# verses

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Nabal is a bad-tempered boor, but please don't pay any attention to what he said. He is a fool--just like his name means. But I didn't see the messengers you sent.


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Sir, since the Lord has kept you from murdering and taking vengeance into your own hands, I pray by the life of God, and by your own life too, that all your enemies shall be as cursed as Nabal is.


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Forgive me for my boldness in coming out here. The Lord will surely reward you with eternal royalty for your descendants, for you are fighting his battles; and you will never do wrong throughout your entire life.


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Even when you are chased by those who seek your life, you are safe in the care of the Lord your God, just as though you were safe inside his purse! But the lives of your enemies shall disappear like stones from a sling!


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you won't want the conscience of a murderer who took the law into his own hands! And when the Lord has done these great things for you, please remember me!"


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Thank God for your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murdering the man and carrying out vengeance with my own hands.


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For I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel who has kept me from hurting you, that if you had not come out to meet me, not one of Nabal's men would be alive tomorrow morning."


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Then David accepted her gifts and told her to return home without fear, for he would not kill her husband.


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When she arrived home she found that Nabal had thrown a big party. He was roaring drunk, so she didn't tell him anything about her meeting with David until the next morning.


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When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Praise the Lord! God has paid back Nabal and kept me from doing it myself; he has received his punishment for his sin." Then David wasted no time in sending messengers to Abigail to ask her to become his wife.


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Quickly getting ready, she took along five of her serving girls as attendants, mounted her donkey, and followed the men back to David. So she became his wife.


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King Saul, meanwhile, had forced David's wife Michal, Saul's daughter, to marry a man from Gallim named Palti (the son of Laish).


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Now the men from Ziph came back to Saul at Gibeah to tell him that David had returned to the wilderness and was hiding on Hachilah Hill.


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Saul camped along the road at the edge of the wilderness where David was hiding, but David knew of Saul's arrival and sent out spies to watch his movements.


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David slipped over to Saul's camp one night to look around. King Saul and General Abner were sleeping inside a ring formed by the slumbering soldiers. "Any volunteers to go down there with me?"


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David asked Ahimelech (the Hittite) and Abishai (Joab's brother and the son of Zeruiah). "I'll go with you," Abishai replied.


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So David and Abishai went to Saul's camp and found him asleep, with his spear in the ground beside his head.


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"God has put your enemy within your power this time for sure," Abishai whispered to David. "Let me go and put that spear through him. I'll pin him to the earth with it--I'll not need to strike a second time!"


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"No," David said. "Don't kill him, for who can remain innocent after attacking the Lord's chosen king?


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But God forbid that I should kill the man he has chosen to be king! But I'll tell you what--we'll take his spear and his jug of water and then get out of here!"


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So David took the spear and jug of water, and they got away without anyone seeing them or even waking up, because the Lord had put them sound asleep.


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"Well, Abner, you're a great fellow, aren't you?" David taunted. "Where in all Israel is there anyone as wonderful? So why haven't you guarded your master the king when someone came to kill him?


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This isn't good at all! I swear by the Lord that you ought to die for your carelessness. Where is the king's spear and the jug of water that was beside his head? Look and see!"


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Saul recognized David's voice and said, "Is that you, my son David?" And David replied, "Yes, sir, it is.


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If the Lord has stirred you up against me, then let him accept my peace offering. But if this is simply the scheme of a man, then may he be cursed by God. For you have driven me out of my home so that I can't be with the Lord's people, and you have sent me away to worship heathen gods.


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Must I die on foreign soil, far from the presence of Jehovah? Why should the king of Israel come out to hunt my life like a partridge on the mountains?"


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Then Saul confessed, "I have done wrong. Come back home, my son, and I'll no longer try to harm you; for you saved my life today. I have been a fool, and very, very wrong."


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The Lord gives his own reward for doing good and for being loyal, and I refused to kill you even when the Lord placed you in my power.


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Now may the Lord save my life, even as I have saved yours today. May he rescue me from all my troubles."


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And Saul said to David, "Blessings on you, my son David. You shall do heroic deeds and be a great conqueror." Then David went away and Saul returned home.


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But David kept thinking to himself, "Some day Saul is going to get me. I'll try my luck among the Philistines until Saul gives up and quits hunting for me; then I will finally be safe again."


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So David took his six hundred men and their families to live at Gath under the protection of King Achish.


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One day David said to Achish, "My lord, if it is all right with you, we would rather live in one of the country towns instead of here in the royal city."


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He and his men spent their time raiding the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites--people who had lived near Shur along the road to Egypt ever since ancient times.


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They didn't leave one person alive in the villages they hit and took for themselves the sheep, oxen, donkeys, camels, and clothing before returning to their homes.


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"Where did you make your raid today?" Achish would ask. And David would reply, "Against the south of Judah and the people of Jerahmeel and the Kenites."


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No one was left alive to come to Gath and tell where he had really been. This happened again and again while he was living among the Philistines.


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Achish believed David and thought that the people of Israel must hate him bitterly by now. "Now he will have to stay here and serve me forever!" the king thought.


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About that time the Philistines mustered their armies for another war with Israel. "Come and help us fight," King Achish said to David and his men.


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"Good," David agreed. "You will soon see what a help we can be to you." "If you are, you shall be my personal bodyguard for life," Achish told him.


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(Meanwhile, Samuel had died and all Israel had mourned for him. He was buried in Ramah, his hometown. King Saul had banned all mediums and wizards from the land of Israel.)


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and asked the Lord what he should do. But the Lord refused to answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by the prophets.


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Saul then instructed his aides to try to find a medium so that he could ask her what to do, and they found one at Endor.


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Saul disguised himself by wearing ordinary clothing instead of his royal robes. He went to the woman's home at night, accompanied by two of his men. "I've got to talk to a dead man," he pleaded. "Will you bring his spirit up?"


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"Are you trying to get me killed?" the woman demanded. "You know that Saul has had all of the mediums and fortune-tellers executed. You are spying on me."


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"Don't be frightened!" the king told her. "What do you see?" "I see a specter coming up out of the earth," she said.


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"What does he look like?" "He is an old man wrapped in a robe." Saul realized that it was Samuel and bowed low before him.


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"Why have you disturbed me by bringing me back?" Samuel asked Saul. "Because I am in deep trouble," he replied. "The Philistines are at war with us, and God has left me and won't reply by prophets or dreams; so I have called for you to ask you what to do."


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He has done just as he said he would and has taken the kingdom from you and given it to your rival, David.


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All this has come upon you because you did not obey the Lord's instructions when he was so angry with Amalek.


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What's more, the entire Israeli army will be routed and destroyed by the Philistines tomorrow, and you and your sons will be here with me."


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Saul now fell full length upon the ground, paralyzed with fright because of Samuel's words. He was also faint with hunger, for he had eaten nothing all day.


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When the woman saw how distraught he was, she said, "Sir, I obeyed your command at the risk of my life.


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Now do what I say, and let me give you something to eat so you'll regain your strength for the trip back."


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But he refused. The men who were with him added their pleas to that of the woman until he finally yielded and got up and sat on the bed.


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The woman had been fattening a calf, so she hurried out and killed it and kneaded dough and baked unleavened bread.


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As the Philistine captains were leading out their troops by battalions and companies, David and his men marched at the rear with King Achish.


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But the Philistine commanders demanded, "What are these Israelis doing here?" And King Achish told them, "This is David, the runaway servant of King Saul of Israel. He's been with me for years, and I've never found one fault in him since he arrived."


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But the Philistine leaders were angry. "Send them back!" they demanded. "They aren't going into the battle with us--they'll turn against us. Is there any better way for him to reconcile himself with his master than by turning against us in the battle?


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This is the same man the women of Israel sang about in their dances: 'Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands!' "


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So Achish finally summoned David and his men. "I swear by the Lord," he told them, "you are some of the finest men I've ever met, and I think you should go with us, but my commanders say no.


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But Achish insisted, "As far as I'm concerned, you're as perfect as an angel of God. But my commanders are afraid to have you with them in the battle.


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Three days later, when David and his men arrived home at their city of Ziklag, they found that the Amalekites had raided the city and burned it to the ground,


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David was seriously worried, for in their bitter grief for their children, his men began talking of killing him. But David took strength from the Lord.


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David asked the Lord, "Shall I chase them? Will I catch them?" And the Lord told him, "Yes, go after them; you will recover everything that was taken from you!"


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Along the way they found an Egyptian youth in a field and brought him to David. He had not had anything to eat or drink for three days and nights,


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so they gave him part of a fig cake, two clusters of raisins, and some water, and his strength soon returned.


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"Who are you and where do you come from?" David asked him. "I am an Egyptian--the servant of an Amalekite," he replied. "My master left me behind three days ago because I was sick.


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We were on our way back from raiding the Cherethites in the Negeb, and had raided the south of Judah and the land of Caleb, and had burned Ziklag."


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"Can you tell me where they went?" David asked. The young man replied, "If you swear by God's name that you will not kill me or give me back to my master, then I will guide you to them."


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So he led them to the Amalekite encampment. They were spread out across the fields, eating and drinking and dancing with joy because of the vast amount of loot they had taken from the Philistines and from the men of Judah.


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David and his men rushed in among them and slaughtered them all that night and the entire next day until evening. No one escaped except four hundred young men who fled on camels.


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David got back everything they had taken. The men recovered their families and all of their belongings, and David rescued his two wives.


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His troops rounded up all the flocks and herds and drove them on ahead of them. "These are all yours personally, as your reward!" they told David.


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When they reached Besor Brook and the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to go on, David greeted them joyfully.


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But some of the ruffians among David's men declared, "They didn't go with us, so they can't have any of the loot. Give them their wives and their children and tell them to be gone."


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Do you think that anyone will listen to you when you talk like this? We share and share alike--those who go to battle and those who guard the equipment."


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When he arrived at Ziklag, he sent part of the loot to the elders of Judah. "Here is a present for you, taken from the Lord's enemies," he wrote them.


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The gifts were sent to the elders in the following cities where David and his men had been:  Bethel, South Ramoth, Jattir,


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Meanwhile the Philistines had begun the battle against Israel, and the Israelis fled from them and were slaughtered wholesale on Mount Gilboa.


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He groaned to his armor-bearer, "Kill me with your sword before these heathen Philistines capture me and torture me." But his armor-bearer was afraid to, so Saul took his own sword and fell upon the point of the blade, and it pierced him through.


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When the Israelis on the other side of the valley and beyond the Jordan heard that their comrades had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities; and the Philistines lived in them.


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The next day when the Philistines went out to strip the dead, they found the bodies of Saul and his three sons on Mount Gilboa.


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They cut off Saul's head and stripped off his armor and sent the wonderful news of Saul's death to their idols and to the people throughout their land.


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His armor was placed in the temple of Ashtaroth, and his body was fastened to the wall of Beth-shan.


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warriors from that town traveled all night to Beth-shan and took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall and brought them to Jabesh, where they cremated them.


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Three days later a man arrived from the Israeli army with his clothes torn and with dirt on his head as a sign of mourning. He fell to the ground before David in deep respect.


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"What happened?" David demanded. "Tell me how the battle went." And the man replied, "Our entire army fled. Thousands of men are dead and wounded on the field, and Saul and his son Jonathan have been killed."


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"Because I was on Mount Gilboa and saw Saul leaning against his spear with the enemy chariots closing in upon him.


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"So I killed him, for I knew he couldn't live. Then I took his crown and one of his bracelets to bring to you, my lord."


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They mourned and wept and fasted all day for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the Lord's people, and for the men of Israel who had died that day.


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Then David said to the young man who had brought the news, "Where are you from?" And he replied, "I am an Amalekite."


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"You die self-condemned," David said, "for you yourself confessed that you killed God's appointed king."


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Then David composed a dirge for Saul and Jonathan and afterward commanded that it be sung throughout Israel. It is quoted here from the book, Heroic Ballads.


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Don't tell the Philistines, lest they rejoice. Hide it from the cities of Gath and Ashkelon, Lest the heathen nations laugh in triumph.


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O Mount Gilboa, Let there be no dew nor rain upon you, Let no crops of grain grow on your slopes. For there the mighty Saul has died; He is God's appointed king no more.


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How much they were loved, how wonderful they were-- Both Saul and Jonathan! They were together in life and in death. They were swifter than eagles, stronger than lions.


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How I weep for you, my brother Jonathan; How much I loved you! And your love for me was deeper Than the love of women!


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David then asked the Lord, "Shall I move back to Judah?" And the Lord replied, "Yes." "Which city shall I go to?" And the Lord replied, "Hebron."


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Then the leaders of Judah came to David and crowned him king of the Judean confederacy. When David heard that the men of Jabesh-gilead had buried Saul,


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he sent them this message: "May the Lord bless you for being so loyal to your king and giving him a decent burial.


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May the Lord be loyal to you in return and reward you with many demonstrations of his love! And I too will be kind to you because of what you have done.


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And now I ask you to be my strong and loyal subjects, now that Saul is dead. Be like the tribe of Judah who have appointed me as their new king."


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His territory included Gilead, Ashuri, Jezreel, Ephraim, the tribe of Benjamin, and all the rest of Israel.


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meanwhile, David was reigning in Hebron and was king of the Judean confederacy for seven and one-half years.


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and General Joab (the son of Zeruiah) led David's troops out to meet them. They met at the pool of Gibeon, where they sat facing each other on opposite sides of the pool.


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Each one grabbed his opponent by the hair and thrust his sword into the other's side, so that all of them died. The place has been known ever since as Sword Field.


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The two armies then began to fight each other, and by the end of the day Abner and the men of Israel had been defeated by Joab and the forces of David.


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and he began chasing Abner. He wouldn't stop for anything, but kept on, singleminded, after Abner alone.


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When Abner looked behind and saw him coming, he called out to him, "Is that you, Asahel?" "Yes," he called back, "it is."


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Again Abner shouted to him, "Get away from here. I could never face your brother Joab if I have to kill you!"


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But he refused to turn away, so Abner pierced him through the belly with the butt end of his spear. It went right through his body and came out his back. He stumbled to the ground and died there, and everyone stopped when they came to the place where he lay.


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Now Joab and Abishai set out after Abner. The sun was just going down as they arrived at Ammah Hill near Giah, along the road into the Gibeon desert.


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and Abner shouted down to Joab, "Must our swords continue to kill each other forever? How long will it be before you call off your people from chasing their brothers?"


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Joab shouted back, "I swear by God that even if you hadn't spoken, we would all have gone home tomorrow morning."


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That night Abner and his men retreated across the Jordan Valley, crossed the river, and traveled all the next morning until they arrived at Mahanaim.


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Joab and the men who were with him returned home, too, and when he counted his casualties, he learned that only nineteen men were missing, in addition to Asahel.


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Joab and his men took Asahel's body to Bethlehem and buried him beside his father; then they traveled all night and reached Hebron at daybreak.


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That was the beginning of a long war between the followers of Saul and of David. David's position now became stronger and stronger, while Saul's dynasty became weaker and weaker.


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Several sons were born to David while he was at Hebron. The oldest was Amnon, born to his wife Ahinoam.


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His second son, Chileab, was born to Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. The third was Absalom, born to Maacah, the daughter of King Talmai of Geshur.


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He took advantage of his position by sleeping with one of Saul's concubines, a girl named Rizpah. But when Ish-bosheth accused Abner of this,


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Abner was furious. "Am I a Judean dog to be kicked around like this?" he shouted. "After all I have done for you and for your father by not betraying you to David, is this my reward--to find fault with me about some woman?


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May God curse me if I don't do everything I can to take away the entire kingdom from you, all the way from Dan to Beersheba, and give it to David, just as the Lord predicted."


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Then Abner sent messengers to David to discuss a deal--to surrender the kingdom of Israel to him in exchange for becoming commander-in-chief of the combined armies of Israel and Judah.


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"All right," David replied, "but I will not negotiate with you unless you bring me my wife Michal, Saul's daughter."


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David then sent this message to Ish-bosheth: "Give me back my wife Michal, for I bought her with the lives of one hundred Philistines."


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He followed along behind her as far as Behurim, weeping as he went. Then Abner told him, "Go on home now." So he returned.


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Meanwhile, Abner consulted with the leaders of Israel and reminded them that for a long time they had wanted David as their king.


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"Now is the time!" he told them. "For the Lord has said, 'It is David by whom I will save my people from the Philistines and from all their other enemies.' "


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Abner also talked to the leaders of the tribe of Benjamin; then he went to Hebron and reported to David his progress with the people of Israel and Benjamin.


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As Abner left, he promised David, "When I get back I will call a convention of all the people of Israel, and they will elect you as their king, as you've so long desired." So David let Abner return in safety.


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But just after Abner left, Joab and some of David's troops returned from a raid, bringing much loot with them.


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When Joab was told that Abner had just been there visiting the king and had been sent away in peace,


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Then Joab sent messengers to catch up with Abner and tell him to come back. They found him at the well of Sirah and he returned with them; but David knew nothing about it.


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When Abner arrived at Hebron, Joab took him aside at the city gate as if to speak with him privately; but then he pulled out a dagger and killed him in revenge for the death of his brother Asahel.


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When David heard about it he declared, "I vow by the Lord that I and my people are innocent of this crime against Abner.


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Joab and his family are the guilty ones. May each of his children be victims of cancer, or be lepers, or be sterile, or die of starvation, or be killed by the sword!"


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So Joab and his brother, Abishai, killed Abner because of the death of their brother, Asahel, at the battle of Gibeon.


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Then David said to Joab and to all those who were with him, "Go into deep mourning for Abner." And King David accompanied the bier to the cemetery.


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"Your hands were not bound, Your feet were not tied-- You were murdered-- The victim of a wicked plot." And all the people wept again for him.


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David had refused to eat anything the day of the funeral, and now everyone begged him to take a bite of supper. But David vowed that he would eat nothing until sundown.


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Thus the whole nation, both Judah and Israel, understood from David's actions that he was in no way responsible for Abner's death.


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and even though I am God's chosen king, I can do nothing with these two sons of Zeruiah. May the Lord repay wicked men for their wicked deeds."


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When King Ish-bosheth heard about Abner's death at Hebron, he was paralyzed with fear, and his people too were badly frightened.


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The command of the Israeli troops then fell to two brothers, Baanah and Rechab, who were captains of King Ish-bosheth's raiding bands. They were the sons of Rimmon, who was from Beeroth in Benjamin.


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(People from Beeroth are counted as Benjaminites even though they fled to Gittaim, where they now live.)


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(There was a little lame grandson of King Saul's named Mephibosheth, who was the son of Prince Jonathan. He was five years old at the time Saul and Jonathan were killed at the battle of Jezreel. When the news of the outcome of the battle reached the capital, the child's nurse grabbed him and fled, but she fell and dropped him as she was running, and he became lame.)


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but then sneaked into his bedroom and murdered him and cut off his head. Taking his head with them, they fled across the desert that night and escaped.


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They presented the head to David at Hebron. "Look!" they exclaimed. "Here is the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of your enemy Saul who tried to kill you. Today the Lord has given you revenge upon Saul and upon his entire family!"


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that when someone told me, 'Saul is dead,' thinking he was bringing me good news, I killed him; that is how I rewarded him for his 'glad tidings.'


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And how much more shall I do to wicked men who kill a good man in his own house and on his bed! Shall I not demand your lives?"


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So David ordered his young men to kill them, and they did. They cut off their hands and feet and hanged their bodies beside the pool in Hebron. And they took Ish-bosheth's head and buried it in Abner's tomb in Hebron.


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Representatives of all the tribes of Israel now came to David at Hebron and gave him their pledge of loyalty. "We are your blood brothers," they said.


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"And even when Saul was our king you were our real leader. The Lord has said that you should be the shepherd and leader of his people."


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So David made a contract before the Lord with the leaders of Israel there at Hebron, and they crowned him king of Israel.


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He then ruled thirty-three years in Jerusalem as king of both Israel and Judah; so he reigned for forty years altogether.)


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David now led his troops to Jerusalem to fight against the Jebusites who lived there. "You'll never come in here," they told him. "Even the blind and lame could keep you out!" For they thought they were safe.


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But David and his troops defeated them and captured the stronghold of Zion, now called the City of David.


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When the insulting message from the defenders of the city reached David, he told his troops, "Go up through the water tunnel into the city and destroy those 'lame' and 'blind' Jebusites. How I hate them." (That is the origin of the saying, "Even the blind and the lame could conquer you!")


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So David made the stronghold of Zion (also called the City of David) his headquarters. Then, beginning at the old Millo section of the city, he built northward toward the present city center.


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David now realized why the Lord had made him the king and blessed his kingdom so greatly--it was because God wanted to pour out his kindness on Israel, his chosen people.


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After moving from Hebron to Jerusalem, David married additional wives and concubines, and had many sons and daughters.


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When the Philistines heard that David had been crowned king of Israel, they tried to capture him; but David was told that they were coming and went into the stronghold.


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Then David asked the Lord, "Shall I go out and fight against them? Will you defeat them for me?" And the Lord replied, "Yes, go ahead, for I will give them to you."


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So David went out and fought with them at Baal-perazim and defeated them. "The Lord did it!" he exclaimed. "He burst through my enemies like a raging flood." So he named the place "Bursting."


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At that time David and his troops confiscated many idols that had been abandoned by the Philistines.


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When David asked the Lord what to do, he replied, "Don't make a frontal attack. Go behind them and come out by the balsam trees.


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When you hear a sound like marching feet in the tops of the balsam trees, attack! For it will signify that the Lord has prepared the way for you and will destroy them."


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So David did as the Lord had instructed him and destroyed the Philistines all the way from Geba to Gezer.


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Then David mobilized thirty thousand special troops and led them to Baal-judah to bring home the Ark of the Lord of heaven who is enthroned above the Guardian Angels.


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The Ark was placed upon a new cart and taken from the hillside home of Abinadab. It was driven by Abinadab's sons, Uzzah and Ahio.


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and was followed by David and the other leaders of Israel, who were joyously waving branches of juniper trees and playing every sort of musical instrument before the Lord--lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals.


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But when they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled and Uzzah put out his hand to steady the Ark.


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Then the anger of the Lord flared out against Uzzah and he killed him for doing this, so he died there beside the Ark.


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David was angry at what the Lord had done, and named the spot "The Place of Wrath upon Uzzah" (which it is still called to this day).


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So he decided against taking it into the City of David, but carried it instead to the home of Obed-edom, who had come from Gath.


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After the men who were carrying it had gone six paces, they stopped and waited so that he could sacrifice an ox and a fat lamb.


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(But as the procession came into the city, Michal, Saul's daughter, watched from a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she was filled with contempt for him.)


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The Ark was placed inside the tent that David had prepared for it; and he sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord.


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and gave a present to everyone--men and women alike--of a loaf of bread, some wine, and a cake of raisins. When it was all over, and everyone had gone home,


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David returned to bless his family. But Michal came out to meet him and exclaimed in disgust, "How glorious the king of Israel looked today! He exposed himself to the girls along the street like a common pervert!"


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David retorted, "I was dancing before the Lord who chose me above your father and his family and who appointed me as leader of Israel, the people of the Lord! So I am willing to act like a fool in order to show my joy in the Lord.


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Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, but I will be respected by the girls of whom you spoke!"


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When the Lord finally sent peace upon the land, and Israel was no longer at war with the surrounding nations,


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David said to Nathan the prophet, "Look! Here I am living in this beautiful cedar palace while the Ark of God is out in a tent!"


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For I have never lived in a temple. My home has been a tent ever since the time I brought Israel out of Egypt.


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And I have never once complained to Israel's leaders, the shepherds of my people. Have I ever asked them, 'Why haven't you built me a beautiful cedar temple?'


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"Now go and give this message to David from the Lord of heaven: 'I chose you to be the leader of my people Israel when you were a mere shepherd, tending your sheep in the pastureland.


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I have been with you wherever you have gone and have destroyed your enemies. And I will make your name greater yet, so that you will be one of the most famous men in the world!


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It will be their own land where the heathen nations won't bother them as they did when the judges ruled my people. There will be no more wars against you; and your descendants shall rule this land for generations to come!


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Then David went into the Tabernacle and sat before the Lord and prayed, "O Lord God, why have you showered your blessings on such an insignificant person as I am?


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And now, in addition to everything else, you speak of giving me an eternal dynasty! Such generosity is far beyond any human standard! O Lord God!


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How great you are, Lord God! We have never heard of any other god like you. And there is no other god.


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What other nation in all the earth has received such blessings as Israel, your people? For you have rescued your chosen nation in order to bring glory to your name. You have done great miracles to destroy Egypt and its gods.


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And may you be eternally honored when you have established Israel as your people and have established my dynasty before you.


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For you have revealed to me, O Lord of heaven, God of Israel, that I am the first of a dynasty which will rule your people forever; that is why I have been bold enough to pray this prayer of acceptance.


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so do as you have promised! Bless me and my family forever! May our dynasty continue on and on before you; for you, Lord God, have promised it."


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He also devastated the land of Moab. He divided his victims by making them lie down side by side in rows. Two-thirds of each row, as measured with a tape, were butchered, and one-third were spared to become David's servants--they paid him tribute each year.


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He also destroyed the forces of King Hadadezer (son of Rehob) of Zobah in a battle at the Euphrates River, for Hadadezer had attempted to regain his power.


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David captured seventeen hundred cavalry and twenty thousand infantry; then he lamed all of the chariot horses except for one hundred teams.


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David placed several army garrisons in Damascus, and the Syrians became David's subjects and brought him annual tribute money. So the Lord gave him victories wherever he turned.


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He also carried back to Jerusalem a very large amount of bronze from Hadadezer's cities of Betah and Berothai.


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he sent his son Joram to congratulate him, for Hadadezer and Toi were enemies. He gave David presents made from silver, gold, and bronze.


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David dedicated all of these to the Lord, along with the silver and gold he had taken from Syria, Moab, Ammon, the Philistines, Amalek, and King Hadadezer.


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So David became very famous. After his return he destroyed eighteen thousand Edomites at the Valley of Salt,


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and then placed garrisons throughout Edom, so that the entire nation was forced to pay tribute to Israel--another example of the way the Lord made him victorious wherever he went.


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The general of his army was Joab (son of Zeruiah), and his secretary of state was Jehoshaphat (son of Ahilud).


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Zadok (son of Ahitub) and Ahimelech (son of Abiathar) were the High Priests, and Seraiah was the king's private secretary.


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One day David began wondering if any of Saul's family was still living, for he wanted to be kind to them, as he had promised Prince Jonathan.


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He heard about a man named Ziba, who had been one of Saul's servants, and summoned him. "Are you Ziba?" the king asked. "Yes, sir, I am," he replied.


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The king then asked him, "Is anyone left from Saul's family? If so, I want to fulfill a sacred vow by being kind to him." "Yes," Ziba replied, "Jonathan's lame son is still alive."


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So King David sent for Mephibosheth--Jonathan's son and Saul's grandson. Mephibosheth arrived in great fear and greeted the king in deep humility, bowing low before him.


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But David said, "Don't be afraid! I've asked you to come so that I can be kind to you because of my vow to your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land of your grandfather Saul, and you shall live here at the palace!"


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Mephibosheth fell to the ground before the king. "Should the king show kindness to a dead dog like me?" he exclaimed.


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Then the king summoned Saul's servant Ziba. "I have given your master's grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family," he said.


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"You and your sons and servants are to farm the land for him, to produce food for his family; but he will live here with me."


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Ziba, who had fifteen sons and twenty servants, replied, "Sir, I will do all you have commanded." And from that time on, Mephibosheth ate regularly with King David, as though he were one of his own sons.


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"I am going to show special respect for him," David said, "because his father Nahash was always so loyal and kind to me." So David sent ambassadors to express regrets to Hanun about his father's death.


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But Hanun's officers told him, "These men aren't here to honor your father! David has sent them to spy out the city before attacking it!"


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So Hanun took David's men and shaved off half their beards and cut their robes off at the buttocks and sent them home half naked.


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When David heard what had happened he told them to stay at Jericho until their beards grew out; for the men were very embarrassed over their appearance.


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Now the people of Ammon realized how seriously they had angered David, so they hired twenty thousand Syrian mercenaries from the lands of Rehob and Zobah, one thousand from the king of Maacah, and ten thousand from the land of Tob.


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The Ammonites defended the gates of their city while the Syrians from Zobah, Rehob, Tob, and Maacah fought in the fields.


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When Joab realized that he would have to fight on two fronts, he selected the best fighters in his army, placed them under his personal command, and took them out to fight the Syrians in the fields.


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"If I need assistance against the Syrians, come out and help me," Joab instructed him. "And if the Ammonites are too strong for you, I will come and help you.


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Courage! We must really act like men today if we are going to save our people and the cities of our God. May the Lord's will be done."


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Then, when the Ammonites saw the Syrians running, they ran too, and retreated into the city. Afterwards Joab returned to Jerusalem.


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they were joined by additional Syrian troops summoned by Hadadezer from the other side of the Euphrates River. These troops arrived at Helam under the command of Shobach, the commander-in-chief of all of Hadadezer's forces.


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When David heard what was happening, he personally led the Israeli army to Helam, where the Syrians attacked him.


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But again the Syrians fled from the Israelis, this time leaving seven hundred charioteers dead on the field, also forty thousand cavalrymen, including General Shobach.


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When Hadadezer's allies saw that the Syrians had been defeated, they surrendered to David and became his servants. And the Syrians were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore after that.


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In the spring of the following year, at the time when wars begin, David sent Joab and the Israeli army to destroy the Ammonites. They began by laying siege to the city of Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem.


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One night he couldn't get to sleep and went for a stroll on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking her evening bath.


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He sent to find out who she was and was told that she was Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah.


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Then David sent for her and when she came he slept with her. (She had just completed the purification rites after menstruation.) Then she returned home.


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When he arrived, David asked him how Joab and the army were getting along and how the war was prospering.


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But Uriah didn't go there. He stayed that night at the gateway of the palace with the other servants of the king.


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When David heard what Uriah had done, he summoned him and asked him, "What's the matter with you? Why didn't you go home to your wife last night after being away for so long?"


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Uriah replied, "The Ark and the armies and the general and his officers are camping out in open fields, and should I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife? I swear that I will never be guilty of acting like that."


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"Well, stay here tonight," David told him, "and tomorrow you may return to the army." So Uriah stayed around the palace.


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David invited him to dinner and got him drunk; but even so he didn't go home that night, but again he slept at the entry to the palace.


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The letter instructed Joab to put Uriah at the front of the hottest part of the battle--and then pull back and leave him there to die!


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So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the besieged city where he knew that the enemies' best men were fighting;


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"If the king is angry and asks, 'Why did the troops go so close to the city? Didn't they know there would be shooting from the walls?


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Wasn't Abimelech killed at Thebez by a woman who threw down a millstone on him?'--then tell him, 'Uriah was killed too.' "


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the men on the wall attacked us; and some of our men were killed, and Uriah the Hittite is dead too."


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"Well, tell Joab not to be discouraged," David said. "The sword kills one as well as another! Fight harder next time, and conquer the city; tell him he is doing well."


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then, when the period of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to the palace and she became one of his wives; and she gave birth to his son. But the Lord was very displeased with what David had done.


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So the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to tell David this story: "There were two men in a certain city, one very rich, owning many flocks of sheep and herds of goats;


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and the other very poor, owning nothing but a little lamb he had managed to buy. It was his children's pet, and he fed it from his own plate and let it drink from his own cup; he cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter.


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Recently a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing a lamb from his own flocks for food for the traveler, he took the poor man's lamb and roasted it and served it."


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David was furious. "I swear by the living God," he vowed, "any man who would do a thing like that should be put to death;


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Then Nathan said to David, "You are that rich man! The Lord God of Israel says, 'I made you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul.


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I gave you his palace and his wives and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah; and if that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more.


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Why, then, have you despised the laws of God and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah and stolen his wife.


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Therefore murder shall be a constant threat in your family from this time on because you have insulted me by taking Uriah's wife.


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I vow that because of what you have done, I will cause your own household to rebel against you. I will give your wives to another man, and he will go to bed with them in public view.


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"I have sinned against the Lord," David confessed to Nathan. Then Nathan replied, "Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and you won't die for this sin.


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But you have given great opportunity to the enemies of the Lord to despise and blaspheme him, so your child shall die."


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David begged him to spare the child and went without food, and lay all night before the Lord on the bare earth.


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Then, on the seventh day, the baby died. David's aides were afraid to tell him. "He was so broken up about the baby being sick," they said, "what will he do to himself when we tell him the child is dead?"


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But when David saw them whispering, he realized what had happened. "Is the baby dead?" he asked. "Yes," they replied, "he is."


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Then David got up off the ground, washed himself, brushed his hair, changed his clothes, and went into the Tabernacle and worshiped the Lord. Then he returned to the palace and ate.


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His aides were amazed. "We don't understand you," they told him. "While the baby was still living, you wept and refused to eat; but now that the baby is dead, you have stopped your mourning and are eating again."


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David replied, "I fasted and wept while the child was alive, for I said, 'Perhaps the Lord will be gracious to me and let the child live.'


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But why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me."


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Then David comforted Bathsheba; and when he slept with her, she conceived and gave birth to a son and named him Solomon. And the Lord loved the baby,


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and sent congratulations and blessings through Nathan the prophet. David nicknamed the baby Jedidiah (meaning, "Beloved of Jehovah") because of the Lord's interest.


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Meanwhile Joab and the Israeli army were successfully ending their siege of Rabbah the capital of Ammon.


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Now bring the rest of the army and finish the job, so that you will get the credit for the victory instead of me."


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So David led his army to Rabbah and captured it. Tremendous amounts of loot were carried back to Jerusalem,


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and David took the king of Rabbah's crown--a $50,000 treasure made from solid gold set with gems--and placed it on his own head.


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He made slaves of the people of the city and made them labor with saws, picks, and axes and work in the brick kilns; that is the way he treated all of the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and the army returned to Jerusalem.


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Prince Absalom, David's son, had a beautiful sister named Tamar. And Prince Amnon (her half brother) fell desperately in love with her.


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Amnon became so tormented by his love for her that he became ill. He had no way of talking to her, for the girls and young men were kept strictly apart.


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One day Jonadab said to Amnon, "What's the trouble? Why should the son of a king look so haggard morning after morning?" So Amnon told him, "I am in love with Tamar, my half sister."


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"Well," Jonadab said, "I'll tell you what to do. Go back to bed and pretend you are sick; when your father comes to see you, ask him to let Tamar come and prepare some food for you. Tell him you'll feel better if she feeds you."


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So Amnon did. And when the king came to see him, Amnon asked him for this favor--that his sister Tamar be permitted to come and cook a little something for him to eat.


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So she did and went into his bedroom so that he could watch her mix some dough; then she baked some special bread for him.


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But when she set the serving tray before him, he refused to eat! "Everyone get out of here," he told his servants; so they all left the apartment.


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Then he said to Tamar, "Now bring me the food again here in my bedroom and feed it to me." So Tamar took it to him.


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But as she was standing there before him, he grabbed her and demanded, "Come to bed with me, my darling."


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"Oh, Amnon," she cried. "Don't be foolish! Don't do this to me! You know what a serious crime it is in Israel.


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Where could I go in my shame? And you would be called one of the greatest fools in Israel. Please, just speak to the king about it, for he will let you marry me."


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Then suddenly his love turned to hate, and now he hated her more than he had loved her. "Get out of here!" he snarled at her.


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"No, no!" she cried. "To reject me now is a greater crime than the other you did to me." But he wouldn't listen to her.


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So he put her out. She was wearing a long robe with sleeves, as was the custom in those days for virgin daughters of the king.


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Her brother Absalom asked her, "Is it true that Amnon raped you? Don't be so upset, since it's all in the family anyway. It's not anything to worry about!" So Tamar lived as a desolate woman in her brother Absalom's quarters.


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but Absalom said nothing one way or the other about this to Amnon. However, he hated him with a deep hatred because of what he had done to his sister.


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The king replied, "No, my boy; if we all came, we would be too much of a burden on you." Absalom pressed him, but he wouldn't come, though he sent his thanks.


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"Well, then," Absalom said, "if you can't come, how about sending my brother Amnon instead?" "Why Amnon?" the king asked.


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Absalom kept on urging the matter until finally the king agreed and let all of his sons attend, including Amnon.


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Absalom told his men, "Wait until Amnon gets drunk, then, at my signal, kill him! Don't be afraid. I'm the one who gives the orders around here, and this is a command. Take courage and do it!"


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As they were on the way back to Jerusalem, the report reached David: "Absalom has killed all of your sons, and not one is left alive!"


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The king jumped up, ripped off his robe, and fell prostrate to the ground. His aides also tore their clothes in horror and sorrow.


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But just then Jonadab (the son of David's brother Shimeah) arrived and said, "No, not all have been killed! It was only Amnon! Absalom has been plotting this ever since Amnon raped Tamar.


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Meanwhile Absalom escaped. Now the watchman on the Jerusalem wall saw a great crowd coming toward the city along the road at the side of the hill.


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Meanwhile David, now reconciled to Amnon's death, longed day after day for fellowship with his son Absalom.


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he sent for a woman of Tekoa who had a reputation for great wisdom and told her to ask for an appointment with the king.


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He told her what to say to him. "Pretend you are in mourning," Joab instructed her. "Wear mourning clothes, and dishevel your hair as though you have been in deep sorrow for a long time."


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When the woman approached the king, she fell face downward on the floor in front of him, and cried out, "O king! Help me!"


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"and my two sons had a fight out in the field, and since no one was there to part them, one of them was killed.


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Now the rest of the family is demanding that I surrender my other son to them to be executed for murdering his brother. But if I do that, I will have no one left, and my husband's name will be destroyed from the face of the earth."


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"Oh, thank you, my lord," she replied. "And I'll take the responsibility if you are criticized for helping me like this."


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"Don't worry about that!" the king replied. "If anyone objects, bring him to me; I can assure you he will never complain again!"


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Then she said, "Please swear to me by God that you won't let anyone harm my son. I want no more bloodshed." "I vow by God," he replied, "that not a hair of your son's head shall be disturbed!"


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"Why don't you do as much for all the people of God as you have promised to do for me?" she asked. "You have convicted yourself in making this decision, because you have refused to bring home your own banished son.


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All of us must die eventually; our lives are like water that is poured out on the ground--it can't be gathered up again. But God will bless you with a longer life if you will find a way to bring your son back from his exile.


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But I have come to plead with you for my son because my life and my son's life have been threatened, and I said to myself,


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Yes, the king will give us peace again.' I know that you are like the angel of God and can discern good from evil. May God be with you."


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"Did Joab send you here?" And the woman replied, "How can I deny it? Yes, Joab sent me and told me what to say.


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He did it in order to place the matter before you in a different light. But you are as wise as an angel of God, and you know everything that happens!"


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Joab fell to the ground before the king and blessed him and said, "At last I know that you like me! For you have granted me this request!"


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"He may go to his own quarters," the king ordered, "but he must never come here. I refuse to see him."


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Now no one in Israel was such a handsome specimen of manhood as Absalom, and no one else received such praise.


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He cut his hair only once a year--and then only because it weighed three pounds and was too much of a load to carry around!


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he sent for Joab to ask him to intercede for him; but Joab wouldn't come. Absalom sent for him again, but again he refused to come.


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So Absalom said to his servants, "Go and set fire to that barley field of Joab's next to mine," and they did.


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And Absalom replied, "Because I wanted you to ask the king why he brought me back from Geshur if he didn't intend to see me. I might as well have stayed there. Let me have an interview with the king; then if he finds that I am guilty of murder, let him execute me."


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So Joab told the king what Absalom had said. Then at last David summoned Absalom, and he came and bowed low before the king, and David kissed him.


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Absalom then bought a magnificent chariot and chariot horses, and hired fifty footmen to run ahead of him.


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He got up early every morning and went out to the gate of the city; and when anyone came to bring a case to the king for trial, Absalom called him over and expressed interest in his problem.


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He would say, "I can see that you are right in this matter; it's unfortunate that the king doesn't have anyone to assist him in hearing these cases.


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I surely wish I were the judge; then anyone with a lawsuit could come to me, and I would give him justice!"


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After four years, Absalom said to the king, "Let me go to Hebron to sacrifice to the Lord in fulfillment of a vow I made to him


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But while he was there, he sent spies to every part of Israel to incite rebellion against the king. "As soon as you hear the trumpets," his message read, "you will know that Absalom has been crowned in Hebron."


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While he was offering the sacrifice, he sent for Ahithophel, one of David's counselors who lived in Giloh. Ahithophel declared for Absalom, as did more and more others. So the conspiracy became very strong.


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A messenger soon arrived in Jerusalem to tell King David, "All Israel has joined Absalom in a conspiracy against you!"


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"Then we must flee at once or it will be too late!" was David's instant response to his men. "If we get out of the city before he arrives, both we and the city of Jerusalem will be saved."


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So the king and his household set out at once. He left no one behind except ten of his young wives to keep the palace in order.


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David paused at the edge of the city to let his troops move past him to lead the way--six hundred Gittites who had come with him from Gath, and the Cherethites and Pelethites.


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But suddenly the king turned to Ittai, the captain of the six hundred Gittites, and said to him, "What are you doing here? Go on back with your men to Jerusalem, to your king, for you are a guest in Israel, a foreigner in exile.


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It seems but yesterday that you arrived, and now today should I force you to wander with us, who knows where? Go on back and take your troops with you, and may the Lord be merciful to you."


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But Ittai replied, "I vow by God and by your own life that wherever you go, I will go, no matter what happens--whether it means life or death."


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So David replied, "All right, come with us." Then Ittai and his six hundred men and their families went along.


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There was deep sadness throughout the city as the king and his retinue passed by, crossed Kidron Brook, and went out into the country.


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Abiathar and Zadok and the Levites took the Ark of the Covenant of God and set it down beside the road until everyone had passed.


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Then, following David's instructions, Zadok took the Ark back into the city. "If the Lord sees fit," David said, "he will bring me back to see the Ark and the Tabernacle again.


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Then the king told Zadok, "Look, here is my plan. Return quietly to the city with your son Ahimaaz and Abiathar's son Jonathan.


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I will stop at the ford of the Jordan River and wait there for a message from you. Let me know what happens in Jerusalem before I disappear into the wilderness."


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David walked up the road that led to the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went. His head was covered and his feet were bare as a sign of mourning. And the people who were with him covered their heads and wept as they climbed the mountain.


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When someone told David that Ahithophel, his advisor, was backing Absalom, David prayed, "O Lord, please make Ahithophel give Absalom foolish advice!"


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As they reached the spot at the top of the Mount of Olives where people worshiped God, David found Hushai the Archite waiting for him with torn clothing and earth upon his head.


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return to Jerusalem and tell Absalom, 'I will counsel you as I did your father.' Then you can frustrate and counter Ahithophel's advice.


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David was just past the top of the hill when Ziba, the manager of Mephibosheth's household, caught up with him. He was leading two donkeys loaded with two hundred loaves of bread, one hundred clusters of raisins, one hundred bunches of grapes, and a small barrel of wine.


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"What are these for?" the king asked Ziba. And Ziba replied, "The donkeys are for your people to ride on, and the bread and summer fruit are for the young men to eat; the wine is to be taken with you into the wilderness for any who become faint."


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"And where is Mephibosheth?" the king asked him. "He stayed at Jerusalem," Ziba replied. "He said, 'Now I'll get to be king! Today I will get back the kingdom of my father, Saul.' "


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"In that case," the king told Ziba, "I give you everything he owns." "Thank you, thank you, sir," Ziba replied.


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As David and his party passed Bahurim, a man came out of the village cursing them. It was Shimei, the son of Gera, a member of Saul's family.


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He threw stones at the king and the king's officers and all the mighty warriors who surrounded them!


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"The Lord is paying you back for murdering King Saul and his family; you stole his throne and now the Lord has given it to your son Absalom! At last you will taste some of your own medicine, you murderer!"


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"Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king?" Abishai demanded. "Let me go over and strike off his head!"


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My own son is trying to kill me, and this Benjaminite is merely cursing me. Let him alone, for no doubt the Lord has told him to do it.


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So David and his men continued on, and Shimei kept pace with them on a nearby hillside, cursing as he went and throwing stones at David and tossing dust into the air.


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The king and all those who were with him were weary by the time they reached Bahurim, so they stayed there awhile and rested.


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When David's friend, Hushai the Archite, arrived, he went immediately to see Absalom. "Long live the king!" he exclaimed. "Long live the king!"


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Ahithophel told him, "Go and sleep with your father's wives, for he has left them here to keep the house. Then all Israel will know that you have insulted him beyond the possibility of reconciliation, and they will all close ranks behind you."


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So a tent was erected on the roof of the palace where everybody could see it, and Absalom went into the tent to lie with his father's wives.


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(Absalom did whatever Ahithophel told him to, just as David had; for every word Ahithophel spoke seemed as wise as though it had come directly from the mouth of God.)


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I will come upon him while he is weary and discouraged, and he and his troops will be thrown into a panic and everyone will run away;


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When Hushai arrived, Absalom told him what Ahithophel had said. "What is your opinion?" Absalom asked him. "Should we follow Ahithophel's advice? If not, speak up."


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You know your father and his men; they are mighty warriors and are probably as upset as a mother bear who has been robbed of her cubs. And your father is an old soldier and isn't going to be spending the night among the troops;


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he has probably already hidden in some pit or cave. And when he comes out and attacks and a few of your men fall, there will be panic among your troops and everyone will start shouting that your men are being slaughtered.


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Then even the bravest of them, though they have hearts of lions, will be paralyzed with fear; for all Israel knows what a mighty man your father is and how courageous his soldiers are.


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"What I suggest is that you mobilize the entire army of Israel, bringing them from as far away as Dan and Beersheba, so that you will have a huge force. And I think that you should personally lead the troops.


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And if David has escaped into some city, you will have the entire army of Israel there at your command, and we can take ropes and drag the walls of the city into the nearest valley until every stone is torn down."


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Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, "Hushai's advice is better than Ahithophel's." For the Lord had arranged to defeat the counsel of Ahithophel, which really was the better plan, so that he could bring disaster upon Absalom!


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Then Hushai reported to Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, what Ahithophel had said and what he himself had suggested instead.


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"Quick!" he told them. "Find David and urge him not to stay at the ford of the Jordan River tonight. He must go across at once into the wilderness beyond; otherwise he will die, and his entire army with him."


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Jonathan and Ahimaaz had been staying at En-rogel so as not to be seen entering and leaving the city. Arrangements had been made for a servant girl to carry to them the messages they were to take to King David.


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But a boy saw them leaving En-rogel to go to David, and he told Absalom about it. Meanwhile, they escaped to Bahurim where a man hid them inside a well in his backyard.


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The man's wife put a cloth over the top of the well with grain on it to dry in the sun; so no one suspected they were there.


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When Absalom's men arrived and asked her if she had seen Ahimaaz and Jonathan, she said they had crossed the brook and were gone. They looked for them without success and returned to Jerusalem.


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Then the two men crawled out of the well and hurried on to King David. "Quick!" they told him, "cross the Jordan tonight!" And they told him how Ahithophel had advised that he be captured and killed.


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So David and all the people with him went across during the night and were all on the other bank before dawn.


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Meanwhile, Ahithophel--publicly disgraced when Absalom refused his advice--saddled his donkey, went to his hometown, set his affairs in order, and hanged himself; so he died and was buried beside his father.


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David soon arrived at Mahanaim. Meanwhile, Absalom had mobilized the entire army of Israel and was leading the men across the Jordan River.


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Absalom had appointed Amasa as general of the army, replacing Joab. (Amasa was Joab's second cousin; his father was Ithra, an Ishmaelite, and his mother was Abigail, the daughter of Nahash, who was the sister of Joab's mother, Zeruiah.)


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When David arrived at Mahanaim, he was warmly greeted by Shobi (son of Nahash of Rabbah, an Ammonite) and Machir (son of Ammiel of Lodebar) and Barzillai (a Gileadite of Rogelim).


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They brought him and those who were with him mats to sleep on, cooking pots, serving bowls, wheat and barley flour, parched grain, beans, lentils,


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honey, butter, and cheese. For they said, "You must be very tired and hungry and thirsty after your long march through the wilderness."


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A third were placed under Joab's brother, Abishai (the son of Zeruiah); and a third under Ittai, the Gittite. The king planned to lead the army himself, but his men objected strongly.


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"You mustn't do it," they said, "for if we have to turn and run, and half of us die, it will make no difference to them--they will be looking only for you. You are worth ten thousand of us, and it is better that you stay here in the city and send us help if we need it."


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"Well, whatever you think best," the king finally replied. So he stood at the gate of the city as all the troops passed by.


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And the king commanded Joab, Abishai, and Ittai, "For my sake, deal gently with young Absalom." And all the troops heard the king give them this charge.


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and the Israeli troops were beaten back by David's men. There was a great slaughter and twenty thousand men laid down their lives that day.


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The battle raged all across the countryside, and more men disappeared in the forest than were killed.


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During the battle Absalom came upon some of David's men and as he fled on his mule, it went beneath the thick boughs of a great oak tree, and his hair caught in the branches. His mule went on, leaving him dangling in the air.


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"What? You saw him there and didn't kill him?" Joab demanded. "I would have rewarded you handsomely and made you a commissioned officer."


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"For a million dollars I wouldn't do it," the man replied. "We all heard the king say to you and Abishai and Ittai, 'For my sake, please don't harm young Absalom.'


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And if I had betrayed the king by killing his son (and the king would certainly find out who did it), you yourself would be the first to accuse me."


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"Enough of this nonsense," Joab said. Then he took three daggers and plunged them into the heart of Absalom as he dangled alive from the oak.


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They threw Absalom's body into a deep pit in the forest and piled a great heap of stones over it. And the army of Israel fled to their homes.


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(Absalom had built a monument to himself in the King's Valley, for he said, "I have no sons to carry on my name." He called it "Absalom's Monument," as it is still known today.)


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Then Zadok's son Ahimaaz said, "Let me run to King David with the good news that the Lord has saved him from his enemy Absalom."


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"No," Joab told him, "it wouldn't be good news to the king that his son is dead. You can be my messenger some other time."


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Then Joab said to a man from Cush, "Go tell the king what you have seen." The man bowed and ran off.


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But Ahimaaz pleaded with Joab, "Please let me go too." "No, we don't need you now, my boy." Joab replied. "There is no further news to send."


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"Yes, but let me go anyway," he begged. And Joab finally said, "All right, go ahead." Then Ahimaaz took a shortcut across the plain and got there ahead of the man from Cush.


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David was sitting at the gate of the city. When the watchman climbed the stairs to his post at the top of the wall, he saw a lone man running toward them.


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He shouted the news down to David, and the king replied, "If he is alone, he has news." As the messenger came closer,


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the watchman saw another man running toward them. He shouted down, "Here comes another one." And the king replied, "He will have more news."


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"The first man looks like Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok," the watchman said. "He is a good man and comes with good news," the king replied.


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Then Ahimaaz cried out to the king, "All is well!" He bowed low with his face to the ground and said, "Blessed be the Lord your God who has destroyed the rebels who dared to stand against you."


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"What of young Absalom?" the king demanded. "Is he all right?" "When Joab told me to come, there was a lot of shouting; but I didn't know what was happening," Ahimaaz answered.


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Then the man from Cush arrived and said, "I have good news for my lord the king. Today Jehovah has rescued you from all those who rebelled against you."


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"What about young Absalom? Is he all right?" the king demanded. And the man replied, "May all of your enemies be as that young man is!"


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Then the king broke into tears, and went up to his room over the gate, crying as he went. "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom. If only I could have died for you! O Absalom, my son, my son."


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As the people heard of the king's deep grief for his son, the joy of that day's wonderful victory was turned into deep sadness.


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The king covered his face with his hands and kept on weeping, "O my son Absalom! O Absalom my son, my son!"


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Then Joab went to the king's room and said to him, "We saved your life today and the lives of your sons, your daughters, your wives, and concubines; and yet you act like this, making us feel ashamed, as though we had done something wrong.


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You seem to love those who hate you, and hate those who love you. Apparently we don't mean anything to you; if Absalom had lived and all of us had died, you would be happy.


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Now go out there and congratulate the troops, for I swear by Jehovah that if you don't, not a single one of them will remain here during the night; then you will be worse off than you have ever been in your entire life."


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So the king went out and sat at the city gates, and as the news spread throughout the city that he was there, everyone went to him.


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Meanwhile, there was much discussion and argument going on all across the nation: "Why aren't we talking about bringing the king back?" was the great topic everywhere. "For he saved us from our enemies, the Philistines;


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and Absalom, whom we made our king instead, chased him out of the country, but now Absalom is dead. Let's ask David to return and be our king again."


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Then David sent Zadok and Abiathar the priests to say to the elders of Judah, "Why are you the last ones to reinstate the king? For all Israel is ready, and only you are holding out.


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And he told them to tell Amasa, "Since you are my nephew, may God strike me dead if I do not appoint you as commander-in-chief of my army in place of Joab."


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Then Amasa convinced all the leaders of Judah, and they responded as one man. They sent word to the king, "Return to us and bring back all those who are with you."


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So the king started back to Jerusalem. And when he arrived at the Jordan River, it seemed as if everyone in Judah had come to Gilgal to meet him and escort him across the river!


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Then Shimei (the son of Gera the Benjaminite), the man from Bahurim, hurried across with the men of Judah to welcome King David.


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A thousand men from the tribe of Benjamin were with him, including Ziba, the servant of Saul, and Ziba's fifteen sons and twenty servants; they rushed down to the Jordan to arrive ahead of the king.


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They all worked hard ferrying the king's household and troops across, and helped them in every way they could. As the king was crossing, Shimei fell down before him,


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and pleaded, "My lord the king, please forgive me and forget the terrible thing I did when you left Jerusalem;


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for I know very well how much I sinned. That is why I have come here today, the very first person in all the tribe of Joseph to greet you."


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"Don't talk to me like that!" David exclaimed. "This is not a day for execution but for celebration! I am once more king of Israel!"


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Now Mephibosheth, Saul's grandson, arrived from Jerusalem to meet the king. He had not washed his feet or clothes nor trimmed his beard since the day the king left Jerusalem.


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And he replied, "My lord, O king, my servant Ziba deceived me. I told him, 'Saddle my donkey so that I can go with the king.' For as you know I am lame.


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But Ziba has slandered me by saying that I refused to come. But I know that you are as an angel of God, so do what you think best.


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I and all my relatives could expect only death from you, but instead you have honored me among all those who eat at your own table! So how can I complain?"


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"All right," David replied. "My decision is that you and Ziba will divide the land equally between you."


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Barzillai, who had fed the king and his army during their exile in Mahanaim, arrived from Rogelim to conduct the king across the river.


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"Come across with me and live in Jerusalem," the king said to Barzillai. "I will take care of you there."


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I am eighty years old today, and life has lost its excitement. Food and wine are no longer tasty, and entertainment is not much fun; I would only be a burden to my lord the king.


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Then let me return again to die in my own city, where my father and mother are buried. But here is Chimham. Let him go with you and receive whatever good things you want to give him."


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"Good," the king agreed. "Chimham shall go with me, and I will do for him whatever I would have done for you."


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So all the people crossed the Jordan with the king; and after David had kissed and blessed Barzillai, he returned home.


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The king then went on to Gilgal, taking Chimham with him. And most of Judah and half of Israel were there to greet him.


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But the men of Israel complained to the king because only men from Judah had ferried him and his household across the Jordan.


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"Why not?" the men of Judah replied. "The king is one of our own tribe. Why should this make you angry? We have charged him nothing--he hasn't fed us or given us gifts!"


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"But there are ten tribes in Israel," the others replied, "so we have ten times as much right in the king as you do; why didn't you invite the rest of us? And, remember, we were the first to speak of bringing him back to be our king again." The argument continued back and forth, and the men of Judah were very rough in their replies.


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Then a hothead whose name was Sheba (son of Bichri, a Benjaminite) blew a trumpet and yelled, "We want nothing to do with David. Come on, you men of Israel, let's get out of here. He's not our king!"


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So all except Judah and Benjamin turned around and deserted David and followed Sheba! But the men of Judah stayed with their king, accompanying him from the Jordan to Jerusalem.


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When he arrived at his palace in Jerusalem, the king instructed that his ten wives he had left to keep house should be placed in seclusion. Their needs were to be cared for, he said, but he would no longer sleep with them as his wives. So they remained in virtual widowhood until their deaths.


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Then the king instructed Amasa to mobilize the army of Judah within three days and to report back at that time.


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So Amasa went out to notify the troops, but it took him longer than the three days he had been given.


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Then David said to Abishai, "That fellow Sheba is going to hurt us more than Absalom did. Quick, take my bodyguard and chase after him before he gets into a fortified city where we can't reach him."


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So Abishai and Joab set out after Sheba with an elite guard from Joab's army and the king's own bodyguard.


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As they arrived at the great stone in Gibeon, they came face to face with Amasa. Joab was wearing his uniform with a dagger strapped to his side. As he stepped forward to greet Amasa, he stealthily slipped the dagger from its sheath.


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"I'm glad to see you, my brother," Joab said, and took him by the beard with his right hand as though to kiss him.


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Amasa didn't notice the dagger in his left hand, and Joab stabbed him in the stomach with it, so that his bowels gushed out onto the ground. He did not need to strike again, and he died there. Joab and his brother, Abishai, left him lying there and continued after Sheba.


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One of Joab's young officers shouted to Amasa's troops, "If you are for David, come and follow Joab."


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But Amasa lay in his blood in the middle of the road, and when Joab's young officers saw that a crowd was gathering around to stare at him, they dragged him off the road into a field and threw a garment over him.


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Meanwhile Sheba had traveled across Israel to mobilize his own clan of Bichri at the city of Abel in Beth-maacah.


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When Joab's forces arrived, they besieged Abel and built a mound to the top of the city wall and began battering it down.


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But a wise woman in the city called out to Joab, "Listen to me, Joab. Come over here so I can talk to you."


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So she told him, "There used to be a saying, 'If you want to settle an argument, ask advice at Abel.' For we always give wise counsel.


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You are destroying an ancient, peace-loving city, loyal to Israel. Should you destroy what is the Lord's?"


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All I want is a man named Sheba from the hill country of Ephraim, who has revolted against King David. If you will deliver him to me, we will leave the city in peace." "All right," the woman replied, "we will throw his head over the wall to you."


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Then the woman went to the people with her wise advice, and they cut off Sheba's head and threw it out to Joab. And he blew the trumpet and called his troops back from the attack, and they returned to the king at Jerusalem.


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Adoram was in charge of the forced labor battalions, and Jehoshaphat was the historian who kept the records.


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There was a famine during David's reign that lasted year after year for three years, and David spent much time in prayer about it. Then the Lord said, "The famine is because of the guilt of Saul and his family, for they murdered the Gibeonites."


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So King David summoned the Gibeonites. They were not part of Israel but were what was left of the nation of the Amorites. Israel had sworn not to kill them; but Saul, in his nationalistic zeal, had tried to wipe them out.


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David asked them, "What can I do for you to rid ourselves of this guilt and to induce you to ask God to bless us?"


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"Well, money won't do it," the Gibeonites replied, "and we don't want to see Israelites executed in revenge." "What can I do, then?" David asked. "Just tell me and I will do it for you."


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the sons of the man who did his best to destroy us. We will hang them before the Lord in Gibeon, the city of King Saul." "All right," the king said, "I will do it."


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He spared Jonathan's son Mephibosheth, who was Saul's grandson, because of the oath between himself and Jonathan.


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But he gave them Saul's two sons Armoni and Mephibosheth, whose mother was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah. He also gave them the five adopted sons of Michal that she brought up for Saul's daughter Merab, the wife of Adriel.


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The men of Gibeon impaled them in the mountain before the Lord. So all seven of them died together at the beginning of the barley harvest.


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Then Rizpah, the mother of two of the men, spread sackcloth upon a rock and stayed there through the entire harvest season to prevent the vultures from tearing at their bodies during the day and the wild animals from eating them at night.


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he arranged for the men's bones to be buried in the grave of Saul's father, Kish. At the same time he sent a request to the men of Jabesh-gilead, asking them to bring him the bones of Saul and Jonathan.


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They had stolen their bodies from the public square at Beth-shan where the Philistines had impaled them after they had died in battle on Mount Gilboa.


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Once when the Philistines were at war with Israel, and David and his men were in the thick of the battle, David became weak and exhausted.


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Ishbi-benob, a giant whose speartip weighed more than twelve pounds and who was sporting a new suit of armor, closed in on David and was about to kill him.


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But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, came to his rescue and killed the Philistine. After that David's men declared, "You are not going out to battle again! Why should we risk snuffing out the light of Israel?"


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Later, during a war with the Philistines at Gob, Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, another giant.


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At still another time and at the same place, Elhanan killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spearhandle was as huge as a weaver's beam!


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And once when the Philistines and the Israelis were fighting at Gath, a giant with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot defied Israel,


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I will hide in God, Who is my rock and my refuge. He is my shield And my salvation, My refuge and high tower. Thank you, O my Savior, For saving me from all my enemies.


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But I called upon the Lord in my distress, And he heard me from his Temple. My cry reached his ears.


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Smoke poured from his nostrils; Fire leaped from his mouth And burned up all before him, Setting fire to the world.


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He saved me from powerful enemies, From those who hated me And from those who were too strong for me.


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For you have given me strength for the battle And have caused me to subdue All those who rose against me.


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You have preserved me From the rebels of my people; You have preserved me As the head of the nations. Foreigners shall serve me


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And rescues me from my enemies. Yes, you hold me safe above their heads. You deliver me from violence.


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He gives wonderful deliverance to his king And shows mercy to his anointed-- To David and his family, Forever."


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These are the last words of David: "David, the son of Jesse, speaks. David, the man to whom God gave such wonderful success; David, the anointed of the God of Jacob; David, sweet psalmist of Israel:


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He shall be as the light of the morning; A cloudless sunrise When the tender grass Springs forth upon the earth; As sunshine after rain.'


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And it is my family He has chosen! Yes, God has made An everlasting covenant with me; His agreement is eternal, final, sealed. He will constantly look after My safety and success.


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These are the names of the Top Three--the most heroic men in David's army: the first was Josheb-basshebeth from Tah-chemon, known also as Adino, the Eznite. He once killed eight hundred men in one battle.


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Next in rank was Eleazar, the son of Dodo and grandson of Ahohi. He was one of the three men who, with David, held back the Philistines that time when the rest of the Israeli army fled.


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He killed the Philistines until his hand was too tired to hold his sword; and the Lord gave him a great victory. (The rest of the army did not return until it was time to collect the loot!)


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After him was Shammah, the son of Agee from Harar. Once during a Philistine attack, when all his men deserted him and fled,


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he stood alone at the center of a field of lentils and beat back the Philistines; and God gave him a great victory.


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One time when David was living in the cave of Adullam and the invading Philistines were at the valley of Rephaim, three of The Thirty--the top-ranking officers of the Israeli army--went down at harvest time to visit him.


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David was in the stronghold at the time, for Philistine marauders had occupied the nearby city of Bethlehem.


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David remarked, "How thirsty I am for some of that good water in the city well!" (The well was near the city gate.)


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So the three men broke through the Philistine ranks and drew water from the well and brought it to David. But he refused to drink it! Instead, he poured it out before the Lord.


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"No, my God," he exclaimed, "I cannot do it! This is the blood of these men who have risked their lives."


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Of those three men, Abishai, the brother of Joab (son of Zeruiah), was the greatest. Once he took on three hundred of the enemy single-handed and killed them all.


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It was by such feats that he earned a reputation equal to The Three, though he was not actually one of them. But he was the greatest of The Thirty--the top-ranking officers of the army--and was their leader.


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There was also Benaiah (son of Jehoiada), a heroic soldier from Kabzeel. Benaiah killed two giants, sons of Ariel of Moab. Another time he went down into a pit and, despite the slippery snow on the ground, took on a lion that was caught there and killed it.


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Another time, armed only with a staff, he killed an Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear; he wrenched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with it.


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He was one of the greatest of The Thirty, but was not actually one of the Top Three. And David made him chief of his bodyguard.


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Asahel, the brother of Joab, was also one of The Thirty. Others were: Elhanan (son of Dodo) from Bethlehem;


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Once again the anger of the Lord flared against Israel, and he caused David to harm them by taking a national census. "Go and count the people of Israel and Judah," the Lord told him.


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So the king said to Joab, commander-in-chief of his army, "Take a census of all the people from one end of the nation to the other, so that I will know how many of them there are."


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But Joab replied, "God grant that you will live to see the day when there will be a hundred times as many people in your kingdom as there are now! But you have no right to rejoice in their strength."


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But the king's command overcame Joab's remonstrance; so Joab and the other army officers went out to count the people of Israel.


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First they crossed the Jordan and camped at Aroer, south of the city that lies in the middle of the valley of Gad, near Jazer;


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and then to the stronghold of Tyre, and all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites, and south to Judah as far as Beersheba.


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And Joab reported the number of the people to the king--800,000 men of conscription age in Israel and 500,000 in Judah.


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But after he had taken the census, David's conscience began to bother him, and he said to the Lord, "What I did was very wrong. Please forgive this foolish wickedness of mine."


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The next morning the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, who was David's contact with God. The Lord said to Gad,


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So Gad came to David and asked him, "Will you choose seven years of famine across the land, or to flee for three months before your enemies, or to submit to three days of plague? Think this over and let me know what answer to give to God."


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"This is a hard decision," David replied, "but it is better to fall into the hand of the Lord (for his mercy is great) than into the hands of men."


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So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel that morning, and it lasted for three days; and seventy thousand men died throughout the nation.


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But as the death angel was preparing to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord was sorry for what was happening and told him to stop. He was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite at the time.


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When David saw the angel, he said to the Lord, "Look, I am the one who has sinned! What have these sheep done? Let your anger be only against me and my family."


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That day Gad came to David and said to him, "Go and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite."


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When Araunah saw the king and his men coming toward him, he came forward and fell flat on the ground with his face in the dust.


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"Why have you come?" Araunah asked. And David replied, "To buy your threshing floor, so that I can build an altar to the Lord, and he will stop the plague."


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"Use anything you like," Araunah told the king. "Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and you can use the threshing instruments and ox yokes for wood to build a fire on the altar.


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But the king said to Araunah, "No, I will not have it as a gift. I will buy it, for I don't want to offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that have cost me nothing." So David paid him for the threshing floor and the oxen.


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And David built an altar there to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the Lord answered his prayer, and the plague was stopped.


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In his old age King David was confined to his bed; but no matter how many blankets were heaped upon him, he was always cold.


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"The cure for this," his aides told him, "is to find a young virgin to be your concubine and nurse. She will lie in your arms and keep you warm."


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So they searched the country from one end to the other to find the most beautiful girl in all the land. Abishag, from Shunam, was finally selected.


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They brought her to the king, and she lay in his arms to warm him (but he had no sexual relations with her).


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At about that time, David's son Adonijah (his mother was Haggith) decided to crown himself king in place of his aged father. So he hired chariots and drivers and recruited fifty men to run down the streets before him as royal footmen.


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Now his father, King David, had never disciplined him at any time--not so much as by a single scolding! He was a very handsome man and was Absalom's younger brother.


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He took General Joab and Abiathar the priest into his confidence, and they agreed to help him become king.


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But among those who remained loyal to King David and refused to endorse Adonijah were the priests Zadok and Benaiah, the prophet Nathan, Shimei, Rei, and David's army chiefs.


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Adonijah went to En-rogel where he sacrificed sheep, oxen, and fat young goats at the Serpent's Stone. Then he summoned all of his brothers--the other sons of King David--and all the royal officials of Judah, requesting that they come to his coronation.


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Then Nathan the prophet went to Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, and asked her, "Do you realize that Haggith's son, Adonijah, is now the king and that our lord David doesn't even know about it?


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Go at once to King David and ask him, 'My lord, didn't you promise me that my son Solomon would be the next king and would sit upon your throne? Then why is Adonijah reigning?'


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So Bathsheba went into the king's bedroom. He was an old, old man now, and Abishag was caring for him.


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She replied, "My lord, you vowed to me by the Lord your God that my son Solomon would be the next king and would sit upon your throne.


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He has celebrated his coronation by sacrificing oxen, fat goats, and many sheep and has invited all your sons and Abiathar the priest and General Joab. But he didn't invite Solomon.


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And now, my lord the king, all Israel is waiting for your decision as to whether Adonijah is the one you have chosen to succeed you.


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If you don't act, my son Solomon and I will be arrested and executed as criminals as soon as you are dead."


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While she was speaking, the king's aides told him, "Nathan the prophet is here to see you." Nathan came in and bowed low before the king,


text:
and asked, "My lord, have you appointed Adonijah to be the next king? Is he the one you have selected to sit upon your throne?


text:
Today he celebrated his coronation by sacrificing oxen, fat goats, and many sheep, and has invited your sons to attend the festivities. He also invited General Joab and Abiathar the priest; and they are feasting and drinking with him and shouting, 'Long live King Adonijah!'


text:
Has this been done with your knowledge? For you haven't said a word as to which of your sons you have chosen to be the next king."


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I decree that your son Solomon shall be the next king and shall sit upon my throne, just as I swore to you before by the Lord God of Israel."


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Then Bathsheba bowed low before him again and exclaimed, "Oh, thank you, sir. May my lord the king live forever!"


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"Call Zadok the priest," the king ordered, "and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah." When they arrived,


text:
and Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet are to anoint him there as king of Israel. Then blow the trumpets and shout, 'Long live King Solomon!'


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When you bring him back here, place him upon my throne as the new king; for I have appointed him king of Israel and Judah."


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"May the Lord be with Solomon as he has been with you, and may God make Solomon's reign even greater than yours!"


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So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, and David's bodyguard took Solomon to Gihon, riding on King David's own mule.


text:
At Gihon, Zadok took a flask of sacred oil from the Tabernacle and poured it over Solomon; and the trumpets were blown and all the people shouted, "Long live King Solomon!"


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Then they all returned with him to Jerusalem, making a joyous and noisy celebration all along the way.


text:
Adonijah and his guests heard the commotion and shouting just as they were finishing their banquet. "What's going on?" Joab demanded. "Why is the city in such an uproar?"


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And while he was still speaking, Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the priest, rushed in. "Come in," Adonijah said to him, "for you are a good man; you must have good news."


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"The king sent him to Gihon with Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet and Benaiah, protected by the king's own bodyguard; and he rode on the king's own mule.


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And Zadok and Nathan have anointed him as the new king! They have just returned, and the whole city is celebrating and rejoicing. That's what all the noise is.


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and all the people are congratulating King David, saying, 'May God bless you even more through Solomon than he has blessed you personally! May God make Solomon's reign even greater than yours!' And the king is lying in bed, acknowledging their blessings.


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He is saying, 'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who has selected one of my sons to sit upon my throne while I am still alive to see it.' "


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for they were fearful for their lives. Adonijah rushed into the Tabernacle and caught hold of the horns of the sacred altar.


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When word reached Solomon that Adonijah was claiming sanctuary in the Tabernacle, and pleading for clemency,


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So King Solomon summoned him, and they brought him down from the altar. He came to bow low before the king; and then Solomon curtly dismissed him. "Go on home," he said.


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"I am going where every man on earth must some day go. I am counting on you to be a strong and worthy successor.


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Obey the laws of God and follow all his ways; keep each of his commands written in the law of Moses so that you will prosper in everything you do, wherever you turn.


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If you do this, then the Lord will fulfill the promise he gave me, that if my children and their descendants watch their step and are faithful to God, one of them shall always be the king of Israel--my dynasty will never end.


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"Now listen to my instructions. You know that Joab murdered my two generals, Abner and Amasa. He pretended that it was an act of war, but it was done in a time of peace.


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But be kind to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite. Make them permanent guests of the king, for they took care of me when I fled from your brother Absalom.


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And do you remember Shimei, the son of Gera the Benjaminite from Bahurim? He cursed me with a terrible curse as I was going to Mahanaim; but when he came down to meet me at the Jordan River, I promised I wouldn't kill him.


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But that promise doesn't bind you! You are a wise man, and you will know how to arrange a bloody death for him."


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One day Adonijah, the son of Haggith, came to see Solomon's mother, Bathsheba. "Have you come to make trouble?" she asked him. "No," he replied, "I come in peace.


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"Everything was going well for me," he said, "and the kingdom was mine: everyone expected me to be the next king. But the tables are turned, and everything went to my brother instead; for that is the way the Lord wanted it.


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But now I have just a small favor to ask of you; please don't turn me down." "What is it?" she asked.


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He replied, "Speak to King Solomon on my behalf (for I know he will do anything you request) and ask him to give me Abishag, the Shunammite, as my wife."


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So she went to ask the favor of King Solomon. The king stood up from his throne as she entered and bowed low to her. He ordered that a throne for his mother be placed beside his; so she sat at his right hand.


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"I have one small request to make of you," she said. "I hope you won't turn me down." "What is it, my mother?" he asked. "You know I won't refuse you."


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"Are you crazy?" he demanded. "If I were to give him Abishag, I would be giving him the kingdom too! For he is my older brother! He and Abiathar the priest and General Joab would take over!"


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Then King Solomon swore with a great oath, "May God strike me dead if Adonijah does not die this very day for this plot against me!


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I swear it by the living God who has given me the throne of my father David and this kingdom he promised me."


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Then the king said to Abiathar the priest, "Go back to your home in Anathoth. You should be killed, too, but I won't do it now. For you carried the Ark of the Lord during my father's reign, and you suffered right along with him in all of his troubles."


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So Solomon forced Abiathar to give up his position as the priest of the Lord, thereby fulfilling the decree of Jehovah at Shiloh concerning the descendants of Eli.


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When Joab heard about Adonijah's death (Joab had joined Adonijah's revolt, though not Absalom's) he ran to the Tabernacle for sanctuary and caught hold of the horns of the altar.


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Benaiah went into the Tabernacle and said to Joab, "The king says to come out!" "No," he said, "I'll die here." So Benaiah returned to the king for further instructions.


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"Do as he says," the king replied. "Kill him there beside the altar and bury him. This will remove the guilt of his senseless murders from me and from my father's family.


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Then Jehovah will hold him personally responsible for the murders of two men who were better than he. For my father was no party to the deaths of General Abner, commander-in-chief of the army of Israel, and General Amasa, commander-in-chief of the army of Judah.


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May Joab and his descendants be forever guilty of these murders, and may the Lord declare David and his descendants guiltless concerning their deaths."


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So Benaiah returned to the Tabernacle and killed Joab; and he was buried beside his house in the desert.


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The king now sent for Shimei and told him, "Build a house here in Jerusalem, and don't step outside the city on pain of death.


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But three years later two of Shimei's slaves escaped to King Achish of Gath. When Shimei learned where they were,


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he saddled a donkey and went to Gath to visit the king. And when he had found his slaves, he took them back to Jerusalem.


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he sent for him and demanded, "Didn't I command you in the name of God to stay in Jerusalem or die? You replied, 'Very well, I will do as you say.'


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And what about all the wicked things you did to my father, King David? May the Lord take revenge on you,


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but may I receive God's rich blessings, and may one of David's descendants always sit upon this throne."


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Then, at the king's command, Benaiah took Shimei outside and killed him. So Solomon's grip upon the kingdom became secure.


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Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and married one of his daughters. He brought her to Jerusalem to live in the City of David until he could finish building his palace and the Temple and the wall around the city.


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At that time the people of Israel sacrificed their offerings on altars in the hills, for the Temple of the Lord hadn't yet been built.


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(Solomon loved the Lord and followed all of his father David's instructions except that he continued to sacrifice in the hills and to offer incense there.)


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The most famous of the hilltop altars was at Gibeon, and now the king went there and sacrificed one thousand burnt offerings!


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The Lord appeared to him in a dream that night and told him to ask for anything he wanted, and it would be given to him!


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Solomon replied, "You were wonderfully kind to my father David because he was honest and true and faithful to you, and obeyed your commands. And you have continued your kindness to him by giving him a son to succeed him.


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O Lord my God, now you have made me the king instead of my father David, but I am as a little child who doesn't know his way around.


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And here I am among your own chosen people, a nation so great that there are almost too many people to count!


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Give me an understanding mind so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. For who by himself is able to carry such a heavy responsibility?"


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So he replied, "Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people and haven't asked for a long life, or riches for yourself, or the defeat of your enemies--


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yes, I'll give you what you asked for! I will give you a wiser mind than anyone else has ever had or ever will have!


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And I will also give you what you didn't ask for--riches and honor! And no one in all the world will be as rich and famous as you for the rest of your life!


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Then Solomon woke up and realized it had been a dream. He returned to Jerusalem and went into the Tabernacle. And as he stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, he sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then he invited all of his officials to a great banquet.


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"Sir," one of them began, "we live in the same house, just the two of us, and recently I had a baby. When it was three days old, this woman's baby was born too.


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Then she got up in the night and took my son from beside me while I was asleep, and laid her dead child in my arms and took mine to sleep beside her.


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And in the morning when I tried to feed my baby it was dead! But when it became light outside, I saw that it wasn't my son at all."


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Then the other woman interrupted, "It certainly was her son, and the living child is mine." "No," the first woman said, "the dead one is yours and the living one is mine." And so they argued back and forth before the king.


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Then the king said, "Let's get the facts straight: both of you claim the living child, and each says that the dead child belongs to the other.


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Then the woman who really was the mother of the child, and who loved him very much, cried out, "Oh no, sir! Give her the child--don't kill him!" But the other woman said, "All right, it will be neither yours nor mine; divide it between us!"


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Word of the king's decision spread quickly throughout the entire nation, and all the people were awed as they realized the great wisdom God had given him.


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Elihoreph and Ahijah (sons of Shisha) were secretaries; Jehoshaphat (son of Ahilud) was the official historian and in charge of the archives;


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Azariah (son of Nathan) was secretary of state; Zabud (son of Nathan) was the king's personal priest and special friend;


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There were also twelve officials of Solomon's court--one man from each tribe--responsible for requisitioning food from the people for the king's household. Each of them arranged provisions for one month of the year.


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The names of these twelve officers were: Ben-hur, whose area for this taxation was the hill country of Ephraim;


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Ben-abinadab (who married Solomon's daughter, the princess Taphath), whose area was the highlands of Dor;


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Baana (son of Ahilud), whose area was Taanach and Megiddo, all of Beth-shean near Zarethan below Jezreel, and all the territory from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah and over to Jokmeam;


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Ben-geber, whose area was Ramoth-gilead, including the villages of Jair (the son of Manasseh) in Gilead; and the region of Argob in Bashan, including sixty walled cities with bronze gates;


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Geber (son of Uri), whose area was Gilead, including the territories of King Sihon of the Amorites and King Og of Bashan. A general manager supervised these officials and their work.


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King Solomon ruled the whole area from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and down to the borders of Egypt. The conquered peoples of those lands sent taxes to Solomon and continued to serve him throughout his lifetime.


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10 oxen from the fattening pens, 20 pasture-fed cattle, 100 sheep, and, from time to time, deer, gazelles, roebucks, and plump fowl.


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His dominion extended over all the kingdoms west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah to Gaza. And there was peace throughout the land.


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Throughout the lifetime of Solomon, all of Judah and Israel lived in peace and safety; and each family had its own home and garden.


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He was wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and he was famous among all the surrounding nations.


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He was a great naturalist, with interest in animals, birds, snakes, fish, and trees--from the great cedars of Lebanon down to the tiny hyssop which grows in cracks in the wall.


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King Hiram of Tyre had always been a great admirer of David, so when he learned that David's son Solomon was the new king of Israel, he sent ambassadors to extend congratulations and good wishes.


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His father David, Solomon pointed out to Hiram, had not been able to build it because of the numerous wars going on, and he had been waiting for the Lord to give him peace.


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"But now," Solomon said to Hiram, "the Lord my God has given Israel peace on every side; I have no foreign enemies or internal rebellions.


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So I am planning to build a Temple for the Lord my God, just as he instructed my father that I should do. For the Lord told him, 'Your son, whom I will place upon your throne, shall build me a Temple.'


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Now please assist me with this project. Send your woodsmen to the mountains of Lebanon to cut cedar timber for me, and I will send my men to work beside them, and I will pay your men whatever wages you ask; for as you know, no one in Israel can cut timber like you Sidonians!"


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Hiram was very pleased with the message from Solomon. "Praise God for giving David a wise son to be king of the great nation of Israel," he said.


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Then he sent this reply to Solomon: "I have received your message and I will do as you have asked concerning the timber. I can supply both cedar and cypress.


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My men will bring the logs from the Lebanon mountains to the Mediterranean Sea and build them into rafts. We will float them along the coast to wherever you need them; then we will break the rafts apart and deliver the timber to you. You can pay me with food for my household."


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and in return Solomon sent him an annual payment of 125,000 bushels of wheat for his household and 96 gallons of pure olive oil.


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So the Lord gave great wisdom to Solomon just as he had promised. And Hiram and Solomon made a formal alliance of peace.


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and rotated them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month, so that each man was a month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was the general superintendent of this labor camp.


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Solomon also had seventy thousand additional laborers, eighty thousand stonecutters in the hill country,


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The stonecutters quarried and shaped huge blocks of stone--a very expensive job--for the foundation of the Temple.


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Men from Gebal helped Solomon's and Hiram's builders in cutting the timber and making the boards, and in preparing the stone for the Temple.


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It was in the spring of the fourth year of Solomon's reign that he began the actual construction of the Temple. (This was 480 years after the people of Israel left their slavery in Egypt.)


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An annex of rooms was built along the full length of both sides of the Temple against the outer walls.


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These rooms were three stories high, the lower floor being 7 1/2 feet wide, the second floor 9 feet wide, and the upper floor 10 1/2 feet wide. The rooms were connected to the walls of the Temple by beams resting on blocks built out from the wall--so the beams were not inserted into the walls themselves.


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The stones used in the construction of the Temple were prefinished at the quarry, so the entire structure was built without the sound of hammer, axe, or any other tool at the building site.


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The bottom floor of the side rooms was entered from the right side of the Temple, and there were winding stairs going up to the second floor; another flight of stairs led from the second to the third.


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As already stated, there was an annex on each side of the building, attached to the Temple walls by cedar timbers. Each story of the annex was 7 1/2 feet high.


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"If you do as I tell you to and follow all of my commandments and instructions, I will do what I told your father David I would do:


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The entire inside, from floor to ceiling, was paneled with cedar, and the floors were made of cypress boards.


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The thirty-foot inner room at the far end of the Temple--the Most Holy Place--was also paneled from the floor to the ceiling with cedar boards.


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Throughout the Temple the cedar paneling laid over the stone walls was carved with designs of rosebuds and open flowers.


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This inner sanctuary was thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and thirty feet high. Its walls and ceiling were overlaid with pure gold, and Solomon made a cedar-wood altar for this room.


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including the cedar altar--with pure gold; and he made gold chains to protect the entrance to the Most Holy Place.


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Within the inner sanctuary Solomon placed two statues of Guardian Angels made from olive wood, each fifteen feet high.


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They were placed so that their outspread wings reached from wall to wall, while their inner wings touched each other at the center of the room; each wing was 7 1/2 feet long, so each angel measured fifteen feet from wing tip to wing tip. The two angels were identical in all dimensions,


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Figures of angels, palm trees, and open flowers were carved on all the walls of both rooms of the Temple,


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and its two olive-wood doors were carved with Guardian Angels, palm trees, and open flowers, all overlaid with gold.


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and the entire building was completed in every detail in November of the eleventh year of his reign. So it took seven years to build.


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One of the rooms in the palace was called the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon. It was huge--measuring 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. The great cedar ceiling beams rested upon four rows of cedar pillars.


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There were forty-five windows in the hall, set in three tiers, one tier above the other, five to a tier, facing each other from three walls.


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Another room was called the Hall of Pillars. It was seventy-five feet long and forty-five feet wide, with a porch in front covered by a canopy that was supported by pillars.


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There was also the Throne Room or Judgment Hall, where Solomon sat to hear legal matters; it was paneled with cedar from the floor to the rafters.


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His cedar-paneled living quarters surrounded a courtyard behind this hall. (He designed similar living quarters, the same size, in the palace that he built for Pharaoh's daughter--one of his wives.)


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The Great Court had three courses of hewn stone in its walls, topped with cedar beams, just like the inner court of the Temple and the porch of the palace.


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King Solomon then asked for a man named Hiram to come from Tyre, for he was a skilled craftsman in bronze work.


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He was half Jewish, being the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father had been a foundry worker from Tyre. So he came to work for King Solomon.


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He cast two hollow bronze pillars, each twenty-seven feet high and eighteen feet around, with three-inch-thick walls.


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At the tops of the pillars he made two lily-shaped capitals from molten bronze, each 7 1/2 feet high. The upper part of each capital was shaped like a lily, six feet high.


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Each capital was decorated with seven sets of bronze, chain-designed lattices and four hundred pomegranates in two rows.


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Hiram set these pillars at the entrance of the Temple. The one on the south was named the Jachin Pillar, and the one on the north, the Boaz Pillar.


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Then Hiram cast a round bronze tank, 7 1/2 feet high and 15 feet from brim to brim; 45 feet in circumference.


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On the underside of the rim were two rows of ornaments an inch or two apart, which were cast along with the tank.


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It rested on twelve bronze oxen standing tail to tail, three facing north, three west, three south, and three east.


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The sides of the tank were four inches thick; its brim was shaped like a goblet, and it had a twelve thousand gallon capacity.


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These crosspieces were decorated with carved lions, oxen, and angels. Above and below the lions and oxen were wreath decorations.


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Each of these movable stands had four bronze wheels and bronze axles, and at each corner of the stands were supporting posts made of bronze and decorated with wreaths on each side.


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The top of each stand was a round piece 1 1/2 feet high. Its center was concave, 2 1/4 feet deep, decorated on the outside with wreaths. Its panels were square, not round.


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The stands rode on four wheels which were connected to axles that had been cast as part of the stands. The wheels were twenty-seven inches high


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and were similar to chariot wheels. All the parts of the stands were cast from molten bronze, including the axles, spokes, rims, and hubs.


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There were supports at each of the four corners of the stands, and these, too, were cast with the stands.


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A nine-inch rim surrounded the tip of each stand, banded with lugs. All was cast as one unit with the stand.


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Guardian Angels, lions, and palm trees surrounded by wreaths were engraved on the borders of the band wherever there was room.


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Then he made ten brass vats, and placed them on the stands. Each vat was six feet square and contained 240 gallons of water.


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Five of these vats were arranged on the left and five on the right-hand side of the room. The tank was in the southeast corner, on the right-hand side of the room.


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Hiram also made the necessary pots, shovels, and basins and at last completed the work in the Temple of the Lord that had been assigned to him by King Solomon.


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Here is a list of the items he made: Two pillars; A capital at the top of each pillar; Latticework covering the bases of the capitals of each pillar;


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All the utensils and furniture used in the Temple were made of solid gold. This included the altar, the table where the Bread of the Presence of God was displayed,


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the lampstands (five on the right-hand side and five on the left, in front of the Most Holy Place), the flowers, lamps, tongs,


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cups, snuffers, basins, spoons, firepans, the hinges of the doors to the Most Holy Place, and the main entrance doors of the Temple. Each of these was made of solid gold.


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When the Temple was finally finished, Solomon took into the treasury of the Temple the silver, the gold, and all the vessels dedicated for that purpose by his father David.


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Then Solomon called a convocation at Jerusalem of all the leaders of Israel--the heads of the tribes and clans--to observe the transferring of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the Tabernacle in Zion, the City of David, to the Temple.


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During the festivities the priests carried the Ark to the Temple, along with all the sacred vessels that had previously been in the Tabernacle.


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Then the priests took the Ark into the inner sanctuary of the Temple--the Most Holy Place--and placed it under the wings of the statues of the mighty angels.


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The angels had been constructed in such a manner that their wings spread out over the spot where the Ark would be placed; so now their wings overshadowed the Ark and its carrying poles.


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The poles were so long that they stuck out past the angels and could be seen from the next room, but not from the outer court; and they remain there to this day.


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There was nothing in the Ark at that time except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed there at Mount Horeb at the time the Lord made his covenant with the people of Israel after they left Egypt.


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Now King Solomon prayed this invocation: "The Lord has said that he would live in the thick darkness;


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for he said to him, 'When I brought my people from Egypt, I didn't appoint a place for my Temple, but I appointed a man to be my people's leader.'


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And now the Lord has done what he promised; for I have followed my father as king of Israel, and now this Temple has been built for the Lord God of Israel.


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And I have prepared a place in the Temple for the Ark that contains the covenant made by the Lord with our fathers, at the time that he brought them out of the land of Egypt."


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Then, as all the people watched, Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord with his hands spread out toward heaven


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and said, "O Lord God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or earth, for you are loving and kind and you keep your promises to your people if they do their best to do your will.


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and now, O Lord God of Israel, fulfill your further promise to him: that if his descendants follow your ways and try to do your will as he did, one of them shall always sit upon the throne of Israel.


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"But is it possible that God would really live on earth? Why, even the skies and the highest heavens cannot contain you, much less this Temple I have built!


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Please watch over this Temple night and day--this place you have promised to live in--and as I face toward the Temple and pray, whether by night or by day, please listen to me and answer my requests.


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Listen to every plea of the people of Israel whenever they face this place to pray; yes, hear in heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive.


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"If a man is accused of doing something wrong and then, standing here before your altar, swears that he didn't do it,


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hear them from heaven and forgive them if they turn to you again and confess that you are their God. Bring them back again to this land which you have given to their fathers.


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hear them from heaven and forgive them when they pray toward this place and confess your name. And after you have punished them, help them to follow the good ways in which they should walk, and send rain upon the land that you have given your people.


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"If there is a famine in the land caused by plant disease or locusts or caterpillars, or if Israel's enemies besiege one of her cities, or if the people are struck by an epidemic or plague--or whatever the problem is--


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hear them from heaven and forgive and answer all who have made an honest confession; for you know each heart.


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In this way they will always learn to reverence you as they continue to live in this land that you have given their fathers.


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"And when foreigners hear of your great name and come from distant lands to worship you (for they shall hear of your great name and mighty miracles) and pray toward this Temple,


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hear them from heaven and answer their prayers. And all the nations of the earth will know and fear your name just as your own people Israel do; and all the earth will know that this is your Temple.


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"When you send your people out to battle against their enemies and they pray to you, looking toward your chosen city of Jerusalem and toward this Temple that I have built in your name,


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"If they sin against you (and who doesn't?) and you become angry with them and let their enemies lead them away as captives to some foreign land, whether far or near,


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and they come to their senses and turn to you and cry to you saying, 'We have sinned, we have done wrong';


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if they honestly return to you and pray toward this land that you have given their fathers, and toward this city of Jerusalem that you have chosen, and toward this Temple that I have built for your name,


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May your eyes be open and your ears listening to their pleas. O Lord, hear and answer them whenever they cry out to you,


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for when you brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, you told your servant Moses that you had chosen Israel from among all the nations of the earth to be your own special people."


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"Blessed be the Lord who has fulfilled his promise and given rest to his people Israel; not one word has failed of all the wonderful promises proclaimed by his servant Moses.


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May he give us the desire to do his will in everything, and to obey all the commandments and instructions he has given our ancestors.


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And may these words of my prayer be constantly before him day and night, so that he helps me and all of Israel in accordance with our daily needs.


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O my people, may you live good and perfect lives before the Lord our God; may you always obey his laws and commandments, just as you are doing today."


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Then the king and all the people dedicated the Temple by sacrificing peace offerings to the Lord--a total of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep and goats!


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As a temporary measure the king sanctified the court in front of the Temple for the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings: for the bronze altar was too small to handle so much.


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The celebration lasted for fourteen days, and a great crowd came from one end of the land to the other.


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Afterwards Solomon sent the people home, happy for all the goodness that the Lord had shown to his servant David and to his people Israel. And they blessed the king.


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When Solomon had finished building the Temple and the palace and all the other buildings he had always wanted,


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and said to him, "I have heard your prayer. I have hallowed this Temple that you have built and have put my name here forever. I will constantly watch over it and rejoice in it.


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then I will cause your descendants to be the kings of Israel forever, just as I promised your father David when I told him, 'One of your sons shall always be upon the throne of Israel.'


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then I will take away the people of Israel from this land that have given them. I will take them from this Temple which I have hallowed for my name, and I will cast them out of my sight; and Israel will become a joke to the nations and an example and proverb of sudden disaster.


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This Temple will become a heap of ruins, and everyone passing by will be amazed and will whistle with astonishment, asking, 'Why has the Lord done such things to this land and this Temple?'


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And the answer will be, 'The people of Israel abandoned the Lord their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt; they worshiped other gods instead. That is why the Lord has brought this evil upon them.' "


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he gave twenty cities in the land of Galilee to King Hiram of Tyre as payment for all the cedar and cypress lumber and gold he had furnished for the construction of the palace and Temple.


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"What sort of deal is this, my brother?" he asked. "These cities are a wasteland!" (And they are still known as "The Wasteland" today.)


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Solomon had conscripted forced labor to build the Temple, his palace, Fort Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, and the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.


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Gezer was the city the king of Egypt conquered and burned, killing the Israeli population; later he had given the city to his daughter as a dowry--she was one of Solomon's wives.


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He also built cities for grain storage, cities in which to keep his chariots, cities for homes for his cavalry and chariot drivers, and resort cities near Jerusalem and in the Lebanon mountains and elsewhere throughout the land.


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Solomon conscripted his labor forces from those who survived in the nations he conquered--the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.


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For the people of Israel had not been able to wipe them out completely at the time of the invasion and conquest of Israel, and they continue as slaves even today.


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Solomon didn't conscript any Israelis for this work, although they became soldiers, officials, army officers, chariot commanders, and cavalrymen.


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King Solomon moved Pharaoh's daughter from the City of David--the old sector of Jerusalem--to the new quarters he had built for her in the palace. Then he built Fort Millo.


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After the Temple was completed, Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings three times a year on the altar he had built. And he also burned incense upon it.


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King Solomon had a shipyard in Ezion-geber near Eloth on the Red Sea in the land of Edom, where he built a fleet of ships.


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They used to sail back and forth from Ophir, bringing gold to King Solomon, the total value of which was several million dollars each trip.


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When the queen of Sheba heard how wonderfully the Lord had blessed Solomon with wisdom, she decided to test him with some hard questions.


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She arrived in Jerusalem with a long train of camels carrying spices, gold, and jewels; and she told him all her problems.


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Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for him, for the Lord gave him the right answers every time.


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She soon realized that everything she had ever heard about his great wisdom was true. She also saw the beautiful palace he had built,


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and when she saw the wonderful foods on his table, the great number of servants and aides who stood around in splendid uniforms, his cupbearers, and the many offerings he sacrificed by fire to the Lord--well, there was no more spirit in her!


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She exclaimed to him, "Everything I heard in my own country about your wisdom and about the wonderful things going on here is all true.


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I didn't believe it until I came, but now I have seen it for myself! And really! The half had not been told me! Your wisdom and prosperity are far greater than anything I've ever heard of!


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Your people are happy and your palace aides are content--but how could it be otherwise, for they stand here day after day listening to your wisdom!


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Blessed be the Lord your God who chose you and set you on the throne of Israel. How the Lord must love Israel--for he gave you to them as their king! And you give your people a just, good government!"


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Then she gave the king a gift of $3,500,000 in gold, along with a huge quantity of spices and precious gems; in fact, it was the largest single gift of spices King Solomon had ever received.


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(And when King Hiram's ships brought gold to Solomon from Ophir, they also brought along a great supply of algum trees and gems.


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Solomon used the algum wood to make pillars for the Temple and the palace, and for harps and harpsichords for his choirs. Never before or since has there been such a supply of beautiful wood.)


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In exchange for the gifts from the queen of Sheba, King Solomon gave her everything she asked him for, besides the presents he had already planned. Then she and her servants returned to their own land.


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besides sales taxes and profits from trade with the kings of Arabia and the other surrounding territories.


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Solomon had some of the gold beaten into two hundred pieces of armor (gold worth $6,000 went into each piece)


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and three hundred shields ($1,800 worth of gold in each). And he kept them in his palace in the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon.


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And there were two lions on each step--twelve in all. There was no other throne in all the world so splendid as that one.


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All of King Solomon's cups were of solid gold, and in the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon his entire dining service was made of solid gold. (Silver wasn't used because it wasn't considered to be of much value!)


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King Solomon's merchant fleet was in partnership with King Hiram's, and once every three years a great load of gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks arrived at the Israeli ports.


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They brought him annual tribute of silver and gold dishes, beautiful cloth, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules.


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Solomon built up a great stable of horses with a vast number of chariots and cavalry--1,400 chariots in all and 12,000 cavalrymen, who lived in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.


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Silver was as common as stones in Jerusalem in those days, and cedar was of no greater value than the common sycamore!


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Solomon's horses were brought to him from Egypt and southern Turkey, where his agents purchased them at wholesale prices.


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An Egyptian chariot delivered to Jerusalem cost $400, and the horses were valued at $150 each. Many of these were then resold to the Hittite and Syrian kings.


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King Solomon married many other girls besides the Egyptian princess. Many of them came from nations where idols were worshiped --Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from the Hittites--


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even though the Lord had clearly instructed his people not to marry into those nations, because the women they married would get them started worshiping their gods. Yet Solomon did it anyway.


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He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines; and sure enough, they turned his heart away from the Lord,


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especially in his old age. They encouraged him to worship their gods instead of trusting completely in the Lord as his father David had done.


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Solomon worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the horrible god of the Ammonites.


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He even built a temple on the Mount of Olives, across the valley from Jerusalem, for Chemosh, the depraved god of Moab, and another for Molech, the unutterably vile god of the Ammonites.


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Solomon built temples for these foreign wives to use for burning incense and sacrificing to their gods.


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for now Solomon was no longer interested in the Lord God of Israel who had appeared to him twice to warn him specifically against worshiping other gods. But he hadn't listened,


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so now the Lord said to him, "Since you have not kept our agreement and have not obeyed my laws, I will tear the kingdom away from you and your family and give it to someone else.


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However, for the sake of your father David, I won't do this while you are still alive. I will take the kingdom away from your son.


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And even so I will let him be king of one tribe, for David's sake and for the sake of Jerusalem, my chosen city."


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So the Lord caused Hadad the Edomite to grow in power. And Solomon became apprehensive, for Hadad was a member of the royal family of Edom.


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Years before, when David had been in Edom with Joab to arrange for the burial of some Israeli soldiers who had died in battle, the Israeli army had killed nearly every male in the entire country.


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They slipped out of Midian and went to Paran, where others joined them and accompanied them to Egypt, and Pharaoh had given them homes and food.


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Hadad became one of Pharaoh's closest friends, and he gave him a wife--the sister of Queen Tahpenes.


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She presented him with a son, Genubath, who was brought up in Pharaoh's palace among Pharaoh's own sons.


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When Hadad, there in Egypt, heard that David and Joab were both dead, he asked Pharaoh for permission to return to Edom.


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"Why?" Pharaoh asked him. "What do you lack here? How have we disappointed you?" "Everything is wonderful," he replied "but even so, I'd like to go back home."


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Another of Solomon's enemies whom God raised to power was Rezon, one of the officials of King Hadadezer of Zobah who had deserted his post and fled the country.


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He had become the leader of a gang of bandits--men who fled with him to Damascus (where he later became king) when David destroyed Zobah.


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During Solomon's entire lifetime, Rezon and Hadad were his enemies, for they hated Israel intensely.


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Another rebel leader was Jeroboam (the son of Nebat), who came from the city of Zeredah in Ephraim; his mother was Zeruah, a widow.


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Here is the story back of his rebellion: Solomon was rebuilding Fort Millo, repairing the walls of this city his father had built.


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Jeroboam was very able, and when Solomon saw how industrious he was, he put him in charge of his labor battalions from the tribe of Joseph.


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One day as Jeroboam was leaving Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh (who had put on a new robe for the occasion) met him and called him aside to talk to him. And as the two of them were alone in the field,


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and said to Jeroboam, "Take ten of these pieces, for the Lord God of Israel says, 'I will tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon and give ten of the tribes to you!


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But I will leave him one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen above all the other cities of Israel.


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For Solomon has forsaken me and worships Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians; and Chemosh, the god of Moab; and Milcom, the god of the Ammonites. He has not followed my paths and has not done what I consider right; he has not kept my laws and instructions as his father David did.


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I will not take the kingdom from him now, however; for the sake of my servant David, my chosen one who obeyed my commandments, I will let Solomon reign for the rest of his life.


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His son shall have the other one so that the descendants of David will continue to reign in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen to be the place for my name to be enshrined.


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If you listen to what I tell you and walk in my path and do whatever I consider right, obeying my commandments as my servant David did, then I will bless you; and your descendants shall rule Israel forever. (I once made this same promise to David.


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Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but he fled to King Shishak of Egypt and stayed there until the death of Solomon.


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and then died and was buried in the city of his father David; and his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.


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Jeroboam, who was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon, heard about the plans from his friends.


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They urged him to attend, so he joined the rest of Israel at Shechem and was the ringleader in getting the people to make certain demands upon Rehoboam.


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"Your father was a hard master," they told Rehoboam. "We don't want you as our king unless you promise to treat us better than he did."


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"Give me three days to think this over," Rehoboam replied. "Come back then for my answer." So the people left.


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Rehoboam talked it over with the old men who had counseled his father Solomon. "What do you think I should do?" he asked them.


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And they replied, "If you give them a pleasant reply and agree to be good to them and serve them well, you can be their king forever."


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And the young men replied, "Tell them, 'If you think my father was hard on you, well, I'll be harder!


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Yes, my father was harsh, but I'll be even harsher! My father used whips on you, but I'll use scorpions!' "


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the new king answered them roughly. He ignored the old men's advice and followed that of the young men;


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so the king refused the people's demands. (But the Lord's hand was in it--he caused the new king to do this in order to fulfill his promise to Jeroboam, made through Ahijah, the prophet from Shiloh.)


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When the people realized that the king meant what he said and was refusing to listen to them, they began shouting, "Down with David and all his relatives! Let's go home! Let Rehoboam be king of his own family!"


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And they all deserted him except for the tribe of Judah, who remained loyal and accepted Rehoboam as their king.


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When King Rehoboam sent Adoram (who was in charge of the draft) to conscript men from the other tribes, a great mob stoned him to death. But King Rehoboam escaped by chariot and fled to Jerusalem.


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When the people of Israel learned of Jeroboam's return from Egypt, he was asked to come before an open meeting of all the people; and there he was made king of Israel. Only the tribe of Judah continued under the kingship of the family of David.


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When King Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he summoned his army--all the able-bodied men of Judah and Benjamin: 180,000 special troops--to force the rest of Israel to acknowledge him as their king.


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they must not fight against their brothers, the people of Israel. Tell them to disband and go home, for what has happened to Rehoboam is according to my wish." So the army went home as the Lord had commanded.


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Jeroboam now built the city of Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and it became his capital. Later he built Penuel.


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When they go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices at the Temple, they will become friendly with King Rehoboam; then they will kill me and ask him to be their king instead."


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So on the advice of his counselors, the king had two gold calf-idols made and told the people, "It's too much trouble to go to Jerusalem to worship; from now on these will be your gods--they rescued you from your captivity in Egypt!"


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He also made shrines on the hills and ordained priests from the rank and file of the people--even those who were not from the priest-tribe of Levi.


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on the first of November (a date he decided upon himself), similar to the annual festival at Jerusalem; he himself offered sacrifices upon the altar to the calves at Bethel and burned incense to them. And it was there at Bethel that he ordained priests for the shrines on the hills.


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As Jeroboam approached the altar to burn incense to the gold calf-idol, a prophet of the Lord from Judah walked up to him.


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Then, at the Lord's command, the prophet shouted, "O altar, the Lord says that a child named Josiah shall be born into the family line of David, and he shall sacrifice upon you the priests from the shrines on the hills who come here to burn incense; and men's bones shall be burned upon you."


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Then he gave this proof that his message was from the Lord: "This altar will split apart, and the ashes on it will spill to the ground."


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The king was very angry with the prophet for saying this. He shouted to his guards, "Arrest that man!" and shook his fist at him. Instantly the king's arm became paralyzed in that position; he couldn't pull it back again!


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At the same moment a wide crack appeared in the altar and the ashes poured out, just as the prophet had said would happen. For this was the prophet's proof that God had been speaking through him.


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"Oh, please, please," the king cried out to the prophet, "beg the Lord your God to restore my arm again." So he prayed to the Lord, and the king's arm became normal again.


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Then the king said to the prophet, "Come to the palace with me and rest awhile and have some food; and I'll give you a reward because you healed my arm."


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But the prophet said to the king, "Even if you gave me half your palace, I wouldn't go into it; nor would I eat or drink even water in this place!


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For the Lord has given me strict orders not to eat anything or drink any water while I'm here, and not to return to Judah by the road I came on."


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As it happened, there was an old prophet living in Bethel, and his sons went home and told him what the prophet from Judah had done and what he had said to the king.


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he rode after the prophet and found him sitting under an oak tree. "Are you the prophet who came from Judah?" he asked him. "Yes," he replied, "I am."


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The Lord strictly warned me against it; and he also told me not to return home by the same road I came on."


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But the old man said, "I am a prophet too, just as you are; and an angel gave me a message from the Lord. I am to take you home with me and give you food and water." But the old man was lying to him.


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So they went back together, and the prophet ate some food and drank some water at the old man's home.


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and he shouted at the prophet from Judah, "The Lord says that because you have been disobedient to his clear command


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and have come here, and have eaten and drunk water in the place he told you not to, therefore your body shall not be buried in the grave of your fathers."


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and the prophet started off again. But as he was traveling along, a lion came out and killed him. His body lay there on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it.


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Those who came by and saw the body lying in the road and the lion standing quietly beside it, reported it in Bethel where the old prophet lived.


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When he heard what had happened he exclaimed, "It is the prophet who disobeyed the Lord's command; the Lord fulfilled his warning by causing the lion to kill him."


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He found the prophet's body lying in the road; and the donkey and lion were still standing there beside it, for the lion had not eaten the body nor attacked the donkey.


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So the prophet laid the body upon the donkey and took it back to the city to mourn over it and bury it.


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Afterwards he said to his sons, "When I die, bury me in the grave where the prophet is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones.


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For the Lord told him to shout against the altar in Bethel, and his curse against the shrines in the cities of Samaria shall surely be fulfilled."


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Despite the prophet's warning, Jeroboam did not turn away from his evil ways; instead, he made more priests than ever from the common people, to offer sacrifices to idols in the shrines on the hills. Anyone who wanted to could be a priest.


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This was a great sin and resulted in the destruction of Jeroboam's kingdom and the death of all of his family.


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Jeroboam told his wife, "Disguise yourself so that no one will recognize you as the queen, and go to Ahijah the prophet at Shiloh--the man who told me that I would become king.


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Take him a gift of ten loaves of bread, some fig bars, and a jar of honey, and ask him whether the boy will recover."


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But the Lord told him that the queen, pretending to be someone else, would come to ask about her son, for he was very sick. And the Lord told him what to tell her.


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So when Ahijah heard her at the door, he called out, "Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you pretending to be someone else?" Then he told her, "I have sad news for you.


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Give your husband this message from the Lord God of Israel: 'I promoted you from the ranks of the common people and made you king of Israel.


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I ripped the kingdom away from the family of David and gave it to you, but you have not obeyed my commandments as my servant David did. His heart's desire was always to obey me and to do whatever I wanted him to.


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But you have done more evil than all the other kings before you; you have made other gods and have made me furious with your gold calves. And since you have refused to acknowledge me,


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I will bring disaster upon your home and will destroy all of your sons--this boy who is sick and all those who are well. I will sweep away your family as a stable hand shovels out manure.


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I vow that those of your family who die in the city shall be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the field shall be eaten by birds.' "


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Then Ahijah said to Jeroboam's wife, "Go on home, and when you step into the city, the child will die.


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All of Israel will mourn for him and bury him, but he is the only member of your family who will come to a quiet end. For this child is the only good thing that the Lord God of Israel sees in the entire family of Jeroboam.


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Then the Lord will shake Israel like a reed whipped about in a stream; he will uproot the people of Israel from this good land of their fathers and scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, for they have angered the Lord by worshiping idol-gods.


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So Jeroboam's wife returned to Tirzah; and the child died just as she walked through the door of her home.


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The rest of Jeroboam's activities--his wars and the other events of his reign--are recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.


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Meanwhile, Rehoboam the son of Solomon was king in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he was on the throne seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which, among all the cities of Israel, the Lord had chosen to live in. (Rehoboam's mother was Naamah, an Ammonite woman.)


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During his reign the people of Judah, like those in Israel, did wrong and angered the Lord with their sin, for it was even worse than that of their ancestors.


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There was homosexuality throughout the land, and the people of Judah became as depraved as the heathen nations which the Lord drove out to make room for his people.


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He ransacked the Temple and the palace and stole everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made.


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Whenever the king went to the Temple, the guards paraded before him and then took the shields back to the guard chamber.


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When Rehoboam died--his mother was Naamah the Ammonitess--he was buried among his ancestors in Jerusalem, and his son Abijam took the throne.


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Abijam began his three-year reign as king of Judah in Jerusalem during the eighteenth year of Jeroboam's reign in Israel. (Abijam's mother was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.)


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He was as great a sinner as his father was, and his heart was not right with God, as King David's was.


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But despite Abijam's sin, the Lord remembered David's love and did not end the line of David's royal descendants.


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He deposed his grandmother Maacah as queen-mother because she had made an idol--which he cut down and burned at Kidron Brook.


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He made permanent exhibits in the Temple of the bronze shields his grandfather had dedicated, along with the silver and gold vessels he himself had donated.


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Then Asa took all the silver and gold left in the Temple treasury and all the treasures of the palace, and gave them to his officials to take to Damascus, to King Ben-hadad of Syria, with this message:


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"Let us be allies just as our fathers were. I am sending you a present of gold and silver. Now break your alliance with King Baasha of Israel so that he will leave me alone."


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Ben-hadad agreed and sent his armies against some of the cities of Israel; and he destroyed Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, all of Chinneroth, and all the cities in the land of Naphtali.


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When Baasha received word of the attack, he discontinued building the city of Ramah and returned to Tirzah.


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Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah, asking every able-bodied man to help demolish Ramah and haul away its stones and timbers. And King Asa used these materials to build the city of Geba in Benjamin and the city of Mizpah.


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The rest of Asa's biography--his conquests and deeds and the names of the cities he built--is found in The Annals of the Kings of Judah. In his old age his feet became diseased,


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and when he died, he was buried in the royal cemetery in Jerusalem. Then his son Jehoshaphat became the new king of Judah.


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Meanwhile over in Israel, Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, had become king. He reigned two years, beginning in the second year of the reign of King Asa of Judah.


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But he was not a good king; like his father, he worshiped many idols and led all of Israel into sin.


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Then Baasha (the son of Ahijah, from the tribe of Issachar) plotted against him and assassinated him while he was with the Israeli army laying siege to the Philistine city of Gibbethon.


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So Baasha replaced Nadab as the king of Israel in Tirzah during the third year of the reign of King Asa of Judah.


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He immediately killed all of the descendants of King Jeroboam, so that not one of the royal family was left, just as the Lord had said would happen when he spoke through Ahijah, the prophet from Shiloh.


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This was done because Jeroboam had angered the Lord God of Israel by sinning and leading the rest of Israel into sin.


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There was continuous warfare between King Asa of Judah and King Baasha of Israel. Baasha reigned for twenty-four years,


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but all that time he continually disobeyed the Lord. He followed the evil paths of Jeroboam, for he led the people of Israel into the sin of worshiping idols.


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A message of condemnation from the Lord was delivered to King Baasha at this time by the prophet Jehu:


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"I lifted you out of the dust," the message said, "to make you king of my people Israel; but you have walked in the evil paths of Jeroboam. You have made my people sin, and I am angry!


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Those of your family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the fields will be eaten by the birds."


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The message was sent to Baasha and his family because he had angered the Lord by all his evil deeds.


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He was as evil as Jeroboam despite the fact that the Lord had destroyed all of Jeroboam's descendants for their sins.


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The rest of Baasha's biography--his deeds and conquests--are written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.


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Elah, Baasha's son, began reigning during the twenty-sixth year of the reign of King Asa of Judah, but he reigned only two years.


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Then General Zimri, who had charge of half the royal chariot troops, plotted against him. One day King Elah was half drunk at the home of Arza, the superintendent of the palace, in the capital city of Tirzah.


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Zimri simply walked in and struck him down and killed him. (This occurred during the twenty-seventh year of the reign of King Asa of Judah.) Then Zimri declared himself to be the new king of Israel.


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He immediately killed the entire royal family--leaving not a single male child. He even destroyed distant relatives and friends.


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This destruction of the descendants of Baasha was in line with what the Lord had predicted through the prophet Jehu.


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The tragedy occurred because of the sins of Baasha and his son Elah; for they had led Israel into worshiping idols, and the Lord was very angry about it.


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But Zimri lasted only seven days; for when the army of Israel, which was then engaged in attacking the Philistine city of Gibbethon,


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heard that Zimri had assassinated the king, they decided on General Omri, commander-in-chief of the army, as their new ruler.


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When Zimri saw that the city had been taken, he went into the palace and burned it over him and died in the flames.


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For he, too, had sinned like Jeroboam; he had worshiped idols and had led the people of Israel to sin with him.


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But now the kingdom of Israel was split in two; half the people were loyal to General Omri, and the other half followed Tibni, the son of Ginath.


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King Asa of Judah had been on the throne thirty-one years when Omri began his reign over Israel, which lasted twelve years, six of them in Tirzah.


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Then Omri bought the hill now known as Samaria from its owner, Shemer, for $4,000 and built a city on it, calling it Samaria in honor of Shemer.


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King Asa of Judah had been on the throne thirty-eight years when Ahab became the king of Israel; and Ahab reigned for twenty-two years.


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And as though that were not enough, he married Jezebel, the daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians, and then began worshiping Baal.


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Then he made other idols and did more to anger the Lord God of Israel than any of the other kings of Israel before him.


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(It was during his reign that Hiel, a man from Bethel, rebuilt Jericho. When he laid the foundations, his oldest son, Abiram, died; and when he finally completed it by setting up the gates, his youngest son, Segub, died. For this was the Lord's curse upon Jericho as declared by Joshua, the son of Nun.)


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Then Elijah, the prophet from Tishbe in Gilead, told King Ahab, "As surely as the Lord God of Israel lives--the God whom I worship and serve--there won't be any dew or rain for several years until I say the word!"


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Then the Lord said to him, "Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. There is a widow there who will feed you. I have given her my instructions."


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So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the city he saw a widow gathering sticks; and he asked her for a cup of water.


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But she said, "I swear by the Lord your God that I haven't a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jar. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I must die of starvation."


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But Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid! Go ahead and cook that 'last meal,' but bake me a little loaf of bread first; and afterwards there will still be enough food for you and your son.


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For the Lord God of Israel says that there will always be plenty of flour and oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!"


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So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her son continued to eat from her supply of flour and oil as long as it was needed.


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For no matter how much they used, there was always plenty left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah!


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"O man of God," she cried, "what have you done to me? Have you come here to punish my sins by killing my son?"


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"Give him to me," Elijah replied. And he took the boy's body from her and carried it upstairs to the guest room where he lived, and laid the body on his bed,


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and then cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, why have you killed the son of this widow with whom I am staying?"


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And he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, please let this child's spirit return to him."


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And the Lord heard Elijah's prayer; and the spirit of the child returned, and he became alive again!


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"Now I know for sure that you are a prophet," she told him afterward, "and that whatever you say is from the Lord!"


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It was three years later that the Lord said to Elijah, "Go and tell King Ahab that I will soon send rain again!"


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Once when Queen Jezebel had tried to kill all of the Lord's prophets, Obadiah had hidden one hundred of them in two caves--fifty in each--and had fed them with bread and water.


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That same day, while Elijah was on the way to see King Ahab, the king said to Obadiah, "We must check every stream and brook to see if we can find enough grass to save at least some of my horses and mules. You go one way and I'll go the other, and we will search the entire land."


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Suddenly Obadiah saw Elijah coming toward him! Obadiah recognized him at once and fell to the ground before him. "Is it really you, my lord Elijah?" he asked.


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For I swear by God that the king has searched every nation and kingdom on earth from end to end to find you. And each time when he was told 'Elijah isn't here,' King Ahab forced the king of that nation to swear to the truth of his claim.


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But as soon as I leave you, the Spirit of the Lord will carry you away, who knows where, and when Ahab comes and can't find you, he will kill me; yet I have been a true servant of the Lord all my life.


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Has no one told you about the time when Queen Jezebel was trying to kill the Lord's prophets, and I hid a hundred of them in two caves and fed them with bread and water?


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But Elijah said, "I swear by the Lord God of the armies of heaven, in whose presence I stand, that I will present myself to Ahab today."


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"So it's you, is it?--the man who brought this disaster upon Israel!" Ahab exclaimed when he saw him.


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"You're talking about yourself," Elijah answered. "For you and your family have refused to obey the Lord and have worshiped Baal instead.


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Now bring all the people of Israel to Mount Carmel, with all 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who are supported by Jezebel."


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Then Elijah talked to them. "How long are you going to waver between two opinions?" he asked the people. "If the Lord is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!"


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Then Elijah spoke again. "I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left," he told them, "but Baal has 450 prophets.


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Now bring two young bulls. The prophets of Baal may choose whichever one they wish and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without putting any fire under the wood; and I will prepare the other young bull and lay it on the wood on the Lord's altar, with no fire under it.


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Then pray to your god, and I will pray to the Lord; and the god who answers by sending fire to light the wood is the true God!" And all the people agreed to this test.


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Then Elijah turned to the prophets of Baal. "You first," he said, "for there are many of you; choose one of the bulls and prepare it and call to your god; but don't put any fire under the wood."


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So they prepared one of the young bulls and placed it on the altar; and they called to Baal all morning, shouting, "O Baal, hear us!" But there was no reply of any kind. Then they began to dance around the altar.


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About noontime, Elijah began mocking them. "You'll have to shout louder than that," he scoffed, "to catch the attention of your god! Perhaps he is talking to someone, or is out sitting on the toilet, or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!"


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So they shouted louder and, as was their custom, cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out.


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They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice, but there was no reply, no voice, no answer.


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Then Elijah called to the people, "Come over here." And they all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down.


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and used the stones to rebuild the Lord's altar. Then he dug a trench about three feet wide around the altar.


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He piled wood upon the altar and cut the young bull into pieces and laid the pieces on the wood. "Fill four barrels with water," he said, "and pour the water over the carcass and the wood." After they had done this he said,


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At the customary time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah walked up to the altar and prayed, "O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, prove today that you are the God of Israel and that I am your servant; prove that I have done all this at your command.


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O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you are God and that you have brought them back to yourself."


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Then, suddenly, fire flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, the dust, and even evaporated all the water in the ditch!


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And when the people saw it, they fell to their faces upon the ground shouting, "Jehovah is God! Jehovah is God!"


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Then Elijah told them to grab the prophets of Baal. "Don't let a single one escape," he commanded. So they seized them all, and Elijah took them to Kishon Brook and killed them there.


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So Ahab prepared a feast. But Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel and got down on his knees, with his face between his knees,


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and said to his servant, "Go and look out toward the sea." He did, but returned to Elijah and told him, "I didn't see anything." Then Elijah told him, "Go again, and again, and again, seven times!"


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Finally, the seventh time, his servant told him, "I saw a little cloud about the size of a man's hand rising from the sea." Then Elijah shouted, "Hurry to Ahab and tell him to get into his chariot and get down the mountain, or he'll be stopped by the rain!"


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And sure enough, the sky was soon black with clouds, and a heavy wind brought a terrific rainstorm. Ahab left hastily for Jezreel,


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and the Lord gave special strength to Elijah so that he was able to run ahead of Ahab's chariot to the entrance of the city!


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When Ahab told Queen Jezebel what Elijah had done, and that he had slaughtered the prophets of Baal,


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she sent this message to Elijah: "You killed my prophets, and now I swear by the gods that I am going to kill you by this time tomorrow night."


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Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day, and sat down under a broom bush and prayed that he might die. "I've had enough," he told the Lord. "Take away my life. I've got to die sometime, and it might as well be now."


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Then he lay down and slept beneath the broom bush. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him to get up and eat!


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He looked around and saw some bread baking on hot stones and a jar of water! So he ate and drank and lay down again.


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Then the angel of the Lord came again and touched him and said, "Get up and eat some more, for there is a long journey ahead of you."


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So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God,


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He replied, "I have worked very hard for the Lord God of the heavens; but the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you and torn down your altars and killed your prophets, and only I am left; and now they are trying to kill me too."


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"Go out and stand before me on the mountain," the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain; it was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.


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And after the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, there was the sound of a gentle whisper.


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When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his scarf and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And a voice said, "Why are you here, Elijah?"


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He replied again, "I have been working very hard for the Lord God of the armies of heaven, but the people have broken their covenant and have torn down your altars; they have killed every one of your prophets except me; and now they are trying to kill me too."


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Then the Lord told him, "Go back by the desert road to Damascus, and when you arrive, anoint Hazael to be king of Syria.


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Then anoint Jehu (son of Nimshi) to be king of Israel, and anoint Elisha (the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah) to replace you as my prophet.


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Anyone who escapes from Hazael shall be killed by Jehu, and those who escape Jehu shall be killed by Elisha!


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So Elijah went and found Elisha who was plowing a field with eleven other teams ahead of him; he was at the end of the line with the last team. Elijah went over to him and threw his coat across his shoulders and walked away again.


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Elisha left the oxen standing there and ran after Elijah and said to him, "First let me go and say good-bye to my father and mother, and then I'll go with you!" Elijah replied, "Go on back! Why all the excitement?"


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Elisha then returned to his oxen, killed them, and used wood from the plow to build a fire to roast their flesh. He passed around the meat to the other plowmen, and they all had a great feast. Then he went with Elijah, as his assistant.


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King Ben-hadad of Syria now mobilized his army and, with thirty-two allied nations and their hordes of chariots and horses, besieged Samaria, the Israeli capital.


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He sent this message into the city to King Ahab of Israel: "Your silver and gold are mine, as are your prettiest wives and the best of your children!"


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Soon Ben-hadad's messengers returned again with another message: "You must not only give me your silver, gold, wives, and children,


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but about this time tomorrow I will send my men to search your palace and the homes of your people, and they will take away whatever they like!"


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Then Ahab summoned his advisors. "Look what this man is doing," he complained to them. "He is stirring up trouble despite the fact that I have already told him he could have my wives and children and silver and gold, just as he demanded."


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So he told the messengers from Ben-hadad, "Tell my lord the king, 'I will give you everything you asked for the first time, but your men may not search the palace and the homes of the people.' " So the messengers returned to Ben-hadad.


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Then the Syrian king sent this message to Ahab: "May the gods do more to me than I am going to do to you if I don't turn Samaria into handfuls of dust!"


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This reply of Ahab's reached Ben-hadad and the other kings as they were drinking in their tents. "Prepare to attack!" Ben-hadad commanded his officers.


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Then a prophet came to see King Ahab and gave him this message from the Lord: "Do you see all these enemy forces? I will deliver them all to you today. Then at last you will know that I am the Lord."


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Ahab asked, "How will he do it?" And the prophet replied, "The Lord says, 'By the troops from the provinces.' " "Shall we attack first?" Ahab asked. "Yes," the prophet answered.


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About noontime, as Ben-hadad and the thirty-two allied kings were still drinking themselves drunk, the first of Ahab's troops marched out of the city.


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Each one killed a Syrian soldier, and suddenly the entire Syrian army panicked and fled. The Israelis chased them, but King Ben-hadad and a few others escaped on horses.


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However, the great bulk of the horses and chariots were captured, and most of the Syrian army was killed in a great slaughter.


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Then the prophet approached King Ahab and said, "Get ready for another attack by the king of Syria."


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For after their defeat, Ben-hadad's officers said to him, "The Israeli God is a god of the hills; that is why they won. But we can beat them easily on the plains.


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Recruit another army like the one you lost; give us the same number of horses, chariots, and men, and we will fight against them in the plains; there's not a shadow of a doubt that we will beat them." So King Ben-hadad did as they suggested.


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The following year he called up the Syrian army and marched out against Israel again, this time at Aphek.


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Israel then mustered its army, set up supply lines, and moved into the battle; but the Israeli army looked like two little flocks of baby goats in comparison to the vast Syrian forces that filled the countryside!


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Then a prophet went to the king of Israel with this message from the Lord: "Because the Syrians have declared, 'The Lord is a God of the hills and not of the plains,' I will help you defeat this vast army, and you shall know that I am indeed the Lord."


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The two armies camped opposite each other for seven days, and on the seventh day the battle began. And the Israelis killed 100,000 Syrian infantrymen that first day.


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The rest fled behind the walls of Aphek, but the wall fell on them and killed another 27,000. Ben-hadad fled into the city and hid in the inner room of one of the houses.


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"Sir," his officers said to him, "we have heard that the kings of Israel are very merciful. Let us wear sackcloth and put ropes on our heads and go out to King Ahab to see if he will let you live."


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So they went to the king of Israel and begged, "Your servant Ben-hadad pleads, 'Let me live!' " "Oh, is he still alive?" the king of Israel asked. "He is my brother!"


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The men were quick to grab this straw of hope and hurried to clinch the matter by exclaiming, "Yes, your brother Ben-hadad!" "Go and get him," the king of Israel told them. And when Ben-hadad arrived, he invited him up into his chariot!


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Ben-hadad told him, "I will restore the cities my father took from your father, and you may establish trading posts in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria."


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Meanwhile, the Lord instructed one of the prophets to say to another man, "Strike me with your sword!" But the man refused.


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Then the prophet told him, "Because you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, a lion shall kill you as soon as you leave me." And sure enough, as he turned to go a lion attacked and killed him.


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Then the prophet turned to another man and said, "Strike me with your sword." And he did, wounding him.


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The prophet waited for the king beside the road, having placed a bandage over his eyes to disguise himself.


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As the king passed by, the prophet called out to him, "Sir, I was in the battle, and a man brought me a prisoner and said, 'Keep this man; if he gets away, you must die, or else pay me $2,000!'


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But while I was busy doing something else, the prisoner disappeared!" "Well, it's your own fault," the king replied. "You'll have to pay."


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Then the prophet yanked off the bandage from his eyes, and the king recognized him as one of the prophets.


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Then the prophet told him, "The Lord says, 'Because you have spared the man I said must die, now you must die in his place, and your people shall perish instead of his.' "


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One day the king talked to him about selling him this land. "I want it for a garden," the king explained, "because it's so convenient to the palace." He offered cash or, if Naboth preferred, a piece of better land in trade.


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So Ahab went back to the palace angry and sullen. He refused to eat and went to bed with his face to the wall!


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"What in the world is the matter?" his wife, Jezebel, asked him. "Why aren't you eating? What has made you so upset and angry?"


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"Are you the king of Israel or not?" Jezebel demanded. "Get up and eat and don't worry about it. I'll get you Naboth's vineyard!"


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So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, sealed them with his seal, and addressed them to the civic leaders of Jezreel, where Naboth lived.


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In her letter she commanded: "Call the citizens together for fasting and prayer. Then summon Naboth,


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and find two scoundrels who will accuse him of cursing God and the king. Then take him out and execute him."


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Then two men who had no conscience accused him of cursing God and the king; and he was dragged outside the city and stoned to death.


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When Jezebel heard the news, she said to Ahab, "You know the vineyard Naboth wouldn't sell you? Well, you can have it now! He's dead!"


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Give him this message from me: 'Isn't killing Naboth bad enough? Must you rob him too? Because you have done this, dogs shall lick your blood outside the city just as they licked the blood of Naboth!' "


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"So my enemy has found me!" Ahab exclaimed to Elijah. "Yes," Elijah answered, "I have come to place God's curse upon you because you have sold yourself to the devil.


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The Lord is going to bring great harm to you and sweep you away; he will not let a single one of your male descendants survive!


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He is going to destroy your family as he did the family of King Jeroboam and the family of King Baasha, for you have made him very angry and have led all of Israel into sin.


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The members of your family who die in the city shall be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the country shall be eaten by vultures."


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No one else was so completely sold out to the devil as Ahab, for his wife, Jezebel, encouraged him to do every sort of evil.


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He was especially guilty because he worshiped idols just as the Amorites did--the people whom the Lord had chased out of the land to make room for the people of Israel.


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When Ahab heard these prophecies, he tore his clothing, put on rags, fasted, slept in sackcloth, and went about in deep humility.


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"Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has done this, I will not do what I promised during his lifetime; it will happen to his sons; I will destroy his descendants."


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Ahab said to his officials, "Do you realize that the Syrians are still occupying our city of Ramoth-gilead? And we're sitting here without doing a thing about it!"


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Then he turned to Jehoshaphat and asked him, "Will you send your army with mine to recover Ramoth-gilead?" And King Jehoshaphat of Judah replied, "Of course! You and I are brothers; my people are yours to command, and my horses are at your service.


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So King Ahab summoned his 400 heathen prophets and asked them, "Shall I attack Ramoth-gilead, or not?" And they all said, "Yes, go ahead, for God will help you conquer it."


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"Well, there's one," King Ahab replied, "but I hate him, for he never prophesies anything good. He always has something gloomy to say. His name is Micaiah, the son of Imlah." "Oh, come now!" Jehoshaphat replied. "Don't talk like that!"


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Meanwhile, all the prophets continued prophesying before the two kings, who were dressed in their royal robes and were sitting on thrones placed on the threshing floor near the city gate.


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One of the prophets, Zedekiah (son of Chenaanah), made some iron horns and declared, "The Lord promises that you will push the Syrians around with these horns until they are destroyed."


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And all the others agreed. "Go ahead and attack Ramoth-gilead," they said, "for the Lord will cause you to triumph!"


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The messenger who went to get Micaiah told him what the other prophets were saying and urged him to say the same thing.


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When he arrived, the king asked him, "Micaiah, shall we attack Ramoth-gilead, or not?" "Why, of course! Go right ahead!" Micaiah told him. "You will have a great victory, for the Lord will cause you to conquer!"


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Then Micaiah told him, "I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains as sheep without a shepherd. And the Lord said, 'Their king is dead; send them to their homes.' "


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Turning to Jehoshaphat, Ahab complained, "Didn't I tell you this would happen? He never tells me anything good. It's always bad."


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Then Micaiah said, "Listen to this further word from the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and the armies of heaven stood around him.


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"Then the Lord said, 'Who will entice Ahab to go and die at Ramoth-gilead?' "Various suggestions were made,


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'How?' the Lord asked. "And he replied, 'I will go as a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.' "And the Lord said, 'That will do it; you will succeed. Go ahead.'


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"Don't you see? The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets, but the fact of the matter is that the Lord has decreed disaster upon you."


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Then Zedekiah (son of Chenaanah) walked over and slapped Micaiah on the face. "When did the Spirit of the Lord leave me and speak to you?" he demanded.


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And Micaiah replied, "You will have the answer to your question when you find yourself hiding in an inner room."


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Then King Ahab ordered Micaiah's arrest. "Take him to Amon, the mayor of the city, and to my son Joash.


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Tell them, 'The king says to put this fellow in jail and feed him with bread and water--and only enough to keep him alive --until I return in peace.' "


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"If you return in peace," Micaiah replied, "it will prove that the Lord has not spoken through me." Then he turned to the people standing nearby and said, "Take note of what I've said."


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Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, "You wear your royal robes, but I'll not wear mine!" So Ahab went into the battle disguised in an ordinary soldier's uniform.


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For the king of Syria had commanded his thirty-two chariot captains to fight no one except King Ahab himself.


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When they saw King Jehoshaphat in his royal robes, they thought, "That's the man we're after." So they wheeled around to attack him.


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However, someone shot an arrow at random and it struck King Ahab between the joints of his armor. "Take me out of the battle, for I am badly wounded," he groaned to his chariot driver.


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The battle became more and more intense as the day wore on, and King Ahab went back in, propped up in his chariot with the blood from his wound running down onto the floorboards. Finally, toward evening, he died.


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When his chariot and armor were washed beside the pool of Samaria, where the prostitutes bathed, dogs came and licked the king's blood just as the Lord had said would happen.


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The rest of Ahab's history--including the story of the ivory palace and the cities he built--is written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.


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Meanwhile, over in Judah, Jehoshaphat the son of Asa had become king during the fourth year of the reign of King Ahab of Israel.


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Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he ascended the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for twenty-five years. His mother was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.


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He did as his father Asa had done, obeying the Lord in all but one thing: he did not destroy the shrines on the hills, so the people sacrificed and burned incense there.


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The rest of the deeds of Jehoshaphat and his heroic achievements and his wars are described in The Annals of the Kings of Judah.


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He also closed all the houses of male prostitution that still continued from the days of his father Asa.


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King Jehoshaphat built great freighters to sail to Ophir for gold; but they never arrived, for they were wrecked at Ezion-geber.


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Ahaziah, King Ahab's son and successor, had proposed to Jehoshaphat that his men go, too, but Jehoshaphat had refused the offer.


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When King Jehoshaphat died he was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem, the city of his forefather David; and his son Jehoram took the throne.


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It was during the seventeenth year of the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah that Ahaziah, Ahab's son, began to reign over Israel in Samaria; and he reigned two years.


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But he was not a good king, for he followed in the footsteps of his father and mother and of Jeroboam,


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who had led Israel into the sin of worshiping idols. So Ahaziah made the Lord God of Israel very angry.


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After King Ahab's death the nation of Moab declared its independence and refused to pay tribute to Israel any longer.


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Israel's new king, Ahaziah, had fallen off the upstairs porch of his palace at Samaria and was seriously injured. He sent messengers to the temple of the god Baal-zebub at Ekron to ask whether he would recover.


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But an angel of the Lord told Elijah the prophet, "Go and meet the messengers and ask them, 'Is it true that there is no God in Israel? Is that why you are going to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to ask whether the king will get well?


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Because King Ahaziah has done this, the Lord says that he will never leave the bed he is lying on; he will surely die.' " When Elijah told the messengers this,


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"A man came up to us," they said, "and told us to go back to the king and tell him, 'The Lord wants to know why you are asking questions of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron. Is it because there is no God in Israel? Now, since you have done this, you will not leave the bed you are lying on; you will surely die.' "


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"He was a hairy man," they replied, "with a wide leather belt." "It was Elijah the prophet!" the king exclaimed.


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Then he sent an army captain with fifty soldiers to arrest him. They found him sitting on top of a hill. The captain said to him, "O man of God, the king has commanded you to come along with us."


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But Elijah replied, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and destroy you and your fifty men!" Then lightning struck them and killed them all!


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So the king sent another captain with fifty men to demand, "O man of God, the king says that you must come down right away."


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Elijah replied, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and destroy you and your fifty men." And again the fire from God burned them up.


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Once more the king sent fifty men, but this time the captain fell to his knees before Elijah and pleaded with him, "O man of God, please spare my life and the lives of these, your fifty servants.


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Then the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, "Don't be afraid. Go with him." So Elijah went to the king.


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"Why did you send messengers to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to ask about your sickness?" Elijah demanded. "Is it because there is no God in Israel to ask? Because you have done this, you shall not leave this bed; you will surely die."


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So Ahaziah died as the Lord had predicted through Elijah, and his brother Joram became the new king--for Ahaziah did not have a son to succeed him. This occurred in the second year of the reign of King Jehoram (son of Jehoshaphat) of Judah.


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Elijah said to Elisha as they left Gilgal, "Stay here, for the Lord has told me to go to Bethel." But Elisha replied, "I swear to God that I won't leave you!" So they went on together to Bethel.


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There the young prophets of Bethel Seminary came out to meet them and asked Elisha, "Did you know that the Lord is going to take Elijah away from you today?" "Quiet!" Elisha snapped. "Of course I know it."


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Then Elijah said to Elisha, "Please stay here in Bethel, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho." But Elisha replied again, "I swear to God that I won't leave you." So they went on together to Jericho.


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Then the students at Jericho Seminary came to Elisha and asked him, "Do you know that the Lord is going to take away your master today?" "Will you please be quiet?" he commanded. "Of course I know it!"


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Then Elijah said to Elisha, "Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan River." But Elisha replied as before, "I swear to God that I won't leave you."


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So they went on together and stood beside the Jordan River as fifty of the young prophets watched from a distance.


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Then Elijah folded his cloak together and struck the water with it; and the river divided and they went across on dry ground!


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When they arrived on the other side Elijah said to Elisha, "What wish shall I grant you before I am taken away?" And Elisha replied, "Please grant me twice as much prophetic power as you have had."


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"You have asked a hard thing," Elijah replied. "If you see me when I am taken from you, then you will get your request. But if not, then you won't."


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As they were walking along, talking, suddenly a chariot of fire, drawn by horses of fire, appeared and drove between them, separating them, and Elijah was carried by a whirlwind into heaven.


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Elisha saw it and cried out, "My father! My father! The Chariot of Israel and the charioteers!" As they disappeared from sight he tore his robe.


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and struck the water with it. "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" he cried out. And the water parted and Elisha went across!


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When the young prophets of Jericho saw what had happened, they exclaimed, "The spirit of Elijah rests upon Elisha!" And they went to meet him and greeted him respectfully.


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"Sir," they said, "just say the word and fifty of our best athletes will search the wilderness for your master; perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has left him on some mountain or in some ravine." "No," Elisha said, "don't bother."


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But they kept urging until he was embarrassed and finally said, "All right, go ahead." Then fifty men searched for three days, but didn't find him.


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Now a delegation of the city officials of Jericho visited Elisha. "We have a problem," they told him. "This city is located in beautiful natural surroundings, as you can see; but the water is bad and causes our women to have miscarriages."


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Then he went out to the city well and threw the salt in and declared, "The Lord has healed these waters. They shall no longer cause death or miscarriage."


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From Jericho he went to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, a gang of young men from the city began mocking and making fun of him because of his bald head.


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He turned around and cursed them in the name of the Lord; and two female bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of them.


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Ahab's son Joram began his reign over Israel during the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah; and he reigned twelve years. His capital was Samaria.


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He was a very evil man, but not as wicked as his father and mother had been, for he at least tore down the pillar to Baal that his father had made.


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Nevertheless he still clung to the great sin of Jeroboam (the son of Nebat), who had led the people of Israel into the worship of idols.


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King Mesha of Moab and his people were sheep ranchers. They paid Israel an annual tribute of 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams;


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sent this message to King Jehoshaphat of Judah: "The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you help me fight him?" "Of course I will," Jehoshaphat replied. "My people and horses are yours to command.


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So their two armies, now joined also by troops from Edom, moved along a roundabout route through the wilderness for seven days; but there was no water for the men or their pack animals.


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"Oh, what shall we do?" the king of Israel cried out. "The Lord has brought us here to let the king of Moab defeat us."


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But Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, asked, "Isn't there a prophet of the Lord with us? If so, we can find out what to do!" "Elisha is here," one of the king of Israel's officers replied. Then he added, "He was Elijah's assistant."


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"Fine," Jehoshaphat said. "He's just the man we want." So the kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom went to consult Elisha.


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"I want no part of you," Elisha snarled at King Jehoram of Israel. "Go to the false prophets of your father and mother!" But King Jehoram replied, "No! For it is the Lord who has called us here to be destroyed by the king of Moab!"


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"I swear by the Lord God that I wouldn't bother with you except for the presence of King Jehoshaphat of Judah," Elisha replied.


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"Now bring me someone to play the lute." And as the lute was played, the message of the Lord came to Elisha:


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You won't see wind nor rain, but this valley will be filled with water, and you will have plenty for yourselves and for your animals!


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You will conquer the best of their cities--even those that are fortified--and ruin all the good land with stones."


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And sure enough, the next day at about the time when the morning sacrifice was offered--look! Water! It was flowing from the direction of Edom, and soon there was water everywhere.


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Meanwhile, when the people of Moab heard about the three armies marching against them, they mobilized every man who could fight, old and young, and stationed themselves along their frontier.


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"Blood!" they exclaimed. "The three armies have attacked and killed each other! Let's go and collect the loot!"


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But when they arrived at the Israeli camp, the army of Israel rushed out and began killing them; and the army of Moab fled. Then the men of Israel moved forward into the land of Moab, destroying everything as they went.


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They destroyed the cities, threw stones on every good piece of land, stopped up the wells, and felled the fruit trees; finally, only Fort Kir-hareseth was left, but even that finally fell to them.


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When the king of Moab saw that the battle had been lost, he led 700 of his swordsmen in a last desperate attempt to break through to the king of Edom; but he failed.


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Then he took his oldest son, who was to have been the next king, and to the horror of the Israeli army, killed him and sacrificed him as a burnt offering upon the wall. So the army of Israel turned back in disgust to their own land.


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One day the wife of one of the seminary students came to Elisha to tell him of her husband's death. He was a man who had loved God, she said. But he had owed some money when he died, and now the creditor was demanding it back. If she didn't pay, he said he would take her two sons as his slaves.


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"What shall I do?" Elisha asked. "How much food do you have in the house?" "Nothing at all, except a jar of olive oil," she replied.


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"Go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Then pour olive oil from your jar into the pots and pans, setting them aside as they are filled!"


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Soon every container was full to the brim! "Bring me another jar," she said to her sons. "There aren't any more!" they told her. And then the oil stopped flowing!


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When she told the prophet what had happened, he said to her, "Go and sell the oil and pay your debt, and there will be enough money left for you and your sons to live on!"


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One day Elisha went to Shunem. A prominent woman of the city invited him in to eat, and afterwards, whenever he passed that way, he stopped for dinner.


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Let's make a little room for him on the roof; we can put in a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, and he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by."


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Once when he was resting in the room he said to his servant Gehazi, "Tell the woman I want to speak to her." When she came,


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he said to Gehazi, "Tell her that we appreciate her kindness to us. Now ask her what we can do for her. Does she want me to put in a good word for her to the king or to the general of the army?" "No," she replied, "I am perfectly content."


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"What can we do for her?" he asked Gehazi afterwards. He suggested, "She doesn't have a son, and her husband is an old man."


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"Call her back again," Elisha told him. When she returned, he talked to her as she stood in the doorway.


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"Next year at about this time you shall have a son!" "O man of God," she exclaimed, "don't lie to me like that!"


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But it was true; the woman soon conceived and had a baby boy the following year, just as Elisha had predicted.


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One day when her child was older, he went out to visit his father, who was working with the reapers.


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He complained about a headache and soon was moaning in pain. His father said to one of the servants, "Carry him home to his mother."


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then she sent a message to her husband: "Send one of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the prophet and come right back."


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So she saddled the donkey and said to the servant, "Hurry! Don't slow down for my comfort unless I tell you to."


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As she approached Mount Carmel, Elisha saw her in the distance and said to Gehazi, "Look, that woman from Shunem is coming.


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Run and meet her and ask her what the trouble is. See if her husband is all right and if the child is well." "Yes," she told Gehazi, "everything is fine."


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But when she came to Elisha at the mountain she fell to the ground before him and caught hold of his feet. Gehazi began to push her away, but the prophet said, "Let her alone; something is deeply troubling her and the Lord hasn't told me what it is."


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Then he said to Gehazi, "Quick, take my staff! Don't talk to anyone along the way. Hurry! Lay the staff upon the child's face."


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But the boy's mother said, "I swear to God that I won't go home without you." So Elisha returned with her.


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Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff upon the child's face, but nothing happened. There was no sign of life. He returned to meet Elisha and told him, "The child is still dead."


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Then he lay upon the child's body, placing his mouth upon the child's mouth, and his eyes upon the child's eyes, and his hands upon the child's hands. And the child's body began to grow warm again!


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Then the prophet went down and walked back and forth in the house a few times; returning upstairs, he stretched himself again upon the child. This time the little boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!


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Then the prophet summoned Gehazi. "Call her!" he said. And when she came in, he said, "Here's your son!"


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Elisha now returned to Gilgal, but there was a famine in the land. One day as he was teaching the young prophets, he said to Gehazi, "Make some stew for supper for these men."


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One of the young men went out into the field to gather vegetables and came back with some wild gourds. He shredded them and put them into a kettle without realizing that they were poisonous.


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"Bring me some meal," Elisha said. He threw it into the kettle and said, "Now it's all right! Go ahead and eat!" And then it didn't harm them.


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One day a man from Baal-shalishah brought Elisha a sack of fresh corn and twenty individual loaves of barley bread made from the first grain of his harvest. Elisha told Gehazi to use it to feed the young prophets.


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"What?" Gehazi exclaimed. "Feed one hundred men with only this?" But Elisha said, "Go ahead, for the Lord says there will be plenty for all, and some will even be left over!"


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The king of Syria had high admiration for Naaman, the commander-in-chief of his army, for he had led his troops to many glorious victories. So he was a great hero, but he was a leper.


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Bands of Syrians had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a little girl who had been given to Naaman's wife as a maid.


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One day the little girl said to her mistress, "I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy!"


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"Go and visit the prophet," the king told him. "I will send a letter of introduction for you to carry to the king of Israel." So Naaman started out, taking gifts of $20,000 in silver, $60,000 in gold, and ten suits of clothing.


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The letter to the king of Israel said: "The man bringing this letter is my servant Naaman; I want you to heal him of his leprosy."


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When the king of Israel read it, he tore his clothes and said, "This man sends me a leper to heal! Am I God, that I can kill and give life? He is only trying to get an excuse to invade us again."


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But when Elisha the prophet heard about the king of Israel's plight, he sent this message to him: "Why are you so upset? Send Naaman to me, and he will learn that there is a true prophet of God here in Israel."


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Elisha sent a messenger out to tell him to go and wash in the Jordan River seven times and he would be healed of every trace of his leprosy!


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But Naaman was angry and stalked away. "Look," he said, "I thought at least he would come out and talk to me! I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call upon the name of the Lord his God and heal me!


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Aren't the Abana River and Pharpar River of Damascus better than all the rivers of Israel put together? If it's rivers I need, I'll wash at home and get rid of my leprosy." So he went away in a rage.


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But his officers tried to reason with him and said, "If the prophet had told you to do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply to go and wash and be cured!"


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So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the prophet had told him to. And his flesh became as healthy as a little child's, and he was healed!


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Then he and his entire party went back to find the prophet; they stood humbly before him and Naaman said, "I know at last that there is no God in all the world except in Israel; now please accept my gifts."


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But Elisha replied, "I swear by Jehovah my God that I will not accept them." Naaman urged him to take them, but he absolutely refused.


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"Well," Naaman said, "all right. But please give me two muleloads of earth to take back with me, for from now on I will never again offer any burnt offerings or sacrifices to any other god except the Lord.


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However, may the Lord pardon me this one thing--when my master the king goes into the temple of the god Rimmon to worship there and leans on my arm, may the Lord pardon me when I bow too."


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But Gehazi, Elisha's servant, said to himself, "My master shouldn't have let this fellow get away without taking his gifts. I will chase after him and get something from him."


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So Gehazi caught up with him. When Naaman saw him coming, he jumped down from his chariot and ran to meet him. "Is everything all right?" he asked.


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"Yes," he said, "but my master has sent me to tell you that two young prophets from the hills of Ephraim have just arrived, and he would like $2,000 in silver and two suits to give to them."


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"Take $4,000," Naaman insisted. He gave him two expensive robes, tied up the money in two bags, and gave them to two of his servants to carry back with Gehazi.


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But when they arrived at the hill where Elisha lived, Gehazi took the bags from the servants and sent the men back. Then he hid the money in his house.


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When he went in to his master, Elisha asked him, "Where have you been, Gehazi?" "I haven't been anywhere," he replied.


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But Elisha asked him, "Don't you realize that I was there in thought when Naaman stepped down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to receive money and clothing and olive farms and vineyards and sheep and oxen and servants?


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Because you have done this, Naaman's leprosy shall be upon you and upon your children and your children's children forever." And Gehazi walked from the room a leper, his skin as white as snow.


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One day the seminary students came to Elisha and told him, "As you can see, our dormitory is too small.


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Tell us, as our president, whether we can build a new one down beside the Jordan River, where there are plenty of logs." "All right," he told them, "go ahead."


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but as one of them was chopping, his axhead fell into the river. "Oh, sir," he cried, "it was borrowed!"


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"Where did it fall?" the prophet asked. The youth showed him the place, and Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water; and the axhead rose to the surface and floated!


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Once when the king of Syria was at war with Israel, he said to his officers, "We will mobilize our forces at . . ." (naming the place).


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Immediately Elisha warned the king of Israel, "Don't go near . . ." (naming the same place) "for the Syrians are planning to mobilize their troops there!"


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The king sent a scout to see if Elisha was right, and sure enough, he had saved him from disaster. This happened several times.


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The king of Syria was puzzled. He called together his officers and demanded, "Which of you is the traitor? Who has been informing the king of Israel about my plans?"


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"It's not us, sir," one of the officers replied. "Elisha, the prophet, tells the king of Israel even the words you speak in the privacy of your bedroom!"


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"Go and find out where he is, and we'll send troops to seize him," the king exclaimed. And the report came back, "Elisha is at Dothan."


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So one night the king of Syria sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city.


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When the prophet's servant got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. "Alas, my master, what shall we do now?" he cried out to Elisha.


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Then Elisha prayed, "Lord, open his eyes and let him see!" And the Lord opened the young man's eyes so that he could see horses of fire and chariots of fire everywhere upon the mountain!


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Then Elisha went out and told them, "You've come the wrong way! This isn't the right city! Follow me and I will take you to the man you're looking for." And he led them to Samaria!


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As soon as they arrived Elisha prayed, "Lord, now open their eyes and let them see." And the Lord did, and they discovered that they were in Samaria, the capital city of Israel!


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When the king of Israel saw them, he shouted to Elisha, "Oh, sir, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?"


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"Of course not!" Elisha told him. "Do we kill prisoners of war? Give them food and drink and send them home again."


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So the king made a great feast for them and then sent them home to their king. And after that the Syrian raiders stayed away from the land of Israel.


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As a result there was a great famine in the city, and after a long while even a donkey's head sold for fifty dollars and a pint of dove's dung brought three dollars!


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One day as the king of Israel was walking along the wall of the city, a woman called to him, "Help, my lord the king!"


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"If the Lord doesn't help you, what can I do?" he retorted. "I have neither food nor wine to give you.


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However, what's the matter?" She replied, "This woman proposed that we eat my son one day and her son the next.


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So we boiled my son and ate him, but the next day when I said, 'Kill your son so we can eat him,' she hid him."


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When the king heard this he tore his clothes. (The people watching noticed through the rip he tore in them that he was wearing an inner robe made of sackcloth next to his flesh.)


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Elisha was sitting in his house at a meeting with the elders of Israel when the king sent a messenger to summon him. But before the messenger arrived Elisha said to the elders, "This murderer has sent a man to kill me. When he arrives, shut the door and keep him out, for his master will soon follow him."


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While Elisha was still saying this, the messenger arrived  followed by the king. "The Lord has caused this mess," the king stormed. "Why should I expect any help from him?"


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Elisha replied, "The Lord says that by this time tomorrow two gallons of flour or four gallons of barley grain will be sold in the markets of Samaria for a dollar!"


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The officer assisting the king said, "That couldn't happen if the Lord made windows in the sky!" But Elisha replied, "You will see it happen, but you won't be able to buy any of it!"


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Now there were four lepers sitting outside the city gates. "Why sit here until we die?" they asked each other.


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"We will starve if we stay here and we will starve if we go back into the city; so we might as well go out and surrender to the Syrian army. If they let us live, so much the better; but if they kill us, we would have died anyway."


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(For the Lord had made the whole Syrian army hear the clatter of speeding chariots and a loud galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. "The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us," they cried out.


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So they panicked and fled into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else.)


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When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp they went into one tent after another, eating, drinking wine, and carrying out silver and gold and clothing and hiding it.


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Finally they said to each other, "This isn't right. This is wonderful news, and we aren't sharing it with anyone! Even if we wait until morning, some terrible calamity will certainly fall upon us; come on, let's go back and tell the people at the palace."


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So they went back to the city and told the watchmen what had happened--they had gone out to the Syrian camp and no one was there! The horses and donkeys were tethered and the tents were all in order, but there was not a soul around.


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The king got out of bed and told his officers, "I know what has happened. The Syrians know we are starving, so they have left their camp and have hidden in the fields, thinking that we will be lured out of the city. Then they will attack us and make slaves of us and get in."


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One of his officers replied, "We'd better send out scouts to see. Let them take five of the remaining horses--if something happens to the animals it won't be any greater loss than if they stay here and die with the rest of us!"


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Four chariot-horses were found and the king sent out two charioteers to see where the Syrians had gone.


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They followed a trail of clothing and equipment all the way to the Jordan River--thrown away by the Syrians in their haste. The scouts returned and told the king,


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and the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So it was true that two gallons of flour and four gallons of barley were sold that day for one dollar, just as the Lord had said!


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The king appointed his special assistant to control the traffic at the gate, but he was knocked down and trampled and killed as the people rushed out. This is what Elisha had predicted on the previous day when the king had come to arrest him,


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and the prophet had told the king that flour and barley would sell for so little on the following day.


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The king's officer had replied, "That couldn't happen even if the Lord opened the windows of heaven!" And the prophet had said, "You will see it happen, but you won't be able to buy any of it!"


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Elisha had told the woman whose son he had brought back to life, "Take your family and move to some other country, for the Lord has called down a famine on Israel that will last for seven years."


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After the famine ended, she returned to the land of Israel and went to see the king about getting back her house and land.


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Just as she came in, the king was talking with Gehazi, Elisha's servant, and saying, "Tell me some stories of the great things Elisha has done."


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And Gehazi was telling the king about the time when Elisha brought a little boy back to life. At that very moment, the mother of the boy walked in! "Oh, sir!" Gehazi exclaimed. "Here is the woman now, and this is her son--the very one Elisha brought back to life!"


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"Is this true?" the king asked her. And she told him that it was. So he directed one of his officials to see to it that everything she had owned was restored to her, plus the value of any crops that had been harvested during her absence.


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Afterwards Elisha went to Damascus (the capital of Syria), where King Ben-hadad lay sick. Someone told the king that the prophet had come.


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When the king heard the news, he said to Hazael, "Take a present to the man of God and tell him to ask the Lord whether I will get well again."


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So Hazael took forty camel-loads of the best produce of the land as presents for Elisha and said to him, "Your son Ben-hadad, the king of Syria, has sent me to ask you whether he will recover."


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"What's the matter, sir?" Hazael asked him. Elisha replied, "I know the terrible things you will do to the people of Israel: you will burn their forts, kill the young men, dash their babies against the rocks, and rip open the bellies of the pregnant women!"


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"Am I a dog?" Hazael asked him. "I would never do that sort of thing." But Elisha replied, "The Lord has shown me that you are going to be the king of Syria."


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When Hazael went back, the king asked him, "What did he tell you?" And Hazael replied, "He told me that you would recover."


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But the next day Hazael took a blanket and dipped it in water and held it over the king's face until he smothered to death. And Hazael became king instead.


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King Jehoram, the son of King Jehoshaphat of Judah, began his reign during the fifth year of the reign of King Joram of Israel, the son of Ahab.


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But he was as wicked as Ahab and the other kings of Israel; he even married one of Ahab's daughters.


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Nevertheless, because God had promised his servant David that he would watch over and guide his descendants, he did not destroy Judah.


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King Jehoram tried unsuccessfully to crush the rebellion: he crossed the Jordan River and attacked the city of Zair, but was quickly surrounded by the army of Edom. Under cover of night he broke through their ranks, but his army deserted him and fled.


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He died and was buried in the royal cemetery in the City of David--the old section of Jerusalem. Then his son Ahaziah became the new king


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Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, but he reigned only one year, in Jerusalem. His mother was Athaliah, the granddaughter of King Omri of Israel.


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He was an evil king, just as all of King Ahab's descendants were--for he was related to Ahab by marriage.


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He joined King Joram of Israel (son of Ahab) in his war against Hazael, the king of Syria, at Ramoth-gilead. King Joram was wounded in the battle,


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so he went to Jezreel to rest and recover from his wounds. While he was there, King Ahaziah of Judah (son of Jehoram) came to visit him.


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Meanwhile Elisha had summoned one of the young prophets. "Get ready to go to Ramoth-gilead," he told him. "Take this vial of oil with you


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and find Jehu (the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi). Call him into a private room away from his friends,


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and pour the oil over his head. Tell him that the Lord has anointed him to be the king of Israel; then run for your life!"


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he found Jehu sitting around with the other army officers. "I have a message for you, sir," he said. "For which one of us?" Jehu asked. "For you," he replied.


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So Jehu left the others and went into the house, and the young man poured the oil over his head and said, "The Lord God of Israel says, 'I anoint you king of the Lord's people, Israel.


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You are to destroy the family of Ahab; you will avenge the murder of my prophets and of all my other people who were killed by Jezebel.


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I will destroy the family of Ahab as I destroyed the families of Jeroboam (son of Nebat) and of Baasha (son of Ahijah).


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Dogs shall eat Ahab's wife Jezebel at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.' " Then he opened the door and ran.


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Jehu went back to his friends and one of them asked him, "What did that crazy fellow want? Is everything all right?" "You know very well who he was and what he wanted," Jehu replied.


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"No, we don't," they said. "Tell us." So he told them what the man had said and that he had been anointed king of Israel!


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That is how Jehu (son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi) rebelled against King Joram. (King Joram had been with the army at Ramoth-gilead, defending Israel against the forces of King Hazael of Syria.


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But he had returned to Jezreel to recover from his wounds.) "Since you want me to be king," Jehu told the men who were with him, "don't let anyone escape to Jezreel to report what we have done."


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Then Jehu jumped into a chariot and rode to Jezreel himself to find King Joram, who was lying there wounded. (King Ahaziah of Judah was there too, for he had gone to visit him.)


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The watchman on the Tower of Jezreel saw Jehu and his company approaching and shouted, "Someone is coming." "Send out a rider and find out if he is friend or foe," King Joram shouted back.


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So a soldier rode out to meet Jehu. "The king wants to know whether you are friend or foe," he demanded. "Do you come in peace?" Jehu replied, "What do you know about peace? Get behind me!" The watchman called out to the king that the messenger had met them but was not returning.


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So the king sent out a second rider. He rode up to them and demanded in the name of the king to know whether their intentions were friendly or not. Jehu answered, "What do you know about friendliness? Get behind me!"


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"He isn't returning either!" the watchman exclaimed. "It must be Jehu, for he is driving so furiously."


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"Quick! Get my chariot ready!" King Joram commanded. Then he and King Ahaziah of Judah rode out to meet Jehu. They met him at the field of Naboth,


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and King Joram demanded, "Do you come as a friend, Jehu?" Jehu replied, "How can there be friendship as long as the evils of your mother Jezebel are all around us?"


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Then King Joram reined the chariot-horses around and fled, shouting to King Ahaziah, "There is treachery, Ahaziah! Treason!"


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Then Jehu drew his bow with his full strength and shot Joram between the shoulders; and the arrow pierced his heart, and he sank down dead in his chariot.


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Jehu said to Bidkar, his assistant, "Throw him into the field of Naboth, for once when you and I were riding along behind his father Ahab, the Lord revealed this prophecy to me:


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'I will repay him here on Naboth's property for the murder of Naboth and his sons.' So throw him out on Naboth's field, just as the Lord said."


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Meanwhile, King Ahaziah of Judah had fled along the road to Beth-haggan. Jehu rode after him, shouting, "Shoot him too." So they shot him in his chariot at the place where the road climbs to Gur, near Ibleam. He was able to go on as far as Megiddo, but died there.


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When Jezebel heard that Jehu had come to Jezreel, she painted her eyelids and fixed her hair and sat at a window.


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When Jehu entered the gate of the palace, she shouted at him, "How are you today, you murderer! You son of a Zimri who murdered his master!"


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He looked up and saw her at the window and shouted, "Who is on my side?" And two or three eunuchs looked out at him.


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"Throw her down!" he yelled. So they threw her out the window, and her blood spattered against the wall and on the horses; and she was trampled by the horses' hoofs.


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Then Jehu went into the palace for lunch. Afterwards he said, "Someone go and bury this cursed woman, for she is the daughter of a king."


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When they returned and told him, he remarked, "That is just what the Lord said would happen. He told Elijah the prophet that dogs would eat her flesh


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and that her body would be scattered like manure upon the field, so that no one could tell whose it was."


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Then Jehu wrote a letter to the city council of Samaria and to the guardians of Ahab's seventy sons--all of whom were living there.


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select the best one of Ahab's sons to be your king, and prepare to fight for his throne. For you have chariots and horses and a fortified city and an armory."


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But they were too frightened to do it. "Two kings couldn't stand against this man! What can we do?" they said.


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So the manager of palace affairs and the city manager, together with the city council and the guardians of Ahab's sons, sent him this message: "Jehu, we are your servants and will do anything you tell us to. We have decided that you should be our king instead of one of Ahab's sons."


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Jehu responded with this message: "If you are on my side and are going to obey me, bring the heads of your master's sons to me at Jezreel at about this time tomorrow." (These seventy sons of King Ahab were living in the homes of the chief men of the city, where they had been raised since childhood.)


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When the letter arrived, all seventy of them were murdered, and their heads were packed into baskets and presented to Jehu at Jezreel.


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When a messenger told Jehu that the heads of the king's sons had arrived, he said to pile them in two heaps at the entrance of the city gate, and to leave them there until the next morning.


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In the morning he went out and spoke to the crowd that had gathered around them. "You aren't to blame," he told them. "I conspired against my master and killed him, but I didn't kill his sons! The


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Lord has done that, for everything he says comes true. He declared through his servant Elijah that this would happen to Ahab's descendants."


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Jehu then killed all the rest of the members of the family of Ahab who were in Jezreel, as well as all of his important officials, personal friends, and private chaplains. Finally, no one was left who had been close to him in any way.


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While he was there he met the brothers of King Ahaziah of Judah. "Who are you?" he asked them. And they replied, "We are brothers of King Ahaziah. We are going to Samaria to visit the sons of King Ahab and of the Queen Mother, Jezebel."


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"Grab them!" Jehu shouted to his men. And he took them out to the cistern and killed all forty-two of them.


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As he left the inn, he met Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, who was coming to meet him. After they had greeted each other, Jehu said to him, "Are you as loyal to me as I am to you?" "Yes," Jehonadab replied. "Then give me your hand," Jehu said, and he helped him into the royal chariot.


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"Now come along with me," Jehu said, "and see how much I have done for the Lord." So Jehonadab rode along with him.


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When he arrived in Samaria he butchered all of Ahab's friends and relatives, just as Elijah, speaking for the Lord, had predicted. Then Jehu called a meeting of all the people of the city and said to them, "Ahab hardly worshiped Baal at all in comparison to the way I am going to!


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See to it that every one of them comes, for we worshipers of Baal are going to have a great celebration to praise him. Any of Baal's worshipers who don't come will be put to death." But Jehu's plan was to exterminate them.


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He sent messengers throughout all Israel summoning those who worshiped Baal; and they all came and filled the temple of Baal from one end to the other.


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He instructed the head of the robing room, "Be sure that every worshiper wears one of the special robes."


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Then Jehu and Jehonadab (son of Rechab) went into the temple to address the people: "Check to be sure that only those who worship Baal are here; don't let anyone in who worships the Lord!"


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As the priests of Baal began offering sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu surrounded the building with eighty of his men and told them, "If you let anyone escape, you'll pay for it with your own life."


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As soon as he had finished sacrificing the burnt offering, Jehu went out and told his officers and men, "Go in and kill the whole bunch of them. Don't let a single one escape." So they slaughtered them all and dragged their bodies outside. Then Jehu's men went into the inner temple,


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However, he didn't destroy the gold calves at Bethel and Dan--this was the great sin of Jeroboam (son of Nebat), for it resulted in all Israel sinning.


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Afterwards the Lord said to Jehu, "You have done well in following my instructions to destroy the dynasty of Ahab. Because of this I will cause your son, your grandson, and your great-grandson to be the kings of Israel."


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But Jehu didn't follow the Lord God of Israel with all his heart, for he continued to worship Jeroboam's gold calves that had been the cause of such great sin in Israel.


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At about that time the Lord began to whittle down the size of Israel. King Hazael conquered several sections of the country


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east of the Jordan River, as well as all of Gilead, Gad, and Reuben; he also conquered parts of Manasseh from the Aroer River in the valley of the Arnon as far as Gilead and Bashan.


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When Athaliah, the mother of King Ahaziah of Judah, learned that her son was dead, she killed all of his children,


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except for his year-old son Joash. Joash was rescued by his Aunt Jehosheba, who was a sister of King Ahaziah (for she was a daughter of King Jehoram, Ahaziah's father).


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She stole him away from among the rest of the king's children who were waiting to be slain and hid him and his nurse in a storeroom of the Temple. They lived there for six years while Athaliah reigned as queen.


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In the seventh year of Queen Athaliah's reign, Jehoiada the priest summoned the officers of the palace guard and the queen's bodyguard. He met them in the Temple, swore them to secrecy, and showed them the king's son.


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Then he gave them their instructions: "A third of those who are on duty on the Sabbath are to guard the palace.


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The other two-thirds shall stand guard at the Temple; surround the king, weapons in hand, and kill anyone who tries to break through. Stay with the king at all times."


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So the officers followed Jehoiada's instructions. They brought to Jehoiada the men who were going off duty on the Sabbath and those who were coming on duty,


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The guards, with weapons ready, stood across the front of the sanctuary and surrounded the altar, which was near Joash's hideaway.


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Then Jehoiada brought out the young prince and put the crown upon his head and gave him a copy of the Ten Commandments, and anointed him as king. Then everyone clapped and shouted, "Long live the king!"


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and saw the new king standing beside the pillar, as was the custom at times of coronation, surrounded by her bodyguard and many trumpeters; and everyone was rejoicing and blowing trumpets. "Treason! Treason!" she screamed, and began to tear her clothes.


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"Get her out of here," shouted Jehoiada to the officers of the guard. "Don't kill her here in the Temple. But kill anyone who tries to come to her rescue."


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Jehoiada made a treaty between the Lord, the king, and the people, that they would be the Lord's people. He also made a contract between the king and the people.


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Everyone went over to the temple of Baal and tore it down, breaking the altars and images and killing Mattan, the priest of Baal, in front of the altar. And Jehoiada set guards at the Temple of the Lord.


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Then he and the officers and the guard and all the people led the king from the Temple, past the guardhouse, and into the palace. And he sat upon the king's throne.


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It was seven years after Jehu had become the king of Israel that Joash became king of Judah. He reigned in Jerusalem for forty years. (His mother was Zibiah, from Beersheba.)


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Yet even so he didn't destroy the shrines on the hills--the people still sacrificed and burned incense there.


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Whenever anyone brings a contribution to the Lord, whether it is a regular assessment or some special gift, use it to pay for whatever repairs are needed."


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So Joash called for Jehoiada and the other priests and asked them, "Why haven't you done anything about the Temple? Now don't use any more money for your own needs; from now on it must all be spent on getting the Temple into good condition."


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So the priests agreed to set up a special repair fund that would not go through their hands, lest it be diverted to care for their personal needs.


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Jehoiada the priest bored a hole in the lid of a large chest and set it on the right-hand side of the altar at the Temple entrance. The doorkeepers put all of the people's contributions into it.


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Whenever the chest became full, the king's financial secretary and the High Priest counted it, put it into bags,


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stonemasons, quarrymen, timber dealers, and stone merchants, and to buy the other materials needed to repair the Temple of the Lord.


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It was not used to buy silver cups, gold snuffers, bowls, trumpets, or similar articles, but only for repairs to the building.


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No accounting was required from the construction superintendents, for they were honest and faithful men.


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However, the money that was contributed for guilt offerings and sin offerings was given to the priests for their own use. It was not put into the chest.


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About this time, King Hazael of Syria went to war against Gath and captured it; then he moved on toward Jerusalem to attack it.


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King Joash took all the sacred objects that his ancestors--Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah--had dedicated, along with what he himself had dedicated, and all the gold in the treasuries of the Temple and the palace, and sent it to Hazael. So Hazael called off the attack.


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But his officers plotted against him and assassinated him in his royal residence at Millo on the road to Silla.


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The assassins were Jozachar, the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of Shomer--both trusted aides. He was buried in the royal cemetery in Jerusalem, and his son Amaziah became the new king.


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Jehoahaz (the son of Jehu) began a seventeen-year reign over Israel during the twenty-third year of the reign of King Joash of Judah.


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But he was an evil king, and he followed the wicked paths of Jeroboam, who had caused Israel to sin.


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So the Lord was very angry with Israel, and he continually allowed King Hazael of Syria and his son Ben-hadad to conquer them.


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But Jehoahaz prayed for the Lord's help, and the Lord listened to him; for the Lord saw how terribly the king of Syria was oppressing Israel.


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So the Lord raised up leaders among the Israelis to rescue them from the tyranny of the Syrians; and then Israel lived in safety again as they had in former days.


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But they continued to sin, following the evil ways of Jeroboam; and they continued to worship the goddess Asherah at Samaria.


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Finally the Lord reduced Jehoahaz's army to fifty mounted troops, ten chariots, and ten thousand infantry; for the king of Syria had destroyed the others as though they were dust beneath his feet.


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Jehoahaz died and was buried in Samaria, and his son Joash reigned in Samaria for sixteen years. He came to the throne in the thirty-seventh year of the reign of King Joash of Judah.


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But he was an evil man, for, like Jeroboam, he encouraged the people to worship idols and led them into sin.


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The rest of the history of the reign of Joash, including his wars against King Amaziah of Judah, are written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.


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Joash died and was buried in Samaria with the other kings of Israel; and Jeroboam II became the new king.


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When Elisha was in his last illness, King Joash visited him and wept over him. "My father! My father! You are the strength of Israel!" he cried.


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"Open that eastern window," he instructed. Then he told the king to put his hand upon the bow, and Elisha laid his own hands upon the king's hands.


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"Shoot!" Elisha commanded, and he did. Then Elisha proclaimed, "This is the Lord's arrow, full of victory over Syria; for you will completely conquer the Syrians at Aphek.


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Now pick up the other arrows and strike them against the floor." So the king picked them up and struck the floor three times.


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But the prophet was angry with him. "You should have struck the floor five or six times," he exclaimed, "for then you would have beaten Syria until they were entirely destroyed; now you will be victorious only three times."


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So Elisha died and was buried. In those days bandit gangs of Moabites used to invade the land each spring.


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Once some men who were burying a friend spied these marauders so they hastily threw his body into the tomb of Elisha. And as soon as the body touched Elisha's bones, the dead man revived and jumped to his feet!


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But the Lord was gracious to the people of Israel, and they were not totally destroyed. For God pitied them, and also he was honoring his contract with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And this is still true.


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King Joash of Israel (the son of Jehoahaz) was successful on three occasions in reconquering the cities that his father had lost to Ben-hadad.


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During the second year of the reign of King Joash of Israel, King Amaziah began his reign over Judah.


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Amaziah was twenty-five years old at the time, and he reigned in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. (His mother was Jehoaddin, a native of Jerusalem.)


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He was a good king in the Lord's sight, though not quite like his ancestor David; but he was as good a king as his father Joash.


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However, he didn't destroy the shrines on the hills, so the people still sacrificed and burned incense there.


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but he didn't kill their children, for the Lord had commanded through the law of Moses that fathers shall not be killed for their children, nor children for the sins of their fathers: everyone must pay the penalty for his own sins.


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Once Amaziah killed ten thousand Edomites in Salt Valley; he also conquered Sela and changed its name to Joktheel, as it is called to this day.


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One day he sent a message to King Joash of Israel (the son of Jehoahaz and the grandson of Jehu), daring him to mobilize his army and come out and fight.


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But King Joash replied, "The thistle of Lebanon demanded of the mighty cedar tree, 'Give your daughter to be a wife for my son.' But just then a wild animal passed by and stepped on the thistle and trod it into the ground!


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You have destroyed Edom and are very proud about it; but my advice to you is, be content with your glory and stay home! Why provoke disaster for both yourself and Judah?"


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But Amaziah refused to listen, so King Joash of Israel mustered his army. The battle began at Beth-shemesh, one of the cities of Judah,


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King Amaziah was captured, and the army of Israel marched on Jerusalem and broke down its wall from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate, a distance of about six hundred feet.


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King Joash took many hostages and all the gold and silver from the Temple and palace treasury, also the gold cups. Then he returned to Samaria.


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The rest of the history of Joash and his war with King Amaziah of Judah are recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.


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When Joash died, he was buried in Samaria with the other kings of Israel. And his son Jeroboam became the new king.


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There was a plot against his life in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish; but his enemies sent assassins and killed him there.


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His body was returned on horses, and he was buried in the royal cemetery, in the City of David section of Jerusalem.


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Meanwhile, over in Israel, Jeroboam II had become king during the fifteenth year of the reign of King Amaziah of Judah. Jeroboam's reign lasted forty-one years.


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But he was as evil as Jeroboam I (the son of Nebat), who had led Israel into the sin of worshiping idols.


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Jeroboam II recovered the lost territories of Israel between Hamath and the Dead Sea, just as the Lord God of Israel had predicted through Jonah (son of Amittai) the prophet from Gathhepher.


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And he had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel, so he used King Jeroboam II to save her.


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The rest of Jeroboam's biography--all that he did, and his great power, and his wars, and how he recovered Damascus and Hamath (which had been captured by Judah)--is recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.


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When Jeroboam II, died he was buried with the other kings of Israel, and his son Zechariah became the new king of Israel.


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His age at the beginning of his reign: 16 years old Length of reign: 52 years, in Jerusalem Mother's name: Jecoliah of Jerusalem Reigning in Israel at that time: King Jeroboam, who had been the king there for 27 years


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But like his predecessors, he didn't destroy the shrines on the hills where the people sacrificed and burned incense.


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Because of this the Lord struck him with leprosy, which lasted until the day of his death; so he lived in a house by himself. And his son Jotham was the acting king.


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When Azariah died, he was buried with his ancestors in the City of David, and his son Jotham became king.


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New king of Israel: Zechariah Father's name: Jeroboam Length of reign: 6 months, in Samaria Reigning in Judah at that time: King Azariah, who had been the king there for 38 years


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But Zechariah was an evil king in the Lord's sight, just like his ancestors. Like Jeroboam I (the son of Nebat), he encouraged Israel in the sin of worshiping idols.


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Then Shallum (the son of Jabesh) conspired against him and assassinated him at Ibleam and took the crown himself.


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(So the Lord's statement to Jehu came true, that Jehu's son, grandson, and great-grandson would be kings of Israel.)


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New king of Israel: Shallum Father's name: Jabesh Length of reign: 1 month, in Samaria Reigning in Judah at that time: King Uzziah, who had been the king there for 39 years


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One month after Shallum became king, Menahem (the son of Gadi) came to Samaria from Tirzah and assassinated him and took the throne.


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Additional details about King Shallum and his conspiracy are recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.


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Menahem destroyed the city of Tappuah and the surrounding countryside, for its citizens refused to accept him as their king; he killed the entire population and ripped open the pregnant women.


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New king of Israel: Menahem Length of reign: 10 years, in Samaria Reigning in Judah at that time: King Azariah, who had been the king there for 39 years


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But Menahem was an evil king. He worshiped idols, as King Jeroboam I had done so long before, and he led the people of Israel into grievous sin.


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Then King Pul of Assyria invaded the land; but King Menahem bought him off with a gift of $2,000,000, so he turned around and returned home.


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New king of Israel: Pekahiah Father's name: King Menahem Length of reign: 2 years, in Samaria Reigning in Judah at that time: King Azariah, who had been the king there for 50 years


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But Pekahiah was an evil king, and he continued the idol-worship begun by Jeroboam I (son of Nebat) who led Israel down that evil trail.


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Then Pekah (son of Remaliah), the commanding general of his army, conspired against him with fifty men from Gilead and assassinated him in the palace at Samaria (Argob and Arieh were also slain in the revolt). So Pekah became the new king.


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New king of Israel: Pekah Father's name: Remaliah Length of reign: 20 years, in Samaria Reigning in Judah at that time: King Azariah, who had been the king there for 52 years


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Pekah, too, was an evil king, and he continued in the example of Jeroboam I (son of Nebat), who led all of Israel into the sin of worshiping idols.


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It was during his reign that King Tiglath-pileser led an attack against Israel. He captured the cities of Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali; and he took the people away to Assyria as captives.


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Then Hoshea (the son of Elah) plotted against Pekah and assassinated him; and he took the throne for himself. New king of Israel: Hoshea Reigning in Judah at that time: King Jotham (son of Uzziah), who had been the king there for 20 years


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His age at the beginning of his reign: 25 years old Length of reign: 16 years, in Jerusalem Mother's name: Jerusha (daughter of Zadok) Reigning in Israel at that time: King Pekah (son of Remaliah), who had been the king there for 2 years


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But he didn't destroy the shrines on the hills where the people sacrificed and burned incense. It was during King Jotham's reign that the upper gate of the Temple of the Lord was built.


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When Jotham died he was buried with the other kings of Judah in the royal cemetery, in the City of David section of Jerusalem. Then his son Ahaz became the new king.


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New king of Judah: Ahaz Father's name: Jotham His age at the beginning of his reign: 20 years old Length of reign: 16 years, in Jerusalem Character of his reign: evil Reigning in Israel at that time: King Pekah (son of Remaliah), who had been the king there for 17 years


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he was as wicked as the kings of Israel. He even killed his own son by offering him as a burnt sacrifice to the gods, following the heathen customs of the nations around Judah--nations that the Lord destroyed when the people of Israel entered the land.


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He also sacrificed and burned incense at the shrines on the hills and at the numerous altars in the groves of trees.


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Then King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah (son of Remaliah) of Israel declared war on Ahaz and besieged Jerusalem; but they did not conquer it.


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However, at that time King Rezin of Syria recovered the city of Elath for Syria; he drove out the Jews and sent Syrians to live there, as they do to this day.


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King Ahaz sent a messenger to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, begging him to help him fight the attacking armies of Syria and Israel.


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Ahaz took the silver and gold from the Temple and from the royal vaults and sent it as a payment to the Assyrian king.


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So the Assyrians attacked Damascus, the capital of Syria. They took away the population of the city as captives, resettling them in Kir, and King Rezin of Syria was killed.


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King Ahaz now went to Damascus to meet with King Tiglath-pileser, and while he was there he noticed an unusual altar in a heathen temple. He jotted down its dimensions and made a sketch and sent it back to Uriah the priest with a detailed description.


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Uriah built one just like it by following these directions and had it ready for the king, who, upon his return from Damascus, inaugurated it with an offering.


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The king presented a burnt offering and a grain offering, poured a drink offering over it, and sprinkled the blood of peace offerings upon it.


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Then he removed the old bronze altar from the front of the Temple (it had stood between the Temple entrance and the new altar), and placed it on the north side of the new altar.


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He instructed Uriah the priest to use the new altar for the sacrifices of burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king's burnt offering and grain offering, and the offerings of the people, including their drink offerings. The blood from the burnt offerings and sacrifices was also to be sprinkled over the new altar. So the old altar was used only for purposes of divination. "The old bronze altar," he said, "will be only for my personal use."


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Then the king dismantled the wheeled stands in the Temple, removed their crosspieces and the water vats they supported, and removed the great tank from the backs of the bronze oxen and placed it upon the stone pavement.


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In deference to the king of Assyria he also removed the festive passageway he had constructed between the palace and the Temple.


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When Ahaz died he was buried in the royal cemetery, in the City of David sector of Jerusalem, and his son Hezekiah became the new king.


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Character of his reign: evil--but not as bad as some of the other kings of Israel Reigning in Judah at that time: King Ahaz, who had been the king there for 12 years


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King Shalmaneser of Assyria attacked and defeated King Hoshea, so Israel had to pay heavy annual taxes to Assyria.


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Then Hoshea conspired against the king of Assyria by asking King So of Egypt to help him shake free of Assyria's power, but this treachery was discovered. At the same time he refused to pay the annual tribute to Assyria. So the king of Assyria put him in prison and in chains for his rebellion.


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Now the land of Israel was filled with Assyrian troops for three years besieging Samaria, the capital city of Israel.


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Finally, in the ninth year of King Hoshea's reign, Samaria fell and the people of Israel were exiled to Assyria. They were placed in colonies in the city of Halah and along the banks of the Habor River in Gozan, and among the cities of the Medes.


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This disaster came upon the nation of Israel because the people worshiped other gods, thus sinning against the Lord their God who had brought them safely out of their slavery in Egypt.


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The people of Israel had also secretly done many things that were wrong, and they had built altars to other gods throughout the land.


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and they had burned incense to the gods of the very nations which the Lord had cleared out of the land when Israel came in. So the people of Israel had done many evil things, and the Lord was very angry.


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Again and again the Lord had sent prophets to warn both Israel and Judah to turn from their evil ways; he had warned them to obey his commandments which he had given to their ancestors through these prophets,


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but Israel wouldn't listen. The people were as stubborn as their ancestors and refused to believe in the Lord their God.


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They rejected his laws and the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and despised all his warnings. In their foolishness they worshiped heathen idols despite the Lord's stern warnings.


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They defied all the commandments of the Lord their God and made two calves from molten gold. They made detestable, shameful idols and worshiped Baal and the sun, moon, and stars.


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They even burned their own sons and daughters to death on the altars of Molech; they consulted fortune-tellers and used magic and sold themselves to evil. So the Lord was very angry.


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But even Judah refused to obey the commandments of the Lord their God; they too walked in the same evil paths as Israel had.


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So the Lord rejected all the descendants of Jacob. He punished them by delivering them to their attackers until they were destroyed.


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For Israel split off from the kingdom of David and chose Jeroboam I (the son of Nebat) as its king. Then Jeroboam drew Israel away from following the Lord. He made them sin a great sin,


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until the Lord finally swept them away, just as all his prophets had warned would happen. So Israel was carried off to the land of Assyria where they remain to this day.


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And the king of Assyria transported colonies of people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and resettled them in the cities of Samaria, replacing the people of Israel. So the Assyrians took over Samaria and the other cities of Israel.


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But since these Assyrian colonists did not worship the Lord when they first arrived, the Lord sent lions among them to kill some of them.


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Then they sent a message to the king of Assyria: "We colonists here in Israel don't know the laws of the god of the land, and he has sent lions among us to destroy us because we have not worshiped him."


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The king of Assyria then decreed that one of the exiled priests from Samaria should return to Israel and teach the new residents the laws of the god of the land.


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But these foreigners also worshiped their own gods. They placed them in the shrines on the hills near their cities.


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Those from Babylon worshiped idols of their god Succoth-benoth; those from Cuth worshiped their god Nergal; and the men of Hamath worshiped Ashima.


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The gods Nibhaz and Tartak were worshiped by the Avvites, and the people from Sephar even burned their own children on the altars of their gods Adrammelech and Anammelech.


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They also worshiped the Lord, and they appointed from among themselves priests to sacrifice to the Lord on the hilltop altars.


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And this is still going on among them today--they follow their former practices instead of truly worshiping the Lord or obeying the laws he gave to the descendants of Jacob (whose name was later changed to Israel).


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For the Lord had made a contract with them--that they were never to worship or make sacrifices to any heathen gods.


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They were to worship only the Lord who had brought them out of the land of Egypt with such tremendous miracles and power.


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These colonists from Babylon worshiped the Lord, yes--but they also worshiped their idols. And to this day their descendants do the same thing.


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His age at the beginning of his reign: 25 years old Length of reign: 29 years, in Jerusalem Mother's name: Abi (daughter of Zechariah)


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Character of his reign: good (similar to that of his ancestor David) Reigning in Israel at that time: King Hoshea (son of Elah), who had been the king there for 3 years


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He removed the shrines on the hills, broke down the obelisks, knocked down the shameful idols of Asherah, and broke up the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because the people of Israel had begun to worship it by burning incense to it; even though, as King Hezekiah pointed out to them, it was merely a piece of bronze.


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He trusted very strongly in the Lord God of Israel. In fact, none of the kings before or after him were as close to God as he was.


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So the Lord was with him and prospered everything he did. Then he rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to pay tribute any longer.


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He also conquered the Philistines as far distant as Gaza and its suburbs, destroying cities both large and small.


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It was during the fourth year of his reign (which was the seventh year of the reign of King Hoshea in Israel) that King Shalmaneser of Assyria attacked Israel and began a siege on the city of Samaria.


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Three years later (during the sixth year of the reign of King Hezekiah and the ninth year of the reign of King Hoshea of Israel) Samaria fell.


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It was at that time that the king of Assyria transported the Israelis to Assyria and put them in colonies in the city of Halath and along the banks of the Habor River in Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.


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For they had refused to listen to the Lord their God or to do what he wanted them to do. Instead, they had transgressed his covenant and disobeyed all the laws given to them by Moses the servant of the Lord.


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Later, during the fourteenth year of the reign of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria besieged and captured all the fortified cities of Judah.


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King Hezekiah sued for peace and sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: "I have done wrong. I will pay whatever tribute you demand if you will only go away." The king of Assyria then demanded a settlement of $1,500,000.


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To gather this amount, King Hezekiah used all the silver stored in the Temple and in the palace treasury.


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He even stripped off the gold from the Temple doors, and from the doorposts he had overlaid with gold, and gave it all to the Assyrian king.


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Nevertheless the king of Assyria sent his field marshal, his chief treasurer, and his chief of staff from Lachish with a great army; and they camped along the highway beside the field where cloth was bleached, near the conduit of the upper pool.


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They demanded that King Hezekiah come out to speak to them, but instead he sent a truce delegation of the following men: Eliakim, his business manager; Shebnah, his secretary; and Joah, his royal historian.


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Then the Assyrian general sent this message to King Hezekiah: "The great king of Assyria says, 'No one can save you from my power!


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You need more than mere promises of help before rebelling against me. But which of your allies will give you more than words? Egypt?


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If you lean on Egypt, you will find her to be a stick that breaks beneath your weight and pierces your hand. The Egyptian Pharaoh is totally unreliable!


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And if you say, "We're trusting the Lord to rescue us"--just remember that he is the very one whose hilltop altars you've destroyed. For you require everyone to worship at the altar in Jerusalem!'


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I'll tell you what: Make a bet with my master, the king of Assyria! If you have two thousand men left who can ride horses, we'll furnish the horses!


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And with an army as small as yours, you are no threat to even the least lieutenant in charge of the smallest contingent in my master's army. Even if Egypt supplies you with horses and chariots, it will do no good.


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And do you think we have come here on our own? No! The Lord sent us and told us, 'Go and destroy this nation!' "


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Then Eliakim, Shebnah, and Joah said to them, "Please speak in Aramaic, for we understand it. Don't use Hebrew, for the people standing on the walls will hear you."


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But the Assyrian general replied, "Has my master sent me to speak only to you and to your master? Hasn't he sent me to the people on the walls too? For they are doomed with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine!"


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Then the Assyrian ambassador shouted in Hebrew to the people on the wall, "Listen to the great king of Assyria!


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until I take you to another land just like this one--with plentiful crops, grain, grapes, olive trees, and honey. All of this instead of death! Don't listen to King Hezekiah when he tries to persuade you that the Lord will deliver you.


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What god has ever been able to save any nation from my power? So what makes you think the Lord can save Jerusalem?' "


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Then Eliakim (son of Hilkiah) the business manager, and Shebnah the king's secretary, and Joah (son of Asaph) the historian went to King Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him what the Assyrian general had said.


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When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the Temple to pray.


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Then he told Eliakim, Shebnah, and some of the older priests to clothe themselves in sackcloth and to go to Isaiah (son of Amoz), the prophet, with this message:


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"King Hezekiah says, 'This is a day of trouble, insult, and dishonor. It is as when a child is ready to be born, but the mother has no strength to deliver it.


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Yet perhaps the Lord your God has heard the Assyrian general defying the living God and will rebuke him. Oh, pray for the few of us who are left.' "


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Isaiah replied, "The Lord says, 'Tell your master not to be troubled by the sneers these Assyrians have made against me.'


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For the king of Assyria will receive bad news from home and will decide to return; and the Lord will see to it that he is killed when he arrives there."


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Then the Assyrian general returned to his king at Libnah (for he received word that he had left Lachish).


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Soon afterwards news reached the king that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was coming to attack him. Before leaving to meet the attack, he sent back this message to King Hezekiah:


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"Don't be fooled by that god you trust in. Don't believe it when he says that I won't conquer Jerusalem.


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You know perfectly well what the kings of Assyria have done wherever they have gone; they have completely destroyed everything. Why would you be any different?


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Have the gods of the other nations delivered them--such nations as Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and Eden in the land of Telassar? The former kings of Assyria destroyed them all!


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What happened to the king of Hamoth and the king of Arpad? What happened to the kings of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?"


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Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, read it, and went over to the Temple and spread it out before the Lord.


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Then he prayed this prayer: "O Lord God of Israel, sitting on your throne high above the angels, you alone are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You created the heavens and the earth.


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Bend low, O Lord, and listen. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see. Listen to this man's defiance of the living God.


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and have burned their idol-gods. But they weren't gods at all; they were destroyed because they were only things that men had made of wood and stone.


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O Lord our God, we plead with you to save us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone are God."


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And this is my reply to King Sennacherib: The virgin daughter of Zion isn't afraid of you! The daughter of Jerusalem scorns and mocks at you.


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Whom have you defied and blasphemed? And toward whom have you felt so cocky? It is the Holy One of Israel!


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'You have boasted, "My chariots have conquered the highest mountains, yes, the peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down the tallest cedars and choicest cypress trees and have conquered the farthest borders.


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I have been refreshed at many conquered wells, and I destroyed the strength of Egypt just by walking by!"


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'Why haven't you realized long before this that it is I, the Lord, who lets you do these things? I decreed your conquest of all those fortified cities!


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So of course the nations you conquered had no power against you! They were like grass shriveling beneath the hot sun, and like grain blighted before it is half grown.


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I know everything about you. I know all your plans and where you are going next; and I also know the evil things you have said about me.


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And because of your arrogance against me, I am going to put a hook in your nose and a bridle in your mouth and turn you back on the road by which you came.


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And this is the proof that I will do as I have promised: This year my people will eat the volunteer wheat and use it as seed for next year's crop; and in the third year they will have a bountiful harvest.


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'O my people Judah, those of you who have escaped the ravages of the siege shall become a great nation again; you shall be rooted deeply in the soil and bear fruit for God.


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'And my command concerning the king of Assyria is that he shall not enter this city. He shall not stand before it with a shield, nor build a ramp against its wall, nor even shoot an arrow into it.


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for I will defend and save this city for the sake of my own name and for the sake of my servant David.' "


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That very night the angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrian troops, and dead bodies were seen all across the landscape in the morning.


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and as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him. They escaped into eastern Turkey--the land of Ararat--and his son Esarhaddon became the new king.


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Hezekiah now became deathly sick, and Isaiah the prophet went to visit him. "Set your affairs in order and prepare to die," Isaiah told him. "The Lord says you won't recover."


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"O Lord," he pleaded, "remember how I've always tried to obey you and to please you in everything I do. . . . " Then he broke down and cried.


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"Go back to Hezekiah, the leader of my people, and tell him that the Lord God of his ancestor David has heard his prayer and seen his tears. I will heal him, and three days from now he will be out of bed and at the Temple!


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I will add fifteen years to his life and save him and this city from the king of Assyria. And it will all be done for the glory of my own name and for the sake of my servant David."


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Isaiah then instructed Hezekiah to boil some dried figs and to make a paste of them and spread it on the boil. And he recovered!


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Meanwhile, King Hezekiah had said to Isaiah, "Do a miracle to prove to me that the Lord will heal me and that I will be able to go to the Temple again three days from now."


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"All right, the Lord will give you a proof," Isaiah told him. "Do you want the shadow on the sundial to go forward ten points or backward ten points?"


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So Isaiah asked the Lord to do this, and he caused the shadow to move ten points backward on the sundial of Ahaz!


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At that time Merodach-baladan (the son of King Baladan of Babylon) sent ambassadors with greetings and a present to Hezekiah, for he had learned of his sickness.


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Hezekiah welcomed them and showed them all his treasures--the silver, gold, spices, aromatic oils, the armory--everything.


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Then Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked him, "What did these men want? Where are they from?" "From far away in Babylon," Hezekiah replied.


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"What have they seen in your palace?" Isaiah asked. And Hezekiah replied, "Everything. I showed them all my treasures."


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The time will come when everything in this palace shall be carried to Babylon. All the treasures of your ancestors will be taken--nothing shall be left.


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Some of your own sons will be taken away and made into eunuchs who will serve in the palace of the king of Babylon."


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"All right," Hezekiah replied, "if this is what the Lord wants, it is good." But he was really thinking, "At least there will be peace and security during the remainder of my own life!"


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The rest of the history of Hezekiah and his great deeds--including the pool and conduit he made and how he brought water into the city--are recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Judah.


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New king of Judah: Manasseh His age at the beginning of his reign: 12 years old Length of reign: 55 years, in Jerusalem Mother's name: Hephzibah


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Character of his reign: evil; he did the same things the nations had done that were thrown out of the land to make room for the people of Israel


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He built altars for Baal and made a shameful Asherah idol, just as Ahab the king of Israel had done.


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Heathen altars to the sun god, moon god, and the gods of the stars were placed even in the Temple of the Lord--in the very city and building that the Lord had selected to honor his own name.


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And he sacrificed one of his sons as a burnt offering on a heathen altar. He practiced black magic and used fortune-telling, and patronized mediums and wizards. So the Lord was very angry, for Manasseh was an evil man, in God's sight.


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Manasseh even set up a shameful Asherah-idol in the Temple--the very place that the Lord had spoken to David and Solomon about when he said, "I will place my name forever in this Temple, and in Jerusalem--the city I have chosen from among all the cities of the tribes of Israel.


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If the people of Israel will only follow the instructions I gave them through Moses, I will never again expel them from this land of their fathers."


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But the people did not listen to the Lord, and Manasseh enticed them to do even more evil than the surrounding nations had done, even though Jehovah had destroyed those nations for their evil ways when the people of Israel entered the land.


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"Because King Manasseh has done these evil things and is even more wicked than the Amorites who were in this land long ago, and because he has led the people of Judah into idolatry:


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I will bring such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of those who hear about it will tingle with horror.


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I will punish Jerusalem as I did Samaria, and as I did King Ahab of Israel and his descendants. I will wipe away the people of Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish and turns it upside down to dry.


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Then I will reject even those few of my people who are left, and I will hand them over to their enemies.


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In addition to the idolatry which God hated and into which Manasseh led the people of Judah, he murdered great numbers of innocent people. And Jerusalem was filled from one end to the other with the bodies of his victims.


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When he died he was buried in the garden of his palace at Uzza, and his son Amon became the new king.


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New king of Judah: Amon His age at the beginning of his reign: 22 years old Length of reign: 2 years, in Jerusalem Mother's name: Meshullemeth (daughter of Haruz, of Jotbah)


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New king of Judah: Josiah His age at the beginning of his reign: 8 years old Length of reign: 31 years, in Jerusalem Mother's name: Jedidah (daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath)


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Character of his reign: good; he followed in the steps of his ancestor King David, obeying the Lord completely


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In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent his secretary Shaphan (son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam) to the Temple to give instruction to Hilkiah, the High Priest:


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Give this money to the building superintendents so that they can hire carpenters and masons to repair the Temple, and to buy lumber and stone."


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(The building superintendents were not required to keep account of their expenditures, for they were honest men.)


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One day Hilkiah the High Priest went to Shaphan the secretary and exclaimed, "I have discovered a scroll in the Temple, with God's laws written on it!" He gave the scroll to Shaphan to read.


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When Shaphan reported to the king about the progress of the repairs at the Temple, he also mentioned the scroll found by Hilkiah. Then Shaphan read it to the king.


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He commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Shaphan, and Asaiah, the king's assistant, and Ahikam (Shaphan's son), and Achbor (Michaiah's son) to


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ask the Lord, "What shall we do? For we have not been following the instructions of this book: you must be very angry with us, for neither we nor our ancestors have followed your commands."


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So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the Mishneh section of Jerusalem to find Huldah the prophetess. (She was the wife of Shallum--son of Tikvah, son of Harhas--who was in charge of the palace tailor shop.)


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She gave them this message from the Lord God of Israel: "Tell the man who sent you to me that I am going to destroy this city and its people, just as I stated in that book you read.


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For the people of Judah have thrown me aside and have worshiped other gods and have made me very angry; and my anger can't be stopped.


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and humbled yourself before the Lord when you read the book and its warnings that this land would be cursed and become desolate, and because you have torn your clothing and wept before me in contrition, I will listen to your plea.


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The death of this nation will not occur until after you die--you will not see the evil that I will bring upon this place." So they took the message to the king.


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Then the king sent for the elders and other leaders of Judah and Jerusalem to go to the Temple with him.


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So all the priests and prophets and the people, small and great, of Jerusalem and Judah gathered there at the Temple so that the king could read to them the entire book of God's laws which had been discovered in the Temple.


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He stood beside the pillar in front of the people, and he and they made a solemn promise to the Lord to obey him at all times and to do everything the book commanded.


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Then the king instructed Hilkiah the High Priest and the rest of the priests and the guards of the Temple to destroy all the equipment used in the worship of Baal, Asherah, and the sun, moon, and stars. The king had it all burned in the fields of the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, and he carried the ashes to Bethel.


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He killed the heathen priests who had been appointed by the previous kings of Judah, for they had burned incense in the shrines on the hills throughout Judah and even in Jerusalem. They had also offered incense to Baal and to the sun, moon, stars, and planets.


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He removed the shameful idol of Asherah from the Temple and took it outside Jerusalem to Kidron Brook; there he burned it and beat it to dust and threw the dust on the graves of the common people.


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He also tore down the houses of male prostitution around the Temple, where the women wove robes for the Asherah-idol.


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He brought back to Jerusalem the priests of the Lord, who were living in other cities of Judah, and tore down all the shrines on the hills where they had burned incense, even those as far away as Geba and Beersheba. He also destroyed the shrines at the entrance of the palace of Joshua, the former mayor of Jerusalem, located on the left side as one enters the city gate.


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However, these priests did not serve at the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, even though they ate with the other priests.


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Then the king destroyed the altar of Topheth in the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom, so that no one could ever again use it to burn his son or daughter to death as a sacrifice to Molech.


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He tore down the statues of horses and chariots located near the entrance of the Temple, next to the quarters of Nathan-melech the eunuch. These had been dedicated by former kings of Judah to the sun god.


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Then he tore down the altars that the kings of Judah had built on the palace roof above the Ahaz Room. He also destroyed the altars that Manasseh had built in the two courts of the Temple; he smashed them to bits and scattered the pieces in Kidron Valley.


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Next he removed the shrines on the hills east of Jerusalem and south of Destruction Mountain. (Solomon had built these shrines for Ashtoreth, the evil goddess of the Sidonians; and for Chemosh, the evil god of Moab; and for Milcom, the evil god of the Ammonites.)


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He smashed the obelisks and cut down the shameful idols of Asherah; then he defiled these places by scattering human bones over them.


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He also tore down the altar and shrine at Bethel that Jeroboam I had made when he led Israel into sin. He crushed the stones to dust and burned the shameful idol of Asherah.


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As Josiah was looking around, he noticed several graves in the side of the mountain. He ordered his men to bring out the bones in them and to burn them there upon the altar at Bethel to defile it, just as the Lord's prophet had declared would happen to Jeroboam's altar.


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"What is that monument over there?" he asked. And the men of the city told him, "It is the grave of the prophet who came from Judah and proclaimed that what you have just done would happen here at the altar at Bethel!"


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So King Josiah replied, "Leave it alone. Don't disturb his bones." So they didn't burn his bones or those of the prophet from Samaria.


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Josiah demolished the shrines on the hills in all of Samaria. They had been built by the various kings of Israel and had made the Lord very angry. But now he crushed them into dust, just as he had done at Bethel.


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He executed the priests of the heathen shrines upon their own altars, and he burned human bones upon the altars to defile them. Finally he returned to Jerusalem.


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The king then issued orders for his people to observe the Passover ceremonies as recorded by the Lord their God in The Book of the Covenant.


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There had not been a Passover celebration like that since the days of the judges of Israel, and there was never another like it in all the years of the kings of Israel and Judah.


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This Passover was in the eighteenth year of the reign of King Josiah, and it was celebrated in Jerusalem.


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Josiah also exterminated the mediums and wizards, and every kind of idol worship, both in Jerusalem and throughout the land. For Josiah wanted to follow all the laws that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the Temple.


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There was no other king who so completely turned to the Lord and followed all the laws of Moses; and no king since the time of Josiah has approached his record of obedience.


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But the Lord still did not hold back his great anger against Judah, caused by the evils of King Manasseh.


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For the Lord had said, "I will destroy Judah just as I have destroyed Israel; and I will discard my chosen city of Jerusalem and the Temple that I said was mine."


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In those days King Neco of Egypt went out to help the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. Then King Josiah went out with his troops to fight King Neco; but King Neco withstood him at Megiddo and killed him.


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His officers took his body back in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in the grave he had selected. And his son Jehoahaz was chosen by the nation as its new king.


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New king of Judah: Jehoahaz His age at the beginning of his reign: 23 years old Length of reign: 3 months, in Jerusalem Mother's name: Hamutal (the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah)


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Pharaoh-Neco jailed him at Riblah in Hamath to prevent his reigning in Jerusalem, and he levied a tax against Judah totaling $230,000.


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The Egyptian king then chose Eliakim, another of Josiah's sons, to reign in Jerusalem; and he changed his name to Jehoiakim. Then he took King Jehoahaz to Egypt, where he died.


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New king of Judah: Jehoiakim His age at the beginning of his reign: 25 years old Length of reign: 11 years, in Jerusalem Mother's name: Zebidah (daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah)


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During the reign of King Jehoiakim, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jerusalem. Jehoiakim surrendered and paid him tribute for three years, but then rebelled.


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And the Lord sent bands of Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites against Judah in order to destroy the nation, just as the Lord had warned through his prophets that he would.


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It is clear that these disasters befell Judah at the direct command of the Lord. He had decided to wipe Judah out of his sight because of the many sins of Manasseh,


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(The Egyptian Pharaoh never returned after that, for the king of Babylon occupied the entire area claimed by Egypt--all of Judah from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River.)


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New king of Judah: Jehoiachin His age at the beginning of his reign: 18 years old Length of reign: 3 months, in Jerusalem Mother's name: Nehushta (daughter of Elnathan, a citizen of Jerusalem)


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and King Jehoiachin, all of his officials, and the queen mother surrendered to him. The surrender was accepted, and Jehoiachin was imprisoned in Babylon during the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign.


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The Babylonians carried home all the treasures from the Temple and the royal palace; and they cut apart all the gold bowls which King Solomon of Israel had placed in the Temple at the Lord's directions.


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King Nebuchadnezzar took ten thousand captives from Jerusalem, including all the princes and the best of the soldiers, craftsmen, and smiths. So only the poorest and least skilled people were left in the land.


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He also took seven thousand of the best troops and one thousand craftsmen and smiths, all of whom were strong and fit for war.


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Then the king of Babylon appointed King Jehoiachin's great-uncle, Mattaniah, to be the next king; and he changed his name to Zedekiah.


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New king of Judah: Zedekiah His age at the beginning of his reign: 21 years old Length of reign: 11 years, in Jerusalem Mother's name: Hamutal (daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah)


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So the Lord finally, in his anger, destroyed the people of Jerusalem and Judah. But now King Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.


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Then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon mobilized his entire army and laid siege to Jerusalem, arriving on March 25 of the ninth year of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah.


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and that night the king and his troops made a hole in the inner wall and fled out toward the Arabah through a gate that lay between the double walls near the king's garden.


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The Babylonian troops surrounding the city took out after him and captured him in the plains of Jericho, and all his men scattered.


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He was forced to watch as his sons were killed before his eyes; then his eyes were put out, and he was bound with chains and taken away to Babylon.


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General Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal bodyguard, arrived at Jerusalem from Babylon on July 22 of the nineteenth year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar.


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The remainder of the people in the city and the Jewish deserters who had declared their allegiance to the king of Babylon were all taken as exiles to Babylon.


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The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars of the Temple and the bronze tank and its bases and carried all the bronze to Babylon.


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They also took all the pots, shovels, firepans, snuffers, spoons, and other bronze instruments used for the sacrifices.


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It was impossible to estimate the weight of the two pillars and the great tank and its bases--all made for the Temple by King Solomon--because they were so heavy.


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Each pillar was 27 feet high, with an intricate bronze network of pomegranates decorating the 4 1/2-foot capitals at the tops of the pillars.


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The general took Seraiah, the chief priest, his assistant Zephaniah, and the three Temple guards to Babylon as captives.


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A commander of the army of Judah, the chief recruiting officer, five of the king's counselors, and sixty farmers, all of whom were discovered hiding in the city,


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Then King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah (the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan) as governor over the people left in Judah.


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When the Israeli guerrilla forces learned that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, some of these underground leaders and their men joined him at Mizpah. These included Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah; Johanan, the son of Kareah; Seraiah, the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite; and Jaazaniah, son of Maachathite, and their men.


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Gedaliah vowed that if they would give themselves up and submit to the Babylonians, they would be allowed to live in the land and would not be exiled.


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But seven months later, Ishmael, who was a member of the royal line, went to Mizpah with ten men and killed Gedaliah and his court--both the Jews and the Babylonians.


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Then all the men of Judah and the guerrilla leaders fled in panic to Egypt, for they were afraid of what the Babylonians would do to them.


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King Jehoiachin was released from prison on the twenty-seventh day of the last month of the thirty-seventh year of his captivity. This occurred during the first year of the reign of King Evil-merodach of Babylon.


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He treated Jehoiachin kindly and gave him preferential treatment over all the other kings who were being held as prisoners in Babylon.


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Jehoiachin was given civilian clothing to replace his prison garb, and for as long as he lived, he ate regularly at the king's table.


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The sons of Cush were:  Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raama, and Sabteca. The sons of Raama were Sheba and Dedan.


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Eber had two sons: Peleg (which means "Divided," for it was during his lifetime that the people of the earth were divided into different language groups) and Joktan.


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The sons of Joktan:  Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Ebal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab.


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Abraham also had sons by his concubine Keturah:  Zimram, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Jokshan's sons were Sheba and Dedan.


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The sons of Midian:  Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. These were the descendants of Abraham by his concubine Keturah.


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The sons of Esau also included Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan; and Esau's daughter was named Timna.


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Here is a list of the names of the kings of Edom who reigned before the kingdom of Israel began: Bela (the son of Beor), who lived in the city of Dinhabah.


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When Husham died, Hadad the son of Bedad--the one who destroyed the army of Midian in the fields of Moab--became king and ruled from the city of Avith.


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When Baal-hanan died, Hadad became king and ruled from the city of Pai (his wife was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred and granddaughter of Mezahab).


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Judah had three sons by Bathshua, a girl from Canaan: Er, Onan, and Shelah. But the oldest son, Er, was so wicked that the Lord killed him.


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Then Er's widow, Tamar, and her father-in-law, Judah, became the parents of twin sons, Perez and Zerah. So Judah had five sons.


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He also had two girls (by the same wife) named Zeruiah and Abigail. Zeruiah's sons were Abishai, Joab, and Asahel.


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Caleb (the son of Hezron) had two wives, Azubah and Jerioth. These are the children of Azubah:  Jesher, Shobab, and Ardon.


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Hezron married Machir's daughter at the age of sixty, and she presented him with a son, Segub. (Machir was also the father of Gilead.)


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But Geshur and Aram wrested these cities from him and also took Kenath and its sixty surrounding villages.


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Soon after his father Hezron's death, Caleb married Ephrathah, his father's widow, and she gave birth to Ashhur, the father of Tekoa.


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These are the sons of Jerahmeel (the oldest son of Hezron):  Ram (the oldest), Bunah, Oren, Ozem, and Ahijah.


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He gave one of his daughters to be the wife of Jarha, his Egyptian servant. And they had a son whom they named Attai.


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The oldest son of Caleb (Jerahmeel's brother) was Mesha; he was the father of Ziph, who was father of Mareshah, who was the father of Hebron.


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Shaaph (the father of Madmannah), and Sheva (the father of Machbenah and of Gibea). Caleb also had a daughter, whose name was Achsah.


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The sons of Hur (who was the oldest son of Caleb and Ephrathah) were Shobal (the father of Kiriath-jearim),


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The families of Kiriath-jearim were the Ithrites, the Puthites, the Shumathites, and the Mishraites (from whom descended the Zorathites and Eshtaolites).


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The descendants of Salma were his son Bethlehem, the Netophathites, Atrothbeth-joab, half the Manahathites, and the Zorites;


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they also included the families of the writers living at Jabez--the Tirathites, Shimeathites, and Sucathites. All these are Kenites who descended from Hammath, the founder of the family of Rechab.


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King David's oldest son was Amnon, who was born to his wife, Ahinoam of Jezreel. The second was Daniel, whose mother was Abigail from Carmel.


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The third was Absalom, the son of his wife Maacah, who was the daughter of King Talmai of Geshur. The fourth was Adonijah, the son of Haggith.


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These six were born to him in Hebron, where he reigned seven and a half years. Then he moved the capital to Jerusalem, where he reigned another thirty-three years.


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While he was in Jerusalem, his wife Bathsheba (the daughter of Ammiel) became the mother of his sons Shimea, Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon.


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David also had nine other sons:  Ibhar, Elishama, Eliphelet, Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.


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These are the sons who were born to King Jeconiah during the years that he was under house arrest:  Shealtiel,


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Hananiah's sons were Pelatiah and Jeshaiah;  Jeshaiah's son was Rephaiah;  Rephaiah's son was Arnan;  Arnan's son was Obadiah;


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Obadiah's son was Shecaniah.  Shecaniah's son was Shemaiah;  Shemaiah had six sons, including Hattush, Igal, Bariah, Neariah, and Shaphat.


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Shobal's son Reaiah was the father of Jahath, the ancestor of Ahumai and Lahad. These were known as the Zorathite clans.


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Penuel (the ancestor of Gedor),  Ezer (the ancestor of Hushah),  The son of Hur, the oldest son of Ephrathah, who was the father of Bethlehem.


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Koz was the father of Anub and Zobebah; he was also the ancestor of the clan named after Aharhel, the son of Harum.


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Jabez was more distinguished than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because she had such a hard time at his birth (Jabez means "Distress").


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He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would wonderfully bless me and help me in my work; please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all evil and disaster!" And God granted him his request.


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The descendants of Recah were: Chelub (the brother of Shuhah), whose son was Mahir, the father of Eshton;


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Meonothai was the father of Ophrah; Seraiah was the father of Joab, the ancestor of the inhabitants of Craftsman Valley (called that because many craftsmen lived there).


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Ezrah's sons were:  Jether, Mered, Epher, Jalon. Mered married Bithiah, an Egyptian princess. She was the mother of Miriam, Shammai, and Ishbah--an ancestor of Eshtemoa.


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Eshtemoa's wife was a Jewess; she was the mother of Jered, Heber, and Jekuthiel, who were, respectively, the ancestors of the Gedorites, Socoites, and Zanoahites.


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Hodiah's wife was the sister of Naham. One of her sons was the father of Keilah the Garmite, and another was the father of Eshtemoa the Maacathite.


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The sons of Shelah (the son of Judah): Er (the father of Lecah), Laadah (the father of Mareshah), The families of the linen workers who worked at Beth-ashbea,


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Jokim, The clans of Cozeba, Joash, Saraph (who was a ruler in Moab before he returned to Lehem). These names all come from very ancient records.


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Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters, but none of his brothers had large families--they all had fewer children than was normal in Judah.


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Beth-marcaboth, Hazar-susim, Beth-biri, and Shaaraim. These cities were under their control until the time of David.


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Their descendants also lived in or near Etam, Ain, Rimmon, Tochen, and Ashan; some were as far away as Baal. (These facts are recorded in their genealogies.)


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These are the names of some of the princes of wealthy clans who traveled to the east side of Gedor Valley in search of pasture for their flocks:  Meshobab, Jamlech, Joshah,


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They found good pastures, and everything was quiet and peaceful; but the land belonged to the descendants of Ham.


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So during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah these princes invaded the land and struck down the tents and houses of the descendants of Ham; they killed the inhabitants of the land and took possession of it for themselves.


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Later, five hundred of these invaders from the tribe of Simeon went to Mount Seir. (Their leaders were Pelatiah, Neariah, Rephaiah, and Uzziel--all sons of Ishi.)


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There they destroyed the few surviving members of the tribe of Amalek. And they have lived there ever since.


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The oldest son of Israel was Reuben, but since he dishonored his father by sleeping with one of his father's wives, his birthright was given to his half brother, Joseph. So the official genealogy doesn't name Reuben as the oldest son.


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Although Joseph received the birthright, yet Judah was a powerful and influential tribe in Israel, and from Judah came a Prince.


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Baal's son was Beerah. He was a prince of the tribe of Reuben and was taken into captivity by King Tilgath-pilneser of Assyria.


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Bela (the son of Azaz, grandson of Shema, and great-grandson of Joel). These Reubenites lived in Aroer and as far distant as Mount Nebo and Baal-meon.


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Joel was a cattleman, and he pastured his animals eastward to the edge of the desert and to the Euphrates River, for there were many cattle in the land of Gilead.


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During the reign of King Saul, the men of Reuben defeated the Hagrites in war and moved into their tents on the eastern edge of Gilead.


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Across from them, in the land of Bashan, lived the descendants of Gad, who were spread as far as Salecah.


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Their relatives, the heads of the seven clans, were Michael, Meshullam, Sheba, Jorai, Jacan, Zia, and Eber.


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The descendants of Buz, in the order of their generations, were:  Jahdo, Jeshishai, Michael, Gilead, Jaroah, Huri, Abihail.


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The clan lived in and around Gilead (in the land of Bashan) and throughout the entire pasture country of Sharon.


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All were included in the official genealogy at the time of King Jotham of Judah and King Jeroboam of Israel.


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There were 44,760 armed, trained, and brave troops in the army of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.


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They cried out to God to help them, and he did, for they trusted in him. So the Hagrites and all their allies were defeated.


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A great number of the enemy also died in the battle, for God was fighting against them. So the Reubenites lived in the territory of the Hagrites until the time of the exile.


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The half-tribe of Manasseh spread through the land from Bashan to Baal-hermon, Senir, and Mount Hermon. They too were very numerous.


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The chiefs of their clans were the following:  Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, Jahdiel. Each of these men had a great reputation as a warrior and leader.


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But they were not true to the God of their fathers; instead they worshiped the idols of the people whom God had destroyed.


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So God caused King Pul of Assyria (also known as Tilgath-pilneser III) to invade the land and deport the men of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. They took them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the Gozan River, where they remain to this day.


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Amram's descendants included:  Aaron, Moses, Miriam. Aaron's sons were:  Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, Ithamar.


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The oldest sons of the successive generations of Aaron were as follows: Eleazar, the father of Phinehas, the father of


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Jehozadak (who went into exile when the Lord sent the people of Judah and Jerusalem into captivity under Nebuchadnezzar).


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In the Kohath clan:  Amminadab, Korah, Assir, Elkanah, Ebiasaph, Assir, Tahath, Uriel, Uzziah, Shaul.


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The subclan of Elkanah was further divided into the families of his sons:  Amasai, Ahimoth, Elkanah, Zophai, Nahath, Eliab, Jeroham, Elkanah.


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The families of the subclan of Samuel were headed by Samuel's sons:  Joel, the oldest;  Abijah, the second.


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The subclans of the clan of Merari were headed by his sons:  Mahli, Libni, Shimei, Uzzah, Shimea, Haggiah, Asaiah.


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King David appointed songleaders and choirs to praise God in the Tabernacle after he had placed the Ark in it.


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These are the names and ancestries of choir leaders: Heman the Cantor was from the clan of Kohath; his genealogy was traced back through:  Joel, Samuel,


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Heman's assistant was his colleague Asaph, whose genealogy was traced back through:  Berechiah, Shimea,


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Heman's second assistant was Ethan, a representative from the clan of Merari, who stood on his left. Merari's ancestry was traced back through:  Kishi, Abdi, Malluch,


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But only Aaron and his descendants were the priests. Their duties included sacrificing burnt offerings and incense, handling all the tasks relating to the inner sanctuary--the Holy of Holies--and the tasks relating to the annual Day of Atonement for Israel. They saw to it that all the details commanded by Moses the servant of God were strictly followed.


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The descendants of Aaron were:  Eleazar, Phinehas, Abishua, Bukki, Uzzi, Zerahiah, Meraioth, Amariah, Ahitub, Zadok, Ahimaaz.


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This is a record of the cities and land assigned by lot to the descendants of Aaron, all of whom were members of the Kohath clan:


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Hebron and its surrounding pasturelands in Judah (although the fields and suburbs were given to Caleb the son of Jephunneh),


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and the following Cities of Refuge with their surrounding pasturelands:  Libnah, Jattir, Eshtemoa, Hilen, Debir, Ashan, Beth-shemesh.


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Thirteen other cities with surrounding pastures--including Geba, Alemeth, and Anathoth--were given to the priests by the tribe of Benjamin.


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Lots were then drawn to assign land to the remaining descendants of Kohath, and they received ten cities in the territory of the half-tribe of Manasseh.


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The subclans of the Gershom clan received by lot thirteen cities in the Bashan area from the tribes of Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Manasseh.


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Cities and pasturelands were also assigned by lot to the Levites (and then renamed) from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin.


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The following Cities of Refuge and their pasturelands were given to the subclans of the Kohathites by the half-tribe of Manasseh:  Aner, Bileam.


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Cities of Refuge and pastureland given to the clan of Gershom by the half-tribe of Manasseh were:  Golan, in Bashan; Ashtaroth.


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And across the Jordan River, opposite Jericho, the tribe of Reuben gave them Bezer (a desert town), Jahzah, Kedemoth and Mephaath, along with their pasturelands.


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The sons of Tola, each of whom was the head of a subclan:  Uzzi, Rephaiah, Jeriel, Jahmai, Ibsam, Shemuel. At the time of King David, the total number of men of war from these families totaled 22,600.


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Uzzi's son was Izrahiah among whose five sons were Michael, Obadiah, Joel, and Isshiah, all chiefs of subclans.


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Their descendants, at the time of King David, numbered 36,000 troops; for all five of them had several wives and many sons.


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The total number of men available for military service from all the clans of the tribe of Issachar numbered 87,000 stouthearted warriors, all included in the official genealogy.


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The sons of Bela:  Ezbon, Uzzi, Uzziel, Jerimoth, Iri. These five mighty warriors were chiefs of subclans and were the leaders of 22,034 troops (all of whom were recorded in the official genealogies).


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The sons of Becher were:  Zemirah, Joash, Eliezer, Elioenai, Omri, Jeremoth, Abijah, Anathoth, Alemeth.


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At the time of David there were 20,200 mighty warriors among their descendants; and they were led by their clan chiefs.


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The son of Jediael was Bilhan. The sons of Bilhan were:  Jeush, Benjamin, Ehud, Chenaanah, Zethan, Tarshish, Ahishahar.


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They were the chiefs of the subclans of Jediael, and their descendants included 17,200 warriors at the time of King David.


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The sons of Manasseh, born to his Aramaean concubine, were Asriel and Machir (who became the father of Gilead).


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It was Machir who found wives for Huppim and Shuppim. Machir's sister was Maacah. Another descendant was Zelophehad, who had only daughters.


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Machir's wife, also named Maacah, bore him a son whom she named Peresh; his brother's name was Sheresh, and he had sons named Ulam and Rakem.


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Ulam's son was Bedan. So these were the sons of Gilead, the grandsons of Machir, and the great-grandsons of Manasseh.


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Zabad, Shuthelah, Ezer, Elead. Elead and Ezer attempted to rustle cattle at Gath, but they were killed by the local farmers.


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Afterwards his wife conceived and bore a son whom he called Beriah (meaning "a tragedy") because of what had happened.


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This is Ephraim's line of descent: Rephah, the father of Resheph, the father of Telah, the father of Tahan, the father of


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They lived in an area bounded on one side by Bethel and its surrounding towns, on the east by Naaran, on the west by Gezer and its villages, and finally by Shechem and its surrounding villages as far as Ayyah and its towns.


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The tribe of Manasseh, descendants of Joseph the son of Israel, controlled the following cities and their surrounding areas: Beth-shean, Taanach, Megiddo, and Dor.


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The sons of Zophah were:  Suah, Harnepher, Shual, Beri, Imrah, Bezer, Hod, Shamma, Shilshah, Ithran, Beera.


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These descendants of Asher were heads of subclans and were all skilled warriors and chiefs. Their descendants in the official genealogy numbered 36,000 men of war.


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The sons of Benjamin, according to age, were:  Bela, the first,  Ashbel, the second,  Aharah, the third,  Nohah, the fourth,  Rapha, the fifth.


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The sons of Ehud, chiefs of the subclans living at Geba, were captured in war and exiled to Manahath. They were:  Naaman, Ahijah,  Gera (also called Heglam), the father of Uzza and Ahihud.


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The sons of Elpaal were:  Eber, Misham,  Shemed (who built Ono and Lod and their surrounding villages).


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His other sons were Beriah and Shema, chiefs of subclans living in Aijalon; they chased out the inhabitants of Gath.


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The sons of Shimei were:  Jakim, Zichri, Zabdi, Elienai, Zillethai, Eliel, Adaiah, Beraiah, Shimrath.


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The sons of Shashak were:  Ishpan, Eber, Eliel, Abdon, Zichri, Hanan, Hananiah, Elam, Anthothijah, Iphdeiah, Penuel.


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Ner was the father of Kish, and Kish was the father of Saul; Saul's sons included:  Jonathan, Malchi-shua, Abinadab, Eshbaal.


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Ahaz was the father of Jehoaddah, Jehoaddah was the father of:  Alemeth, Azmaveth, Zimri.  Zimri's son was Moza.


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Ulam's sons were prominent warriors who were expert marksmen with their bows. These men had 150 sons and grandsons, and they were all from the tribe of Benjamin.


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The family tree of every person in Israel was carefully recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel. Judah was exiled to Babylon because the people worshiped idols.


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The first to return and live again in their former cities were families from the tribes of Israel and also the priests, the Levites, and the Temple assistants.


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One family was that of Uthai (the son of Ammihud, son of Omri, son of Imri, son of Bani) of the clan of Perez (son of Judah).


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Among the members of the tribe of Benjamin who returned were these: Sallu (the son of Meshullam, the son of Hodaviah, the son of Hassenuah);


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Ibneiah (the son of Jeroham); Elah (the son of Uzzi, the son of Michri); Meshullam (the son of Shephatiah, the son of Reuel, the son of Ibnijah).


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Azariah (the son of Hilkiah, son of Meshullam, son of Zadok, son of Meraioth, son of Ahitub). He was the chief custodian of the Temple.


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Another of the returning priests was Adaiah (son of Jeroham, son of Pashhur, son of Malchijah). Another priest was Maasai (son of Adiel, son of Jahzerah, son of Meshullam, son of Meshillemith, son of Immer).


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Among the Levites who returned was Shemaiah (son of Hasshub, son of Azrikam, son of Hashabiah, who was a descendant of Merari).


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Other Levites who returned included: Bakbakkar, Heresh, Galal, Mattaniah (the son of Mica, who was the son of Zichri, who was the son of Asaph),


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Obadiah (the son of Shemaiah, son of Galal, son of Jeduthun), Berechiah (the son of Asa, son of Elkanah, who lived in the area of the Netophathites).


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The gatekeepers were Shallum (the chief gatekeeper), Akkub, Talmon, and Ahiman--all Levites. They are still responsible for the eastern royal gate.


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Shallum's ancestry went back through Kore and Ebiasaph to Korah. He and his close relatives the Korahites were in charge of the sacrifices and the protection of the sanctuary, just as their ancestors had supervised and guarded the Tabernacle.


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Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, was the first director of this division in ancient times. And the Lord was with him.


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At that time Zechariah, the son of Meshelemiah, had been responsible for the protection of the entrance to the Tabernacle.


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There were 212 doorkeepers in those days. They were chosen from their villages on the basis of their genealogies, and they were appointed by David and Samuel because of their reliability.


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And their relatives in the villages were assigned to help them from time to time, for seven days at a time.


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The four head gatekeepers, all Levites, were in an office of great trust, for they were responsible for the rooms and treasuries in the Tabernacle of God.


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Because of their important positions, they lived near the Tabernacle, and they opened the gates each morning.


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Some of them were assigned to care for the various vessels used in the sacrifices and worship; they checked them in and out to avoid loss.


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Others were responsible for the furniture, the items in the sanctuary, and the supplies such as fine flour, wine, incense, and spices.


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And Mattithiah (a Levite and the oldest son of Shallum the Korahite) was entrusted with making the flat cakes for grain offerings.


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Some members of the Kohath clan were in charge of the preparation of the special bread each Sabbath.


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The cantors were all prominent Levites. They lived in Jerusalem at the Temple and were on duty at all hours.


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Jeiel (whose wife was Maacah) lived in Gibeon. He had many sons, including:  Gibeon, Abdon (the oldest), Zur, Kish, Baal, Ner, Nadab, Gedor, Ahio, Zechariah, Mikloth.


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Ner was the father of Kish,  Kish was the father of Saul,  Saul was the father of Jonathan, Malchi-shua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal.


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Ahaz was the father of Jarah; Jarah was the father of Alemeth, Azmaveth, and Zimri; Zimri was the father of Moza.


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The Philistines attacked and defeated the Israeli troops, who turned and fled and were slaughtered on the slopes of Mount Gilboa.


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They caught up with Saul and his three sons, Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, and killed them all.


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Saul had been hard pressed with heavy fighting all around him, when the Philistine archers shot and wounded him.


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He cried out to his bodyguard, "Quick, kill me with your sword before these uncircumcised heathen capture and torture me." But the man was afraid to do it, so Saul took his own sword and fell against its point; and it pierced his body.


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When the Israelis in the valley below the mountain heard that their troops had been routed and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled. And the Philistines came and lived in them.


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When the Philistines went back the next day to strip the bodies of the men killed in action and to gather the booty from the battlefield, they found the bodies of Saul and his sons.


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So they stripped off Saul's armor and cut off his head; then they displayed them throughout the nation and celebrated the wonderful news before their idols.


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They fastened his armor to the walls of the Temple of the Gods and nailed his head to the wall of Dagon's temple.


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their heroic warriors went out to the battlefield and brought back his body and the bodies of his three sons. Then they buried them beneath the oak tree at Jabesh and mourned and fasted for seven days.


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and did not ask the Lord for guidance. So the Lord killed him and gave the kingdom to David, the son of Jesse.


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and even when Saul was king, you were the one who led our armies to battle and brought them safely back again. And the Lord your God has told you, 'You shall be the shepherd of my people Israel. You shall be their king.' "


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So David made a contract with them before the Lord, and they anointed him as king of Israel, just as the Lord had told Samuel.


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Then David and the leaders went to Jerusalem (or Jebus, as it used to be called) where the Jebusites--the original inhabitants of the land--lived.


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So David captured the fortress of Zion, later called the City of David, and said to his men, "The first man to kill a Jebusite shall be made commander-in-chief!" Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was the first, so he became the general of David's army.


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These are the names of some of the bravest of David's warriors (who also encouraged the leaders of Israel to make David their king, as the Lord had said would happen):


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Jashobeam (the son of a man from Hachmon) was the leader of The Top Three--the three greatest heroes among David's men. He once killed 300 men with his spear.


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He was with David in the battle against the Philistines at Pasdammim. The Israeli army was in a barley field and had begun to run away,


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but he held his ground in the middle of the field, and recovered it and slaughtered the Philistines; and the Lord saved them with a great victory.


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Another time, three of The Thirty went to David while he was hiding in the cave of Adullam. The Philistines were camped in the Valley of Rephaim,


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David wanted a drink from the Bethlehem well beside the gate, and when he mentioned this to his men,


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these three broke through to the Philistine camp, drew some water from the well, and brought it back to David.


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But he refused to drink it! Instead he poured it out as an offering to the Lord and said, "God forbid that I should drink it! It is the very blood of these men who risked their lives to get it."


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Abishai, Joab's brother, was commander of The Thirty. He had gained his place among The Thirty by killing 300 men at one time with his spear.


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Benaiah, whose father was a mighty warrior from Kabzeel, killed the two famous giants from Moab. He also killed a lion in a slippery pit when there was snow on the ground.


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Once he killed an Egyptian who was seven and a half feet tall, whose spear was as thick as a weaver's beam. But Benaiah went up to him with only a club in his hand, and pulled the spear away from him and used it to kill him.


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He was nearly as great as The Three, and he was very famous among The Thirty. David made him captain of his bodyguard.


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Other famous warriors among David's men were: Asahel (Joab's brother); Elhanan, the son of Dodo from Bethlehem;


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Adina (son of Shiza) from the tribe of Reuben--he was among the thirty-one leaders of the tribe of Reuben; Hanan (son of Maacah);


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These are the names of the famous warriors who joined David at Ziklag while he was hiding from King Saul.


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All of them were expert archers and slingers, and they could use their left hands as readily as their right! Like King Saul, they were all of the tribe of Benjamin.


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Their chief was Ahiezer, son of Shemaah from Gibeah. The others were: His brother Joash; Jeziel and Pelet, sons of Azmaveth; Beracah; Jehu from Anathoth;


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Ishmaiah from Gibeon (a brave warrior rated as high or higher than The Thirty); Jeremiah; Jahaziel; Johanan; Jozabad from Gederah;


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Great and brave warriors from the tribe of Gad also went to David in the wilderness. They were experts with both shield and spear and were "lion-faced men, swift as deer upon the mountains."


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These men were army officers; the weakest was worth a hundred normal troops, and the greatest was worth a thousand!


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They crossed the Jordan River during its seasonal flooding and conquered the lowlands on both the east and west banks.


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David went out to meet them and said, "If you have come to help me, we are friends; but if you have come to betray me to my enemies when I am innocent, then may the God of our fathers see and judge you."


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Then the Holy Spirit came upon them, and Amasai, a leader of The Thirty, replied, "We are yours, David; We are on your side, son of Jesse. Peace, peace be unto you, And peace to all who aid you; For your God is with you." So David let them join him, and he made them captains of his army.


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Some men from Manasseh deserted the Israeli army and joined David just as he was going into battle with the Philistines against King Saul. But as it turned out, the Philistine generals refused to let David and his men go with them. After much discussion they sent them back, for they were afraid that David and his men would imperil them by deserting to King Saul.


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Here is a list of the men from Manasseh who deserted to David as he was en route to Ziklag:  Adnah, Jozabad, Jediael, Michael, Jozabad, Elihu, Zillethai. Each was a high-ranking officer of Manasseh's troops.


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They were brave and able warriors, and they assisted David when he fought against the Amalek raiders at Ziklag.


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Here is the registry of recruits who joined David at Hebron. They were all anxious to see David become king instead of Saul, just as the Lord had said would happen.


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From the priests--descendants of Aaron--there were 3,700 troops under the command of Zadok, a young man of unusual courage,


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From the tribe of Benjamin, the same tribe Saul was from, there were 3,000. (Most of that tribe retained its allegiance to Saul.)


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From the half-tribe of Manasseh, 18,000 were sent for the express purpose of helping David become king.


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From the tribe of Issachar there were 200 leaders of the tribe with their relatives--all men who understood the temper of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take.


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From the tribe of Zebulun there were 50,000 trained warriors; they were fully armed and totally loyal to David.


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From the other side of the Jordan River--where the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh lived--there were 120,000 troops equipped with every kind of weapon.


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All these men came in battle array to Hebron with the single purpose of making David the king of Israel. In fact, all of Israel was ready for this change.


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People from nearby and from as far away as Issachar, Zebulun, and Naphtali brought food on donkeys, camels, mules, and oxen. Vast supplies of flour, fig cakes, raisins, wine, oil, cattle, and sheep were brought to the celebration, for joy had spread throughout the land.


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he addressed the assembled men of Israel as follows: "Since you think that I should be your king, and since the Lord our God has given his approval, let us send messages to our brothers throughout the land of Israel, including the priests and Levites, inviting them to come and join us.


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And let us bring back the Ark of our God, for we have been neglecting it ever since Saul became king."


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So David summoned the people of Israel from all across the nation so that they could be present when the Ark of God was brought from Kiriath-jearim.


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Then David and all Israel went to Baalah (i.e., Kiriath-jearim) in Judah to bring back the Ark of the Lord God enthroned above the angels.


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Then David and all the people danced before the Lord with great enthusiasm, accompanied by singing and by zithers, harps, tambourines, cymbals, and trumpets.


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But as they arrived at the threshing-floor of Chidon, the oxen stumbled and Uzza reached out his hand to steady the Ark.


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Then the anger of the Lord blazed out against Uzza, and killed him because he had touched the Ark. And so he died there before God.


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David was angry at the Lord for what he had done to Uzza and he named the place "The Outbreak Against Uzza." And it is still called that today.


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Finally he decided to take it to the home of Obed-edom the Gittite instead of bringing it to the City of David.


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The Ark remained there with the family of Obed-edom for three months, and the Lord blessed him and his family.


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King Hiram of Tyre sent masons and carpenters to help build David's palace and he supplied him with much cedar lumber.


text:
David now realized why the Lord had made him king and why he had made his kingdom so great; it was for a special reason--to give joy to God's people!


text:
After David moved to Jerusalem, he married additional wives and became the father of many sons and daughters.


text:
These are the names of the sons born to him in Jerusalem:  Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet, Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Beeliada, Eliphelet.


text:
When the Philistines heard that David was Israel's new king, they mobilized their forces to capture him. But David learned that they were on the way, so he called together his army.


text:
and David asked the Lord, "If I go out and fight them, will you give me the victory?" And the Lord replied, "Yes, I will."


text:
So he attacked them at Baal-perazim and wiped them out. He exulted, "God has used me to sweep away my enemies like water bursting through a dam!" That is why the place has been known as Baal-perazim ever since (meaning, "The Place of Breaking Through").


text:
After the battle the Israelis picked up many idols left by the Philistines, but David ordered them burned.


text:
and again David asked God what to do. The Lord replied, "Go around by the mulberry trees and attack from there.


text:
When you hear a sound like marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, that is your signal to attack, for God will go before you and destroy the enemy."


text:
So David did as the Lord commanded him; and he cut down the army of the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer.


text:
David now built several palaces for himself in Jerusalem, and he also built a new Tabernacle to house the Ark of God,


text:
and issued these instructions: " When we transfer the Ark to its new home, no one except the Levites may carry it, for God has chosen them for this purpose; they are to minister to him forever."


text:
Then David summoned all Israel to Jerusalem to celebrate the bringing of the Ark into the new Tabernacle.


text:
Then David called for Zadok and Abiathar, the High Priests, and for the Levite leaders: Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab.


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"You are the leaders of the clans of the Levites," he told them. "Now sanctify yourselves with all your brothers so that you may bring the Ark of Jehovah, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it.


text:
So the priests and the Levites underwent the ceremonies of sanctification in preparation for bringing home the Ark of Jehovah, the God of Israel.


text:
Then the Levites carried the Ark on their shoulders with its carrying poles, just as the Lord had instructed Moses.


text:
King David also ordered the Levite leaders to organize the singers into an orchestra, and they played loudly and joyously upon psalteries, harps, and cymbals.


text:
Heman (son of Joel), Asaph (son of Berechiah), and Ethan (son of Kushaiah) from the clan of Merari were the heads of the musicians.


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The following men were chosen as their assistants:  Zechariah, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom and Jeiel, the doorkeepers.


text:
and Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah comprised an octet accompanied by harps.


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Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer--all of whom were priests--formed a bugle corps to march at the head of the procession. And Obed-edom and Jehiah guarded the Ark.


text:
Then David and the elders of Israel and the high officers of the army went with great joy to the home of Obed-edom to take the Ark to Jerusalem.


text:
And because God didn't destroy the Levites who were carrying the Ark, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven lambs.


text:
David, the Levites carrying the Ark, the singers, and Chenaniah the song leader were all dressed in linen robes. David also wore a linen ephod.


text:
So the leaders of Israel took the Ark to Jerusalem with shouts of joy, the blowing of horns and trumpets, the crashing of cymbals, and loud playing on the harps and zithers.


text:
(But as the Ark arrived in Jerusalem, David's wife Michal, the daughter of King Saul, felt a deep disgust for David as she watched from the window and saw him dancing like a madman.)


text:
So they brought the Ark of God into the special tent that David had prepared for it, and the leaders of Israel sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings before God.


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then he gave every person present (men and women alike) a loaf of bread, some wine, and a cake of raisins.


text:
He appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the Ark by giving constant praise and thanks to the Lord God of Israel and by asking for his blessings upon his people. These are the names of those given this assignment:


text:
Asaph, the leader of this detail, sounded the cymbals. His associates were Zechariah, Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel; they played the harps and zithers.


text:
At that time David began the custom of using choirs in the Tabernacle to sing thanksgiving to the Lord. Asaph was the director of this choral group of priests.


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"Oh, give thanks to the Lord and pray to him," they sang. "Tell the peoples of the world About his mighty doings.


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Yes, ascribe to the Lord The glory due his name! Bring an offering and come before him; Worship the Lord when clothed with holiness!


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Cry out to him, 'Oh, save us, God of our salvation; Bring us safely back from among the nations. Then we will thank your holy name, And triumph in your praise.'


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Blessed be Jehovah, God of Israel, Forever and forevermore." And all the people shouted "Amen!" and praised the Lord.


text:
David arranged for Asaph and his fellow Levites to minister regularly at the Tabernacle, doing each day whatever needed to be done.


text:
This group included Obed-edom (the son of Jeduthun), Hosah and sixty-eight of their colleagues as guards.


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Meanwhile the old Tabernacle of the Lord on the hill of Gibeon continued to be active. David left Zadok the priest and his fellow-priests to minister to the Lord there.


text:
They sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord each morning and evening upon the altar set aside for that purpose, just as the Lord had commanded Israel.


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David also appointed Heman, Jeduthun, and several others who were chosen by name to give thanks to the Lord for his constant love and mercy.


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They used their trumpets and cymbals to accompany the singers with loud praises to God. And Jeduthun's sons were appointed as guards.


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At last the celebration ended and the people returned to their homes, and David returned to bless his own household.


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After David had been living in his new palace for some time he said to Nathan the prophet, "Look! I'm living here in a cedar-paneled home while the Ark of the Covenant of God is out there in a tent!"


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In all that time I never suggested to any of the leaders of Israel--the shepherds I appointed to care for my people--that they should build me a cedar-lined temple.'


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"Tell my servant David, 'The Lord of heaven says to you, I took you from being a shepherd and made you the king of my people.


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And I have been with you everywhere you've gone; I have destroyed your enemies, and I will make your name as great as the greatest of the earth.


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And I will give a permanent home to my people Israel and will plant them in their land. They will not be disturbed again; the wicked nations won't conquer them as they did before


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when the judges ruled them. I will subdue all of your enemies. And I now declare that I will cause your descendants to be kings of Israel just as you are.


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'When your time here on earth is over and you die, I will place one of your sons upon your throne; and I will make his kingdom strong.


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I will be his father, and he shall be my son; I will never remove my mercy and love from him as I did from Saul.


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I will place him over my people and over the kingdom of Israel forever--and his descendants will always be kings.' "


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Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family that you have given me all this?


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For all the great things you have already done for me are nothing in comparison to what you have promised to do in the future! For now, O Lord God, you are speaking of future generations of my children being kings too! You speak as though I were someone very great.


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O Lord, you have given me these wonderful promises just because you want to be kind to me, because of your own great heart.


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O Lord, there is no one like you--there is no other God. In fact, we have never even heard of another god like you!


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"And what other nation in all the earth is like Israel? You have made a unique nation and have redeemed it from Egypt so that the people could be your people. And you made a great name for yourself when you did glorious miracles in driving out the nations from before your people.


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And may this bring eternal honor to your name as everyone realizes that you always do what you say. They will exclaim, 'The Lord of heaven is indeed the God of Israel!' And Israel shall always be ruled by my children and their posterity!


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May this blessing rest upon my children forever, for when you grant a blessing, Lord, it is an eternal blessing!"


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He conquered the dominion of King Hadadezer of Zobah (as far as Hamath) at the time Hadadezer went to tighten his grip along the Euphrates River.


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David captured a thousand of his chariots, seven thousand cavalry, and twenty thousand troops. He crippled all the chariot teams except a hundred that he kept for his own use.


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When the Syrians arrived from Damascus to help King Hadadezer, David killed twenty-two thousand of them;


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then he placed a garrison of his troops in Damascus, the Syrian capital. So the Syrians, too, were forced to send him large amounts of money every year. And the Lord gave David victory everywhere he went.


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as well as a great amount of bronze from Hadadezer's cities of Tibhath and Cun. (King Solomon later melted the bronze and used it for the Temple. He molded it into the bronze tank, the pillars, and the instruments used in offering sacrifices on the altar.)


text:
he sent his son Hadoram to greet and congratulate King David on his success and to present him with many gifts of gold, silver, and bronze, seeking an alliance. For Hadadezer and Tou had been enemies and there had been many wars between them.


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King David dedicated these gifts to the Lord, as he did the silver and gold he took from the nations of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Amalek, and the Philistines.


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He put garrisons in Edom and forced the Edomites to pay large sums of money annually to David. This is just another example of how the Lord gave David victory after victory.


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Joab (son of Zeruiah) was commander-in-chief of the army; Jehoshaphat (son of Ahilud) was the historian;


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Zadok (son of Ahitub) and Ahimelech (son of Abiathar) were the head priests; Shavsha was the king's special assistant;


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Benaiah (son of Jehoiada) was in charge of the king's bodyguard--the Cherethites and Pelethites--and David's sons were his chief aides.


text:
Then David declared, "I am going to show friendship to Hanun because of all the kind things his father did for me." So David sent a message of sympathy to Hanun for the death of his father. But when David's ambassadors arrived,


text:
King Hanun's counselors warned him, "Don't fool yourself that David has sent these men to honor your father! They are here to spy out the land so that they can come in and conquer it!"


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So King Hanun insulted King David's ambassadors by shaving their beards and cutting their robes off at the middle to expose their buttocks; then he sent them back to David in shame.


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When David heard what had happened, he sent a message to his embarrassed emissaries, telling them to stay at Jericho until their beards had grown out again.


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When King Hanun realized his mistake he sent $2,000,000 to enlist mercenary troops, chariots, and cavalry from Mesopotamia, Aram-maacah, and Zobah.


text:
He hired thirty-two thousand chariots, as well as the support of the king of Maacah and his entire army. These forces camped at Medeba where they were joined by the troops King Hanun had recruited from his cities.


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The army of Ammon went out to meet them and began the battle at the gates of the city of Medeba. Meanwhile, the mercenary forces were out in the field.


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When Joab realized that the enemy forces were both in front and behind him, he divided his army and sent one group to engage the Syrians.


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"If the Syrians are too strong for me, come and help me," Joab told his brother; "and if the Ammonites are too strong for you, I'll come and help you.


text:
Be courageous and let us act like men to save our people and the cities of our God. And may the Lord do what is best."


text:
When the Ammonites, under attack by Abishai's troops, saw that the Syrians were retreating, they fled into the city. Then Joab returned to Jerusalem.


text:
After their defeat, the Syrians summoned additional troops from east of the Euphrates River, led personally by Shophach, King Hadadezer's commander-in-chief.


text:
When this news reached David, he mobilized all Israel, crossed the Jordan River, and engaged the enemy troops in battle.


text:
But the Syrians again fled from David, and he killed seven thousand charioteers and forty thousand of their troops. He also killed Shophach, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian army.


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Then King Hadadezer's troops surrendered to King David and became his subjects. And never again did the Syrians aid the Ammonites in their battles.


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The following spring (spring was the season when wars usually began) Joab led the Israeli army in successful attacks against the cities and villages of the people of Ammon. After destroying them, he laid siege to Rabbah and conquered it. Meanwhile, David had stayed in Jerusalem.


text:
When David arrived on the scene, he removed the crown from the head of King Milcom of Rabbah and placed it upon his own head. It was made of gold inlaid with gems and weighed seventy-five pounds! David also took great amounts of plunder from the city.


text:
He drove the people from the city and set them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes, as was his custom with all the conquered Ammonite peoples. Then David and all his army returned to Jerusalem.


text:
The next war was against the Philistines again, at Gezer. But Sibbecai, a man from Hushath, killed one of the sons of the giant, Sippai, and so the Philistines surrendered.


text:
During another war with the Philistines, Elhanan (the son of Jair) killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the giant; the handle of his spear was like a weaver's beam!


text:
During another battle, at Gath, a giant with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot (his father was also a giant) defied


text:
and taunted Israel; but he was killed by David's nephew Jonathan, the son of David's brother Shimea.


text:
These giants were descendants of the giants of Gath, and they were killed by David and his soldiers.


text:
"Take a complete census throughout the land and bring me the totals," he told Joab and the other leaders.


text:
But Joab objected. "If the Lord were to multiply his people a hundred times, would they not all be yours? So why are you asking us to do this? Why must you cause Israel to sin?"


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But the king won the argument, and Joab did as he was told; he traveled all through Israel and returned to Jerusalem.


text:
The total population figure which he gave came to 1,100,000 men of military age in Israel and 470,000 in Judah.


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But he didn't include the tribes of Levi and Benjamin in his figures because he was so distressed at what the king had made him do.


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But David said to God, "I am the one who has sinned. Please forgive me, for I realize now how wrong I was to do this."


text:
You may have three years of famine, or three months of destruction by the enemies of Israel, or three days of deadly plague as the angel of the Lord brings destruction to the land. Think it over and let me know what answer to return to the one who sent me.' "


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"This is a terrible decision to make," David replied, "but let me fall into the hands of the Lord rather than into the power of men, for God's mercies are very great."


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During the plague God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem; but then he felt such compassion that he changed his mind and commanded the destroying angel, "Stop! It is enough!" (The angel of the Lord was standing at the time by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.)


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When David saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth with his sword drawn, pointing toward Jerusalem, he and the elders of Israel clothed themselves in sackcloth and fell to the ground before the Lord.


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And David said to God, "I am the one who sinned by ordering the census. But what have these sheep done? O Lord my God, destroy me and my family, but do not destroy your people."


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Then the angel of the Lord told Gad to instruct David to build an altar to the Lord at the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.


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So David went to see Ornan, who was threshing wheat at the time. Ornan saw the angel as he turned, and his four sons ran and hid.


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Then Ornan saw the king approaching. So he left the threshing-floor and bowed to the ground before King David.


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David said to Ornan, "Let me buy this threshing-floor from you at its full price; then I will build an altar to the Lord and the plague will stop."


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"Take it, my lord, and use it as you wish," Ornan said to David. "Take the oxen, too, for burnt offerings; use the threshing instruments for wood for the fire and use the wheat for the grain offering. I give it all to you."


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"No," the king replied, "I will buy it for the full price; I cannot take what is yours and give it to the Lord. I will not offer a burnt offering that has cost me nothing!"


text:
and built an altar to the Lord there, and sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings upon it; and he called out to the Lord, who answered by sending down fire from heaven to burn up the offering on the altar.


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but David didn't have time to go there to plead before the Lord, for he was terrified by the drawn sword of the angel of Jehovah.


text:
Then David said, "Right here at Ornan's threshing-floor is the place where I'll build the Temple of the Lord and construct the altar for Israel's burnt offering!"


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David now drafted all the resident aliens in Israel to prepare blocks of squared stone for the Temple.


text:
They also manufactured iron into the great quantity of nails needed for the doors in the gates and for the clamps; and they smelted so much bronze that it was too much to weigh.


text:
"Solomon my son is young and tender," David said, "and the Temple of the Lord must be a marvelous structure, famous and glorious throughout the world; so I will begin the preparations for it now." So David collected the construction materials before his death.


text:
"but the Lord said not to do it. 'You have killed too many men in great wars,' he told me. 'You have reddened the ground before me with blood: so you are not to build my Temple.


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But I will give you a son,' he told me, 'who will be a man of peace, for I will give him peace with his enemies in the surrounding lands. His name shall be Solomon (meaning "Peaceful"), and I will give peace and quietness to Israel during his reign.


text:
He shall build my Temple, and he shall be as my own son and I will be his father; and I will cause his sons and his descendants to reign over every generation of Israel.'


text:
"So now, my son, may the Lord be with you and prosper you as you do what he told you to do and build the Temple of the Lord.


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And may the Lord give you the good judgment to follow all his laws when he makes you king of Israel.


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For if you carefully obey the rules and regulations that he gave to Israel through Moses, you will prosper. Be strong and courageous, fearless and enthusiastic!


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"By hard work I have collected several billion dollars worth of gold bullion, millions in silver, and so much iron and bronze that I haven't even weighed it; I have also gathered timber and stone for the walls. This is at least a beginning, something with which to start.


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They are expert gold and silver smiths and bronze and iron workers. So get to work, and may the Lord be with you!"


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"The Lord your God is with you," he declared. "He has given you peace with the surrounding nations, for I have conquered them in the name of the Lord and for his people.


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Now try with every fiber of your being to obey the Lord your God, and you will soon be bringing the Ark and the other holy articles of worship into the Temple of the Lord!"


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By this time David was an old, old man, so he stepped down from the throne and appointed his son Solomon as the new king of Israel.


text:
At this time a census was taken of the men of the tribe of Levi who were thirty years or older. The total came to 38,000.


text:
"Twenty-four thousand of them will supervise the work at the Temple," David instructed, "6,000 are to be bailiffs and judges,


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4,000 will be temple guards, and 4,000 will praise the Lord with the musical instruments I have made."


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Then David divided them into three main divisions named after the sons of Levi--the Gershom division, the Kohath division, and the Merari division.


text:
These subdivisions were still further divided into six groups named after the sons of Ladan: Jehiel the leader, Zetham, Joel;


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Jahath was greatest, Zizah was next, and Jeush and Beriah were combined into a single subclan because neither had many sons.


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The division of Kohath was subdivided into four groups named after his sons Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.


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Amram was the ancestor of Aaron and Moses. Aaron and his sons were set apart for the holy service of sacrificing the people's offerings to the Lord. He served the Lord constantly and pronounced blessings in his name at all times.


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The sons of Hebron were led by Jeriah. Amariah was second in command, Jahaziel was third, and Jekameam was fourth.


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In the census, all the men of Levi who were twenty years old or older were classified under the names of these clans and subclans; and they were all assigned to the ministry at the Temple.


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Now the Levites will no longer need to carry the Tabernacle and its instruments from place to place."


text:
The work of the Levites was to assist the priests--the descendants of Aaron--in the sacrifices at the Temple; they also did the custodial work and helped perform the ceremonies of purification.


text:
They provided the Bread of the Presence, the flour for the grain offerings, and the wafers made without yeast (either fried or mixed with olive oil); they also checked all the weights and measures.


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They assisted in the special sacrifices of burnt offerings, the Sabbath sacrifices, the new moon celebrations, and at all the festivals. There were always as many Levites present as were required for the occasion.


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And they took care of the Tabernacle and the Temple and assisted the priests in whatever way they were needed.


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The priests (the descendants of Aaron) were placed into two divisions named after Aaron's sons, Eleazar and Ithamar.


text:
Nadab and Abihu were also sons of Aaron, but they died before their father did and had no children; so only Eleazar and Ithamar were left to carry on.


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David consulted with Zadok, who represented the Eleazar clan, and with Ahimelech, who represented the Ithamar clan; then he divided Aaron's descendants into many groups to serve at various times.


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Eleazar's descendants were divided into sixteen groups and Ithamar's into eight (for there was more leadership ability among the descendants of Eleazar).


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All tasks were assigned to the various groups by coin-toss so that there would be no preference, for there were many famous men and high officials of the Temple in each division.


text:
Shemaiah, a Levite and the son of Nethanel, acted as recording secretary and wrote down the names and assignments in the presence of the king and of these leaders: Zadok the priest, Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the heads of the priests and Levites. Two groups from the division of Eleazar and one from the division of Ithamar were assigned to each task.


text:
The work was assigned (by coin-toss) in this order: First, the group led by Jehoiarib; Second, the group led by Jedaiah;


text:
Each group carried out the Temple duties as originally assigned by God through their ancestor Aaron.


text:
These were the other descendants of Levi: Amram; his descendant Shubael; and Shubael's descendant Jehdeiah;


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The Hebron group:  Jeriah, Hebron's oldest son;  Amariah, his second son;  Jahaziel, his third son;  Jekameam, his fourth son.


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The Uzziel group was led by his son Micah and his grandsons Shamir and Isshiah, and by Isshiah's son Zechariah.


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The Merari group was led by his sons: Mahli and Mushi. (Jaaziah's group, led by his son Beno, included his brothers Shoham, Zaccur, and Ibri.)


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The sons of Mushi were Mahli, Eder, and Jerimoth. These were the descendants of Levi in their various clans.


text:
Like the descendants of Aaron, they were assigned to their duties by coin-toss without distinction as to age or rank. It was done in the presence of King David, Zadok, Ahimelech, and the leaders of the priests and the Levites.


text:
David and the officials of the Tabernacle then appointed men to prophesy to the accompaniment of zithers, harps, and cymbals. These men were from the groups of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun. Here is a list of their names and their work:


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Under the leadership of Asaph, the king's private prophet, were his sons Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asharelah.


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Under Jeduthun, who led in giving thanks and praising the Lord (while accompanied by the zither), were his six sons: Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Shimei, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah.


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Under the direction of Heman, the king's private chaplain, were his sons: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Geddalti, Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, and Mahazioth.


text:
Their music ministry included the playing of cymbals, harps, and zithers; all were under the direction of their father as they performed this ministry in the Tabernacle. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman reported directly to the king.


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They and their families were all trained in singing praises to the Lord; each one--288 of them in all--was a master musician.


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The singers were appointed to their particular term of service by coin-toss, without regard to age or reputation.


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The first toss indicated Joseph of the Asaph clan; The second, Gedaliah, along with twelve of his sons and brothers;


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The temple guards were from the Asaph division of the Korah clan. The captain of the guard was Meshelemiah, the son of Kore.


text:
His sergeants were his sons:  Zechariah (the oldest),  Jediael (the second),  Zebadiah (the third),  Jathniel (the fourth),


text:
The sons of Obed-edom were also appointed as Temple guards:  Shemaiah (the oldest),  Jehozabad (the second),  Joah (the third),  Sacar (the fourth),  Nethanel (the fifth),


text:
Ammiel (the sixth),  Issachar (the seventh),  Peullethai (the eighth). What a blessing God gave him with all those sons!


text:
Their names were:  Othni, Rephael, Obed, Elzabad. Their brave brothers, Elihu and Semachiah, were also very able men.


text:
All of these sons and grandsons of Obed-edom--all sixty-two of them--were outstanding men who were particularly well qualified for their work.


text:
Hosah, one of the Merari group, appointed Shimri as the leader among his sons, though he was not the oldest.


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The names of some of his other sons were:  Hilkiah, the second;  Tebaliah, the third;  Zechariah, the fourth. Hosah's sons and brothers numbered thirteen in all.


text:
The divisions of the Temple guards were named after the leaders. Like the other Levites, they were responsible to minister at the Temple.


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They were assigned guard duty at the various gates without regard to the reputation of their families, for it was all done by coin-toss.


text:
The responsibility of the east gate went to Shelemiah and his group; of the north gate to his son Zechariah, a man of unusual wisdom;


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Six guards were assigned daily to the east gate, four to the north gate, four to the south gate, and two to each of the storehouses.


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Six guards were assigned each day to the west gate, four to the upper road, and two to the nearby areas.


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Other Levites, led by Ahijah, were given the care of the gifts brought to the Lord and placed in the Temple treasury.


text:
Shebuel, son of Gershom and grandson of Moses, was the chief officer of the treasury. He was in charge of the divisions named after Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.


text:
Shelomoth and his brothers were appointed to care for the gifts given to the Lord by King David and the other leaders of the nation such as the officers and generals of the army.


text:
Shelomoth and his brothers were also responsible for the care of the items dedicated to the Lord by Samuel the prophet, Saul the son of Kish, Abner the son of Ner, Joab the son of Zeruiah, and anyone else of distinction who brought gifts to the Lord.


text:
Hashabiah and 1,700 of his clansmen from Hebron, all outstanding men, were placed in charge of the territory of Israel west of the Jordan River; they were responsible for the religious affairs and public administration of that area.


text:
Twenty-seven hundred outstanding men of the clan of the Hebronites, under the supervision of Jerijah, were appointed to control the religious and public affairs of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.


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These men, all of whom had excellent qualifications, were appointed on the basis of their ancestry and ability at Jazer in Gilead in the fortieth year of King David's reign.


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The Israeli army was divided into twelve regiments, each with 24,000 troops, including officers and administrative staff. These units were called up for active duty one month each year. Here is the list of the units and their regimental commanders:


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The commander of the First Division was Jashobeam. He had charge of 24,000 troops who were on duty the first month of each year.


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The commander of the Second Division was Dodai (a descendant of Ahohi). He had charge of 24,000 troops who were on duty the second month of each year. Mikloth was his executive officer.


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The commander of the Third Division was Benaiah. His 24,000 men were on duty the third month of each year.


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(He was the son of Jehoiada the High Priest and was the chief of the thirty highest-ranking officers in David's army.) His son Ammizabad succeeded him as division commander.


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The commander of the Fourth Division was Asahel (the brother of Joab), who was later replaced by his son Zebadiah. He had 24,000 men on duty the fourth month of each year.


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The commander of the Fifth Division was Shamuth from Izrah, with 24,000 men on duty the fifth month of each year.


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The commander of the Sixth Division was Ira, the son of Ikkesh from Tekoa; he had 24,000 men on duty the sixth month of each year.


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The commander of the Seventh Division was Helez from Pelona in Ephraim, with 24,000 men on duty the seventh month of each year.


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The commander of the Eighth Division was Sibbecai of the Hushite subclan from Zerah, who had 24,000 men on duty the eighth month of each year.


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The commander of the Ninth Division was Abiezer (from Anathoth in the tribe of Benjamin), who commanded 24,000 troops during the ninth month of each year.


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The commander of the Tenth Division was Maharai from Netophah in Zerah, with 24,000 men on duty the tenth month of each year.


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The commander of the Eleventh Division was Benaiah from Pirathon in Ephraim, with 24,000 men on duty during the eleventh month of each year.


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The commander of the Twelfth Division was Heldai from Netophah in the area of Othniel, who commanded 24,000 men on duty during the twelfth month of each year.


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The top political officers of the tribes of Israel were as follows: Over Reuben, Eliezer (son of Zichri); Over Simeon, Shephatiah (son of Maacah);


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Over the other half of Manasseh, in Gilead, Iddo (son of Zechariah); Over Benjamin, Jaasiel (son of Abner);


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When David took his census, he didn't include the twenty-year-olds or those younger, for the Lord had promised a population explosion for his people.


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Joab began the census, but he never finished it, for the anger of God broke out upon Israel; the final total was never put into the annals of King David.


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Azmaveth (son of Adiel) was the chief financial officer in charge of the palace treasuries, and Jonathan (son of Uzziah) was chief of the regional treasuries throughout the cities, villages, and fortresses of Israel.


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And Shimei from Ramath had the oversight of the king's vineyards; and Zabdi from Shiphma was responsible for his wine production and storage.


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Baal-hanan from Gedera was responsible for the king's olive yards and sycamore trees in the lowlands bordering Philistine territory, while Joash had charge of the supplies of olive oil.


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Shitrai from Sharon was in charge of the cattle on the Plains of Sharon, and Shaphat (son of Adlai) had charge of those in the valleys.


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Obil, from the territory of Ishmael, had charge of the camels, and Jehdeiah from Meronoth had charge of the donkeys.


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The attendant to the king's sons was Jonathan, David's uncle, a wise counselor and an educated man. Jehiel (the son of Hachmoni) was their tutor.


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Ahithophel was assisted by Jehoiada (the son of Benaiah) and by Abiathar. Joab was commander-in-chief of the Israeli army.


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David now summoned all of his officials to Jerusalem--the political leaders, the commanders of the twelve army divisions, the other army officers, those in charge of his property and livestock, and all the other men of authority in his kingdom.


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He rose and stood before them and addressed them as follows: "My brothers and my people! It was my desire to build a temple in which the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord could rest--a place for our God to live in. I have now collected everything that is necessary for the building,


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but God has told me, 'You are not to build my temple, for you are a warrior and have shed much blood.'


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"Nevertheless, the Lord God of Israel has chosen me from among all my father's family to begin a dynasty that will rule Israel forever; he has chosen the tribe of Judah, and from among the families of Judah, my father's family; and from among his sons, the Lord took pleasure in me and has made me king over all Israel.


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And from among my sons--the Lord has given me many children--he has chosen Solomon to succeed me on the throne of his Kingdom of Israel.


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He has told me, 'Your son Solomon shall build my Temple; for I have chosen him as my son and I will be his father.


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And if he continues to obey my commandments and instructions as he has until now, I will make his kingdom last forever.' "


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Then David turned to Solomon and said: "Here before the leaders of Israel, the people of God, and in the sight of our God, I am instructing you to search out every commandment of the Lord so that you may continue to rule this good land and leave it to your children to rule forever.


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Solomon, my son, get to know the God of your fathers. Worship and serve him with a clean heart and a willing mind, for the Lord sees every heart and understands and knows every thought. If you seek him, you will find him; but if you forsake him, he will permanently throw you aside.


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So be very careful, for the Lord has chosen you to build his holy Temple. Be strong and do as he commands."


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Then David gave Solomon the blueprint of the Temple and its surroundings--the treasuries, the upstairs rooms, the inside rooms, and the sanctuary for the place of mercy.


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He also gave Solomon his plans for the outer court, the outside rooms, the Temple storage areas, and the treasuries for the gifts dedicated by famous persons. For the Holy Spirit had given David all these plans.


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The king also passed on to Solomon the instructions concerning the work of the various groups of priests and Levites; and he gave specifications for each item in the Temple which was to be used for worship and sacrifice.


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as well as the specific amount of gold needed for the lampstands and lamps. He also weighed out enough silver for the silver candlesticks and lamps, each according to its use.


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He weighed out the gold for the table on which the Bread of the Presence would be placed and for the other gold tables, and he weighed the silver for the silver tables.


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Then he weighed out the gold for the solid gold hooks used in handling the sacrificial meat and for the basins, cups, and bowls of gold and silver.


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Finally, he weighed out the refined gold for the altar of incense and for the gold angels whose wings were stretched over the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord.


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"Every part of this blueprint," David told Solomon, "was given to me in writing from the hand of the Lord."


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Then he continued, "Be strong and courageous and get to work. Don't be frightened by the size of the task, for the Lord my God is with you; he will not forsake you. He will see to it that everything is finished correctly.


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And these various groups of priests and Levites will serve in the Temple. Others with skills of every kind will volunteer, and the army and the entire nation are at your command."


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Then King David turned to the entire assembly and said: "My son Solomon, whom God has chosen to be the next king of Israel, is still young and inexperienced, and the work ahead of him is enormous; for the temple he will build is not just another building--it is for the Lord God himself!


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Using every resource at my command, I have gathered as much as I could for building it--enough gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and great quantities of onyx, other precious stones, costly jewels, and marble.


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And now, because of my devotion to the Temple of God, I am giving all of my own private treasures to aid in the construction. This is in addition to the building materials I have already collected.


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These personal contributions consist of millions of dollars of gold from Ophir and huge amounts of silver to be used for overlaying the walls of the buildings.


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It will also be used for the articles made of gold and silver and for the artistic decorations. Now then, who will follow my example? Who will give himself and all that he has to the Lord?"


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Then the clan leaders, the heads of the tribes, the army officers, and the administrative officers of the king pledged


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They also contributed great amounts of jewelry, which were deposited at the Temple treasury with Jehiel (a descendant of Gershom).


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Everyone was excited and happy for this opportunity of service, and King David was moved with deep joy.


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While still in the presence of the whole assembly, David expressed his praises to the Lord: "O Lord God of our father Israel, praise your name for ever and ever!


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Yours is the mighty power and glory and victory and majesty. Everything in the heavens and earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as being in control of everything.


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Riches and honor come from you alone, and you are the Ruler of all mankind; your hand controls power and might, and it is at your discretion that men are made great and given strength.


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but who am I and who are my people that we should be permitted to give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we only give you what is yours already!


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For we are here for but a moment, strangers in the land as our fathers were before us; our days on earth are like a shadow, gone so soon, without a trace.


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O Lord our God, all of this material that we have gathered to build a temple for your holy name comes from you! It all belongs to you!


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I know, my God, that you test men to see if they are good; for you enjoy good men. I have done all this with good motives, and I have watched your people offer their gifts willingly and joyously.


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"O Lord, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Israel! Make your people always want to obey you, and see to it that their love for you never changes.


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Give my son Solomon a good heart toward God, so that he will want to obey you in the smallest detail and will look forward eagerly to finishing the building of your temple, for which I have made all of these preparations."


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Then David said to all the people, "Give praise to the Lord your God!" And they did, bowing low before the Lord and the king.


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The next day they brought a thousand young bulls, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs as burnt offerings to the Lord; they also offered drink offerings and many other sacrifices on behalf of all Israel.


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Then they feasted and drank before the Lord with great joy. And again they crowned King David's son Solomon as their king. They anointed him before the Lord as their leader, and they anointed Zadok as their priest.


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So God appointed Solomon to take the throne of his father David; and he prospered greatly, and all Israel obeyed him.


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The national leaders, the army officers, and his brothers all pledged their allegiance to King Solomon.


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And the Lord gave him great popularity with all the people of Israel, and he amassed even greater wealth and honor than his father.


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David was king of the land of Israel for forty years; seven of them during his reign in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem.


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Detailed biographies of King David have been written in the history of Samuel the prophet, the history written by Nathan the prophet, and in the history written by the prophet Gad.


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These accounts tell of his reign and of his might and all that happened to him and to Israel and to the kings of the nearby nations.


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Solomon son of David took a firm grip on the reins of his kingdom. God was with him and gave him much help.


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Solomon addressed all Israel—the commanders and captains, the judges, every leader, and all the heads of families.


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Then Solomon and the entire company went to the worship center at Gibeon—that's where the Tent of Meeting of God was, the one that Moses the servant of God had made in the wilderness.


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The Chest of God, though, was in Jerusalem—David had brought it up from Kiriath Jearim, prepared a special place for it, and pitched a tent for it.


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But the Bronze Altar that Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made was in Gibeon, in its place before the Tabernacle of God; and that is where Solomon and the congregation gathered to pray.


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Solomon worshiped God at the Bronze Altar in front of the Tent of Meeting; he sacrificed a thousand Whole-Burnt-Offerings on it.


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Solomon answered, "You were extravagantly generous with David my father, and now you have made me king in his place.


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Establish, God, the words you spoke to my father, for you've given me a staggering task, ruling this mob of people.


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Yes, give me wisdom and knowledge as I come and go among this people—for who on his own is capable of leading these, your glorious people?"


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God answered Solomon, "This is what has come out of your heart: You didn't grasp for money, wealth, fame, and the doom of your enemies; you didn't even ask for a long life. You asked for wisdom and knowledge so you could govern well my people over whom I've made you king.


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Because of this, you get what you asked for—wisdom and knowledge. And I'm presenting you the rest as a bonus—money, wealth, and fame beyond anything the kings before or after you had or will have."


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Then Solomon left the worship center at Gibeon and the Tent of Meeting and went to Jerusalem. He set to work as king of Israel.


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Solomon collected chariots and horses: 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses! He stabled them in the special chariot-cities as well as in Jerusalem.


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The king made silver and gold as common as rocks, and cedar as common as the fig trees in the lowland hills.


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Chariots from Egypt went for fifteen pounds of silver and a horse for about three and three-quarters of a pound of silver. Solomon carried on a brisk horse-trading business with the Hittite and Aramean royal houses.


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Solomon gave orders to begin construction on the house of worship in honor of God and a palace for himself.


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Solomon assigned 70,000 common laborers, 80,000 to work the quarries in the mountains, and 3,600 foremen to manage the workforce.


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Then Solomon sent this message to King Hiram of Tyre: "Send me cedar logs, the same kind you sent David my father for building his palace.


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I'm about to build a house of worship in honor of God, a holy place for burning perfumed incense, for setting out holy bread, for making Whole-Burnt-Offerings at morning and evening worship, and for Sabbath, New Moon, and Holy Day services of worship—the acts of worship required of Israel.


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"The house I am building has to be the best, for our God is the best, far better than competing gods.


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But who is capable of building such a structure? Why, the skies—the entire cosmos!—can't begin to contain him. And me, who am I to think I can build a house adequate for God—burning incense to him is about all I'm good for!


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I need your help: Send me a master artisan in gold, silver, bronze, iron, textiles of purple, crimson, and violet, and who knows the craft of engraving; he will supervise the trained craftsmen in Judah and Jerusalem that my father provided.


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Also send cedar, cypress, and algum logs from Lebanon; I know you have lumberjacks experienced in the Lebanon forests. I'll send workers to join your crews


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to cut plenty of timber—I'm going to need a lot, for this house I'm building is going to be absolutely stunning—a showcase temple!


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I'll provide all the food necessary for your crew of lumberjacks and loggers: 130,000 bushels of wheat, 120,000 gallons of wine, and 120,000 gallons of olive oil."


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Hiram king of Tyre wrote Solomon in reply: "It's plain that God loves his people—he made you king over them!"


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He wrote on, "Blessed be the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, and who gave King David a son so wise, so knowledgeable and shrewd, to build a temple for God and a palace for himself.


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His mother is from Dan and his father from Tyre. He knows how to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, in purple, violet, linen, and crimson textiles; he is also an expert engraver and competent to work out designs with your artists and architects, and those of my master David, your father.


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We'll log the trees you need from the Lebanon forests and raft them down to Joppa. You'll have to get the timber up to Jerusalem yourself."


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Solomon then took a census of all the foreigners living in Israel, using the same census-taking method employed by his father. They numbered 153,600.


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He assigned 70,000 of them as common laborers, 80,000 to work the quarries in the mountains, and 3,600 as foremen to manage the work crews.


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So Solomon broke ground, launched construction of the house of God in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, the place where God had appeared to his father David. The precise site, the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, had been designated by David.


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These are the dimensions that Solomon set for the construction of the house of God: ninety feet long and thirty feet wide.


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The porch in front stretched the width of the building, that is, thirty feet; and it was thirty feet high. The interior was gold-plated.


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He paneled the main hall with cypress and veneered it with fine gold engraved with palm tree and chain designs.


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Everything was coated with gold veneer: rafters, doorframes, walls, and doors. Cherubim were engraved on the walls.


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He made the Holy of Holies a cube, thirty feet wide, long, and high. It was veneered with 600 talents (something over twenty-two tons) of gold.


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The gold nails weighed fifty shekels (a little over a pound). The upper rooms were also veneered in gold.


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He made two sculptures of cherubim, gigantic angel-like figures, for the Holy of Holies, both veneered with gold.


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The combined wingspread of the side-by-side cherubim (each wing measuring seven and a half feet) stretched from wall to wall, thirty feet.


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He made two huge free-standing pillars, each fifty-two feet tall, their capitals extending another seven and a half feet.


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The top of each pillar was set off with an elaborate filigree of chains, like necklaces, from which hung a hundred pomegranates.


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He placed the pillars in front of The Temple, one on the right, and the other on the left. The right pillar he named Jakin (Security) and the left pillar he named Boaz (Stability).


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He made a Sea—an immense round basin of cast metal fifteen feet in diameter, seven and a half feet high, and forty-five feet in circumference.


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Just under the rim, there were two parallel bands of something like bulls, ten to each foot and a half. The figures were cast in one piece with the Sea.


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The Sea was set on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. All the bulls faced outward and supported the Sea on their hindquarters.


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The Sea was three inches thick and flared at the rim like a cup, or a lily. It held about 18,000 gallons.


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He made ten Washbasins, five set on the right and five on the left, for rinsing the things used for the Whole-Burnt-Offerings. The priests washed themselves in the Sea.


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He made ten gold Lampstands, following the specified pattern, and placed five on the right and five on the left.


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He made ten tables and set five on the right and five on the left. He also made a hundred gold bowls.


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He built a Courtyard especially for the priests and then the great court and doors for the court. The doors were covered with bronze.


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He also made ash buckets, shovels, and bowls. And that about wrapped it up: Huram completed the work he had contracted to do for King Solomon:


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two pillars; two bowl-shaped capitals for the tops of the pillars; two decorative filigrees for the capitals;


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miscellaneous buckets, forks, shovels, and bowls. All these artifacts that Huram-Abi made for King Solomon for The Temple of God were made of burnished bronze.


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These artifacts were never weighed—there were far too many! Nobody has any idea how much bronze was used.


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Solomon was also responsible for the furniture and accessories in The Temple of God: the gold Altar; the tables that held the Bread of the Presence;


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the Lampstands of pure gold with their lamps, to be lighted before the Inner Sanctuary, the Holy of Holies;


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the gold wick trimmers, bowls, ladles, and censers; the gold doors of The Temple, doors to the Holy of Holies, and the doors to the main sanctuary.


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That completed the work King Solomon did on The Temple of God. He then brought in the holy offerings of his father David, the silver and the gold and the artifacts. He placed them all in the treasury of God's Temple.


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Bringing all this to a climax, Solomon got all the leaders together in Jerusalem—all the chiefs of tribes and the family patriarchs—to move the Chest of the Covenant of God from Zion and install it in The Temple.


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All the men of Israel assembled before the king on the feast day of the seventh month, the Feast of Booths.


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They carried the Chest, the Tent of Meeting, and all the sacred things in the Tent used in worship. The priests, all Levites, carried them.


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King Solomon and the entire congregation of Israel were there before the Chest, worshiping and sacrificing huge numbers of sheep and cattle—so many that no one could keep track.


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The priests brought the Chest of the Covenant of God to its place in the Inner Sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim.


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The ends of the poles were so long that they stuck out from the entrance of the Inner Sanctuary, but were not noticeable further out—they're still there today.


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There was nothing in the Chest itself but the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb where God made a covenant with Israel after bringing them up from Egypt.


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The priests then left the Holy Place. All the priests there were consecrated, regardless of rank or assignment;


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and all the Levites who were musicians were there—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their families, dressed in their worship robes; the choir and orchestra assembled on the east side of the Altar and were joined by 120 priests blowing trumpets.


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The choir and trumpets made one voice of praise and thanks to God—orchestra and choir in perfect harmony singing and playing praise to God: Yes! God is good! His loyal love goes on forever! Then a billowing cloud filled The Temple of God.


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The priests couldn't even carry out their duties because of the cloud—the glory of God!—that filled The Temple of God.


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"Blessed be God, the God of Israel, who spoke personally to my father David. Now he has done what he promised when he said,


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'From the day I brought my people Israel up from Egypt, I haven't set apart one city among the tribes of Israel in which to build a temple to honor my Name, or chosen one person to be the leader.


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But now I have chosen both a city and a person: Jerusalem for honoring my Name and David to lead my people Israel.'


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But you are not the one to do it. Your son, who will carry on your dynasty, will build it for my Name.'


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"And now you see the promise completed. God has done what he said he would do; I have succeeded David my father and now rule Israel; and I have built a temple to honor God, the God of Israel,


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and have secured a place for the Chest that holds the Covenant of God, the covenant he made with the people of Israel."


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Before the entire congregation of Israel, Solomon took his position at the Altar of God and stretched out his hands.


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Solomon had made a bronze dais seven and a half feet square and four and a half feet high and placed it inside the court; that's where he now stood. Then he knelt in full view of the whole congregation, stretched his hands to heaven,


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and prayed: God, O God of Israel, there is no God like you in the skies above or on the earth below, who unswervingly keeps covenant with his servants and unfailingly loves them while they sincerely live in obedience to your way.


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You kept your word to David my father, your promise. You did exactly what you promised—every detail. The proof is before us today!


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Keep it up, God, O God of Israel! Continue to keep the promises you made to David my father when you said, "You'll always have a descendant to represent my rule on Israel's throne, on the one condition that your sons are as careful to live obediently in my presence as you have."


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Can it be that God will actually move into our neighborhood? Why, the cosmos itself isn't large enough to give you breathing room, let alone this Temple I've built.


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Even so, I'm bold to ask: Pay attention to these my prayers, both intercessory and personal, O God, my God. Listen to my prayers, energetic and devout, that I'm setting before you right now.


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Keep your eyes open to this Temple day and night, this place you promised to dignify with your Name. And listen to the prayers that I pray in this place.


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And listen to your people Israel when they pray at this place. Listen from your home in heaven and when you hear, forgive.


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When someone hurts a neighbor and promises to make things right, and then comes and repeats the promise before your Altar in this Temple,


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Listen from heaven and act; judge your servants, making the offender pay for the offense And set the offended free, dismissing all charges.


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When your people Israel are beaten by an enemy because they've sinned against you, but then turn to you and acknowledge your rule in prayers desperate and devout in this Temple,


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Listen from your home in heaven; forgive the sin of your people Israel, return them to the land you gave to them and their ancestors.


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When the skies shrivel up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, but then they pray at this place, acknowledging your rule and quit their sins because you have scourged them,


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Listen from your home in heaven, forgive the sins of your servants, your people Israel. Then start over with them; train them to live right and well; Send rain on the land you gave as inheritance to your people.


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When disasters strike, famine or catastrophe, crop failure or disease, locust or beetle, or when an enemy attacks their defenses—calamity of any sort—


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any prayer that's prayed from anyone at all among your people Israel, their hearts penetrated by disaster, hands and arms thrown out for help to this Temple,


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Listen from your home in heaven, forgive and reward us: reward each life and circumstance, For you know each life from the inside, (you're the only one with such inside knowledge!),


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So they'll live before you in lifelong reverence and believing obedience on this land you gave our ancestors.


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And don't forget the foreigner who is not a member of your people Israel but has come from a far country because of your reputation—people are going to be attracted here by your great reputation, your wonderworking power—and who come to pray to this Temple.


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Listen from your home in heaven and honor the prayers of the foreigner, So that people all over the world will know who you are and what you're like, And live in reverent obedience before you, just as your own people Israel do, So they'll know that you personally make this Temple that I've built what it is.


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When your people go to war against their enemies at the time and place you send them and they pray to God toward the city you chose and The Temple I've built to honor your Name,


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When they sin against you—and they certainly will; there's no one without sin!—and in anger you turn them over to the enemy and they are taken off captive to the enemy's land, whether far or near,


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but then repent in the country of their captivity and pray with changed hearts in their exile, "We've sinned; we've done wrong; we've been most wicked,


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and they turn back to you heart and soul in the land of the enemy who conquered them, and pray to you toward their homeland, the land you gave their ancestors, toward the city you chose, and this Temple I have built to the honor of your Name,


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Listen from your home in heaven to their prayers desperate and devout; Do what is best for them. Forgive your people who have sinned against you.


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Up, God, enjoy your new place of quiet repose, you and your mighty covenant Chest; Dress your priests up in salvation clothes, let your holy people celebrate goodness.


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And don't, God, back out on your anointed ones, keep in mind the love promised to David your servant.


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When Solomon finished praying, a bolt of lightning out of heaven struck the Whole-Burnt-Offering and sacrifices and the Glory of God filled The Temple.


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The Glory was so dense that the priests couldn't get in—God so filled The Temple that there was no room for the priests!


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When all Israel saw the fire fall from heaven and the Glory of God fill The Temple, they fell on their knees, bowed their heads, and worshiped, thanking God: Yes! God is good! His love never quits!


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King Solomon worshiped by sacrificing 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep at the dedication of The Temple.


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The priests were all on duty; the choir and orchestra of Levites that David had provided for singing and playing anthems to the praise and love of God were all there; across the courtyard the priests blew trumpets. All Israelites were on their feet.


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Solomon set apart the central area of the courtyard in front of God's Temple for sacred use and there sacrificed the Whole-Burnt-Offerings, Grain-Offerings, and fat from the Peace-Offerings—the Bronze Altar was too small to handle all these offerings.


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This is how Solomon kept the great autumn Feast of Booths. For seven days there were people there all the way from the far northeast (the Entrance to Hamath) to the far southwest (the Brook of Egypt)—a huge congregation.


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They started out celebrating for seven days, and then did it for another seven days, a week for dedicating the Altar and another for the Feast itself—two solid weeks of celebration!


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On the twenty-third day of the seventh month Solomon dismissed his congregation. They left rejoicing, exuberant over all the good God had done for David and Solomon and his people Israel.


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Solomon completed building The Temple of God and the royal palace—the projects he had set his heart on doing. Everything was done—success! Satisfaction!


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God appeared to Solomon that very night and said, "I accept your prayer; yes, I have chosen this place as a temple for sacrifice, a house of worship.


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If I ever shut off the supply of rain from the skies or order the locusts to eat the crops or send a plague on my people,


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and my people, my God-defined people, respond by humbling themselves, praying, seeking my presence, and turning their backs on their wicked lives, I'll be there ready for you: I'll listen from heaven, forgive their sins, and restore their land to health.


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Believe me, I've chosen and sanctified this Temple that you have built: My Name is stamped on it forever; my eyes are on it and my heart in it always.


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As for you, if you live in my presence as your father David lived, pure in heart and action, living the life I've set out for you, attentively obedient to my guidance and judgments,


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then I'll back your kingly rule over Israel—make it a sure thing on a sure foundation. The same covenant guarantee I gave to David your father I'm giving to you, namely, 'You can count on always having a descendant on Israel's throne.'


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"But if you or your sons betray me, ignoring my guidance and judgments, taking up with alien gods by serving and worshiping them,


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then the guarantee is off: I'll wipe Israel right off the map and repudiate this Temple I've just sanctified to honor my Name. And Israel will be nothing but a bad joke among the peoples of the world.


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And this Temple, splendid as it now is, will become an object of contempt; tourists will shake their heads, saying, 'What happened here? What's the story behind these ruins?'


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Then they'll be told, 'The people who used to live here betrayed their God, the very God who rescued their ancestors from Egypt; they took up with alien gods, worshiping and serving them. That's what's behind this God-visited devastation.' "


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At the end of twenty years, Solomon had quite a list of accomplishments. He had: built The Temple of God and his own palace;


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built the fortress cities Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth Horon, complete with walls, gates, and bars;


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built Baalath and store-cities; built chariot-cities for his horses. Solomon built impulsively and extravagantly—whenever a whim took him. And in Jerusalem, in Lebanon—wherever he fancied.


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The remnants from the original inhabitants of the land (Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites—all non-Israelites),


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survivors of the holy wars, were rounded up by Solomon for his gangs of slave labor. The policy is in effect today.


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But true Israelites were not treated this way; they were used in his army and administration—government leaders and commanders of his chariots and charioteers.


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They were also the project managers responsible for Solomon's building operations—250 in all in charge of the workforce.


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Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter from the City of David to a house built especially for her, "Because," he said, "my wife cannot live in the house of David king of Israel, for the areas in which the Chest of God has entered are sacred."


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Then Solomon offered Whole-Burnt-Offerings to God on the Altar of God that he had built in front of The Temple porch.


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He kept to the regular schedule of worship set down by Moses: Sabbaths, New Moons, and the three annual feasts of Unraised Bread (Passover), Weeks (Pentecost), and Booths.


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He followed the practice of his father David in setting up groups of priests carrying out the work of worship, with the Levites assigned to lead the sacred music for praising God and to assist the priests in the daily worship; he assigned security guards to be on duty at each gate—that's what David the man of God had ordered.


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The king's directions to the priests and Levites and financial stewards were kept right down to the fine print—no innovations—including the treasuries.


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All that Solomon set out to do, from the groundbreaking of The Temple of God to its finish, was now complete.


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Hiram sent him ships and with them veteran sailors. Joined by Solomon's men they sailed to Ophir (in east Africa), loaded on fifteen tons of gold, and brought it back to King Solomon.


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The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's reputation and came to Jerusalem to put his reputation to the test, asking all the tough questions. She made a showy entrance—an impressive retinue of attendants and camels loaded with perfume and much gold and precious stones. She emptied her heart to Solomon, talking over everything she cared about.


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When the queen of Sheba experienced for herself Solomon's wisdom and saw with her own eyes the palace he had built,


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the meals that were served, the impressive array of court officials, the sharply dressed waiters, the cupbearers, and then the elaborate worship extravagant with Whole-Burnt-Offerings at The Temple of God, it all took her breath away.


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She said to the king, "It's all true! Your reputation for accomplishment and wisdom that reached all the way to my country is confirmed.


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I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself; they didn't exaggerate! Such wisdom and elegance—far more than I could ever have imagined.


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Lucky the men and women who work for you, getting to be around you every day and hear your wise words firsthand!


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And blessed be your God who has taken such a liking to you, making you king. Clearly, God's love for Israel is behind this, making you king to keep a just order and nurture a God-pleasing people."


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She then gave the king four and a half tons of gold and sack after sack of spices and precious stones. There hasn't been a cargo of spices like the shipload the queen of Sheba brought to King Solomon.


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The king used the sandalwood for fine cabinetry in The Temple of God and the royal palace, and for making harps and dulcimers for the musicians. Nothing like that shipment of sandalwood has been seen since.


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King Solomon, for his part, gave the queen of Sheba all her heart's desire—everything she asked for. She took away more than she brought. Satisfied, she returned home with her train of servants.


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This was above and beyond the taxes and profit on trade with merchants and traders. All kings of Arabia and various and assorted governors also brought silver and gold to Solomon.


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King Solomon crafted 200 body-length shields of hammered gold—about fifteen pounds of gold to each shield


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—and about 300 small shields about half that size. He stored the shields in the House of the Forest of Lebanon."


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The throne had six steps leading up to it with an attached footstool of gold. The armrests on each side were flanked by lions.


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Lions, twelve of them, were placed at either end of the six steps. There was no throne like it in any other kingdom.


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King Solomon's chalices and tankards were made of gold, and all the dinnerware and serving utensils in the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Nothing was made of silver; silver was considered common and cheap in the time of Solomon.


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The king's ships, manned by Hiram's sailors, made a round trip to Tarshish every three years, returning with a cargo of gold, silver, and ivory, apes and peacocks.


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Everyone who came brought gifts—artifacts of gold and silver, fashionable robes and gowns, the latest in weapons, exotic spices, horses, and mules—parades of visitors, year after year.


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Solomon collected horses and chariots. He had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots, and 12,000 horsemen in barracks in the chariot-cities and in Jerusalem.


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He ruled over all the kings from the River Euphrates in the east, throughout the Philistine country, and as far west as the border of Egypt.


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The rest of Solomon's life and rule, from start to finish, one can read in the records of Nathan the prophet, the prophecy of Ahijah of Shiloh, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat.


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Jeroboam was then in Egypt, where he had taken asylum from King Solomon; when he got the report of Solomon's death, he came back.


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"Your father made life hard for us—worked our fingers to the bone. Give us a break; lighten up on us and we'll willingly serve you."


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King Rehoboam talked it over with the elders who had advised his father when he was alive: "What's your counsel? How do you suggest that I answer the people?"


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They said, "If you will be a servant to this people, be considerate of their needs and respond with compassion, work things out with them, they'll end up doing anything for you."


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But he rejected the counsel of the elders and asked the young men he'd grown up with who were now currying his favor,


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"What do you think? What should I say to these people who are saying, 'Give us a break from your father's harsh ways—lighten up on us'?"


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The young turks he'd grown up with said, "These people who complain, 'Your father was too hard on us; lighten up'—well, tell them this: 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.


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If you think life under my father was hard, you haven't seen the half of it. My father thrashed you with whips; I'll beat you bloody with chains!' "


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Three days later Jeroboam and the people showed up, just as Rehoboam had directed when he said, "Give me three days to think it over; then come back."


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and went with the advice of the younger set: "If you think life under my father was hard, you haven't seen the half of it: my father thrashed you with whips; I'll beat you bloody with chains!"


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Rehoboam turned a deaf ear to the people. God was behind all this, confirming the message that he had given to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah of Shiloh.


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When all Israel realized that the king hadn't listened to a word they'd said, they stood up to him and said, Get lost, David! We've had it with you, son of Jesse! Let's get out of here, Israel, and fast! From now on, David, mind your own business. And with that they left.


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When King Rehoboam next sent out Adoniram, head of the workforce, the Israelites ganged up on him, pelted him with stones, and killed him. King Rehoboam jumped in his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem as fast as he could.


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When Rehoboam got back to Jerusalem he called up the men of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, 180,000 of their best soldiers, to go to war against Israel and recover the kingdom.


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"Tell this to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, along with all the Israelites in Judah and Benjamin,


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This is God's word: Don't march out; don't fight against your brothers the Israelites. Go back home, every last one of you; I'm in charge here." And they did it; they did what God said and went home.


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He beefed up the fortifications, appointed commanders, and put in supplies of food, olive oil, and wine.


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He installed arms—large shields and spears—in all the forts, making them very strong. So Judah and Benjamin were secure for the time.


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The Levites left their pastures and properties and moved to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons had dismissed them from the priesthood of God


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and replaced them with his own priests to preside over the worship centers at which he had installed goat and calf demon-idols.


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Everyone from all the tribes of Israel who determined to seek the God of Israel migrated with the priests and Levites to Jerusalem to worship there, sacrificing to the God of their ancestors.


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That gave a tremendous boost to the kingdom of Judah. They stuck with Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years, loyal to the ways of David and Solomon for this period.


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Rehoboam married Mahalath daughter of Jerimoth, David's son, and Abihail daughter of Eliab, Jesse's son.


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Maacah was Rehoboam's favorite wife; he loved her more than all his other wives and concubines put together (and he had a lot—eighteen wives and sixty concubines who produced twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters!).


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Rehoboam designated Abijah son of Maacah as the "first son" and leader of the brothers—he intended to make him the next king.


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He was shrewd in deploying his sons in all the fortress cities that made up his defense system in Judah and Benjamin; he kept them happy with much food and many wives.


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By the time Rehoboam had secured his kingdom and was strong again, he, and all Israel with him, had virtually abandoned God and his ways.


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In Rehoboam's fifth year, because he and the people were unfaithful to God, Shishak king of Egypt invaded as far as Jerusalem.


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He came with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 cavalry, and soldiers from all over—the Egyptian army included Libyans, Sukkites, and Ethiopians.


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Then the prophet Shemaiah, accompanied by the leaders of Judah who had retreated to Jerusalem before Shishak, came to Rehoboam and said, "God's word: You abandoned me; now I abandon you to Shishak."


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When God saw that they were humbly repentant, the word of God came to Shemaiah: "Because they are humble, I'll not destroy them—I'll give them a break; I won't use Shishak to express my wrath against Jerusalem.


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What I will do, though, is make them Shishak's subjects—they'll learn the difference between serving me and serving human kings."


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Then Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. He plundered the treasury of The Temple of God and the treasury of the royal palace—he took everything he could lay his hands on. He even took the gold shields that Solomon had made.


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King Rehoboam replaced the gold shields with bronze shields and gave them to the guards who were posted at the entrance to the royal palace.


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Whenever the king went to God's Temple, the guards went with him carrying the shields, but they always returned them to the guardroom.


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Because Rehoboam was repentant, God's anger was blunted, so he wasn't totally destroyed. The picture wasn't entirely bleak—there were some good things going on in Judah.


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King Rehoboam regrouped and reestablished his rule in Jerusalem. He was forty-one years old when he became king and continued as king for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city God chose out of all the tribes of Israel as the special presence of his Name. His mother was Naamah from Ammon.


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But the final verdict on Rehoboam was that he was a bad king—God was not important to him; his heart neither cared for nor sought after God.


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The history of Rehoboam, from start to finish, is written in the memoirs of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the seer that contain the family trees. There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam the whole time.


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Rehoboam died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. His son Abijah ruled after him.


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He ruled in Jerusalem three years. His mother was Maacah daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. War broke out between Abijah and Jeroboam.


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Abijah took a prominent position on Mount Zemaraim in the hill country of Ephraim and gave this speech: "Listen, Jeroboam and all Israel!


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Don't you realize that God, the one and only God of Israel, established David and his sons as the permanent rulers of Israel, ratified by a 'covenant of salt'—God's kingdom ruled by God's king?


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All the riff-raff joined his cause and were too much for Rehoboam, Solomon's true heir. Rehoboam didn't know his way around—besides he was a real wimp; he couldn't stand up against them.


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"Taking advantage of that weakness, you are asserting yourself against the very rule of God that is delegated to David's descendants—you think you are so big with your huge army backed up by the golden-calf idols that Jeroboam made for you as gods!


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But just look at what you've done—you threw out the priests of God, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made priests to suit yourselves, priests just like the pagans have. Anyone who shows up with enough money to pay for it can be a priest! A priest of No-God!


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"But for the rest of us in Judah, we're sticking with God. We have not traded him in for the latest model—we're keeping the tried and true priests of Aaron to lead us to God and the Levites to lead us in worship


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by sacrificing Whole-Burnt-Offerings and aromatic incense to God at the daily morning and evening prayers, setting out fresh holy bread on a clean table, and lighting the lamps on the golden Lampstand every night. We continue doing what God told us to in the way he told us to do it; but you have rid yourselves of him.


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"Can't you see the obvious? God is on our side; he's our leader. And his priests with trumpets are all ready to blow the signal to battle. O Israel—don't fight against God, the God of your ancestors. You will not win this battle."


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While Abijah was speaking, Jeroboam had sent men around to take them by surprise from the rear: Jeroboam in front of Judah and the ambush behind.


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When Judah looked back, they saw they were attacked front and back. They prayed desperately to God, the priests blew their trumpets, and the soldiers of Judah shouted their battle cry.


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The army of Israel fell flat on its face—a humiliating defeat. The army of Judah won hands down because they trusted God, the God of their ancestors.


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Abijah followed up his victory by pursuing Jeroboam, taking the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron with their surrounding villages.


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Jeroboam never did recover from his defeat while Abijah lived. Later on God struck him down and he died.


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Meanwhile Abijah flourished; he married fourteen wives and ended up with a family of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.


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The rest of the history of Abijah, what he did and said, is written in the study written by Iddo the prophet.


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Abijah died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. His son Asa became the next king. For ten years into Asa's reign the country was at peace.


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He cleaned house: got rid of the pagan altars and shrines, smashed the sacred stone pillars, and chopped down the sex-and-religion groves (Asherim).


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He told Judah to center their lives in God, the God of their fathers, to do what the law said, and to follow the commandments.


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Because he got rid of all the pagan shrines and altars in the cities of Judah, his kingdom was at peace.


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Because the land was quiet and there was no war, he was able to build up a good defense system in Judah. God kept the peace.


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Asa said to his people, "While we have the chance and the land is quiet, let's build a solid defense system, fortifying our cities with walls, towers, gates, and bars. We have this peaceful land because we sought God; he has given us rest from all troubles." So they built and enjoyed prosperity.


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Asa had an army of 300,000 Judeans, equipped with shields and spears, and another 280,000 Benjaminites who were shield bearers and archers. They were all courageous warriors.


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Zerah the Ethiopian went to war against Asa with an army of a million plus 300 chariots and got as far as Mareshah.


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Then Asa prayed to God, "O God, you aren't impressed by numbers or intimidated by a show of force once you decide to help: Help us, O God; we have come out to meet this huge army because we trust in you and who you are. Don't let mere mortals stand against you!"


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Asa and his men chased them as far as Gerar; so many of the Ethiopians were killed that there was no fight left in them—a massacre before God and his troops; Judah carted off loads of plunder.


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They devastated all the towns around Gerar whose people were helpless, paralyzed by the fear of God, and looted the country.


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went out to meet Asa. He said, "Listen carefully, Asa, and listen Judah and Benjamin: God will stick with you as long as you stick with him. If you look for him he will let himself be found; but if you leave him he'll leave you.


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For a long time Israel didn't have the real God, nor did they have the help of priest or teacher or book.


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But when they were in trouble and got serious, and decided to seek God, the God of Israel, God let himself be found.


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At that time it was a dog-eat-dog world; life was constantly up for grabs—no one, regardless of country, knew what the next day might bring.


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Asa heard the prophecy of Azariah son of Obed, took a deep breath, then rolled up his sleeves, and went to work: He cleaned out the obscene and polluting sacred shrines from the whole country of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim. He spruced up the Altar of God that was in front of The Temple porch.


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Then he called an assembly for all Judah and Benjamin, including those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were living there at the time (for many from Israel had left their homes and joined forces with Asa when they saw that God was on his side).


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for a great assembly of worship. From their earlier plunder they offered sacrifices of 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep for the worship.


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Then they bound themselves in a covenant to seek God, the God of their fathers, wholeheartedly, holding nothing back.


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And they agreed that anyone who refused to seek God, the God of Israel, should be killed, no matter who it was, young or old, man or woman.


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They shouted out their promise to God, a joyful sound accompanied with blasts from trumpets and rams' horns.


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The whole country felt good about the covenant promise—they had given their promise joyfully from the heart. Anticipating the best, they had sought God—and he showed up, ready to be found. God gave them peace within and without—a most peaceable kingdom!


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In his clean-up of the country, Asa went so far as to remove his mother, Queen Maacah, from her throne because she had built a shockingly obscene image of the sex goddess Asherah. Asa tore it down, smashed it, and burned it up in the Kidron Valley.


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Unfortunately he didn't get rid of the local sex-and-religion shrines. But he was well-intentioned—his heart was in the right place, loyal to God


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All the gold and silver vessels and artifacts that he and his father had consecrated for holy use he installed in The Temple of God.


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But in the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign, Baasha king of Israel attacked. He started it by building a fort at Ramah and closing the border between Israel and Judah to keep Asa king of Judah from leaving or entering.


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Asa took silver and gold from the treasuries of The Temple of God and the royal palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad, king of Aram who lived in Damascus, with this message:


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"Let's make a treaty like the one between our fathers. I'm showing my good faith with this gift of silver and gold. Break your deal with Baasha king of Israel so he'll quit fighting against me."


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Ben-Hadad went along with King Asa and sent his troops against the towns of Israel. They sacked Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and all the store-cities of Naphtali.


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Then King Asa issued orders to his people in Judah to haul away the logs and stones Baasha had used in the fortification of Ramah and used them himself to fortify Geba and Mizpah.


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Just after that, Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said, "Because you went for help to the king of Aram and didn't ask God for help, you've lost a victory over the army of the king of Aram.


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Didn't the Ethiopians and Libyans come against you with superior forces, completely outclassing you with their chariots and cavalry? But you asked God for help and he gave you the victory.


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God is always on the alert, constantly on the lookout for people who are totally committed to him. You were foolish to go for human help when you could have had God's help. Now you're in trouble—one round of war after another."


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At that, Asa lost his temper. Angry, he put Hanani in the stocks. At the same time Asa started abusing some of the people.


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In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa came down with a severe case of foot infection. He didn't ask God for help, but went instead to the doctors.


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They buried him in a mausoleum that he had built for himself in the City of David. They laid him in a crypt full of aromatic oils and spices. Then they had a huge bonfire in his memory.


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Asa's son Jehoshaphat was the next king; he started out by working on his defense system against Israel.


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He put troops in all the fortress cities of Judah and deployed garrisons throughout Judah and in the towns of Ephraim that his father Asa had captured.


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God was on Jehoshaphat's side because he stuck to the ways of his father Asa's early years. He didn't fool around with the popular Baal religion—


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he was a seeker and follower of the God of his father and was obedient to him; he wasn't like Israel.


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And God secured the kingdom under his rule, gave him a firm grip on it. And everyone in Judah showed their appreciation by bringing gifts. Jehoshaphat ended up very rich and much honored.


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In the third year of his reign he sent his officials—excellent men, every one of them—Ben-Hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah on a teaching mission to the cities of Judah.


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They were accompanied by Levites—Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tob-Adonijah; the priests Elishama and Jehoram were also in the company.


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They made a circuit of the towns of Judah, teaching the people and using the Book of The Revelation of God as their text.


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There was a strong sense of the fear of God in all the kingdoms around Judah—they didn't dare go to war against Jehoshaphat.


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Some Philistines even brought gifts and a load of silver to Jehoshaphat, and the desert bedouin brought flocks—7,700 rams and 7,700 goats.


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So Jehoshaphat became stronger by the day, and constructed more and more forts and store-cities—an age of prosperity for Judah!


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The captains of the military units of Judah, classified according to families, were: Captain Adnah with 300,000 soldiers;


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These were under the direct command of the king; in addition there were the troops assigned to the fortress cities spread all over Judah.


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But even though Jehoshaphat was very rich and much honored, he made a marriage alliance with Ahab of Israel.


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Some time later he paid a visit to Ahab at Samaria. Ahab celebrated his visit with a feast—a huge barbecue with all the lamb and beef you could eat. But Ahab had a hidden agenda; he wanted Jehoshaphat's support in attacking Ramoth Gilead.


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Then Ahab brought it into the open: "Will you join me in attacking Ramoth Gilead?" Jehoshaphat said, "You bet. I'm with you all the way; you can count on me and my troops."


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The king of Israel got the prophets together—all 400 of them— and put the question to them: "Should I attack Ramoth Gilead or should I hold back?" "Go for it," they said. "God will hand it over to the king."


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But Jehoshaphat dragged his feet, "Is there another prophet of God around here we can consult? Let's get a second opinion."


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The king of Israel told Jehoshaphat, "As a matter of fact, there is another. But I hate him. He never preaches anything good to me, only doom, doom, doom—Micaiah son of Imlah." "The king shouldn't talk about a prophet like that!" said Jehoshaphat.


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Meanwhile, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat were seated on their thrones, dressed in their royal robes, resplendent in front of the Samaria city gates. All the prophets were staging a prophecy-performance for their benefit.


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Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had even made a set of iron horns, and brandishing them, called out, "God's word! With these horns you'll gore Aram until there's nothing left of them!"


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The messenger who went to get Micaiah told him, "The prophets have all said Yes to the king. Make it unanimous—vote Yes!"


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With Micaiah before him, the king asked him, "So, Micaiah—do we attack Ramoth Gilead? Or do we hold back?" "Go ahead," he said, "an easy victory! God's gift to the king."


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"Not so fast," said the king. "How many times have I made you promise under oath to tell me the truth and nothing but the truth?"


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"All right," said Micaiah, "since you insist . . . I saw all of Israel scattered over the hills, sheep with no shepherd. Then God spoke, 'These poor people have no one to tell them what to do. Let them go home and do the best they can for themselves.' "


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The king of Israel turned to Jehoshaphat, "See! What did I tell you? He never has a good word for me from God, only doom."


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Micaiah kept on, "I'm not done yet; listen to God's word: I saw God enthroned, and all the Angel Armies of heaven standing at attention, ranged on his right and his left.


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And God said, "How can we seduce Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead?" Some said this, and some said that.


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Then a bold angel stepped out, stood before God, and said, "I'll seduce him." "And how will you do it?" said God.


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"Easy," said the angel, "I'll get all the prophets to lie." "That should do it," said God; "On your way—seduce him!"


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"And that's what has happened. God filled the mouths of your puppet prophets with seductive lies. God has pronounced your doom."


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Just then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah came up and slapped Micaiah in the face, saying, "Since when did the Spirit of God leave me and take up with you?"


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Micaiah said, "You'll know soon enough; you'll know it when you're frantically and futilely looking for a place to hide."


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The king of Israel had heard enough: "Get Micaiah out of here! Turn him over to Amon the city magistrate and to Joash the king's son


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with this message: 'King's orders! Lock him up in jail; keep him on bread and water until I'm back in one piece.' "


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Micaiah said, If you ever get back in one piece, I'm no prophet of God. He added, When it happens, O people, remember where you heard it!


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The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "Wear my kingly robe; I'm going into battle disguised." So the king of Israel entered the battle in disguise.


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Meanwhile, the king of Aram had ordered his chariot commanders (there were thirty-two of them), "Don't bother with anyone whether small or great; go after the king of Israel and him only."


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When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they said, "There he is! The king of Israel!" and took after him. Jehoshaphat yelled out,


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and the chariot commanders realized they had the wrong man—it wasn't the king of Israel after all. God intervened and they let him go.


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Just then someone, without aiming, shot an arrow into the crowd and hit the king of Israel in the chink of his armor. The king told his charioteer, "Turn back! Get me out of here—I'm wounded."


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All day the fighting continued, hot and heavy. Propped up in his chariot, the king watched from the sidelines. He died that evening.


text:
Jehu, son of Hanani the seer, confronted King Jehoshaphat: "You have no business helping evil, cozying up to God-haters. Because you did this, God is good and angry with you.


text:
But you're not all bad—you made a clean sweep of the polluting sex-and-religion shrines; and you were single-minded in seeking God."


text:
Jehoshaphat kept his residence in Jerusalem but made a regular round of visits among the people, from Beersheba in the south to Mount Ephraim in the north, urging them to return to God, the God of their ancestors.


text:
He charged the judges: "This is serious work; do it carefully. You are not merely judging between men and women; these are God's judgments that you are passing on.


text:
In Jerusalem Jehoshaphat also appointed Levites, priests, and family heads to decide on matters that had to do with worship and mediating local differences.


text:
When a case comes before you involving any of your fellow citizens, whether it seems large (like murder) or small (like matters of interpretation of the law), you are responsible for warning them that they are dealing with God. Make that explicit, otherwise both you and they are going to be dealing with God's wrath. Do your work well or you'll end up being as guilty as they are.


text:
"Amariah the chief priest is in charge of all cases regarding the worship of God; Zebadiah son of Ishmael, the leader of the tribe of Judah, is in charge of all civil cases; the Levites will keep order in the courts. Be bold and diligent. And God be with you as you do your best."


text:
Some time later the Moabites and Ammonites, accompanied by Meunites, joined forces to make war on Jehoshaphat.


text:
Jehoshaphat received this intelligence report: "A huge force is on its way from beyond the Dead Sea to fight you. There's no time to waste—they're already at Hazazon Tamar, the oasis of En Gedi."


text:
The country of Judah united in seeking God's help—they came from all the cities of Judah to pray to God.


