1 Now king David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he went no heat.
2 Wherefore his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin: and let her stand before the king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in your bosom, that my lord the king may get heat.
3 So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the regions of Israel, and found Abishag a Shunammite, and brought her to the king.
4 The damsel was very fair, and cherished the king, and ministered to him: but the king knew her not.
5 Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, I will be king: and he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.
6 His father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why have you done so? and he also was a very goodly man; and his mother gave birth to him after Absalom.
7 He conferred with Joab the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest: and they following Adonijah helped him.
8 But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rei, and the mighty men which belonged to David, were not with Adonijah.
9 Adonijah killed sheep and oxen and fat cattle by the stone of Zoheleth, which is by Enrogel, and called all his brethren the king’s sons, and all the men of Judah the king’s servants:
10 But Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, he called not.
11 Wherefore Nathan spoke unto Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith does reign, and David our lord knows it not?
12 Now therefore come, let me, please, give you counsel, that you may save your own life, and the life of your son Solomon.
13 Go and get you in unto king David, and say unto him, did not you, my lord, O king, swear unto your handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? why then does Adonijah reign?
14 Behold, while you yet talk there with the king, I also will come in after you, and confirm your words.
15 Bathsheba went in unto the king into the chamber: and the king was very old; and Abishag the Shunammite ministered unto the king.
16 Bathsheba bowed, and did obeisance unto the king. And the king said, What would you?
17 She said unto him, My lord, you swore by the LORD your God unto your handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne.
18 Now, behold, Adonijah reigns; and now, my lord the king, you know it not:
19 He has killed oxen and fat cattle and sheep in abundance, and has called all the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the captain of the host: but Solomon your servant has he not called.
20 You, my lord, O king, the eyes of all Israel are upon you, that you should tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him.
21 Otherwise it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders.
22 And, lo, while she yet talked with the king, Nathan the prophet also came in.
23 They told the king, saying, Behold Nathan the prophet. And when he was come in before the king, he bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.
24 Nathan said, My lord, O king, have you said, Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne?
25 For he is gone down this day, and has killed oxen and fat cattle and sheep in abundance, and has called all the king’s sons, and the captains of the host, and Abiathar the priest; and, behold, they eat and drink before him, and say, God save king Adonijah.
26 But me, even me your servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon, has he not called.
27 Is this thing done by my lord the king, and you have not showed it unto your servant, who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?
28 Then king David answered and said, Call me Bathsheba. And she came into the king’s presence, and stood before the king.
29 The king swore, and said, As the LORD lives, that has redeemed my soul out of all distress,
30 Even as I swore unto you by the LORD God of Israel, saying, Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead; even so will I certainly do this day.
31 Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the earth, and did reverence to the king, and said, Let my lord king David live for ever.
32 King David said, Call me Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. And they came before the king.
33 The king also said unto them, Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon:
34 Let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over Israel: and blow you with the trumpet, and say, God save 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 stead: and I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah.
36 Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said, Amen: the LORD God of my lord the king say so too.
37 As the LORD 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, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, went down, and caused Solomon to ride upon king David’s mule, and brought him to Gihon.
39 Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, God save king Solomon.
40 All the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.
41 Adonijah and all the guests that were with him heard it as they had made an end of eating. And when Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, Wherefore is this noise of the city being in an uproar?
42 While he yet spoke, behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came; and Adonijah said unto him, Come in; for you are a valiant man, and bring good tidings.
43 Jonathan answered and said to Adonijah, Verily our lord king David has made Solomon king.
44 The king has sent with him Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and they have caused him to ride upon the king’s mule:
45 Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon: and they are come up from there rejoicing, so that the city rang again. This is the noise that you have heard.
46 Also Solomon sits on the throne of the kingdom.
47 Moreover the king’s servants came to bless our lord king David, saying, God make the name of Solomon better than your name, and make his throne greater than your throne. And the king bowed himself upon the bed.
48 Also thus said the king, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which has given one to sit on my throne this day, mine eyes even seeing it.
49 All the guests that were with Adonijah were afraid, and rose up, and went every man his way.
50 Adonijah feared because of Solomon, and arose, and went, and caught hold on the horns of the altar.
51 It was told Solomon, saying, Behold, Adonijah fears king Solomon: for, lo, he has caught hold on the horns of the altar, saying, Let king Solomon swear unto me today that he will not kill his servant with the sword.
52 Solomon said, If he will show himself a worthy man, there shall not an hair of him fall to the earth: but if wickedness shall be found in him, he shall die.
53 So king Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the altar. And he came and bowed himself to king Solomon: and Solomon said unto him, Go to your house.
1 Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying,
2 I go the way of all the earth: be you strong therefore, and show yourself a man;
3 Keep the charge of the LORD your God, 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 whithersoever you turn yourself:
4 That the LORD may continue his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, If your children take heed to 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 know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet.
6 Do therefore according to your wisdom, and let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace.
7 But show kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those that eat at your table: for so they came to me when I fled because of Absalom your brother.
8 And, behold, you have with you Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim: but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I swore to him by the LORD, 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 know what you ought to do unto him; but his hoar head bring you down to the grave with blood.
10 So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.
11 The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem.
12 Then sat Solomon upon the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was established greatly.
13 Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. And she said, come you peaceably? And he said, Peaceably.
14 He said moreover, I have somewhat to say unto you. And she said, Say on.
15 He said, you know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign: however the kingdom is turned about, and is become my brother’s: for it was his from the LORD.
16 Now I ask one petition of you, deny me not. And she said unto him, Say on.
17 He said, Speak, please, unto Solomon the king, (for he will not say you nay,) that he give me Abishag the Shunammite to wife.
18 Bathsheba said, Well; I will speak for you unto the king.
19 Bathsheba therefore went unto king Solomon, to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king’s mother; and she sat on his right hand.
20 Then she said, I desire one small petition of you; please, say me not nay. And the king said unto her, Ask on, my mother: for I will not say you nay.
21 She said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother to wife.
22 King Solomon answered and said unto his mother, And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? ask for him the kingdom also; for he is mine elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah.
23 Then king Solomon swore by the LORD, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah have not spoken this word against his own life.
24 Now therefore, as the LORD lives, which has established me, and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me an house, as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day.
25 King Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell upon him that he died.
26 Unto Abiathar the priest said the king, Get you to Anathoth, unto your own fields; for you are worthy of death: but I will not at this time put you to death, because you bore the ark of the LORD God before David my father, and because you have been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted.
27 So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the LORD; that he might fulfil the word of the LORD, which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.
28 Then tidings came to Joab: for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom. And Joab fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD, and caught hold on the horns of the altar.
29 It was told king Solomon that Joab was fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD; and, behold, he is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, fall upon him.
30 Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the LORD, and said unto him, Thus says the king, Come forth. And he said, Nay; but I will die here. And Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.
31 The king said unto him, Do as he has said, and fall upon him, and bury him; that you may take away the innocent blood, which Joab shed, from me, and from the house of my father.
32 The LORD shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and killed them with the sword, my father David not knowing thereof, to wit, Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah.
33 Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever: but upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne, shall there be peace for ever from the LORD.
34 So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up, and fell upon him, and killed him: and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.
35 The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his room over the host: and Zadok the priest did the king put in the room of Abiathar.
36 The king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Build you an house in Jerusalem, and live there, and go not forth there any where.
37 For it shall be, that on the day you go out, and pass over the brook Kidron, you shall know for certain that you shall surely die: your blood shall be upon your own head.
38 Shimei said unto the king, The saying is good: as my lord the king has said, so will your servant do. And Shimei lived in Jerusalem many days.
39 At the end of three years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away unto Achish son of Maachah king of Gath. And they told Shimei, saying, Behold, your servants be in Gath.
40 Shimei arose, and saddled his ass, and went to Gath to Achish to seek his servants: and Shimei went, and brought his servants from Gath.
41 It was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and was come again.
42 The king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Did I not make you to swear by the LORD, and protested unto you, saying, Know for a certain, on the day you go out, and walk abroad any where, that you shall surely die? and you said unto me, The word that I have heard is good.
43 Why then have you not kept the oath of the LORD, and the commandment that I have charged you with?
44 The king said moreover to Shimei, you know all the wickedness which your heart is privy to, that you did to David my father: therefore the LORD shall return your wickedness upon your own head;
45 King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the LORD for ever.
46 So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; which went out, and fell upon him, that he died. And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.
1 Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem round about.
2 Only the people sacrificed in high places, because there was no house built unto the name of the LORD, until those days.
3 Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.
4 The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar.
5 In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give you.
6 Solomon said, you have showed unto your servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before you in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you; and you have kept for him this great kindness, that you have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.
7 Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.
8 Your servant is in the midst of your people which you have chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.
9 Give therefore your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this your so great a people?
10 The speech pleased the LORD, that Solomon had asked this thing.
11 God said unto him, Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself long life; neither have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies; but have asked for yourself understanding to discern judgment;
12 Behold, I have done according to your words: lo, I have given you a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like you before you, neither after you shall any arise like unto you.
13 I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto you all your days.
14 If you will walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as your father David did walk, then I will lengthen your days.
15 Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.
16 Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him.
17 The one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman live in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house.
18 The third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house.
19 This woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid it.
20 She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
21 When I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear.
22 The other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is your son. And this said, No; but the dead is your son, and the living is my son. Thus they spoke before the king.
23 Then said the king, The one says, This is my son that lives, and your son is the dead: and the other says, Nay; but your son is the dead, and my son is the living.
24 The king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king.
25 The king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.
26 Then spoke the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise kill it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor your, but divide it.
27 Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise kill it: she is the mother thereof.
28 All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.
1 So king Solomon was king over all Israel.
2 These were the princes which he had; Azariah the son of Zadok the priest,
3 Elihoreph and Ahiah, the sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder.
4 Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the host: and Zadok and Abiathar were the priests:
5 Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers: and Zabud the son of Nathan was principal officer, and the king’s friend:
6 Ahishar was over the household: and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the tribute.
7 Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, which provided victuals for the king and his household: each man his month in a year made provision.
8 These are their names: The son of Hur, in mount Ephraim:
9 The son of Dekar, in Makaz, and in Shaalbim, and Bethshemesh, and Elonbethhanan:
10 The son of Hesed, in Aruboth; to him pertained Sochoh, and all the land of Hepher:
11 The son of Abinadab, in all the region of Dor; which had Taphath the daughter of Solomon to wife:
12 Baana the son of Ahilud; to him pertained Taanach and Megiddo, and all Bethshean, which is by Zartanah beneath Jezreel, from Bethshean to Abelmeholah, even unto the place that is beyond Jokneam:
13 The son of Geber, in Ramothgilead; to him pertained the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; to him also pertained the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and brasen bars:
14 Ahinadab the son of Iddo had Mahanaim:
15 Ahimaaz was in Naphtali; he also took Basmath the daughter of Solomon to wife:
16 Baanah the son of Hushai was in Asher and in Aloth:
17 Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar:
18 Shimei the son of Elah, in Benjamin:
19 Geber the son of Uri was in the country of Gilead, in the country of Sihon king of the Amorites, and of Og king of Bashan; and he was the only officer which was in the land.
20 Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking, and making merry.
21 Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt: they brought presents, 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, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and an hundred sheep, beside harts, and roebucks, and fallowdeer, and fatted fowl.
24 For he had dominion over all the region on this side the river, from Tiphsah even to Azzah, over all the kings on this side the river: and he had peace on all sides round about him.
25 Judah and Israel lived safely, every man under his vine and under 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 victual for king Solomon, and for all that came unto king Solomon’s table, every man in his month: they lacked nothing.
28 Barley also and straw for the horses and dromedaries brought they unto the place where the officers were, every man according to his charge.
29 God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.
30 Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt.
31 For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all nations round about.
32 He spoke three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five.
33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springs out of the wall: he spoke also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.
34 There came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom.
1 Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father: for Hiram was ever a lover of David.
2 Solomon sent to Hiram, saying,
3 You know how that David my father could not build an house unto the name of the LORD his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet.
4 But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent.
5 And, behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD spoke unto David my father, saying, your son, whom I will set upon your throne in your room, he shall build an house unto my name.
6 Now therefore command you that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with your servants: and unto you will I give hire for your servants according to all that you shall appoint: for you know that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.
7 When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be the LORD this day, which has given unto David a wise son over this great people.
8 Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have considered the things which you sent to me for: and I will do all your desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of fir.
9 My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea: and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place that you shall appoint me, and will cause them to be discharged there, and you shall receive them: and you shall accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household.
10 So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees according to all his desire.
11 Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil: thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year.
12 The LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him: and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together.
13 King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men.
14 He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses: a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home: and Adoniram was over the levy.
15 Solomon had sixty and ten thousand that gave birth to burdens, and eighty thousand hewers in the mountains;
16 Beside the chief of Solomon’s officers which were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, which ruled over the people that wrought in the work.
17 The king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house.
18 Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders did hew them, and the stonesquarers: so they prepared timber and stones to build the house.
1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.
2 The house which king Solomon built for the LORD, the length thereof was sixty cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits.
3 The porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house.
4 For the house he made windows of narrow lights.
5 Against the wall of the house he built chambers round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle: and he made chambers round about:
6 The nethermost chamber was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad: for without in the wall of the house he made narrowed rests round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house.
7 The house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought there: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.
8 The door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house: and they went up with winding stairs into the middle chamber, and out of the middle into the third.
9 So he built the house, and finished it; and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.
10 Then he built chambers against all the house, five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.
11 The word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying,
12 Concerning this house which you are in building, if you will walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I perform my word with you, which I spoke unto David your father:
13 I will live among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.
14 So Solomon built the house, and finished it.
15 He built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar, both the floor of the house, and the walls of the ceiling: and he covered them on the inside with wood, and covered the floor of the house with planks of fir.
16 He built twenty cubits on the sides of the house, both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar: he even built them for it within, even for the oracle, even for the most holy place.
17 The house, that is, the temple before it, was forty cubits long.
18 The cedar of the house within was carved with knops and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen.
19 The oracle he prepared in the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD.
20 The oracle in the forepart was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof: and he overlaid it with pure gold; and so covered the altar which was of cedar.
21 So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold.
22 The whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house: also the whole altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold.
23 Within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high.
24 Five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing unto the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits.
25 The other cherub was ten cubits: both the cherubims were of one measure and one size.
26 The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was it of the other cherub.
27 He set the cherubims within the inner house: and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubims, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house.
28 He overlaid the cherubims with gold.
29 He carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, within and without.
30 The floors of the house he overlaid with gold, within and without.
31 For the entering of the oracle he made doors of olive tree: the lintel and side posts were a fifth part of the wall.
32 The two doors also were of olive tree; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubims, and upon the palm trees.
33 So also made he for the door of the temple posts of olive tree, a fourth part of the wall.
34 The two doors were of fir tree: the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.
35 He carved thereon cherubims and palm trees and open flowers: and covered them with gold fitted upon the carved work.
36 He built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone, and a row of cedar beams.
37 In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the LORD laid, in the month Zif:
38 In the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it.
1 But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.
2 He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof was an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.
3 It was covered with cedar above upon the beams, that lay on forty five pillars, fifteen in a row.
4 There were windows in three rows, and light was against light in three ranks.
5 All the doors and posts were square, with the windows: and light was against light in three ranks.
6 He made a porch of pillars; the length thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth thereof thirty cubits: and the porch was before them: and the other pillars and the thick beam were before them.
7 Then he made a porch for the throne where he might judge, even the porch of judgment: and it was covered with cedar from one side of the floor to the other.
8 His house where he lived had another court within the porch, which was of the like work. Solomon made also an house for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had taken to wife, like unto this porch.
9 All these were of costly stones, according to the measures of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so on the outside toward the great court.
10 The foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits.
11 Above were costly stones, after the measures of hewed stones, and cedars.
12 The great court round about was with three rows of hewed stones, and a row of cedar beams, both for the inner court of the house of the LORD, and for the porch of the house.
13 King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre.
14 He was a widow’s son of 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 cunning to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work.
15 For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece: and a line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about.
16 He made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits:
17 Nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars; seven for the one chapiter, and seven for the other chapiter.
18 He made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other chapiter.
19 The chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch, four cubits.
20 The chapiters upon the two pillars had pomegranates also above, over against the belly which was by the network: and the pomegranates were two hundred in rows round about upon the other chapiter.
21 He set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz.
22 Upon the top of the pillars was lily work: so was the work of the pillars finished.
23 He made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.
24 Under the brim of it round about there were knops compassing it, ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about: the knops were cast in two rows, when it was cast.
25 It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set above upon them, and all their hinder parts were inward.
26 It was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.
27 He made ten bases of brass; four cubits was the length of one base, and four cubits the breadth thereof, and three cubits the height of it.
28 The work of the bases was on this manner: they had borders, and the borders were between the ledges:
29 On the borders that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubims: and upon the ledges there was a base above: and beneath the lions and oxen were certain additions made of thin work.
30 Every base had four brasen wheels, and plates of brass: and the four corners thereof had undersetters: under the laver were undersetters molten, at the side of every addition.
31 The mouth of it within the chapiter and above was a cubit: but the mouth thereof was round after the work of the base, a cubit and an half: and also upon the mouth of it were gravings with their borders, foursquare, not round.
32 Under the borders were four wheels; and the axletrees of the wheels were joined to the base: and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit.
33 The work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel: their axletrees, and their naves, and their felloes, and their spokes, were all molten.
34 There were four undersetters to the four corners of one base: and the undersetters were of the very base itself.
35 In the top of the base was there a round compass of half a cubit high: and on the top of the base the ledges thereof and the borders thereof were of the same.
36 For on the plates of the ledges thereof, and on the borders thereof, he graved cherubims, lions, and palm trees, according to the proportion of every one, and additions round about.
37 After this manner he made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one size.
38 Then made he ten lavers of brass: one laver contained forty baths: and every laver was four cubits: and upon every one of the ten bases one laver.
39 He put five bases on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house: and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward over against the south.
40 Hiram made the lavers, and the shovels, and the basons. So Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he made king Solomon for the house of the LORD:
41 The two pillars, and the two bowls of the chapiters that were on the top of the two pillars; and the two networks, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars;
42 Four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, even two rows of pomegranates for one network, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters that were upon the pillars;
43 The ten bases, and ten lavers on the bases;
44 One sea, and twelve oxen under the sea;
45 The pots, and the shovels, and the basons: and all these vessels, which Hiram made to king Solomon for the house of the LORD, were of bright brass.
46 In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarthan.
47 Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceeding many: neither was the weight of the brass found out.
48 Solomon made all the vessels that pertained unto the house of the LORD: the altar of gold, and the table of gold, whereupon the shewbread was,
49 The candlesticks of pure gold, five on the right side, and five on the left, before the oracle, with the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs of gold,
50 The bowls, and the snuffers, and the basons, and the spoons, and the censers of pure gold; and the hinges of gold, both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, to wit, of the temple.
51 So was ended all the work that king Solomon made for the house of the LORD. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated; even the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, did he put among the treasures of the house of the LORD.
1 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion.
2 All the men of Israel assembled themselves unto king Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
3 All the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark.
4 They brought up the ark of the LORD, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle, even those did the priests and the Levites bring up.
5 King Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel, that were assembled unto him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, that could not be told nor numbered for multitude.
6 The priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims.
7 For the cherubims spread forth their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubims covered the ark and the staves thereof above.
8 They drew out the staves, that the ends of the staves were seen out in the holy place before the oracle, and they were not seen without: and there they are unto this day.
9 There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
10 When the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD,
11 So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.
12 Then spoke Solomon, The LORD said that he would live in the thick darkness.
13 I have surely built you an house to live in, a settled place for you to abide in for ever.
14 The king turned his face about, and blessed all the congregation of Israel: (and all the congregation of Israel stood;)
15 He said, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which spoke with his mouth unto David my father, and has with his hand fulfilled it, saying,
16 Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build an house, that my name might be therein; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.
17 It was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.
18 The LORD said unto David my father, Whereas it was in your heart to build an house unto my name, you did well that it was in your heart.
19 Nevertheless you shall not build the house; but your son that shall come forth out of your loins, he shall build the house unto my name.
20 The LORD has performed his word that he spoke, and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.
21 I have set there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
22 Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven:
23 He said, LORD God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keep covenant and mercy with your servants that walk before you with all their heart:
24 Who have kept with your servant David my father that you promisedst him: you spoke also with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is this day.
25 Therefore now, LORD God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that you promisedst him, saying, There shall not fail you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that your children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as you have walked before me.
26 Now, O God of Israel, let your word, please, be verified, which you spoke unto your servant David my father.
27 But will God indeed live on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built?
28 Yet have you respect unto the prayer of your servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which your servant prays before you to day:
29 That your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which you have said, My name shall be there: that you may hearken unto the prayer which your servant shall make toward this place.
30 Hearken you to the supplication of your servant, and of your people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear you in heaven your living place: and when you hear, forgive.
31 If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before your altar in this house:
32 Then hear you in heaven, and do, and judge your servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.
33 When your people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against you, and shall turn again to you, and 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 again unto the land which you gave unto their fathers.
35 When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you; if they pray toward this place, and 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, that you teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.
37 If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;
38 What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all your people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:
39 Then hear you in heaven your living place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart you know; (for you, even you only, 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 gave unto our fathers.
41 Moreover concerning a stranger, that is not of your people Israel, but comes out of a far country for your name’s sake;
42 (For they shall hear of your great name, and of your strong hand, and of your stretched out arm;) when he shall come and pray toward this house;
43 Hear you in heaven your living place, and do according to all that the stranger calls to you for: that all people 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 If your people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever you shall send them, and shall pray unto the LORD toward the city which you have chosen, and toward 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 If they sin against you, (for there is no man that sinns not,) and you be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;
47 Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land where they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto you in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;
48 So return unto you with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto you toward their land, which you gave unto 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 living place, and maintain their cause,
50 Forgive your people that have sinned against you, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against you, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:
51 For they be your people, and your inheritance, which you brought forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:
52 That your eyes may be open unto the supplication of your servant, and unto the supplication of your people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for unto you.
53 For you did separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be your inheritance, as you spoke by the hand of Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O LORD God.
54 It was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven.
55 He stood, and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying,
56 Blessed be the LORD, that has given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.
57 The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let him not leave us, nor forsake us:
58 That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers.
59 Let these my words, with which I have made supplication before the LORD, be nigh unto the LORD our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel at all times, as the matter shall require:
60 That all the people of the earth may know that the LORD is God, and that there is none else.
61 Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.
62 The king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the LORD.
63 Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered unto the LORD, two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.
64 The same day did the king hallow the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD: for there he offered burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings: because the brasen altar that was before the LORD was too little to receive the burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings.
65 At that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days.
66 On the eighth day he sent the people away: and they blessed the king, and went unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the LORD had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.
1 When Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he was pleased to do,
2 That the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon.
3 The LORD said unto him, I have heard your prayer and your supplication, that you have made before me: I have hallowed this house, which you have built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.
4 If you will walk before me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart, and in 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 upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David your father, saying, There shall not fail you a man upon 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 gods, and worship them:
7 Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:
8 At this house, which is high, every one that passes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why has the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house?
9 They shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore has the LORD brought upon them all this evil.
10 At the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD, and the king’s house,
11 (Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
12 Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not.
13 He said, What cities are these which you have given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day.
14 Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold.
15 This is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.
16 For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and killed the Canaanites that lived in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon’s wife.
17 Solomon built Gezer, and Bethhoron the nether,
18 Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land,
19 All the cities of store that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.
20 All the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel,
21 Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto 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 rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen.
23 These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon’s work, five hundred and fifty, which gave birth to rule over the people that wrought in the work.
24 But Pharaoh’s daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Millo.
25 Three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar which he built unto the LORD, and he burnt incense upon the altar that was before the LORD. So he finished the house.
26 King Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom.
27 Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.
28 They came to Ophir, and fetched from there gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.
1 When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions.
2 She came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that gave birth to spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.
3 Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not.
4 When the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon’s wisdom, and the house that he had built,
5 The meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her.
6 She said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of your acts and of your wisdom.
7 However I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: your wisdom and prosperity exceeds the fame which I heard.
8 Happy are your men, happy are these your servants, which stand continually before you, and that hear your wisdom.
9 Blessed be the LORD your God, which delighted in you, to set you on the throne of Israel: because the LORD loved Israel for ever, therefore made he you king, to do judgment and justice.
10 She gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.
11 The navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones.
12 The king made of the almug trees pillars for the house of the LORD, and for the king’s house, harps also and psalteries for singers: there came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this day.
13 King Solomon gave unto the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.
14 Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty and six talents of gold,
15 Beside that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffick of the spice merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the country.
16 King Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold: six hundred shekels of gold went to one target.
17 He made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pound of gold went to one 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 the best gold.
19 The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind: and there were stays on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays.
20 Twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps: there was not the like made in any kingdom.
21 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 of silver: it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.
22 For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.
23 So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom.
24 All the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.
25 They brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year.
26 Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem.
27 The king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycomore trees that are in the vale, for abundance.
28 Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king’s merchants received the linen yarn at a price.
29 A chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty: and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means.
1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites:
2 Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, you shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon held fast unto these in love.
3 He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
4 For when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.
5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
6 Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father.
7 Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.
8 Likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.
9 The LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice,
10 Had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the LORD commanded.
11 Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of 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 rend it out of the hand of your son.
13 However I will not rend away all the kingdom; but will give one tribe to your son for David my servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen.
14 The LORD stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite: he was of the king’s seed in Edom.
15 For when David was in Edom, and Joab the captain of the host was gone up to bury the killed, after he had smitten every male in Edom;
16 (For six months did Joab remain there with all Israel, until he had cut off every male in Edom:)
17 That Hadad fled, he and certain Edomites of his father’s servants with him, to go into Egypt; Hadad being yet a little child.
18 They arose out of Midian, and came to Paran: and they took men with them out of Paran, and they came to Egypt, unto Pharaoh king of Egypt; which gave him an house, and appointed him victuals, and gave him land.
19 Hadad found great favour in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him to wife the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen.
20 The sister of Tahpenes gave birth to him Genubath his son, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh’s house: and Genubath was in Pharaoh’s household among the sons of Pharaoh.
21 When Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers, and that Joab the captain of the host was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, Let me depart, that I may go to mine own country.
22 Then Pharaoh said unto him, But what have you lacked with me, that, behold, you seek to go to your own country? And he answered, Nothing: however let me go in any wise.
23 God stirred him up another adversary, Rezon the son of Eliadah, which fled from his lord Hadadezer king of Zobah:
24 He gathered men unto him, and became captain over a band, when David killed them of Zobah: and they went to Damascus, and lived therein, and reigned in Damascus.
25 He was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, beside the mischief that Hadad did: and he abhorred Israel, and reigned over Syria.
26 Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, Solomon’s servant, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow woman, even he lifted up his hand against the king.
27 This was the cause that he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon built Millo, and repaired the breaches of the city of David his father.
28 The man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valour: and Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph.
29 At that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him in the way; and he had clad himself with a new garment; and they two were alone in the field:
30 Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in twelve pieces:
31 He said to Jeroboam, Take you ten pieces: for thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to you:
32 (But he shall have one tribe for my servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel:)
33 Because that they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father.
34 However I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand: but I will make him prince 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 out of his son’s hand, and will give it unto you, even ten tribes.
36 Unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light alway before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there.
37 I will take you, and you shall reign according to all that your soul desires, and shall be king over Israel.
38 It shall be, if you will hearken unto all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with you, and build you a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto you.
39 I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever.
40 Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. And Jeroboam arose, and fled into Egypt, unto Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.
41 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 The time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.
43 Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead.
1 Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king.
2 When Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt, heard of it, (for he was fled from the presence of king Solomon, and Jeroboam lived in Egypt;)
3 That they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came, and spoke unto Rehoboam, saying,
4 Your father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make you the grievous service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve you.
5 He said unto them, Depart yet for three days, then come again to me. And the people departed.
6 King Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do you advise that I may answer this people?
7 They spoke unto him, saying, If you will be a servant unto this people this day, and will serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants for ever.
8 But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him:
9 He said unto them, What counsel give you that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke which your father did put upon us lighter?
10 The young men that were grown up with him spoke unto him, saying, Thus shall you speak unto this people that spoke unto you, saying, your father made our yoke heavy, but make you it lighter unto us; thus shall you say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins.
11 Now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father has chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had appointed, saying, Come to me again the third day.
13 The king answered the people roughly, and forsook the old men’s counsel that they gave him;
14 Spoke to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
15 Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the LORD, that he might perform his saying, which the LORD spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
16 So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to your own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents.
17 But as for the children of Israel which lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.
18 Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute; and all Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. Therefore king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.
19 So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.
20 When all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that they sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all Israel: there was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only.
21 When Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, an hundred and eighty thousand chosen men, which were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.
22 But the word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
23 Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the remnant of the people, saying,
24 Thus says the LORD, you shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is from me. They hearkened therefore to the word of the LORD, and returned to depart, according to the word of the LORD.
25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and lived therein; and went out from there, and built Penuel.
26 Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:
27 If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.
28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
29 He set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
30 This thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
31 He made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.
32 Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.
33 So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.
1 And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.
2 He cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus says the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon you shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon you, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon you.
3 He gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the LORD has spoken; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.
4 When king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.
5 The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.
6 The king answered and said unto the man of God, Intreat now the face of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored him again, and became as it was before.
7 The king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.
8 The man of God said unto the king, If you will give me half your house, I will not go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place:
9 For so was it charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that you came.
10 So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel.
11 Now there lived an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel: the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father.
12 Their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah.
13 He said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass: and he rode thereon,
14 Went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, are you the man of God that came from Judah? And he said, I am.
15 Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread.
16 He said, I may not return with you, nor go in with you: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place:
17 For it was said to me by the word of the LORD, you shall eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that you came.
18 He said unto him, I am a prophet also as you are; and an angel spoke unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with you into your house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him.
19 So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water.
20 As they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came unto the prophet that brought him back:
21 He cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus says the LORD, Forasmuch as you have disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you,
22 But came back, and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of which the Lord did say to you, Eat no bread, and drink no water; your carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of your fathers.
23 After he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the ass, to wit, for the prophet whom he had brought back.
24 When he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and killed him: and his carcase was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcase.
25 And, behold, men passed by, and saw the carcase cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcase: and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived.
26 When the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the LORD: therefore the LORD has delivered him unto the lion, which has torn him, and killed him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke unto him.
27 He spoke to his sons, saying, Saddle me the ass. And they saddled him.
28 He went and found his carcase cast in the way, and the ass and the lion standing by the carcase: the lion had not eaten the carcase, nor torn the ass.
29 The prophet took up the carcase of the man of God, and laid it upon the ass, and brought it back: and the old prophet came to the city, to mourn and to bury him.
30 He laid his carcase in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother!
31 After he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones:
32 For the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.
33 After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places.
34 This thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.
1 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick.
2 Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, please, and disguise yourself, that you be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam; and get you to Shiloh: behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, which told me that I should be king over this people.
3 Take with you ten loaves, and cracknels, and a cruse of honey, and go to him: he shall tell you what shall become of the child.
4 Jeroboam’s wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age.
5 The LORD said unto Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam comes to ask a thing of you for her son; for he is sick: thus and thus shall you say unto her: for it shall be, when she comes in, that she shall feign herself to be another woman.
6 It was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, Come in, you wife of Jeroboam; why feign you yourself to be another? for I am sent to you with heavy tidings.
7 Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted you from among the people, and made you prince over my people Israel,
8 Rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it you: and yet you have not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes;
9 But have done evil above all that were before you: for you have gone and made you other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind your back:
10 Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisses against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man takes away dung, till it be all gone.
11 Him that dies of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dies in the field shall the fowls of the air eat: for the LORD has spoken it.
12 Arise you therefore, get you to your own house: and when your feet enter into the city, the child shall die.
13 All Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.
14 Moreover the LORD shall raise him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day: but what? even now.
15 For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to anger.
16 He shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin.
17 Jeroboam’s wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: and when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died;
18 They buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by the hand of his servant Ahijah the prophet.
19 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 The days which Jeroboam reigned were two and twenty years: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his stead.
21 Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah an Ammonitess.
22 Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done.
23 For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.
24 There were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
25 In the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem:
26 He took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.
27 King Rehoboam made in their stead brasen shields, and committed them unto the hands of the chief of the guard, which kept the door of the king’s house.
28 It was so, when the king went into the house of the LORD, that the guard gave birth to them, and brought them back into the guard chamber.
29 Now 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 Judah?
30 There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.
31 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 Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat reigned Abijam over Judah.
2 Three years reigned he in Jerusalem. and his mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom.
3 He walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father.
4 Nevertheless for David’s sake did the LORD his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem:
5 Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
6 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 Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.
8 Abijam slept with his fathers; and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead.
9 In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel reigned Asa over Judah.
10 Forty and one years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom.
11 Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father.
12 He took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
13 Also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron.
14 But the high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa’s heart was perfect with the LORD all his days.
15 He brought in the things which his father had dedicated, and the things which himself had dedicated, into the house of the LORD, silver, and gold, and vessels.
16 There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.
17 Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not suffer any to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.
18 Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants: and king Asa sent them to Benhadad, the son of Tabrimon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, that lived at Damascus, saying,
19 There is a league between me and you, and between my father and your father: behold, I have sent unto you a present of silver and gold; come and break your league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me.
20 So Benhadad hearkened unto king Asa, and sent the captains of the hosts which he had against the cities of Israel, and smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abelbethmaachah, and all Cinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali.
21 When Baasha heard thereof, that he left off building of Ramah, and lived in Tirzah.
22 Then king Asa made a proclamation throughout all Judah; none was exempted: and they took away the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, with which Baasha had built; and king Asa built with them Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah.
23 The rest of all the acts of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Nevertheless in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet.
24 Asa slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father: and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead.
25 Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned over Israel two years.
26 He did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin with which he made Israel to sin.
27 Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him; and Baasha smote him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines; for Nadab and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon.
28 Even in the third year of Asa king of Judah did Baasha kill him, and reigned in his stead.
29 When he reigned, that he smote all the house of Jeroboam; he left not to Jeroboam any that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according unto the saying of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite:
30 Because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin, by his provocation with which he provoked the LORD God 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 There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.
33 In the third year of Asa king of Judah began Baasha the son of Ahijah to reign over all Israel in Tirzah, twenty and four years.
34 He did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin with which he made Israel to sin.
1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying,
2 Forasmuch as I exalted you out of 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 to sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins;
3 Behold, I will take away the posterity of Baasha, and the posterity of his house; and will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
4 Him that dies of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dies of his in the fields shall the fowls of the air 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 So Baasha slept with his fathers, and was buried in Tirzah: and Elah his son reigned in his stead.
7 Also by the hand of the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani came the word of the LORD against Baasha, and against his house, even for all the evil that he did in the sight of the LORD, in 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 and sixth year of Asa king of Judah began Elah the son of Baasha to reign over Israel in Tirzah, two years.
9 His servant Zimri, captain of half his chariots, conspired against him, as he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza steward of his house in Tirzah.
10 Zimri went in and smote him, and killed him, in the twenty and seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his stead.
11 When he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he killed all the house of Baasha: he left him not one that pisses against a wall, neither of his kinsfolks, nor of his friends.
12 Thus did Zimri destroy all the house of Baasha, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke against Baasha by Jehu 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 to sin, in provoking the LORD God 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 and seventh year of Asa king of Judah did Zimri reign seven days in Tirzah. And the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines.
16 The people that were encamped heard say, Zimri has conspired, and has also killed the king: wherefore all Israel made Omri, the captain of the host, king over Israel that day in the camp.
17 Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah.
18 When Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went into the palace of the king’s house, and burnt the king’s house over him with fire, and died.
19 For his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of the LORD, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, to make Israel to sin.
20 Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and his treason that he wrought, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
21 Then were the people of Israel divided into two parts: half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king; and half followed Omri.
22 But the people that followed Omri prevailed against the people that followed Tibni the son of Ginath: so Tibni died, and Omri reigned.
23 In the thirty and first year of Asa king of Judah began Omri to reign over Israel, twelve years: six years reigned he in Tirzah.
24 He bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill, Samaria.
25 But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did worse than all that were before him.
26 For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin with which he made Israel to sin, to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger with their vanities.
27 Now the rest of the acts of Omri which he did, and his might that he showed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
28 So Omri slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria: and Ahab his son reigned in his stead.
29 In the thirty and eighth year of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel: and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years.
30 Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD above all that were before him.
31 As if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.
32 He reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.
33 Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.
34 In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.
1 Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
2 The word of the LORD came unto him, saying,
3 Get you hence, and turn you eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
4 It shall be, that you shall drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.
5 So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
6 The ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.
7 After a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
8 The word of the LORD came unto him, saying,
9 Arise, get you to Zarephath, which belongs to Zidon, and live there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain you.
10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, please, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
11 As she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, please, a morsel of bread in your hand.
12 She said, As the LORD your God lives, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
13 Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as you have said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for you and for your son.
14 For thus says the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sends rain upon the earth.
15 She went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.
16 The barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Elijah.
17 After these things, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him.
18 She said unto Elijah, What have I to do with you, O you man of God? are you come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?
19 He said unto her, Give me your son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed.
20 He cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, have you also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?
21 He stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, please, let this child’s soul come into him again.
22 The LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.
23 Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, your son lives.
24 The woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.
1 After many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show yourself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.
2 Elijah went to show himself unto Ahab. And there was a sore famine in Samaria.
3 Ahab called Obadiah, which was the governor of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly:
4 For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.)
5 Ahab said unto Obadiah, Go into the land, unto all fountains of water, and unto all brooks: perhaps we may find grass to save the horses and mules alive, that we lose not all the beasts.
6 So they divided the land between them to pass throughout it: Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.
7 As Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met him: and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said, are you that my lord Elijah?
8 He answered him, I am: go, tell your lord, Behold, Elijah is here.
9 He said, What have I sinned, that you would deliver your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me?
10 As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom, where my lord has not sent to seek you: and when they said, He is not there; he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they found you not.
11 Now you say, Go, tell your lord, Behold, Elijah is here.
12 It shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from you, that the Spirit of the LORD shall carry you where I know not; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find you, he shall kill me: but I your servant fear the LORD from my youth.
13 Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, how I hid an hundred men of the LORD’s prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water?
14 Now you say, Go, tell your lord, Behold, Elijah is here: and he shall kill me.
15 Elijah said, As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself unto him to day.
16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him: and Ahab went to meet Elijah.
17 When Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, are you he that troubles Israel?
18 He answered, I have not troubled Israel; but you, and your father’s house, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and you have followed Baalim.
19 Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s table.
20 So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel.
21 Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt you between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
22 Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.
23 Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under:
24 Call you on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answers by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.
25 Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for you are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.
26 They took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made.
27 At noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or perhaps he sleeps, and must be awaked.
28 They cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.
29 When midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.
30 Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down.
31 Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Israel shall be your name:
32 With the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed.
33 He put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood.
34 He said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time.
35 The water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water.
36 At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word.
37 Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that you are the LORD God, and that you have turned their heart back again.
38 Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
39 When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God.
40 Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and killed them there.
41 Elijah said unto Ahab, Get you up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain.
42 So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees,
43 Said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times.
44 At the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there arises a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare your chariot, and get you down that the rain stop you not.
45 In the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel.
46 The hand of the LORD was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.
2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not your life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time.
3 When he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
5 As he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.
6 He looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.
7 The angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for you.
8 He arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
9 He came there unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What do you here, Elijah?
10 He said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
11 He said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
12 After the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
13 It was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What do you here, Elijah?
14 He said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
15 The LORD said unto him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when you come, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria:
16 Jehu the son of Nimshi shall you anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shall you anoint to be prophet in your room.
17 It shall come to pass, that him that escapes the sword of Hazael shall Jehu kill: and him that escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha kill.
18 Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him.
19 So he departed there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him.
20 He left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, please, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to you?
21 He returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and killed them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.
1 Benhadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots; and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it.
2 He sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus says Benhadad,
3 Your silver and your gold is mine; your wives also and your children, even the goodliest, are mine.
4 The king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to your saying, I am your, and all that I have.
5 The messengers came again, and said, Thus speaks Benhadad, saying, Although I have sent unto you, saying, you shall deliver me your silver, and your gold, and your wives, and your children;
6 Yet I will send my servants unto you to morrow about this time, and they shall search your house, and the houses of your servants; and it shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in your eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away.
7 Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, Mark, please, and see how this man seeks mischief: for he sent unto me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold; and I denied him not.
8 All the elders and all the people said unto him, Hearken not unto him, nor consent.
9 Wherefore he said unto the messengers of Benhadad, Tell my lord the king, All that you did send for to your servant at the first I will do: but this thing I may not do. And the messengers departed, and brought him word again.
10 Benhadad sent unto him, and said, The gods do so unto me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me.
11 The king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, Let not him that girds on his harness boast himself as he that putts it off.
12 When Benhadad heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the kings in the pavilions, that he said unto his servants, Set yourselves in array. And they set themselves in array against the city.
13 And, behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab king of Israel, saying, Thus says the LORD, have you seen all this great multitude? behold, I will deliver it into your hand this day; and you shall know that I am the LORD.
14 Ahab said, By whom? And he said, Thus says the LORD, Even by the young men of the princes of the provinces. Then he said, Who shall order the battle? And he answered, you.
15 Then he numbered the young men of the princes of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty two: and after them he numbered all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand.
16 They went out at noon. But Benhadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty and two kings that helped him.
17 The young men of the princes of the provinces went out first; and Benhadad sent out, and they told him, saying, There are men come out of Samaria.
18 He said, Whether they be come out for peace, take them alive; or whether they be come out for war, take them alive.
19 So these young men of the princes of the provinces came out of the city, and the army which followed them.
20 They killed every one his man: and the Syrians fled; and Israel pursued them: and Benhadad the king of Syria escaped on an horse with the horsemen.
21 The king of Israel went out, and smote the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter.
22 The prophet came to the king of Israel, and said unto him, Go, strengthen yourself, and mark, and see what you do: for at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against you.
23 The servants of the king of Syria said unto him, Their gods are gods of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they.
24 Do this thing, Take the kings away, every man out of his place, and put captains in their rooms:
25 Number you an army, like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot: and we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. And he hearkened unto their voice, and did so.
26 At the return of the year, that Benhadad numbered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek, to fight against Israel.
27 The children of Israel were numbered, and were all present, and went against them: and the children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of kids; but the Syrians filled the country.
28 There came a man of God, and spoke unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus says the LORD, Because the Syrians have said, The LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD.
29 They pitched one over against the other seven days. And so it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined: and the children of Israel killed of the Syrians an hundred thousand footmen in one day.
30 But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and there a wall fell upon twenty and seven thousand of the men that were left. And Benhadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner chamber.
31 His servants said unto him, Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings: let us, please, put sackcloth on our loins, and ropes upon 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 Benhadad says, please, let me live. And he said, Is he yet alive? he is my brother.
33 Now the men did diligently observe whether any thing would come from him, and did hastily catch it: and they said, your brother Benhadad. Then he said, Go you, bring him. Then Benhadad came forth to him; and he caused him to come up into the chariot.
34 Benhadad said unto him, The cities, which my father took from your father, I will restore; and you shall make streets for you in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. Then said Ahab, I will send you away with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and sent him away.
35 A certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbour in the word of the LORD, Smite me, please. And the man refused to smite him.
36 Then said he unto him, Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as you are departed from me, a lion shall kill you. And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and killed him.
37 Then he found another man, and said, Smite me, please. And the man smote him, so that in smiting he wounded him.
38 So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with ashes upon his face.
39 As the king passed by, he cried unto the king: and he said, your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and, behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, Keep this man: if by any means he be missing, then shall your life be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.
40 As your servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And the king of Israel said unto him, So shall your judgment be; yourself have decided it.
41 He hasted, and took the ashes away from his face; and the king of Israel discerned him that he was of the prophets.
42 He said unto him, Thus says the LORD, Because you have let go out of your hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.
43 The king of Israel went to his house heavy and displeased, and came to Samaria.
1 After these things, Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.
2 Ahab spoke unto Naboth, saying, Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house: and I will give you for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seem good to you, I will give you the worth of it in money.
3 Naboth said to Ahab, The LORD forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto you.
4 Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him: for he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread.
5 But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said unto him, Why is your spirit so sad, that you eat no bread?
6 He said unto her, Because I spoke unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it please you, I will give you another vineyard for it: and he answered, I will not give you my vineyard.
7 Jezebel his wife said unto him, do you now govern the kingdom of Israel? arise, and eat bread, and let your heart be merry: 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 the letters unto the elders and to the nobles that were in his city, living with Naboth.
9 She wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people:
10 Set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear witness against him, saying, you did blaspheme God and the king. And then carry him out, and stone him, that he may die.
11 The men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who were the inhabitants in his city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them, and as it was written in the letters which she had sent unto them.
12 They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people.
13 There came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him: and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died.
14 Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth is stoned, and is dead.
15 When Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned, and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, 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, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.
17 The word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
18 Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he is gone down to possess it.
19 You shall speak unto him, saying, Thus says the LORD, have you killed, and also taken possession? And you shall speak unto him, saying, Thus says the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your blood, even your.
20 Ahab said to Elijah, have you found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found you: because you have sold yourself to work evil in the sight of the LORD.
21 Behold, I will bring evil upon you, and will take away your posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisses against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel,
22 Will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin.
23 Of Jezebel also spoke the LORD, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.
24 Him that dies of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat; and him that dies in the field shall the fowls of the air eat.
25 But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.
26 He did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the Amorites, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
27 When Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.
28 The word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
29 See you how Ahab humbles himself before me? because he humbles himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son’s days will I bring the evil upon his house.
1 They continued three years without war between Syria and Israel.
2 In the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel.
3 The king of Israel said unto his servants, Know you that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria?
4 He said unto Jehoshaphat, will you go with me to battle to Ramothgilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.
5 Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Enquire, please, at the word of the LORD to day.
6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king.
7 Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides, that we might enquire of him?
8 The king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the LORD: but I hate him; for he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.
9 Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Hasten here Micaiah the son of Imlah.
10 The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, having put on their robes, in a void place in the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them.
11 Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron: and he said, Thus says the LORD, With these shall you push the Syrians, until you have consumed them.
12 All the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramothgilead, and prosper: for the LORD shall deliver it into the king’s hand.
13 The messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spoke unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let your word, please, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good.
14 Micaiah said, As the LORD lives, what the LORD says unto me, that will I speak.
15 So he came to the king. And the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, Go, and prosper: for the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king.
16 The king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure you that you tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the LORD?
17 He said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace.
18 The king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell you that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil?
19 He said, Hear you therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.
20 The LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.
21 There came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him.
22 The LORD said unto him, with which? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, you shall persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.
23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets, and the LORD has spoken evil concerning you.
24 But Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near, and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the LORD from me to speak unto you?
25 Micaiah said, Behold, you shall see in that day, when you shall go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.
26 The king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him back unto Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king’s son;
27 Say, Thus says the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.
28 Micaiah said, If you return at all in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me. And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of you.
29 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramothgilead.
30 The king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and enter into the battle; but put you on your robes. And the king of Israel disguised himself, and went into the battle.
31 But the king of Syria commanded his thirty and two captains that had rule over his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel.
32 When the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, Surely it is the king of Israel. And they turned aside to fight against him: and Jehoshaphat cried out.
33 When the captains of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him.
34 A certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness: wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn your hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am wounded.
35 The battle increased that day: and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even: and the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot.
36 There went a proclamation throughout the host about the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his own country.
37 So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria.
38 One washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood; and they washed his armour; according unto the word of the LORD which he spoke.
39 Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he made, 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 Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead.
41 Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel.
42 Jehoshaphat was thirty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi.
43 He walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD: nevertheless the high places were not taken away; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places.
44 Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.
45 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he showed, and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
46 The remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land.
47 There was then no king in Edom: a deputy was king.
48 Jehoshaphat made ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold: but they went not; for the ships were broken at Eziongeber.
49 Then said Ahaziah the son of Ahab unto Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with your servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not.
50 Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father: and Jehoram his son reigned in his stead.
51 Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel.
52 He did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin:
53 For he served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger the LORD God of Israel, according to all that his father had done.