1:1 Now King David was old and far on in years; and though
they
put covers over him,
his body was cold.
1:2 So his servants said to him, Let search be made for a
young
virgin for my lord
the king, to take care of him and be waiting
on him; and you may
take her in your arms, and so my lord the
king will be warm.
1:3 So after searching through all the land of Israel for a
fair
young girl, they saw
Abishag the Shunammite, and took her to
the king.
1:4 Now she was very beautiful; and she took care of the
king,
waiting on him at all
times; but the king had no connection
with her.
1:5 Then Adonijah, the son of Haggith, lifting himself up in
pride, said, I will
become king; and he made ready his
carriages of war and
his horsemen, with fifty runners to go
before him.
1:6 Now all his life his father had never gone against him
or
said to him, Why have
you done so? and he was a very
good-looking man, and
younger than Absalom.
1:7 And he had talk with Joab, the son of Zeruiah, and with
Abiathar the priest;
and they were on his side and gave him
their support.
1:8 But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada,
and
Nathan the prophet
and Shimei and Rei, and David's men of war
did not take the side
of Adonijah.
1:9 Then Adonijah put to death sheep and oxen and fat beasts
by
the stone of
Zoheleth, by En-rogel; and he sent for all his
brothers, the king's
sons, and all the men of Judah, the king's
servants, to come to
him:
1:10 But he did not send for Nathan the prophet and Benaiah
and
the other men of war
and Solomon his brother.
1:11 Then Nathan said to Bath-sheba, the mother of Solomon,
Has
it not come to your
ears that Adonijah, the son of Haggith, has
made himself king
without the knowledge of David our lord?
1:12 So now, let me make a suggestion, so that you may keep
your
life safe and the
life of your son Solomon.
1:13 Come now, go to King David and say to him, Did you not,
O
my lord, take an oath
to me, your servant, saying, Truly
Solomon your son will
be king after me, seated on the seat of
my kingdom? why then
is Adonijah acting as king?
1:14 And while you are still talking there with the king,
see, I
will come in after
you and say that your story is true.
1:15 Then Bath-sheba went into the king's room; now the king
was
very old, and Abishag
the Shunammite was waiting on him.
1:16 And Bath-sheba went down on her face on the earth
before
the king giving him
honour. And he said, What is your desire?
1:17 And she said to him, My lord, you took an oath by the
Lord
your God and gave
your word to your servant, saying, Truly,
Solomon your son will
be king after me, seated on the seat of
my kingdom.
1:18 And now, see, Adonijah has made himself king without my
lord's knowledge;
1:19 And has put to death oxen and fat beasts and sheep in
great
numbers, and has sent
for all the sons of the king, and
Abiathar the priest,
and Joab, the captain of the army; but he
has not sent for
Solomon your servant.
1:20 And now, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are
on
you, waiting for you
to say who is to take the place of my lord
the king after him.
1:21 For as things are, it will come about, when my lord the
king is sleeping with
his fathers, that I and Solomon my son
will be made outlaws.
1:22 And while she was still talking with the king, Nathan
the
prophet came in.
1:23 And they said to the king, Here is Nathan the prophet.
And
when he came in
before the king, he went down on his face on
the earth.
1:24 And Nathan said, O my lord king, have you said,
Adonijah is
to be king after me,
seated on the seat of my kingdom?
1:25 Because today he has gone down and has put to death
oxen
and fat beasts and
sheep in great numbers, and has sent for all
the king's sons to
come to him, with the captains of the army
and Abiathar the
priest; and they are feasting before him and
crying, Long life to
King Adonijah!
1:26 But me, your servant, and Zadok the priest, and
Benaiah,
the son of Jehoiada,
and your servant Solomon, he has not sent
for.
1:27 Has this thing been done by my lord the king, without
giving word to your
servants who was to be placed on my lord
the king's seat after
him?
1:28 Then King David in answer said, Send for Bath-sheba to
come
to me. And she came
in and took her place before the king.
1:29 And the king took an oath, and said, By the living
Lord,
who has been my
saviour from all my troubles,
1:30 As I took an oath to you by the Lord, the God of
Israel,
saying, Certainly
Solomon your son will become king after me,
seated on my seat in
my place; so will I do this day.
1:31 Then Bath-sheba went down on her face on the earth
before
the king giving him
honour, and said, May my lord King David go
on living for ever.
1:32 And King David said, Send for Zadok the priest, and
Nathan
the prophet, and
Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada. And they came
before the king.
1:33 And the king said to them, Take with you the servants
of
your lord, and put
Solomon my son on my beast, yes, mine, and
take him down to
Gihon;
1:34 And there let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet
put
the holy oil on him
to make him king over Israel; and sounding
the horn say, Long
life to King Solomon!
1:35 Then come up after him and he will come in and take his
place on the seat of
my kingdom; for he is to be king in my
place, and I have
given orders that he is to be ruler over
Israel and over
Judah.
1:36 And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, answering the king,
said,
So be it: and may the
Lord, the God of my lord the king, say
so.
1:37 As the Lord has been with my lord the king, even so may
he
be with Solomon and
make the seat of his authority greater than
that of my lord King
David.
1:38 So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah,
the son of Jehoiada,
and the Cherethites and the Pelethites,
went down and put
Solomon on King David's beast and took him to
Gihon.
1:39 And Zadok the priest took the vessel of oil out of the
Tent, and put the
holy oil on Solomon. And when the horn was
sounded, all the
people said, Long life to King Solomon!
1:40 And all the people came up after him, piping with
pipes,
and they were glad
with great joy, so that the earth was
shaking with the
sound.
1:41 And it came to the ears of Adonijah and all the guests
who
were with him, when
their meal was ended. And Joab, hearing the
sound of the horn,
said, What is the reason of this noise as if
the town was worked
up?
1:42 And while the words were on his lips, Jonathan, the son
of
Abiathar the priest,
came; and Adonijah said, Come in; for you
are a man of good
faith and the news which you have for us will
be good.
1:43 And Jonathan, answering, said to Adonijah, Not so, but
our
lord King David has
made Solomon king:
1:44 And he sent with him Zadok the priest, and Nathan the
prophet, and Benaiah,
the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites
and the Pelethites;
and they put him on the king's beast:
1:45 And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet put the
holy
oil on him and made
him king in Gihon; and they came back from
there with joy, and
the town was all worked up. This is the
noise which has come
to your ears.
1:46 And now Solomon is seated on the seat of the kingdom.
1:47 And the king's servants came to our lord King David,
blessing him and
saying, May God make the name of Solomon
better than your
name, and the seat of his authority greater
than your seat; and
the king was bent low in worship on his
bed.
1:48 Then the king said, May the God of Israel be praised,
who
has given one of my
seed to be king in my place this day and
has let my eyes see
it.
1:49 And all the guests of Adonijah got up in fear and went
away, every man to
his place.
1:50 And Adonijah himself was full of fear because of
Solomon;
and he got up and
went to the altar, and put his hands on its
horns.
1:51 And they gave Solomon word of it, saying, See, Adonijah
goes in such fear of
King Solomon, that he has put his hands on
the horns of the
altar, saying, Let King Solomon first give me
his oath that he will
not put his servant to death with the
sword.
1:52 And Solomon said, If he is seen to be a man of good
faith,
not a hair of him
will be touched; but if any wrongdoing is
seen in him, he is to
be put to death.
1:53 So King Solomon sent, and they took him down from the
altar. And he came
and gave honour to King Solomon; and Solomon
said to him, Go to
your house.
2:1 Now the time of David's death came near; and he gave
orders
to Solomon his son,
saying,
2:2 I am going the way of all the earth: so be strong and be
a
man;
2:3 And keep the orders of the Lord your God, walking in his
ways, keeping his
laws and his orders and his rules and his
words, as they are
recorded in the law of Moses; so that you
may do well in all
you do and wherever you go,
2:4 So that the Lord may give effect to what he said of me,
If
your children give
attention to their ways, living uprightly
before me with all
their heart and their soul, you will never
be without a man to
be king in Israel.
2:5 Now you have knowledge of what Joab, the son of Zeruiah,
did
to me, and to the two
captains of the army of Israel, Abner,
the son of Ner, and
Amasa, the son of Jether, whom he put to
death, taking payment
for the blood of war in time of peace,
and making the band
of my clothing and the shoes on my feet red
with the blood of one
put to death without cause.
2:6 So be guided by your wisdom, and let not his white head
go
down to the
underworld in peace.
2:7 But be good to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and
let
them be guests at
your table; for so they came to me when I
went in flight from
Absalom your brother.
2:8 Now you have with you Shimei, the son of Gera the
Benjamite
of Bahurim, who put a
bitter curse on me on the day when I went
to Mahanaim; but he
came down to see me at Jordan, and I gave
him my oath by the
Lord, saying, I will not put you to death by
the sword.
2:9 But do not let him be free from punishment, for you are
a
wise man; and it will
be clear to you what you have to do with
him; see that his
white head goes down to the underworld in
blood.
2:10 Then David went to rest with his fathers, and his body
was
put into the earth in
the town of David.
2:11 David was king over Israel for forty years: for seven
years
he was king in Hebron
and for thirty-three years in Jerusalem.
2:12 And Solomon took his place on the seat of David his
father,
and his kingdom was
made safe and strong.
2:13 Then Adonijah, the son of Haggith, came to Bath-sheba,
the
mother of Solomon.
And she said, Come you in peace? And he
said, Yes, in peace.
2:14 Then he said, I have something to say to you. And she
said,
Say on.
2:15 And he said, You saw how the kingdom was mine, and all
Israel had the idea
that I would be their king; but now the
kingdom is turned
about, and has become my brother's, for it
was given to him by
the Lord.
2:16 Now I have one request to make to you, and do not say,
No,
to me. And she said
to him, Say on.
2:17 Then he said, Will you go to Solomon the king (for he
will
not say, No, to you)
and put before him my request that he will
give me Abishag the
Shunammite for a wife?
2:18 And Bath-sheba said, Good! I will make your request to
the
king.
2:19 So Bath-sheba went to King Solomon to have talk with
him on
Adonijah's account.
And the king got up to come to her, and
went down low to the
earth before her; then he took his place
on the king's seat and
had a seat made ready for the king's
mother and she took
her place at his right hand.
2:20 Then she said, I have one small request to make to you;
do
not say, No, to me.
And the king said, Say on, my mother, for I
will not say, No, to
you.
2:21 And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to
Adonijah your brother
for a wife.
2:22 Then King Solomon made answer and said to his mother,
Why
are you requesting me
to give Abishag the Shunammite to
Adonijah? Take the
kingdom for him in addition, for he is my
older brother, and
Abiathar the priest and Joab, the son of
Zeruiah, are on his
side.
2:23 Then King Solomon took an oath by the Lord, saying, May
God's punishment be
on me if Adonijah does not give payment for
these words with his
life.
2:24 Now by the living Lord, who has given me my place on
the
seat of David my
father, and made me one of a line of kings, as
he gave me his word,
truly Adonijah will be put to death this
day.
2:25 And King Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and
he
made an attack on him
and put him to death.
2:26 And to Abiathar the priest the king said, Go to
Anathoth,
to your fields; for
death would be your right reward; but I
will not put you to
death now, because you took up the ark of
the Lord God before
David my father, and you were with him in
all his troubles.
2:27 So Solomon let Abiathar be priest no longer, so that he
might make the word
of the Lord come true which he said about
the sons of Eli in
Shiloh.
2:28 And news of this came to Joab; for Joab had been one of
Adonijah's
supporters, though he had not been on Absalom's
side. Then Joab went
in flight to the Tent of the Lord, and put
his hands on the
horns of the altar.
2:29 And they said to King Solomon, Joab has gone in flight
to
the Tent of the Lord
and is by the altar. Then Solomon sent
Benaiah, the son of
Jehoiada, saying, Go, make an attack on
him.
2:30 And Benaiah came to the Tent of the Lord and said to
him,
The king says, Come
out. And he said, No; but let death come to
me here. And Benaiah
went back to the king and gave him word of
the answer which Joab
had given.
2:31 And the king said, Do as he has said and make an attack
on
him there, and put
his body into the earth; so that you may
take away from me and
from my family the blood of one put to
death by Joab without
cause.
2:32 And the Lord will send back his blood on his head,
because
of the attack he made
on two men more upright and better than
himself, putting them
to the sword without my father's
knowledge; even
Abner, the son of Ner, captain of the army of
Israel, and Amasa,
the son of Jether, captain of the army of
Judah.
2:33 So their blood will be on the head of Joab, and on the
head
of his seed for ever;
but for David and his seed and his family
and the seat of his
kingdom, there will be peace for ever from
the Lord.
2:34 So Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, went up, and falling
on
him, put him to
death; and his body was put to rest in his
house in the waste
land.
2:35 And the king put Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, in his
place
over the army; and
Zadok the priest he put in the place of
Abiathar.
2:36 Then the king sent for Shimei, and said to him, Make a
house for yourself in
Jerusalem and keep there and go to no
other place.
2:37 For be certain that on the day when you go out and go
over
the stream Kidron,
death will overtake you: and your blood will
be on your head.
2:38 And Shimei said to the king, Very well! as my lord the
king
has said, so will
your servant do. And for a long time Shimei
went on living in
Jerusalem.
2:39 But after three years, two of the servants of Shimei
went
in flight to Achish,
son of Maacah, king of Gath. And word was
given to Shimei that
his servants had gone to Gath.
2:40 Then Shimei got up, and making ready his ass, he went
to
Gath, to Achish, in
search of his servants; and he sent and got
them from Gath.
2:41 And news was given to Solomon that Shimei had gone from
Jerusalem to Gath and
had come back again.
2:42 Then the king sent for Shimei, and said to him, Did I
not
make you take an oath
by the Lord, protesting to you and
saying, Be certain
that on the day when you go out from here,
wherever you go,
death will overtake you? and you said to me,
Very well!
2:43 Why then have you not kept the oath of the Lord and the
order which I gave
you?
2:44 And the king said to Shimei, You have knowledge of all
the
evil which you did to
David my father; and now the Lord has
sent back your evil
on yourself.
2:45 But a blessing will be on King Solomon, and the kingdom
of
David will keep its
place before the Lord for ever.
2:46 So the king gave orders to Benaiah, the son of
Jehoiada;
and he went out and,
falling on him, put him to death. And
Solomon's authority
over the kingdom was complete.
3:1 Solomon became the son-in-law of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
and
took Pharaoh's
daughter as his wife, keeping her in the town of
David, till the house
he was building for himself, and the
house of the Lord and
the wall round Jerusalem, were complete.
3:2 But all this time the people were making their offerings
in
the high places,
because no house had been put up to the name
of the Lord till
those days.
3:3 And Solomon, in his love for the Lord, kept the laws of
David his father; but
he made offerings and let them go up in
smoke on the high
places.
3:4 And the king went to Gibeon to make an offering there,
because that was the
chief high place: it was Solomon's way to
make a thousand
burned offerings on that altar.
3:5 In Gibeon, Solomon had a vision of the Lord in a dream
by
night; and God said
to him, Say what I am to give you.
3:6 And Solomon said, Great was your mercy to David my
father,
as his life before
you was true and upright and his heart was
true to you; and you
have kept for him this greatest mercy, a
son to take his place
this day.
3:7 And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king
in
the place of David my
father; and I am only a young boy, with
no knowledge of how
to go out or come in.
3:8 And your servant has round him the people of your
selection,
a people so great
that they may not be numbered, and no account
of them may be given.
3:9 Give your servant, then, a wise heart for judging your
people, able to see
what is good and what evil; for who is able
to be the judge of
this great people?
3:10 Now these words and Solomon's request were pleasing to
the
Lord.
3:11 And God said to him, Because your request is for this
thing, and not for
long life for yourself or for wealth or for
the destruction of
your haters, but for wisdom to be a judge of
causes;
3:12 I have done as you said: I have given you a wise and
far-seeing heart, so
that there has never been your equal in
the past, and never
will there be any like you in the future.
3:13 And with this I have given you what you made no request
for: wealth and
honour, so that no king was ever your equal.
3:14 And if you go on in my ways, keeping my laws and my
orders
as your father David
did, I will give you a long life.
3:15 And Solomon, awakening, saw that it was a dream; then
he
came to Jerusalem,
where he went before the ark of the
agreement of the
Lord, offering burned offerings and
peace-offerings; and
he made a feast for all his servants.
3:16 Then two loose women of the town came and took their
places
before the king;
3:17 And one of them said, O my lord, I and this woman are
living in the same
house; and I gave birth to a child by her
side in the house.
3:18 And three days after the birth of my child, this woman
had
a child: we were
together, no other-person was with us in the
house but we two
only.
3:19 In the night, this woman, sleeping on her child, was
the
cause of its death.
3:20 And she got up in the middle of the night and took my
son
from my side while
your servant was sleeping; and she took it
in her arms and put
her dead child in my arms.
3:21 And when I got up to give my child the breast, I saw
that
it was dead; but in
the morning, looking at it with care, I saw
that it was not my
son.
3:22 And the other woman said, No; but the living child is
my
son and the dead one
yours. But the first said, No; the dead
child is your son and
the living one mine. So they kept on
talking before the
king.
3:23 Then the king said, One says, The living child is my
son,
and yours is the
dead: and the other says, Not so; but your son
is the dead one and
mine is the living.
3:24 Then he said, Get me a sword. So they went and put a
sword
before the king.
3:25 And the king said, Let the living child be cut in two
and
one half given to one
woman and one to the other.
3:26 Then the mother of the living child came forward, for
her
heart went out to her
son, and she said, O my lord, give her
the child; do not on
any account put it to death. But the other
woman said, It will
not be mine or yours; let it be cut in two.
3:27 Then the king made answer and said, Give her the child,
and
do not put it to
death; she is the mother of it.
3:28 And news of this decision which the king had made went
through all Israel;
and they had fear of the king, for they saw
that the wisdom of
God was in him to give decisions.
4:1 Now Solomon was king over all Israel.
4:2 And these were his chief men: Azariah, the son of Zadok,
was
the priest;
4:3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, were scribes;
Jehoshaphat, the son
of Ahilud, was the recorder;
4:4 Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was head of the army;
Zadok
and Abiathar were
priests;
4:5 Azariah, the son of Nathan, was over those in authority
in
the different
divisions of the country; Zabud, the son of
Nathan, was priest
and the king's friend;
4:6 Ahishar was controller of the king's house; Adoniram,
the
son of Abda, was
overseer of the forced work.
4:7 And Solomon put twelve overseers over all Israel, to be
responsible for the
stores needed for the king and those of his
house; every man was
responsible for one month in the year.
4:8 And these are their names: ... the son of Hur in the
hill
country of Ephraim;
4:9 ... the son of Deker in Makaz and Shaalbim and
Beth-shemesh
and Elonbeth-hanan;
4:10 ... the son of Hesed in Arubboth; Socoh and all the
land of
Hepher were under his
control;
4:11 ... the son of Abinadab in all Naphath-dor; his wife
was
Taphath, the daughter
of Solomon.
4:12 Baana, the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and
all
Beth-shean which is
by the side of Zarethan, under Jezreel,
from Beth-shean to
Abel-meholah, as far as the far side of
Jokmeam;
4:13 ... the son of Geber in Ramoth-gilead; he had the towns
of
Jair, the son of Manasseh,
which are in Gilead, and the country
of Argob, which is in
Bashan, sixty great towns with walls and
locks of brass.
4:14 Ahinadab, the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;
4:15 Ahimaaz in Naphtali; he took Basemath, the daughter of
Solomon, as his wife;
4:16 Baana, the son of Hushai, in Asher and Aloth;
4:17 Jehoshaphat, the son of Paruah, in Issachar;
4:18 Shimei, the son of Ela, in Benjamin;
4:19 Geber, the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the
country
of Sihon, king of the
Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan; and one
overseer had
authority over all the overseers who were in the
land.
4:20 Judah and Israel were as great in number as the sand by
the
seaside, and they
took their food and drink with joy in their
hearts.
4:21 And Solomon was ruler over all the kingdoms from the
River
to the land of the
Philistines, and as far as the edge of
Egypt; men gave him
offerings and were his servants all the
days of his life.
4:22 And the amount of Solomon's food for one day was thirty
measures of crushed
grain and sixty measures of meal;
4:23 Ten fat oxen and twenty oxen from the fields, and a
hundred
sheep, in addition to
harts and gazelles and roes and fat
fowls.
4:24 For he had authority over all the country on this side
of
the River, from
Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings on this
side of the River;
and he had peace round him on every side.
4:25 So Judah and Israel were living safely, every man under
his
vine and his
fig-tree, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, all the
days of Solomon.
4:26 And Solomon had four thousand boxed-off spaces for
horses
for his carriages,
and twelve thousand horsemen.
4:27 And those overseers, every man in his month, saw that
food
was produced for
Solomon and all his guests, they took care
that nothing was
overlooked.
4:28 And they took grain and dry grass for the horses and
the
carriage-horses, to
the right place, every man as he was
ordered.
4:29 And God gave Solomon a great store of wisdom and good
sense, and a mind of
wide range, as wide as the sand by the
seaside.
4:30 And Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all
the
people of the East
and all the wisdom of Egypt.
4:31 For he was wiser than all men, even than Ethan the
Ezrahite, and Heman
and Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol;
and he had a great
name among all the nations round about.
4:32 He was the maker of three thousand wise sayings, and of
songs to the number
of a thousand and five.
4:33 He made sayings about all plants, from the cedar in
Lebanon
to the hyssop hanging
on the wall; and about all beasts and
birds and fishes and
the small things of the earth.
4:34 People came from every nation to give ear to the wisdom
of
Solomon, from all the
kings of the earth who had word of his
wisdom.
5:1 Now Hiram, king of Tyre, hearing that Solomon had been
made
king in place of his
father, sent his servants to him; for
Hiram had ever been a
friend to David.
5:2 And Solomon sent back word to Hiram, saying,
5:3 You have knowledge that David my father was not able to
make
a house for the name
of the Lord his God, because of the wars
which were round him
on every side, till the Lord put all those
who were against him
under his feet.
5:4 But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side;
no
one is making
trouble, and no evil is taking place.
5:5 And so it is my purpose to make a house for the name of
the
Lord my God, as he
said to David my father, Your son, whom I
will make king in
your place, will be the builder of a house
for my name.
5:6 So now, will you have cedar-trees from Lebanon cut down
for
me, and my servants
will be with your servants; and I will give
you payment for your
servants at whatever rate you say; for it
is common knowledge
that we have no such wood-cutters among us
as the men of Zidon.
5:7 And these words of Solomon made Hiram glad, and he said,
Now
may the Lord be
praised who has given to David a wise son to be
king over this great
people.
5:8 Then Hiram sent to Solomon, saying; The words you sent
have
been given to me: I
will do all your desire in the question of
cedar-wood and
cypress-wood.
5:9 My men will take them down from Lebanon to the sea,
where I
will have them corded
together to go by sea to whatever place
you say, and I will
have them cut up there so that you may take
them away; as for
payment, it will be enough if you give me
food for my people.
5:10 So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar-wood and
cypress-wood
he had need of;
5:11 And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of
grain,
as food for his
people, and twenty measures of clear oil; this
he did every year.
5:12 Now the Lord had given Solomon wisdom, as he had said
to
him; and there was
peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they
made an agreement
together.
5:13 Then King Solomon got together men for the forced work
through all Israel,
thirty thousand men in number;
5:14 And sent them to Lebanon in bands of ten thousand every
month: for a month
they were working in Lebanon and for two
months in their
country, and Adoniram was in control of them.
5:15 Then he had seventy thousand for the work of transport,
and
eighty thousand
stone-cutters in the mountains;
5:16 In addition to the chiefs of the responsible men put by
Solomon to oversee
the work, three thousand and three hundred
in authority over the
workmen.
5:17 By the king's orders great stones, stones of high
price,
were cut out, so that
the base of the house might be made of
squared stone.
5:18 Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did the work of
cutting them, and put
edges on them, and got the wood and the
stone ready for the
building of the house.
6:1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the
children of
Israel came out of
the land of Egypt, in the fourth year that
Solomon was king of
Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the
second month, the
building of the Lord's house was started.
6:2 The house which Solomon made for the Lord was sixty
cubits
long, twenty cubits
wide and thirty cubits high.
6:3 The covered way before the Temple of the house was
twenty
cubits long, as wide
as the house, and ten cubits wide in front
of the house.
6:4 And for the house he made windows, with network across.
6:5 And against the walls all round, and against the walls
of
the Temple and of the
inmost room, he put up wings, with side
rooms all round:
6:6 The lowest line of them being five cubits wide, the
middle
six cubits wide and
the third seven cubits; for there was a
space all round the
outside walls of the house so that the
boards supporting the
rooms did not have to be fixed in the
walls of the house.
6:7 (And the stones used in the building of the house were
squared at the place
where they were cut out; there was no
sound of hammer or
axe or any iron instrument while they were
building the house.)
6:8 The door to the lowest side rooms was in the right side
of
the house; and they
went up by twisting steps into the middle
rooms, and from the
middle into the third.
6:9 So he put up the house and made it complete, roofing it
with
boards of cedar-wood.
6:10 And he put up the line of side rooms against the walls
of
the house, fifteen
cubits high, resting against the house on
boards of cedar-wood.
6:11 (And the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying,
6:12 About this house which you are building: if you will
keep
my laws and give
effect to my decisions and be guided by my
rules, I will give
effect to my word which I gave to David your
father.
6:13 And I will be ever among the children of Israel, and
will
not go away from my
people.
6:14 So Solomon made the building of the house complete.)
6:15 The walls of the house were covered inside with
cedar-wood
boards; from the
floor to the roof of the house they were
covered inside with
wood; and the floor was covered with boards
of cypress-wood.
6:16 And at the back of the house a further space of twenty
cubits was shut in
with boards of cedar-wood, for the inmost
room.
6:17 And the house, that is, the Temple, in front of the
holy
place was forty
cubits long.
6:18 (All the inside of the house was cedar-wood, ornamented
with designs of buds
and flowers; no stonework was to be seen
inside.)
6:19 And he made ready an inmost room in the middle of the
house, in which to
put the ark of the agreement of the Lord.
6:20 And the inmost room was twenty cubits square and twenty
cubits high, plated
over with clear gold, and he made an altar
of cedar-wood,
plating it with gold.
6:21 Solomon had all the inside of the house covered with
gold,
and he put chains of
gold across in front of the inmost room,
which itself was
covered with gold.
6:22 Plates of gold were put all through the house till it
was
covered completely
(and the altar in the inmost room was all
covered with gold).
6:23 In the inmost room he made two winged beings of
olive-wood,
ten cubits high;
6:24 With outstretched wings five cubits wide; the distance
from
the edge of one wing
to the edge of the other was ten cubits.
6:25 The two winged ones were ten cubits high, of the same
size
and form.
6:26 The two of them were ten cubits high.
6:27 These were placed inside the inner house, their
outstretched wings
touching the walls of the house, one
touching one wall and
one the other, while their other wings
were touching in the
middle.
6:28 These winged ones were plated over with gold.
6:29 And all the walls of the house inside and out were
ornamented with forms
of winged ones and palm-trees and open
flowers.
6:30 And the floor of the house was covered with gold,
inside
and out.
6:31 For the way into the inmost room he made doors of
olive-wood, the arch
and the door supports forming a five-sided
opening.
6:32 On the olive-wood doors were cut designs of winged ones
and
palm-trees and open
flowers, all of them, with the doors,
plated with gold.
6:33 Then he made pillars of olive-wood for the way into the
Temple; the pillars
were square:
6:34 And two folding doors of cypress-wood, with two leaves.
6:35 These were ornamented with designs of winged ones and
palm-trees and open
flowers, plated over with gold.
6:36 And the inner space was walled with three lines of
squared
stones and a line of
cedar-wood boards.
6:37 In the fourth year the base of the house was put in its
place, in the month
Ziv.
6:38 And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is
the
eighth month, the
building of the house was complete in every
detail, as it had
been designed. So he was seven years building
it.
7:1 Solomon was thirteen years building a house for himself
till
it was complete.
7:2 And he made the house of the Woods of Lebanon, which was
a
hundred cubits long
and fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits
high, resting on four
lines of cedar-wood pillars with
cedar-wood supports
on the pillars.
7:3 And it was covered with cedar over the forty-five
supports
which were on the
pillars, fifteen in a line.
7:4 There were three lines of window-frames, window facing
window in every line.
7:5 And all the doors and windows had square frames, with
the
windows facing one
another in three lines.
7:6 And he made a covered room of pillars, fifty cubits long
and
thirty cubits wide,
and ... with steps before it.
7:7 Then he made a covered room for his high seat when he
gave
decisions; this was
the covered room of judging; it was covered
with cedar-wood from
floor to roof.
7:8 And the house for his living-place, the other open
square in
the covered room, was
made in the same way. And then he made a
house like it for
Pharaoh's daughter, whom Solomon had taken as
his wife.
7:9 All these buildings were made, inside and out, from base
to
crowning stone, and
outside to the great walled square, of
highly priced stone,
cut to different sizes with
cutting-instruments.
7:10 And the base was of great masses of highly priced
stone,
some ten cubits and
some eight cubits square.
7:11 Overhead were highly priced stones cut to measure, and
cedar-wood.
7:12 The great outer square all round was walled with three
lines of squared
stones and a line of cedar-wood boards, round
about the open square
inside the house of the Lord and the
covered room of the
king's house.
7:13 Then King Solomon sent and got Hiram from Tyre.
7:14 He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and
his
father was a man of
Tyre, a worker in brass; he was full of
wisdom and knowledge
and an expert worker in brass. He came to
King Solomon and did
all his work for him.
7:15 He it was who made the two brass pillars; the first
pillar
was eighteen cubits
high, and a line of twelve cubits went
round it; and the
second was the same.
7:16 And he made the two crowns to be put on the tops of the
pillars, of brass
made soft in the fire; the crowns were five
cubits high.
7:17 There were nets of open-work for the crowns on the tops
of
the pillars, a net of
open-work for one and a net of open-work
for the other.
7:18 And he made ornaments of apples; and two lines of
apples
all round over the
network, covering the crowns of the pillars,
the two crowns in the
same way.
7:19 The crowns on the tops of the pillars were ornamented
with
a design of flowers,
and were four cubits across.
7:20 And there were crowns on the two pillars near the round
part by the network,
and there were two hundred apples in lines
round every crown.
7:21 He put up the pillars at the doorway of the Temple,
naming
the one on the right
Jachin, and that on the left Boaz.
7:22 The tops of the pillars had a design of flowers; and
the
work of making the
pillars was complete.
7:23 And he made a great metal water-vessel ten cubits
across
from edge to edge,
five cubits high and thirty cubits round.
7:24 And under the edge of it, circling it all round for ten
cubits, were two
lines of flower buds, made together with it
from liquid metal.
7:25 It was supported on twelve oxen, with their back parts
turned to the middle
of it, three of them facing to the north,
three to the west,
three to the south, and three to the east;
the vessel was
resting on top of them.
7:26 It was as thick as a man's open hand, and was curved
like
the edge of a cup,
like the flower of a lily: it would take two
thousand baths.
7:27 And he made ten wheeled bases of brass; every one four
cubits long, four
cubits wide, and three cubits high.
7:28 And the bases were made in this way; their sides were
square, fixed in a
framework;
7:29 And on the square sides between the frames were lions,
oxen, and winged
ones; and the same on the frame; and over and
under the lions and
the oxen and the winged ones were steps.
7:30 Every base had four wheels of brass, turning on brass
rods,
and their four angles
had angle-plates under them; the
angle-plates under
the base were of metal, and there were
ornaments at the side
of every one.
7:31 The mouth of it inside the angle-plate was one cubit
across; it was round
like a pillar, a cubit and a half across;
it had designs cut on
it; the sides were square, not round.
7:32 The four wheels were under the frames, and the rods on
which the wheels were
fixed were in the base; the wheels were a
cubit and a half
high.
7:33 The wheels were made like carriage-wheels, the rods on
which they were
fixed, the parts forming their edges, their
rods and the middle
points of them, were all formed out of
liquid metal.
7:34 And there were four angle-plates at the four angles of
every base, forming
part of the structure of the base.
7:35 And at the top of the base there was a round vessel,
half a
cubit high;
7:36 In the spaces of the flat sides and on the frames of
them,
he made designs of
winged ones, lions, and palm-trees, with
ornamented edges all
round.
7:37 All the ten bases were made in this way, after the same
design, of the same
size and form.
7:38 And he made ten brass washing-vessels, everyone taking
forty baths, and
measuring four cubits; one vessel was placed
on every one of the
ten bases.
7:39 And he put the bases by the house, five on the right
side
and five on the left;
and he put the great water-vessel on the
right side of the
house, to the east, facing south.
7:40 And Hiram made the pots and spades and the basins. So
Hiram
came to the end of
all the work he did for King Solomon in the
house of the Lord:
7:41 The two pillars and the two cups of the crowns which
were
on the tops of the
two pillars; and the network covering the
two cups of the
crowns on the tops of the pillars,
7:42 And the four hundred apples for the network, two lines
of
apples for every
network, covering the two cups of the crowns
on the pillars;
7:43 And the ten bases, with the ten washing-vessels on
them;
7:44 And the great water-vessel, with the twelve oxen under
it;
7:45 And the pots and the spades and the basins; all the
vessels
which Hiram made for
King Solomon, for the house of the Lord,
were of polished
brass.
7:46 He made them of liquid metal in the lowland of Jordan,
at
the way across the
river, at Adama, between Succoth and
Zarethan.
7:47 The weight of all these vessels was not measured,
because
there was such a
number of them; it was not possible to get the
weight of the brass.
7:48 And Solomon had all the vessels made for use in the
house
of the Lord: the
altar of gold and the gold table on which the
holy bread was
placed;
7:49 And the supports for the lights, five on the right side
and
five on the left
before the inmost room, of clear gold; and the
flowers and the
lights and all the instruments of gold;
7:50 And the cups and the scissors and the basins and the
spoons
and the fire-trays,
all of gold; and the pins on which the
doors were turned,
the doors of the inner house, the most holy
place, and the doors
of the Temple, all of gold.
7:51 So all the work King Solomon had done in the house of
the
Lord was complete.
Then Solomon took the holy things which
David his father had
given, the silver and the gold and all the
vessels, and put them
in the store-houses of the house of the
Lord.
8:1 Then Solomon sent for all the responsible men of Israel,
and
all the chiefs of the
tribes, and the heads of families of the
children of Israel,
to come to him in Jerusalem to take the ark
of the Lord's
agreement up out of the town of David, which is
Zion.
8:2 And all the men of Israel came together to King Solomon
at
the feast, in the
month Ethanim, the seventh month.
8:3 And all the responsible men of Israel came, and the
priests
took up the ark.
8:4 They took up the ark of the Lord, and the Tent of
meeting,
and all the holy
vessels which were in the Tent; all these the
priests and the
Levites took up.
8:5 And King Solomon and all the men of Israel who had come
together there, were
with him before the ark, making offerings
of sheep and oxen
more than might be numbered.
8:6 And the priests took the ark of the agreement of the
Lord
and put it in its
place in the inner room of the house, in the
most holy place,
under the wings of the winged ones.
8:7 For their wings were outstretched over the place where
the
ark was, covering the
ark and its rods.
8:8 The rods were so long that their ends were seen from the
holy place, in front
of the inmost room; but they were not seen
from outside: and
there they are to this day.
8:9 There was nothing in the ark but the two flat stones
which
Moses put there at
Horeb, where the Lord made an agreement with
the children of
Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.
8:10 Now when the priests had come out of the holy place,
the
house of the Lord was
full of the cloud,
8:11 So that the priests were not able to keep their places
to
do their work because
of the cloud, for the house of the Lord
was full of the glory
of the Lord.
8:12 Then Solomon said, O Lord, to the sun you have given the
heaven for a
living-place, but your living-place was not seen
by men;
8:13 So I have made for you a living-place, a house in which
you
may be for ever
present.
8:14 Then, turning his face about, the king gave a blessing
to
all the men of
Israel; and they were all on their feet
together.
8:15 And he said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
who
himself gave his word
to David my father, and with his strong
hand has made his
word come true, saying,
8:16 From the day when I took my people Israel out of Egypt,
no
town in all the
tribes of Israel has been marked out by me for
the building of a
house for the resting-place of my name; but I
made selection of
David to be king over my people Israel.
8:17 Now it was in the heart of David my father to put up a
house for the name of
the Lord, the God of Israel.
8:18 But the Lord said to David my father, You did well to
have
in your heart the
desire to make a house for my name;
8:19 But you yourself will not be the builder of my house;
but
your son, the
offspring of your body, he it is who will put up
a house for my name.
8:20 And the Lord has made his word come true; for I have
taken
my father David's
place on the seat of the kingdom of Israel,
as the Lord gave his
word; and I have made a house for the name
of the Lord, the God
of Israel.
8:21 In it I have made a place for the ark, in which is the
agreement which the
Lord made with our fathers, when he took
them out of the land
of Egypt.
8:22 Then Solomon took his place before the altar of the
Lord,
all the men of Israel
being present, and stretching out his
hands to heaven,
8:23 Said, O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like
you
in heaven or on the
earth; keeping faith and mercy unchanging
for your servants,
while they go in your ways with all their
hearts.
8:24 And you have kept the word which you gave to your
servant
David, my father;
with your mouth you said it and with your
hand you have made it
come true this day.
8:25 So now, O Lord, the God of Israel, let your word to
your
servant David, my
father, come true, when you said, You will
never be without a
man to take his place on the seat of the
kingdom of Israel
before me, if only your children give
attention to their
ways, walking before me as you have done.
8:26 So now, O God of Israel, it is my prayer that you will
make
your word come true
which you said to your servant David, my
father.
8:27 But is it truly possible that God may be housed on
earth?
see, heaven and the
heaven of heavens are not wide enough to be
your resting-place;
how much less this house which I have made!
8:28 Still, let your heart be turned to the prayer of your
servant, O Lord God,
and to his prayer for grace; give ear to
the cry and the
prayer which your servant sends up to you this
day;
8:29 That your eyes may be open to this house night and day,
to
this place of which
you have said, My name will be there;
hearing the prayer
which your servant may make, turning to this
place.
8:30 Give ear to the prayers of your servant, and the
prayers of
your people Israel,
when they make their prayers, turning to
this place; give ear
in heaven your living-place, and hearing,
have mercy.
8:31 If a man does wrong to his neighbour, and has to take
an
oath, and comes
before your altar to take his oath in this
house:
8:32 Then let your ear be open in heaven, and be the judge
of
your servants, giving
your decision against the wrongdoer, so
that punishment for
his sins may come on his head; and, by your
decision, keeping
from evil him who has done no wrong.
8:33 When your people Israel are overcome in war, because of
their sin against
you; if they are turned to you again,
honouring your name,
making prayers to you and requesting your
grace in this house:
8:34 Then give ear in heaven, and let the sin of your people
Israel have
forgiveness, and take them back again into the land
which you gave to
their fathers.
8:35 When heaven is shut up and there is no rain, because of
their sin against
you; if they make prayers with their faces
turned to this place,
honouring your name and turning away from
their sin when you
send trouble on them:
8:36 Then give ear in heaven, so that the sin of your
servants,
and of your people
Israel, may have forgiveness, when you make
clear to them the
good way in which they are to go; and send
rain on your land
which you have given to your people for their
heritage.
8:37 If there is no food in the land, or if there is
disease, or
if the fruits of the
earth are damaged through heat or water,
locust or worm; if
their towns are shut in by their attackers;
whatever trouble,
whatever disease there may be:
8:38 Whatever prayer or request for your grace is made by
any
man, or by all your
people Israel, whatever his trouble may be,
whose hands are
stretched out to this house:
8:39 Give ear in heaven your living-place, acting in mercy;
and
give to every man
whose secret heart is open to you, the reward
of all his ways; for
you, and you only, have knowledge of the
hearts of all the
children of men:
8:40 So that they may give you worship all the days of their
life in the land
which you gave to our fathers.
8:41 And as for the man from a strange land, who is not of
your
people Israel; when
he comes from a far country because of the
glory of your name:
8:42 (For they will have news of your great name and your
strong
hand and your
out-stretched arm;) when he comes to make his
prayer, turning to
this house:
8:43 Give ear in heaven your living-place, and give him his
desire, whatever it
may be; so that all the peoples of the
earth may have
knowledge of your name, worshipping you as do
your people Israel,
and that they may see that this house which
I have put up is
truly named by your name.
8:44 If your people go out to war against their attackers,
by
whatever way you may
send them, if they make their prayer to
the Lord, turning
their faces to this town of yours and to this
house which I have
made for your name:
8:45 Give ear in heaven to their prayer and their cry for
grace,
and see right done to
them.
8:46 If they do wrong against you, (for no man is without
sin,)
and you are angry
with them and give them up into the power of
those who are
fighting against them, so that they take them
away as prisoners
into a strange land, far off or near;
8:47 And if they take thought, in the land where they are
prisoners, and are
turned again to you, crying out in prayer to
you in that land, and
saying, We are sinners, we have done
wrong, we have done
evil;
8:48 And with all their heart and soul are turned again to
you,
in the land of those
who took them prisoners, and make their
prayer to you,
turning their eyes to this land which you gave
to their fathers, and
to the town which you took for yourself,
and the house which I
made for your name:
8:49 Then give ear to their prayer and to their cry in
heaven
your living-place,
and see right done to them;
8:50 Answering with forgiveness the people who have done
wrong
against you, and
overlooking the evil which they have done
against you; let
those who made them prisoners be moved with
pity for them, and
have pity on them;
8:51 For they are your people and your heritage, which you
took
out of Egypt, out of
the iron fireplace;
8:52 Let your eyes be open to your servant's prayer for
grace
and to the prayer of
your people Israel, hearing them when
their cry comes to
you.
8:53 For you made them separate from all the peoples of the
earth, to be your
heritage, as you said by Moses your servant,
when you took our
fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.
8:54 Then Solomon, after making all these prayers and
requests
for grace to the
Lord, got up from his knees before the altar
of the Lord, where
his hands had been stretched out in prayer
to heaven;
8:55 And, getting on his feet, he gave a blessing to all the
men
of Israel, saying
with a loud voice,
8:56 Praise be to the Lord who has given rest to his people
Israel, as he gave
them his word to do; every word of all his
oath, which he gave
by the hand of Moses his servant, has come
true.
8:57 Now may the Lord our God be with us as he was with our
fathers; let him
never go away from us or give us up;
8:58 Turning our hearts to himself, guiding us to go in all
his
ways, to keep his
orders and his laws and his decisions, which
he gave to our
fathers.
8:59 And may these my words, the words of my prayer to the
Lord,
be before the Lord
our God day and night, so that he may see
right done to his
servant and to his people Israel, day by day
as we have need.
8:60 So that all the peoples of the earth may see that the
Lord
is God, and there is
no other.
8:61 Then let your hearts be without sin before the Lord our
God, walking in his
laws and keeping his orders as at this day.
8:62 Now the king, and all Israel with him, were making
offerings before the
Lord.
8:63 And Solomon gave to the Lord for peace-offerings,
twenty-two thousand
oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand
sheep. So the king
and all the children of Israel kept the
feast of the opening
of the Lord's house.
8:64 The same day the king made holy the middle of the open
square in front of
the house of the Lord, offering there the
burned offering and
the meal offering and the fat of the
peace-offerings; for
there was not room on the brass altar of
the Lord for the
burned offerings and the meal offerings and
the fat of the
peace-offerings.
8:65 So Solomon and all Israel with him, a very great
meeting,
(for the people had
come together from the way into Hamath to
the river of Egypt,)
kept the feast at that time before the
Lord our God, for two
weeks, even fourteen days.
8:66 And on the eighth day he sent the people away, and,
blessing the king,
they went to their tents full of joy and
glad in their hearts,
because of all the good which the Lord
had done to David his
servant and to Israel his people.
9:1 Now when Solomon came to the end of building the house
of
the Lord and the
king's house, and all Solomon's desires, which
he had in mind were
effected;
9:2 The Lord came to him again in a vision, as he had done
at
Gibeon;
9:3 And the Lord said to him, Your prayers and your requests
for
grace have come to my
ears: I have made holy this house which
you have made, and I
have put my name there for ever; my eyes
and my heart will be
there at all times.
9:4 As for you, if you will go on your way before me, as
David
your father did,
uprightly and with a true heart, doing what I
have given you orders
to do, keeping my laws and my decisions;
9:5 Then I will make the seat of your rule over Israel
certain
for ever, as I gave
my word to David your father, saying, You
will never be without
a man to be king in Israel.
9:6 But if you are turned from my ways, you or your
children,
and do not keep my
orders and my laws which I have put before
you, but go and make
yourselves servants to other gods and give
them worship:
9:7 Then I will have Israel cut off from the land which I
have
given them; and this
house, which I have made holy for myself,
I will put away from
before my eyes; and Israel will be a
public example, and a
word of shame among all peoples.
9:8 And this house will become a mass of broken walls, and
everyone who goes by
will be overcome with wonder at it and
make whistling
sounds; and they will say, Why has the Lord done
so to this land and
to this house?
9:9 And their answer will be, Because they were turned away
from
the Lord their God,
who took their fathers out of the land of
Egypt; they took for
themselves other gods and gave them
worship and became
their servants: that is why the Lord has
sent all this evil on
them.
9:10 Now at the end of twenty years, in which time Solomon
had
put up the two
houses, the house of the Lord and the king's
house,
9:11 (Hiram, king of Tyre, had given Solomon cedar-trees and
cypress-trees and
gold, as much as he had need of,) King
Solomon gave Hiram
twenty towns in the land of Galilee.
9:12 But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the towns which
Solomon had given
him, he was not pleased with them.
9:13 And he said, What sort of towns are these which you
have
given me, my brother?
So they were named the land of Cabul, to
this day.
9:14 And Hiram sent the king a hundred and twenty talents of
gold.
9:15 Now, this was the way of Solomon's system of forced
work
for the building of
the Lord's house and of the king's house,
and the Millo and the
wall of Jerusalem and Megiddo and Gezer.
...
9:16 Pharaoh, king of Egypt, came and took Gezer, burning it
down and putting to
death the Canaanites living in the town,
and he gave it for a
bride-offering to his daughter, Solomon's
wife. ...
9:17 ... and Solomon was the builder of Gezer and Beth-horon
the
lower,
9:18 And Baalath and Tamar in the waste land, in that land;
9:19 And all the store-towns and the towns which Solomon had
for
his war-carriages and
for his horsemen, and everything which it
was his pleasure to
put up in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in
all the land under
his rule.
9:20 As for the rest of the Amorites, the Hittites, the
Perizzites, the
Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not
children of Israel;
9:21 Their children who were still in the land, and whom the
children of Israel
had not been able to put to complete
destruction, them did
Solomon put to forced work, to this day.
9:22 But Solomon did not put the children of Israel to
forced
work; they were the
men of war, his servants, his captains, and
his chiefs, captains
of his war-carriages and of his horsemen.
9:23 These were the chiefs of the overseers of Solomon's
work,
five hundred and
fifty, in authority over the people who did
the work.
9:24 At that time Solomon made Pharaoh's daughter come up
from
the town of David to
the house which he had made for her: then
he made the Millo.
9:25 Three times in the year it was Solomon's way to give
burned
offerings and
peace-offerings on the altar he had made to the
Lord, causing his
fire-offering to go up on the altar before
the Lord.
9:26 And King Solomon made a sea-force of ships in
Ezion-geber,
by Eloth, on the Red
Sea, in the land of Edom.
9:27 Hiram sent his servants, who were experienced seamen,
in
the sea-force with
Solomon's men.
9:28 And they came to Ophir, where they got four hundred and
twenty talents of
gold, and took it back to King Solomon.
10:1 Now the queen of Sheba, hearing great things of
Solomon,
came to put his
wisdom to the test with hard questions.
10:2 And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with
camels weighted down
with spices, and stores of gold and
jewels: and when she
came to Solomon she had talk with him of
everything in her
mind.
10:3 And Solomon gave her answers to all her questions;
there
was no secret which
the king did not make clear to her.
10:4 And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of
Solomon, and the
house which he had made,
10:5 And the food at his table, and all his servants seated
there, and those who
were waiting on him in their places, and
their robes, and his
wine-servants, and the burned offerings
which he made in the
house of the Lord, there was no more
spirit in her.
10:6 And she said to the king, The account which was given
to me
in my country of your
acts and your wisdom was true.
10:7 But I had no faith in what was said about you, till I
came
and saw for myself;
and now I see that it was not half the
story; your wisdom
and your wealth are much greater than they
said.
10:8 Happy are your wives, happy are these your servants
whose
place is ever before
you, hearing your words of wisdom.
10:9 May the Lord your God be praised, whose pleasure it was
to
put you on the seat
of the kingdom of Israel; because the
Lord's love for
Israel is eternal, he has made you king, to be
their judge in
righteousness.
10:10 And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of
gold, and a great
store of spices and jewels: never again was
such a wealth of
spices seen as that which the queen of Sheba
gave King Solomon.
10:11 And the sea-force of Hiram, in addition to gold from
Ophir, came back with
much sandal-wood and jewels.
10:12 And from the sandal-wood the king made pillars for the
house of the Lord,
and for the king's house, and instruments of
music for the makers
of melody: never has such sandal-wood been
seen to this day.
10:13 And King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all her
desire,
whatever she made
request for, in addition to what he gave her
freely from the
impulse of his heart. So she went back to her
country, she and her
servants.
10:14 Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one
year
was six hundred and
sixty-six talents;
10:15 In addition to what came to him from the business of
the
traders, and from all
the kings of the Arabians, and from the
rulers of the
country.
10:16 And Solomon made two hundred body-covers of hammered
gold,
every one having six
hundred shekels of gold in it.
10:17 And he made three hundred smaller body-covers of
hammered
gold, with three
pounds of gold in every cover: and the king
put them in the house
of the Woods of Lebanon.
10:18 Then the king made a great ivory seat, plated with the
best gold.
10:19 There were six steps going up to it, and the top of it
was
round at the back,
there were arms on the two sides of the
seat, and two lions
by the side of the arms;
10:20 And twelve lions were placed on the one side and on the
other side on the six
steps: there was nothing like it in any
kingdom.
10:21 And all King Solomon's drinking-vessels were of gold,
and
all the vessels of
the house of the Woods of Lebanon were of
the best gold; not
one was of silver, for no one gave a thought
to silver in the days
of King Solomon.
10:22 For the king had Tarshish-ships at sea with the ships
of
Hiram; once every
three years the Tarshish-ships came with gold
and silver and ivory
and monkeys and peacocks.
10:23 And King Solomon was greater than all the kings of the
earth in wealth and
in wisdom.
10:24 And from all over the earth they came to see Solomon
and
to give ear to his
wisdom, which God had put in his heart.
10:25 And everyone took with him an offering, vessels of
silver
and vessels of gold,
and robes, and coats of metal, and spices,
and horses, and
beasts of transport, regularly year by year.
10:26 And Solomon got together war-carriages and horsemen;
he
had one thousand,
four hundred carriages and twelve thousand
horsemen, whom he
kept, some in the carriage-towns and some
with the king at
Jerusalem.
10:27 And the king made silver as common as stones in
Jerusalem
and cedars like the
sycamore-trees of the lowlands in number.
10:28 And Solomon's horses came from Egypt and from Kue; the
king's traders got
them at a price from Kue.
10:29 A war-carriage might be got from Egypt for six hundred
shekels of silver,
and a horse for a hundred and fifty; they
got them at the same
rate for all the kings of the Hittites and
the kings of Aram.
11:1 Now a number of strange women were loved by Solomon,
women
of the Moabites,
Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites:
11:2 The nations of which the Lord had said to the children
of
Israel, You are not
to take wives from them and they are not to
take wives from you;
or they will certainly make you go after
their gods: to these
Solomon was united in love.
11:3 He had seven hundred wives, daughters of kings, and
three
hundred other wives;
and through his wives his heart was turned
away.
11:4 For it came about that when Solomon was old, his heart
was
turned away to other
gods by his wives; and his heart was no
longer true to the
Lord his God as the heart of his father
David had been.
11:5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the
Zidonians, and
Milcom, the disgusting god of the Ammonites.
11:6 And Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not
walking
in the Lord's ways
with all his heart as David his father did.
11:7 Then Solomon put up a high place for Chemosh, the
disgusting god of
Moab, in the mountain before Jerusalem, and
for Molech, the
disgusting god worshipped by the children of
Ammon.
11:8 And so he did for all his strange wives, who made
offerings
with burning of
perfumes to their gods.
11:9 And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart
was
turned away from the
Lord, the God of Israel, who had twice
come to him in a
vision;
11:10 And had given him orders about this very thing, that
he
was not to go after
other gods; but he did not keep the orders
of the Lord.
11:11 So the Lord said to Solomon, Because you have done
this,
and have not kept my
agreement and my laws, which I gave you, I
will take the kingdom
away from you by force and will give it
to your servant.
11:12 I will not do it in your life-time, because of your
father
David, but I will
take it from your son.
11:13 Still I will not take all the kingdom from him; but I
will
give one tribe to
your son, because of my servant David, and
because of Jerusalem,
the town of my selection.
11:14 So the Lord sent Hadad the Edomite to make trouble for
Solomon: he was of
the king's seed in Edom.
11:15 And when David had sent destruction on Edom, and Joab,
the
captain of the army,
had gone to put the dead into the earth,
and had put to death
every male in Edom;
11:16 (For Joab and all Israel were there six months till
every
male in Edom had been
cut off;)
11:17 Hadad, being still a young boy, went in flight to
Egypt,
with certain
Edomites, servants of his father;
11:18 And they went on from Midian and came to Paran; and,
taking men from Paran
with them, they came to Egypt, to
Pharaoh, king of
Egypt, who gave him a house and gave orders
for his food and gave
him land.
11:19 Now Hadad was very pleasing to Pharaoh, so that he
gave
him the sister of his
wife, Tahpenes the queen, for his wife.
11:20 And the sister of Tahpenes had a son by him, Genubath,
whom Tahpenes took
care of in Pharaoh's house; and Genubath was
living in Pharaoh's
house among Pharaoh's sons.
11:21 Now when Hadad had news in Egypt that David had been
put
to rest with his
fathers, and that Joab, the captain of the
army, was dead, he
said to Pharaoh, Send me back to my country.
11:22 But Pharaoh said to him, What have you been short of
while
you have been with
me, that you are desiring to go back to your
country? And he said,
Nothing; but even so, send me back.
11:23 And God sent another trouble-maker, Rezon, the son of
Eliada, who had gone
in flight from his lord, Hadadezer, king
of Zobah:
11:24 He got some men together and made himself captain of a
band of outlaws; and
went to Damascus and became king there.
11:25 He was a trouble to Israel all through the days of
Solomon. And this is
the damage Hadad did: he was cruel to
Israel while he was
ruler over Edom.
11:26 And there was Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, an
Ephraimite
from Zeredah, a
servant of Solomon, whose mother was Zeruah, a
widow; and his hand
was lifted up against the king.
11:27 The way in which his hand came to be lifted up against
the
king was this:
Solomon was building the Millo and making good
the damaged parts of
the town of his father David;
11:28 And Jeroboam was an able and responsible man; and
Solomon
saw that he was a
good worker and made him overseer of all the
work given to the
sons of Joseph.
11:29 Now at that time, when Jeroboam was going out of
Jerusalem, the
prophet Ahijah the Shilonite came across him on
the road; now Ahijah
had put on a new robe; and the two of them
were by themselves in
the open country.
11:30 And Ahijah took his new robe in his hands, parting it
violently into
twelve.
11:31 And he said to Jeroboam, Take ten of the parts, for
this
is what the Lord has
said: See, I will take the kingdom away
from Solomon by
force, and will give ten tribes to you;
11:32 (But one tribe will be his, because of my servant
David,
and because of
Jerusalem, the town which, out of all the tribes
of Israel, I have
made mine,)
11:33 Because they are turned away from me to the worship of
Ashtoreth, the
goddess of the Zidonians, and Chemosh, the god
of Moab, and Milcom,
the god of the Ammonites; they have not
been walking in my
ways or doing what is right in my eyes or
keeping my laws and
my decisions as his father David did.
11:34 But I will not take the kingdom from him; I will let
him
be king all the days
of his life, because of David my servant,
in whom I took
delight because he kept my orders and my laws.
11:35 But I will take the kingdom from his son, and give it
to
you.
11:36 And one tribe I will give to his son, so that David my
servant may have a
light for ever burning before me in
Jerusalem, the town
which I have made mine to put my name
there.
11:37 And you I will take, and you will be king over Israel,
ruling over whatever
is the desire of your soul.
11:38 And if you give attention to the orders I give you,
walking in my ways
and doing what is right in my eyes and
keeping my laws and
my orders as David my servant did; then I
will be with you,
building up for you a safe house, as I did
for David, and I will
give Israel to you.
11:39 (So that I may send trouble for this on the seed of
David,
but not for ever.)
11:40 And Solomon was looking for a chance to put Jeroboam
to
death; but he went in
flight to Egypt, to Shishak, king of
Egypt, and was in
Egypt till the death of Solomon.
11:41 Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all he did,
and
his wisdom, are they
not recorded in the book of the acts of
Solomon?
11:42 And the time Solomon was king in Jerusalem over all
Israel
was forty years.
11:43 And Solomon went to rest with his fathers, and was put
into the earth in the
town of David his father: and Solomon
went to rest with his
fathers and Rehoboam his son became king
in his place.
12:1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel had come
together to make him
king,
12:2 And, hearing of it, Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who was
still in Egypt, where
he had gone in flight from Solomon, and
was living there,
came back to his town Zeredah, in the
hill-country of
Ephraim;
12:3 And all the men of Israel came to Rehoboam and said,
12:4 Your father put a hard yoke on us: if you will make the
conditions under
which your father kept us down less cruel, and
the weight of the
yoke he put on us less hard, then we will be
your servants.
12:5 And he said to them, Go away for three days and then
come
back to me again. So
the people went away.
12:6 Then King Rehoboam took the opinion of the old men who
had
been with Solomon his
father when he was living, and said, In
your opinion, what
answer am I to give to this people?
12:7 And they said to him, If you will be a servant to this
people today, caring
for them and giving them a gentle answer,
then they will be
your servants for ever.
12:8 But he gave no attention to the opinion of the old men,
and
went to the young men
of his generation who were waiting before
him:
12:9 And said to them, What is your opinion? What answer are
we
to give to this
people who have said to me, Make less the
weight of the yoke
which your father put on us?
12:10 And the young men of his generation said to him, This
is
the answer to give to
the people who came to you saying, Your
father put a hard
yoke on us; will you make it less? say to
them, My little
finger is thicker than my father's body;
12:11 If my father put a hard yoke on you, I will make it
harder: my father
gave you punishment with whips, but I will
give you blows with
snakes.
12:12 So all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day,
as
the king had given
orders, saying, Come back to me the third
day.
12:13 And the king gave them a rough answer, giving no
attention
to the suggestion of
the old men;
12:14 But giving them the answer put forward by the young
men,
saying, My father
made your yoke hard, but I will make it
harder; my father
gave you punishment with whips, but I will
give it with snakes.
12:15 So the king did not give ear to the people; and this
came
about by the purpose
of the Lord, so that what he had said by
Ahijah the Shilonite
to Jeroboam, son of Nebat, might be
effected.
12:16 And when all Israel saw that the king would give no
attention to them,
the people in answer said to the king, What
part have we in
David? what is our heritage in the son of
Jesse? to your tents,
O Israel; now see to your people, David.
So Israel went away
to their tents.
12:17 (But Rehoboam was still king over those of the
children of
Israel who were
living in the towns of Judah.)
12:18 Then King Rehoboam sent Adoniram, the overseer of the
forced work; and he
was stoned to death by all Israel. And King
Rehoboam went quickly
and got into his carriage to go in flight
to Jerusalem.
12:19 So Israel was turned away from the family of David to
this
day.
12:20 Now when all Israel had news that Jeroboam had come
back,
they sent for him to
come before the meeting of the people, and
made him king over
Israel: not one of them was joined to the
family of David but
only the tribe of Judah.
12:21 When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he got together all
the
men of Judah and the
tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty
thousand of his best
fighting-men, to make war against Israel
and get the kingdom
back for Rehoboam, the son of Solomon.
12:22 But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God,
saying,
12:23 Say to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah,
and to
all the men of Judah
and Benjamin and the rest of the people:
12:24 The Lord has said, You are not to go to war against
your
brothers, the
children of Israel; go back, every man to his
house, because this
thing is my purpose. So they gave ear to
the word of the Lord,
and went back, as the Lord had said.
12:25 Then Jeroboam made the town of Shechem in the
hill-country
of Ephraim a strong
place, and was living there; and from there
he went out and did
the same to Penuel.
12:26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom will
go
back to the family of
David:
12:27 If the people go up to make offerings in the house of
the
Lord at Jerusalem,
their heart will be turned again to their
lord, to Rehoboam,
king of Judah; and they will put me to death
and go back to
Rehoboam, king of Judah.
12:28 So after taking thought the king made two oxen of
gold;
and he said to the
people, You have been going up to Jerusalem
long enough; see!
these are your gods, O Israel, who took you
out of the land of
Egypt.
12:29 And he put one in Beth-el and the other in Dan.
12:30 And this became a sin in Israel; for the people went
to
give worship to the
one at Beth-el, and to the other at Dan.
12:31 And he made places for worship at the high places, and
made priests, who
were not Levites, from among all the people.
12:32 And Jeroboam gave orders for a feast in the eighth
month,
on the fifteenth day
of the month, like the feast which is kept
in Judah, and he went
up to the altar. And in the same way, in
Beth-el, he gave
offerings to the oxen which he had made,
placing in Beth-el
the priests of the high places he had made.
12:33 He went up to the altar he had made in Beth-el on the
fifteenth day of the
eighth month, the month fixed by him at
his pleasure; and he
gave orders for a feast for the people of
Israel, and went up
to the altar, and there he made the smoke
of his offerings go
up.
13:1 Then a man of God came from Judah by the order of the
Lord
to Beth-el, where
Jeroboam was by the altar, burning offerings.
13:2 And by the order of the Lord he made an outcry against
the
altar, saying, O
altar, altar, the Lord has said, From the seed
of David will come a
child, named Josiah, and on you he will
put to death the
priests of the high places, who are burning
offerings on you, and
men's bones will be burned on you.
13:3 The same day he gave them a sign, saying, This is the
sign
which the Lord has
given: See, the altar will be broken and the
burned waste on it
overturned.
13:4 Then the king, hearing the man of God crying out
against
the altar at Beth-el,
put out his hand from the altar, saying,
Take him prisoner.
And his hand, stretched out against him,
became dead, and he
had no power of pulling it back.
13:5 And the altar was broken and the burned waste on it
overturned; this was
the sign which the man of God had given by
the word of the Lord.
13:6 Then the king made answer and said to the man of God,
Make
a prayer now for the
grace of the Lord your God, and for me,
that my hand may be
made well. And in answer to the prayer of
the man of God, the
king's hand was made well again, as it was
before.
13:7 And the king said to the man of God, Come with me to my
house for food and
rest, and I will give you a reward.
13:8 But the man of God said to the king, Even if you gave
me
half of all you have,
I would not go in with you, and I would
not take food or a
drink of water in this place;
13:9 For so I was ordered by the word of the Lord, who said,
You
are not to take food
or a drink of water, and you are not to go
back the way you
came.
13:10 So he went another way, and not by the way he came to
Beth-el.
13:11 Now there was an old prophet living in Beth-el; and
one of
his sons came and
gave him word of all the man of God had done
that day in Beth-el,
and they gave their father an account of
the words he had said
to the king.
13:12 Then their father said to them, Which way did he go?
Now
his sons had seen
which way the man of God who came from Judah
had gone.
13:13 So the prophet said to his sons, Make ready an ass for
me.
So they made an ass
ready, and he got on it,
13:14 And went after the man of God, and came up with him
while
he was seated under
an oak-tree. And he said to him, Are you
the man of God who
came from Judah? And he said, I am.
13:15 Then he said to him, Come back to the house with me
and
have a meal.
13:16 But he said, I may not go back with you or go into
your
house; and I will not
take food or a drink of water with you in
this place;
13:17 For the Lord said to me, You are not to take food or
water
there, or go back
again by the way you came.
13:18 Then he said to him, I am a prophet like you; and an
angel
said to me by the
word of the Lord, Take him back with you and
give him food and water.
But he said false words to him.
13:19 So he went back with him, and had a meal in his house
and
a drink of water.
13:20 But while they were seated at the table, the word of
the
Lord came to the
prophet who had taken him back;
13:21 And crying out to the man of God who came from Judah,
he
said, The Lord says,
Because you have gone against the voice of
the Lord, and have
not done as you were ordered by the Lord,
13:22 But have come back, and have taken food and water in
this
place where he said
you were to take no food or water; your
dead body will not be
put to rest with your fathers.
13:23 Now after the meal he made ready the ass for him, for
the
prophet whom he had
taken back.
13:24 And he went on his way; but on the road a lion came
rushing at him and
put him to death; and his dead body was
stretched in the road
with the ass by its side, and the lion
was there by the
body.
13:25 And some men, going by, saw the body stretched out in
the
road with the lion by
its side; and they came and gave news of
it in the town where
the old prophet was living.
13:26 Then the prophet who had made him come back, hearing
it,
said, It is the man
of God, who went against the word of the
Lord; that is why the
Lord has given him to the lion to be
wounded to death, as
the Lord said.
13:27 And he said to his sons, Make ready the ass for me.
And
they did so.
13:28 And he went and saw the dead body stretched out in the
road with the ass and
the lion by its side: the lion had not
taken the body for
its food or done any damage to the ass.
13:29 Then the prophet took up the body of the man of God
and
put it on the ass and
took it back; and he came to the town to
put the body to rest
with weeping.
13:30 And he put the body in the resting-place made ready
for
himself, weeping and
sorrowing over it, saying, O my brother!
13:31 And when he had put it to rest, he said to his sons,
When
I am dead, then you
are to put my body into the earth with the
body of this man of
God, and put me by his bones so that my
bones may be kept
safe with his bones.
13:32 For the outcry he made by the word of the Lord against
the
altar in Beth-el and
against all the houses of the high places
in the towns of
Samaria, will certainly come about.
13:33 After this Jeroboam, not turning back from his evil
ways,
still made priests
for his altars from among all the people; he
made a priest of
anyone desiring it, so that there might be
priests of the high
places.
13:34 And this became a sin in the family of Jeroboam,
causing
it to be cut off and
sent to destruction from the face of the
earth.
14:1 At that time Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, became ill.
14:2 And Jeroboam said to his wife, Now come, put on
different
clothing so that you
may not seem to be the wife of Jeroboam,
and go to Shiloh;
see, Ahijah is there, the prophet who said I
would be king over
this people.
14:3 And take with you ten cakes of bread and dry cakes and
a
pot of honey, and go
to him: he will give you word of what is
to become of the
child.
14:4 So Jeroboam's wife did so, and got up and went to
Shiloh
and came to the house
of Ahijah. Now Ahijah was unable to see,
because he was very
old.
14:5 And the Lord had said to Ahijah, The wife of Jeroboam
is
coming to get news
from you about her son, who is ill; give her
such and such an
answer; for she will make herself seem to be
another woman.
14:6 Then Ahijah, hearing the sound of her footsteps coming
in
at the door, said,
Come in, O wife of Jeroboam; why do you make
yourself seem like
another? for I am sent to you with bitter
news.
14:7 Go, say to Jeroboam, These are the words of the Lord,
the
God of Israel: Though
I took you from among the people, lifting
you up to be a ruler
over my people Israel,
14:8 And took the kingdom away by force from the seed of
David
and gave it to you,
you have not been like my servant David,
who kept my orders,
and was true to me with all his heart,
doing only what was
right in my eyes.
14:9 But you have done evil more than any before you, and
have
made for yourself
other gods, and images of metal, moving me to
wrath, and turning
your back on me.
14:10 So I will send evil on the line of Jeroboam, cutting
off
from his family every
male child, those who are shut up and
those who go free in
Israel; the family of Jeroboam will be
brushed away like a
man brushing away waste till it is all
gone.
14:11 Those of the family of Jeroboam who come to death in
the
town, will become
food for the dogs; and those on whom death
comes in the open
country, will be food for the birds of the
air; for the Lord has
said it.
14:12 Up, then! go back to your house; and in the hour when
your
feet go into the
town, the death of the child will take place.
14:13 And all Israel will put his body to rest, weeping over
him, because he only
of the family of Jeroboam will be put into
his resting-place in
the earth; for of all the family of
Jeroboam, in him only
has the Lord, the God of Israel, seen
some good.
14:14 And the Lord will put up a king over Israel who will
send
destruction on the
family of Jeroboam in that day;
14:15 And even now the hand of the Lord has come down on
Israel,
shaking it like a
river-grass in the water; and, uprooting
Israel from this good
land, which he gave to their fathers, he
will send them this
way and that on the other side of the
River; because they
have made for themselves images, moving the
Lord to wrath.
14:16 And he will give Israel up because of the sins which
Jeroboam has done and
made Israel do.
14:17 Then Jeroboam's wife got up and went away and came to
Tirzah; and when she
came to the doorway of the house, death
came to the child.
14:18 And all Israel put his body to rest, weeping over him,
as
the Lord had said by
his servant Ahijah the prophet.
14:19 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war
and
how he became king,
are recorded in the book of the history of
the kings of Israel.
14:20 And Jeroboam was king for twenty-two years, and was
put to
rest with his
fathers, and Nadab his son became king in his
place.
14:21 And Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, was king in Judah.
Rehoboam was
forty-one years old when he became king, and he
was king for
seventeen years in Jerusalem, the town which the
Lord had made his out
of all the tribes of Israel, to put his
name there; his
mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonite woman.
14:22 And Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and made
him
more angry than their
fathers had done by their sins.
14:23 For they made high places and upright stones and wood
pillars on every high
hill and under every green tree;
14:24 And more than this, there were those in the land who
were
used for sex purposes
in the worship of the gods, doing the
same disgusting
crimes as the nations which the Lord had sent
out before the
children of Israel.
14:25 Now in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king
of
Egypt, came up
against Jerusalem;
14:26 And took away all the stored wealth from the house of
the
Lord, and from the
king's house, and all the gold body-covers
which Solomon had
made.
14:27 So in their place King Rehoboam had other body-covers
made
of brass, and gave
them into the care of the captains of the
armed men who were
stationed at the door of the king's house.
14:28 And whenever the king went into the house of the Lord,
the
armed men went with
him taking the body-covers, and then took
them back to their
room.
14:29 Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all he did,
are
they not recorded in
the book of the history of the kings of
Judah?
14:30 And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all
their
days.
14:31 And Rehoboam went to rest with his fathers, and was
put
into the earth with
his fathers in the town of David; his
mother's name was
Naamah, an Ammonite woman. And Abijam his son
became king in his
place.
15:1 Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam, the son of
Nebat, Abijam became
king over Judah.
15:2 For three years he was king in Jerusalem: and his
mother's
name was Maacah, the
daughter of Abishalom.
15:3 And he did the same sins which his father had done
before
him: his heart was
not completely true to the Lord his God,
like the heart of
David his father.
15:4 But because of David, the Lord gave him a light in
Jerusalem, making his
sons king after him, so that Jerusalem
might be safe;
15:5 Because David did what was right in the eyes of the
Lord,
and never in all his
life went against his orders, but only in
the question of Uriah
the Hittite.
15:6 ...
15:7 Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all he did, are
they not recorded in
the book of the history of the kings of
Judah? And there was
war between Abijam and Jeroboam.
15:8 Then Abijam went to rest with his fathers, and they put
him
into the earth in the
town of David: and Asa his son became
king in his place.
15:9 In the twentieth year that Jeroboam was king of Israel,
Asa
became king over
Judah.
15:10 And he was king for forty-one years in Jerusalem; his
mother's name was
Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.
15:11 Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as
David
his father did.
15:12 Those used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods
he
sent out of the
country, and he took away all the images which
his fathers had made.
15:13 And he would not let Maacah his mother be queen,
because
she had made a
disgusting image for Asherah; and Asa had the
image cut down and
burned by the stream Kidron.
15:14 The high places, however, were not taken away: but
still
the heart of Asa was
true to the Lord all his life.
15:15 He took into the house of the Lord all the things
which
his father had made
holy, and those which he himself had made
holy, silver and gold
and vessels.
15:16 Now there was war between Asa and Baasha, king of
Israel,
all their days.
15:17 And Baasha, king of Israel, went up against Judah,
building Ramah, so
that no one was able to go out or in to Asa,
king of Judah.
15:18 Then Asa took all the silver and gold which was still
stored in the Lord's
house, and in the king's house, and sent
them, in the care of
his servants, to Ben-hadad, son of
Tabrimmon, son of
Rezon, king of Aram, at Damascus, saying,
15:19 Let there be an agreement between me and you as there
was
between my father and
your father: see, I have sent you an
offering of silver
and gold; go and put an end to your
agreement with
Baasha, king of Israel, so that he may give up
attacking me.
15:20 So Ben-hadad did as King Asa said, and sent the
captains
of his armies against
the towns of Israel, attacking Ijon and
Dan and
Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth as far as all the
land of Naphtali.
15:21 And Baasha, hearing of it, put a stop to the building
of
Ramah, and was living
in Tirzah.
15:22 Then King Asa got all Judah together, making every man
come; and they took
away the stones and the wood with which
Baasha was building
Ramah, and King Asa made use of them for
building Geba in the
land of Benjamin, and Mizpah.
15:23 Now the rest of the acts of Asa, and his power, and
all he
did, and the towns of
which he was the builder, are they not
recorded in the book
of the history of the kings of Judah? But
when he was old he
had a disease of the feet.
15:24 So Asa went to rest with his fathers and was put into
the
earth in the town of
David his father: and Jehoshaphat his son
became king in his
place.
15:25 Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, became king over Israel in
the
second year that Asa
was king of Judah; and he was king of
Israel for two years.
15:26 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the evil
ways
of his father, and
the sin which he did and made Israel do.
15:27 And Baasha, the son of Ahijah, of the family of
Issachar,
made a secret design
against him, attacking him at Gibbethon, a
town of the
Philistines; for Nadab and the armies of Israel
were making war on
Gibbethon.
15:28 In the third year of the rule of Asa, king of Judah,
Baasha put him to
death, and became king in his place.
15:29 And straight away when he became king, he sent
destruction
on all the offspring
of Jeroboam; there was not one living
person of all the
family of Jeroboam whom he did not put to
death, so the word of
the Lord, which he said by his servant
Ahijah the Shilonite,
came about;
15:30 Because of the sins which Jeroboam did and made Israel
do,
moving the Lord, the
God of Israel, to wrath.
15:31 Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all he did, are
they not recorded in
the book of the history of the kings of
Israel?
15:32 And there was war between Asa and Baasha, king of
Israel,
all their days.
15:33 In the third year of the rule of Asa, king of Judah,
Baasha, the son of
Ahijah, became king over all Israel in
Tirzah, and was king
for twenty-four years.
15:34 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the evil
ways
of Jeroboam and the
sin which he made Israel do.
16:1 And the word of the Lord came to Jehu, son of Hanani,
protesting against
Baasha and saying,
16:2 Because I took you up out of the dust, and made you
ruler
over my people
Israel; and you have gone in the ways of
Jeroboam, and made my
people Israel do evil, moving me to wrath
by their sins;
16:3 Truly, I will see that Baasha and all his family are
completely brushed
away; I will make your family like the
family of Jeroboam,
the son of Nebat.
16:4 Anyone of the family of Baasha who comes to death in
the
town, will become
food for the dogs; and he to whom death comes
in the open country,
will be food for the birds of the air.
16:5 Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, and what he did,
and
his power, are they
not recorded in the book of the history of
the kings of Israel?
16:6 And Baasha went to rest with his fathers, and was put
into
the earth at Tirzah;
and Elah his son became king in his place.
16:7 And the Lord sent his word against Baasha and his
family by
the mouth of the
prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani, because of
all the evil he did
in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to
wrath by the work of
his hands, because he was like the family
of Jeroboam, and
because he put it to death.
16:8 In the twenty-sixth year that Asa was king of Judah,
Elah,
the son of Baasha,
became king of Israel in Tirzah, and he was
king for two years.
16:9 And his servant Zimri, captain of half his
war-carriages,
made secret designs
against him: now he was in Tirzah, drinking
hard in the house of
Arza, controller of the king's house in
Tirzah.
16:10 And Zimri went in and made an attack on him and put
him to
death, in the
twenty-seventh year that Asa was king of Judah,
and made himself king
in his place.
16:11 And straight away when he became king and took his
place
on the seat of the
kingdom, he put to death all the family of
Baasha: not one male
child of his relations or his friends kept
his life.
16:12 So Zimri put to death all the family of Baasha, so
that
the word which the
Lord said against him by the mouth of Jehu
the prophet came
about;
16:13 Because of all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of
Elah
his son, which they
did and made Israel do, moving the Lord,
the God of Israel, to
wrath by their foolish acts.
16:14 Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all he did, are
they
not recorded in the
book of the history of the kings of Israel?
16:15 In the twenty-seventh year of Asa, king of Judah,
Zimri
was king for seven
days in Tirzah. Now the people were
attacking Gibbethon
in the land of the Philistines.
16:16 And news came to the people in the tents that Zimri
had
made a secret design
and had put the king to death: so all
Israel made Omri, the
captain of the army, king that day in the
tents.
16:17 Then Omri went up from Gibbethon, with all the army of
Israel, and they made
an attack on Tirzah, shutting in the town
on every side.
16:18 And when Zimri saw that the town was taken, he went
into
the inner room of the
king's house, and burning the house over
his head, came to his
end,
16:19 Because of his sin in doing evil in the eyes of the
Lord,
in going in the way
of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made
Israel do.
16:20 Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and the secret
design
he made, are they not
recorded in the book of the history of
the kings of Israel?
16:21 Then there was a division among the people of Israel;
half
the people were for
making Tibni, son of Ginath, king, and half
were supporting Omri.
16:22 But the supporters of Omri overcame those who were on
the
side of Tibni, the
son of Ginath; and death came to Tibni and
to his brother Joram
at that time: and Omri became king in the
place of Tibni.
16:23 In the thirty-first year of Asa, king of Judah, Omri
became king over
Israel, and he was king for twelve years; for
six years he was
ruling in Tirzah.
16:24 He got the hill Samaria from Shemer for the price of
two
talents of silver,
and he made a town there, building it on the
hill and naming it
Samaria, after Shemer the owner of the hill.
16:25 And Omri did evil in the eyes of the Lord, even worse
than
all those before him,
16:26 Copying all the evil ways of Jeroboam, the son of
Nebat,
and all the sins he
did and made Israel do, moving the Lord,
the God of Israel, to
wrath by their foolish ways.
16:27 Now the rest of the acts which Omri did, and his great
power, are they not
recorded in the book of the history of the
kings of Israel?
16:28 So Omri went to rest with his fathers, and was put
into
the earth in Samaria;
and Ahab his son became king in his
place.
16:29 In the thirty-eighth year that Asa was king of Judah,
Ahab, the son of
Omri, became king over Israel; and Ahab was
king in Samaria for
twenty-two years.
16:30 And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the eyes of the
Lord, even worse than
all who went before him.
16:31 And as if copying the evil ways of Jeroboam, the son
of
Nebat, was a small
thing for him, he took as his wife Jezebel,
daughter of Ethbaal,
king of Zidon, and became a servant and
worshipper of Baal.
16:32 And he put up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal
which
he had made in
Samaria.
16:33 And Ahab made an image of Asherah and did more than
all
the kings of Israel
before him to make the Lord, the God of
Israel, angry.
16:34 In his days Hiel made Jericho; he put its base in
position
at the price of
Abiram, his oldest son, and he put its doors in
place at the price of
his youngest son Segub; even as the Lord
had said by Joshua,
the son of Nun.
17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to
Ahab,
By the living Lord,
the God of Israel, whose servant I am,
there will be no dew
or rain in these years, but only at my
word.
17:2 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
17:3 Go from here in the direction of the east, and keep
yourself in a secret
place by the stream Cherith, east of
Jordan.
17:4 The water of the stream will be your drink, and by my
orders the ravens
will give you food there.
17:5 So he went and did as the Lord said, living by the
stream
Cherith, east of
Jordan.
17:6 And the ravens took him bread in the morning and meat
in
the evening; and the
water of the stream was his drink.
17:7 Now after a time the stream became dry, because there
was
no rain in the land.
17:8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
17:9 Up! go now to Zarephath, in Zidon, and make your
living-place there; I
have given orders to a widow woman there
to see that you have
food.
17:10 So he got up and went to Zarephath; and when he came
to
the door of the town,
he saw a widow woman getting sticks
together; and crying
out to her he said, Will you give me a
little water in a
vessel for my drink?
17:11 And when she was going to get it, he said to her, And
get
me with it a small
bit of bread.
17:12 Then she said, By the life of the Lord your God, I
have
nothing but a little
meal in my store, and a drop of oil in the
bottle; and now I am
getting two sticks together so that I may
go in and make it
ready for me and my son, so that we may have
a meal before our
death.
17:13 And Elijah said to her, Have no fear; go and do as you
have said, but first
make me a little cake of it and come and
give it to me, and
then make something for yourself and your
son.
17:14 For this is the word of the Lord, the God of Israel:
The
store of meal will
not come to an end, and the bottle will
never be without oil,
till the day when the Lord sends rain on
the earth.
17:15 So she went and did as Elijah said; and she and he and
her
family had food for a
long time.
17:16 The store of meal did not come to an end, and the
bottle
was never without
oil, as the Lord had said by the mouth of
Elijah.
17:17 Now after this, the son of the woman of the house
became
ill, so ill that
there was no breath in him.
17:18 And she said to Elijah, What have I to do with you, O
man
of God? have you come
to put God in mind of my sin, and to put
my son to death?
17:19 And he said to her, Give your son to me. And lifting
him
out of her arms, he
took him up to his room and put him down on
his bed.
17:20 And crying to the Lord he said, O Lord my God, have
you
sent evil even on the
widow whose guest I am, by causing her
son's death?
17:21 And stretching herself out on the child three times,
he
made his prayer to
the Lord, saying, O Lord my God, be pleased
to let this child's
life come back to him again.
17:22 And the Lord gave ear to the voice of Elijah, and the
child's spirit came
into him again, and he came back to life.
17:23 And Elijah took the child down from his room into the
house and gave him to
his mother and said to her, See, your son
is living.
17:24 Then the woman said to Elijah, Now I am certain that
you
are a man of God, and
that the word of the Lord in your mouth
is true.
18:1 Now after a long time, the word of the Lord came to
Elijah,
in the third year,
saying, Go and let Ahab see you, so that I
may send rain on the
earth.
18:2 So Elijah went to let Ahab see him. Now there was no
food
to be had in Samaria.
18:3 And Ahab sent for Obadiah, the controller of the king's
house. (Now Obadiah
had the fear of the Lord before him
greatly;
18:4 For when Jezebel was cutting off the prophets of the
Lord,
Obadiah took a
hundred of them, and kept them secretly in a
hole in the rock,
fifty at a time, and gave them bread and
water.)
18:5 And Ahab said to Obadiah, Come, let us go through all
the
country, to all the
fountains of water and all the rivers, and
see if there is any
grass to be had for the horses and the
transport beasts, so
that we may be able to keep some of the
beasts from
destruction.
18:6 So they went through all the country, covering it
between
them; Ahab went in
one direction by himself, and Obadiah went
in another by
himself.
18:7 And while Obadiah was on his way, he came face to face
with
Elijah; and seeing
who it was, he went down on his face and
said, Is it you, my
lord Elijah?
18:8 And Elijah in answer said, It is I; now go and say to
your
lord, Elijah is here.
18:9 And he said, What sin have I done, that you would give
up
your servant into the
hand of Ahab, and be the cause of my
death?
18:10 By the life of the Lord your God, there is not a
nation or
kingdom where my lord
has not sent in search of you; and when
they said, He is not
here; he made them take an oath that they
had not seen you.
18:11 And now you say, Go, say to your lord, Elijah is here.
18:12 And straight away, when I have gone from you, the
spirit
of the Lord will take
you away, I have no idea where, so that
when I come and give
word to Ahab, and he sees you not, he will
put me to death:
though I, your servant, have been a worshipper
of the Lord from my
earliest years.
18:13 Has my lord not had word of what I did when Jezebel
was
putting the Lord's
prophets to death? how I kept a hundred of
them in a secret hole
in the rock, fifty at a time, and gave
them bread and water?
18:14 And now you say, Go and say to your Lord, Elijah is
here;
and he will put me to
death.
18:15 And Elijah said, By the life of the Lord of armies,
whose
servant I am, I will
certainly let him see me today.
18:16 So Obadiah went to Ahab and gave him the news; and
Ahab
went to see Elijah.
18:17 And when he saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, Is it you,
you
troubler of Israel?
18:18 Then he said in answer, I have not been troubling
Israel,
but you and your
family; because, turning away from the orders
of the Lord, you have
gone after the Baals.
18:19 Now send, and get Israel together before me at Mount
Carmel, with the four
hundred and fifty prophets of Baal who
get their food at
Jezebel's table.
18:20 So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and got
the
prophets together at
Mount Carmel.
18:21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, How
long
will you go on
balancing between two opinions? if the Lord is
God, then give
worship to him; but if Baal, give worship to
him. And the people
said not a word in answer.
18:22 Then Elijah said to the people, I, even I, am the only
living prophet of the
Lord; but Baal's prophets are four
hundred and fifty
men.
18:23 Now, let them give us two oxen; and let them take one
for
themselves, and have
it cut up, and put it on the wood, but put
no fire under it; I
will get the other ox ready, and put it on
the wood, and put no
fire under it.
18:24 And do you make prayers to your god, and I will make a
prayer to the Lord:
and it will be clear that the one who gives
an answer by fire is
God. And all the people in answer said, It
is well said.
18:25 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Take one ox
for
yourselves and get it
ready first, for there are more of you;
and make your prayers
to your god, but put no fire under.
18:26 So they took the ox which was given them, and made it
ready, crying out to
Baal from morning till the middle of the
day, and saying, O
Baal, give ear to us. But there was no voice
and no answer. And
they were jumping up and down before the
altar they had made.
18:27 And in the middle of the day, Elijah made sport of
them,
saying, Give louder
cries, for he is a god; he may be deep in
thought, or he may
have gone away for some purpose, or he may
be on a journey, or
by chance he is sleeping and has to be made
awake.
18:28 So they gave loud cries, cutting themselves with
knives
and swords, as was
their way, till the blood came streaming out
all over them.
18:29 And from the middle of the day they went on with their
prayers till the time
of the offering; but there was no voice,
or any answer, or any
who gave attention to them.
18:30 Then Elijah said to all the people, Come near to me;
and
all the people came
near. And he put up again the altar of the
Lord which had been
broken down.
18:31 And Elijah took twelve stones, the number of the
tribes of
the sons of Jacob, to
whom the Lord had said, Israel will be
your name:
18:32 And with the stones he made an altar to the name of
the
Lord; and he made a
deep drain all round the altar, great
enough to take two
measures of seed.
18:33 And he put the wood in order, and, cutting up the ox,
put
it on the wood. Then
he said, Get four vessels full of water
and put it on the
burned offering and on the wood. And he said,
Do it a second time,
and they did it a second time;
18:34 And he said, Do it a third time, and they did it a
third
time.
18:35 And the water went all round the altar, till the drain
was
full.
18:36 Then at the time of the offering, Elijah the prophet
came
near and said, O
Lord, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of
Israel, let it be
seen this day that you are God in Israel, and
that I am your
servant, and that I have done all these things
by your order.
18:37 Give me an answer, O Lord, give me an answer, so that
this
people may see that
you are God, and that you have made their
hearts come back
again.
18:38 Then the fire of the Lord came down, burning up the
offering and the wood
and the stones and the dust, and drinking
up the water in the
drain.
18:39 And when the people saw it, they all went down on
their
faces, and said, The
Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God.
18:40 And Elijah said to them, Take the prophets of Baal,
let
not one of them get
away. So they took them, and Elijah made
them go down to the
stream Kishon, and put them to death there.
18:41 Then Elijah said to Ahab, Up! take food and drink, for
there is a sound of
much rain.
18:42 So Ahab went up to have food and drink, while Elijah
went
up to the top of
Carmel; and he went down on the earth, putting
his face between his
knees.
18:43 And he said to his servant, Go now, and take a look in
the
direction of the sea.
And he went up, and after looking said,
There is nothing. And
he said, Go again seven times; and he
went seven times.
18:44 And the seventh time he said, I see a cloud coming up out
of the sea, as small
as a man's hand. Then he said, Go up and
say to Ahab, Get your
carriage ready and go down or the rain
will keep you back.
18:45 And after a very little time, the heaven became black
with
clouds and wind, and
there was a great rain. And Ahab went in
his carriage to
Jezreel.
18:46 And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; and he made
himself strong, and
went running before Ahab till they came to
Jezreel.
19:1 Ahab gave Jezebel news of all Elijah had done, and how
he
had put all the
prophets to death with the sword.
19:2 Then Jezebel sent a servant to Elijah, saying, May the
gods' punishment be
on me if I do not make your life like the
life of one of them
by tomorrow about this time.
19:3 And he got up, fearing for his life, and went in
flight,
and came to
Beer-sheba in Judah, parting there from his
servant;
19:4 While he himself went a day's journey into the waste
land,
and took a seat under
a broom-plant, desiring for himself only
death; for he said,
It is enough: now, O Lord, take away my
life, for I am no
better than my fathers.
19:5 And stretching himself on the earth, he went to sleep
under
the broom-plant; but
an angel, touching him, said to him, Get
up and have some
food.
19:6 And looking up, he saw by his head a cake cooked on the
stones and a bottle
of water. So he took food and drink and
went to sleep again.
19:7 And the angel of the Lord came again a second time, and
touching him said,
Get up and have some food, or the journey
will be overmuch for
your strength.
19:8 So he got up and took food and drink, and in the
strength
of that food he went
on for forty days and nights, to Horeb,
the mountain of God.
19:9 And there he went into a hole in the rock for the night;
then the word of the
Lord came to him, saying, What are you
doing here, Elijah?
19:10 And he said, I have been burning for the honour of the
Lord, the God of
armies; for the children of Israel have not
kept your agreement;
they have made destruction of your altars,
and have put your
prophets to death with the sword: till I,
even I, am the only
one living; and now they are attempting to
take away my life.
19:11 Then he said, Go out and take your place on the
mountain
before the Lord. Then
the Lord went by, and mountains were
parted by the force
of a great wind, and rocks were broken
before the Lord; but
the Lord was not in the wind. And after
the wind there was an
earth-shock, but the Lord was not in the
earth-shock.
19:12 And after the earth-shock a fire, but the Lord was not
in
the fire. And after
the fire, the sound of a soft breath.
19:13 And Elijah, hearing it, went out, covering his face
with
his robe, and took
his place in the opening of the hole. And
there a voice came to
him saying, What are you doing here,
Elijah?
19:14 And he said, I have been burning for the honour of the
Lord, the God of
armies; for the children of Israel have not
kept your agreement;
they have had your altars broken down, and
have put your
prophets to death with the sword: till I, even I,
am the only one
living; and now they are attempting to take
away my life.
19:15 And the Lord said to him, Go back on your way through
the
waste land to
Damascus; and when you come there, put the holy
oil on Hazael to make
him king over Aram;
19:16 And on Jehu, son of Nimshi, making him king over
Israel;
and on Elisha, the
son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, to be
prophet in your
place.
19:17 And it will come about that the man who gets away safe
from the sword of
Hazael, Jehu will put to death; and whoever
gets away safe from
the sword of Jehu, Elisha will put to
death.
19:18 But I will keep safe seven thousand in Israel, all
those
whose knees have not
been bent to Baal, and whose mouths have
given him no kisses.
19:19 So he went away from there and came across Elisha, the
son
of Shaphat, ploughing
with twelve yoke of oxen, he himself
walking with the
twelfth; and Elijah went up to him and put his
robe on him.
19:20 And letting the oxen be where they were, he came
running
after Elijah, and
said, Only let me give a kiss to my father
and mother, and then
I will come after you. But he said to him,
Go back again; for
what have I done to you?
19:21 And he went back, and took the oxen and put them to
death,
and cooking their
flesh with the yokes of the oxen, he gave the
people a feast. Then
he got up and went after Elijah and became
his servant.
20:1 Now Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got all his army together,
and
thirty-two kings with
him, and horses and carriages of war; he
went up and made war
on Samaria, shutting it in.
20:2 And he sent representatives into the town to Ahab, king
of
Israel;
20:3 And they said to him, Ben-hadad says, Your silver and
your
gold are mine; and
your wives and children are mine.
20:4 And the king of Israel sent him an answer saying, As
you
say, my lord king, I
am yours with all I have.
20:5 Then the representatives came back again, and said,
These
are the words of
Ben-hadad: I sent to you saying, Give up to me
your silver and your
gold, your wives and your children;
20:6 But I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this
time, to make a
search through your house and the houses of
your people, and
everything which is pleasing in your eyes they
will take away in
their hands.
20:7 Then the king of Israel sent for all the responsible
men of
the land, and said,
Now will you take note and see the evil
purpose of this man:
he sent for my wives and my children, my
silver and my gold,
and I did not keep them back.
20:8 And all the responsible men and the people said to him,
Do
not give attention to
him or do what he says.
20:9 So he said to the representatives of Ben-hadad, Say to
my
lord the king, All
the orders you sent the first time I will
do; but this thing I
may not do. And the representatives went
back with this
answer.
20:10 Then Ben-hadad sent to him, saying, May the gods'
punishment be on me
if there is enough of the dust of Samaria
for all the people at
my feet to take some in their hands.
20:11 And the king of Israel said in answer, Say to him, The
time for loud talk is
not when a man is putting on his arms,
but when he is taking
them off.
20:12 Now when this answer was given to Ben-hadad, he was
drinking with the
kings in the tents, and he said to his men,
Take up your
positions. So they put themselves in position for
attacking the town.
20:13 Then a prophet came up to Ahab, king of Israel, and
said,
The Lord says, Have
you seen all this great army? See, I will
give it into your
hands today, and you will see that I am the
Lord.
20:14 And Ahab said, By whom? And he said, The Lord says, By
the
servants of the
chiefs who are over the divisions of the land.
Then he said, By whom
is the fighting to be started? And he
made answer, By you.
20:15 Then he got together the servants of all the chiefs
who
were over the
divisions of the land, two hundred and thirty-two
of them; and after
them, he got together all the people, all
the children of
Israel, seven thousand.
20:16 And in the middle of the day they went out. But
Ben-hadad
was drinking in the
tents with the thirty-two kings who were
helping him.
20:17 And the servants of the chiefs who were over the
divisions
of the land went
forward first; and when Ben-hadad sent out,
they gave him the
news, saying, Men have come out from Samaria.
20:18 And he said, If they have come out for peace, take
them
living, and if they
have come out for war, take them living.
20:19 So the servants of the chiefs of the divisions of the
land
went out of the town,
with the army coming after them.
20:20 And every one of them put his man to death, and the
Aramaeans went in
flight with Israel after them; and Ben-hadad,
king of Aram, got
away safely on a horse with his horsemen.
20:21 And the king of Israel went out and took the horses
and
the war-carriages,
and made great destruction among the
Aramaeans.
20:22 Then the prophet came up to the king of Israel, and
said
to him, Now make
yourself strong, and take care what you do, or
a year from now the
king of Aram will come up against you
again.
20:23 Then the king of Aram's servants said to him, Their
god is
a god of the hills;
that is why they were stronger than we: but
if we make an attack
on them in the lowlands, we will certainly
be stronger than
they.
20:24 This is what you have to do: take away the kings from
their positions, and
put captains in their places;
20:25 And get together another army like the one which came
to
destruction, horse
for horse, and carriage for carriage; and
let us make war on
them in the lowlands, and certainly we will
be stronger than
they. And he gave ear to what they said, and
did so.
20:26 So, a year later, Ben-hadad got the Aramaeans together
and
went up to Aphek to
make war on Israel.
20:27 And the children of Israel got themselves together,
and
food was made ready
and they went against them; the tents of
the children of Israel
were like two little flocks of goats
before them, but all
the country was full of the Aramaeans.
20:28 And a man of God came up and said to the king of
Israel,
The Lord says,
Because the Aramaeans have said, The Lord is a
god of the hills and
not of the valleys; I will give all this
great army into your
hands, and you will see that I am the
Lord.
20:29 Now the two armies kept their positions facing one
another
for seven days. And
on the seventh day the fight was started;
and the children of
Israel put to the sword a hundred thousand
Aramaean footmen in
one day.
20:30 But the rest went in flight to Aphek, into the town,
where
a wall came down on
the twenty-seven thousand who were still
living. And Ben-hadad
went in flight into the town, into an
inner room.
20:31 Then his servants said to him, It is said that the
kings
of Israel are full of
mercy: let us then put on haircloth, and
cords on our heads,
and go to the king of Israel; it may be
that he will give you
your life.
20:32 So they put on haircloth, and cords on their heads,
and
came to the king of
Israel and said, Your servant Ben-hadad
says, Let me now keep
my life. And he said, Is he still living?
he is my brother.
20:33 Now the men took it as a sign, and quickly took up his
words; and they said,
Ben-hadad is your brother. Then he said,
Go and get him. So
Ben-hadad came out to him and he made him
get up into his
carriage.
20:34 And Ben-hadad said to him, The towns my father took
from
your father I will
give back; and you may make streets for
yourself in Damascus
as my father did in Samaria. And as for
me, at the price of
this agreement you will let me go. So he
made an agreement
with him and let him go.
20:35 And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to
his
neighbour by the word
of the Lord, Give me a wound. But the man
would not.
20:36 Then he said to him, Because you have not given ear to
the
voice of the Lord,
straight away when you have gone from me a
lion will put you to
death. And when he had gone, straight away
a lion came rushing
at him and put him to death.
20:37 Then he came across another man, and said, Give me a
wound. And the man
gave him a blow wounding him.
20:38 So the prophet went away, and pulling his head-band
over
his eyes to keep his
face covered, took his place by the road
waiting for the king.
20:39 And when the king went by, crying out to him he said,
Your
servant went out into
the fight; and a man came out to me with
another man and said,
Keep this man: if by any chance he gets
away, your life will
be the price of his life, or you will have
to give a talent of
silver in payment.
20:40 But while your servant was turning this way and that,
he
was gone. Then the
king of Israel said to him, You are
responsible; you have
given the decision against yourself.
20:41 Then he quickly took the head-band from his eyes; and
the
king of Israel saw
that he was one of the prophets.
20:42 And he said to him, These are the words of the Lord:
Because you have let
go from your hands the man whom I had put
to the curse, your
life will be taken for his life, and your
people for his
people.
20:43 Then the king of Israel went back to his house, bitter
and
angry, and came to
Samaria.
21:1 Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vine-garden in Jezreel,
near the house of
Ahab, king of Samaria.
21:2 And Ahab said to Naboth, Give me your vine-garden so
that I
may have it for a
garden of sweet plants, for it is near my
house; and let me
give you a better vine-garden in exchange,
or, if it seems good
to you, let me give you its value in
money.
21:3 But Naboth said to Ahab, By the Lord, far be it from me
to
give you the heritage
of my fathers.
21:4 So Ahab came into his house bitter and angry because
Naboth
the Jezreelite had
said to him, I will not give you the
heritage of my
fathers. And stretching himself on the bed with
his face turned away,
he would take no food.
21:5 But Jezebel, his wife, came to him and said, Why is
your
spirit so bitter that
you have no desire for food?
21:6 And he said to her, Because I was talking to Naboth the
Jezreelite, and I
said to him, Let me have your vine-garden for
a price, or, if it is
pleasing to you, I will give you another
vine-garden for it:
and he said, I will not give you my
vine-garden.
21:7 Then Jezebel, his wife, said, Are you now the ruler of
Israel? Get up, take
food, and let your heart be glad; I will
give you the
vine-garden of Naboth the Jezreelite.
21:8 So she sent a letter in Ahab's name, stamped with his
stamp, to the
responsible men and the chiefs who were in
authority with
Naboth.
21:9 And in the letter she said, Let a time of public sorrow
be
fixed, and put Naboth
at the head of the people;
21:10 And get two good-for-nothing persons to come before
him
and give witness that
he has been cursing God and the king.
Then take him out and
have him stoned to death.
21:11 So the responsible men and the chiefs who were in
authority in his
town, did as Jezebel had said in the letter
she sent them.
21:12 They gave orders for a day of public sorrow, and put
Naboth at the head of
the people.
21:13 And the two good-for-nothing persons came in and took
their seats before
him and gave witness against Naboth, in
front of the people,
saying, Naboth has been cursing God and
the king. Then they
took him outside the town and had him
stoned to death.
21:14 And they sent word to Jezebel, saying, Naboth has been
stoned and is dead.
21:15 Then Jezebel, hearing that Naboth had been stoned and
was
dead, said to Ahab,
Get up and take as your heritage the
vine-garden of Naboth
the Jezreelite, which he would not give
you for money, for
Naboth is no longer living but is dead.
21:16 So Ahab, hearing that Naboth was dead, went down to
the
vine-garden of Naboth
the Jezreelite to take it as his
heritage.
21:17 And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite,
saying,
21:18 Go down to Ahab, king of Israel, in Samaria; see, he
is in
the vine-garden of
Naboth the Jezreelite, where he has gone to
take it as his
heritage.
21:19 Say to him, The Lord says, Have you put a man to death
and
taken his heritage?
Then say to him, The Lord says, In the
place where dogs have
been drinking the blood of Naboth, there
will your blood
become the drink of dogs.
21:20 And Ahab said to Elijah, Have you come face to face
with
me, O my hater? And
he said, I have come to you because you
have given yourself
up to do evil in the eyes of the Lord.
21:21 See, I will send evil on you and put an end to you
completely, cutting
off from Ahab every male child, him who is
shut up and him who
goes free in Israel;
21:22 And I will make your family like the family of
Jeroboam,
the son of Nebat, and
like the family of Baasha, the son of
Ahijah, because you
have made me angry, and have made Israel do
evil.
21:23 And of Jezebel the Lord said, Jezebel will become food
for
dogs in the heritage
of Jezreel.
21:24 Any man of the family of Ahab who comes to his death
in
the town will become
food for the dogs; and he who comes to his
death in the open
country will be food for the birds of the
air.
21:25 (There was no one like Ahab, who gave himself up to do
evil in the eyes of
the Lord, moved to it by Jezebel his wife.
21:26 He did a very disgusting thing in going after false
gods,
doing all the things
the Amorites did, whom the Lord sent out
before the children
of Israel.)
21:27 Hearing these words, Ahab, in great grief, put
haircloth
on his flesh and went
without food, sleeping in haircloth, and
going about quietly.
21:28 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite,
saying,
21:29 Do you see how Ahab has made himself low before me?
because he has made
himself low before me, I will not send the
evil in his
life-time, but in his son's time I will send the
evil on his family.
22:1 Now for three years there was no war between Aram and
Israel.
22:2 And it came about in the third year, that Jehoshaphat,
king
of Judah, came down
to the king of Israel.
22:3 And the king of Israel said to his servants, Do you not
see
that Ramoth-gilead is
ours? and we are doing nothing to get it
back from the hands
of the king of Aram.
22:4 And he said to Jehoshaphat, Will you go with me to
Ramoth-gilead to make
war? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of
Israel, I am as you
are: my people as your people, my horses as
your horses.
22:5 Then Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Let us now
get
directions from the
Lord.
22:6 So the king of Israel got all the prophets together,
about
four hundred men, and
said to them, Am I to go to Ramoth-gilead
to make war or not?
And they said, Go up: for the Lord will
give it into the
hands of the king.
22:7 But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no other prophet of the
Lord
here from whom we may
get directions?
22:8 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is
still
one man by whom we
may get directions from the Lord, Micaiah,
son of Imlah; but I
have no love for him, for he is a prophet
of evil to me and not
of good. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not
the king say so.
22:9 Then the king of Israel sent for one of his unsexed
servants and said, Go
quickly and come back with Micaiah, the
son of Imlah.
22:10 Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of
Judah,
were seated on their
seats of authority, dressed in their
robes, by the doorway
into Samaria; and all the prophets were
acting as prophets
before them.
22:11 And Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, made himself horns
of
iron and said, The
Lord says, Pushing back the Aramaeans with
these, you will put
an end to them completely.
22:12 And all the prophets said the same thing, saying, Go
up to
Ramoth-gilead, and it
will go well for you, for the Lord will
give it into the
hands of the king.
22:13 Now the servant who had gone to get Micaiah said to
him,
See now, all the
prophets with one voice are saying good things
to the king; so let
your words be like theirs and say good
things.
22:14 And Micaiah said, By the living Lord, whatever the
Lord
says to me I will
say.
22:15 When he came to the king, the king said to him,
Micaiah,
are we to go to
Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And in answer
he said, Go up, and
it will go well for you; and the Lord will
give it into the
hands of the king.
22:16 Then the king said to him, Have I not, again and
again,
put you on your oath
to say nothing to me but what is true in
the name of the Lord?
22:17 Then he said, I saw all Israel wandering on the
mountains
like sheep without a
keeper; and the Lord said, These have no
master: let them go
back, every man to his house in peace.
22:18 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not
say
that he would not be
a prophet of good but of evil?
22:19 And he said, Give ear now to the word of the Lord: I saw
the Lord seated on
his seat of power, with all the army of
heaven in their
places round him at his right hand and at his
left.
22:20 And the Lord said, How may Ahab be tricked into going
up
to Ramoth-gilead to
his death? And one said one thing and one
another.
22:21 Then a spirit came forward and took his place before
the
Lord and said, I will
get him to do it by a trick.
22:22 And the Lord said, How? And he said, I will go out and
be
a spirit of deceit in
the mouth of all his prophets. And he
said, Your trick will
have its effect on him: go out and do so.
22:23 And now, see, the Lord has put a spirit of deceit in
the
mouth of all these
your prophets; and the Lord has said evil
against you.
22:24 Then Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, came near and
gave
Micaiah a blow on the
side of the face, saying, Where is the
spirit of the Lord
whose word is in you?
22:25 And Micaiah said, Truly, you will see on that day when
you
go into an inner room
to keep yourself safe.
22:26 And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and send him
back to Amon, the
ruler of the town, and to Joash, the king's
son;
22:27 And say, It is the king's order that this man is to be
put
in prison and given
prison food till I come again in peace.
22:28 And Micaiah said, If you come back at all in peace,
the
Lord has not sent his
word by me.
22:29 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of
Judah,
went up to
Ramoth-gilead.
22:30 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will
make a
change in my
clothing, so that I do not seem to be the king,
and will go into the
fight; but do you put on your robes. So
the king of Israel
made a change in his dress and went into the
fight.
22:31 Now the king of Aram had given orders to the
thirty-two
captains of his
war-carriages, saying, Make no attack on small
or great, but only on
the king of Israel.
22:32 So when the captains of the war-carriages saw
Jehoshaphat,
they said, Truly,
this is the king of Israel; and turning
against him, they
came round him, but Jehoshaphat gave a cry.
22:33 And when the captains of the war-carriages saw that he
was
not the king of
Israel, they went back from going after him.
22:34 And a certain man sent an arrow from his bow without
thought of its
direction, and gave the king of Israel a wound
where his breastplate
was joined to his clothing; so he said to
the driver of his
war-carriage, Go to one side and take me away
out of the army, for
I am badly wounded.
22:35 But the fight became more violent while the day went
on;
and the king was
supported in his war-carriage facing the
Aramaeans, and the
floor of the carriage was covered with the
blood from his wound,
and by evening he was dead.
22:36 And about sundown a cry went up from all parts of the
army, saying, Let
every man go back to his town and his
country, for the king
is dead.
22:37 And they came to Samaria, and put the king's body to
rest
in Samaria.
22:38 And the war-carriage was washed by the pool of
Samaria,
which was the
bathing-place of the loose women, and the dogs
were drinking his
blood there, as the Lord had said.
22:39 Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all he did, and
his
ivory house, and all
the towns of which he was the builder, are
they not recorded in
the book of the history of the kings of
Israel?
22:40 So Ahab was put to rest with his fathers; and Ahaziah
his
son became king in
his place.
22:41 And Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, became king over
Judah in
the fourth year of
Ahab's rule over Israel.
22:42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became
king,
and he was king for
twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His
mother's name was
Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.
22:43 He did as Asa his father had done, not turning away
from
it, but doing what
was right in the eyes of the Lord; but the
high places were not
taken away: the people went on making
offerings and burning
them in the high places.
22:44 And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.
22:45 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his great
power, and how he
went to war, are they not recorded in the
book of the history
of the kings of Judah?
22:46 He put an end to the rest of those who were used for
sex
purposes in the
worship of the gods, all those who were still
in the land in the
time of his father Asa.
22:47 At that time there was no king in Edom;
22:48 And the representative of King Jehoshaphat made a
Tarshish-ship to go
to Ophir for gold, but it did not go,
because it was broken
at Ezion-geber.
22:49 Then Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, said to Jehoshaphat,
Let my
men go with yours in
the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not let
them.
22:50 Then Jehoshaphat went to rest with his fathers, and
his
body was put into the
earth in the town of David his father;
and Jehoram his son
became king in his place.
22:51 Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, became king over Israel in
Samaria in the
seventeenth year of the rule of Jehoshaphat, the
king of Judah, and he
was king over Israel for two years.
22:52 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, going in the ways
of
his father and his
mother, and in the ways of Jeroboam, the son
of Nebat, who made
Israel do evil.
22:53 He was a servant and worshipper of Baal, moving the
Lord,
the God of Israel, to wrath, as his father had done.