and the height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was the other cherub.
27 And he set the cherubim in the midst of the inner house, and the wings of the cherubim were stretched forth, so that the wing of the one was touching the wall, and the wing of the other cherub was touching the other wall; so their wings were touched, wing-to-wing, in the midst of the house.
28 And he overlaid the cherubim with gold.
29 And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved engravings of cherubim, palm trees, and open blossoms, within and without.
30 And he overlaid the floor of the house with gold; within and without.
31 And for the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood; the lintel and side posts were a fifth part the breadth of the wall.
32 The two doors of olive wood were engraved with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open blossoms, and he overlaid them with gold; and he overlaid the gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.
33 And he made for the entrance of the temple four-sided doorposts of olive wood,
34 and two doors of cypress wood; the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.
35 And he carved on them cherubim, palm trees, and open blossoms; and he overlaid them with gold fitted upon the engraved work.
36 And he built the inner court with three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beams.
37 In the fourth year the foundation of the house of YEHOWAH was laid, in the month of Zif.
38 And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished throughout all its parts, and according to all the fashion of it.  So he was seven years in building it.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 7

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 7

And Solomon was thirteen years building his own house, and he finished all his house.
2 And he built the house of the forest of Lebanon; its length was one hundred cubits and its width fifty cubits and its height thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar columns with cedar beams on the columns.
3 And it was covered with cedar above the beams, which were on forty-five pillars; fifteen in each row.
4 And there were windows in three rows, and window was opposite window in three rows.
5 All the doors and posts were square, with windows, and window was opposite window in three rows.
6 Then he made the porch of pillars; its length was fifty cubits and its depth thirty cubits, and a porch was in front of them and the pillars and the threshold in front of them.
7 And he made the hall of the throne where he was to judge; the hall of judgment, and it was covered with cedar from floor to floor.
8 And his house, where he was to dwell, had another court within the porch, of like work.  He also made a house like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom Solomon had married.
9 All these were of costly stones; hewed according to measure, sawed with saws, inside and outside; even from the foundation to the coping, and so on the outside to the great court.
10 And the foundation was of costly stones; even great stones; stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits.
11 And above were costly stones; hewed according to measure, and cedar.
12 And the great court round about had three rows of hewn stones and a row of cedar beams, both for the inner court of the house of YEHOWAH, and the porch of the house.
13 And King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre.
14 He was a widow’s son from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass; and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and knowledge for doing any work in brass.  And he came to King Solomon and did all his work.
15 He fashioned two pillars of brass; of eighteen cubits height for each pillar, and a line of twelve cubits measured round about each of them.
16 and he made two capitals of molten brass 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;
17 and nets of lattice work, and wreaths of garland work for the capitals that were on the top of the pillars; seven for the one capital and seven for the other capital.
18 And he made the pillars, and two rows round about on the network to cover the capitals, which were as pomegranates, and so he did for the other capital.
19 And the capitals that were on the topmost of the pillars were of lily design; four cubits in height.
20 And the capitals on the two pillars, above and close to the rounded projection, which was behind the network, had two hundred pomegranates in rows around both capitals.
21 And he set up the pillars at the porch of the temple; and he set up the right pillar and named it Jachin, and he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz.
22 And upon the topmost of the pillars was lily-work.  So the work of the pillars was finished.
23 Then he made the sea; cast, ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and thirty cubits encompassed it round about.
24 And under the brim of it round about, knops; ten to a cubit, encompassing the sea; the knops were in two rows, cast with the rest.
25 It stood upon twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; and the sea was set on top of them, and all their hind parts were inward.
26 And it was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, with lily blossoms; it contained two thousand baths.
27 And he made the ten pedestals of brass; four cubits was the length of each pedestal, and four cubits the width, and its height three cubits.
28 And the work of the pedestals was this:  They had panels, and the panels were between stiles,
29 and on the panels that were between the stiles were lions, oxen and cherubim; and there above the stiles was a base, and beneath the lions and oxen were garlands of thin workmanship.
30 And each pedestal had four brass wheels with axles of brass, and its four feet had supports; beneath the basin were cast supports with wreaths at each side.
31 And the mouth of it within the crown at the top was a cubit, and its opening was round like the work of the pedestal; a cubit and a half, and also on its opening there were engravings, and the borders were square, not round.
32 The four wheels were under the borders, and the axles of the wheels were on the stand.  And the height of a wheel was a cubit and a half.
33 And the workmanship of the wheels was like the workmanship of a chariot wheel.  Their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all cast.
34 And there were four shoulder-pieces at the four corners of each pedestal; its shoulder-piece was part of the pedestal itself.
35 On the top of the pedestal was a circular form half a cubit high, and on the top of the pedestal its ledges and its borders were part of it.
36 And he engraved on the plates of its ledges and on its borders, cherubim, lions and palm trees, according to the clear space on each, with wreaths round about.
37 He made the ten stands like this:  All of them had one casting, one measure and one form.
38 He made ten basins of brass; one basin held forty baths, and each basin was four cubits; and on each of the ten pedestals was one basin.
39 Then he set the stands; five on the right side of the house and five on the left side of the house, and he set the sea of cast metal on the right side of the house eastward toward the south.
40 And Hiram made the basins and the shovels and the bowls.  So Hiram finished doing all the work that he performed for King Solomon in the house of YEHOWAH:
41 The two pillars and the two bowls of the capitals which were on the top of the two pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the top of the pillars;
42 and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks; two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the tops of the pillars;
43 and the ten stands with the ten basins on the stands;
44 and the one sea, and the twelve oxen under the sea;
45 and the pails and the shovels and the bowls; even all these utensils, which Hiram made for King Solomon in the house of YEHOWAH, were of polished brass.
46 In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them; in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan.
47 And Solomon left all the utensils unweighed, because they were too many; the weight of the brass could not be determined.
48 And Solomon made all the furniture that was in the house of YEHOWAH:  The golden altar and the table of gold, whereon was the show-bread;
49 and the candlesticks of pure gold; five on the right side and five on the left; before the inner sanctuary; with the flowers and the lamps and the tongs; of gold;
50 and the basins, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the spoons, and the fire pans, of pure gold; and the hinges of gold for the doors of the inner house; the most holy place; and for the doors of the house, that is, of the temple, of gold.
51 So was ended all the work that King Solomon performed for the house of YEHOWAH.  And Solomon brought in the things dedicated by David his father; the silver and the gold and the utensils; and he put them in the treasures of the house of YEHOWAH.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 8

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 8

Then Solomon gathered together the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes; the princes of the fathers’ households of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of YEHOWAH from the city of David, which is Zion.
2 And all the men of Israel gathered together to King Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
3 And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the Ark.
4 They brought up the Ark of YEHOWAH, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy utensils which were in the tent; and the priests and the Levites brought them up.
5 And King Solomon and all the assembly of Israel who were gathered together to him, were with him before the Ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be told nor numbered for multitude.
6 And the priests brought the Ark of the Covenant of YEHOWAH to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house; unto the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim;
7 for the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the Ark, and the cherubim covered the Ark and its poles from above.
8 But the poles were long, so that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen outside; and there they are to this day.
9 There was nothing in the Ark except the two tablets of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, where YEHOWAH made a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.
10 And it came to pass when the priests came out of the inner sanctuary; the cloud filled the house of YEHOWAH,
11 so that the priests could not stand to minister, because of the cloud; for the glory of YEHOWAH filled the house of YEHOWAH.
12 Then said Solomon, “YEHOWAH has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud.
13 I have surely built You a house to dwell in; a place for You to dwell in forever.”
14 And the king turned his face about and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing.
15 And he said, “Blessed be YEHOWAH, the Elohim of Israel, Who spoke with His mouth to David my father, and has with His hand fulfilled it, saying,
16 ‘Since the day that I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that My Name might be there, but I chose David to be over My people Israel.’
17 And it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the Name of YEHOWAH, the Elohim of Israel,
18 but YEHOWAH said to David my father, ‘Because it was in your heart to build a house for My Name; you did well that it was in your heart,
19 nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son, that will come forth out of your loins, he will build the house for My Name.’
20 And YEHOWAH has performed His word which He spoke; for I have risen in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as YEHOWAH promised.  And have built the house for the Name of YEHOWAH, Elohim of Israel.
21 And I have set there a place for the Ark, wherein is the covenant of YEHOWAH, which He made with our fathers when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.”
22 Then Solomon stood before the altar of YEHOWAH in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven,
23 and he said, “O YEHOWAH, Elohim of Israel, there is no Elohim like You in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and loving-kindness with Your servants who walk before You with all their heart;
24 who have kept with Your servant David my father that which You did promise him; for You have spoken with Your mouth and have fulfilled it with Your hand as it is this day.
25 Now therefore, O YEHOWAH, Elohim of Israel, keep with Your servant David my father that which You have promised him, saying, ‘There shall not fail you a man in My sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way to walk before Me as you have walked.’
26 And now, O Elohim of Israel, please let Your Word be verified, which You have spoken to Your servant David my father.
27 But will Elohim indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!
28 Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O YEHOWAH my Elohim; to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You this day;
29 that Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day; toward the place of which You have said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ to hear the prayer which Your servant shall make toward this place.
30 Hear the supplication of Your servant, and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place, and hear You in Your dwelling place; hear and forgive.
31 If anyone sins against their neighbor and is made to take an oath, and they come and take an oath before Your altar in this house,
32 then hear You in heaven and do, and judge Your servants, condemning the wicked to bring their way upon their own head, and justifying the righteous by giving them according to their righteousness.
33 When Your people Israel are struck down before an enemy, because they have sinned against You, and shall turn again to You, and shall confess Your Name, and pray and make supplication unto You in this house,
34 then hear You in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land that You gave unto their fathers.
35 When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain, because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your Name and turn from their sin; when You afflict them,
36 then hear You in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and of Your people Israel; when You teach them the good way in which they should walk, and give rain upon Your land, which You have given Your people for an inheritance.
37 If there is famine in the land; if there is pestilence; if there is blight or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is,
38 whatever prayer or supplication is made by any one, or by all Your people Israel, each knowing the plague of their own heart, and spreading their hands toward this house,
39 then hear You in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive and do, and give to each one according to all their ways; whose hearts You know, for You alone know the hearts of all the children of men,
40 that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.
41 And as to the stranger who is not of Your people Israel, but who comes from a far country for Your Name’s sake,
42 (for they will hear of Your great Name and Your mighty hand, and of Your outstretched arm); when they come and pray toward this house,
43 hear You in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the stranger calls unto You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Your Name, to 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 And if Your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way You shall send them, and they pray to YEHOWAH toward the city that You have chosen, and the house that I have built for Your Name,
45 then hear You in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
46 When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin) and You are angry with them, and deliver them to an enemy, so that they take them away captive to the land of the enemy; far off or near;
47 if they take thought in the land where they have been taken captive, and repent and make supplication to You in the land of those who have taken them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned and have committed iniquity; we have acted wickedly’;
48 if they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who have taken them captive, and pray to You toward their land which You have given to their fathers; the city which You have chosen, and the house which I have built for Your Name,
49 then hear You their prayer and their supplication in heaven Your dwelling place, and maintain their cause,
50 and forgive Your people who have sinned against You, and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against You, and make them objects of compassion before those who have taken them captive, that they may have compassion on them
51 (for they are Your people and Your inheritance which You have brought forth out of Egypt; from the midst of the furnace of iron),
52 that Your eyes may be open to the supplication of Your servant, and to the supplication of Your people Israel, to hear them in all their supplications to You.
53 For You have separated them from among all the people of the earth as Your inheritance; as You spoke through Moses Your servant when You brought our fathers forth out of Egypt, O Adonay YEHOWAH.”
54 And it was, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this entire prayer and supplication to YEHOWAH, he rose up from before the altar of YEHOWAH; from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread forth toward heaven,
55 and he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying:
56 “Blessed be YEHOWAH, Who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised; there has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant.
57 YEHOWAH our Elohim be with us, as He was with our fathers; let Him not leave us, nor forsake us,
58 that He may incline our hearts to Him, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments, and His statutes, and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers.
59 And let these my words, with which I have made supplication before YEHOWAH, be near unto YEHOWAH our Elohim day and night, that He maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as the matter of each day shall require;
60 that all the people of the earth may know that YEHOWAH is Elohim; that there is none else.
61 Let your heart therefore, be perfect with YEHOWAH our Elohim, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as at this day.”
62 And the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before YEHOWAH.
63 And Solomon sacrificed a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he sacrificed unto YEHOWAH; twenty two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep.  So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of YEHOWAH.
64 The same day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of YEHOWAH, for there he offered the burnt offerings, and the bloodless offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the brass altar that was before YEHOWAH was too small to hold the burnt offerings and the bloodless offerings and the fat of the peace offerings.
65 And at that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him; a great assembly from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before YEHOWAH our Elohim; seven days and seven days; fourteen days.
66 On the eighth day he sent the people away, and they blessed the king, and they went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that YEHOWAH had shown to David His servant, and to Israel His people.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 9

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 9

And it came to pass when Solomon had finished building the house of YEHOWAH and the king’s house, and all that Solomon was pleased to do,
2 that YEHOWAH appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.
3 And YEHOWAH said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before Me, and I have consecrated this house, which you have built, to put My Name there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.
4 And you, if you will walk before Me as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My judgments,
5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘There shall not fail you a man on the throne of Israel.’
6 But if you shall at all turn from following Me, you or your children, and will not keep My commandments and My statutes, which I have set before you, but go and serve other elohim and worship them,
7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them.  And the house that I have consecrated for My Name, I will cast out of My sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
8 And at this high house, everyone that passes by it will be astonished, and they will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has YEHOWAH done thus to this land and to this house?’
9 And they will say, ‘Because they forsook YEHOWAH their Elohim, Who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and taken hold of other elohim, and worshiped them and served them.  Therefore has YEHOWAH brought upon them all this evil.'”
10 And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of YEHOWAH and the king’s house;
11 Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar trees and cypress trees and with gold, according to all his desire; that then King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
12 So Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, and they did not please him.
13 And he said, “What cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” So they are called the land of Cabul to this day.
14 And Hiram sent to the king one hundred twenty talents of gold.
15 And this is the account of the levy, which King Solomon raised to build the house of YEHOWAH, his own house, the Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.
16 For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.
17 So Solomon rebuilt Gezer and lower Beth-horon,
18 and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land,
19 and all the storage cities which Solomon had; even the cities for his chariots and the cities for his horsemen, and all that it pleased Solomon to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.
20 And all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel;
21 their seed who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel were not able to utterly destroy; upon them did Solomon levy tribute of forced labor, even to this day.
22 But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen; but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and his chariot commanders, and his horsemen.
23 These were the chief officers who were over Solomon’s work; five hundred and fifty, who ruled over the people doing the work.
24 And Pharaoh’s daughter came up out of the city of David to her house, which Solomon had built for her; then he built the Millo.
25 And three times in a year Solomon did offer burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar that he built to YEHOWAH, burning incense with them upon the altar, which was before YEHOWAH.  So he finished the house.
26 And King Solomon made a fleet of ships in Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.
27 And Hiram sent in the fleet his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon,
28 and they went to Ophir and took from there gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 10

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 10

And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the Name of YEHOWAH, she came to test him with hard questions.
2 So she came to Jerusalem with a very great train; with camels carrying spices and very much gold and precious stones.  And when she had come to Solomon, she communed with him about all that was in her heart.
3 And Solomon expounded to her on all her questions; nothing was hidden from the king, which he did not tell her.
4 And when the queen of Sheba saw all of the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built,
5 and the food of his table, and the seating of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up to the house of YEHOWAH; it took her breath away!
6 And she said to the king, “It was a true report that I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom,
7 but I did not believe the reports, until I came and my eyes had seen it.  And behold, the half was not told me.  Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the report that I heard.
8 How blessed are your men; how blessed are these your servants who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom.
9 Blessed be YEHOWAH your Elohim Who delighted in you, to set you on the throne of Israel; because YEHOWAH has loved (and will love) Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do judgment and justice.”
10 And She gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a very great abundance of spices and precious stones.  There came no more such abundance of spices as that which the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon.
11 Also the fleet of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir a very great number of sandalwood trees and precious stones.
12 And the king made of the sandalwood trees supports for the house of YEHOWAH and for the king’s house, also harps and lyres for the singers; and there came no such sandalwood trees again, nor have they been seen to this day.
13 And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside what he gave her of the bounty of King Solomon.  So she turned and went to her own land; she and her servants.
14 Now the weight of gold that came in to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty six talents of gold;
15 besides that from the merchants, and of the traders of the spices, and of all the kings of Arabia, and the governors of the country.
16 And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold, using six hundred shekels of gold on each large shield;
17 and he made three hundred shields of beaten gold, using three minas of gold on each shield, and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
18 Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with refined gold.
19 The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was rounded behind, and there were arms on each side of the seat, and two lions stood beside the arms,
20 and twelve lions were standing there on the six steps, on the one side and on the other; there was not the like in any other kingdom.
21 And all 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 silver; it was not considered valuable in the days of Solomon.
22 For the king had at sea the fleet of Tarshish, with the fleet of Hiram.  And once in three years came the fleet of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and peacocks.
23 So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.
24 And all the earth sought the presence of Solomon; to hear his wisdom, which Elohim had put in his heart.
25 And they brought every man his gift; articles of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses, and mules; a rate year by year.
26 And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen; and he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, and he placed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.
27 The king made silver in Jerusalem as abundant as stones, and he made cedars as plentiful as the sycamore trees that are in the lowland.
28 And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt; the king’s merchants procured them for a price.
29 And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for one hundred fifty; and by the same means all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Syrians, did bring out their means.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 11

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 11

And King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite;
2 from the nations concerning whom YEHOWAH had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not come in to them, nor shall they come in to you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their elohim.”  To these Solomon held fast in love.
3 He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.
4 For it came to pass when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other elohim; and his heart was not wholly devoted to YEHOWAH his Elohim, as was the heart of David his father.
5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the elohim of the Sidonians and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
6 And Solomon did what was evil in the sight of YEHOWAH, and did not follow YEHOWAH fully, as David his father had done.
7 Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, the detestable idol of Moab, on the hill which is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the detestable idol of the children of Ammon.
8 And so he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their elohim.
9 And YEHOWAH was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from YEHOWAH, the Elohim of Israel, Who had appeared to him twice,
10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, not to go after other elohim; but he kept not what YEHOWAH had commanded.
11 Therefore YEHOWAH said to Solomon, “Forasmuch as this is done by you, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely rend the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.
12 Notwithstanding in your days I will not do it, for David your father’s sake, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
13 However, I will not tear away all the kingdom.  I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”
14 And YEHOWAH raised up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was of the king’s seed in Edom.
15 For it came to pass, when David was in Edom, and Yehab the commander of the army had gone up to bury the slain, after he had struck down every male in Edom,
16 (for Yehab and all Israel stayed there six months, until he had cut off every male in Edom),
17 that Hadad fled to Egypt; he and certain Edomites of his father’s servants with him, while Hadad was a young boy.
18 And they arose out of Midian and came to Paran, and they took men with them from Paran and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave him a house and assigned him food and gave him land.
19 And Hadad found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him as wife the sister of his own wife; the sister of Tahpanhes the queen.
20 The sister of Tahpanhes begat his son Genubath, whom Tahpanhes weaned in Pharaoh’s house, and Genubath was in Pharaoh’s house among the children of Pharaoh.
21 And when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers, and that Yehab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me depart, that I may go to my own country.”
22 But Pharaoh said to him, “What have you lacked with me, that behold, you are seeking to go to your own country?” And he answered, “Nothing; but in any case you must surely let me go.”
23 Elohim raised up another adversary to him, Rezon the son of Eliada, who had fled from his lord Hadadezer king of Zobah.
24 And he gathered men to himself and became captain over a troop, after David slew them of Zobah; and they went to Damascus and dwelt there, and reigned in Damascus.
25 And he was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, along with the evil that Hadad did; and he abhorred Israel and reigned over Syria.
26 And Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zereda, Solomon’s servant, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow woman, also rebelled against the king.
27 And this was the reason why he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon built the Millo, and closed up the breaches of the city of David his father;
28 and the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor, and Solomon, seeing the young man was industrious, made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Yehseph.
29 And it came to pass about that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahiyeh the Shilonite found him on the road.  Now Ahiyeh had clothed himself with a new cloak, and both of them were alone in the field.
30 Then Ahiyeh took the new cloak that was on him and tore it into twelve pieces.
31 And he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces; for thus says YEHOWAH, the Elohim of Israel, ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you,
32 (but he will have one tribe, for My servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake; the city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel);
33 because they have forsaken Me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the elohim of the Sidonians, Chemosh the elohim of Moab, and Milcom the elohim of the children of Ammon; and they have not walked in My ways, doing what is right in My sight and observing My statutes and My ordinances, as did David his father.
34 But I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life, for David My servant’s sake, whom I chose, because he kept My commandments and My statutes;
35 but I will take the kingdom from his son’s hand and give it unto you, even ten tribes.
36 But to his son I will give one tribe, that David My servant may have a light always before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen for Myself to put My Name.
37 And I will take you, and you shall reign over whatever you desire, and you shall be king over Israel.
38 And it shall be, if you will hear all that I command you, and will walk in My ways, and will do what is right in My sight by keeping My statutes and My commandments, as David My servant did, then I will be with you and build you an enduring house as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you.
39 And I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not forever.'”
40 And Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam rose up and fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and he was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.
41 And 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?
42 And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.
43 And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father, and his son Rehoboam reigned in his stead.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 12

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 12

And Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.
2 And it came to pass when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it, for he was yet dwelling in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon,
3 they sent and called him.  And Jeroboam, and all the assembly of Israel, came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying,
4 “Your father made our yoke grievous.  Now therefore, lighten the grievous service of your father and his heavy yoke, which he put on us, and we will serve you.”
5 And he said to them, “Depart for three days, then return to me.”  So the people departed.
6 And King Rehoboam consulted with the old men who had stood before Solomon his father, while he was still alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?”
7 And they spoke to him, saying, “If this day you will be a servant to this people, and will serve them and hear them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.”
8 But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, but consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him.
9 And he said to them, “What advise do you give that we may answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke, which your father put on us’?”
10 The young men who grew up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us!’  But you shall speak to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins!
11 Whereas my father did laden you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.'”
12 Then Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had directed, saying, “Return to me on the third day.”
13 And the king answered the people harshly, for he forsook the advice of the old men, which they had given him,
14 and he spoke to them according to the advice 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.”
15 So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of events from YEHOWAH, that He might establish His Word, which YEHOWAH spoke through Ahiyeh the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
16 So when all Israel saw that the king did not hear them, the people answered the king, saying, “What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.  To your own tents, O Israel!  Now look after your own house, David!”  So Israel departed to their tents.
17 But as for the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Yehudah, Rehoboam reigned over them.
18 Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death.  And King Rehoboam hastened to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.
19 So Israel rebelled against the house of David to this day.
20 And it came to pass when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come again, that they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel.  None followed the house of David, but the tribe of Yehudah only.
21 And when Rehoboam had come to Jerusalem, he gathered together all the house of Yehudah and the tribe of Benyehmin; one hundred eighty thousand chosen men who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel; to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.
22 But the word of Elohim came to Shemaiyeh the man of Elohim, saying,
23 “Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Yehudah, and to all the house of Yehudah and Benyehmin and to the remaining people, saying,
24 ‘Thus says YEHOWAH, “You shall not go up and fight against your brethren the children of Israel; return every man to his house, for this thing is from Me.”‘”  They heard, therefore, the word of YEHOWAH, and returned to depart, according to the word of YEHOWAH.
25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and lived there.  And he went out from there and built Penuel.
26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.
27 If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of YEHOWAH at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their lord; to Rehoboam king of Yehudah; and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Yehudah.”
28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your elohim, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
29 And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.
30 And this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan.
31 And he made houses on high places, and made priests from among the lowest of the people, who were not of the children of Levi.
32 And Jeroboam made a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Yehudah, and he went up to the altar; thus 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.
33 So he offered upon the altar that he had made in Bethel, on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month that he had invented in his own heart; and he made a feast for the children of Israel and offered upon the altar, burning incense.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 13

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 13

And behold, there came a man of Elohim from Yehudah by the word of YEHOWAH, to Bethel; and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.
2 And he cried against the altar by the word of YEHOWAH, and said, “O altar, altar! Thus says YEHOWAH, ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Yosiyeh by name; and upon you shall he sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.'”
3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign that YEHOWAH has spoken, ‘Behold, the altar shall be torn apart and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.'”
4 And it came to pass when the king heard the saying of the man of Elohim, which he cried against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched forth his hand from the altar, saying, “Lay hold of him.” And his hand that he put forth against him dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to himself.
5 And the altar also was torn apart, and the ashes were poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of Elohim had given by the word of YEHOWAH.
6 And the king answered and said to the man of Elohim, “Entreat now the face of YEHOWAH your Elohim, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” And the man of Elohim entreated YEHOWAH, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and became as before.
7 And the king said to the man of Elohim, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward,”
8 but the man of Elohim said to the king, “If you will give me half your house, I will not go with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water in this place.
9 For so it was commanded me by the word of YEHOWAH, saying, ‘You shall eat no bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way which you came.'”
10 So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.
11 Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the deeds that the man of Elohim had done that day in Bethel; the words that he had spoken to the king, these also they related to their father.
12 Their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” For his sons had seen the way that the man of Elohim, who came from Yehudah, had gone.
13 Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the ass for me.”  So they saddled the ass for him and he rode away on it,
14 and he went after the man of Elohim and found him sitting under an oak, and he said to him, “Are you the man of Elohim who came from Yehudah?” And he said, “I.”
15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”
16 He said, “I cannot return with you, nor go with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.
17 For it was said to me by word of YEHOWAH, ‘You shall eat no bread, nor drink water there; nor turn again to go by the way which you came.'”
18 And he said to him, “I also am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of YEHOWAH, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.'” And he lied to him!
19 So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house and drank water.
20 And it came to pass as they were sitting down at the table, that the word of YEHOWAH came to the prophet who had brought him back,
21 and he cried to the man of Elohim who came from Yehudah, saying, “Thus says YEHOWAH, ‘Forasmuch as you have disobeyed the command of YEHOWAH, and have not kept the commandment that YEHOWAH your Elohim commanded you,
22 but came back and ate bread and drank water in the place of which He said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water”; your body shall not come to the grave of your fathers.'”
23 And it came to pass after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the ass for him; for the prophet whom he had brought back,
24 and when he had gone, a lion met him on the way and killed him, and his body was cast on the road, with the ass standing beside it; the lion also stood by the body.
25 And behold, men passed by and saw the body cast on the road, and the lion standing by the body; so they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.
26 And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard, he said, “It is the man of Elohim, who was disobedient to the command of YEHOWAH; therefore YEHOWAH has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of YEHOWAH which He spoke to him.”
27 And he spoke to his sons, saying, “Saddle the ass for me.” And they saddled it.
28 And he went and found his body cast on the road, with the ass and the lion standing beside the body; the lion had not eaten the body nor torn the ass.
29 And the prophet took up the body of the man of Elohim, and laid it on the ass, and brought it back, and the old prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him.
30 And he laid his body in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!”
31 And it came to pass after he had buried him, he spoke to his sons, saying, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of Elohim is buried; lay my bones beside his bones,
32 for the matter shall surely come to pass, which he cried by the word of YEHOWAH against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places, which are in the cities of Samaria.”
33 After this thing Jeroboam turned not from his evil way, but made again from the lowest of the people, priests of the high places; whoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places.
34 And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, even to blot it out and destroy it from off the face of the earth.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 14

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 14

At that time Abiyeh the son of Jeroboam became sick.
2 And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Rise up now, please, and disguise yourself, that it not be known that you are the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh; behold, Ahiyeh the prophet is there, who told me that I would be king over this people,
3 and take ten loaves with you, some cakes and a jar of honey, and go to him, and he will tell you what will happen to the boy.”
4 And Jeroboam’s wife did so, and rose up and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahiyeh.  Now Ahiyeh could not see, for his eyes were dim by reason of his age.
5 But YEHOWAH had said to Ahiyeh, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to ask a thing of you about her son, for he is sick.  You shall say thus and thus to her, for it will be when she comes in, that she will pretend to be another.”
6 When Ahiyeh heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam, why do you pretend to be another?  For I am sent to you harshly.
7 Go, say to Jeroboam, ‘Thus says YEHOWAH Elohim of Israel, “Forasmuch as I exalted you from among the people, and made you leader over My people Israel,
8 and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you; yet you have not been like My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only that which is right in My sight.
9 But you have done evil more than all who were before you, and have gone and made for yourself other elohim and molten images, to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back.
10 Therefore behold, I will bring evil on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and I will make a clean sweep of the house of Jeroboam, as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone.
11 He that dies of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat, and he who dies in the field the birds of the heavens will eat; for YEHOWAH has spoken.”‘
12 And you, rise up, go to your own house.  When your feet enter the city the child will die,
13 and all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he only of Jeroboam’s shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something good toward YEHOWAH Elohim of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.
14 Moreover, YEHOWAH will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who will cut off the house of Jeroboam that day, and from now on.
15 For YEHOWAH will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and He will uproot Israel from this good land, which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their Asherim, provoking YEHOWAH to anger.
16 And He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, with which he sinned, and with which he made Israel sin.”
17 And Jeroboam’s wife rose up and departed and came to Tirzah, and when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died.
18 And they buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, according to the Word of YEHOWAH, which He spoke through His servant Ahiyeh the prophet.
19 And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
20 And the days that Jeroboam reigned were twenty-two years; and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his stead.
21 And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Yehudah.  Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that YEHOWAH had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put His Name there.  And his mother’s name was Naamah; an Ammonitess.
22 And Yehudah did evil in the sight of YEHOWAH, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins, which they committed, above all that their fathers had done.
23 For they also built for themselves high places and images and Asherim, on every high hill and beneath every flourishing tree.
24 There were also sodomites in the land.  They did according to all the abominations of the nations, which YEHOWAH dispossessed before the children of Israel
25 And it came to pass in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, that Shishak the king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.
26 And he took away the treasures of the house of YEHOWAH, and the treasures of the king’s house, and he took away all.  And he took away all the shields of gold, which Solomon had made.
27 And King Rehoboam made in their stead, shields of brass, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who kept the doorway of the king’s house.
28 And it was so, that as often as the king entered the house of YEHOWAH, that the guards would bear them, and brought them back into the guards’ chamber.
29 And the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Yehudah?
30 And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.
31 And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and his mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess.  And Abijam his son reigned in his stead.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 15

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 15

Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Yehudah.
2 He reigned three years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom.
3 And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had committed before him.  And his heart was not perfect with YEHOWAH his Elohim; like the heart of his father David.
4 But for David’s sake, YEHOWAH, his Elohim, gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, to raise up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem,
5 because David did what was right in the sight of YEHOWAH, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriyeh the Hittite.
6 And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.
7 Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Yehudah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.
8 And Abijam slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city of David, and Asa his son became king in his stead.
9 So in the twentieth year of Jeroboam the king of Israel, Asa began to reign as king of Yehudah.
10 He reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom.
11 Asa did what was right in the sight of YEHOWAH, like David his father.
12 And he took away the sodomites from the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
13 He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother, because she had made a terror; an image of an Asherah, and Asa cut down her terrible image and burned it at the brook Kidron.
14 But the high places were not taken away; nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect unto YEHOWAH all his days.
15 And he brought into the house of YEHOWAH the dedicated things of his father and his own dedicated things: silver and gold and utensils.
16 And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.
17 And Baasha king of Israel went up against Yehudah and fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa king of Yehudah.
18 Then Asa took all the silver and the gold which were left in the treasuries of the house of YEHOWAH, and the treasuries of the king’s house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants.  And King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, who dwelled in Damascus, saying,
19 “Let there be a treaty between you and me, as between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you a present of silver and gold; go, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so that he will depart from me.”
20 So Ben-hadad heard King Asa and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel, and conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah and all Chinneroth, besides all the land of Naphtali.
21 And it came to pass when Baasha heard of it, he ceased fortifying Ramah and remained in Tirzah.
22 Then King Asa made a proclamation throughout all Yehudah; none was exempt, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber, with which Baasha had built.  And King Asa built with them Geba of Benyehmin and Mizpah.
23 Now the rest of all the acts of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities that he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Yehudah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet.
24 And Asa slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father; and Yehshaphat his son reigned in his place.
25 Now Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Yehudah, and he reigned over Israel two years.
26 And he did evil in the sight of YEHOWAH, and walked in the way of his father and in his sin, which he made Israel sin.
27 Then Baasha the son of Ahiyeh of the house of Issachar conspired against him, and Baasha struck him down at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, while Nadab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon.
28 So Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa king of Yehudah and reigned in his stead.
29 And it came to pass when he reigned, he struck down all the household of Jeroboam.  He left to Jeroboam none that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according to the Word of YEHOWAH, which He spoke by His servant Ahiyeh the Shilonite,
30 and because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin, because of his provocation with which he provoked YEHOWAH Elohim of Israel to anger.
31 Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
32 And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.
33 In the third year of Asa king of Yehudah, Baasha the son of Ahiyeh became king over all Israel at Tirzah, and reigned twenty-four years.
34 And he did evil in the sight of YEHOWAH, and walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin, which he made Israel sin.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 16

1 KINGS: CHAPTER 16

And the word of YEHOWAH came to Yehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying,
2 “Forasmuch as I exalted you from the dust and made you prince over My people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have made My people Israel sin, provoking Me to anger with their sins,
3 behold, I will consume the posterity of Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
4 Anyone of Baasha who dies in the city the dogs will eat, and anyone of his who dies in the field the birds of the heavens will eat.”
5 Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, and what he did and his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
6 And Baasha slept with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah, and Elah his son reigned in his stead.
7 And also through the prophet Yehu the son of Hanani, the Word of YEHOWAH came against Baasha and against his house, even for all the evil that he did in the sight of YEHOWAH, provoking Him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he killed him.
8 In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Yehudah, Elah the son of Baasha began to reign over Israel at Tirzah, and reigned two years.
9 And his servant Zimryeh, captain of half his chariots, conspired against him; and he was at Tirzah drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was over the household at Tirzah.
10 And Zimryeh went in and struck him and killed him, in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Yehudah, and reigned in his stead.
11 And it came to pass when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he killed all the household of Baasha; he did not leave a single male, neither of his relatives nor of his friends.
12 Thus did Zimryeh destroy all the house of Baasha, according to the Word of YEHOWAH, which He spoke against Baasha through Yehu the prophet,
13 for all the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah his son, by which they sinned, and by which they made Israel sin, provoking YEHOWAH Elohim of Israel to anger with their vanities.
14 Now the rest of the acts of Elah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
15 In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Yehudah, Zimryeh reigned seven days at Tirzah.  Now the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines.
16 And the people who were encamped heard said, “Zimryeh has conspired and has also struck down the king.”  Therefore all Israel made Omryeh, the captain of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp.
17 And Omryeh went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah.
18 And it came to pass when Zimryeh 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
19 for his sins which he sinned, doing evil in the sight of YEHOWAH, walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, making Israel sin.
20 Now the rest of the acts of Zimryeh and his treason that he brought, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
21 Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts: half of the people followed Tibnyeh the son of Ginath, to make him king; the other half followed Omryeh.
22 But the people who followed Omryeh prevailed over the people who followed Tibnyeh the son of Ginath.  And Tibnyeh died and Omryeh became king.
23 In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Yehudah, Omryeh began to reign over Israel and reigned twelve years; he reigned six years at Tirzah.
24 He bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and he built on the hill, and named the city that he built Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill.
25 But Omryeh did evil in the eyes of YEHOWAH, and did more wickedly than all who were before him.
26 For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sins with which he made Israel sin, to provoke YEHOWAH Elohim of Israel with their vanity.
27 Now the rest of the acts of Omryeh, which he did, and his might which he showed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
28 So Omryeh slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria, and Ahab his son reigned in his stead.
29 Now Ahab the son of Omryeh reigned over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Yehudah, and Ahab the son of Omryeh reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.
30 And Ahab the son of Omryeh did evil in the eyes of YEHOWAH above all who were before him.
31 And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him.
32 So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal that he built in Samaria.
33 And Ahab also made the Asherah.  Thus Ahab did more to provoke YEHOWAH Elohim of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him.
34 In his days Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho.  He laid its foundations with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the Word of YEHOWAH, which He spoke by Yehshua the son of Nun.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 17

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 17

Now Eliyeh the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As YEHOWAH, the Elohim of Israel lives, before Whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”
2 And the Word of YEHOWAH came to him, saying,
3 “Depart from here and turn eastward, and hide by the brook Cherith, which is before the Jordan.
4 And it shall be that you shall drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.”
5 So he went and did according to the Word of YEHOWAH, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is before the Jordan.
6 And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.
7 And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
8 And the Word of YEHOWAH came to him, saying,
9 “Rise up, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and remain there.  Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you.”
10 So he rose up and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.”
11 And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”
12 But she said, “As YEHOWAH your Elohim lives, I have not a cake of bread, but only a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.”
13 Then Eliyeh said to her, “Fear not; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake thereof first and bring it to me, and afterward you may make for yourself and for your son.
14 For thus says YEHOWAH Elohim of Israel, ‘The barrel of flour shall not expire, nor shall the saucer of oil fail, until the day that YEHOWAH sends rain upon the face of the earth.'”
15 So she went and did according to the word of Eliyeh, and she and he and her household ate for many days.
16 And the barrel of flour was not expired, nor did the saucer of oil become empty, according to the Word of YEHOWAH, which He spoke through Eliyeh.
17 And it came about after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick.  And his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.
18 So she said to Eliyeh, “What do I have to do with you, O you man of Elohim? You have come to me to call my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death!”
19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he abode, and laid him on his own bed.
20 And he called to YEHOWAH and said, “O YEHOWAH my Elohim, have You also brought evil to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?”
21 And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to YEHOWAH and said, “O YEHOWAH my Elohim, I pray You, let this child’s life return to him.”
22 And YEHOWAH heard the voice of Eliyeh, and the life of the child returned to him and he revived.
23 And Eliyeh took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and delivered him to his mother; and Eliyeh said, “See, your son lives!”
24 And the woman said to Eliyeh, “Now by this I know that you are a man of Elohim, and that the Word of YEHOWAH in your mouth is truth.”

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 18

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 18

And it came to pass after many days that the word of YEHOWAH came to Eliyeh in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the face of the earth.”
2 So Eliyeh went to show himself to Ahab.  And the famine was severe in Samaria.
3 And Ahab called Obadiyeh who was over his household.  (Now Obadiyeh feared YEHOWAH greatly;
4 for when Jezebel destroyed the prophets of YEHOWAH, Obadiyeh took one hundred prophets and hid them by fifty in caves, and provided them with bread and water).
5 And Ahab said to Obadiyeh, “Go through the land to all the springs of water, and to all the valleys, perhaps we will find grass to keep the horses and mules alive; and not have to kill some of the cattle.”
6 So they divided the land between them to pass throughout it; Ahab went one way by himself and Obadiyeh went another way by himself.
7 And as Obadiyeh was on the way, behold, Eliyeh met him, and he acknowledged him and fell on his face and said, “Is this you, Eliyeh my lord?”
8 And he said to him, “It is I.  Go, say to your lord, ‘Behold, Eliyeh is here.'”
9 And he said, “What have I sinned, that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab to put me to death?
10 As YEHOWAH your Elohim lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to seek you, and when they said, ‘He is not here,’ he made the kingdom or nation swear that they could not find you.
11 And now you are saying, ‘Go, say to your lord, “Behold, Eliyeh.”‘
12 And it will come to pass when I leave you, that The Spirit of YEHOWAH will carry you where I know not, so when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I, your servant, have feared YEHOWAH from my youth.
13 Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of YEHOWAH, how I hid one hundred prophets of YEHOWAH by fifty in caves, and provided them with bread and water?
14 And now you are saying, ‘Go, say to your lord, “Behold, Eliyeh”‘; he will then kill me.”
15 And Eliyeh said, “As YEHOWAH of hosts lives, before Whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him this day.”
16 So Obadiyeh went to meet Ahab and told him; and Ahab went to meet Eliyeh.
17 And it came to pass when Ahab saw Eliyeh, Ahab said to him, “Is this you, you troubler of Israel?”
18 And He said, “I have not troubled Israel, but you, and your father’s house, in that you have forsaken the commandments of YEHOWAH, and you have followed the Baals.
19 Now therefore, send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with four hundred fifty prophets of Baal, and four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
20 So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered together the prophets at Mount Carmel.
21 And Eliyeh came near to all the people and said, “How long will you dance between two opinions? If YEHOWAH is Elohim, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”  But the people answered him not a word.
22 Then Eliyeh said to the people, “I only am left a prophet of YEHOWAH, but Baal’s prophets are four hundred fifty men.
23 Now let them give us two oxen, and let them choose one ox for themselves and cut it up, and place it on the wood, but put no fire to it; and I will prepare the other ox and lay it on the wood, and I will put no fire to it.
24 And call you on the name of your elohim, and I will call upon the Name of YEHOWAH, and the Elohim who answers by fire, He is Elohim.”  And all the people said, “It is well said.”
25 And Eliyeh said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one ox for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many, and call on the name of your elohim, but put no fire to it.”
26 So they took the ox, which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us.”  But there was no voice and no one answered.  And they leapt about the altar, which they made.
27 And it came to pass at noon, that Eliyeh mocked them and said, “Cry aloud to your elohim; either he is meditating or is withdrawn, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened.”
28 And they cried with a loud voice, and cut themselves according to their manner with swords and lances until the blood gushed out upon them.
29 And it came to be when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, but there was no voice, nor any that answered, nor any that regarded.
30 Then Eliyeh said to all the people, “Come near unto me.”  So all the people came near unto him.  And he repaired the altar of YEHOWAH, which had been pulled down.
31 And Eliyeh took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Jacob, unto whom the Word of YEHOWAH had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.”
32 And with the stones he built an altar in the Name of YEHOWAH, and he made a trench round about the altar, as great as would hold two measures of seed.
33 And he put the wood in order, and cut the ox in pieces and laid it on the wood, and he said, “Fill four pitchers with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.”
34 And 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.
35 And the water flowed round about the altar, and it filled the trench also with water.
36 And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Eliyeh the prophet came near and said, “YEHOWAH, Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that You are Elohim in Israel, and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things by Your Word.
37 Answer me, O YEHOWAH; answer me, that this people may know that You, YEHOWAH, are Elohim, and that You have turned their heart back again.”
38 Then the fire of YEHOWAH 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.
39 And when all the people saw, they fell on their faces, and they said, “YEHOWAH, He is Elohim; YEHOWAH, He is Elohim.”
40 Then Eliyeh said unto them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.”  So they seized them; and Eliyeh brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.
41 And Eliyeh said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.”
42 So Ahab went up to eat and drink, but Eliyeh went to the top of Carmel, and he cast himself down to the earth, and put his face between his knees.
43 And he said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.”  So he went up and looked and said, “Nothing.”  And he said, “Go again seven times.”
44 And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, “Behold, there is a little cloud arising out of the sea, as small as a man’s hand.”  And he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare and go down, so that the rain does not stop you.'”
45 And it came to pass in the meanwhile that the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.  And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.
46 But the hand of YEHOWAH was on Eliyeh, and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 19

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 19

And Ahab told Jezebel all that Eliyeh had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.
2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Eliyeh, saying, “So may the elohim do, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.”
3 And when he saw, he rose up and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Yehudah, and left his servant there.
4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a certain juniper tree; and requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough, now, O YEHOWAH, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.”
5 And as he lay and slept under the juniper tree, behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, “Rise up, eat.”
6 And he looked, and behold, at his head a cake baked on hot stones, and a saucer of water.  And he ate and drank and lay down again.
7 And the angel of YEHOWAH came again a second time and touched him and said, “Rise up, eat, for the journey is too great for you.”
8 So he rose up, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of Elohim.
9 And he came there unto a cave and lodged there.  And behold, the Word of YEHOWAH came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Eliyeh?”
10 And he said, “I have been very jealous for YEHOWAH, the Elohim of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword.  And I, I only am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”
11 And He said, “Go forth and stand upon the mountain before YEHOWAH.”  And behold, YEHOWAH passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before YEHOWAH, but YEHOWAH was not in the wind.  And after the wind an earthquake, but YEHOWAH was not in the earthquake.
12 And after the earthquake a fire, but YEHOWAH was not in the fire.  And after the fire a calm, small voice.
13 And it came to pass when Eliyeh heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave, and behold, the voice to him said, “What are you doing here, Eliyeh?”
14 And he said, “I have been very jealous for YEHOWAH, the Elohim of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword.  And I, I only am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
15 And YEHOWAH said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you come, anoint Hazael king over Syria;
16 and Yehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shall you anoint prophet in your stead.
17 And it shall come to pass that the one who escapes the sword of Hazael, Yehu shall slay, and the one who escapes the sword of Yehu, Elisha shall slay.
18 Yet I will have left to Me seven thousand in Israel; all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
19 So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, while he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth.  And Eliyeh went over to him and cast his mantle upon him.
20 And he left the oxen and ran after Eliyeh and said, “Let me, please, kiss my father and my mother, and I will follow you.”  And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?”
21 And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and killed them, and boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen, and gave it to the people and they ate.  And he rose up and went after Eliyeh and ministered to him.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 20

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 20

And Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and there were thirty-two kings with him, and horses and chariots.  And he went up and besieged Samaria and fought against it.
2 And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel, to the city, and said to him, “Thus says Ben-hadad,
3 ‘Your silver and your gold are mine; your most beautiful wives and children are also mine.'”
4 The king of Israel replied, “My lord, O king, it is according to your word.  I am yours, and all that I have.”
5 Then the messengers came again and said, “Thus says Ben-hadad, ‘You shall give me your silver and your gold, and your wives and your children;
6 yet tomorrow about this time I will send my servants to you, and they will search your house and the houses of your servants, and whatsoever is desirable in your eyes, they will take in their hand and carry away.'”
7 Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land and said, “Observe, please, and see how this man seeks evil, for he sent to me for my wives and my children, and my silver and my gold, and I denied him not.”
8 And all the elders and all the people said to him, “Do not hear or consent.”
9 So he said to the messengers of Ben-hadad, “Tell my lord the king, ‘All that you sent for to your servant at the first I will do, but this thing I cannot do.'” And the messengers departed and brought him word again.
10 And Ben-hadad sent to him and said, “May the elohim do so to me and more also, if the dust of Samaria will suffice for handfuls for all the people who follow me.”
11 Then the king of Israel answered and said, “Tell him, ‘Let not him who girds his armor boast himself as he who takes it off.'”
12 And it came to pass when Ben-hadad heard this message, as he was drinking; he and the kings in the tents, he said to his servants, “Set yourselves.” So they set themselves against the city.
13 And behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab king of Israel and said, “Thus says YEHOWAH, ‘Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand this day; and you shall know that I am YEHOWAH.'”
14 And Ahab said, “By whom?” So he said, “Thus says YEHOWAH, ‘By the young men of the princes of the provinces.'” Then he said, “Who shall begin the battle?” And he answered, “You”.
15 Then he numbered the young men of the princes of the provinces, and there were two hundred thirty two; and after them he numbered all the people, even all the children of Israel; seven thousand.
16 And they went out at noon, while Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk in the tents with the thirty-two kings who helped him.
17 And the young men of the princes of the provinces went out first, and Ben-hadad sent out and they told him, saying, “Men have come out from Samaria.”
18 Then he said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive.”
19 So these went out from the city, the young men of the princes of the provinces, and the army, which followed them.
20 And they killed each one his man; and the Syrians fled and Israel pursued them, and Ben-hadad king of Syria escaped on a horse with horsemen.
21 And the king of Israel went out and struck the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter.
22 And the prophet came near to the king of Israel and said to him, “Go, strengthen yourself and observe, and see what you have to do; for at the turn of the year the king of Syria will come up against you.”
23 Now the servants of the king of Syria said to him, “Their Elohim are Elohim of the mountains, therefore they were stronger than we.  But rather let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they.
24 Do this thing: Take the kings away, each from his place, and put captains in their place,
25 and number 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 will be stronger than they.”  And he listened to their voice and did so.
26 And it came to pass at the turn of the year, Ben-hadad numbered the Syrians and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel.
27 And the children of Israel were numbered, and were provisioned, and went to meet them; and the children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the Syrians filled the country.
28 And there came a man of Elohim who spoke unto the king of Israel and said, ‘Because the Syrians have said, “YEHOWAH is an Elohim of the mountains, but He is not an Elohim of the valleys,” therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am YEHOWAH.'”
29 And they pitched one over against the other seven days.  And so it was on the seventh day the battle was joined, and the children of Israel killed of the Syrians one hundred thousand foot soldiers in one day.
30 And the rest fled to Aphek into the city, and the wall fell on twenty seven thousand men who remained.  And Ben-hadad fled and came into the city into an inner chamber.
31 And his servants said to him, “Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings, please let us put sackcloth on our loins and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will save your life.”
32 So they girded sackcloth on their loins and put ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-hadad says, ‘Please let me live.'”  And he said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”
33 And the men did diligently observe whether anything would come from him, and did hastily catch his word, and they said, “Your brother took this as an omen, and quickly catching his word said, “Your brother Ben-hadad.”  Then he said, “Go, bring him.” Then Ben-hadad came out to him, and he took him up into the chariot.
34 Ben-hadad said to him, “The cities which my father took from your father I will restore, and you shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria.” And Ahab said, “And I will let you go with this covenant.” So he made a covenant with him and let him go.
35 Now a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to another by the Word of YEHOWAH, “Please strike me.”  But the man refused to strike him.
36 Then he said to him, “Because you have not heard the voice of YEHOWAH, behold, as soon as you have departed from me, a lion will kill you.”  And as soon as he had departed from him a lion found him and killed him.
37 Then he found another man and said, “Please strike me.”  And the man struck him, wounding him.
38 So the prophet departed and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with ashes over his face.
39 And as the king passed by, he cried to the king and said, “Your servant went out into the midst of the battle, and behold, a man turned aside and brought a man to me and said, ‘Guard this man, if for any reason he is missing, then your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.’
40 And as your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” And the king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it.”
41 And he hastened and took the ashes away from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him that he was of the prophets.
42 And He said to him, “Thus says YEHOWAH, ‘Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to utter destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.'”
43 So the king of Israel went to his house heavy and displeased, and came to Samaria.

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 21

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 21

And it came to pass after these things that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.
2 And Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near the side of my house, and I will give you for it a better vineyard than it.  If it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.”
3 But Naboth said to Ahab, “YEHOWAH forbid it of me, that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”
4 So Ahab came into his house sad and very displeased, because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him, for he said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and ate no food.
5 But Jezebel his wife came to him and said to him, “Why is it that your spirit is so sad that you are not eating food?”
6 And he said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money, or else, if it pleases you, I will give you a vineyard in its place.’ But he said, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.'”
7 And Jezebel his wife said to him, “Do you now reign over Israel? Arise, eat bread, and let your heart be joyful.  I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”
8 So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and sent letters to the elders and to the nobles who were in his city, living with Naboth.
9 And she wrote in the letters, saying, “Proclaim a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people,
10 and seat two sons of Belial before him, to bear witness against him, saying, ‘You cursed Elohim and the king.’  Then take him out and stone him to death.”
11 And the men of his city; the elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, just as it was written in the letters, which she had sent them.
12 They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth at the head of the people.
13 And there came in the two worthless men; sons of Belial, and sat before him, and the worthless men testified against him, even against Naboth, before the people, saying, “Naboth cursed Elohim and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones.
14 Then they sent word to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned and is dead.”
15 And when Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, “Rise up, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money.  For Naboth is not alive, but dead!”
16 When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it,
17 and the Word of YEHOWAH came to Eliyeh the Tishbite, saying,
18 “Rise up, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth where he has gone down to take possession of it.
19 And you shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says YEHOWAH, “Have you killed and also taken possession?”‘ And you shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says YEHOWAH, “In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, the dogs will lick up your blood, even yours.”‘”
20 And Ahab said to Eliyeh, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” And he answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of YEHOWAH.
21 Behold, I will bring evil upon you, and will take away your posterity, and will cut off from Ahab every male, both bond and free in Israel;
22 and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahiyeh, because of the provocation with which you have provoked Me to anger, and because you have made Israel sin.
23 And of Jezebel also has YEHOWAH spoken, saying, ‘The dogs will eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.’
24 The one belonging to Ahab, who dies in the city, the dogs will eat, and the one who dies in the field the birds of heaven will eat.”
25 But there was none like Ahab who did sell himself to do evil in the sight of YEHOWAH, because Jezebel his wife enticed him.
26 And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all as the Amorites, whom YEHOWAH cast out before the children of Israel.
27 And it came to pass when Ahab heard those words that he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and he lay in sackcloth and went about softly.
28 And the Word of YEHOWAH came to Eliyeh the Tishbite, saying,
29 “Do you see 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.”

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 22

1 KINGS:  CHAPTER 22

And they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel.
2 And it came to pass in the third year that Yehshaphat the king of Yehudah came down to the king of Israel.
3 And the king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and we are still doing nothing to take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?”
4 And he said to Yehshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” And Yehshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are; my people as your people; my horses as your horses.”
5 And Yehshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire first for the word of YEHOWAH.”
6 So the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle or shall I forbear?” And they said, “Go up, for Adonay will give it into the hand of the king.”
7 But Yehshaphat said, “Is there not yet a prophet of YEHOWAH here that we may inquire of him?”
8 And the king of Israel said to Yehshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of YEHOWAH, but I hate him, because he prophesies no good concerning me, but evil.  He is Mikayeh son of Imlah.”  But Yehshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.”
9 Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, “Hasten, bring Mikayeh son of Imlah.”
10 Now the king of Israel and Yehshaphat king of Yehudah were each sitting on his throne, arrayed in their robes, at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them.
11 Then Zedekiyeh the son of Chenaanah made horns of iron for himself and said, “Thus says YEHOWAH, ‘With these you will gore the Syrians until they are consumed.'”
12 And all the prophets were prophesying thus, saying, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and prosper, for YEHOWAH will give it into the hand of the king.”
13 And the messenger who went to call Mikayeh spoke to him saying, “Behold now, the words of the prophets are good to the king with one mouth.  Please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.”
14 But Mikayeh said, “As YEHOWAH lives, what YEHOWAH says to me, that I shall speak.”
15 And when he came to the king, the king said to him, “Mikayeh, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we forbear?” And he answered him, “Go up and succeed, and YEHOWAH will give it into the hand of the king.”
16 Then the king said to him, “How many times must I adjure you to speak to me nothing but truth in the Name of YEHOWAH?”
17 And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, like sheep that have no shepherd.  And YEHOWAH said, ‘These have no master.  Let them return, every man to his house in peace.'”
18 And the king of Israel said to Yehshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil?”
19 And he said, “Hear therefore, the Word of YEHOWAH.  I saw YEHOWAH sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him; by His right hand and by His left hand.
20 And YEHOWAH said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said this while another said that.
21 And there came forth a spirit who stood before YEHOWAH and said, ‘I will persuade him.’
22 And YEHOWAH said to him, ‘How?’ And he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’  Then He said, ‘You are to persuade him and also prevail.  Go and do so.’
23 Now therefore, behold, YEHOWAH has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets, and YEHOWAH has spoken evil against you.”
24 Then Zedekiyeh the son of Chenaanah came near and struck Mikayeh on the cheek and said, “How did The Spirit of YEHOWAH pass from me to speak to you?”
25 And Mikayeh said, “Behold, you shall see on that day when you shall go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.”
26 And the king of Israel said, “Take Mikayeh and carry him back to Amon the governor of the city, and to Yehash the king’s son,
27 and say, ‘Thus says the king, “Put this in prison and feed him with bread of oppression and water of oppression, until I return in peace.”‘”
28 And Mikayeh said, “If you shall indeed return in peace, YEHOWAH has not spoken by me.”  And he said, “Listen, all you people.”
29 So the king of Israel and Yehshaphat king of Yehudah went up against Ramoth-gilead.
30 And the king of Israel said to Yehshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into the battle, but you put on your robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle.
31 Now the king of Syria had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, saying, “Fight neither with small or great, but with the king of Israel alone.”
32 And it came to pass when the captains of the chariots saw Yehshaphat, they said, “Surely it is the king of Israel,” and they turned aside to fight against him, and Yehshaphat cried out.
33 But when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him.
34 Now a certain man drew his bow at venture and struck the king of Israel in a joint of the armor. So he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn your hand and carry me out of the fight, for I am wounded.”
35 And the battle increased that day, and the king was stood up in his chariot against the Syrians, and he died at evening, and the blood from the wound ran out into the bottom of the chariot.
36 And there went a cry throughout the host, at the going down of the sun, saying, “Every man to his city, and every man to his country.”
37 So the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria.
38 And one washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked his blood, where the whores bathed themselves, according to the Word of YEHOWAH, which He spoke.
39 Now the rest of the acts of Ahab and all that he did, and the ivory house that he built, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
40 So Ahab slept with his fathers, and Ahaziyeh his son reigned in his stead.
41 And Yehshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Yehudah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel.
42 And Yehshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem.  And his mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhyeh.
43 And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing right in the sight of YEHOWAH.  Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away, for the people still sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places.
44 And Yehshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel.
45 Now the rest of the acts of Yehshaphat, and his might which he showed, and how he warred, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Yehudah?
46 And the remnant of the sodomites who remained in the days of his father Asa, he expelled from the land.
47 Now there was no king in Edom; a deputy was king.
48 And Yehshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they did not go for the ships were broken at Ezion-geber.
49 Then said Ahaziyeh the son of Ahab, to Yehshaphat, “Let my servants go with your servants in the ships.”  But Yehshaphat was not willing.
50 And Yehshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of his father David, and Yehram his son reigned in his stead.
51 Ahaziyeh the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Yehshaphat king of Yehudah, and he reigned two years over Israel.
52 And he did evil in the sight of YEHOWAH, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
53 And he served Baal and worshiped him and provoked to anger, YEHOWAH, Elohim of Israel, according to all that his father had done.

Red Line Rule = Thought Break

VISIT THE LETTERS OF FAITH

Red Line Rule = Thought Break

The Exalted Name Bible™ (ENB)™
Copyright © 2011-2022,
2nd Edition © 2018-2022
All Rights Reserved Worldwide
Lawrence T. Vosen, PhD.

PRO LIFE WHITE RIBBON

ProLife Flag - Endorsed by ENB