Kings Chapters

David’s Last Years

1 | ¹King David was already a very old man who could no longer keep warm even in very thick clothing. ²So his servants said to him, “They should get for my lord king a virgin girl to attend the king and nurse him. She could sleep with you, my lord king, and make you feel warm.” ³And so they looked for a beautiful girl throughout the territory of Israel. They found Abishag the Shunamite, a very beautiful girl, and brought her to the king. ⁴She attended to him, but the king had no intimate relations with her.

⁵Now Adonijah, son of Haggith, had in mind that he would be king. So he provided himself with a chariot, horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. ⁶His father had never interfered by questioning his conduct: “Why have you done this or that?” He was a very handsome man born of Haggith after Absalom. ⁷Adonijah conferred with Joab, Zeruiah's son, and Abiathar, the priest. These two sided with him, ⁸but Zadok, the priest, and Benaiah, son of Jehoiada; Nathan, the prophet; Shimei, Rei, and David’s warriors did not join Adonijah.

⁹Adonijah sacrificed sheep, oxen, and fattened calves at the stone Zoheleth, beside En-Rogel, and invited his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the royal officials of Judah to join him; ¹⁰but not Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, the warriors, or his brother Solomon.

¹¹Then Nathan spoke to Bathsheba, mother of Solomon, “Have you heard that Adonijah, son of Haggith, acts as a king, unknown to David, our lord? ¹²Let me then give you advice that could save both your life and Solomon, your son. ¹³Go, see King David immediately and tell him this, ‘Did you not, my lord king, swear to your handmaid that Solomon, my son, would reign after you and sit on your throne? Why, then, does Adonijah act as a king?’ ¹⁴Then, while you are still speaking with the king, I will confirm what you say.”

¹⁵So Bathsheba went to the king, right into his room. (The king was very old, and Abishag the Shunamite was attending to him.) ¹⁶Bathsheba bowed in homage to the king, who asked her, “What do you want?” ¹⁷She answered him, “My lord, you swore to your handmaid by the Lord your God that Solomon, my son, would reign after you and sit on your throne. ¹⁸But now, Adonijah acts as king without your knowing it, my lord king. ¹⁹He has sacrificed oxen, fattened calves, and plenty of sheep, inviting all the king’s sons, Abiathar the priest, and Joab, army commander, but he did not invite Solomon, your servant. ²⁰And now, my lord king, all Israel is waiting for your decision about who shall reign as your successor. ²¹If this is not known when my lord the king passes away, I and my son Solomon will be numbered among the criminals.”

²²While she was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet arrived; ²³they told the king: “Here is Nathan the prophet.” When Nathan came in before the king, he bowed with his face to the ground ²⁴and said, “My lord king, have you decided that Adonijah shall reign after you and sit on your throne? ²⁵ He has sacrificed oxen, fattened calves, and plenty of sheep. He has invited all the king’s sons, Joab, the army's commander, and Abiathar, the priest. They are now eating and drinking with him and proclaiming, ‘Long live king Adonijah!’ ²⁶But he has not invited me, your servant, Zadok the priest, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, nor your servant Solomon. ²⁷Has my lord king decided this without telling us, your servants, who will sit on your throne after you?”

David Makes Solomon King

²⁸King David then answered, “Call Bathsheba to me.” So she came to the king. As she stood before him, ²⁹the king swore an oath and said, “As the Lord lives, he who has delivered me from all adversity, ³⁰so will I fulfill today the oath I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, when I said: “Solomon, your son, shall reign after me; he shall sit on my throne in my place.” ³¹Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the ground and paid homage to the king as she said, “May my lord King David live forever!”

³²King David said, “Call Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada.” So they came to king, ³³ who said, “Take with you the servants of your lord and make my son Solomon ride on my own mule. Then bring him down to Gihon ³⁴and let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there as king of Israel. Once this is done, sound the horn and proclaim, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ ³⁵Then he shall sit on my throne in your presence. From now on, he will be king in my place, for I have made him ruler of Israel and Judah.”

³⁶Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, answered the king, “Amen! May the Lord, the God of my lord king, confirm this. ³⁷As the Lord has been with my lord king, may he also be with Solomon and make his reign even greater than my lord King David’s.”

³⁸So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites went down and made Solomon ride on King David’s mule to Gihon. ³⁹There, Zadok, the priest, took the oil horn in the Holy Tent and anointed Solomon. ⁴⁰They then sounded the horn, and everyone shouted, “Long live King Solomon!” They all went up after him playing on pipes, and their shouts were so great that the noise seemed to rent the earth.

⁴¹Adonijah and all his guests heard this as they finished feasting. On hearing the sound of the horn, Joab asked, “What is all this commotion in the city?” ⁴²While he was still speaking, Jonathan, the son of Abiathar, the priest, arrived, and Adonijah said, “Come in, for you are a worthy man and bring good news.” ⁴³Jonathan answered Adonijah, “Not at all, for our lord King David has made Solomon king. ⁴⁴The king sent him with Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and Pelethites, who made him ride on the king’s mule.

⁴⁵Then Zadok, the priest, and Nathan, the prophet, anointed him as king at Gihon. As they returned, the whole city cheered; this was the noise you had heard. ⁴⁶Solomon already sits on the royal throne, ⁴⁷and the king’s servants came to congratulate our lord, King David, saying: ‘May your God make the name of Solomon more famous than yours and his reign greater than yours.’ At this, the king bowed in worship on his bed and said, ⁴⁸“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has granted one of my offspring to sit on my throne this day when I can still see it.”

⁴⁹All the guests of Adonijah trembled and left, each going his own way. ⁵⁰In his fear of Solomon, Adonijah went and held onto the altar's horns. ⁵¹This was reported to Solomon, “Adonijah is so afraid of King Solomon that he has held onto the horns of the altar, and he says, ‘Let King Solomon swear to me today that he will not slay me with the sword.’”

⁵²Solomon replied, “If he proves to be a worthy man, not a hair of his head shall perish. But if he acts like a wicked man, he shall die.” ⁵³So King Solomon sent for him, and they brought him down from the altar. He came before King Solomon and paid him homage; after that, Solomon sent him home.

David’s Testament

2 | • ¹When David was about to die, he instructed his son Solomon, ²“I am about to go the way of all creatures. Be strong and show yourself a man. ³Keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. Keep his statutes, his commands, his ordinances and declarations written in the law of Moses, that you may succeed in whatever you do, wherever you go. ⁴If you do so, the Lord will fulfill the promise he made to me: ‘If your sons take care to walk before me faithfully with their whole heart and their whole soul, you shall always have one of your descendants on the throne of Israel.’

⁵Now you know what Joab, the son of Zeruiah, did to me—how he dealt with the two commanders of Israel’s armies, Abner the son of Ner, and Amasa the son of Jether. These two he murdered, avenging, in time of peace, the blood which had been shed in time of war. He has thus stained with innocent blood the belt I wear and the sandals on my feet. ⁶Act wisely; his blood must be shed before he dies of old age. ⁷As to the sons of Barzillai, the Gileadite, deal kindly with them and let them be among those who eat at your table, for they treated me with similar kindness when I fled from your brother Absalom.

⁸With you is Shimei, son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim who cursed me terribly the day I fled to Mahanaim. When he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ ⁹Therefore, being a wise man, you shall not hold him guiltless. You will know what to do with him: his blood must be shed before he dies of old age.”

¹⁰Then David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David. ¹¹David reigned over Israel for forty years: seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. ¹²So Solomon sat on the throne of David, his father, and his reign was firmly established.

Solomon Affirms His Power

¹³Then Adonijah, son of Haggith, came to Bathsheba, mother of Solomon, who asked him, “Do you come in peace?” He answered, “In peace,” ¹⁴and added, “I have something to tell you.” She said, “Speak;” ¹⁵and Adonijah said, “You know that the kingdom was mine and that all Israel fully expected me to reign. But the kingdom has slipped from my hands and become my brother’s, for it was given to him by the Lord. ¹⁶I have one thing to ask of you, and I beg you not to refuse me.” She said, “Speak,” ¹⁷and he continued, “Please ask King Solomon to give me Abishag the Shunammite for my wife. I know that he cannot refuse you.” ¹⁸Bathsheba answered, “Very well, I shall speak to the king on your behalf.”

¹⁹So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. The king met her and bowed to her. Then he sat on his throne and had a seat brought for the king’s mother, who sat on his right.

²⁰She said, “I have one small request to make of you. Do not refuse me.” And the king answered her, “Make your request, my mother, for I will not refuse you.” ²¹She then said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah, your brother, as his wife.” ²²King Solomon answered his mother, “And why do you not ask for the kingdom to be given to him! He is my elder brother, and Abiathar, the priest, and Joab, the son of Zeruiah, are on his side.”

²³Then King Solomon swore this oath, “The Lord do so to me and more if this request does not cost Adonijah his life! ²⁴Therefore, as the Lord lives, he who has established me and placed me on the throne of David, my father, and who has established a kingly line as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day.” ²⁵So King Solomon sent Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, who killed him.

²⁶Then the king told Abiathar, the priest, “Go to your estate at Anathoth. You deserve death, but I will not put you to death because you carried the Ark of God before my father David and shared in all his trials.” ²⁷So Solomon removed Abiathar as a priest of the Lord and fulfilled the word spoken by the Lord in Shiloh concerning the descendants of Eli.

²⁸This news reached Joab, who had supported Adonijah but not Absalom. He fled to the tent of the Lord and held onto the altar's horns. ²⁹When it was reported to King Solomon that Joab had fled to the tent of the Lord and was beside the altar, the king sent Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, with this command, “Go, strike him down!”

³⁰So Benaiah went to the Lord's tent and said to Joab, “The king commands: ‘Come forward.’” But he replied, “No, I will die here.”

So Benaiah returned to the king with this report, “This is what Joab answered.” ³¹The king then replied. “Do as he has said. Strike him down and have him buried. With this, the guilt for the blood that Joab shed will be lifted from me and my father’s family. ³²The Lord will repay him for the blood he shed because, without my father David’s knowledge, he attacked and slew with the sword two men more righteous and better than himself, Abner, son of Ner, commander of the Israelite army, and Amasa, son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army.

³³Their blood shall be avenged on Joab and his descendants forever; but David and his descendants, his family, and throne shall enjoy peace from the Lord forever.”

³⁴Then Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, went up, struck Joab down, and killed him. He was buried in his own house in the desert. ³⁵The king put Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, over the army in place of Joab and Zadok, the priest, in place of Abiathar.

³⁶The king sent for Shimei and told him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and stay there and do not leave the place to go anywhere. ³⁷On the day you leave and cross the brook Kidron, you shall surely die, and you shall be responsible for your own death.” ³⁸Shimei answered the king, “What you say is good. Your servant will do as my lord the king has commanded.” So, Shimei stayed in Jerusalem for many days.

³⁹Three years later, two of Shimei’s slaves ran away to Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath. When it was reported to Shimei that his slaves were in Gath, ⁴⁰he saddled an ass and went to Achish in Gath in search of his slaves. ⁴¹When Solomon was informed that Shimei had left Jerusalem for Gath and returned, ⁴²the king sent for Shimei and said to him, “Did I not make you swear by the Lord and warned you severely that, on the day you left to go anywhere you would surely die? And you answered me: ‘What you say is good; I shall obey!’ ⁴³Why then did you not keep your oath to the Lord and obey my command?” ⁴⁴The king told Shimei, “Remember the evil you did to David, my father. Now, the Lord will repay you for what you did. ⁴⁵But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall stand firm before the Lord forever.” ⁴⁶Then the king commanded Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, who went out and struck Shimei and killed him.

In this manner, Solomon firmly established his reign.

3 | • ¹Solomon entered into a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the city of David until he had finished building his own palace, the Lord’s house, and the wall around Jerusalem. ² Meantime, the people were sacrificed at the high places because the house for the Name of the Lord had not yet been built.

³This is why Solomon also sacrificed and burnt incense at a high place, although he loved the Lord and followed the commands of David, his father.

Solomon’s Dream

•  ⁴The king used to sacrifice at Gibeon, the great high place; on the altar there, he had offered a thousand burnt offerings. ⁵It was in Gibeon, during the night, that the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and said, “Ask what you want me to give you.”

⁶Solomon answered, “You have shown your servant David, my father, a great and steadfast love because he served you faithfully and was righteous and sincere towards you. You have given him proof of your steadfast love in making a son of his sit on his throne this day. ⁷And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David, my father, although I am a young boy who does not know how to undertake anything. ⁸Meantime, your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen—a people so great that they can neither be numbered nor counted.

⁹Give me an understanding mind in governing your people so that I may discern between good and evil. For who can govern this multitude of yours?”

¹⁰The Lord was pleased that Solomon had made this request. ¹¹And he told him, “Because you have requested this rather than long life or wealth or even vengeance on your enemies; indeed, because you have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, ¹²I shall grant you your request. I now give you a wise and discerning mind like no one has had before you nor anyone after you shall ever have.

¹³“I will also give you what you have not asked for, both wealth and fame; and no king shall be your equal during your lifetime. ¹⁴Moreover, if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and commands, as your father David did, I shall give you long life.”

¹⁵Solomon awoke and knew that this was a dream. So he went to Jerusalem and, standing before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, offered up burnt and peace offerings and gave a feast for all his servants.

The Judgment of Solomon

•  ¹⁶Then two harlots came to the king and stood before him. ¹⁷One of the two women said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was there with me. ¹⁸Three days after my child was born, this woman also gave birth. We were alone, and there was no one in the house but the two of us. ¹⁹Then this woman’s son died during the night because she lay on him. ²⁰So during the night, she got up, took my son from my side while I slept, and laid it beside her and her dead son beside me. ²¹When I got up in the morning to nurse my child, I saw it was dead. But when I looked at it closely in the morning, I saw it was not my child.”

²²The other woman said, “No, the living child is mine; the dead child is yours.” The first replied, “Not so; the dead child is yours; the living child is mine.” And they quarreled this way in the king’s presence.

²³The king said, “One says: ‘This is my son who is alive; your son is dead’; the other says: ‘That is not so, your son is dead; my son is the live one.’” ²⁴And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” When they brought the king a sword, ²⁵he gave this order, “Divide the child in two and give half to one, half to the other.” ²⁶Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king out of pity for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, but spare its life.” The other woman said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide it!”

²⁷Then the king spoke, “Give the living child to the first woman and spare his life. She is its mother.” ²⁸When all Israel heard of the king's judgment, they revered him, seeing that God’s wisdom was in him to render justice.

Solomon’s Grandeur

4 | ¹King Solomon was king over all Israel ²and had the following for his high officials: Azariah, son of Zadok, was the priest; ³Elihoreph and Ahijah, sons of Shisha, were secretaries; Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud, was recorder; ⁴Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, was general of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; ⁵Azariah, son of Nathan, was head of the officers; Zabud, son of Nathan, was priest and the king’s personal adviser; ⁶Ahishar was in charge of the palace; and Adoniram, son of Abda was in charge of forced labor.

⁷Solomon had twelve governors over all of Israel who provided food for the king and his household, each making provisions for one month during the year. ⁸These were their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim; ⁹Ben-deker, in Makaz; Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon Beth-hanan; ¹⁰Benhesed, in Arubboth (to him belonged Socoh and all the land of Hepher); ¹¹Ben-abinadab, in all of Naphath-dor (he had Taphath, daughter of Solomon, for his wife); ¹²Baana, son of Ahilud, in Taanach; Megiddo and all of Beth-shean beside Zarethan below Jezreel, and from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as Jokmeam and beyond; ¹³Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (he had the villages of Jair, son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, as also the region of Argob in Bashan, sixty big towns, walled and barred with brazen bars); ¹⁴Ahinadab, son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; ¹⁵Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he had taken Basemath, daughter of Solomon, for his wife); ¹⁶Baana, son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth; ¹⁷Jehoshaphat, son of Paruah, in Issachar; ¹⁸Shimei, son of Ela, in Benjamin; ¹⁹Geber, son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan. And there was also an attendant in the land of Judah.

²⁰The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore, eating, drinking, and making merry.

5 | • ¹Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms, from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and the frontiers of Egypt. All these paid tribute and served Solomon during his lifetime.

²Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cors of fine flour, sixty cors of meal, ³ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides harts, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl. ⁴He ruled over the entire region west of the Euphrates, from Tipshah to Gaza, and over all its kings. He had peace on all frontiers. ⁵Judah and Israel lived in security, from Dan to Beersheba, and everyone was safe under his vine and his fig tree for as long as Solomon lived.

⁶Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots and twelve thousand horsemen.

⁷All these governors supplied provisions for King Solomon and all his guests at the table, each providing during his assigned month, seeing that nothing was lacking. ⁸They also brought barley and straw for the horses and swift studs wherever the king stayed, each doing this during his appointed month.

⁹God gave Solomon great wisdom and understanding, and knowledge as vast as the sand on the shore, ¹⁰so that his wisdom surpassed that of all the people of the east and of the Egyptians. ¹¹He was wiser than any man; wiser than Ethan, the Ezrahite, and Heman, Chalcol and Darda, sons of Mahol; and his fame spread among all the surrounding nations. ¹²He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five. ¹³He took his examples from all the trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he also spoke of the beasts and birds, and reptiles and fish.

¹⁴People from all nations came to hear Solomon's wisdom; all the kings of the earth who had heard of it sent messengers to listen to him.

¹⁵Now, Hiram, king of Tyre, sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that he had been anointed king in place of his father. For David had always been Hiram’s friend. ¹⁶Solomon then sent this message to Hiram, ¹⁷“You know that David my father could not build a temple for the Lord his God because his enemies were at war with him until the time when the Lord gave him victory over them. ¹⁸But now the Lord my God has given me peace on all sides, and no enemy or calamity afflicts us. ¹⁹And so I intend to build a temple for the Lord my God as the Lord told David my father, ‘Your son, whom I will set upon your throne, shall build the house for my Name.’ ²⁰Now, therefore, give orders to have cedars of Lebanon cut for me. My servants will join yours, and I will pay your servants the wages you set, for you know that none of us can cut timber like the Sidonians.”

²¹When Hiram heard Solomon's answer, he was exceedingly glad and said, “Blessed be the Lord this day who has given David a wise son to rule over these great people.” ²²Then Hiram sent a messenger to Solomon with these words, “I have heard the message you sent me, and I am ready to do whatever you want concerning the cedar and cypress timber. ²³My servants shall have it sent down to the sea from Lebanon. I will make it into rafts and deliver them to your chosen place by sea. I will have the rafts broken up there, and you can take the timber away. You, for your part, will provide food for my household.” ²⁴So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the cedar and cypress timber he wanted, 25 while Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat yearly as food for his household and twenty thousand cors of pure oil. ²⁶The Lord gave wisdom to Solomon as he had promised him, and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, who bound themselves by a treaty.

²⁷King Solomon conscripted thirty thousand men from Israel for forced labor. ²⁸He sent them to Lebanon in relays of ten thousand a month so they would be in Lebanon for a month and at home for two months. Adoniram was in charge of the draft of laborers. ²⁹Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hill country, ³⁰in addition to three thousand three hundred overseers in charge of the people engaged in the work. ³¹By order of the king, they quarried large and expensive stones to give the temple a foundation of hewn stones. ³²Solomon’s and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites did the hewing and prepared timber and stone to build the temple.

Solomon Builds the Temple

6 | • ¹In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites left the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord. ²The house, which king Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty wide, and thirty high. ³The vestibule fronting the Sanctuary was twenty cubits long from side to side, the width of the temple, and ten cubits deep in front of the house. ⁴He made windows with recessed frames for the house.

⁵Solomon had a structure built adjoining the walls around the house and enclosing the Sanctuary and the inner Sanctuary. He also made lateral rooms all around. ⁶The lowest story was five cubits wide, the middle six cubits wide, and the third seven cubits wide. Around the temple's exterior, he made offsets on the wall so that the supporting beams would not be inserted into the temple walls.

⁷The house was built with stones prepared at the quarry so that no hammer, ax, or iron implement was heard in the temple during construction.

⁸The entrance to the lowest story was on the right side of the house. A staircase led up to the middle story and from the middle to the third. ⁹So, Solomon built the house and finished it, making the ceiling of the house from cedar beams and planks. ¹⁰Each story of the structure he built surrounding the house was five cubits high, joined to the house with cedar timber.

¹¹The word of the Lord was directed to Solomon, ¹²“If you observe my statutes, obey my ordinances, keep all my commands and follow them, I will fulfill everything I said to David your father regarding this house. ¹³There I will be amid the Israelites and not forsake my people, Israel.”

•  ¹⁴So, Solomon built the house and finished it. ¹⁵He covered the temple's interior walls with cedar boards so that only wood could be seen in the interior, from the house floor to the ceiling rafters. The floor also was covered with cypress boards. ¹⁶Solomon covered twenty cubits of the rear of the house with cedar boards from floor to rafter to serve as an inner Sanctuary—the Most Holy Place. ¹⁷The front of the house, that is, the Sanctuary, was forty cubits long. ¹⁸ In all the interior of the house, the cedar was carved in the form of gourds and open flowers; all was of cedar, and no stone was to be seen.

¹⁹The inner Sanctuary in the innermost part of the building had been destined to house the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. ²⁰It was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high, overlaid with pure gold. He also made an altar of cedar. ²¹Solomon overlaid the interior of the house with pure gold. He closed the inner Sanctuary with golden chains and overlaid it with gold. ²²Solomon overlaid the entire house with gold. He also overlaid the whole altar in the inner sanctuary with gold.

²³In the inner Sanctuary, Solomon made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high. ²⁴The length of the wings of each cherub was five cubits each, hence, ten cubits from tip to tip. ²⁵Both cherubim had the exact measurement and the same form, ²⁶both being ten cubits high. ²⁷When the cherubim were put in the innermost part of the house, their wings were so spread out that one wing touched one wall, while a wing of the other touched the other. Their other wings touched each other at the center of the house. ²⁸The cherubim were also overlaid with gold.

²⁹Solomon had all the surrounding walls of the house carved with figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers both in the interior and exterior rooms. ³⁰He also had the house floor, in both the interior and exterior rooms, overlaid with gold.

³¹Solomon had olive wood doors for the inner Sanctuary entrance, and the lintel and doorposts formed the fifth part. ³²He covered the two olive wood doors with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. He then overlaid them with gold and spread gold on the cherubim and the palm trees.

³³He did the same for the olive wood doorposts at the entrance to the Sanctuary, which formed the fourth part of the door. ³⁴Both the right and left sides of the door had two folding panels of cypress wood. ³⁵He had cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers carved on them, and the carvings were overlaid with gold, which was evenly applied.

³⁶Solomon had the interior court built with three courses of hewn stone and one course of cedar beams.

³⁷The foundation of the Lord's house was laid in the month of Ziv of the fourth year. ³⁸ In the month of Bul, the eighth month of the eleventh year, the House was complete and according to all specifications. It took Solomon seven years to build it.

The Palace and the Temple

7 | • ¹Solomon took thirteen years to build his own palace. ²He built the house of the Forest of Lebanon, which measured one hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. It was built on three rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams on the pillars. ³It had a cedar ceiling above the beams on the forty-five pillars, fifteen in each row. ⁴There were three window frames at either end, each corresponding to another opposite. ⁵All the doorways and windows had square frames, and each window corresponded to the opposite.

⁶The Hall of Pillars measured fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide. It had a porch in front, with pillars and a canopy over them. ⁷The Hall of the Throne where Solomon was to pronounce judgment, that is, the Hall of Judgment, was finished with cedar from floor to rafters.

⁸His house, where he was to live and which was in the other court behind the hall, was built similarly. Solomon also made a house similar to this for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had taken in marriage.

⁹All these were made of costly stones, hewn according to measure, sawn on their inner and outer faces even from the foundation to the coping and from the court of the Lord’s house to the big court.

¹⁰The foundation comprised massive, costly stones of eighty and ten cubits. ¹¹Above were costly stones, hewn according to measure, and cedar wood. ¹²A wall of hewn stones surrounded the great court and a course of cedar beams, like the interior court of the Lord’s house and its vestibule.

¹³King Solomon sent for and brought Hiram from Tyre, 14 the son of a widow of Naphtali’s tribe. His father was from Tyre and an artisan in bronze work; he was very knowledgeable and skilled in all kinds of bronze work. Hiram came and did all the work that Solomon asked of him.

¹⁵He cast two brazen pillars, both of which measured eighteen cubits high and had a circumference of twelve cubits. Both were hollow, and four fingers were measured in thickness. ¹⁶He also made two capitals of molten bronze to set on the top of the pillars, measuring five cubits high. ¹⁷He also made two pieces of network with a chainlike mesh for each capital on top of the pillars. ¹⁸Likewise, he made pomegranates arranged in two rows, encircling each piece of the network to cover each capital on top of the pillars. ¹⁹The capitals on top of the pillars in the vestibule had a lotus design measuring four cubits. ²⁰They were on the two pillars above the nodes and beside the network, encircled by two hundred pomegranates arranged in two rows.

•  ²¹Hiram set up the pillars at the vestibule of the temple; one to the right, called Yakin, and one to the left, called Boaz. ²²In this way, the work on the pillars was completed.

²³Hiram then cast the great round bowl called the “Sea,” measuring ten cubits from one brim to the opposite; it was five cubits high and had a circumference of thirty cubits. ²⁴Under its brim, it was encircled with gourds, ten for each cubit, arranged in two rows and cast along with the Sea. ²⁵This rested on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east, with their haunches towards the center. ²⁶It was a thick handbreadth, its brim resembling a cup or a lily flower, and had a capacity of two thousand baths.

²⁷Hiram also made ten brazen stands, each measuring four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high; ²⁸this was how the stands were constructed: they had framed panels ²⁹on which were lions, oxen, and cherubim. On the frames above and below, the lions and oxen were wreathed in relief. ³⁰Each stand had four brazen wheels and axles; its four feet had to shoulder under the basin. ³¹Its mouth measured one and a half cubits from where the shouldering met the top; its mouth was round like a rest for a vessel, and on the mouth, there were engravings, too. The crosspieces, however, were rectangular, not round. ³²The four wheels were below the panels, their axles one piece with the stands. Each wheel was a cubit and a half high. ³³The wheels were made like chariot wheels; their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all cast metal.

The four legs of each stand had cast braces supporting a basin and had wreaths on each side. ³⁴These four braces, extending to the corners of each stand, were of one piece with the stand.

³⁵On top of the stand was a round band half a cubit high, with supports and panels of one piece with the stand. This was topped by a crown one cubit high, within which was a rounded opening, the way a pedestal is made, a half-deep cubit. Its opening had carvings, and its panels were square and not round. ³⁶On the surface of its supports, as well as on its panels and wherever there was space, were carvings of cherubim, lions, and palm trees, with wreaths all around. ³⁷This was how the ten stands were made—all with the same cast, measurement, and form.

³⁸Hiram also made ten brazen basins, each holding forty baths and measuring four cubits. There was a basin for each of the ten stands. ³⁹He placed five stands on the house's south and five on the north sides—the Sea he placed at the southeast corner of the temple.

⁴⁰Hiram also made the bowls, shovels, and basins and finished all the work he had undertaken for King Solomon in the Lord’s house. ⁴¹Hence, two pillars, two bowls on the capitals at the top of the pillars, ⁴²four hundred pomegranates for two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover the two bowls of the capitals at the top of the pillars, ⁴³ten stands, ten basins on the stands, ⁴⁴the Sea, and twelve oxen underneath the Sea.

⁴⁵The bowls, shovels, and basins—all these vessels Hiram made in the Lord’s house for King Solomon—were of burnished bronze. ⁴⁶The king had them cast in the plain of Jordan, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan. ⁴⁷Solomon left all the vessels unweighted since so many of them existed. And so the weight of the bronze was not known.

⁴⁸So Solomon made all the vessels that were in the Lord’s house: the golden altar, the golden table for the bread of Presence, ⁴⁹the lampstands of pure gold, five on the right side and five on the left in front of the inner Sanctuary; the flowers, lamps and tongs of gold; ⁵⁰the cups, snuffers, basins, dishes for incense, and fire pans of pure gold; and the golden hinges for both the doors of the innermost part of the house, the Most Holy Place, and the doors of the Sanctuary of the house.

⁵¹When King Solomon's work on the Lord’s house was completed, he brought in the things that David, his father, had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and the vessels—and stored them in the Lord’s house's treasuries.

Dedication of the Temple

8 | ¹Then Solomon assembled before him in Jerusalem the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, as well as the leaders of the ancestral houses of the Israelites, to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the city of David, which is Zion.

•  ²All the Israelites assembled near King Solomon in the seventh month of Ethanim. ³When all the elders of Israel arrived, the priests carried the Ark of the Lord ⁴and brought it up with the Tent of Meeting and all the holy vessels in the tent. After the priests and Levites had brought them up, ⁵King Solomon assembled before him with the entire congregation of Israel. He was with him before the Ark, and he sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could neither be counted nor numbered. ⁶Then the priests laid the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord in its place in the inner Sanctuary of the house—the Most Holy Place—underneath the cherubim's wings. ⁷The cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the ark, providing a covering above the Ark and its poles.

⁸The poles were so long that their ends were seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner Sanctuary but not from the outside, and they remain there to this day. ⁹There was nothing in the Ark except the two tablets of stone, which Moses placed there at Horeb, where the Lord made a Covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt. ¹⁰And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, such a cloud filled the Lord’s house ¹¹that the priests could not continue to minister. Indeed, the glory of the Lord filled his house.

¹²Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. ¹³So the house I have built you will be your house, a place for you to dwell in forever.”

¹⁴The king turned and blessed the entire assembly of Israel, as they stood, ¹⁵saying, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled by his hand what he promised personally to David my father when he said, ¹⁶‘Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city in all the tribes of Israel in which to build a resting place for my Name, but now I have chosen Jerusalem for my Name to be there, as I chose David to be the king of my people Israel.’ ¹⁷Now David my father wanted to build a house for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel; ¹⁸but the Lord told David, my father, ‘You meant well to build a house for my Name. ¹⁹Nevertheless, not you but your son who shall be born to you shall build this house for my Name.’”

²⁰The Lord has fulfilled his promise, for I have succeeded David, my father, and am sitting on the throne of Israel; and, as the Lord promised, I have built this house for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel. ²¹There I had provided a place for the Ark with the Covenant which the Lord made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

Solomon’s Prayer

•  ²²Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel. He raised his hands towards heaven ²³and said, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you either in heaven or on earth! You keep your Covenant and show loving-kindness to your servants who walk before you wholeheartedly. ²⁴You have foretold this day to your servant David, my father, and this day you have fulfilled your promise. ²⁵Now, O Lord, God of Israel, keep this other promise you made to David when you said, ‘You shall always have someone from your family on the throne of Israel, provided that your sons are careful to serve me as you have done.’ ²⁶Therefore, O God of Israel, confirm your promise to David, my father.

²⁷But will God live among people on earth? If neither heavens nor the highest heavens can contain you, how much less can this house which I have built! ²⁸Yet, listen to the prayer and supplication of your servant, O Lord my God; listen to the cries and pleas which your servant directs to you this day. ²⁹Watch over this house of which you have said, ‘My Name shall rest there.’ Hear the prayer of your servant in this place.

•  ³⁰Listen to the supplication of your servant and your people Israel when they pray in this direction; listen from your dwelling place in heaven and, on hearing, forgive.

³¹When people are charged with a crime against their neighbor, come and take their oath before your altar in this temple, ³²then hear from heaven and do justice. Condemn the guilty and let his evildoing fall upon him, but vindicate the righteous and reward him according to his righteousness.

³³When the enemy defeats your people Israel for having sinned against you, and when they turn back to you and acknowledge their sins, praying and making supplications to you in this house; ³⁴then listen from heaven and forgive your people Israel. Bring them back to the land which you gave to their fathers.

³⁵When the heavens are shut, no rain falls because they have sinned against you. They pray in this place, acknowledging and repenting of their sin because you have afflicted them, ³⁶then listen from heaven and forgive your servants, your people Israel, and teach them the way to live; and send rain on your land which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

³⁷If there is famine in the land, or pestilence such as blight or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy attacks them in any of their cities; if they suffer from any plague or sickness; ³⁸whatever be the prayer or supplication of anyone showing repentance and raising his hands in the direction of this house, ³⁹then listen from heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive. Do to each, whose heart you know, according to his conduct (for you alone know the hearts of all) ⁴⁰so that they may fear you as long as they live in the land you gave our fathers.

⁴¹Likewise, when a foreigner who is not from your people, Israel, comes from a far country because of your Name ⁴²(for they shall hear of your great Name, your mighty hand and outstretched arm), and prays in this house, ⁴³listen from the heavens, your dwelling place, and do for the foreigner whatever he asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your Name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and may know that your name rests on this house which I have built.

⁴⁴If your people go to war wherever you send them, and they pray to the Lord in the direction of the city you have chosen and the house I have built for your Name, ⁴⁵then from heaven listen to their prayers and supplications and defend their cause.

⁴⁶If they sin against you (and no one does not sin), and, in your anger, you deliver them to an enemy who takes them captive into enemy territory, whether near or far off; ⁴⁷and if, in the land where they have been carried captive, they sincerely repent and plead with you and say, ‘We have sinned and have acted wrongly and wickedly’; ⁴⁸if they do repent with sincerity while in the land of their captors and pray to you, turning towards the land which you gave to their ancestors, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your Name; ⁴⁹then listen from heaven, your dwelling place, to their prayer and supplication and defend their cause. ⁵⁰Forgive your people who have sinned against you; forgive all their offenses, and make their captors have compassion on them. ⁵¹(For they are your people—your heritage which you brought out of Egypt from the heart of the iron furnace).

⁵²Open your eyes to the pleadings of your servant and those of your people, Israel, and listen to them whenever they call on you. ⁵³For you took them from among all the peoples of the earth to be your heritage, as you declared through Moses your servant when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, O Lord God.”

⁵⁴When Solomon finished offering all this prayer and requests to the Lord, he rose from before the altar of the Lord where he had knelt with hands raised towards heaven and, ⁵⁵standing, blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, ⁵⁶“Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel as he promised; for not one of his promises, given to Moses, his servant, has been broken. ⁵⁷May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers. May he not leave or forsake us; ⁵⁸may he incline our hearts towards him and make us walk in all his ways, keeping his commands, statutes, and regulations that commanded our fathers. ⁵⁹Let my prayer to the Lord be with our God day and night. May he defend my cause and the cause of his people, Israel, in their daily life; 60 in this way, all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and there is no other. ⁶¹As for you, let your heart be wholly true to the Lord our God, following his laws and keeping his commands at this time.”

⁶²Then the king and all the Israelites with him offered sacrifices before the Lord. ⁶³Solomon offered the Lord twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep as peace offerings. So, the king and all the Israelites dedicated the Lord’s house. ⁶⁴That same day, the king consecrated the middle of the court in front of the Lord’s house, for it was there that he offered the burnt offerings, the cereal offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings since the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to receive the burnt offering, the cereal offering and the fat of the peace offerings.

⁶⁵So at this time, Solomon, together with a large assembly of Israelites that gathered from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt, celebrated the festival before the Lord for seven days. ⁶⁶On the eighth day, Solomon dismissed the people.

After bidding farewell to the king, they went home rejoicing and happy because of all the Lord's kindness to his servant, David, and his people, Israel.

Solomon’s Activities

9 | ¹After Solomon had finished building the Lord’s house, the royal palace, and everything he wanted to build, ²the Lord appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. ³The Lord told him, “I have heard the prayer and supplication you made before me. I have consecrated this house you have built, and my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there forever. ⁴As for you, if you will live in my presence, the way your father David did, with sincerity and uprightness, doing all that I have commanded you and keeping my decrees and laws, ⁵I will affirm your kingship in Israel forever, as I promised your father David when I said, ‘You shall always have someone from your family on the throne of Israel.’

⁶But if you or your children refuse to follow me, and disobey my commands and laws which I have set before you; if they serve and worship other gods, ⁷then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and I will remove from my sight this house I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. ⁸This house will be reduced to a heap of stones. Everyone passing by will be astonished and jeer: ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and this house?’ ⁹Then people will answer: ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt, and they followed other gods, worshiping and serving them. That is why the Lord has brought all this evil on them.’”

¹⁰During these twenty years, Solomon had built the Lord’s house and the royal house. ¹¹Hiram, king of Tyre, had supplied Solomon with as much cedar, cypress, timber, and gold as he wanted. Then King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. ¹²But when Hiram left Tyre to visit the cities Solomon had given him, he was displeased ¹³and said, “What kind of cities have you given me, my brother?” And that is why, to this day, they are called the land of Cabul. ¹⁴Hiram, however, had sent the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold.

¹⁵This is the account of the forced labor imposed by King Solomon for the building of the Lord’s house and his own palace, the Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem; the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. ¹⁶(Pharaoh king of Egypt had captured and burned Gezer, putting to death the Canaanites who dwelt there. Then he had given the city as dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.) ¹⁷So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon, ¹⁸Baalath, and Tamar in the desert, in the land of Judah, ¹⁹all the store-cities that Solomon had, the cities for his chariots and those for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and all the land of his dominion.

²⁰On all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel ²¹ —their descendants who were left in the land and whom the Israelites were unable to destroy completely—on all of these Solomon imposed forced labor and it remains so to this day. ²²Of the people of Israel, however, Solomon made no slaves. They were the soldiers, his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders, and horsemen. ²³The overseers of Solomon’s work, in charge of those working, were five hundred and fifty.

²⁴When Pharaoh’s daughter went up from the city of David to the house Solomon had built for her, he began building the Millo.

²⁵After Solomon had finished the house, he came three times a year to offer up burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar, which he had built for the Lord, burning incense before the Lord. ²⁶King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-Geber, near Elath on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. ²⁷Hiram sent his servants, seamen familiar with the sea, to serve in the fleet together with the servants of Solomon. ²⁸They sailed for Ophir and brought gold to King Solomon, amounting to four hundred and twenty talents.

The Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon

10 | • ¹The queen of Sheba heard about Solomon’s fame and came to test him with difficult questions. ²She arrived in Jerusalem with a vast entourage and camels loaded with spices and abundant gold and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she told him everything she had on her mind, ³and Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing that the king could not explain to her. ⁴And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the palace he had built, ⁵the food on his table, the residence of his officials, the attendance of his servants and their clothing, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings which he offered at the Lord’s house, it left her breathless.

⁶Then she said to the king, “All that I heard in my own land concerning you and your wisdom was true. ⁷But I did not believe the reports until I came and saw with my own eyes. And what did I see! I was told only half the story, for your wisdom and wealth surpass the report I heard.

⁸Fortunate are your wives! Fortunate are your servants who are ever in your presence and hear your wisdom! ⁹Blessed be the Lord your God, who has looked kindly on you and has put you on the throne of Israel! Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king so that you may dispense justice and righteousness.”

¹⁰Then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, abundant spices, and precious stones. Such an abundance of spices as those that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon was never again seen.

¹¹Moreover, the Hiram fleet brought gold from Ophir and a considerable amount of almug wood and precious stones from Ophir. ¹²The king used the almug wood to make supports for the Lord’s house and the royal palace and make lyres and harps for the singers. Such almug wood has never again been brought or seen to the present day.

¹³King Solomon, in turn, gave the queen of Sheba all that she desired and all that he, in his generosity, wanted to give her. Then she went back to her own land together with her servants.

¹⁴Now, the weight of gold that Solomon received in one year was six hundred and sixty-six gold talents, ¹⁵ not counting that brought by traders, merchants, the kings of Arabia, and the governors of the land. ¹⁶King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold, six hundred shekels of gold going into each shield. ¹⁷He made three hundred shields of beaten gold with three minas of gold in each shield. And the king put them in the house of the Forest of Lebanon. ¹⁸The king also made a huge ivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold. ¹⁹The throne had six steps and a rounded back, and on each side of the seat were the armrests with two lions standing beside the armrests. ²⁰The six steps had twelve lions, one on each end of a step. Nothing like this was ever made in any kingdom. ²¹All of King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold, and none of the silver, for silver, was not considered of much value in the days of Solomon.

²²The king had a fleet of Tarshish ships at sea with Hiram’s fleet, and once every three years, the fleet of Tarshish ships would bring gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

•  ²³King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in wealth and wisdom. ²⁴And the whole world sought an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom which God had put into his mind. ²⁵Everyone brought a present: articles of silver and gold, garments, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules, so much every year.

²⁶Solomon gathered together chariots and horses—fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. ²⁷The king made silver as standard as stone in Jerusalem and cedar as plentiful as sycamore in the lowland. ²⁸Solomon acquired his horses from Egypt and Cilicia. The king’s traders purchased them from Cilicia at the prevailing price. ²⁹A chariot could be imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver and a horse for a hundred and fifty. They were exported similarly to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.

Solomon Turns Away from the Lord

11 | • ¹King Solomon loved many foreign women besides the daughter of Pharaoh. There were Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women ²from nations about which the Lord had commanded the Israelites, “You shall not marry them; nor shall they marry you, lest they win over your heart to their gods.” Solomon, however, imitated these people because of his love. ³He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and they won his heart.

⁴In Solomon’s old age, his wives led him astray to serve other gods and, unlike his father David, his heart was no longer wholly given to the Lord his God. ⁵For he served Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, Milcom, the idol of the Ammonites. ⁶He did what displeased the Lord and, unlike his father David, was unfaithful to him. ⁷Solomon even built a high place for Chemosh, the idol of Moab, on the mountain east of Jerusalem and for Molech, the idol of the Ammonites. ⁸He did the same for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

⁹The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁰The Lord appeared to him twice and commanded him not to follow other gods. But he did not obey the Lord’s command. ¹¹Therefore, the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this has been your choice and you have kept neither my Covenant nor the statutes I commanded you, I will take the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. ¹²Nevertheless, I will not do this during your lifetime for the sake of your father David; I will take it from your son. ¹³But I will not take it all; I will reserve one tribe for your son for the sake of David, my servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen.”

Solomon’s Enemies

¹⁴And the Lord raised an adversary against Solomon. This was Hadad, the Edomite of the royal house in Edom. ¹⁵Indeed, when David defeated Edom and Joab, the army commander went up to bury the slain and slew every male in Edom. ¹⁶Joab and the Israelites remained in the place for six months until he had destroyed every male in Edom. ¹⁷However, still only a boy, Hadad fled to Egypt with some Edomites, his father’s servants. ¹⁸They left Midian for Paran, and, taking along with them some of the men from Paran, they went to Egypt to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who gave Hadad a house, promised him food, and gave him land. ¹⁹Hadad pleased Pharaoh, who gave him as wife the sister of Queen Tahpenes, his own wife. ²⁰The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son, Genubath, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh’s house and who lived there, together with Pharaoh’s sons.

²¹And so when Hadad heard in Egypt that David had slept with his fathers and that Joab, the commander of the army, was also dead, he said to Pharaoh, “Let me go back to my own country.” ²²Pharaoh asked him, “What have I not done that you want to leave for your own country?” But he answered him, “Please, let me go.” And he came back to his land. He ruled over Edom and hated Israel.

²³God raised Rezon, son of Eliada, another adversary, who had fled from his master Hadadezer, king of Zobah. ²⁴Rezon gathered men around him and became the leader of a marauding band. After David fought them and killed some of them, they went to live in Damascus, where they made Rezon king. ²⁵He was an adversary of Israel during Solomon’s lifetime.

Ahijah Foretells the Division of the Kingdom

•  ²⁶Jeroboam also rebelled against the king. He was the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah. His mother, Zeruah, had been left a widow. He was one of Solomon’s officials. ²⁷This was the reason for his rebellion: Solomon was building the Millo and was closing up the breach of the city of David, his father. ²⁸When he noticed that Jeroboam was a man of great personal worth and an able worker, he put him in charge of all the forced labor of the tribes of Joseph.

²⁹Once, when Jeroboam left Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh found him on the road. They were alone in the open country ³⁰when Ahijah, who had a new garment on, clutched and tore it into twelve pieces. ³¹He then said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is the word of the Lord, the God of Israel:

‘I am about to tear the kingdom from Solomon’s hands ³²to give you ten tribes. Only one tribe shall be left to him for the sake of my servant David and Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. ³³For Solomon has forsaken me and worshiped Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh, the god of Moab, and Milcom, the god of the Ammonites. Unlike his father, David, he has not walked in my way to do what is right before me and to keep my commandments and decisions.

³⁴Nevertheless, it is not from him that I will take the kingdom. I will let him reign during his lifetime for the sake of David, my servant, whom I chose and who kept my commandments and statutes. ³⁵But I will take the kingship from his son’s hand and make you king over ten tribes. ³⁶One tribe will be left for his son so that my servant David may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, where I have chosen to put my Name. ³⁷I will let you reign over all you wish; you shall be king of Israel. ³⁸Now, if you obey all that I command you, follow me and do what is right in my eyes, if you keep my commandments and my statutes, as my servant David did, I will be with you and establish your family for a long time, as I did for David. I will entrust Israel to you. ³⁹In this way, I will humble the family of David for a time.”

⁴⁰Solomon wanted to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam took refuge in Egypt with Shishak, the king of Egypt, where he remained until Solomon's death.

⁴¹The rest of the events of Solomon’s reign, his deeds, and his wisdom are written in the book of the Acts of Solomon. ⁴²Solomon reigned over all of Israel in Jerusalem for 40 years. ⁴³Then he rested with his fathers and was buried in David. Rehoboam, his son, reigned in his place.

The Political Schism

12 | • ¹Rehoboam went to Shechem because all Israel had gathered there to make him king. ²When Jeroboam, son of Nebat, heard of this in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon and where he remained, he returned from Egypt. ³They called for him. He came with all the assembly of Israel.

The people of Israel went to Rehoboam with this demand, ⁴“Your father made our yoke heavy. So lighten the heavy yoke and the hard labor your father imposed on us, and we will serve you.” ⁵Rehoboam answered them, “Leave now, but come back on the third day.” And so the people went their way.

⁶King Rehoboam sought advice from the elderly counselors who served his father Solomon while he was still alive, and he asked them, “How would you advise me to answer these people?” ⁷They replied, “If you attend to this people today, making yourself their servant, and speak to them with good words, they will serve you forever.” ⁸But Rehoboam disregarded the advice of the old counselors and asked the opinion of the greenhorns who had grown up with him and were in his service. ⁹He asked them, “What do you say we should answer this people who tell me: ‘Lighten the yoke which your father imposed on us’?” ¹⁰The greenhorns who had grown up with him answered, “Since these people said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you should now lighten it for us,’ tell them this: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loin. ¹¹My father laid a heavy yoke on you, but I will make it heavier yet. My father chastised you with whips, but I will fix iron points to the lashes.”

¹²On the third day, Jeroboam, together with the people, went back to Rehoboam just as the king said, for he had said to them, “Come back on the third day.” ¹³Ignoring the advice given to him by the elderly counselors, ¹⁴the king answered the people harshly in the way the greenhorns had advised him. He said, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will make it even heavier. My father chastised you with whips, but I will fix iron points to the lashes.” ¹⁵The king did not listen to the people. Indeed, the Lord brought about this fateful event, fulfilling the word he had spoken to Jeroboam, son of Nebat, through Ahijah the Shilonite.

¹⁶All Israel realized that the king refused to listen to them, and they answered the same way, “What have we to do with David? Is the son of Jesse from our tribes? Let the son of David deal with his own, and you, people of Israel, go back to your homes!” And so the Israelites left for their homes. ¹⁷Only the Israelites who dwelt in the cities of Judah let Rehoboam reign over them.

¹⁸Rehoboam sent Adoram, the taskmaster of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death, and King Rehoboam had to mount his chariot and flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to the present time.

²⁰Once Jeroboam had returned and was with them at the assembly, having been called by them, they made him king of Israel. And so, except for the tribe of Judah, no one followed the house of David.

²¹When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he called together all the people of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, numbering a hundred and eighty thousand select warriors, to fight against the people of Israel in a bid to restore the kingship of Rehoboam, son of Solomon. ²²But the word of God was directed to Shemaiah, the man of God, ²³“Give Rehoboam, son of Solomon, king of Judah, and all the people of Judah and Benjamin, and the rest of the people, this message from the Lord: ²⁴‘You shall not go up to fight against your kinsmen, the Israelites. Let everyone return to his home, for I am the author of this.’” When they heard this word, they returned home according to what the Lord had ordered.

²⁵Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. Then, he set out to fortify Penuel.

The Religious Division

•  ²⁶Jeroboam thought, “The kingdom could return to the house of David. ²⁷Should this person go up to offer sacrifices in the Lord’s house in Jerusalem, their hearts would turn again to their master, Rehoboam, king of Judah. They would kill me and go back to him.”

²⁸And so the king sought advice and made two golden calves. Then he told the people, “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” ²⁹He put one of these in Bethel, the other in Dan. ³⁰This caused Israel to sin; the people went to Bethel and Dan to worship the calves.

³¹Jeroboam also built temples in high places, appointing priests who were not from the Levites. ³²Jeroboam also appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month in imitation of the feast in Judah and offered sacrifices on the altar. He did this in Bethel and sacrificed to the calves he had made. There, he placed priests for the high places he had made. ³³On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the month he had arbitrarily chosen, he ordered a feast for the Israelites and went up to the altar to burn incense.

The Story of Judah’s Man of God

13 | • ¹A man of God came out of Judah following a command of the Lord. He arrived at Bethel while Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense. ²The man shouted, cursing the altar, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘There shall be born to the family of David, a son by the name of Josiah. He shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who burn incense on you and human bones shall be burned on you.’”

³And at once, the man gave a sign. He said, “This is the proof that the Lord has spoken. The altar shall be torn down, and its ashes shall be scattered.”

⁴When the king heard the man of God shouting and cursing the altar of Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Arrest him!” ⁵Immediately, the hand which he pointed out against the man dried up, and he could not draw it back. The altar itself crumbled, and the ashes on it were scattered, according to the sign that had been given.

⁶And so the king said to the man of God, “Entreat the favor of the Lord your God and pray for me so that my hand may be restored.” The man of God entreated the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored as it had been before.

⁷The king then said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself; I will give you a reward.” ⁸But the man of God answered the king, “Even if you give me half your house, I will not go in with you; nor will I eat or drink in this place, for this was commanded to me by the Lord. ⁹He precisely said to me: ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way you came.’” ¹⁰The man did not return by the way he had come to Bethel but went another way.

¹¹There was an old prophet living in Bethel, and his sons came to tell him what the man of God had done on that day in Bethel and everything he had said to the king. ¹²Their father then asked them, “Which way did he go?” they told him which way the man of God from Judah had taken. ¹³He then said to his sons, “Saddle the ass for me,” and they did so. ¹⁴He took off after the man of God whom he found sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, “Are you the man of God from Judah?” He answered, “Yes, I am.” ¹⁵He then said to him, “Come home with me and eat something.” ¹⁶But he replied, “I can’t go back with you or eat and drink with you in this place, ¹⁷for this was the command of the Lord: ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there nor shall you return by the way you came.’” ¹⁸But the old prophet from Bethel said to him: “I am also a prophet as you are; and an angel told me on behalf of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’” ¹⁹The old prophet was lying. And so the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.

²⁰As they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. ²¹And he shouted to the man of God who came from Judah, “Thus says the Lord: ‘You have disobeyed me and have not observed the command I gave you. ²²Instead, you have come back and eaten and drunk, although I told you not to eat bread or drink water. Because of this, your body shall not be laid in the tomb of your ancestors.’”

²³After he had eaten and drunk, the old prophet who had brought him back saddled the ass for him, and the prophet from Judah went away. ²⁴But a lion met him on the road and killed him. His body was thrown on the road with the lion beside it. ²⁵People who passed saw the body thrown on the road with the lion standing by, and they reported this in the city where the old prophet lived.

²⁶When the prophet heard of this, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord. The Lord has delivered him to the lion which has torn and slain him just as the Lord had told him.” ²⁷Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the ass for me.” ²⁸They saddled it, and he went and found the body thrown on the road, with the ass and the lion standing beside it. ²⁹The lion had neither eaten the body nor torn the ass. And so the prophet took up the body of the man of God, laid it on the ass, and brought it back to the city to mourn and to bury him. 30 He laid the body in his own grave, and they mourned over him with the lament, “Alas, my brother!”

³¹After that, the old prophet told his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried and lay my bones beside his bones. ³²For everything he said at the Lord’s command, cursing the altar in Bethel and all the Sanctuaries of the high places in the cities of Samaria, will be fulfilled.”

 ³³After this, however, Jeroboam did not abstain from doing evil. Instead, he made priests for the high places from among the people. He consecrated anyone who wanted to be a priest for the high places. ³⁴And this became the sin of the family of Jeroboam for which it was to be cut off and destroyed from the face of the earth.

Ahijah’s Prophecy Against Jeroboam

14 | • ¹At that time, Abijah, son of Jeroboam, fell ill. ²So the king told his wife. “Go, disguise yourself so no one may recognize you as Jeroboam’s wife. Go to Shiloh, where you will find Ahijah, the prophet who foretold that I would be king over this people. ³Take ten loaves, a few cakes, and a honey jar. Enter his house, and he will tell you what will happen to the child.”

⁴Jeroboam’s wife did as she was told and left for Shiloh. She entered the house of Ahijah, who was now so old that he could not see.

⁵But the Lord had told Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming to consult you about her sick son, and this is what you must tell her. She will be coming in disguise.” ⁶And so when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps, as she entered the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why have you disguised yourself? I have been told to give you unpleasant news. ⁷Go, therefore; bring Jeroboam this message of the Lord, the God of Israel: ⁸‘I made you rise from the midst of the people and established you as the leader of Israel. I took the kingdom from David’s family to give it to you. Yet you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me wholeheartedly, doing only what pleased me. ⁹You have done worse than anyone before you. You have made me angry with your strange gods and the images you have made and forsaken me.

¹⁰Now, I shall bring disaster on the family of Jeroboam. I will cut off every male in Jeroboam’s line, whether slave or freeman in Israel, and I will wipe out the descendants of Jeroboam just as they wipe out the dung till all is gone. ¹¹He who dies in the city will be devoured by dogs; he who dies in the field, by the birds of the sky. So the Lord has spoken!’ ¹²Leave now, and go back home! As soon as you enter the city, the child will die. ¹³All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He alone of Jeroboam’s line will be buried, for in him alone has the Lord, the God of Israel, found something good. ¹⁴The Lord himself will raise for himself a king of Israel and destroy Jeroboam’s family.

¹⁵The Lord will strike Israel like a reed tossed about in the water and root them out from this good land he gave to their ancestors. He will scatter them beyond the river Euphrates because they made him angry with the sacred poles they set up. ¹⁶The Lord will scatter Israel because of the sins Jeroboam has committed and by which he dragged Israel into sin.”

¹⁷So Jeroboam’s wife went home. On her arrival at Tirzah, and as soon as she crossed the threshold of her house, the child died. ¹⁸The child was buried, and all Israel mourned over him just as the Lord had prophesied through his servant, Ahijah.

Rehoboam, King of Judah

¹⁹The rest of the acts of Jeroboam, his achievements in war and his reign, are recorded in the Book of Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ²⁰Jeroboam reigned for twenty-two years. When he rested with his fathers, his son Nadab succeeded him as king.

²¹Rehoboam, son of Solomon, was forty-one when he began to reign over Judah. He reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord chose out of all the tribes of Israel to put his Name there. His mother, Naamah, was an Ammonite.

²²The people of Judah did what displeased the Lord and, by their sins, angered him even more than their ancestors had done. ²³They also built for themselves high places, pillars, and sacred poles on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴They even had male cult prostitutes in their land. Judah followed all the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

²⁵In the fifth year of the reign of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem ²⁶and looted everything, including the treasures of the Lord’s house and the royal palace. As he had taken the golden shields made under Solomon, ²⁷Rehoboam replaced them with brazen shields and entrusted them to the officers of the guard who watched at the door of the king’s palace. ²⁸Every time the king entered the Lord’s house, the guards took them out and returned them to the guardroom.

²⁹The rest of the events of Rehoboam’s reign, including his deeds, are all written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. ³⁰There was an ongoing war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. ³¹Then Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David. His mother, Naamah, was an Ammonite. His son Abijam succeeded him as king.

Abijam, King of Judah

15 | ¹In the eighteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, Abijam became king of Judah ²and reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah, daughter of Abishalom. ³He imitated all the sins his father had committed before him and, unlike his ancestor David, was not wholly faithful to the Lord, his God. ⁴Yet the Lord had promised David that he would keep his lamp burning in Jerusalem. He would raise his descendants after him and establish Jerusalem. ⁵This was because David had pleased the Lord and obeyed his commands as long as he lived, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite. ^6–7The rest of the events of Abijam’s reign and everything he did are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. There was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. ⁸When Abijam rested with his fathers, he was buried in the city of David, and his son Asa reigned in his place.

Asa, King of Judah

⁹In the twentieth year of the reign of Jeroboam, king of Israel, Asa, king of Judah, began to reign, and ¹⁰was king for forty-one years, ruling in Jerusalem. His grandmother was Maacah, daughter of Abishalom. ¹¹Asa did what was right before the Lord, just as his ancestor David had done. ¹²He rid the land of male cult prostitutes and removed all the idols his ancestors had made. ¹³He also deposed his grandmother Maacah as queen mother for making an abominable image for Asherah. Asa destroyed Asherah’s image and burned it at the brook Kidron; ¹⁴he did not close down the high places. Nevertheless, Asa remained faithful to the Lord for the rest of his life. ¹⁵He brought into the Lord’s house both the votive gifts of his father and his own: silver, gold, and vessels.

¹⁶Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, were at war during their reigns. ¹⁷Baasha, king of Israel, attacked Judah and fortified Ramah to cut off all communication with Asa, king of Judah. ¹⁸Asa, in the meantime, collecting all the silver and gold remaining in the treasuries of the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, entrusted them to his servants whom he sent to Ben-hadad, son of Tabrimmon, son of Hezion, king of Syria who reigned in Damascus. ¹⁹He sent him this message, “Let us together make a treaty just as my father and yours did. I am sending you silver and gold, so please break your treaty with Baasha, king of Israel, that he may withdraw from my territory.”

²⁰Ben-hadad acceded to King Asa’s request and sent his officers to harass the cities of Israel, capturing Ijon, Dan, Abel-Beth-march, all the land of Chinneroth, and the region of Naphtali. ²¹On hearing this, Baasha stopped the fortification of Ramah and moved to Tirzah, where he lived. ²²Then King Asa ordered all of Judah, excluding no one, to remove the stones and timber Baasha had used to fortify Ramah. With these materials, King Asa built the Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah. ²³The rest of Asa’s reign, his bravery, his deeds, and the cities he built are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. In his old age, Asa suffered from foot disease. ²⁴Asa rested with his father and was buried in the city of David, his ancestor. His son Jehoshaphat reigned in his place.

Nadab and Baasha, Kings of Israel

²⁵Nadab, son of Jeroboam, began to reign over Israel in the second year of the reign of Asa, king of Judah. ²⁶He reigned over Israel for two years, doing what displeased the Lord and dragging Israel into sin as his father had done.

²⁷Baasha, son of Ahijah of the family of Issachar, plotted against him and struck him down at Gibbethon of the Philistines when Nadab and the Israelites were laying siege to this city. ²⁸Baasha killed Nadab in the third year of the reign of Asa, king of Judah and reigned in his place. ²⁹As soon as he was king, he killed off the entire family of Jeroboam, leaving him no one alive but wiping them out according to the word that the Lord had spoken through his servant Ahijah, the Shilonite. ³⁰This happened because of Jeroboam, who aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, by sinning and dragging Israel into sin.

³¹The rest of Nadab’s reign events and achievements are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ³²Asa and Baasha were at war during their reigns.

³³In the third year of the reign of Asa, king of Judah, Baasha, son of Ahijah, began to reign over all Israel at Tirzah, where he reigned for twenty-four years. ³⁴He did what displeased the Lord and sinned just as Jeroboam, who dragged Israel into sin, had done.

16 | ¹The Lord spoke to Jehu, son of Hanani, to condemn Baasha. He said, ²“I have raised you from the dust to make you rule over my people, Israel, but you have made me angry by going the way of Jeroboam and dragging my people, Israel, into sin. ³I will, therefore, sweep away Baasha and his family and deal with them as I did with Jeroboam, son of Nebat. ⁴Dogs will devour those of Baasha’s line who die in the City, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country.”

⁵The rest of the events of Baasha’s reign, his deeds, and achievements are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ⁶Baasha rested with his fathers and was buried at Tirzah, while Elah, his son, reigned in his place. ⁷The Lord indeed spoke through the prophet Jehu, son of Hanani, to condemn Baasha and his family, not only for doing what displeased the Lord, making him angry as Jeroboam had done but also because he murdered the family of Jeroboam.

Elah, King of Israel

⁸In the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, king of Judah, Elah, son of Baasha, began to reign over Israel in Tirzah and was king for two years. ⁹But his servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, plotted against him. While Elah was getting himself drunk in the house of Arza, the governor of Tirzah, ¹⁰Zimri, came in, struck him down, and killed him. This happened in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Asa, king of Judah. Then Zimri reigned in his place.

¹¹As soon as Zimri began to reign, he had the entire family of Baasha killed, leaving him not a single male relative or friend. ¹²Zimri wiped out the entire house of Baasha according to the Lord’s pronouncement against him as spoken by Jehu, the prophet. ¹³And this happened because of the sins, which Baasha and his son had committed, dragging Israel into sin and making the Lord angry by their idols. ¹⁴Now, the rest of the events of Elah’s reign and all his deeds are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

Omri, King of Israel

¹⁵It happened in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Asa, king of Judah, that Zimri reigned seven days in Tirzah. ¹⁶For the army was besieging Gibbethon of the Philistines when Zimri plotted against Elah, and, on hearing that he had killed the king, they proclaimed Omri, commander of the army, king of Israel. ¹⁷Omri went up with the Israelites from Gibbethon and attacked Tirzah. ¹⁸When Zimri saw that the city was to be captured, he went into the citadel of the royal palace. He set the royal palace on fire, and he died. ¹⁹He died thus because of the sins he had committed, doing what displeased the Lord and going the way of Jeroboam by dragging Israel into sin. ²⁰The rest of the acts of Zimri and his plot are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

²¹The Israelites were then divided. Half of them followed Tibni, son of Ginath, to make him king; half followed Omri. ²²Those who followed Omri overcame those who followed Tibni, son of Ginath. And so, Tibni died, and Omri became king. ²³In the thirty-first year of the reign of Asa, king of Judah, Omri began to reign over Israel. He reigned for twelve years, six of which he reigned in Tirzah. ²⁴Then he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver. He built a city on the hill and called it Samaria, after Shemer, the owner of the hill.

²⁵Omri did what displeased the Lord, even more than all those who preceded him. ²⁶He went the way of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, and dragged Israel into sin, thereby provoking the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, by their idols. ²⁷The rest of Omri's acts and bravery are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ²⁸Then Omri rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria while Ahab, his son, reigned in his place.

Ahab, King of Israel

•  ²⁹Ahab, son of Omri, became king in the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Asa, king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel in Samaria for twenty-two years. ³⁰Ahab, son of Omri, did what displeased the Lord, even more than all who preceded him. ³¹ Apparently, the example and the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, were not enough for him. He even married Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians. So he served Baal and worshiped him. ³²He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he built in Samaria, ³³ and proceeded to make an Asherah. So Ahab did everything that could make the Lord angry, even more than any of the kings of Israel who ruled before him.

³⁴During his reign, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. On laying its foundation, he sacrificed Abiram, his firstborn. And when he set up the city's gates, he sacrificed his youngest son, Segub, following the word of the Lord spoken through Joshua, son of Nun.

The Prophet Elijah

17 | • ¹Now Elijah, the prophet from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel whom I serve lives, neither dew shall drop nor rainfall except at my command.”

²Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah, ³“Leave this place and go eastward. Hide yourself by the brook Cherith, east of the Jordan. ⁴You shall drink from the brook and, for your food, I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” ⁵So Elijah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to live by the brook Cherith, east of the Jordan. ⁶There the ravens brought him bread in the morning and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

The Widow of Zarephath

•  ⁷After a while, the brook dried up because no rain had fallen on the land. ⁸Then the Lord spoke to Elijah, ⁹“Go to Zarephath of the Sidonites and stay there. I have given word to a widow there to give you food.” ¹⁰So Elijah went to Zarephath. On reaching the town gate, he saw a widow gathering sticks. He called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink.”

¹¹As she was going to bring it, he called after her and said, “Bring me also a piece of bread.” ¹²She answered, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread left, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am just now gathering some sticks so that I may go in and prepare something for myself and my son to eat—and die.”

¹³Elijah then said to her, “Do not be afraid. Go and do as you have said. But first, make me a little cake and bring it to me. Then make some for yourself and your son. ¹⁴For this is the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of meal shall not be emptied nor shall the jug of oil fail, until the day when the Lord sends rain to the earth.”

¹⁵So she did as Elijah told her, and she had food for herself, Elijah, and her son from that day on. ¹⁶The jar of flour was not emptied, nor did the jug of oil fail, following what the Lord had said through Elijah.

The Widow’s Son Raised to Life

•  ¹⁷After this, the son of this housewife became ill. And such was his illness that he stopped breathing. ¹⁸She asked Elijah, “What did you do, O man of God? Have you come to uncover past sins and cause my son’s death?” ¹⁹He answered, “Give me your son.”

Taking him from her lap, he carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his bed. ²⁰Then he called on the Lord, “O Lord, my God, will you afflict even the widow with whom I am residing by letting her son die?” ²¹Then he stretched himself on the child three times and called on the Lord, “O Lord, my God, let this child’s breath return to him.” ²²The Lord listened to the pleading of Elijah, and the child’s breath returned to him, and he lived. ²³Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room. He gave him to his mother and said, “See, your son is alive.”

²⁴Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I am certain that you are a man of God and that your words came from the Lord.”

18 | ¹After several days (in the third year), the Lord spoke to Elijah and said, “Go, show yourself to Ahab that I may let it rain on the earth.” ²So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab.

³Now, the famine in Samaria was severe. Ahab, therefore, called Obadiah, who was in charge of the household. ⁴(Obadiah was a faithful servant of the Lord. When Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord, he took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in caves, feeding them with bread and water.) ⁵Then Ahab told Obadiah, “Let’s go and check all the water springs and the valleys through the land, looking for grass so that the horses and mules may be kept alive and not perish.” ⁶So Ahab and Obadiah divided the land, and each went his own way.

⁷As Obadiah was going his way, Elijah met him. Recognizing Elijah, Obadiah fell on his face and said, “Is that you, my master Elijah?” ⁸He answered, “It is I. Go tell your master that I am here.” ⁹But Obadiah replied, “What evil have I done that you expose me to Ahab’s anger? Surely you want me to die. ¹⁰By the Lord, your God, there is no people or nation where my master has not searched for you. If they said, ‘Elijah is not here,’ he would make them take an oath that they had not found you. ¹¹Yet now, as soon as I leave to inform Ahab of your presence, ¹²the spirit of the Lord will transport your goodness elsewhere; and when Ahab fails to find you, he will kill me. But I have served the Lord from my youth. ¹³Do you not know that when Jezebel had the prophets of the Lord killed, I hid a hundred of them in two caves and fed them with bread and water? ¹⁴Now, if I notify Ahab of your presence, as you want me to do, he will surely kill me!”

¹⁵But Elijah said, “By the Lord of Hosts whom I serve, I will show myself to him today.” ¹⁶So Obadiah went to give Ahab this message, and Ahab came to meet Elijah.

The Sacrifice at Carmel

•  ¹⁷On seeing Elijah, Ahab said, “Is it you, the plague of Israel?” ¹⁸Elijah replied, “Who is troubling Israel? Isn’t it you and your family who have disobeyed the commands of the Lord and followed instead the Baals? ¹⁹Now, therefore, order the Israelites to gather before me at Mount Carmel, together with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal who Jezebel sustains.”

 ²⁰So Ahab sent for all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets at Mount Carmel. ²¹Then Elijah addressed the people and asked, “How long will you follow two ways at the same time? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, then follow him.” The people remained silent.

²²So Elijah continued, “I am the only prophet of the Lord left here to face Baal’s four hundred and fifty prophets. ²³Get us two bulls. Let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it into pieces, and lay it on the wood, and I will do the same with the other bull. But we will not set it on fire. ²⁴Then you shall call on the name of your gods while I shall call on the name of the Lord. The God who answers with fire is the true one.” Then the people answered, “That is right.”

²⁵Then Elijah told the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many. Then call on the name of your god lest you are left without fire!” ²⁶So they took the bull and prepared it, and called on the name of Baal, “Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered them while they went on, dancing on one foot around the altar they had built.

²⁷By noontime, Elijah began to mock them, “Shout out louder. Baal is a busy god, or he may have gone out, or perhaps he has gone on a trip, or he is sleeping and must be awakened.” ²⁸So they shouted louder, gashing their skin with knives, as they are used to doing until they bled. ²⁹It was already past noon, and they were still raving on until the time of the evening offering. But still, there was no voice. No one answered or gave a sign of life.

³⁰Then Elijah said to the people, “Draw closer to me,” and the people drew closer to him. He then repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been thrown down. ³¹He took twelve stones corresponding to the number of tribes of the sons of Jacob whom the Lord had addressed, saying, “Israel shall be your name.” ³²With these stones, he built an altar to the Name of the Lord and dug a trench around it containing about thirty liters. ³³He then arranged the firewood, cut the bull into pieces, and laid them on the wood. Then, he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and the firewood.” ³⁴He said, “Do it again,” and they did it again; “one more time,” and they did it a third time. ³⁵The water ran around the altar and filled the trench.

 ³⁶When the time of the evening offering came, Elijah, the prophet, came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel; and that I am your servant, doing all these things at your command. ³⁷Answer me, O Lord, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God; and that you are turning back their hearts to you.” ³⁸Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, together with the wood, the stones, and the dust; the water also dried up in the trench.

³⁹All the people witnessed this. Then they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord is God! The Lord is God!” ⁴⁰Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal and let none of them escape.” And so they seized them. Then Elijah brought them down to the brook Kidron and had them slaughtered there.

⁴¹Elijah told Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for the sound of rain is rushing in.” ⁴²So Ahab went up to eat and drink. In the meantime, Elijah went to the top of Carmel, bowed to the ground, and put his face between his knees. ⁴³Then he said to his servant, “Go up and look in the direction of the sea.” The man looked up and said, “There is nothing.” Then Elijah said, “Go again,” and seven times he went. ⁴⁴At the seventh time, he perceived a little cloud, the size of a man’s hand, rising out of the sea. Elijah told him, “Go, tell Ahab: Prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.” ⁴⁵A little later, the sky grew dark with clouds and wind, and an intense rain fell. Ahab was riding on his way to Jezreel. ⁴⁶As for Elijah, the hand of the Lord was on him, and tucking his cloak in his belt, he ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

Elijah Flees to Horeb

19 | • ¹Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. ²Jezebel then sent word to Elijah, “May I be cursed if by this time tomorrow, I have not dealt with you as you dealt with them.”

³Elijah was scared and fled for his life. He reached Beer-sheba of Judah and left his servant there. ⁴He disappeared into the desert, going on a day’s journey. Then he sat down under a broom tree and prayed to die, “That is enough, Lord, take away my life, for I am dying.”

⁵He lay down and went to sleep under the broom tree. Then an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” ⁶Elijah looked and saw, at his head, a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. He ate and drank and went back to sleep. ⁷The angel of the Lord came a second time to him, saying, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too long for you.” ⁸He got up, ate, and drank, and on the strength of that food, he traveled for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.

The Encounter with God

•  ⁹On reaching the place, he came to the cave and stayed in it. Then the word of the Lord came to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” ¹⁰He answered, “I am burning with jealous love for the Lord, the God of Hosts because the Israelites have forsaken your Covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword. No one is left but myself, and they are still trying to kill me as well.” ¹¹Then the Lord said, “Go up and stand on the mount, waiting for the Lord.” And the Lord passed by.

There was first a wild windstorm that rents the mountains and breaks the rocks into pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the storm, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; ¹²after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; after the fire, the murmur of a gentle breeze. ¹³When Elijah perceived it, he covered his face with his cloak, went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

Then he heard a voice addressing him again, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” ¹⁴He answered, “I am burning with jealous love for the Lord, the God of Hosts, because the Israelites have forsaken your Covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword. No one is left but myself, yet they still seek my life to take it away.”

¹⁵The Lord told him, “Take the road back through the desert and go to Damascus, for you must anoint Hazael as king of Syria. ¹⁶You shall also anoint Jehu, son of Nimshi, as king over Israel. And Elisha, son of Shaphat, from Abel Meholah, you shall anoint as prophet in your place. ¹⁷Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael will be slain by Jehu, and Elisha will execute whoever escapes from Jehu's sword. ¹⁸Yet I will spare seven thousand in Israel who have not knelt before Baal and whose lips have not kissed him.”

•  ¹⁹Elijah left. He found Elisha, son of Shaphat, plowing with twelve yoke of oxen; he was following the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak over him. ²⁰Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Let me say goodbye to my father and mother; then I will follow you.” Elijah said to him, “Return if you want; don’t worry about what I did.” 21 However, Elisha turned back, took the yoke of oxen, and slew them. He roasted their meat on the pieces of the yoke and gave it to his people who ate it. After this, he followed Elijah and began ministering to him.

The Siege of Samaria

20 | ¹Ben-hadad, king of Aram, gathered together his entire army. With him were thirty-two kings. With horses and chariots, he went to Samaria and besieged it. ²He then sent messengers into the city to Ahab, king of Israel, and said to him, “Thus says Ben-hadad: ³Your silver and gold are mine and so are your fairest wives and children.” ⁴The king of Israel answered, “As you say, my master, O king, I am yours with all that I possess.” ⁵Again, Ben-hadad sent messengers to say, “I sent this message to you: ‘Hand over to me your silver and gold, along with your wives and children,’ ⁶but now I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time. They shall search your house and those of your officials and take with them whatever they want to take.”

⁷Then the king of Israel summoned all the elders of the land and said, “Look now and see how this man acts with evil intentions. He will send his officers to take my wives, children, and my silver and gold, although I agreed to deliver all to him.” ⁸The elders and the people said to him, “Pay no attention to him and do not agree to what he asks.” ⁹The king of Israel told Ben-hadad’s messengers, “Tell my master, the king, I will do everything you first demanded of me, but now it is too much.” The messengers left and reported this to ¹⁰Ben-hadad, who answered, “May I be cursed if enough dust remains of Samaria to give a handful to all the people who follow me.” ¹¹But the king of Israel answered, “Let not he who puts on his armor boast like one who takes it off.” ¹²Ben-hadad was drinking with the kings in the booths when he heard this message. So he said to his officers, “Take your positions.” And they took their positions against the city.

¹³Then, a prophet approached Ahab, king of Israel, and said, “Have you seen this immense crowd? This is the word of the Lord: ‘I will deliver it into your hands today, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’” ¹⁴Ahab asked, “Who is to win over him?” The prophet replied, “The guards of the governors of the districts, for this is the Lord’s order.” Again, the king asked, “Who shall begin the battle?” He replied, “You!”

¹⁵And so the king of Israel mustered the guards of the governors of the districts, numbering two hundred and thirty-two. After that, he mustered all the Israelites, numbering seven thousand.

¹⁶They set out at noon while Ben-hadad drank heavily in the booths with the thirty-two kings who helped him. ¹⁷The guards of the governors of the districts went out first. Someone reported to Ben-hadad, “People are coming out from Samaria.” ¹⁸He said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; if for war, take them alive as well.”

¹⁹So the guards of the governors of the city went out, and the army followed them, ²⁰and each one began to kill his man. The Arameans fled, with the Israelites pursuing them. Ben-hadad, king of Aram, escaped on a horse with horsemen, ²¹ but the king of Israel captured horses and chariots and utterly defeated the Arameans.

²²Then the prophet came again to the king of Israel and said, “Courage, be on your guard and ponder well your next action, for next year the king of Aram will come up against you.”

²³The officers of the king of Aram said to him, “Their gods are gods of the hills. That is why they were stronger than us. ²⁴Let us fight against them on the plain, and we shall overcome them. But you must also replace the princes with officers you have appointed. ²⁵When you have gathered an army like the one you have lost, with the same amount of horses and chariots, we will fight on the plain, then we shall see who is stronger.” Ben-hadad listened to their advice and did just that.

Victory Over the Arameans

²⁶In the spring, Ben-hadad mustered the Arameans and set out for Aphek to fight against Israel. ²⁷The Israelites were also mustered and set out against the Arameans. As they encamped, the Israelites looked like two little herds of goats, whereas the Arameans filled the countryside. ²⁸A man of God approached the king of Israel and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because the Arameans have said: “The Lord is a god of the hills but not of the valleys,” therefore I will deliver this immense crowd into your hands and you shall know that I am the Lord.’” ²⁹And they encamped, facing each other for seven days.

On the seventh day, the battle was engaged, and that day, the Israelites killed a hundred thousand Aramean foot soldiers. ³⁰As the rest fled into the city of Aphek, the wall fell on the twenty-seven thousand men left. Ben-hadad fled and entered an inner room in the city. ³¹ His officers said, “People say that the kings of Israel are merciful. Let us put sackcloth around our waists; perhaps he will spare your life.”

³²So, putting sackcloth around their waists and ropes around their necks, they went to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant, Ben-hadad, pleads, ‘Please, let me live.’” He then asked, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.” ³³They quickly took up his word and said, “Yes, Ben-hadad is your brother.” The king of Israel said, “Go, bring him here.”

Ben-hadad came to him, and he let Ben-hadad get into his chariot. ³⁴Ben-hadad told him, “I will give back the cities my father took from your father, and you may put up business establishments for yourself in Damascus, just as my father did in Samaria.” He then agreed with Ben-hadad and let him go.

³⁵Now the word of the Lord was directed to one of the fellow prophets, so he said to his companion, “Strike me, please.” But his companion refused to strike him. ³⁶So he said to him, “Since you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, once you leave me, a lion shall kill you.” And, indeed, as soon as he had left, a lion found him and killed him.

³⁷Then the fellow prophet found another man to whom he said, “Please, strike me.” This man struck him, wounding him. ³⁸Then this prophet left, disguising himself with a bandage over his eyes, and waited for the king along the road. ³⁹When the king passed, he called to him and said, “O king! I, your servant, went into the thick of the battle when a soldier left the line and brought me a man, saying: ‘Guard this man. Should he escape, your life shall be in exchange for his, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.’ ⁴⁰While I was busy running around, my prisoner disappeared.” The king of Israel told him, “You have said what your sentence shall be.”

⁴¹At once, the man removed the bandage from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets. ⁴²Then the prophet told him, “Because you have released the man whom I have decreed to die, your life shall be in exchange for his and your people for his people.” ⁴³And the king of Israel went back home to Samaria, resentful and sad.

Naboth’s Vineyard

21 | • ¹Now Naboth, a man from Jezreel, owned a vineyard just beside the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria. ²Ahab asked Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, which is near my house that I may use it for a vegetable garden. I will give you a better vineyard in exchange. Or, if you prefer, I will pay you its price.”

³But Naboth told Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”

⁴So Ahab went home angry and sad because of what Naboth had told him, that he would not give him his father's inheritance. So he lay down on his bed with his face turned toward the wall and refused to eat.

⁵His wife Jezebel came to him and said, “Why are you so angry that you refuse to eat?” ⁶He answered, “I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and asked him to sell me his vineyard or to exchange it for another one, but he answered: I will not give you my vineyard.”

⁷His wife Jezebel said, “Are you not the king of Israel? Get up and eat and be joyful, for I will give you the vineyard of Naboth of Jezreel.”

⁸So Jezebel wrote letters using Ahab’s name, sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and important persons living near Naboth. ⁹This is what she wrote in the letters: “Declare a fast and put Naboth on trial. ¹⁰Get two scoundrels to accuse him in this way: ‘You have cursed God and the king.’ Then take him out and stone him to death.”

¹¹The people, the elders, and the important persons who lived in his city did as Jezebel had instructed them in the letters she sent to them. ¹²They declared a fast and put Naboth on trial. ¹³The two worthless fellows came in and sat facing him, accusing Naboth before the people, “Naboth cursed God and the king!” So, the people took him outside the city and stoned him to death. ¹⁴They then sent word to Jezebel that Naboth had been stoned and was dead.

¹⁵As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, she told Ahab, “Now take possession of the vineyard of Naboth, the man of Jezreel who refused to sell it to you, for Naboth is now dead.” ¹⁶As soon as Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he went down to Naboth's vineyard and took possession of it.

¹⁷Then the Lord spoke to Elijah of Tishbe, ¹⁸“Go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, in Samaria. He is taking possession of Naboth's vineyard. ¹⁹Say to him: ‘Have you killed and have taken possession at the same time?’ Then give him this word of mine: ‘Dogs shall lick your blood in the very place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth.’”

²⁰Ahab then said to Elijah, “Who, better than my enemy, could find me here and now!” Elijah answered, “I have come to you because you have done what the Lord abhors. ²¹This is the Lord’s word: ‘I will bring disgrace on you. I will sweep you away and cut off every male of your family, from the lowest to the greatest. ²²Your family will disappear like the families of Jeroboam and Baasha because you have offended me and have dragged Israel into sin.’ ²³There is another word of the Lord to Jezebel: ‘The dogs shall devour Jezebel within the territory of Jezreel.’ ²⁴If anyone of Ahab’s line dies in the city, he shall be devoured by dogs; if in the green country, the birds of the air shall feed on him.”

²⁵There was no one like Ahab, urged by his wife Jezebel, to do what the Lord abhorred. ²⁶He did horrible things and ran after unclean idols just as the Amorites had done, from whom the Lord had taken the land to give it to Israel.

²⁷On hearing these words, Ahab tore his clothes and put on sackcloth. He fasted as he lay in sackcloth and moved around despondently. ²⁸Then the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself? ²⁹Because of this, I will not bring about the disaster during his reign; during his son’s reign, disgrace will fall on his family.”

22 | • ¹There was no war between Aram and Israel for three years. ²But in the third year, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel. ³The king of Israel asked his officers, “Have you forgotten that Ramoth-Gilead belongs to us? Yet we do nothing to take it back from the Arameans.” ⁴So he asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you come with me to conquer Ramoth-Gilead?” Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, “I am with you, my people are with your people, and my horses with yours.”

Micaiah and the False Prophets

•  ⁵Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, said to the king of Israel, “Let us consult the Lord before setting out for war.” ⁶So the king of Israel gathered all the prophets, numbering about four hundred men, and asked them, “Shall I go to conquer Ramoth-Gilead, or shall I hold back?” They replied, “Go, for the Lord will deliver the city into your hands.”

⁷Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no other prophet of the Lord around here whom we might ask?” ⁸The king of Israel answered, “There is still one through whom we may ask for the Lord’s counsel; but I hate him, for he never prophesies good about me but only evil. It is Micaiah, son of Imlah.” Then Jehoshaphat said, “Don’t speak in this manner.” ⁹The king of Israel called an official and told him, “Bring quickly Micaiah, son of Imlah.”

¹⁰In the meantime, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, were seated on their thrones, fully robed. They were both on the threshing floor by the entrance gate of Samaria, where the prophets continued to prophesy before them. ¹¹There was Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, who made for himself horns from iron and said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘With these horns, you shall strike the Arameans until they are destroyed.’”

¹²All the prophets said the same: “Go to Ramoth-Gilead and triumph. The Lord will deliver it into the hands of the king.”

¹³The official who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look here, all the prophets agree to foretell a happy end to the king. You, too, agree to speak favorably.” ¹⁴But Micaiah replied, “As the Lord lives, I will speak what the Lord tells me.”

¹⁵When he had come, the king asked him, “Micaiah, shall we go to conquer Ramoth-Gilead, or shall we hold back?” Then Micaiah answered, “Go and triumph! The Lord will give the city into the hands of the king!” ¹⁶But the king asked him, “How many times shall I ask you to speak seriously to me and tell me the truth in the name of the Lord?” ¹⁷Then Micaiah said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep without a shepherd. Then the Lord said: ‘These have no master; so let each return to his home in peace.’”

¹⁸The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good about me, but only evil?”

¹⁹Micaiah replied, “Listen again to this word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with the entire host of heaven standing beside him on his right and left. ²⁰Then the Lord asked: ‘Who will entice Ahab that he may go and fall at Ramoth-Gilead?’ One said one thing, and another, another thing. ²¹Then a spirit stood before the Lord, saying: ‘I will deceive him.’ ²²The Lord then asked him, ‘What will you do?’ To this, he replied: ‘I will go and make myself a lying spirit on the lips of all his prophets.’ Then the Lord said, ‘You shall succeed. Go and do just that.’

²³You must know that the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours because he willed to bring evil on you.”

²⁴Then Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, approached Micaiah, struck him, and said, “Has the spirit of the Lord left me to speak to you?” ²⁵Micaiah replied, “You shall discover for yourself on the day you flee from house to house to hide.”

²⁶The king of Israel ordered, “Seize Micaiah and take him back to Amon, city governor, and Joash, the king’s son. ²⁷Give them this order: ‘Throw this man in prison and feed him with a scant fare of bread and water until I come in peace.’”

²⁸Then Micaiah said, “If you return in peace, then the Lord has not spoken through me.”

Death of the King of Israel

²⁹So the king of Israel went up to Ramoth-Gilead, together with the king of Judah. ³⁰The king of Israel told Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself before the battle, but you wear your robes.” So, the king of Israel disguised himself before the battle.

³¹The king of Aram had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, “Attack no one, big or small, but only the king of Israel.” ³²When the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, “That surely is the king of Israel.” So they turned to attack him. But when Jehoshaphat shouted his cry of war, ³³the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, and they no longer pursued him.

³⁴In the meantime, one of the Arameans drew his bow, without knowing at whom he aimed, and hit the king of Israel between the scale armor and the breastplate. The king then ordered the driver of his chariot, “Turn around and carry me out of the battle, for I am wounded.” ³⁵The battle raged fiercely on that day. Meanwhile, the king was propped up in his chariot, facing the Arameans, until the evening, when he died. The blood from his wound flowed down to the bottom of the chariot. ³⁶At about sunset, a cry went through the camp, “Everyone to his city, and every one to his country! ³⁷The king has died!”

The king was brought to Samaria and was buried there. ³⁸But they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria. So the dogs licked up his blood while the harlots bathed in it, following the word spoken by the Lord.

•  ³⁹The rest of the acts of Ahab, his deeds, the ivory house he built, and the cities he restored are all written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ⁴⁰So Ahab rested with his ancestors, and his son Ahaziah reigned in his place.

⁴¹Jehoshaphat, son of Asa, began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of the reign of Ahab, king of Israel. ⁴²He was thirty-five years old when he began to reign and reigned for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother was Azubah, Shilhi's daughter. ⁴³He conducted himself like his father Asa and did what pleased the Lord without hesitation. ⁴⁴Yet, he did not remove the high places where the people continued to sacrifice and burn incense. ⁴⁵Jehoshaphat had peace with the king of Israel.

⁴⁶The rest of Jehoshaphat's acts, bravery, and war exploits are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. ⁴⁷He also removed from the land the remaining male cult prostitutes, completing the work of his father Asa.

⁴⁸There was no king in Edom, but a governor ruled over it. ⁴⁹Jehoshaphat had Tarshish ships go to Ophir for gold, but the venture failed when the ships were wrecked at Ezion-Geber. ⁵⁰Then Ahaziah, son of Ahab, said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my servants go in the ships with your servants.” Jehoshaphat, however, refused. ⁵¹When Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers, he was buried with them in the city of his ancestor David, and his son Jehoram reigned in his place.

⁵²Ahaziah, son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of the reign of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. He reigned over Israel for two years. ⁵³He did what displeased the Lord, imitating the conduct of his father and mother and of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who dragged Israel into sin. He served Baal and worshiped him, offending the Lord, the God of Israel, in the same way his father had done.