# verses

text:
The man was called Elimelech, his wife Naomi and his two sons Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem of Judah. Going to the Plains of Moab, they settled there.


text:
These married Moabite women: one was called Orpah and the other Ruth. They lived there for about ten years.


text:
She then decided to come back from the Plains of Moab with her daughters-in-law, having heard in the Plains of Moab that God had visited his people and given them food.


text:
So, with her daughters-in-law, she left the place where she was living and they took the road back to Judah.


text:
May Yahweh show you faithful love, as you have done to those who have died and to me. Yahweh grant that you may each find happiness with a husband!' She then kissed them, but they began weeping loudly,


text:
'Go home, daughters,' Naomi replied. 'Why come with me? Have I any more sons in my womb to make husbands for you?


text:
Go home, daughters, go, for I am now too old to marry again. Even if I said, "I still have a hope: I shall take a husband this very night and shall bear more sons,"


text:
would you be prepared to wait for them until they were grown up? Would you refuse to marry for their sake? No, daughters, I am bitterly sorry for your sakes that the hand of Yahweh should have been raised against me.'


text:
They started weeping loudly all over again; Orpah then kissed her mother-in-law and went back to her people. But Ruth stayed with her.


text:
Naomi then said, 'Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Go home, too; follow your sister-in-law.'


text:
But Ruth said, 'Do not press me to leave you and to stop going with you, for wherever you go, I shall go, wherever you live, I shall live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.


text:
Where you die, I shall die and there I shall be buried. Let Yahweh bring unnameable ills on me and worse ills, too, if anything but death should part me from you!'


text:
The two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. Their arrival set the whole town astir, and the women said, 'Can this be Naomi?'


text:
I departed full, and Yahweh has brought me home empty. Why, then, call me Naomi, since Yahweh has pronounced against me and Shaddai has made me wretched?'


text:
This was how Naomi came home with her daughter-in-law, Ruth the Moabitess, on returning from the Plains of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.


text:
Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, 'Let me go into the fields and glean ears of corn in the footsteps of some man who will look on me with favour.' She replied, 'Go, daughter.'


text:
So she set out and went to glean in the fields behind the reapers. Chance led her to a plot of land belonging to Boaz of Elimelech's clan.


text:
Boaz, as it happened, had just come from Bethlehem. 'Yahweh be with you!' he said to the reapers. 'Yahweh bless you!' they replied.


text:
Boaz said to a servant of his who was in charge of the reapers, 'To whom does this young woman belong?'


text:
And the servant in charge of the reapers replied, 'The girl is the Moabitess, the one who came back with Naomi from the Plains of Moab.


text:
She said, "Please let me glean and pick up what falls from the sheaves behind the reapers." Thus she came, and here she stayed, with hardly a rest from morning until now.'


text:
Boaz said to Ruth, 'Listen to me, daughter. You must not go gleaning in any other field. You must not go away from here. Stay close to my work-women.


text:
Keep your eyes on whatever part of the field they are reaping and follow behind. I have forbidden my men to molest you. And if you are thirsty, go to the pitchers and drink what the servants have drawn.'


text:
Ruth fell on her face, prostrated herself and said, 'How have I attracted your favour, for you to notice me, who am only a foreigner?'


text:
Boaz replied, 'I have been told all about the way you have behaved to your mother-in-law since your husband's death, and how you left your own father and mother and the land where you were born to come to a people of whom you previously knew nothing.


text:
May Yahweh repay you for what you have done, and may you be richly rewarded by Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!'


text:
She said, 'My lord, I hope you will always look on me with favour! You have comforted and encouraged me, though I am not even the equal of one of your work-women.'


text:
When it was time to eat, Boaz said to her, 'Come and eat some of this bread and dip your piece in the vinegar.' Ruth sat down beside the reapers and Boaz made a heap of roasted grain for her; she ate till her hunger was satisfied, and she had some left over.


text:
When she had got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his work-people, 'Let her glean among the sheaves themselves. Do not molest her.


text:
And be sure you pull a few ears of corn out of the bundles and drop them. Let her glean them, and do not scold her.'


text:
So she gleaned in the field till evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned and it came to about a bushel of barley.


text:
Taking it with her, she went back to the town. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Ruth also took out what she had kept after eating all she wanted, and gave that to her.


text:
Her mother-in-law said, 'Where have you been gleaning today? Where have you been working? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!' Ruth told her mother-in-law in whose field she had been working. 'The name of the man with whom I have been working today', she said, 'is Boaz.'


text:
Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, 'May he be blessed by Yahweh who does not withhold his faithful love from living or dead! This man', Naomi added, 'is a close relation of ours. He is one of those who have the right of redemption over us.'


text:
Ruth the Moabitess said to her mother-in-law, 'He also said, "Stay with my work-people until they have finished my whole harvest." '


text:
Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, 'It is better for you, daughter, to go with his work-women than to go to some other field where you might be ill-treated.'


text:
So she stayed with Boaz's work-women, and gleaned until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she went on living with her mother-in-law.


text:
And Boaz, the man with whose work-women you were, is he not our kinsman? Tonight he will be winnowing the barley on the threshing-floor.


text:
So wash and perfume yourself, put on your cloak and go down to the threshing-floor. Don't let him recognise you while he is still eating and drinking.


text:
But when he lies down, take note where he lies, then go and turn back the covering at his feet and lie down yourself. He will tell you what to do.'


text:
When Boaz had finished eating and drinking, he went off happily and lay down beside the pile of barley. Ruth then quietly went, turned back the covering at his feet and lay down.


text:
In the middle of the night, he woke up with a shock and looked about him; and there lying at his feet was a woman.


text:
'Who are you?' he said; and she replied, 'I am your servant Ruth. Spread the skirt of your cloak over your servant for you have the right of redemption over me.'


text:
'May Yahweh bless you, daughter,' he said, 'for this second act of faithful love of yours is greater than the first, since you have not run after young men, poor or rich.


text:
Don't be afraid, daughter, I shall do everything you ask, since the people at the gate of my town all know that you are a woman of great worth.


text:
But, though it is true that I have the right of redemption over you, you have a kinsman closer than myself.


text:
Stay here for tonight and, in the morning, if he wishes to exercise his right over you, very well, let him redeem you. But if he does not wish to do so, then as Yahweh lives, I shall redeem you. Lie here till morning.'


text:
So she lay at his feet till morning, but got up before the hour when one man can recognise another; and he thought, 'It must not be known that this woman came to the threshing-floor.'


text:
He then said, 'Let me have the cloak you are wearing, hold it out!' She held it out while he put six measures of barley into it and then loaded it on to her; and off she went to the town.


text:
When Ruth got home, her mother-in-law asked her, 'How did things go with you, daughter?' She then told her everything that the man had done for her.


text:
'He gave me these six measures of barley and said, "You must not go home empty-handed to your mother-in-law." '


text:
Naomi said, 'Do nothing, daughter, until you see how things have gone; I am sure he will not rest until he has settled the matter this very day.'


text:
Boaz, meanwhile, had gone up to the gate and sat down, and the relative of whom he had spoken then came by. Boaz said to him, 'Here, my friend, come and sit down'; the man came and sat down.


text:
Boaz then said to the man who had the right of redemption, 'Naomi, who has come back from the Plains of Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother, Elimelech.


text:
I thought I should tell you about this and say, "Acquire it in the presence of the men who are sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to use your right of redemption, redeem it; if you do not, tell me so that I know, for I am the only person to redeem it besides yourself, and I myself come after you." ' The man said, 'I am willing to redeem it.'


text:
Boaz then said, 'The day you acquire the field from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the man who has died, to perpetuate the dead man's name in his inheritance.'


text:
The man with the right of redemption then said, 'I cannot use my right of redemption without jeopardising my own inheritance. Since I cannot use my right of redemption, exercise the right yourself.'


text:
Now, in former times, it was the custom in Israel to confirm a transaction in matters of redemption or inheritance by one of the parties taking off his sandal and giving it to the other. This was how agreements were ratified in Israel.


text:
So, when the man with the right of redemption said to Boaz, 'Acquire it for yourself,' he took off his sandal.


text:
Boaz then said to the elders and all the people there, 'Today you are witnesses that from Naomi I acquire everything that used to belong to Elimelech, and everything that used to belong to Mahlon and Chilion


text:
and that I am also acquiring Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon's widow, to be my wife, to perpetuate the dead man's name in his inheritance, so that the dead man's name will not be lost among his brothers and at the gate of his town. Today you are witnesses to this.'


text:
All the people at the gate said, 'We are witnesses'; and the elders said, 'May Yahweh make the woman about to enter your family like Rachel and Leah who together built up the House of Israel. Grow mighty in Ephrathah, be renowned in Bethlehem!


text:
And through the children Yahweh will give you by this young woman, may your family be like the family of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.'


text:
So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. And when they came together, Yahweh made her conceive and she bore a son.


text:
And the women said to Naomi, 'Blessed be Yahweh who has not left you today without anyone to redeem you. May his name be praised in Israel!


text:
The child will be a comfort to you and the prop of your old age, for he has been born to the daughter-in-law who loves you and is more to you than seven sons.'


text:
And the women of the neighbourhood gave him a name. 'A son', they said, 'has been born to Naomi,' and they called him Obed. This was the father of Jesse, the father of David.


text:
There was a man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the highlands of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.


text:
Every year this man used to go up from his town to worship, and to sacrifice to Yahweh Sabaoth at Shiloh. (The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there as priests of Yahweh.)


text:
One day Elkanah offered a sacrifice. Now he used to give portions to Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters;


text:
to Hannah, however, he would give only one portion: for, although he loved Hannah more, Yahweh had made her barren.


text:
And this went on year after year; every time they went up to the temple of Yahweh she used to taunt her. On that day she wept and would not eat anything;


text:
so her husband Elkanah said, 'Hannah, why are you crying? Why are you not eating anything? Why are you so sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?'


text:
When they had finished eating in the room, Hannah got up and stood before Yahweh. Eli the priest was sitting on his seat by the doorpost of the temple of Yahweh.


text:
and she made this vow, 'Yahweh Sabaoth! Should you condescend to notice the humiliation of your servant and keep her in mind instead of disregarding your servant, and give her a boy, I will give him to Yahweh for the whole of his life and no razor shall ever touch his head.'


text:
for Hannah was speaking under her breath; her lips were moving but her voice could not be heard, and Eli thought that she was drunk.


text:
'No, my lord,' Hannah replied, 'I am a woman in great trouble; I have not been drinking wine or strong drink -- I am pouring out my soul before Yahweh.


text:
Do not take your servant for a worthless woman; all this time I have been speaking from the depth of my grief and my resentment.'


text:
To which she said, 'May your servant find favour in your sight.' With that, the woman went away; she began eating and was dejected no longer.


text:
They got up early in the morning and, after worshipping Yahweh, set out and went home to Ramah. Elkanah lay with his wife Hannah, and Yahweh remembered her.


text:
Hannah conceived and, in due course, gave birth to a son, whom she named Samuel, 'since', she said, 'I asked Yahweh for him.'


text:
Elkanah, the husband, went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to Yahweh and to fulfil his vow.


text:
However, Hannah did not go up, having said to her husband, 'Not before the child has been weaned. Then I shall bring him and present him before Yahweh and he will stay there for ever.'


text:
Elkanah her husband then said to her, 'Do what you think fit; wait until you have weaned him. May Yahweh bring about what he has said.' So the woman stayed behind and nursed her child until she weaned him.


text:
When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, as well as a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and took him into the temple of Yahweh at Shiloh; the child was very young.


text:
She said, 'If you please, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood beside you here, praying to Yahweh.


text:
Now I make him over to Yahweh for the whole of his life. He is made over to Yahweh.' They then worshipped Yahweh there.


text:
Hannah then prayed as follows: My heart exults in Yahweh, in my God is my strength lifted up, my mouth derides my foes, for I rejoice in your deliverance.


text:
Do not keep talking so proudly, let no arrogance come from your mouth, for Yahweh is a wise God, his to weigh up deeds.


text:
The full fed are hiring themselves out for bread but the hungry need labour no more; the barren woman bears sevenfold but the mother of many is left desolate.


text:
He raises the poor from the dust, he lifts the needy from the dunghill to give them a place with princes, to assign them a seat of honour; for to Yahweh belong the pillars of the earth, on these he has poised the world.


text:
He safeguards the steps of his faithful but the wicked vanish in darkness (for human strength can win no victories).


text:
Yahweh, his enemies are shattered, the Most High thunders in the heavens. Yahweh judges the ends of the earth, he endows his king with power, he raises up the strength of his Anointed.


text:
Elkanah then went home to Ramah, but the child stayed in Yahweh's service, in the presence of Eli the priest.


text:
nor for what was due to the priests from the people. Whenever anyone offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being cooked;


text:
he would thrust this into cauldron or pan, or dish or pot, and the priest claimed for his own whatever the fork brought up. That was how they behaved with all the Israelites who came there to Shiloh.


text:
The priest's servant would even come up before the fat had been burnt and say to the person who was making the sacrifice, 'Give the priest some meat for him to roast. He will not accept boiled meat from you, only raw.'


text:
Then, if the person replied, 'Let the fat be burnt first, and then take for yourself whatever you choose,' he would retort, 'No! You must give it to me now or I shall take it by force.'


text:
The young men's sin was very great in Yahweh's eyes, because they treated with contempt the offering made to Yahweh.


text:
His mother used to make him a little coat which she brought him each year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.


text:
Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, 'May Yahweh grant you an heir by this woman in exchange for the one which she has made over to Yahweh,' and they would go home.


text:
Yahweh visited Hannah; she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the child Samuel grew up in Yahweh's presence.


text:
If one person sins against another, God will be the arbiter, but if he sins against Yahweh, who will intercede for him?' But they did not listen to their father's words, for Yahweh was bent on killing them.


text:
Meanwhile, the child Samuel went on growing in stature and in favour both with Yahweh and with people.


text:
A man of God came to Eli and said to him, 'This is what Yahweh says, "Did I not reveal myself to your father's family when they were in Egypt as slaves in Pharaoh's household?


text:
Did I not single him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn the offering, to carry the ephod in my presence; and did I not grant all the burnt offerings made by the Israelites to your father's family?


text:
Why do you trample on the offering and on the sacrifice which I have ordered for my Dwelling, and honour your sons more than me, by growing fat on the best of the offerings of Israel, my people?


text:
Whereas -- this is what Yahweh, God of Israel, declares -- I had promised that your family and your father's family would walk in my presence for ever, now, however -- this is what Yahweh declares -- nothing of the sort! Those who honour me I honour in my turn, and those who despise me will be an object of contempt.


text:
Be sure, the days are coming when I shall cut off your strength and the strength of your father's family, so that no one in your family will live to old age.


text:
Beside the Dwelling, you will see all the benefits that I shall confer on Israel, but no one in your family will ever live to old age.


text:
I shall keep one of you at my altar for his eyes to go blind and his soul to wither, but the bulk of your family will die by the sword.


text:
' "What happens to your two sons Hophni and Phinehas will be a sign for you: on the same day both will die.


text:
I shall raise myself a faithful priest, who will do as I intend and as I desire. I shall build him an enduring House and he will walk in the presence of my Anointed for ever.


text:
The members of your House who survive will come and beg him on their knees for a silver coin and a loaf of bread and say: Please give me some priestly work, so that I can have a scrap of bread to eat." '


text:
Now, the boy Samuel was serving Yahweh in the presence of Eli; in those days it was rare for Yahweh to speak; visions were uncommon.


text:
One day, it happened that Eli was lying down in his room. His eyes were beginning to grow dim; he could no longer see.


text:
The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying in Yahweh's sanctuary, where the ark of God was,


text:
and, running to Eli, he said, 'Here I am, as you called me.' Eli said, 'I did not call. Go back and lie down.' So he went and lay down.


text:
And again Yahweh called, 'Samuel! Samuel!' He got up and went to Eli and said, 'Here I am, as you called me.' He replied, 'I did not call, my son; go back and lie down.'


text:
Again Yahweh called, the third time. He got up and went to Eli and said, 'Here I am, as you called me.' Eli then understood that Yahweh was calling the child,


text:
and he said to Samuel, 'Go and lie down, and if someone calls say, "Speak, Yahweh; for your servant is listening." ' So Samuel went and lay down in his place.


text:
Yahweh then came and stood by, calling as he had done before, 'Samuel! Samuel!' Samuel answered, 'Speak, Yahweh; for your servant is listening.'


text:
Yahweh then said to Samuel, 'I am going to do something in Israel which will make the ears of all who hear of it ring.


text:
I shall carry out that day against Eli everything that I have said about his family, from beginning to end.


text:
You are to tell him that I condemn his family for ever, since he is aware that his sons have been cursing God and yet has not corrected them.


text:
Therefore -- I swear it to the family of Eli -- no sacrifice or offering shall ever expiate the guilt of Eli's family.'


text:
Samuel lay where he was until morning and then opened the doors of Yahweh's temple. Samuel was afraid to tell Eli about the vision,


text:
Eli asked, 'What message did he give you? Please do not hide it from me. May God bring unnameable ills on you and worse ones, too, if you hide from me anything of what he said to you.'


text:
Samuel then told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Eli said, 'He is Yahweh; let him do what he thinks good.'


text:
Samuel grew up. Yahweh was with him and did not let a single word fall to the ground of all that he had told him.


text:
and, for all Israel, the word of Samuel was as the word of Yahweh; since Eli was very old and his sons persisted in their wicked behaviour towards Yahweh. It happened at that time that the Philistines mustered to make war on Israel and Israel went out to meet them in war, pitching camp near Ebenezer while the Philistines pitched camp at Aphek.


text:
The Philistines drew up their battle-line against Israel, the fighting was fierce, and Israel was beaten by the Philistines: about four thousand men in their ranks were killed on the field of battle.


text:
When the troops returned to camp, the elders of Israel said, 'Why has Yahweh caused us to be beaten by the Philistines today? Let us fetch the ark of our God from Shiloh so that, when it goes with us, it may save us from the clutches of our enemies.'


text:
So the troops sent to Shiloh and brought away the ark of Yahweh Sabaoth enthroned on the winged creatures; the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, came with the ark.


text:
When the ark of Yahweh arrived in the camp, all Israel raised a great war cry so that the earth resounded.


text:
When the Philistines heard the noise of the war cry, they said, 'What can this great war cry in the Hebrew camp mean?' And they realised that the ark of Yahweh had come into the camp.


text:
At this, the Philistines were afraid; for they said, 'God has come into the camp. Disaster!' they said. 'For nothing like this has ever happened before.


text:
Disaster! Who will rescue us from the clutches of this mighty God? This was the God who struck down Egypt with every kind of misfortune in the desert.


text:
But take courage and be men, Philistines, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been slaves to you. Be men and fight.'


text:
So the Philistines gave battle and Israel was defeated, each man fleeing to his tent. The slaughter was very great: on the Israelite side, thirty thousand foot soldiers fell.


text:
A Benjaminite ran from the battle-line and reached Shiloh the same day, his clothes torn and dust on his head.


text:
When he arrived, Eli was sitting on his seat beside the gate watching the road, for his heart was trembling for the ark of God. The man came into the town and told the news, whereupon cries of anguish filled the town.


text:
The man said to Eli, 'I have come from the camp. I escaped from the battle-line today.' 'My son,' said Eli, 'what happened?'


text:
The messenger replied, 'Israel has fled before the Philistines; the army has been utterly routed. What is worse, your two sons are dead and the ark of God has been captured.'


text:
When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backwards off his seat by the gate and broke his neck and died, for he was old and heavy. He had been judge of Israel for forty years.


text:
Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was with child and near her time. When she heard the news that the ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and husband were dead she crouched down and gave birth, for her labour pains had come on.


text:
When she was at the point of death, the women at her side said, 'Do not be afraid; you have given birth to a son.' But she did not answer and took no notice.


text:
She named the child Ichabod, saying, 'The glory has gone from Israel,' alluding to the capture of the ark of God and to her father-in-law and husband.


text:
When the people of Ashdod got up the following morning and went to the temple of Dagon, there lay Dagon face down on the ground before the ark of Yahweh. They picked Dagon up and put him back in his place.


text:
But when they got up on the following morning, there lay Dagon face down on the ground before the ark of Yahweh, and Dagon's head and two hands lay severed on the threshold; only the trunk of Dagon was left in its place.


text:
This is why the priests of Dagon and the people frequenting Dagon's temple never step on Dagon's threshold in Ashdod, even today.


text:
Yahweh oppressed the people of Ashdod; he ravaged them and afflicted them with tumours -- Ashdod and its territory. When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening they said,


text:
'The ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us, for he is oppressing us and our god Dagon.'


text:
So they summoned all the Philistine chiefs to them, and said, 'What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?' They decided, 'The ark of the God of Israel shall be taken away to Gath.' So they took the ark of the God of Israel to Gath.


text:
But after they had taken it there, Yahweh oppressed that town and a great panic broke out; afflicting the people of the town from highest to lowest, he brought them out in tumours too.


text:
They then sent the ark of God to Ekron, but when it came to Ekron the Ekronites shouted, 'They have brought me the ark of the God of Israel to kill me and my people!'


text:
They summoned all the Philistine chiefs and said, 'Send the ark of the God of Israel away; let it go back to where it belongs and not kill me and my people' -- for there was mortal panic throughout the town; God was oppressing them.


text:
The people who did not die were afflicted with tumours, and the wailing from the town rose to the sky.


text:
The Philistines then called for their priests and diviners and asked, 'What shall we do with the ark of Yahweh? Tell us how to send it back to where it belongs.'


text:
They replied, 'If you send the ark of the God of Israel away, you must certainly not send it away without a gift; you must pay him a guilt offering. You will then recover and will realise why he continually oppressed you.'


text:
They then asked, 'What guilt offering ought we to pay him?' They replied, 'Corresponding to the number of Philistine chiefs: five golden tumours and five golden rats, since the same plague afflicted your chiefs as the rest of you.


text:
So make models of your tumours and models of your rats ravaging the territory, and pay honour to the God of Israel. Then perhaps he will stop oppressing you, your gods and your country.


text:
Why should you be as stubborn as Egypt and Pharaoh were? After he had brought disasters on them, did they not let the people leave?


text:
Now, then, take and fit out a new cart, and two milch cows that have never borne the yoke. Then harness the cows to the cart and take their calves back to the byre.


text:
Then take the ark of Yahweh, place it on the cart, and put the golden objects which you are paying him as guilt offering in a box beside it; and then send it off on its own.


text:
Watch it; if it goes up the road to its own territory, towards Beth-Shemesh, then he was responsible for this great harm to us; but if not, we shall know that it was not his hand that struck us, and that this has happened to us by chance.'


text:
The people did this. They took two milch cows and harnessed them to the cart, shutting their calves in the byre.


text:
They then put the ark of Yahweh on the cart, with the box and the golden rats and the models of their tumours.


text:
The cows made straight for Beth-Shemesh, keeping to the one road, lowing as they went and turning neither to right nor to left. The Philistine chiefs followed them as far as the boundaries of Beth-Shemesh.


text:
The people of Beth-Shemesh were reaping the wheat harvest in the plain when they looked up and saw the ark and went joyfully to meet it.


text:
When the cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth-Shemesh, it stopped. There was a large stone there, and they cut up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to Yahweh.


text:
The Levites had taken down the ark of Yahweh and the box with it containing the golden objects and put these on the large stone. That day the people of Beth-Shemesh presented burnt offerings and made sacrifices to Yahweh.


text:
The golden tumours paid by the Philistines as a guilt offering to Yahweh were as follows: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron;


text:
and golden rats to the number of all the Philistine towns, those of the five chiefs, from fortified towns down to open villages: still to this day the large stone in the field of Joshua of Beth-Shemesh, on which they put the ark of Yahweh, is a witness.


text:
Of the people of Beth-Shemesh the sons of Jeconiah had not rejoiced when they saw the ark of Yahweh, and Yahweh struck down seventy of them. The people mourned because Yahweh had struck them so fiercely.


text:
The people of Beth-Shemesh then said, 'Who can stand his ground before Yahweh, this holy God? To whom shall he go, so that we are rid of him?'


text:
So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-Jearim, to say, 'The Philistines have sent back the ark of Yahweh; come down and take it up to your town.'


text:
The men of Kiriath-Jearim came and, taking up the ark of Yahweh, brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated his son Eleazar to guard the ark of Yahweh.


text:
From the day when the ark was installed at Kiriath-Jearim, a long time went by -- twenty years -- and the whole House of Israel longed for Yahweh.


text:
Samuel then spoke as follows to the whole House of Israel, 'If you are returning to Yahweh with all your heart, banish the foreign gods and Astartes which you now have, and set your heart on Yahweh and serve him alone; and he will deliver you from the power of the Philistines.'


text:
So they mustered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before Yahweh. They fasted that day and declared, 'We have sinned against Yahweh.' And Samuel was judge over the Israelites at Mizpah.


text:
When the Philistines heard that the Israelites had mustered at Mizpah, the Philistine chiefs marched on Israel; and when the Israelites heard this, they were afraid of the Philistines.


text:
They said to Samuel, 'Do not stop calling on Yahweh our God to rescue us from the power of the Philistines.'


text:
Samuel took a sucking lamb and presented it as a burnt offering to Yahweh, and he called on Yahweh on behalf of Israel and Yahweh heard him.


text:
While Samuel was in the act of presenting burnt offering, the Philistines joined battle with Israel, but that day Yahweh thundered violently over the Philistines, threw them into panic and Israel defeated them.


text:
The men of Israel sallied out from Mizpah in pursuit of the Philistines and beat them all the way to below Beth-Car.


text:
Samuel then took a stone and erected it between Mizpah and the Tooth, and gave it the name Ebenezer, saying, 'Yahweh helped us as far as this.'


text:
So the Philistines were humbled and no longer came into Israelite territory; Yahweh oppressed the Philistines throughout the life of Samuel.


text:
The towns which the Philistines had taken from Israel were given back to Israel, from Ekron all the way to Gath, and Israel freed their territory from the power of the Philistines. There was peace, too, between Israel and the Amorites.


text:
Each year he went on circuit through Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah and judged Israel in all these places.


text:
He would then return to Ramah, since his home was there; there too he judged Israel. And there he built an altar to Yahweh.


text:
His sons did not follow his example but, seduced by the love of money, took bribes and gave biased verdicts.


text:
'Look, you are old, and your sons are not following your example. So give us a king to judge us, like the other nations.'


text:
Samuel thought that it was wrong of them to say, 'Let us have a king to judge us,' so he prayed to Yahweh.


text:
But Yahweh said to Samuel, 'Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you: it is not you they have rejected


text:
but me, not wishing me to reign over them any more. They are now doing to you exactly what they have done to me since the day I brought them out of Egypt until now, deserting me and serving other gods.


text:
So, do what they ask; only, you must give them a solemn warning, and must tell them what the king who is to reign over them will do.'


text:
He said, 'This is what the king who is to reign over you will do. He will take your sons and direct them to his chariotry and cavalry, and they will run in front of his chariot.


text:
He will use them as leaders of a thousand and leaders of fifty; he will make them plough his fields and gather in his harvest and make his weapons of war and the gear for his chariots.


text:
He will take the best of your fields, your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his officials.


text:
He will take the best of your servants, men and women, of your oxen and your donkeys, and make them work for him.


text:
When that day comes, you will cry aloud because of the king you have chosen for yourselves, but on that day Yahweh will not hear you.'


text:
so that we can be like the other nations, with our own king to rule us and lead us and fight our battles.'


text:
Yahweh then said to Samuel, 'Do as they ask and give them a king.' Samuel then said to the Israelites, 'Go home, each of you, to his own town.'


text:
Among the men of Benjamin was a man called Kish son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah; a Benjaminite and a person of rank.


text:
He had a son called Saul, a handsome man in the prime of life. Of all the Israelites there was no one more handsome than he; he stood head and shoulders taller than anyone else.


text:
Now since the donkeys belonging to Kish, Saul's father, had strayed, Kish said to his son Saul, 'My son, take one of the servants with you and be off; go and look for the donkeys.'


text:
They went through the highlands of Ephraim, they went through the territory of Shalishah, and did not find them; they went through the territory of Shaalim but they were not there; they went through the territory of Benjamin and did not find them.


text:
When they reached the territory of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, 'Come on, let us go back or my father will stop worrying over the donkeys and start being anxious about us.'


text:
The servant, however, replied, 'Look, there is a man of God in this town, a man who is held in honour; everything he says comes true. Let us go there, then; perhaps he will be able to show us the way that we should take.'


text:
Saul said to his servant, 'But if we do go, what can we take to the man? The food in our sacks is finished, and we have no present to offer the man of God. What else have we got?'


text:
The servant spoke up again and said to Saul, 'Look, I happen to have a quarter of a silver shekel; I shall give that to the man of God, for him to tell us which way to go.'


text:
In Israel, in olden days, when anyone used to go to consult God, he would say, 'Come on, let us go to the seer,' for a man who is now called a 'prophet' used to be called a 'seer' in olden days.


text:
Saul then said to his servant, 'Well said! Come on, let us go.' And they went off to the town where the man of God was.


text:
As they were going up the slope to the town they came across some girls going out to draw water, and said to them, 'Is the seer there?'


text:
The girls replied, 'He is. He arrived a moment or two ahead of you. You had better hurry: he has just come to town because the people are having a sacrifice today on the high place.


text:
You can catch him as soon as you go into the town, before he goes up to the high place for the meal. The people will not eat until he comes, since he must bless the sacrifice; after that, the guests will start eating. If you go up now, you will find him straight away.'


text:
So they went up to the town and, as they were going through the gate, Samuel came out towards them on his way to the high place.


text:
'About this time tomorrow, I shall send you a man from the territory of Benjamin; you are to anoint him as prince of my people Israel, and he will save my people from the power of the Philistines; for I have seen the misery of my people and their cries of anguish have come to me.'


text:
When Samuel saw Saul, Yahweh told him, 'That is the man of whom I said to you, "He is to govern my people." '


text:
Samuel replied to Saul, 'I am the seer. Go up ahead of me to the high place. You must eat with me today. Tomorrow, when I let you go, I shall tell you whatever is on your mind.


text:
As regards your donkeys, however, which strayed three days ago, do not worry about them; they have been found. And for whom is the whole wealth of Israel destined, if not for you and for all the members of your father's family?'


text:
To this, Saul replied, 'Am I not a Benjaminite, from the smallest of the tribes of Israel? And is not my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why are you saying a thing like this to me?'


text:
Samuel then took Saul and his servant and brought them into the hall and gave them a place at the head of the guests, of whom there were about thirty.


text:
The cook then picked up the leg and the tail and put it in front of Saul, saying, 'This is for you. This is what was left. Make a good meal . . .' That day, Saul ate with Samuel.


text:
They came down from the high place into the town. A bed was made for Saul on the roof and he lay down there.


text:
At dawn, Samuel called to Saul on the roof, 'Get up, and I shall send you on your way.' Saul got up, and Samuel and he went outside together.


text:
They had walked as far as the end of the town when Samuel said to Saul, 'Tell the servant to go on ahead of us, but you stand still for a moment, so that I can make known to you the word of God.'


text:
Samuel took a phial of oil and poured it on Saul's head; he then kissed him and said, 'Has not Yahweh anointed you as leader of his people Israel? You are the man who is to govern Yahweh's people and save them from the power of the enemies surrounding them. The sign for you that Yahweh has anointed you as prince of his heritage is this:


text:
after leaving me today, you will meet two men near the tomb of Rachel, on the frontier of Benjamin . . . and they will say to you, "The donkeys which you went looking for have been found, and your father has lost interest in the matter of the donkeys and is worrying about you and wondering, What am I to do about my son?"


text:
Going on from there, you will come to the Oak of Tabor, where you will meet three men going up to God at Bethel; one will be carrying three kids, one three loaves of bread and the third a skin of wine.


text:
After this, you will come to Gibeah of God (where the Philistine garrison is) and, when you are just outside the town, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place, headed by lyre, tambourine, pipe and harp; they will be in a state of ecstasy.


text:
The spirit of Yahweh will then seize on you, and you will go into ecstasy with them, and be changed into another man.


text:
You will then go down, ahead of me, to Gilgal, and I shall join you there to make burnt offerings and to offer communion sacrifices. You must wait seven days for me to come to you, and I shall then reveal to you what you must do.'


text:
As soon as he had turned his back to leave Samuel, God changed his heart. And all these signs occurred that very day . . .


text:
From there, they came to Gibeah: and there was a group of prophets coming to meet him! The spirit of God seized on him and he fell into ecstasy with them.


text:
Seeing him prophesying with the prophets, all the people who had known him previously said to one another, 'What has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul one of the prophets too?'


text:
And one of the local people retorted, 'But who is their father?' Hence the origin of the proverb: Is Saul one of the prophets too?


text:
Saul's uncle asked him and his servant, 'Where have you been?' 'Looking for the donkeys,' he replied, 'and when we could not find them anywhere, we went to Samuel.'


text:
Saul said to his uncle, 'He merely told us that the donkeys were already found,' but did not mention anything that Samuel had said about the kingship.


text:
and said to the Israelites, 'Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, "I brought Israel out of Egypt and delivered you from the power of the Egyptians and of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you."


text:
But today you have rejected your God, him who saves you from all your difficulties and troubles; and you have said, "No, you must set a king over us." Very well, take your positions before Yahweh, tribe by tribe and clan by clan.'


text:
Samuel then made all the tribes of Israel come forward, and the lot indicated the tribe of Benjamin.


text:
He then made the tribe of Benjamin come forward clan by clan, and the lot indicated the clan of Matri; he then made the clan of Matri come forward one by one, and the lot indicated Saul son of Kish, but when they looked for him, he was not to be found.


text:
Again they consulted Yahweh, 'Has the man come here?' Yahweh replied, 'There he is, hiding among the baggage.'


text:
So they ran and fetched him out and, as he stood among the people, he was head and shoulders taller than any of them.


text:
Samuel then said to all the people, 'You have seen the man whom Yahweh has chosen, and that among the whole people he has no equal.' And all the people acclaimed him, shouting, 'Long live the king!'


text:
Samuel then explained the king's constitutional position to the people and inscribed this in a book which he placed before Yahweh. Samuel then sent all the people away, everyone back to his home.


text:
But there were some scoundrels who said, 'How can this fellow save us?' These treated him with contempt and offered him no present.


text:
About a month later, Nahash the Ammonite marched up and laid siege to Jabesh in Gilead. All the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, 'Make a treaty with us and we will be your subjects.'


text:
Nahash the Ammonite replied, 'I shall make a treaty with you only on this condition, that I put out all your right eyes, and I will make it a taunt to the whole of Israel.'


text:
The elders of Jabesh said to him, 'Give us seven days' grace while we send messengers throughout the territory of Israel, and if no one comes to our help, we will come out to you.'


text:
The messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, and reported this to the people, and all the people wept aloud.


text:
Now Saul was just then coming in from the fields behind his oxen, and he said, 'What is wrong? Why are the people weeping?' They explained to him what the men of Jabesh had said.


text:
He took a yoke of oxen, cut them into pieces and sent these by messengers throughout the territory of Israel with these words, 'Anyone who will not march with Saul will have the same done to his oxen!' At this, a panic from Yahweh swept on the people and they marched out as one man.


text:
Saul inspected them at Bezek; there were three hundred thousand of Israel and thirty thousand of Judah.


text:
Then he said to the messengers who had come, 'This is what you are to say to the people of Jabesh in Gilead, "Tomorrow, by the time that the sun is hot, help will reach you." ' The messengers went and reported this to the people of Jabesh who were overjoyed;


text:
The next day, Saul disposed the army in three contingents, which burst into the middle of the camp during the dawn watch and slaughtered the Ammonites until high noon. The survivors were so scattered that no two of them were left together.


text:
The people then said to Samuel, 'Who said, "Must we have Saul reigning over us?" Hand the men over, for us to put them to death.'


text:
The people then all went to Gilgal. And there, at Gilgal, they proclaimed Saul king before Yahweh; they offered communion sacrifices before Yahweh, and there Saul and all the people of Israel gave themselves over to great rejoicing.


text:
Samuel said to all Israel, 'I have faithfully done all that you asked of me, and have appointed you a king.


text:
In future, the king will lead you. As for me, I am old and grey, and in any case you have my sons. I have been your leader ever since I was young until today.


text:
Here I am. Bear witness against me before Yahweh and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Have I wronged or oppressed anyone? Have I taken a consideration from anyone for looking the other way? If so, I will make amends.'


text:
He said to them, 'Yahweh is your witness and his anointed is witness today that you have found nothing in my hands?' They replied, 'He is witness.'


text:
Samuel then said to the people, 'Yahweh is witness, he who raised up Moses and Aaron and who brought your ancestors out of Egypt.


text:
So now, stay where you are, while I plead with you before Yahweh and remind you of all the saving acts which he has done for you and for your ancestors.


text:
After Jacob had arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians oppressed them, and your ancestors cried to Yahweh. Yahweh then sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your ancestors out of Egypt and gave them a settled home here.


text:
They then forgot Yahweh their God and he sold them into the power of Sisera, general of the army of Hazor, and also into the power of the Philistines and of the king of Moab, who made war on them.


text:
They cried to Yahweh, "We have sinned," they said, "for we have deserted Yahweh and served the Baals and the Astartes. Rescue us now from the power of our enemies, and we will serve you."


text:
Yahweh then sent Jerubbaal, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel. He rescued you from the power of the enemies surrounding you, and you lived in security.


text:
'But when you saw Nahash, king of the Ammonites, marching on you, you said to me, "No, we must have a king to rule us"-although Yahweh your God is your king.


text:
If you fear and serve Yahweh and obey his voice and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who rules you follow Yahweh your God, all will be well.


text:
But if you do not obey Yahweh's voice but rebel against his commands, Yahweh's hand will be against you and against your king.


text:
Is it not now the wheat harvest? I shall call on Yahweh and he will send thunder and rain, so that you may clearly understand what a very wicked thing you have done, in Yahweh's eyes, by asking for a king.'


text:
Samuel then called on Yahweh, and Yahweh sent thunder and rain the same day, and all the people held Yahweh and Samuel in great awe.


text:
They all said to Samuel, 'Pray for your servants to Yahweh your God, to save us from death; for to all our sins we have added this wrong of asking for a king.'


text:
Samuel said to the people, 'Do not be afraid. Although you have done all these wicked things, do not withdraw your allegiance from Yahweh. Instead, serve Yahweh with all your heart.


text:
Do not transfer your allegiance to useless idols which, being useless, are futile and cannot save anybody;


text:
Yahweh, for the sake of his great name, will not desert his people, for it has pleased Yahweh to make you his people.


text:
For my part, far be it from me to sin against Yahweh by ceasing to pray for you or to instruct you in the good and right way.


text:
Fear none but Yahweh, and serve him faithfully with all your heart, bearing in mind the wonder which he has just performed. But, if you persist in wickedness, you and your king will perish.'


text:
Saul selected three thousand men of Israel; two thousand of them were with Saul at Michmash and in the highlands of Bethel, and one thousand with Jonathan at Geba of Benjamin; the rest of the people Saul sent home, everyone to his tent.


text:
Jonathan killed the Philistine governor stationed at Gibeah and the Philistines were informed that the Hebrews had risen in revolt. Saul had the trumpet sounded throughout the country,


text:
and all Israel heard the news, 'Saul has killed the Philistine governor, and now Israel has antagonised the Philistines.' So all the people rallied behind Saul at Gilgal.


text:
The Philistines mustered to make war on Israel, three thousand chariots, six thousand horse and a force as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They came up and pitched camp at Michmash, to the east of Beth-Aven.


text:
When the Israelites saw that their plight was desperate, being so hard pressed, the people hid in caves, in holes, in crevices, in vaults, in wells.


text:
Some also crossed the Jordan fords into the territory of Gad and Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal and all the people who followed him were trembling.


text:
He waited for seven days, the period fixed by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the army, deserting Saul, began dispersing.


text:
Saul then said, 'Bring me the burnt offering and the communion sacrifices.' And he presented the burnt offering.


text:
Just as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to meet and greet him.


text:
Samuel said, 'What have you been doing?' Saul replied, 'I saw the army deserting me and dispersing, and you had not come at the time fixed, while the Philistines were mustering at Michmash.


text:
So I thought: Now the Philistines are going to fall on me at Gilgal and I have not implored the favour of Yahweh. So I felt obliged to make the burnt offering myself.'


text:
Samuel said to Saul, 'You have acted like a fool. You have not obeyed the order which Yahweh your God gave you. Otherwise, Yahweh would have confirmed your sovereignty over Israel for ever.


text:
But now your sovereignty will not last; Yahweh has discovered a man after his own heart and designated him as leader of his people, since you have not carried out what Yahweh ordered you.'


text:
Samuel then got up and left Gilgal to continue his journey. Those people remaining followed Saul as he went to join the warriors, and went from Gilgal to Geba of Benjamin. Saul reviewed the force that was with him; there were about six hundred men.


text:
Saul, his son Jonathan, and the force that was with them took up their quarters in Geba of Benjamin while the Philistines camped at Michmash.


text:
The raiding company sallied out of the Philistine camp in three groups: one group made for Ophrah in the territory of Shual;


text:
one group made for Beth-Horon; and one group made for the high ground overlooking the Valley of the Hyenas, in the direction of the desert.


text:
There was not a single blacksmith throughout the territory of Israel, the Philistines' reasoning being, 'We do not want the Hebrews making swords or spears.'


text:
Hence, the Israelites were all in the habit of going down individually to the Philistines to sharpen their ploughshares, axes, mattocks and scythes.


text:
The price was two-thirds of a shekel for ploughshares and axes, and one-third for sharpening mattocks and straightening goads.


text:
So it was that on the day of the battle, no one in the army with Saul and Jonathan was equipped with either sword or spear; only Saul and his son Jonathan were so equipped.


text:
One day, Jonathan son of Saul said to his armour-bearer, 'Come on, let us go across to the Philistine outpost over on the other side.' But he did not inform his father.


text:
Saul was on the outskirts of Geba, sitting under the pomegranate tree that stands near the threshing-floor; the force with him numbered about six hundred men.


text:
Ahijah son of Ahitub, brother of Ichabod, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of Yahweh at Shiloh, was carrying the ephod. The force did not know that Jonathan had left.


text:
In the pass that Jonathan was trying to cross to reach the Philistine outpost, there is a rocky spur on one side and a rocky spur on the other; one is called Bozez, the other Seneh.


text:
Jonathan said to his armour-bearer, 'Come on, let us go across to these uncircumcised people's outpost; perhaps Yahweh will do something for us, for Yahweh is free to grant deliverance through a few men, just as much as through many.'


text:
But if they say, "Come up to us," we shall go up, for that will be the sign for us that Yahweh has given them into our power.'


text:
When the two of them let themselves be seen by the Philistine outpost, the Philistines said, 'Look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have been hiding.'


text:
The men of the outpost then hailed Jonathan and his armour-bearer. 'Come up to us,' they said, 'we have something to tell you.' Jonathan then said to his armour-bearer, 'Follow me up; Yahweh has given them into the power of Israel.'


text:
Jonathan clambered up on hands and feet, with his armour-bearer behind him; the Philistines fell at Jonathan's onslaught, and his armour-bearer, coming behind, finished them off.


text:
There was panic in the camp, in the field and throughout the army; outpost and raiding company too were panic-stricken; the earth quaked: it was a panic from Yahweh.


text:
Saul then said to the force that was with him, 'Call the roll and see who has left us.' So they called the roll, and Jonathan and his armour-bearer were missing.


text:
But while Saul was speaking to the priest, the turmoil in the Philistine camp grew worse and worse; and Saul said to the priest, 'Withdraw your hand.'


text:
Saul and the whole force with him then formed up and advanced to where the fighting was going on: and there they all were, drawing their swords on one another in wild confusion.


text:
Those Hebrews who had earlier taken service with the Philistines and had accompanied them into camp, now defected to the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.


text:
Similarly, all those Israelites who had been hiding in the highlands of Ephraim, hearing that the Philistines were on the run, chased after them and joined in the fight.


text:
As the men of Israel were hard pressed that day, Saul pronounced this imprecation over the people, 'A curse on anyone who eats food before evening, before I have taken revenge on my enemies!' So none of the people so much as tasted food.


text:
The people came to the honeycomb, the honey was dripping out, but no one put a hand to his mouth, the people being in awe of the oath.


text:
Jonathan, however, not having heard his father bind the people with the oath, reached with the end of the stick which he was carrying, thrust it into the honeycomb and put it to his mouth; whereupon his eyes grew brighter.


text:
One of the people then spoke up. 'Your father', he said, 'has bound the people with this oath: "A curse on anyone who eats anything today." '


text:
'My father has brought trouble on the country,' Jonathan replied. 'See how much brighter my eyes are for having eaten this mouthful of honey.


text:
By the same token, if the people had been allowed to eat some of the booty which they had captured from the enemy today, would not the defeat of the Philistines have been all the greater?'


text:
That day the Philistines were beaten from Michmash all the way to Aijalon, until the people were utterly exhausted.


text:
The people flung themselves on the booty and, taking sheep, bullocks and calves, slaughtered them there on the ground and ate them with the blood.


text:
Saul was informed, 'The people are sinning against Yahweh by eating with the blood!' He said, 'You have not kept faith! Roll me a large stone here!'


text:
Saul then said, 'Scatter among the people and say, "Everyone is to bring his bullock or his sheep to me here." You will slaughter them here and eat, and not sin against Yahweh by eating with the blood.' Each individual brought what he happened to have that night, and they all slaughtered in the same place.


text:
Saul said, 'Let us go down under cover of dark and plunder the Philistines until dawn; we shall not leave one of them alive.' 'Do whatever you think right,' they replied. But the priest said, 'Let us approach God here.'


text:
Saul consulted God, 'Shall I go down and pursue the Philistines? Will you hand them over to Israel?' But he gave him no reply that day.


text:
Saul then said, 'Come forward, all you leaders of the people; consider carefully where today's sin may lie;


text:
for as Yahweh lives who gives victory to Israel, even if the sin lies with Jonathan my son, he shall be put to death.' But not one out of all the people answered.


text:
He then said to all Israel, 'Stand on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will stand on the other.' And the people replied to Saul, 'Do as you think right.'


text:
Saul then said, 'Yahweh, God of Israel, why did you not answer your servant today? Yahweh, God of Israel, if the fault lies with me or with my son Jonathan, give urim: if the fault lies with your people Israel, give thummim.' Jonathan and Saul were indicated and the people went free.


text:
'I only tasted a mouthful of honey off the end of the stick which I was carrying. But I am ready to die.'


text:
But the people said to Saul, 'Must Jonathan die after winning this great victory for Israel? We will never allow that! As Yahweh lives, not one hair of his head shall fall to the ground, for his deeds today have been done with the help of God.' And so the people ransomed Jonathan and he was not put to death.


text:
Saul consolidated his rule over Israel and made war on all his enemies on all fronts: on Moab, the Ammonites, Edom, the king of Zobah and the Philistines; whichever way he turned, he was victorious.


text:
He did great deeds of valour; he defeated the Amalekites and delivered Israel from those who used to pillage him.


text:
Saul's sons were: Jonathan, Ishvi and Malchishua. The names of his two daughters were: the elder, Merab, and the younger, Michal.


text:
The name of Saul's wife was Ahinoam daughter of Ahimaaz. The name of his army commander was Abner son of Ner, Saul's uncle.


text:
There was fierce warfare with the Philistines throughout Saul's life. Any strong or valiant man who caught Saul's eye, he recruited into his service.


text:
Samuel said to Saul, 'I am the man whom Yahweh sent to anoint you as king of his people Israel, so now listen to the words of Yahweh.


text:
This is what Yahweh Sabaoth says, "I intend to punish what Amalek did to Israel -- laying a trap for him on the way as he was coming up from Egypt.


text:
Now, go and crush Amalek; put him under the curse of destruction with all that he possesses. Do not spare him, but kill man and woman, babe and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey." '


text:
Saul summoned the people and reviewed them at Telaim: two hundred thousand foot soldiers (and ten thousand men of Judah).


text:
Saul said to the Kenites, 'Go away, leave your homes among the Amalekites, in case I destroy you with them -- you acted with faithful love towards all the Israelites when they were coming up from Egypt.' So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.


text:
Saul then crushed the Amalekites, beginning at Havilah in the direction of Shur, which is to the east of Egypt.


text:
He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive and, executing the curse of destruction, put all the people to the sword.


text:
But Saul and the army spared Agag with the best of the sheep and cattle, the fatlings and lambs and all that was good. They did not want to consign these to the curse of destruction; they consigned only what was poor and worthless.


text:
'I regret having made Saul king, since he has broken his allegiance to me and not carried out my orders.' Samuel was appalled and cried to Yahweh all night long.


text:
In the morning, Samuel set off to find Saul. Samuel was told, 'Saul has been to Carmel, to raise himself a monument there, but now has turned about, moved on and gone down to Gilgal.'


text:
When Samuel reached Saul, Saul said, 'May you be blessed by Yahweh! I have carried out Yahweh's orders.'


text:
Samuel replied, 'Then what is this bleating of sheep in my ears and the lowing of cattle that I hear?'


text:
Saul said, 'They have been brought from Amalek, the people having spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice them to Yahweh, your God; the rest we have consigned to the curse of destruction.'


text:
Samuel then said to Saul, 'Stop! Let me tell you what Yahweh said to me last night.' He said, 'Go on.'


text:
Samuel said, 'Small as you may be in your own eyes, are you not the leader of the tribes of Israel? Yahweh has anointed you as king of Israel.


text:
When Yahweh sent you on a mission he said to you, "Go and put those sinners, the Amalekites, under the curse of destruction and make war on them until they are exterminated."


text:
Why then did you not obey Yahweh's voice? Why did you fall on the booty and do what is wrong in Yahweh's eyes?'


text:
Saul replied to Samuel, 'But I did obey Yahweh's voice. I went on the mission which Yahweh gave me; I brought back Agag king of the Amalekites; I put Amalek under the curse of destruction;


text:
and from the booty the people have taken the best sheep and cattle of what was under the curse of destruction only to sacrifice them to Yahweh your God in Gilgal.'


text:
To which, Samuel said: Is Yahweh pleased by burnt offerings and sacrifices or by obedience to Yahweh's voice? Truly, obedience is better than sacrifice, submissiveness than the fat of rams.


text:
Rebellion is a sin of sorcery, presumption a crime of idolatry! 'Since you have rejected Yahweh's word, he has rejected you as king.'


text:
Saul then said to Samuel, 'I have sinned, having broken Yahweh's order and your instructions because I was afraid of the people and yielded to their demands.


text:
Samuel said to Saul, 'I will not come back with you, since you have rejected Yahweh's word and Yahweh has rejected you as king of Israel.'


text:
and Samuel said to him, 'Today Yahweh has torn the kingdom of Israel from you and given it to a neighbour of yours who is better than you.'


text:
(The Glory of Israel, however, does not lie or go back on his word, not being human and liable to go back on his word.)


text:
'I have sinned,' Saul said, 'but please still show me respect in front of my people's elders and in front of Israel, and come back with me, so that I can worship Yahweh your God.'


text:
Samuel then said, 'Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites!' Agag came towards him unsteadily saying, 'Truly death is bitter!'


text:
Samuel said: As your sword has left women childless, so will your mother be left childless among women! Samuel then butchered Agag before Yahweh at Gilgal.


text:
Samuel did not see Saul again till his dying day. Samuel indeed mourned over Saul, but Yahweh regretted having made Saul king of Israel.


text:
Yahweh said to Samuel, 'How much longer do you mean to go on mourning over Saul, now that I myself have rejected him as ruler of Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have found myself a king from among his sons.'


text:
Samuel replied, 'How can I go? When Saul hears of it he will kill me.' Yahweh then said, 'Take a heifer with you and say, "I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh."


text:
Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I shall reveal to you what you must do; and you will anoint for me the one I indicate to you.'


text:
Samuel did what Yahweh ordered and went to Bethlehem. The elders of the town came trembling to meet him and asked, 'Seer, is your coming favourable for us,'


text:
'Yes,' he replied. 'I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh. Purify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.' He purified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.


text:
but Yahweh said to Samuel, 'Take no notice of his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him; God does not see as human beings see; they look at appearances but Yahweh looks at the heart.'


text:
Jesse then called Abinadab and presented him to Samuel, who said, 'Yahweh has not chosen this one either.'


text:
Jesse thus presented seven of his sons to Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, 'Yahweh has not chosen these.'


text:
He then asked Jesse, 'Are these all the sons you have?' Jesse replied, 'There is still one left, the youngest; he is looking after the sheep.' Samuel then said to Jesse, 'Send for him, for we shall not sit down to eat until he arrives.'


text:
Jesse had him sent for; he had ruddy cheeks, with fine eyes and an attractive appearance. Yahweh said, 'Get up and anoint him: he is the one!'


text:
At this, Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him, surrounded by his brothers; and the spirit of Yahweh seized on David from that day onwards. Samuel, for his part, set off and went to Ramah.


text:
Now the spirit of Yahweh had withdrawn from Saul, and an evil spirit from Yahweh afflicted him with terrors.


text:
Let our lord give the order, and your servants who wait on you will look for a skilled harpist; when the evil spirit from God comes over you, he will play and it will do you good.'


text:
One of the servants then spoke up and said, 'I have seen one of the sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite: he is a skilled player, a brave man and a fighter, well spoken, good-looking and Yahweh is with him.'


text:
David went to Saul and entered his service; Saul became very fond of him and David became his armour-bearer.


text:
And whenever the spirit from God came over Saul, David would take a harp and play; Saul would then be soothed; it would do him good, and the evil spirit would leave him.


text:
The Philistines mustered their troops for war; they assembled at Socoh in Judah and pitched camp between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-Dammim.


text:
Saul and the Israelites also mustered, pitching camp in the Valley of the Terebinth, and drew up their battle-line opposite the Philistines.


text:
The Philistines occupied the high ground on one side and the Israelites occupied the high ground on the other side, with the valley between them.


text:
A champion stepped out from the Philistine ranks; his name was Goliath, from Gath; he was six cubits and one span tall.


text:
On his head was a bronze helmet and he wore a breastplate of scale-armour; the breastplate weighed five thousand shekels of bronze.


text:
The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and the head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron. A shield-bearer walked in front of him.


text:
Taking position in front of the Israelite lines, he shouted, 'Why have you come out to range yourselves for battle? Am I not a Philistine and are you not Saul's lackeys? Choose a man and let him come down to me.


text:
If he can fight it out with me and kill me, we will be your servants; but if I can beat him and kill him, you become our servants and serve us.'


text:
The Philistine then said, 'I challenge the ranks of Israel today. Give me a man and we will fight it out!'


text:
David was the son of an Ephrathite from Bethlehem of Judah whose name was Jesse; Jesse had eight sons and, by Saul's time, he was old and well on in years.


text:
Jesse's eldest three sons followed Saul to the war. The names of the three sons who went to the war were: the eldest Eliab, the second Abinadab and the third Shammah.


text:
Jesse said to his son David, 'Take your brothers this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves, and hurry to the camp, to your brothers.


text:
And take these ten cheeses to their commanding officer; find out how your brothers are and bring some token back from them;


text:
they are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of the Terebinth, fighting the Philistines.'


text:
David got up early in the morning and, leaving the sheep with someone to guard them, took up his load and went off as Jesse had ordered; he reached the encampment just as the troops were leaving to take up battle stations and shouting the war cry.


text:
David left his bundle in charge of the baggage guard and, running to the battle-line, went and asked his brothers how they were.


text:
While he was talking to them, the champion (Goliath, the Philistine from Gath) came up from the Philistine ranks and made his usual speech, which David heard.


text:
The Israelites said, 'You saw that man who just came up? He comes to challenge Israel. The king will lavish riches on the man who kills him, he will give him his daughter in marriage and exempt his father's family from all taxes in Israel.'


text:
David asked the men who were standing near him, 'What would be the reward for killing this Philistine and saving Israel from disgrace? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, to challenge the armies of the living God?'


text:
The people told him what they had been saying, 'That would be the reward for killing him,' they said.


text:
His eldest brother Eliab heard David talking to the men and grew angry with him. 'Why have you come down here?' he said. 'Whom have you left in charge of those few sheep in the desert? I know how impudent and artful you are; you have come to watch the battle!'


text:
And he turned away from him to someone else and asked the same question, to which the people replied as before.


text:
David said to Saul, 'Let no one be discouraged on his account; your servant will go and fight this Philistine.'


text:
Saul said to David, 'You cannot go and fight the Philistine; you are only a boy and he has been a warrior since his youth.'


text:
David said to Saul, 'Your servant used to look after the sheep for his father and whenever a lion or a bear came and took a sheep from the flock,


text:
I used to follow it up, lay into it and snatch the sheep out of its jaws. If it turned on me, I would seize it by the beard and batter it to death.


text:
Your servant has killed both lion and bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will end up like one of them for having challenged the armies of the living God.'


text:
'Yahweh,' David went on, 'who delivered me from the claws of lion and bear, will deliver me from the clutches of this Philistine.' Then Saul said to David, 'Go, and Yahweh be with you!'


text:
Saul dressed David in his own armour; he put a bronze helmet on his head, dressed him in a breastplate


text:
and buckled his own sword over David's armour. David tried to walk but, not being used to them, said to Saul, 'I cannot walk in these; I am not used to them.' So they took them off again.


text:
He took his stick in his hand, selected five smooth stones from the river bed and put them in his shepherd's bag, in his pouch; then, sling in hand, he walked towards the Philistine.


text:
When the Philistine looked David up and down, what he saw filled him with scorn, because David was only a lad, with ruddy cheeks and an attractive appearance.


text:
The Philistine said to David, 'Am I a dog for you to come after me with sticks?' And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.


text:
The Philistine said to David, 'Come over here and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the wild beasts!'


text:
David retorted to the Philistine, 'You come to me with sword, spear and scimitar, but I come to you in the name of Yahweh Sabaoth, God of the armies of Israel, whom you have challenged.


text:
Today, Yahweh will deliver you into my hand; I shall kill you, I shall cut off your head; today, I shall give your corpse and the corpses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the wild beasts, so that the whole world may know that there is a God in Israel,


text:
and this whole assembly know that Yahweh does not give victory by means of sword and spear -- for Yahweh is lord of the battle and he will deliver you into our power.'


text:
No sooner had the Philistine started forward to confront David than David darted out of the lines and ran to meet the Philistine.


text:
Putting his hand in his bag, he took out a stone, slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead; the stone penetrated his forehead and he fell face downwards on the ground.


text:
Thus David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; he hit the Philistine and killed him, though he had no sword in his hand.


text:
David ran and stood over the Philistine, seized his sword, pulled it from the scabbard, despatched him and cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.


text:
The men of Israel and of Judah started forward, shouting their war cry, and pursued the Philistines as far as the approaches of Gath and the gates of Ekron. The Philistine dead lay all along the road from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron.


text:
And David took the Philistine's head and brought it to Jerusalem; his weapons, however, he put in his own tent.


text:
When Saul saw David going to engage the Philistine he said to Abner, the army commander, 'Abner, whose son is that boy?' 'On your life, O king,' Abner replied, 'I do not know.'


text:
When David came back after killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the Philistine's head in his hand.


text:
Saul asked him, 'Whose son are you, young man?' David replied, 'The son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.'


text:
When David had finished talking to Saul, Jonathan felt an instant affection for David; Jonathan loved him like his very self;


text:
Jonathan took off the cloak which he was wearing and gave it to David, and his armour too, even including his sword, his bow and his belt.


text:
Wherever David was sent on a mission by Saul, he was successful, and Saul put him in command of the fighting men; all the people respected him and so did Saul's staff.


text:
On their return, when David was coming back from killing the Philistine, the women came out of all the towns of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul, with tambourines, sistrums and cries of joy;


text:
Saul was very angry; the incident displeased him. 'They have given David the tens of thousands,' he said, 'but me only the thousands; what more can he have, except the throne?'


text:
The following day, an evil spirit from God seized on Saul and he fell into a frenzy while he was indoors. David played the harp as on other occasions; Saul had a spear in his hand.


text:
So Saul removed him from his presence and appointed him commander of a thousand; he led the people on campaign.


text:
Saul said to David, 'This is my elder daughter Merab; I shall give her to you in marriage; but you must serve me bravely and fight Yahweh's wars.' Saul thought, 'Better than strike the blow myself, let the Philistines do it!'


text:
David replied to Saul, 'Who am I and what is my lineage -- and my father's family -- in Israel, for me to become the king's son-in-law?'


text:
When the time came for Merab daughter of Saul to be given to David, she was given to Adriel of Meholah instead.


text:
He thought, 'Yes, I shall give her to him; she can be the snare for him, so that the Philistines will get him.' (On two occasions, Saul told David, 'Today, you shall be my son-in-law.')


text:
Saul gave instructions to his servants, 'Have a private word with David and say, "Look, the king is fond of you and all his servants love you -- why not be the king's son-in-law?" '


text:
Saul's servants repeated these words in David's ear, to which David replied, 'Do you think that becoming the king's son-in-law is a trivial matter; I have neither wealth nor position.'


text:
Saul replied, 'Tell David this, "The king desires no bride-price except one hundred Philistine foreskins, in vengeance on the king's enemies." ' Saul was counting on getting David killed by the Philistines.


text:
When his servants repeated this to David, David thought it would be a fine thing to be the king's son-in-law. And no time was lost


text:
before David got up to go, he and his men, and killed two hundred of the Philistines. David brought their foreskins back and counted them out before the king, so that he could be the king's son-in-law. Saul then gave him his daughter Michal in marriage.


text:
The Philistine chiefs kept mounting their campaigns but, whenever they did so, David proved more successful than any of Saul's staff; consequently he gained great renown.


text:
Saul let his son Jonathan and all his servants know of his intention to kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, held David in great affection;


text:
and Jonathan warned David, 'My father Saul is looking for a way to kill you, so be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding, stay out of sight.


text:
I shall go out and keep my father company in the countryside where you will be, and shall talk to my father about you; I shall see what the situation is and then tell you.'


text:
Jonathan spoke highly of David to Saul his father and said, 'The king should not harm his servant David; far from harming you, what he has done has been greatly to your advantage.


text:
He took his life in his hands, he killed the Philistine, and Yahweh brought about a great victory for all Israel. You saw for yourself. How pleased you were! Why then sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?'


text:
Jonathan called David and told him all this. Jonathan then brought him to Saul, and David remained in attendance as before.


text:
War broke out again and David sallied out to fight the Philistines; he inflicted a great defeat on them and they fled before him.


text:
An evil spirit from Yahweh came over Saul while he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand; David was playing the harp.


text:
Saul tried to pin David to the wall with his spear, but he avoided Saul's thrust and the spear stuck in the wall. David fled and made good his escape. That same night


text:
Saul sent agents to watch David's house, intending to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, warned him, 'If you do not escape tonight, you will be a dead man tomorrow!'


text:
Michal then took a domestic image, laid it on the bed, put a tress of goats' hair at the head of the bed and put a cover over it.


text:
Saul sent the agents back to see David, with the words, 'Bring him to me on his bed, for me to kill him!'


text:
Saul then said to Michal, 'Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy go, and so make his escape?' Michal replied to Saul, 'He said, "Let me go, or I shall kill you!" '


text:
David, having fled and made his escape, went to Samuel at Ramah and told him exactly how Saul had treated him; he and Samuel went and lived in the huts.


text:
Saul accordingly sent agents to capture David; when they saw the community of prophets prophesying, and Samuel there as their leader, the spirit of God came over Saul's agents, and they too fell into frenzy.


text:
When Saul was told of this, he sent other agents, and they too fell into frenzy; Saul then sent a third group of agents, and they fell into frenzy too.


text:
He then went to Ramah himself and, arriving at the large storage-well at Seku, asked, 'Where are Samuel and David?' And someone said, 'Why, they are in the huts at Ramah!'


text:
Making his way from there to the huts at Ramah, the spirit of God came over him too, and he went along in a frenzy until he arrived at the huts at Ramah.


text:
He too stripped off his clothes and he too fell into a frenzy in Samuel's presence, then collapsed naked on the ground for the rest of that day and all night. Hence the saying: Is Saul one of the prophets too?


text:
Fleeing from the huts at Ramah, David went and confronted Jonathan, 'What have I done, what is my guilt, how have I wronged your father, for him to want to take my life?'


text:
He replied, 'You must not think that! You are not going to die. My father, you see, does nothing, important or unimportant, without confiding in me, so why should my father hide this from me? It is not true.'


text:
In reply, David swore, 'Your father knows very well that I enjoy your favour, and thinks, "Jonathan must not know about this or he will be upset." But, as Yahweh lives and as you yourself live, there is only a step between me and death.'


text:
David replied, 'Look, tomorrow is New Moon and I ought to sit at table with the king, but you must let me go and hide in the countryside until the evening.


text:
If your father notices my absence, you must say, "David insistently asked me for permission to hurry over to Bethlehem, his home town, because they are holding the annual sacrifice there for the whole clan."


text:
If he says, "Very well," your servant is safe, but if he flies into a rage, you may be sure that he has some evil plan.


text:
Show your servant faithful love, since you have bound your servant to you by a pact in Yahweh's name. But if I am guilty, then kill me yourself -- why take me to your father?'


text:
Jonathan replied, 'Perish the thought! If I knew for sure that my father was determined to do you a mischief, would I not have told you?'


text:
Jonathan then said to David, 'Come on, let us go out into the country,' and the pair of them went out into the country.


text:
Jonathan then said to David, 'By Yahweh, God of Israel! I shall sound my father this time tomorrow; if all is well for David and I do not then send and inform you,


text:
may Yahweh bring unnameable ills to Jonathan and worse ones too! If my father intends to do you a mischief, I shall tell you so and let you get away, so that you can be safe. And may Yahweh be with you as he used to be with my father!


text:
never withdraw your faithful love from my family. When Yahweh has exterminated every enemy of David's from the face of the earth,


text:
do not let Jonathan's name be exterminated with Saul's family, or may Yahweh call David to account!'


text:
Jonathan then said to David, 'Tomorrow is New Moon; your absence will be noticed, since your place will be empty.


text:
The day after tomorrow your absence will be very marked, and you must go to the place where you hid on the day of the deed, and stay beside that mound.


text:
For my part, the day after tomorrow I shall shoot three arrows in that direction, as though at a target.


text:
I shall then send a servant to go and find the arrows. If I say to him, "The arrows are this side of you, get them," come out, since all will be well for you and nothing the matter, as sure as Yahweh lives.


text:
But if I say to him, "The arrows are ahead of you," then be off, for Yahweh himself will be sending you away.


text:
He sat in his usual place with his back to the wall, Jonathan sat facing him and Abner sat next to Saul; but David's place was empty.


text:
Saul said to his son Jonathan, 'Why did not the son of Jesse come to the meal either yesterday or today?'


text:
Jonathan answered Saul, 'David insistently asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. "Please let me go," he said, "for we are holding the clan sacrifice in the town and my brothers have ordered me to attend. So now, if I enjoy your favour, let me get away and see my brothers." That is why he has not come to the king's table.'


text:
Saul flew into a rage with Jonathan and said, 'Son of a rebellious slut! Don't I know that you side with the son of Jesse to your own shame and your mother's dishonour?


text:
As long as the son of Jesse lives on earth, neither you nor your royal rights are secure. Now have him fetched and brought to me; he deserves to die.'


text:
But Saul brandished his spear at him to strike him, and Jonathan realised that his father was determined that David should die.


text:
Hot with anger, Jonathan got up from the table and ate nothing on the second day of the month, being upset about David -- and because his father had insulted him.


text:
Next morning, Jonathan went out into the country at the time agreed with David, taking a young servant with him.


text:
He said to his servant, 'Run and find the arrows which I am going to shoot,' and the servant ran while Jonathan shot an arrow ahead of him.


text:
When the servant reached the spot to which Jonathan had shot the arrow, Jonathan shouted after him, 'Is not the arrow ahead of you?'


text:
Again Jonathan shouted after the servant, 'Quick! Hurry, do not stand around.' Jonathan's servant picked up the arrow and brought it back to his master.


text:
As soon as the servant had gone, David stood up beside the mound, threw himself to the ground, prostrating himself three times. They then embraced each other, both weeping copiously.


text:
Jonathan then said to David, 'Go in peace. And as regards the oath that both of us have sworn by the name of Yahweh, may Yahweh be witness between you and me, between your descendants and mine for ever.'


text:
David then went to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came out trembling to meet David and said, 'Why are you alone? Why is nobody with you?'


text:
David replied to Ahimelech the priest, 'The king has given me an order and said to me, "Do not let anyone know anything about the mission on which I am sending you, or about the order which I have given you." I have arranged to meet the guards at such and such a place.


text:
The priest replied to David, 'I have no ordinary bread to hand; there are only consecrated loaves of permanent offering -- provided that the men have kept themselves from women?'


text:
David replied to the priest, 'Certainly, women have been forbidden to us, as always when I set off on a campaign. The men's things are clean. Though this is a profane journey, they are certainly clean today as far as their things are concerned.'


text:
The priest then gave him what had been consecrated, for the only bread there was the loaves of permanent offering, which is taken out of Yahweh's presence, to be replaced by warm bread on the day when it is removed.


text:
Now one of Saul's servants happened to be there that day, detained in Yahweh's presence; his name was Doeg the Edomite and he was the strongest of Saul's shepherds.


text:
David then said to Ahimelech, 'Have you no spear or sword here to hand? I did not bring either my sword or my weapons with me, because the king's business was urgent.'


text:
The priest replied, 'The sword of Goliath the Philistine whom you killed in the Valley of the Terebinth is here, wrapped in a piece of clothing behind the ephod; if you care to take it, do so, for that is the only one here.' David said, 'There is nothing like that one; give it to me.'


text:
Achish's servants said to him, 'Is not this David, the king of the country? Was it not of him that they sang as they danced: Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands?'


text:
When their eyes were on him, he played the madman and, when they held him, he feigned lunacy. He drummed his feet on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.


text:
Have I not enough madmen, without your bringing me this one to weary me with his antics? Is he to join my household?'


text:
David left there and took refuge in the Cave of Adullam; his brothers and his father's whole family heard this and joined him there.


text:
All those in distress, all those in debt, all those who had a grievance, gathered round him and he became their leader. There were about four hundred men with him.


text:
From there David went to Mizpah in Moab and said to the king of Moab, 'Allow my father and mother to stay with you until I know what God intends to do for me.'


text:
He left them with the king of Moab and there they stayed all the time that David was in the stronghold.


text:
The prophet Gad, however, said to David, 'Do not stay in the stronghold; leave and make your way into the territory of Judah.' David then left and went to the forest of Hereth.


text:
When Saul heard that David and the men with him had been discovered, Saul was at Gibeah, seated under the tamarisk on the high place, spear in hand, with all his staff standing round him.


text:
'Listen, Benjaminites!' said Saul to them, 'Is the son of Jesse going to give you all fields and vineyards and make all of you commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds


text:
that you all conspire against me? No one warned me when my son made a pact with the son of Jesse; none of you felt sorry for me or warned me when my son incited my servant to become my enemy, as he is now.'


text:
Then, up spoke Doeg the Edomite, who was in command of Saul's staff, 'I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech son of Ahitub.


text:
That man consulted Yahweh on his behalf, gave him provisions and also the sword of Goliath the Philistine.'


text:
The king then sent for the priest Ahimelech son of Ahitub and his whole family, the priests of Nob; they all came to the king.


text:
'Why have you conspired against me,' said Saul, 'you and the son of Jesse, giving him bread and a sword and consulting God on his behalf, for him to rebel against me as is now the case?'


text:
Ahimelech replied to the king, 'Of all those in your service, who is more loyal than David son-in-law to the king, captain of your bodyguard, honoured in your household?


text:
Was today the first time I ever consulted God on his behalf? Indeed it was not! The king has no grounds for bringing any charge against his servant or against his whole family, for your servant knew nothing whatever about all this.'


text:
The king said to the scouts who were standing round him, 'Forward! and put the priests of Yahweh to death, for they too are on David's side, they knew that he was escaping, yet did not warn me of it.' The king's professional soldiers, however, would not lift a hand to strike the priests of Yahweh.


text:
The king then said to Doeg, 'Forward, you! Fall on the priests!' Doeg the Edomite stepped forward and fell on the priests, himself that day killing eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod.


text:
Nob, the town of the priests, Saul put to the sword: men and women, children and infants, cattle, donkeys and sheep.


text:
One son of Ahimelech son of Ahitub alone escaped. His name was Abiathar, and he fled away to join David.


text:
David said to Abiathar, 'I knew, that day when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would be sure to inform Saul. I am responsible for the death of all your kinsmen.


text:
News was then brought to David, 'The Philistines are besieging Keilah and plundering the threshing-floors'.


text:
David consulted Yahweh, 'Shall I go and fight these Philistines?' Yahweh replied to David, 'Go and fight the Philistines and save Keilah.'


text:
But David's men said to him, 'We are already afraid here in Judah; how much more, then, if we go to Keilah to fight the Philistine troops!'


text:
So David consulted Yahweh again and Yahweh replied, 'Be on your way; go down to Keilah, since I shall give the Philistines into your power.'


text:
So David and his men went to Keilah and fought the Philistines and carried off their cattle and inflicted a great defeat on them. Thus David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.


text:
When Abiathar son of Ahimelech took refuge with David, he went down to Keilah with the ephod in his hand.


text:
When word was brought to Saul that David had gone to Keilah he said, 'God has delivered him into my power: he has trapped himself by going into a town with gates and bars.'


text:
David, however, was aware that Saul was plotting evil against him, and said to Abiathar the priest, 'Bring the ephod.'


text:
David said, 'Yahweh, God of Israel, your servant has heard that Saul is preparing to come to Keilah and destroy the town because of me.


text:
Will Saul come down as your servant has heard? Yahweh, God of Israel, I beg you, let your servant know.' Yahweh replied, 'He will come down.'


text:
David then went on to ask, 'Will the notables of Keilah hand me and my men over to Saul?' Yahweh replied, 'They will hand you over.'


text:
At this, David made off with his men, about six hundred in number; they left Keilah and went where they could. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he abandoned the expedition.


text:
David stayed in the desert, in the strongholds; he stayed in the mountains, in the desert of Ziph; Saul kept looking for him day after day, but God did not deliver him into his power.


text:
David was aware that Saul had mounted an expedition to take his life. David was then at Horesh in the desert of Ziph.


text:
'Do not be afraid,' he said, 'for my father Saul's hand will not reach you. You are to reign over Israel, and I shall be second to you. Saul my father is himself aware of this.'


text:
Some men from Ziph then went up to Saul at Gibeah and said, 'Look, David is hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the Hill of Hachilah to the south of the wastelands.


text:
Now whenever you wish to go down, my lord king, do so; we shall make it our task to hand him over to the king.'


text:
Go and make doubly sure, find out exactly what place he frequents, for I have been told that he is very cunning.


text:
Take careful note of all the hiding places where he lurks, and come back to me when you are certain. I shall then come with you and, if he is in the country, I shall track him down through every clan in Judah!'


text:
Setting off they went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Meanwhile, David and his men were in the desert of Maon, in the plain to the south of the wastelands.


text:
When Saul and his men set out in search, David was told and went down to the gorge running through the desert of Maon.


text:
Saul and his men proceeded along one side of the mountain, David and his men along the other. David was hurrying to escape from Saul, while Saul and his men were trying to cross over to David and his men's side, to capture them,


text:
So Saul broke off his pursuit of David and went to oppose the Philistines. That is why the place is called the Gorge of Separations.


text:
Once Saul was back from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, 'David is now in the desert of En-Gedi.'


text:
Saul thereupon took three thousand men selected from all Israel and went in search of David and his men east of the Rocks of the Mountain Goats.


text:
He came to the sheepfolds along the route, where there was a cave, and went in to cover his feet. Now David and his men were sitting in the recesses of the cave;


text:
David's men said to him, 'Today is the day of which Yahweh said to you, "I shall deliver your enemy into your power; do what you like with him." ' David got up and, unobserved, cut off the border of Saul's cloak.


text:
He said to his men, 'Yahweh preserve me from doing such a thing to my lord as to raise my hand against him, since he is Yahweh's anointed.'


text:
Saul then left the cave and went on his way. After this, David too left the cave and called after Saul, 'My lord king!' Saul looked behind him and David, bowing to the ground, prostrated himself.


text:
This very day you have seen for yourself how Yahweh put you in my power in the cave and how, refusing to kill you, I spared you saying, "I will not raise my hand against my lord, since he is Yahweh's anointed."


text:
Look, father, look at the border of your cloak in my hand. Since, although I cut the border off your cloak, I did not kill you, surely you realise that I intend neither mischief nor crime. I have not wronged you, and yet you hunt me down to take my life.


text:
May Yahweh be judge between me and you, and may Yahweh avenge me on you; but I shall never lay a hand on you!


text:
(As the old proverb says: Wickedness comes out of wicked people, but I shall never lay a hand on you!)


text:
On whose trail is the king of Israel campaigning? Whom are you pursuing? On the trail of a dead dog, of a flea!


text:
May Yahweh be the judge and decide between me and you; may he examine and defend my cause and give judgement for me by rescuing me from your clutches!'


text:
When David had finished saying this to Saul, Saul said, 'Is that your voice, my son David?' And Saul began to weep aloud.


text:
'You are upright and I am not,' he said to David, 'since you have behaved well to me, whereas I have behaved badly to you.


text:
And today you have shown how well you have behaved to me, since Yahweh had put me in your power but you did not kill me.


text:
When a man comes on his enemy, does he let him go unmolested? May Yahweh reward you for the good you have done me today!


text:
Now swear to me by Yahweh that you will not suppress my descendants once I am gone, or blot my name out of my family.'


text:
Samuel died and all Israel assembled to mourn for him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. David then set off and went down to the desert of Maon.


text:
Now, there was a man in Maon whose business was at Carmel; the man was very rich: he owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was then at Carmel, having his sheep shorn.


text:
The man's name was Nabal and his wife's Abigail. She was a woman of intelligence and beauty, but the man was miserly and churlish. He was a Calebite.


text:
And this is what you are to say to my brother, "Peace to you, peace to your family, peace to all that is yours!


text:
I hear that you now have the shearers; your shepherds were with us recently: we did not molest them, nor did they lose anything all the while they were at Carmel.


text:
Ask your young men and they will tell you. I hope that you will give the men a welcome, coming as we do on a festival. Whatever you have to hand please give to your servants and to your son David." '


text:
There are many servants nowadays who run away from their masters. Am I to take my bread and my wine and the meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers and give it to men who come from I know not where?'


text:
David's men turned on their heels and went back, and on their arrival told him exactly what had been said.


text:
David then said to his men, 'Every man buckle on his sword!' And they buckled on their swords, and David buckled on his too; about four hundred followed David while two hundred stayed with the baggage.


text:
Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife. He said, 'David sent messengers from the desert to greet our master, but he flared up at them.


text:
Now, these men were very good to us; they did not molest us and we lost nothing all the time we had anything to do with them while we were out in the country.


text:
So now make up your mind what you should do, for the ruin of our master and his whole family is a certainty, and he is such a brute that no one can say a word to him.'


text:
Abigail hastily took two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five sheep ready prepared, five measures of roasted grain, a hundred bunches of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs and loaded them on donkeys.


text:
She said to her servants, 'Go on ahead, I shall follow you' -- but she did not tell her husband Nabal.


text:
As she was riding her donkey down behind a fold in the mountain, David and his men happened to be coming down in her direction; and she met them.


text:
Now, David had decided, 'It was a waste of time my guarding all this man's property in the desert so that he lost nothing at all! He has repaid me bad for good.


text:
May God bring unnameable ills on David and worse ones, too, if by morning I leave a single manjack alive of all who belong to him!'


text:
As soon as Abigail saw David, she quickly dismounted from the donkey and, falling on her face in front of David, prostrated herself on the ground.


text:
She fell at his feet and said, 'Let me take the blame, my lord. Let your servant speak in your ear; listen to what your servant has to say!


text:
My lord, please pay no attention to this brute Nabal for his nature is like his name; "Brute" is his name and brutal he is. But I, your servant, did not see the men whom my lord sent.


text:
And now, my lord, as Yahweh lives and as your soul lives, by Yahweh who kept you from the crime of bloodshed and from taking vengeance with your own hand, may your enemies and all those ill-disposed towards you become like Nabal.


text:
As for the present which your servant has brought my lord, I should like this to be given to the men in your service.


text:
Please forgive your servant for any offence I have given you, for Yahweh will certainly assure you of a lasting dynasty, since you are fighting Yahweh's battles and no fault has been found in you throughout your life.


text:
Should anyone set out to hunt you down and try to kill you, your life will be kept close in the wallet of life with Yahweh your God, while your enemies' lives he will fling out of the pouch of the sling.


text:
Once Yahweh has done for you all the good things which he has said he will do for you, and made you ruler of Israel,


text:
you must have no anxiety, my lord, no remorse, over having wantonly shed blood, over having taken a revenge. When Yahweh has done well by you, then remember your servant.'


text:
Blessed be your wisdom and blessed you yourself for today having restrained me from the crime of bloodshed and from exacting revenge!


text:
But as Yahweh, God of Israel, lives, who prevented me from harming you, had you not hurried out to meet me, I swear Nabal would not have had a single manjack left alive by morning!'


text:
David then accepted what she had brought him and said, 'Go home in peace; yes, I have listened to you and have pardoned you.'


text:
Abigail returned to Nabal. He was holding a feast, a princely feast, in his house; Nabal was in high spirits, and as he was very drunk she told him nothing at all till it was daylight.


text:
In the morning, when Nabal's wine had left him and his wife told him everything that had happened, his heart died within him and he became like a stone.


text:
When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, 'Blessed be Yahweh for having defended my cause over the insult which I received from Nabal, and for having restrained his servant from doing wrong! Yahweh has made Nabal's wickedness rebound on his own head!'


text:
David then sent Abigail an offer of marriage. When the men in David's service came to Abigail at Carmel, they said, 'David has sent us to take you to him, to be his wife.'


text:
She stood up, then prostrated herself on the ground. 'Consider your servant a slave', she said, 'to wash the feet of my lord's servants.'


text:
Quickly Abigail stood up again and mounted a donkey; followed by five of her servant-girls, she followed David's messengers and became his wife.


text:
Some men from Ziph went to Saul at Gibeah and said, 'Look, David is hiding on the Hill of Hachilah on the edge of the wastelands!'


text:
So Saul set off and went down to the desert of Ziph, accompanied by three thousand picked men of Israel, to search for David in the desert of Ziph.


text:
Saul pitched camp on the Hill of Hachilah, which is on the edge of the wastelands near the road. David was then living in the desert and saw that Saul had come after him into the desert.


text:
Setting off, David went to the place where Saul had pitched camp. He saw the place where Saul and Abner son of Ner, commander of his army, had bedded down. Saul had bedded down inside the camp with the troops bivouacking round him.


text:
Speaking to Ahimelech the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah and brother of Joab, David said, 'Who will come down with me to the camp, to Saul?' Abishai answered, 'I will go down with you.'


text:
So in the dark David and Abishai made their way towards the force, where they found Saul lying asleep inside the camp, his spear stuck in the ground beside his head, with Abner and the troops lying round him.


text:
Abishai then said to David, 'Today God has put your enemy in your power; so now let me pin him to the ground with his own spear. Just one stroke! I shall not need to strike him twice.'


text:
David said to Abishai, 'Do not kill him, for who could raise his hand against Yahweh's anointed and go unpunished?


text:
As Yahweh lives,' David said, 'Yahweh himself will strike him down: either the day will come for him to die, or he will go into battle and perish then.


text:
Yahweh forbid that I should raise my hand against Yahweh's anointed! But now let us take the spear beside his head and the pitcher of water, and let us go away.'


text:
David took the spear and the pitcher of water from beside Saul's head, and they made off. No one saw, no one knew, no one woke up; they were all asleep, because a torpor from Yahweh had fallen on them.


text:
David crossed to the other side and halted on the top of the mountain a long way off; there was a wide space between them.


text:
David then called out to the troops and to Abner son of Ner, 'Abner, why don't you answer?' Abner replied, 'Who is that calling?'


text:
David said to Abner, 'Are you not a man? Who is your equal in Israel? Why, then, did you not guard the king your lord? One of the people came to kill the king your lord.


text:
What you did was not well done. As Yahweh lives, you all deserve to die since you did not guard your lord, Yahweh's anointed. Look where the king's spear is now, and the pitcher of water which was beside his head!'


text:
Recognising David's voice, Saul said, 'Is that your voice, my son David?' David replied, 'It is my voice, my lord king.


text:
May my lord king now listen to his servant's words: if Yahweh has incited you against me, may he be appeased with an offering; but if human beings have done it, may they be accursed before Yahweh, since they have as effectively banished me today from sharing in Yahweh's heritage as if they had said, "Go and serve other gods!"


text:
So I pray now that my blood shall not be shed on soil remote from Yahweh's presence, when the king of Israel has mounted an expedition to take my life, as one might hunt a partridge in the mountains!'


text:
Saul replied, 'I have done wrong! Come back, my son David; I shall never harm you again, since today you have shown respect for my life. Yes, I have behaved like a fool, I have been profoundly in the wrong.'


text:
May Yahweh reward each as each has been upright and loyal. Today Yahweh put you in my power but I would not raise my hand against Yahweh's anointed.


text:
As today I set great value by your life, so may Yahweh set great value by my life and deliver me from every tribulation!'


text:
Saul then said, 'May you be blessed, my son David! In what you undertake, you will certainly succeed.' David then went on his way and Saul returned home.


text:
'One of these days,' David thought, 'I shall perish at the hand of Saul. The best thing that I can do is to get away into the country of the Philistines; then Saul will give up tracking me through the length and breadth of Israel and I shall be safe from him.'


text:
He settled at Gath with Achish, he and his men, each with his family and David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail widow of Nabal of Carmel.


text:
David said to Achish, 'If I have won your favour, let me be given a place in one of the outlying towns, where I can live. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you?'


text:
That very day Achish gave him Ziklag; and this is why Ziklag has been the property of the kings of Judah to the present day.


text:
David and his men went out on raids against the Geshurites, Girzites and Amalekites, for these are the tribes inhabiting the region which, from Telam, goes in the direction of Shur, as far as Egypt.


text:
David laid the countryside waste and left neither man nor woman alive; he carried off the sheep and cattle, the donkeys, camels and clothing, and then came back again to Achish.


text:
Achish would ask, 'Where did you go raiding today?' David would reply, 'Against the Negeb of Judah,' or 'the Negeb of Jerahmeel,' or 'the Negeb of the Kenites.'


text:
David spared neither man nor woman to bring back alive to Gath, 'in case', as he thought, 'they inform on us and say, "David did such and such." ' This was the way David conducted his raids all the time he stayed in Philistine territory.


text:
Achish trusted David. 'He has made himself detested by his own people Israel,' he thought, 'and so will be my servant for ever.'


text:
It then happened that the Philistines mustered their forces for war, to fight Israel, and Achish said to David, 'It is understood that you and your men go into battle with me.'


text:
David said to Achish, 'In that case, you will soon see what your servant can do.' Achish replied to David, 'Right, I shall appoint you as my permanent bodyguard.'


text:
Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned him and buried him at Ramah, his own town. Saul had expelled the necromancers and wizards from the country.


text:
Meanwhile the Philistines had mustered and had come and pitched camp at Shunem. Saul mustered all Israel and they encamped at Gilboa.


text:
Saul then said to his servants, 'Find a necromancer for me, so that I can go and consult her.' His servants replied, 'There is a necromancer at En-Dor.'


text:
And so Saul, disguising himself and changing his clothes, set out accompanied by two men; their visit to the woman took place at night. 'Disclose the future to me', he said, 'by means of a ghost. Conjure up the one I shall name to you.'


text:
The woman replied, 'Look, you know what Saul has done, how he has outlawed necromancers and wizards from the country; why are you setting a trap for my life, then, to have me killed?'


text:
But Saul swore to her by Yahweh, 'As Yahweh lives,' he said, 'no blame shall attach to you for this business.'


text:
The woman then saw Samuel and, giving a great cry, she said to Saul, 'Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!'


text:
The king said, 'Do not be afraid! What do you see?' The woman replied to Saul, 'I see a ghost rising from the earth.'


text:
'What is he like?' he asked. She replied, 'It is an old man coming up; he is wrapped in a cloak.' Saul then knew that it was Samuel and, bowing to the ground, prostrated himself.


text:
Samuel said to Saul, 'Why have you disturbed my rest by conjuring me up?' Saul replied, 'I am in great distress; the Philistines are waging war on me, and God has abandoned me and no longer answers me either by prophet or by dream; and so I have summoned you to tell me what I ought to do.'


text:
Yahweh has treated you as he foretold through me; he has snatched the sovereignty from your hand and given it to your neighbour, David,


text:
because you disobeyed Yahweh's voice and did not execute his fierce anger against Amalek. That is why Yahweh is treating you like this today.


text:
What is more, Yahweh will deliver Israel and you too, into the power of the Philistines. Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me; and Yahweh will hand over the army of Israel into the power of the Philistines.'


text:
Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground. He was terrified by what Samuel had said and was also weak from having eaten nothing all that day and night.


text:
The woman went to Saul and, seeing his terror, said, 'Look, your servant has obeyed your order; I have taken my life in my hands and obeyed the command which you gave me.


text:
Now please, you in your turn listen to what your servant has to say. Let me offer you a piece of bread. Eat something and get some strength for your journey.'


text:
But he refused. 'I will not eat,' he said. His servants however pressed him, and so did the woman. Allowing himself to be persuaded by them, he got up from the ground and sat on the bed.


text:
The woman owned a fattened calf which she quickly slaughtered, and she took some flour and kneaded it and with it baked some unleavened cakes


text:
The Philistines mustered all their forces at Aphek while the Israelites pitched camp near the spring in Jezreel.


text:
The Philistine commanders marched past with their hundreds and their thousands, and David and his men brought up the rear with Achish.


text:
The Philistine chiefs asked, 'What are these Hebrews doing?' Achish replied to them, 'Why, this is David the servant of Saul, king of Israel, who has been with me for the last year or two. I have had no fault to find with him from the day he gave himself up to me until the present time.'


text:
But the Philistine chiefs were angry with him. 'Send the man back,' they said, 'make him go back to the place which you assigned to him. He cannot go into battle with us, in case he turns on us once battle is joined. Would there be a better way for the man to regain his master's favour than with the heads of these men here?


text:
Is not this the David of whom they sang as they danced: Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'?


text:
So Achish called David and said, 'As Yahweh lives, you are loyal, and I am quite content with all your doings in our campaigning together, since I have found no fault with you from the day you came to me until the present time. But you are not acceptable to the chiefs.


text:
'But what have I done,' David asked Achish, 'what fault have you had to find with your servant from the day I entered your service to the present time, for me not to be allowed to go and fight the enemies of my lord the king?'


text:
In reply, Achish said to David, 'In my opinion, it is true, you are as good as an angel of God; but the Philistine chiefs have said, "He must not go into battle with us."


text:
So get up early tomorrow morning, with your master's servants who came with you, and go to the place which I assigned to you. Do not harbour resentment, since personally I have no fault to find with you. Get up early tomorrow morning and, as soon as it is light, be off.'


text:
So David and his men got up early to leave at dawn and go back to Philistine territory. And the Philistines marched on Jezreel.


text:
Now by the time David and his men reached Ziklag three days later, the Amalekites had raided the Negeb and Ziklag; they had sacked Ziklag and burnt it down.


text:
They had taken the women prisoner, and everyone who was there, both small and great. They had not killed anyone, but had carried them off and gone away.


text:
When David and his men arrived, they found the town burnt down and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive.


text:
David was in great trouble, since the people were talking of stoning him; the people all felt very bitter, each man for his own sons and daughters. But David took courage from Yahweh his God.


text:
To the priest Abiathar son of Ahimelech, David said, 'Bring me the ephod.' Abiathar brought the ephod to David.


text:
David then consulted Yahweh, 'Shall I go in pursuit of these raiders? Will I overtake them?' The answer was, 'Go in pursuit; you will certainly overtake them and rescue the captives.'


text:
David accordingly set off with the six hundred men who were with him and reached the torrent of Besor.


text:
David then continued the pursuit with four hundred men, two hundred staying behind who were too exhausted to cross the torrent of Besor.


text:
Out in the country they found an Egyptian and brought him to David. They gave him some bread to eat and some water to drink;


text:
they also gave him a piece of fig cake and two bunches of raisins; he ate these and his spirits revived -- he had had nothing to eat or drink for three days and three nights.


text:
David then said to him, 'Whose man are you and where do you come from?' He replied, 'I am a young Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite; my master abandoned me because I fell sick three days ago.


text:
We raided the Negeb of the Cherethites, and the Negeb of Judah, and the Negeb of Caleb too, and we burnt Ziklag down.'


text:
David said, 'Will you guide me to these raiders?' He replied, 'Swear to me by God not to kill me or hand me over to my master, and I will guide you to these raiders.'


text:
He guided him to them, and there they were, scattered over the whole countryside, eating, drinking and celebrating, on account of the enormous booty which they had brought back from the territory of the Philistines and the territory of Judah.


text:
David slaughtered them from dawn until the evening of the following day. No one escaped, except four hundred young men who mounted camels and fled.


text:
Nothing of theirs was lost, whether small or great, from the booty or sons and daughters -- everything that had been taken from them; David recovered everything.


text:
They captured the flocks and herds as well and drove them in front of him. 'This is David's booty,' they shouted.


text:
When David reached the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow him and whom he had left at the torrent of Besor, they came out to meet David and the party accompanying him; David approached with his party and greeted them.


text:
But all the rogues and scoundrels among the men who had gone with David began saying, 'Since they did not go with us, we shall not give them any of the booty which we have rescued, except that each of them can have his wife and children. Let them take them away and be off.'


text:
But David said, 'Do not behave like this, brothers, with what Yahweh has given us; he has protected us and has handed over to us the raiders who attacked us.


text:
Who would agree with you on this? No: As the share of the man who goes into battle, so is the share of the man who stays with the baggage. They will share alike.'


text:
When David reached Ziklag, he sent parts of the booty to the elders of Judah, town by town, with this message, 'Here is a present for you, taken from the booty of Yahweh's enemies':


text:
The Philistines gave battle to Israel, and the Israelites, fleeing from the Philistines, fell and were slaughtered on Mount Gilboa.


text:
The Philistines bore down on Saul and his sons, and they killed Jonathan, Abinadab and Malchishua, Saul's sons.


text:
by the archers. Saul then said to his armour-bearer, 'Draw your sword and run me through with it; I do not want these uncircumcised men to come and make fun of me.' But his armour-bearer was very much afraid and would not do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.


text:
When the Israelites who were on the other side of the Jordan saw that the Israelites had been routed and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their towns and fled. The Philistines then came and occupied them.


text:
When the Philistines came on the following day to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons lying on Mount Gilboa.


text:
They cut off his head and, stripping him of his armour, had these carried round the territory of the Philistines to proclaim the good news to their idols and their people.


text:
They put his armour in the temple of Astarte; and his body they fastened to the walls of Beth-Shean.


text:
the warriors all set out and, having marched all night, took the bodies of Saul and his sons off the walls of Beth-Shean; they brought them to Jabesh and burned them there.


text:
Saul was dead and David, returning after his victory over the Amalekites, had been at Ziklag for two days.


text:
On the third day, a man arrived from Saul's camp with his clothes torn and earth on his head. When he came to David, he fell to the ground and prostrated himself.


text:
David said, 'What has happened? Tell me.' He replied, 'The people fled from the battle, and many of them have fallen and are dead. Saul and his son Jonathan are dead too.'


text:
Then David asked the young man who brought the news, 'How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?'


text:
The young man replied, 'I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and there was Saul, leaning on his spear, with the chariots and the cavalry bearing down on him.


text:
So I went over to him and killed him, because I knew that once he fell he could not survive. I then took the crown which he had on his head and the bracelet on his arm, and have brought them here to my lord.'


text:
They mourned and wept and fasted until the evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, for the people of Yahweh and for the House of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.


text:
David said to the young man who had brought the news, 'Where are you from?' He replied, 'I am the son of a resident foreigner, an Amalekite.'


text:
Then David called one of the young men. 'Come here,' he said, 'strike him down.' The man struck him and he died.


text:
David said, 'Your blood be on your own head. You convicted yourself out of your own mouth by saying, "I killed Yahweh's anointed." '


text:
Do not speak of it in Gath, nor broadcast it in the streets of Ashkelon, for fear the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, for fear the daughters of the uncircumcised gloat.


text:
You mountains of Gilboa, no dew, no rain fall on you, O treacherous fields where the heroes' shield lies dishonoured! Not greased with oil, the shield of Saul,


text:
but with the blood of wounded men, the fat of warriors! The bow of Jonathan never turned back, the sword of Saul never came home unsated!


text:
Saul and Jonathan, beloved and handsome, were divided neither in life, nor in death. Swifter than eagles were they, stronger than lions.


text:
O daughters of Israel, weep for Saul who gave you scarlet and fine linen to wear, who pinned golden jewellery on your dresses!


text:
I am desolate for you, Jonathan my brother. Very dear you were to me, your love more wonderful to me than the love of a woman.


text:
After this David consulted Yahweh, asking, 'Shall I go up to one of the towns of Judah?' Yahweh replied, 'Go up!' 'Which one shall I go to?' David asked. 'To Hebron,' was the reply.


text:
In addition David brought up the men who were with him, each with his family, and they settled in the towns of Hebron.


text:
The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David as king of the House of Judah. They told David that the people of Jabesh in Gilead had given Saul burial,


text:
so David sent messengers to the people of Jabesh in Gilead. 'May you be blessed by Yahweh,' he said, 'for showing this faithful love to Saul your lord, and for burying him.


text:
And now may Yahweh show faithful love and constancy towards you! I too shall treat you well because you have done this.


text:
And now take courage and be men of valour. Saul your lord is dead, but the House of Judah has anointed me to be their king.'


text:
Abner son of Ner, Saul's army commander, had taken Ishbaal son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim.


text:
He had made him king of Gilead, of the Asherites, of Jezreel, of Ephraim, of Benjamin and indeed of all Israel.


text:
Ishbaal son of Saul was forty years old when he became king of Israel, and he reigned for two years. Only the House of Judah supported David.


text:
Joab son of Zeruiah, with David's retainers, also took the field, encountering them at the pool of Gibeon. There they halted, one party on one side of the pool, and the other opposite.


text:
Abner then said to Joab, 'Let the men come forward and fight it out between us!' Joab replied, 'Let them come forward.'


text:
So they came forward and were numbered off, twelve from Benjamin for Ishbaal son of Saul, and twelve of David's retainers.


text:
Each caught his opponent by the head and drove his sword into his side; and thus they all fell together. Hence the place was called the Field of Sides; it is at Gibeon.


text:
That day a very fierce battle took place, and Abner and the men of Israel were beaten by David's retainers.


text:
The three sons of Zeruiah were there, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel could run like a wild gazelle.


text:
Abner said, 'Turn to your right or your left, catch one of the men and take his spoil!' But Asahel would not break off the pursuit.


text:
Again Abner spoke to Asahel, 'Stop following me, unless you want me to strike you to the ground; and then how could I look your brother Joab in the face?'


text:
But he refused to be diverted, so Abner struck him in the belly with the butt of his spear so that the shaft came out through his back; and he fell at his feet and died on the spot. On coming to the place where Asahel had fallen and died, everyone halted.


text:
Joab and Abishai took up the pursuit of Abner and at sunset reached the Hill of Ammah, which is to the east of Giah on the road through the desert of Gibeon.


text:
Abner called out to Joab, 'Is the sword to go on devouring for ever? Surely you see that this can only end in bitterness? How long will it be before you order those people to stop pursuing their brothers?'


text:
Joab replied, 'As Yahweh lives, if you had not spoken, these men would not have given up the pursuit of their brothers until morning.'


text:
Joab then sounded the trumpet and all the troops halted; they pursued Israel no further and fought no more.


text:
All that night Abner and his men made their way through the Arabah; they crossed the Jordan and, marching throughout the morning, came to Mahanaim.


text:
Joab, having stopped pursuing Abner, mustered the whole contingent; David's retainers had lost nineteen men in addition to Asahel,


text:
They took up Asahel and buried him in his father's tomb, which is at Bethlehem. Joab and his men then marched throughout the night, reaching Hebron at daybreak.


text:
So the war dragged on between the House of Saul and the House of David, but David grew steadily stronger and the House of Saul steadily weaker.


text:
his second Chileab, by Abigail widow of Nabal of Carmel; the third Absalom son of Maacah, daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;


text:
This is what took place during the war between the House of Saul and the House of David. Abner took complete control in the House of Saul.


text:
Now, there was a concubine of Saul's called Rizpah daughter of Aiah, and Abner took her. Ishbaal said to Abner, 'Why have you slept with my father's concubine?'


text:
At these words of Ishbaal, Abner flew into a rage. 'Am I a dog's head?' he shouted. 'Here am I, full of faithful love towards the House of Saul your father, his brothers and his friends, not leaving you to the hands of David, and now you find fault with me over a woman!


text:
May God bring unnameable ills on Abner, and worse ones, too, if I do not bring about what Yahweh has sworn to David:


text:
to take the sovereignty from the House of Saul, and establish David's throne over Israel as well as Judah, from Dan to Beersheba!'


text:
Abner sent messengers on his own behalf to say to David, '. . . and furthermore, come to an agreement with me and I will give you my support to win all Israel over to you.'


text:
'Very well,' David said, 'I will come to an agreement with you. I impose one condition however; you will not be admitted to my presence unless you bring me Michal, Saul's daughter, when you come to see me.'


text:
David then sent messengers to say to Ishbaal son of Saul, 'Give me back my wife Michal, whom I acquired for a hundred foreskins of the Philistines.'


text:
Her husband set off with her and followed her, weeping as he went, as far as Bahurim; but Abner said to him, 'Go back!' and he went.


text:
Now Abner conferred with the elders of Israel. 'For a long time now,' he said, 'you have wanted David as your king.


text:
Now you must take action, since Yahweh has said of David, "By the hand of my servant David I shall deliver my people Israel from the clutches of the Philistines and all their enemies." '


text:
Abner also spoke to the men of Benjamin and then went to Hebron to tell David everything that had been agreed by Israel and the House of Benjamin.


text:
Abner, accompanied by twenty men, came to David at Hebron, and David held a feast for Abner and the men who were with him.


text:
Abner then said to David, 'I must get up and go. I am going to rally all Israel to my lord the king, so that they will make an alliance with you, and you will reign over all that you desire.' So David allowed Abner to go, and he went unmolested.


text:
David's retainers were just then coming back with Joab from a raid, bringing a great quantity of booty with them. Abner was no longer with David at Hebron, since David had allowed him to go, and he had gone unmolested.


text:
When Joab and the whole company with him had arrived, Joab was told, 'Abner son of Ner has been to the king, and the king has allowed Abner to go away unmolested.'


text:
Joab then went to the king and said, 'What have you done? Abner comes to you and you let him go away and now he has gone-why?


text:
You know Abner son of Ner! He came to trick you, to discover your every move, to find out what you are doing.'


text:
Joab left David's presence and sent messengers after Abner and these, unknown to David, brought him back from the storage-well at Sirah.


text:
When Abner reached Hebron, Joab took him aside in the town-gate, as if to have a quiet word with him, and there struck him a mortal blow in the belly to avenge the blood of his brother Asahel.


text:
Afterwards, when David heard of this, he said, 'I and my kingdom are for ever innocent before Yahweh of the blood of Abner son of Ner;


text:
may it fall on the head of Joab and on all his family! May the House of Joab never be free of men afflicted with haemorrhage or a virulent skin-disease, whose strength is in the distaff, who fall by the sword, who lack food.'


text:
(Joab and his brother Abishai had murdered Abner because he killed their brother Asahel at the battle of Gibeon.)


text:
David then said to Joab and the whole company with him, 'Tear your clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourn over Abner,' and King David walked behind the bier.


text:
Your hands were not tied, your feet not chained; you fell as a man falls at the hands of criminals. And all the people wept for him louder than ever.


text:
The people then all tried to persuade David to have some food while it was still daylight, but David swore this oath, 'May God bring unnameable ills on me, and worse ills, too, if I taste bread or anything whatever until the sun is down!'


text:
All the people took note of this and it pleased them; indeed, everything the king did pleased the people.


text:
That day, all the people and all Israel understood that the king had had no part in the murder of Abner son of Ner.


text:
The king said to his retainers, 'Do you not realise that a prince, a great man, has fallen in Israel today?


text:
I, though anointed king, am weak at present, and these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too strong for me. May Yahweh repay the criminal as his crime deserves!'


text:
When Saul's son heard that Abner had died at Hebron, his heart failed him, and all Israel was alarmed.


text:
Now, Saul's son had two freebooting chieftains; one was called Baanah, the other Rechab. They were the sons of Rimmon of Beeroth, and Benjaminites -- for Beeroth is regarded as belonging to Benjamin.


text:
The people of Beeroth had taken refuge in Gittaim, where they have remained to this day as resident foreigners.


text:
Jonathan son of Saul had a son with crippled feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled but, as she hurried away, he fell and was lamed. His name was Meribbaal.


text:
The sons of Rimmon of Beeroth, Rechab and Baanah, set out; they came to Ishbaal's house at the hottest part of the day when he was taking his midday rest.


text:
Rechab and his brother Baanah stole past her and entered the house, where he was lying on his bed in his bedroom. They struck him and killed him, then cut off his head and, taking the head with them, travelled all night by way of the Arabah.


text:
They brought Ishbaal's head to David at Hebron. 'Here', they said to the king, 'is the head of Ishbaal son of Saul, your enemy, who meant to take your life. Yahweh has avenged my lord the king today on Saul and on his offspring.'


text:
But David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon, by saying, 'As Yahweh lives, who has rescued me from every danger,


text:
when someone told me, "Saul is dead!" supposing himself to be bringing me good news, I seized and put him to death at Ziklag, and that was how I rewarded him for his news!


text:
How much more when bandits have killed an upright man in his house, and on his bed! Am I not to demand an account of his blood from you, and rid the earth of you?'


text:
David then gave an order to the men, who put them to death, cut off their hands and feet, and hung them up beside the pool of Hebron. Ishbaal's head they took and buried in Abner's grave at Hebron.


text:
All the tribes of Israel then came to David at Hebron and said, 'Look, we are your own flesh and bone.


text:
In days past when Saul was our king, it was you who led Israel on its campaigns, and to you it was that Yahweh promised, "You are to shepherd my people Israel and be leader of Israel." '


text:
So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a pact with them in Yahweh's presence at Hebron, and they anointed David as king of Israel.


text:
In Hebron he reigned over Judah for seven years and six months; then he reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel and Judah for thirty-three years.


text:
The king and his men then marched on Jerusalem, on the Jebusites living in the territory. These said to David, 'You will not get in here. The blind and the lame will hold you off.' (That is to say: David will never get in here.)


text:
That day, David said, 'Whoever gets up the tunnel and kills a Jebusite . . .' As for the blind and the lame, David hated them with his whole being. (Hence the saying: the blind and the lame may not enter the Temple.)


text:
David went to live in the citadel and called it the City of David. David then built a wall round it, from the Millo inwards.


text:
Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, with cedar wood, carpenters and stone-cutters, who built David a palace.


text:
David then knew that Yahweh had confirmed him as king of Israel and, for the sake of his people Israel, had extended his sovereignty.


text:
After coming from Hebron, David took other concubines and wives in Jerusalem, and sons and daughters were born to him.


text:
When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed as king of Israel, they all went up to seek him out. On hearing this, David went down to the stronghold.


text:
David consulted Yahweh and asked, 'Shall I attack the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my power?' Yahweh replied to David, 'Attack! I shall certainly deliver the Philistines into your power.'


text:
Accordingly, David went to Baal-Perazim and there David defeated them. He said, 'Yahweh has made a breach in my enemies for me, as though they had been breached by a flood.' This is why the place was given the name Baal-Perazim.


text:
David consulted Yahweh, who replied, 'Do not attack them from the front; go round to their rear and engage them opposite the balsam trees.


text:
When you hear the sound of footsteps in the tops of the balsam trees, advance, for that will be Yahweh going out ahead of you to defeat the Philistine army.'


text:
Setting off with the whole force then with him, David went to Baalah of Judah, from there to bring up the ark of God, who bears the title 'Yahweh Sabaoth, enthroned on the winged creatures'.


text:
They transported the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of Abinadab's house which is on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the cart,


text:
David and the whole House of Israel danced before Yahweh with all their might, singing to the accompaniment of harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals.


text:
When they came to Nacon's threshing-floor, Uzzah reached his hand out to the ark of God and steadied it, as the oxen were making it tilt.


text:
This roused Yahweh's anger against Uzzah, and for this crime God struck him down on the spot, and there he died beside the ark of God.


text:
David resented Yahweh's having broken out against Uzzah, and the place was given the name Perez-Uzzah, which it still has today.


text:
So David decided not to take the ark of Yahweh with him into the city of David but diverted it to the house of Obed-Edom of Gath.


text:
The ark of Yahweh remained in the house of Obed-Edom of Gath for three months, and Yahweh blessed Obed-Edom and his whole family.


text:
King David was informed that Yahweh had blessed Obed-Edom's family and everything belonging to him on account of the ark of God. David accordingly went and, amid great rejoicing, brought the ark of God up from Obed-Edom's house to the City of David.


text:
Thus with war cries and blasts on the horn, David and the entire House of Israel brought up the ark of Yahweh.


text:
Now as the ark of Yahweh entered the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul was watching from the window and when she saw King David leaping and whirling round before Yahweh, the sight of him filled her with contempt.


text:
They brought the ark of Yahweh in and put it in position, inside the tent which David had erected for it; and David presented burnt offerings and communion sacrifices in Yahweh's presence.


text:
And when David had finished presenting burnt offerings, he blessed the people in the name of Yahweh Sabaoth.


text:
To all the people, to the whole multitude of Israelites, men and women, he then distributed to each a loaf of bread, a portion of dates and a raisin cake. Then the people all went back to their homes.


text:
As David was coming back to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him. 'Much honour the king of Israel has won today,' she said, 'making an exhibition of himself under the eyes of his servant-maids, making an exhibition of himself like a buffoon!'


text:
David replied to Michal, 'I was dancing for Yahweh, not for them. As Yahweh lives, who chose me in preference to your father and his whole family to make me leader of Israel, Yahweh's people, I shall dance before Yahweh and


text:
lower myself even further than that. In your eyes I may be base, but by the maids you speak of, by them, I shall be held in honour!'


text:
Once the king had settled into his palace and Yahweh had granted him rest from all the enemies surrounding him,


text:
the king said to the prophet Nathan, 'Look, I am living in a cedar-wood palace, while the ark of God is under awnings.'


text:
I have never lived in a house from the day when I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until today, but have kept travelling with a tent for shelter.


text:
In all my travels with all the Israelites, did I say to any of the judges of Israel, whom I had commanded to shepherd my people Israel: Why do you not build me a cedar-wood temple?"


text:
This is what you must say to my servant David, "Yahweh Sabaoth says this: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be leader of my people Israel;


text:
I have been with you wherever you went; I have got rid of all your enemies for you. I am going to make your fame as great as the fame of the greatest on earth.


text:
I am going to provide a place for my people Israel; I shall plant them there, and there they will live and never be disturbed again; nor will they be oppressed by the wicked any more, as they were in former times


text:
ever since the time when I instituted judges to govern my people Israel; and I shall grant you rest from all your enemies. Yahweh furthermore tells you that he will make you a dynasty.


text:
And when your days are over and you fall asleep with your ancestors, I shall appoint your heir, your own son to succeed you (and I shall make his sovereignty secure.


text:
I shall be a father to him and he a son to me; if he does wrong, I shall punish him with a rod such as men use, with blows such as mankind gives.


text:
But my faithful love will never be withdrawn from him as I withdrew it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.


text:
Your dynasty and your sovereignty will ever stand firm before me and your throne be for ever secure." '


text:
King David then went in, sat down in Yahweh's presence and said: 'Who am I, Lord Yahweh, and what is my lineage, for you to have led me as far as this?


text:
Yet, to you, Lord Yahweh, this seemed too little, and now you extend your promises for your servant's family into the distant future. Such is human destiny, Lord Yahweh.


text:
Because of your promise and since you were so inclined, you have had the generosity to reveal this to your servant.


text:
That is why you are great, Lord Yahweh; there is no one like you, no God but you alone, as everything that we have heard confirms.


text:
Is there another people on earth like your people, like Israel, whom a god proceeded to redeem, to make them his people and to make a name for himself by performing great and terrible things on their behalf, by driving out nations and their gods before his people? -


text:
'Now, Yahweh God, may the promise which you have made for your servant and for his family stand firm forever as you have said,


text:
so that your name will be exalted for ever and people will say, "Israel's God is Yahweh Sabaoth." Your servant David's dynasty will be secure before you,


text:
since you, Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, have disclosed to your servant, "I am going to build you a dynasty." Hence, your servant has ventured to offer this prayer to you.


text:
Yes, Lord Yahweh, you are God indeed, your words are true and you have made this generous promise to your servant.


text:
What is more, you have deigned to bless your servant's dynasty, so that it may remain for ever before you; for you, Lord Yahweh, have spoken; and may your servant's dynasty be blessed with your blessing for ever.'


text:
After this, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. From the grip of the Philistines he wrested . . .


text:
He also defeated the Moabites and, making them lie on the ground, measured them off by the line; he measured out two lines to be put to death and one full line to have their lives spared. The Moabites became David's subjects and paid him tribute.


text:
David defeated Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah, when the latter mounted an expedition to extend his power over the River.


text:
David captured one thousand seven hundred charioteers and twenty thousand foot soldiers from him; David hamstrung all the chariot teams, keeping only a hundred of them.


text:
The Aramaeans of Damascus came to the help of Hadadezer king of Zobah, but David killed twenty-two thousand of the Aramaeans.


text:
David then imposed governors on Aram of Damascus, and the Aramaeans became David's subjects and paid him tribute. Wherever David went, Yahweh gave him victory.


text:
From Betah and Berothai, towns belonging to Hadadezer, King David captured a great quantity of bronze.


text:
he sent his son Hadoram to King David to greet him and to congratulate him on having made war on Hadadezer and on having defeated him, since Hadadezer was at war with Tou. Hadoram brought with him objects made of silver, gold and bronze,


text:
which King David also consecrated to Yahweh, as he had already consecrated the silver and gold taken from all the nations which he had subjugated-


text:
from Aram, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines and Amalek; and from the spoil of Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah.


text:
David became famous when he came home from defeating the Edomites in the Valley of Salt -- eighteen thousand of them.


text:
He imposed governors on Edom and all the Edomites became David's subjects. Wherever David went, Yahweh gave him victory.


text:
Benaiah son of Jehoiada was in command of the Cherethites and Pelethites; David's sons were priests.


text:
David asked, 'Is there anyone belonging to Saul's family left, to whom I might show faithful love for Jonathan's sake?'


text:
Now Saul's family had a servant whose name was Ziba. When he had been summoned to David, the king said, 'Are you Ziba?' 'At your service,' he replied.


text:
The king said, 'Is there no one left, belonging to Saul's family, for me to treat with God's own faithful love?' Ziba said to the king, 'There is still one of Jonathan's sons. He has crippled feet.'


text:
The king asked 'Where is he?' Ziba replied, 'He is living in the household of Machir son of Ammiel, at Lo-Debar.'


text:
On entering David's presence, Meribbaal son of Jonathan, son of Saul, fell on his face and prostrated himself. David said, 'Meribbaal!' He replied, 'Here I am, at your service.'


text:
David then said, 'Do not be afraid; I will indeed treat you with faithful love for your father Jonathan's sake. I shall restore all your grandfather Saul's estates to you, and you will always eat at my table.'


text:
Meribbaal prostrated himself and said, 'Who is your servant, for you to show favour to a dead dog like me?'


text:
The king then summoned Saul's servant Ziba and said, 'Everything belonging to Saul and his family, I give to your master's son.


text:
You must work the land for him, you and your sons and your slaves; you must harvest the produce to provide food for your master's family to eat. But Meribbaal, your master's son, will always take his own meals at my table.' Now, Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty slaves.


text:
Ziba said to the king, 'Your servant will do everything my lord the king has ordered his servant.' So Meribbaal ate at David's table like one of the king's sons.


text:
Meribbaal had a young son whose name was Micha. All the people living in Ziba's household entered Meribbaal's service.


text:
Meribbaal lived in Jerusalem, since he always ate at the king's table. He was crippled in both feet.


text:
David thought, 'I shall show Hanun son of Nahash the same faithful love as his father showed me.' And David sent his representatives to offer him condolences over his father. But, when David's representatives reached the Ammonites' country,


text:
the Ammonite princes said to Hanun their master, 'Do you really think David means to honour your father when he sends you messengers with sympathy? On the contrary, the reason why David has sent his representatives to you is to explore the city, to reconnoitre and so overthrow it.'


text:
Whereupon Hanun seized David's representatives, shaved off half their beards, cut their clothes off halfway up, at their buttocks, and sent them away.


text:
When David was told, he sent someone to meet them, since the men were overcome with shame. 'Stay in Jericho', the king said, 'until your beards have grown again, and come back then.'


text:
When the Ammonites realised that they had antagonised David, they sent agents to hire twenty thousand foot soldiers from the Aramaeans of Beth-Rehob and the Aramaeans of Zobah, one thousand men from the king of Maacah and twelve thousand men from the prince of Tob.


text:
The Ammonites marched out and drew up their line of battle at the city gate, while the Aramaeans of Zobah and of Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah kept their distance in the open country.


text:
Joab, seeing that he had to fight on two fronts, to his front and to his rear, chose the best of Israel's picked men and drew them up in line facing the Aramaeans.


text:
He entrusted the rest of the army to his brother Abishai, and drew them up in line facing the Ammonites.


text:
'If the Aramaeans prove too strong for me,' he said, 'you must come to my help; if the Ammonites prove too strong for you, I shall come to yours.


text:
Be brave! Let us acquit ourselves like men for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God. And let Yahweh do as he thinks right!'


text:
When the Ammonites saw that the Aramaeans had fled, they too fled from Abishai and withdrew into the city. Hence, Joab broke off his campaign against the Ammonites and returned to Jerusalem.


text:
Hadadezer sent messengers and mobilised the Aramaeans living on the other side of the river; and these arrived at Helam, with Shobach the commander of Hadadezer's army, at their head.


text:
David, being informed of this, mustered all Israel, crossed the Jordan and arrived at Helam. The Aramaeans drew up in line facing David and engaged him.


text:
But the Aramaeans fled from Israel, and David killed seven hundred of their chariot teams and forty thousand men; he also cut down Shobach the commander of their army, who died there.


text:
When all Hadadezer's vassal kings saw that Israel had got the better of them, they made peace with the Israelites and became their subjects. The Aramaeans were afraid to give any more help to the Ammonites.


text:
At the turn of the year, at the time when kings go campaigning, David sent Joab and with him his guards and all Israel. They massacred the Ammonites and laid siege to Rabbah-of-the-Ammonites. David, however, remained in Jerusalem.


text:
It happened towards evening when David had got up from resting and was strolling on the palace roof, that from the roof he saw a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful.


text:
David made enquiries about this woman and was told, 'Why, that is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite.'


text:
David then sent messengers to fetch her. She came to him, and he lay with her, just after she had purified herself from her period. She then went home again.


text:
David then said to Uriah, 'Go down to your house and wash your feet.' Uriah left the palace and was followed by a present from the king's table.


text:
Uriah, however, slept at the palace gate with all his master's bodyguard and did not go down to his house.


text:
This was reported to David; 'Uriah', they said 'has not gone down to his house.' So David asked Uriah, 'Haven't you just arrived from the journey? Why didn't you go down to your house?'


text:
To which Uriah replied, 'The ark, Israel and Judah are lodged in huts; my master Joab and my lord's guards are camping in the open. Am I to go to my house, then, and eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As Yahweh lives, and as you yourself live, I shall do no such thing!'


text:
David then said to Uriah, 'Stay on here today; tomorrow I shall send you off.' So Uriah stayed that day in Jerusalem.


text:
The next day, David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk. In the evening, Uriah went out and bedded down with his master's bodyguard, but did not go down to his house.


text:
In the letter he wrote, 'Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest and then fall back, so that he gets wounded and killed.'


text:
Joab, then besieging the city, stationed Uriah at a point where he knew that there would be tough fighters.


text:
The people of the city sallied out and engaged Joab; there were casualties in the army, among David's guards, and Uriah the Hittite was killed as well.


text:
if the king's anger is aroused and he says, "Why did you go near the town to give battle? Didn't you know that they would shoot from the ramparts?


text:
Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Wasn't it a woman who dropped a millstone on him from the ramparts, causing his death at Thebez? Why did you go near the ramparts?" you are to say, "Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too." '


text:
So the messenger set off and, on his arrival, told David everything that Joab had instructed him to say. David flew into a rage with Joab and said to the messenger, 'Why did you go near the ramparts? Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Wasn't it a woman who dropped a millstone on him from the ramparts, causing his death at Thebez? Why did you go near the ramparts?'


text:
The messenger replied to David, 'Their men had won an initial advantage and then came out to engage us in the open. We then drove them back into the gateway,


text:
but the archers shot at your retainers from the ramparts; some of the king's retainers lost their lives, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too.'


text:
David then said to the messenger, 'Say this to Joab, "Do not take the matter to heart; the sword devours now one and now another. Attack the town in greater force and destroy it." That will encourage him.'


text:
When the period of mourning was over, David sent to have her brought to his house; she became his wife and bore him a son. But what David had done displeased Yahweh.


text:
Yahweh sent the prophet Nathan to David. He came to him and said: In the same town were two men, one rich, the other poor.


text:
the poor man had nothing but a ewe lamb, only a single little one which he had bought. He fostered it and it grew up with him and his children, eating his bread, drinking from his cup, sleeping in his arms; it was like a daughter to him.


text:
When a traveller came to stay, the rich man would not take anything from his own flock or herd to provide for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead, he stole the poor man's lamb and prepared that for his guest.


text:
David flew into a great rage with the man. 'As Yahweh lives,' he said to Nathan 'the man who did this deserves to die.


text:
For doing such a thing and for having shown no pity, he shall make fourfold restitution for the lamb.'


text:
Nathan then said to David, 'You are the man! Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, "I anointed you king of Israel, I saved you from Saul's clutches,


text:
I gave you your master's household and your master's wives into your arms, I gave you the House of Israel and the House of Judah; and, if this is still too little, I shall give you other things as well.


text:
Why did you show contempt for Yahweh, by doing what displeases him? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword, you took his wife to be your wife, causing his death by the sword of the Ammonites.


text:
For this, your household will never be free of the sword, since you showed contempt for me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite, to make her your wife."


text:
'Yahweh says this, "Out of your own household I shall raise misfortune for you. Before your very eyes I shall take your wives and give them to your neighbour, who will lie with your wives in broad daylight.


text:
David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against Yahweh.' Nathan then said to David, 'Yahweh, for his part, forgives your sin; you are not to die.


text:
And Nathan went home. Yahweh struck the child which Uriah's wife had borne to David and it fell gravely ill.


text:
David pleaded with Yahweh for the child; he kept a strict fast and went home and spent the night lying on the ground, covered with sacking.


text:
The officials of his household stood round him, intending to get him off the ground, but he refused, nor would he take food with them.


text:
On the seventh day the child died. David's retinue were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. 'Even when the child was alive', they thought, 'we reasoned with him and he would not listen to us. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He will do something desperate.'


text:
David, however, noticed that his retinue were whispering among themselves, and realised that the child was dead. 'Is the child dead?' he asked the officers. They replied, 'He is dead.'


text:
David got off the ground, bathed and anointed himself and put on fresh clothes. Then he went into Yahweh's sanctuary and prostrated himself. On returning to his house, he asked to be served with food and ate it.


text:
His retinue said, 'Why are you acting like this? When the child was alive, you fasted and wept; now that the child is dead, you get up and take food!'


text:
'When the child was alive', he replied, 'I fasted and wept because I kept thinking, "Who knows? Perhaps Yahweh will take pity on me and the child will live."


text:
But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him but he cannot come back to me.'


text:
David consoled his wife Bathsheba. He went to her and slept with her. She conceived and gave birth to a son, whom she called Solomon. Yahweh loved him


text:
and made this known by means of the prophet Nathan, who named him Jedidiah, as Yahweh had instructed.


text:
So now muster the rest of the army, lay siege to the town and take it, or I will take it and the town will be called after me!'


text:
He took the crown off Milcom's head; it weighed one talent of gold, and in it was set a precious stone which went on David's head instead. He carried off great quantities of booty from the town.'


text:
And he expelled its inhabitants, setting them to work with saws, iron picks and iron axes, employing them at brickmaking. He treated all the Ammonite towns in the same way. David and the whole army returned to Jerusalem.


text:
After this, the following events took place. Absalom son of David had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar; Amnon son of David fell in love with her.


text:
Amnon was so obsessed with his sister Tamar that it made him ill, since she was a virgin and Amnon thought it impossible to do anything to her.


text:
But Amnon had a friend called Jonadab son of Shimeah, David's brother, and Jonadab was a very shrewd man.


text:
'Son of the king,' he said, 'tell me why, morning after morning, you look so worn? Won't you tell me?' Amnon replied, 'I am in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister.'


text:
Then Jonadab said, 'Take to your bed, pretend to be ill and, when your father comes to visit you, say, "Please let my sister Tamar come and give me something to eat; let her prepare the food where I can see. What she gives me I shall eat." '


text:
So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill. The king then came to visit him and Amnon said to the king, 'Please let my sister Tamar come and make a cake or two where I can watch. What she gives me, I shall eat.'


text:
David then sent word to Tamar at the palace, 'Go to your brother Amnon's house and prepare some food for him.'


text:
Tamar went to the house of her brother Amnon who was lying there in bed. She took dough and kneaded it, and she made some cakes while he watched, and baked the cakes.


text:
She then took the pan and dished them up in front of him, but he refused to eat. Amnon said, 'Let everyone leave me!' So everyone withdrew.


text:
Amnon then said to Tamar, 'Bring the food to the inner room, so that I can eat what you give me.' So Tamar took the cakes which she had made and brought them to her brother Amnon in the inner room.


text:
And as she was offering the food to him, he caught hold of her and said, 'Come to bed with me, sister!'


text:
She replied, 'No, brother! Do not force me! This is no way to behave in Israel. Do not do anything so disgraceful!


text:
Wherever should I go? I should be marked with this shame, while you would become disgraced in Israel. Why not go and speak to the king? He will not refuse to give me to you.'


text:
Amnon was then seized with extreme hatred for her; the hatred he now felt for her was greater than his earlier love. 'Get up and go!' he said.


text:
She said, 'No, brother! To send me away would be worse than the other wrong you have done me!' But he would not listen to her.


text:
He called his personal servant. 'Rid me of this woman!' he said. 'Throw her out and bolt the door behind her!'


text:
(She was wearing a magnificent dress, for this was what the king's unmarried daughters wore in days gone by.) So the servant put her out and bolted the door behind her.


text:
Tamar put dust on her head, tore the magnificent dress which she was wearing, laid her hand on her head, and went away, crying aloud as she went.


text:
Her brother Absalom said to her, 'Has Amnon your brother been with you? Sister, be quiet; he is your brother; do not take the matter to heart!' Tamar, however, went back to her brother Absalom's house inconsolable.


text:
When King David heard the whole story, he was very angry; but he had no wish to harm his son Amnon, whom he loved because he was his first-born.


text:
Absalom, however, would not so much as speak to Amnon, since he hated Amnon for having raped his sister Tamar.


text:
Two years later, when Absalom had the sheep-shearers at Baal-Hazor, which is near Ephraim, he invited all the king's sons.


text:
Absalom went to the king and said, 'Now sir, your servant has the sheep-shearers. Will the king and his retinue be pleased to come with your servant?'


text:
'No, my son,' the king replied, 'we must not all come and be a burden to you.' And though Absalom was insistent, he would not go but dismissed him.


text:
Absalom persisted, 'Then at least let my brother Amnon come with us.' The king said, 'Why should he go with you?'


text:
On Absalom's insistence, however, he let Amnon and all the king's sons to go with him. Absalom prepared a royal banquet


text:
and then gave this order to the servants, 'Listen carefully; when Amnon's heart is merry with wine and I say, "Strike Amnon down", then kill him. Don't be afraid. Have I not myself given you the order? Use your strength and show your mettle!'


text:
Absalom's servants treated Amnon as Absalom had ordered. The king's sons all leapt to their feet, mounted their mules and fled.


text:
While they were on the road, word reached David, 'Absalom has killed all the king's sons; not one of them is left.'


text:
The king stood up, tore his clothes and threw himself on the ground. All his officers tore their clothes too.


text:
Jonadab son of Shimeah, David's brother, then spoke up and said, 'Do not let my lord take to heart the report that all the young men, the king's sons, have been killed, since only Amnon is dead: for Absalom has been promising himself to do this since the day when Amnon raped his sister Tamar.


text:
and Absalom has fled.' The man on sentry duty looked up and saw a large troop coming along the road from Bahurim. The sentry came to tell the king, 'I have seen some people coming down the Bahurim road on the mountainside.'


text:
Jonadab then said to the king, 'These are the king's sons arriving: what your servant said is exactly what happened.'


text:
He had scarcely finished speaking when the king's sons arrived and wept aloud; the king and all his retinue wept aloud too.


text:
Joab therefore sent to Tekoa for a wise woman. 'Pretend to be in mourning,' he said. 'Dress yourself in mourning, do not perfume yourself; act like a woman who has long been mourning for the dead.


text:
Then go to the king and say this to him.' And Joab put the words into her mouth which she was to say.


text:
So the woman of Tekoa went to the king and, falling on her face to the ground, prostrated herself. 'Help, my lord king!' she said.


text:
Your servant had two sons and out in the fields, where there was no one to intervene, they had a quarrel. And one of them struck the other one and killed him.


text:
And now the whole clan has risen against your servant. "Give up the man who killed his brother," they say, "so that we can put him to death, to atone for the life of the brother whom he has murdered; and thus we shall destroy the heir as well." By this means, they will extinguish the ember still left to me, leaving my husband neither name nor survivor on the face of the earth.'


text:
The woman of Tekoa said to the king, 'My lord king! May the guilt be on me and on my family; the king and his throne are innocent of it.'


text:
She then said, 'Let the king be pleased to pronounce the name of Yahweh your God, so that the avenger of blood may not do greater harm and destroy my son.' 'As Yahweh lives,' he said, 'not one of your son's hairs shall fall to the ground!'


text:
Then the woman said, 'Permit your servant to say something else to my lord the king.' 'Go on,' he said.


text:
The woman said, 'Why then has the king, who by giving this verdict has condemned himself, conceived the idea, against God's people's interests, of not bringing home the son whom he has banished?


text:
We are all mortal; we are like water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again, nor does God raise up a corpse; let the king therefore make plans for his banished son not to remain far away from him in exile.


text:
'Now, the reason why I came to speak about this to my lord the king is that I was being intimidated, and your servant thought, "I shall speak to the king; perhaps the king will do what his servant asks.


text:
Surely the king will consent to save his servant from the clutches of the man who is trying to cut both me and my son off from God's heritage.


text:
Let a word from my lord the king, restore the peace!" your servant thought, "for my lord the king is like the Angel of God in understanding good and evil." May Yahweh your God be with you!'


text:
Replying to the woman, the king said, 'Now do not evade the question which I am going to ask you.' The woman said, 'Let my lord the king ask his question.'


text:
'Is not Joab's hand behind you in all this?' the king asked. The woman replied, 'As you live, my lord king, I cannot escape what my lord the king says, either to right or to left. Yes, it was your servant Joab who gave me my orders; he put all these words into your servant's mouth.


text:
Your servant Joab did this to approach the matter indirectly, but my lord has the wisdom of the Angel of God; he knows everything that happens on earth!'


text:
The king then said to Joab, 'Very well, the suit is granted. Go and bring the young man Absalom back.'


text:
Joab fell on his face to the ground, prostrated himself and blessed the king. 'My lord king,' Joab said, 'today your servant knows that he has won your favour, since the king has done what his servant asked.'


text:
The king, however, said, 'Let him retire to his own house; he is not to appear in my presence.' So Absalom retired to his own house and was not received by the king.


text:
In all Israel there was no one more praised for his beauty than Absalom; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, he could not be faulted.


text:
When he cut his hair -- he shaved it once a year because his hair got too heavy -- he would weigh the hair: two hundred shekels, king's weight.


text:
Absalom then summoned Joab, intending to send him to the king, but Joab would not come to him. He sent for him a second time, but still he would not come.


text:
At this, Absalom said to his retainers, 'Look, Joab's field is next to mine and he has barley in it; go and set it on fire.' Absalom's retainers set fire to the field.


text:
Joab then stirred himself, went to Absalom in his house and asked, 'Why have your retainers set my field on fire?'


text:
Absalom replied to Joab, 'Look, I sent word to you: Come here, so that I can send you to the king to say, "Why come back from Geshur? Better for me to have been there still!" Now I want to be received by the king, and if I am guilty, let him put me to death!'


text:
Joab went to the king and told him this. He then summoned Absalom, who prostrated himself with his face to the ground before the king. And the king kissed Absalom.


text:
He would get up early and stand beside the road leading to the city gate; and whenever a man with some lawsuit had to come before the king's tribunal, Absalom would call out to him and ask, 'Which town are you from?' If he answered, 'Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel,'


text:
then Absalom would say, 'Look, your case is sound and just, but not one of the king's deputies will listen to you.'


text:
Absalom would say, 'Oh, who will appoint me judge in the land? Then anyone with a lawsuit or a plea could come to me and I should see he had justice!'


text:
And whenever anyone came up to him to prostrate himself, he would stretch out his hand, draw him to him and kiss him.


text:
Absalom acted like this with every Israelite who appealed to the king's tribunal, and so Absalom won the Israelites' hearts.


text:
When four years had gone by, Absalom said to the king, 'Allow me to go to Hebron and fulfil the vow which I have made to Yahweh;


text:
for, when I was in Geshur, in Aram, your servant made this vow, "If Yahweh brings me back to Jerusalem, I shall pay my devotions to Yahweh in Hebron." '


text:
Absalom sent couriers throughout the tribes of Israel to say, 'When you hear the trumpet sound, you are to say, "Absalom is king at Hebron!" '


text:
With Absalom went two hundred men from Jerusalem; they had been invited and had gone in all innocence, unaware of what was going on.


text:
Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counsellor, from Giloh his town, and had him with him while offering the sacrifices. The conspiracy grew in strength, since Absalom's supporters grew in number.


text:
David said to all his retinue then with him in Jerusalem, 'Up, let us flee, or we shall not escape from Absalom! Leave as quickly as you can, in case he mounts a sudden attack, overcomes us and puts the city to the sword.'


text:
All his officers stood at his side. All the Cherethites and all the Pelethites, with Ittai and all the six hundred Gittites who had come in his retinue from Gath, marched past the king.


text:
The king said to Ittai the Gittite, 'You, why are you coming with us? Go back and stay with the king, for you are a foreigner, indeed an exile from your homeland.


text:
You arrived only yesterday; should I take you wandering with us today, when I do not know myself where I am going? Go back, take your fellow countrymen with you, and may Yahweh show you mercy and faithful love!'


text:
Ittai replied to the king, 'As Yahweh lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king may be, for death or life, your servant will be there too.'


text:
David then said to Ittai, 'Go ahead, march past!' And Ittai of Gath marched past with all his men and with all his children too.


text:
The entire population was weeping aloud as the king stood in the bed of the Kidron and everyone marched past him, making for the desert.


text:
Zadok was there too, and all the Levites with him, carrying the ark of God. They set the ark of God down beside Abiathar until everyone had finished marching out of the town.


text:
The king then said to Zadok, 'Take the ark of God back into the city. Should I win Yahweh's favour, he will bring me back and allow me to see it and its tent once more.


text:
The king said to Zadok the priest, 'Look, you and Abiathar go back quietly into the city, with your two sons, your own son Ahimaaz and Jonathan son of Abiathar.


text:
You see, I shall wait in the passes of the desert plain until word comes from you bringing me news.'


text:
David then made his way up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, his head covered and his feet bare. And all the people with him had their heads covered and made their way up, weeping as they went.


text:
David was then informed that Ahithophel was among the conspirators with Absalom. David said, 'I beg you, Yahweh, turn Ahithophel's advice to folly.'


text:
As David reached the summit, where God is worshipped, he saw Hushai the Archite, his friend, coming to meet him with his tunic torn and with earth on his head.


text:
But if you go back to the city and say to Absalom, "I am at your service, my lord king; once I was in your father's service, but now I shall serve you," you will be able to thwart Ahithophel's advice for me.


text:
Surely the priests Zadok and Abiathar will be with you? Anything you hear from the palace you must report to the priests Zadok and Abiathar.


text:
You see, their two sons are there with them, Zadok's son Ahimaaz, and Abiathar's son Jonathan; through these, you will send me word of everything you hear.'


text:
When David had passed a little beyond the summit, Meribbaal's retainer, Ziba, met him with a pair of donkeys, saddled and laden with two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred bunches of raisins, a hundred of the season's fruits, and a skin of wine.


text:
The king said to Ziba, 'What are you going to do with that?' 'The donkeys', Ziba replied, 'are for the king's family to ride, the bread and the fruit for the soldiers to eat, the wine is for drinking by those who get exhausted in the desert.'


text:
The king asked 'And where is your master's son?' Ziba replied to the king, 'Why, he has stayed in Jerusalem because, he says, "Today, the House of Israel will give me back my father's kingdom." '


text:
Then the king said to Ziba, 'Everything owned by Meribbaal is yours.' Ziba said, 'I prostrate myself! May I be worthy of your favour, my lord king!'


text:
As David was reaching Bahurim, out came a man of the same clan as Saul's family. His name was Shimei son of Gera and, as he came, he uttered curse after curse


text:
and threw stones at David and at all King David's retinue, even though the whole army and all the champions formed an escort round the king on either side.


text:
Yahweh has paid you back for all the spilt blood of the House of Saul whose sovereignty you have usurped; and Yahweh has transferred the sovereign power to Absalom your son. Now your wickedness has overtaken you, man of blood that you are.'


text:
Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, 'Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut his head off.'


text:
But the king replied, 'What concern is my business to you, sons of Zeruiah? Let him curse! If Yahweh has said to him, "Curse David!" what right has anyone to say, "Why have you done so?" '


text:
David said to Abishai and all his retinue, 'Why, the son sprung from my own body is now seeking my life; all the more reason for this Benjaminite to do so! Let him curse on, if Yahweh has told him to!


text:
So David and his men went on their way, and Shimei kept pace with him along the opposite mountainside, cursing as he went, throwing stones and flinging dust.


text:
The king and all the people who were with him arrived exhausted at . . . . . . and there they drew breath.


text:
When Hushai the Archite, David's friend, reached Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, 'Long live the king! Long live the king!'


text:
Absalom said to Hushai, 'Is this your faithful love for your friend? Why didn't you go away with your friend?'


text:
Hushai replied to Absalom, 'No, the man whom Yahweh and this people and all the men of Israel have chosen, he is the man for me, and with him will I stay!


text:
Ahithophel replied to Absalom, 'Go to your father's concubines whom he left to look after the palace; then all Israel will hear that you have thoroughly antagonised your father, and the resolution of all your supporters will be strengthened.'


text:
So a tent was pitched for Absalom on the flat roof and, with all Israel watching, Absalom went to his father's concubines.


text:
At the time, whatever advice Ahithophel gave was treated like a decision obtained from God; as by David, so by Absalom, was all Ahithophel's advice regarded.


text:
Ahithophel said to Absalom, 'Let me choose twelve thousand men and set off this very night in pursuit of David.


text:
I shall fall on him while he is tired and dispirited; I shall strike terror into him, and all the people who are with him will run away. I shall kill only the king,


text:
and I shall then bring all the people back to you, like a bride returning to her husband. You seek the life of one individual only; the people as a whole will have peace.'


text:
When Hushai had come to Absalom, Absalom said, 'This is what Ahithophel says. Are we to do as he suggests? If not, suggest something yourself.'


text:
You know', Hushai went on, 'that your father and his men are great fighters and that they are now as angry as a wild bear robbed of her cubs. Your father is a man of war: he will not let the army rest during the night.


text:
At this moment he is concealed in some hollow or other place. If at the outset there are casualties among our troops, word will go round that the army supporting Absalom has met with disaster.


text:
And then even the valiant, the truly lion-hearted, will be demoralised; for all Israel knows that your father is a champion and that the men with him are valiant.


text:
For my part, I offer this advice: Summon all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, to rally to you, as numerous as the sand on the seashore, and you take the field in person with them.


text:
We shall reach him wherever he is to be found; we shall fall on him as the dew falls on the ground, and not leave him or any one of the men with him.


text:
Should he retire into a town, all Israel will bring ropes to that town, and we shall drag it into the river-bed until not a pebble of it is to be found.'


text:
Then Absalom and all the people of Israel said, 'Hushai the Arkite's advice is better than Ahithophel's,' Yahweh having resolved to thwart Ahithophel's shrewd advice and so bring disaster on Absalom.


text:
Hushai then told the priests Zadok and Abiathar, 'Ahithophel gave such and such advice to Absalom and the elders of Israel, but I advised so and so.


text:
Send with all speed to David and say, "Do not camp in the desert passes tonight, but get through them as fast as you can, or the king and his whole army may be annihilated." '


text:
Jonathan and Ahimaaz were posted at the Fuller's Spring; a servant-girl was to go and warn them and they in turn were to warn King David, since they could not give themselves away by coming into the city themselves.


text:
A young man saw them nonetheless and told Absalom. The pair of them, however, made off quickly, reaching the house of a man in Bahurim. In his courtyard was a storage-well and they got down into it.


text:
The woman took a piece of canvas and, spreading it over the mouth of the storage-well, scattered crushed grain on it so that nothing showed.


text:
When Absalom's servants reached the woman at the house, they said, 'Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?' The woman said, 'They have gone further on, towards the water.' They searched but, having found nothing, went back to Jerusalem.


text:
When they had gone, the men climbed out of the storage-well and went to warn King David. 'Set out!' they told David. 'Cross the water quickly, for Ahithophel has given such and such advice against you!'


text:
So David and all the troops with him set off and crossed the Jordan. By dawn no one was left, all had crossed the Jordan.


text:
When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set off and went home to his own town. Then, having set his house in order, he hanged himself. He was buried in his father's tomb.


text:
Absalom had put Amasa in command of the army in place of Joab. This Amasa was the son of a man called Ithra the Ishmaelite, who had married Abigail, daughter of Jesse and sister of Zeruiah, mother of Joab.


text:
When David reached Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash from Rabbah-of-the-Ammonites, Machir son of Ammiel from Lo-Debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim


text:
honey, curds and cows' cheese and sheep's cheese, which they presented to David and the people with him for them to eat. 'The army', they said, 'must have been hungry, tired and thirsty in the desert.'


text:
David reviewed the troops who were with him and appointed commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds to lead them.


text:
David divided the army into three groups, one under the command of Joab, another under the command of Abishai son of Zeruiah and brother of Joab, and the third under the command of Ittai the Gittite. David then said to the troops, 'I shall take the field in person with you.'


text:
But the troops replied, 'You are not to take the field. No one will bother about us if we run away, they will not even bother about us if half of us are killed, but you are ten thousand times more valuable. So it is better if you stay inside the town, in case we need reinforcements.'


text:
David said, 'I will do what you think best.' And the king stood beside the gate as the troops marched out by their hundreds and their thousands.


text:
The king gave orders to Joab, Abishai and Ittai, 'For my sake, treat young Absalom gently!' And the troops all heard the king give all the commanders these orders about Absalom.


text:
So the troops marched out into the open to engage Israel, and the battle took place in the Forest of Ephraim.


text:
There, the army of Israel was beaten by David's retainers; it was a great defeat that day, with twenty thousand casualties.


text:
The fighting spread throughout the region and that day the forest claimed more victims than the sword.


text:
Absalom happened to run into some of David's guards. Absalom was riding his mule and the mule passed under the thick branches of a great oak. Absalom's head got caught in the oak and he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule he was riding went on.


text:
Joab said to the man who had informed him, 'If you saw him, why did you not strike him to the ground then and there? I would have made it my business to give you ten silver shekels and a belt!'


text:
The man replied to Joab, 'Even if I could feel the weight of a thousand silver shekels in my hand, I would not lift my hand against the king's son. In our own hearing, the king gave you and Abishai and Ittai these orders, "For my sake, spare young Absalom."


text:
Even if I had deceived myself, nothing stays hidden from the king and you would have dissociated yourself from me.'


text:
Joab then said, 'I cannot waste time arguing with you!' And, taking three darts in his hand, he planted them in Absalom's heart, while he was still alive, deep in the oak-tree.


text:
Joab then had the trumpet sounded, and the troops left off pursuing Israel, since Joab held the troops back.


text:
They took Absalom, flung him into a deep pit in the forest and raised a huge cairn over him. All the Israelites had fled, dispersing to their homes.


text:
Now, during his lifetime, Absalom had made and erected a pillar to himself, which is in the Valley of the King. 'I have no son', he said, 'to preserve the memory of my name.' He gave his own name to the pillar, and today it is still called Absalom's Monument.


text:
Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, 'Let me run and tell the king the good news that Yahweh has vindicated his cause by ridding him of his enemies.'


text:
But Joab said, 'Today you would be no bearer of good news, some other day you may be; but today you would not be bringing good news, since the king's son is dead.'


text:
Joab then said to the Cushite, 'Go and tell the king what you have seen.' The Cushite prostrated himself to Joab and ran off.


text:
But Ahimaaz son of Zadok persisted. 'Come what may,' he said to Joab, 'please let me run after the Cushite.' 'My son,' Joab said, 'why run? You will get no reward for your news.'


text:
But he replied, 'Come what may, let me run!' and Joab said 'Run, then!' So Ahimaaz ran off along the road through the Plain, outrunning the Cushite.


text:
David was sitting between the two gates. The sentry, having gone up to the roof of the gate, looked out from the ramparts and saw a man running alone.


text:
The sentry called down to the king and told him. The king said, 'If he is alone, he is bringing good news.'


text:
As the man drew steadily nearer, the lookout man saw another man running, and the sentry above the gate shouted, 'Here comes another man, running alone!' David said, 'He too is a bearer of good news.'


text:
The sentry said, 'I recognise the way the first man runs; Ahimaaz son of Zadok runs like that.' 'He is a good man', said the king, 'and comes with good news.'


text:
Ahimaaz went up to the king. 'All hail!' he said, prostrating himself on the ground before the king. 'Blessed be Yahweh your God', he said, 'who has handed over the men who rebelled against my lord the king!'


text:
'Is all well with young Absalom?' the king asked. Ahimaaz replied, 'I saw a great commotion when Joab, the king's servant, sent your servant off, but I do not know what it was.'


text:
Then the Cushite arrived. 'Good news for my lord the king!' the Cushite shouted. 'Today Yahweh has vindicated your cause, by ridding you of all who had risen up against you.'


text:
'Is all well with young Absalom?' the king asked the Cushite. 'May the enemies of my lord the king', the Cushite answered, 'and all who rise up to harm you, share the fate of that young man!'


text:
The king shuddered. He went up to the room over the gate and burst into tears; and, as he wept, he kept saying, 'Oh, my son Absalom! My son! My son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you! Oh, Absalom my son, my son!'


text:
And for the entire army that day, victory was turned to mourning, the troops having learnt that the king was grieving for his son.


text:
And that day the troops came furtively back into town, like troops creeping shamefacedly away when deserting in battle.


text:
Joab went inside to the king and said, 'Today you have made all your servants feel ashamed-today, when they have saved your life, the lives of your sons and daughters, the lives of your wives and the lives of your concubines!-because you love those who hate you and hate those who love you.


text:
Today you have made it plain that commanders and soldiers mean nothing to you -- for today I can see that you would be content if we were all dead, provided that Absalom was alive!


text:
Now get up, come out and reassure your soldiers; for if you do not come out, I swear by Yahweh, not one man will stay with you tonight; and this will be a worse misfortune for you than anything that has happened to you from your youth until now!'


text:
The king got up and took his seat at the gate. An announcement was made to the whole army: 'The king is sitting at the gate.' And the whole army assembled in front of the king.


text:
Israel had fled, dispersing to their homes. Throughout the tribes of Israel all was dissension and people began saying, 'The king, having freed us from the clutches of our enemies, having saved us from the clutches of the Philistines, has himself had to flee the country to escape from Absalom;


text:
and now Absalom, whom we had anointed to reign over us, has died in battle. Why does no one suggest that the king should be brought back?'What was being said throughout Israel reached the king.


text:
King David then sent word to the priests Zadok and Abiathar, 'Say to the elders of Judah, "Why should you be the last to bring the king home?


text:
You are my brothers, you are my own flesh and bone: why should you be the last to bring the king back?"


text:
And say to Amasa, "Are you not my own flesh and bone? May God bring unnameable ills on me and worse ills, too, if you do not become my permanent army commander instead of Joab!" '


text:
Thus he rallied the hearts of the men of Judah to a man and, as a result, they sent word to the king, 'Come back, you and all who serve you.'


text:
So the king started home and reached the Jordan. Judah, coming to meet the king to escort him across the Jordan, had arrived at Gilgal.


text:
Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite of Bahurim, hurried down with the men of Judah to meet King David.


text:
With him were a thousand men from Benjamin. Ziba, servant of the House of Saul, with his fifteen sons and twenty servants, arrived at the Jordan before the king


text:
and worked manfully ferrying the king's family across and doing whatever he required. While the king was crossing the Jordan, Shimei son of Gera fell at the king's feet


text:
and said to the king, 'I hope my lord does not regard me as guilty of a crime! Forget about the wrong your servant did on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. Let my lord not hold my guilt against me.


text:
For your servant is aware of having sinned, and that is why I have come today -- the first member of the whole House of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king.'


text:
At this, Abishai son of Zeruiah spoke up and said, 'Does Shimei not deserve death for having cursed Yahweh's anointed?'


text:
To which David replied, 'What concern is my business to you, sons of Zeruiah, that you should oppose my wishes today? Could anyone be put to death in Israel today? Today I know for sure that I am king of Israel?'


text:
Meribbaal son of Saul also went down to meet the king. He had not cared for his feet or hands, he had not trimmed his moustache or washed his clothes from the day of the king's departure till the day of his peaceful return.


text:
When he arrived from Jerusalem to greet the king, the king asked him, 'Why did you not come with me, Meribbaal?'


text:
'My lord king,' he replied, 'my retainer deceived me. Your servant said to him, "Saddle the donkey for me to ride, so that I can go with the king," your servant being lame.


text:
He has slandered your servant to my lord the king. My lord the king, however, is like the Angel of God, so do as you think right.


text:
My father's entire family deserved no better than death from my lord the king, and yet you admitted your servant to the ranks of those who eat at your table. What right have I to make any further appeal to the king?'


text:
'Let him take it all,' Meribbaal said to the king, 'since my lord the king has come back home in peace!'


text:
Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogelim and accompanied the king towards the Jordan, intending to take leave of him at the Jordan.


text:
Barzillai was a man of great age; he was eighty years old. He had kept the king in provisions during his stay at Mahanaim, being a very wealthy man.


text:
Barzillai replied to the king, 'How many years have I left to live, for me to go up to Jerusalem with the king?


text:
I am now eighty years old; can I tell the good from the bad? Has your servant any taste for his food and drink? Can I still hear the voices of men and women singers? Why should your servant be a further burden to my lord the king?


text:
Your servant will go a little way across the Jordan with the king; but why should the king reward me so generously for that?


text:
Please allow your servant to go home again, so that I can die in my own town near the grave of my father and mother. But here is your servant Chimham; let him go with my lord the king; treat him as you think right.'


text:
The king said, 'Let Chimham come along with me then; I shall do whatever you wish for him, and anything you request I shall do for your sake.'


text:
The people then all crossed the Jordan, and the king, having crossed, kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and the latter went home.


text:
The king went on to Gilgal and Chimham went with him. All the people of Judah accompanied the king, and also half the people of Israel.


text:
All the men of Israel then came to the king. 'Why', they asked the king, 'have our brothers, the men of Judah, carried you off and brought the king and his family across the Jordan, and all David's men with him?'


text:
All the men of Judah retorted to the men of Israel, 'Because the king is more closely related to us. Why do you take offence at this? Have we been eating at the king's expense? Have we taken any position for ourselves?'


text:
The men of Israel replied to the men of Judah, 'We have ten shares in the king and, what is more, we are your elder brothers, so why have you slighted us? Were we not the first to suggest bringing back our king?' The men of Judah's words were even more intemperate than those of the men of Israel.


text:
Now there happened to be a scoundrel there called Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjaminite, who sounded the trumpet and shouted: We have no share in David, we have no heritage in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, O Israel!


text:
At this all the men of Israel deserted David and followed Sheba son of Bichri. But the men of Judah stuck close to their king, from the Jordan all the way to Jerusalem.


text:
David returned to his palace in Jerusalem. The king took the ten concubines, whom he had left to look after the palace, and put them under guard. He provided for their upkeep but never went near them again; they were shut away until the day they died, widows, as it were, of a living man.


text:
David then said to Abishai, 'Sheba son of Bichri is now in a position to do us more damage even than Absalom. Take your master's retainers and be after him, before he can reach any fortified towns and elude us.'


text:
Joab, the Cherethites, the Pelethites and all the champions took the field under Abishai, setting off from Jerusalem in pursuit of Sheba son of Bichri.


text:
They were near the great stone at Gibeon when Amasa met them, coming the other way. Joab was wearing his uniform, over which he had buckled on a sword hanging from his waist in its scabbard; the sword came out and fell.


text:
Joab said to Amasa, 'Are you well, brother?' and, with his right hand, took Amasa by the beard to kiss him.


text:
Amasa paid no attention to the sword, which Joab had now picked up, and Joab struck him with it in the belly, spilling his entrails all over the ground. He did not need to strike a second blow; and Amasa died, while Joab and Abishai hurried on in pursuit of Sheba son of Bichri.


text:
One of Joab's men stood on guard beside Amasa, shouting, 'Whoever is on Joab's side, whoever is for David, follow Joab!'


text:
Amasa meanwhile lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the road. Seeing that everyone was stopping, the man dragged Amasa off the road into the field and threw a cloak over him, having realised that everyone passing would stop.


text:
Once Amasa had been taken off the road, the men all carried on, following Joab in pursuit of Sheba son of Bichri.


text:
Sheba crossed all the tribes of Israel as far as Abel Beth-Maacah, and the Bichrites all . . . They formed up and followed him.


text:
while the whole army accompanying Joab undermined the wall to bring it down. A quick-witted woman shouted from the town, 'Listen!


text:
Listen! Say to Joab, "Come here, I want to speak to you." ' He came forward, and the woman said, 'Are you Joab?' 'I am', he replied. She said, 'Listen to what your servant says.' 'I am listening,' he replied.


text:
She then spoke as follows, 'In olden days people used to say, "Abel and Dan are where you should enquire


text:
whether a tradition established by the faithful of Israel has finally died out." And yet you are trying to destroy a town, a metropolis of Israel. Why do you want to devour Yahweh's heritage?'


text:
This is not the issue; a man from the highlands of Ephraim, called Sheba son of Bichri, has revolted against the king, against David. Hand that one man over and I will raise the siege of the town.' 'Very well,' the woman said to Joab, 'his head will be thrown over the wall to you.'


text:
The woman went and spoke to all the people as her wisdom dictated. They cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it down to Joab. He had the trumpet sounded and they withdrew from the town and all went home, while Joab himself went back to the king in Jerusalem.


text:
In the days of David there was a famine which lasted for three years on end. David consulted Yahweh, and Yahweh said, 'Saul and his family have incurred blood-guilt, by putting the Gibeonites to death.'


text:
Then the king summoned the Gibeonites and said-now, the Gibeonites were not Israelites, but were a remnant of the Amorites, to whom the Israelites had bound themselves by oath; Saul, however, in his zeal for the Israelites and for Judah, had done his best to exterminate them -- hence David said to the Gibeonites,


text:
'What can I do for you? How can I make amends, so that you will call a blessing down on Yahweh's heritage?'


text:
The Gibeonites replied, 'Our quarrel with Saul and his family cannot be settled for silver or gold, nor by putting to death one man in Israel.' David said, 'Say what you want and I will do it for you.'


text:
Then they replied to the king, 'The man who dismembered us and planned to annihilate us, so that we should not exist anywhere in Israelite territory-


text:
we want seven of his descendants handed over to us; and we shall dismember them before Yahweh at Gibeon on Yahweh's hill.' 'I shall hand them over,' said the king.


text:
The king, however, spared Meribbaal son of Jonathan, son of Saul, on account of the oath by Yahweh binding them together, binding David and Jonathan son of Saul.


text:
The king took the two sons born to Saul by Rizpah daughter of Aiah: Armoni and Meribbaal; and the five sons borne by Merab daughter of Saul to Adriel son of Barzillai, of Meholah.


text:
He handed these over to the Gibeonites who dismembered them before Yahweh on the hill. The seven of them perished together; they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.


text:
Rizpah daughter of Aiah, wearing sacking and spreading some out for herself on the rock, from the beginning of the barley harvest until the rain fell on them from heaven, kept the birds of the sky away from them in the daytime, and the wild animals away at night.


text:
David went and recovered the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the notables of Jabesh in Gilead. The latter had stolen them from the square in Beth-Shean, where the Philistines had hung them, when the Philistines had defeated Saul at Gilboa.


text:
David fetched the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan. The bones of the men who had been dismembered were collected


text:
and these, with the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan, were buried in the territory of Benjamin, at Zela, in the tomb of Saul's father, Kish. The king's orders were carried out to the letter and after that, God took pity on the country.


text:
Once again the Philistines made war on Israel. David went down with his retainers; they fought the Philistines and David began to tire.


text:
There was a champion, one of the sons of Rapha. His spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze; he was wearing a new sword and was confident of killing David.


text:
Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his rescue, however, attacking the Philistine and killing him. Then it was that David's men swore the following oath to him, 'You are never to go into battle with us again, in case you should extinguish the lamp of Israel!'


text:
After this, war with the Philistines broke out again at Gob. This was when Sibbecai of Hushah killed Saph, one of the sons of Rapha.


text:
Again, war with the Philistines broke out at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jair, of Bethlehem, killed Goliath of Gath, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.


text:
There was further warfare at Gath, where there was a man of huge stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all. He too was a son of Rapha.


text:
David addressed the words of this song to Yahweh, when Yahweh had delivered him from the clutches of all his enemies and from the clutches of Saul.


text:
my deliverer is my God. I take refuge in him, my rock, my shield, my saving strength, my stronghold, my place of refuge. My Saviour, you have saved me from violence;


text:
I called to Yahweh in my anguish, I cried for help to my God, from his Temple he heard my voice, my cry came to his ears!


text:
Then the earth quaked and rocked, the heavens' foundations shuddered, they quaked at his blazing anger.


text:
The very springs of ocean were exposed, the world's foundations were laid bare, at the roaring of Yahweh, at the blast of breath from his nostrils!


text:
This God, his way is blameless; the word of Yahweh is refined in the furnace, for he alone is the shield of all who take refuge in him.


text:
You free me from the quarrels of my people, you place me at the head of the nations, a people I did not know are now my servants,


text:
who takes me away from my enemies. You lift me high above those who attack me, you deliver me from the man of violence.


text:
He saves his king, time after time, displays faithful love for his anointed, for David and his heirs for ever.


text:
These are the last words of David: Thus speaks David son of Jesse, thus speaks the man raised to eminence, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the singer of the songs of Israel:


text:
the God of Jacob has spoken, the Rock of Israel has said to me: He whose rule is upright on earth, who rules in the fear of God,


text:
is like the morning light at sunrise (on a cloudless morning) making the grass of the earth sparkle after rain.


text:
Yes, my House stands firm with God: he has made an eternal covenant with me, all in order, well assured; does he not bring to fruition my every victory and desire?


text:
These are the names of David's champions: Ishbaal the Hachmonite leader of the Three; it was he who brandished his spear over eight hundred men whom he had killed at one time.


text:
Next, there was Eleazar son of Dodo, the Ahohite, one of the three champions. He was with David at Pas-Dammim when the Philistines mustered for battle there and the men of Israel had disbanded.


text:
But he stood his ground and cut down the Philistines until his hand was so stiff that he could not let go of the sword. Yahweh brought about a great victory that day, and the people rallied behind him, although only to plunder.


text:
Next, there was Shamma son of Elah, the Hararite. The Philistines had mustered at Lehi. There was a field full of lentils there; the people fled from the Philistines,


text:
but he took his stand in the middle of the field, held it, and cut down the Philistines; and Yahweh brought about a great victory.


text:
Three members of the Thirty went down at the beginning of the harvest and came to David at the Cave of Adullam while a company of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of the Rephaim.


text:
Longingly David said, 'If only someone would fetch me a drink of water from the well that stands by the gate at Bethlehem!'


text:
At this, the three champions, forcing their way through the Philistine camp, drew water from the well that stands by the gate of Bethlehem and, taking it away, presented it to David. He, however, would not drink any of it, but poured it out as a libation to Yahweh.


text:
'Yahweh preserve me', he said, 'from doing such a thing! This is the blood of men who went at risk of their lives.' That was why he would not drink. Such were the deeds of these three champions.


text:
Abishai, brother of Joab and son of Zeruiah, was leader of the Thirty. It was he who brandished his spear over three hundred men whom he had killed, winning himself a name among the Thirty.


text:
He was a most illustrious member of the Thirty and became their captain, but he was not equal to the Three.


text:
Benaiah of Kabzeel was the son of Jehoiada and hero of many exploits. He it was who slaughtered two formidable Moabites and, one snowy day, climbed down and slaughtered the lion in the storage-well.


text:
He also slaughtered an Egyptian of great stature. The Egyptian was armed with a spear, but he took him on with a staff, tore the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed the man with it.


text:
He was a most illustrious member of the Thirty, but he was not equal to the Three. David put him in command of his bodyguard.


text:
Again, Yahweh's anger was aroused against Israel, and he incited David against them. 'Go,' he said, 'take a census of Israel and Judah.'


text:
The king said to Joab and the senior army officers who were with him, 'Now, go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, and take a census of the people; I wish to know the size of the population.'


text:
Joab said to the king, 'May Yahweh your God multiply the people a hundred times -- however many there are -- while my lord the king still has eyes to see it, but why should my lord the king be set on this?'


text:
The king nonetheless enforced his order on Joab and the senior officers, and Joab and the senior officers left the king's presence, to take a census of the people of Israel.


text:
They crossed the Jordan and made a start with Aroer and the town in the middle of the valley, then moved on to the Gadites and to Jazer.


text:
They then went to Gilead and the territory of the Hittites, to Kadesh; they then went to Dan and from Dan cut across to Sidon.


text:
They then went to the fortress of Tyre and to all the towns of the Hittites and Canaanites ending up in the Negeb of Judah at Beersheba.


text:
Having travelled throughout the country, after nine months and twenty days they returned to Jerusalem.


text:
Joab gave the king the census results for the people; Israel had eight hundred thousand fighting men who could wield a sword, and Judah five hundred thousand.


text:
But afterwards David's heart misgave him for having taken a census of the people. David then said to Yahweh, 'I have committed a grave sin by doing this. But now, Yahweh, I beg you to forgive your servant for this fault, for I have acted very foolishly.'


text:
When, however, David got up next morning, the following message had come from Yahweh to the prophet Gad, David's seer,


text:
'Go and say to David, "Yahweh says this: I offer you three things; choose which one of them I am to inflict on you." '


text:
So Gad went to David and said, 'Which do you prefer: to have three years of famine befall your country; to flee for three months before a pursuing army; or to have three days of epidemic in your country? Now think, and decide how I am to answer him who sends me.'


text:
David said to Gad, 'I am very apprehensive . . . Better to fall into Yahweh's hands, since his mercies are great, than to fall into the hands of men!'


text:
So David chose the epidemic. It was the time of the wheat harvest. So Yahweh unleashed an epidemic on Israel from that morning until the time determined; plague ravaged the people and, of the people from Dan to Beersheba, seventy thousand died.


text:
But when the angel stretched his hand towards Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh felt sorry about the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, 'Enough now! Hold your hand!' The angel of Yahweh was standing by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.


text:
When David saw the angel who was ravaging the people, he said to Yahweh, 'I was the one who sinned. I was the one who acted wrongly. But these, the flock, what have they done? Let your hand lie heavy on me and on my family!'


text:
Gad went to David that day and said, 'Go up and raise an altar to Yahweh on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.'


text:
When Araunah looked up and saw the king and his retinue advancing towards him-Araunah was threshing the wheat -- Araunah came forward and prostrated himself on the ground at the king's feet.


text:
'Why has my lord the king come to his servant?' Araunah asked. David replied, 'To buy the threshing-floor from you, to build an altar to Yahweh, so that the plague may be lifted from the people.'


text:
Araunah said to David, 'Let my lord the king take it and make what offerings he thinks fit. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing-sleds and the oxen's yokes for the wood.


text:
My lord the king's servant will give the king everything. And', Araunah said to the king, 'may Yahweh your God accept what you offer!'


text:
'No,' said the king to Araunah, 'I shall give you a price for it; I will not offer Yahweh my God burnt offerings which have cost me nothing.' David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.


text:
David built an altar to Yahweh and offered burnt offerings and communion sacrifices. Yahweh then took pity on the country and the plague was lifted from Israel.


text:
So his servants said to him, 'Let us find a young girl for my lord the king, to wait on the king and look after him; she will lie close beside you and this will keep my lord the king warm.'


text:
Having searched for a beautiful girl throughout the territory of Israel, they found Abishag of Shunem and brought her to the king.


text:
The girl was very beautiful. She looked after the king and waited on him but the king did not have intercourse with her.


text:
Now Adonijah son of Haggith was growing pretentious and saying, 'I shall be king!' Accordingly, he procured a chariot and team with fifty guards to run ahead of him.


text:
Never once in his life had his father crossed him by saying, 'Why are you behaving like that?' He was very handsome too; his mother had given birth to him after Absalom.


text:
He conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with the priest Abiathar, who both rallied to Adonijah's cause;


text:
but neither Zadok the priest, nor Benaiah son of Jehoiada, nor the prophet Nathan, nor Shimei and Rei, nor David's champions, supported Adonijah.


text:
One day when Adonijah was sacrificing sheep, oxen and fattened calves at the Sliding Stone which is beside the Fuller's Spring, he invited all his brothers, the royal princes, and all the men of Judah in the king's service;


text:
Nathan then said to Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, 'Have you not heard that, unknown to our lord David, Adonijah son of Haggith has become king?


text:
Go straight in to King David and say, "My lord king, did you not make your servant this promise on oath: Your son Solomon is to be king after me; he is the one who is to sit on my throne? How is it, then, that Adonijah is king?"


text:
And while you are still there talking to the king, I shall come in after you and confirm what you say.'


text:
So Bathsheba went to the king in his room (he was very old and Abishag of Shunem was in attendance on him).


text:
'My lord,' she replied, 'you swore to your servant by Yahweh your God, "Your son Solomon is to be king after me; he is the one who is to sit on my throne."


text:
He has sacrificed quantities of oxen, fattened calves and sheep, and invited all the royal princes, the priest Abiathar, and Joab the army commander; but he has not invited your servant Solomon.


text:
Yet you are the man, my lord king, to whom all Israel looks, to tell them who is to succeed my lord the king.


text:
And when my lord the king falls asleep with his ancestors, Solomon and I shall be made to suffer for this.'


text:
The king was told, 'The prophet Nathan is here'; and he came into the king's presence and prostrated himself on his face before the king.


text:
'My lord king,' said Nathan, 'is this, then, your decree, "Adonijah is to be king after me; he is the one who is to sit on my throne"?


text:
For he has gone down today and sacrificed quantities of oxen, fattened calves and sheep, and invited all the royal princes, the army commanders, and the priest Abiathar; and they are there now, eating and drinking in his presence and shouting, "Long live King Adonijah!"


text:
He has not, however, invited me your servant, Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, or your servant Solomon.


text:
Can it be that this is done with my lord the king's approval and that you have not told those loyal to you who is to succeed to the throne of my lord the king?'


text:
King David then spoke. 'Call Bathsheba to me,' he said. And she came into the king's presence and stood before him.


text:
just as I swore to you by Yahweh, God of Israel, that your son Solomon should be king after me and take my place on my throne, so I shall bring it about this very day.'


text:
Bathsheba knelt down, prostrated herself on her face before the king and said, 'May my lord King David live for ever!'


text:
Then King David said, 'Summon Zadok the priest, the prophet Nathan and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.' So they came into the king's presence.


text:
'Take the royal guard with you,' said the king, 'mount my son Solomon on my own mule and escort him down to Gihon.


text:
There Zadok the priest and the prophet Nathan are to anoint him king of Israel; then sound the trumpet and shout, "Long live King Solomon!"


text:
Then you are to escort him back, and he is then to assume my throne and be king in place of me, for he is the man whom I have appointed as ruler of Israel and of Judah.'


text:
Benaiah son of Jehoiada answered the king. 'Amen!' he said. 'And may Yahweh, God of my lord the king, confirm it!


text:
As Yahweh has been with my lord the king, so may he be with Solomon and make his throne even greater than the throne of my lord King David!'


text:
Zadok the priest, the prophet Nathan, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and Pelethites then went down; they mounted Solomon on King David's mule and escorted him to Gihon.


text:
Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the Tent and anointed Solomon. They sounded the trumpet and all the people shouted, 'Long live King Solomon!'


text:
The people all escorted him back, with pipes playing and loud rejoicing and shouts to split the earth.


text:
Adonijah and his guests, who had by then finished their meal, all heard the noise. Joab too heard the sound of the trumpet and said, 'What is that noise of uproar in the city?'


text:
While he was still speaking, Jonathan son of Abiathar the priest arrived. 'Come in,' Adonijah said, 'you are an honest man, so you must be bringing good news.'


text:
With him, the king sent Zadok the priest, the prophet Nathan, Benaiah son of Jehoiada and the Cherethites and Pelethites; they mounted him on the king's mule,


text:
and Zadok the priest and the prophet Nathan have anointed him king at Gihon; and they have gone back again with shouts of joy and the city is now in an uproar; that was the noise you heard.


text:
And further, the king's officers have been to congratulate our lord King David with the words, "May your God make the name of Solomon more glorious than yours, and his throne more exalted than your own!" And the king bowed down on his bed,


text:
and then said, "Blessed be Yahweh, God of Israel, for setting one of my own sons on the throne while I am still alive to see it!" '


text:
Solomon was told, 'You should know that Adonijah is terrified of King Solomon and is now clinging to the horns of the altar, saying, "Let King Solomon first swear to me that he will not have his servant executed." '


text:
'Should he bear himself honourably,' Solomon answered, 'not one hair of his shall fall to the ground; but if he proves difficult, he shall die.'


text:
King Solomon then sent for him to be brought down from the altar; he came and threw himself prostrate before King Solomon; Solomon said to him, 'Go to your house.'


text:
Observe the injunctions of Yahweh your God, following his ways and keeping his laws, his commandments, his ordinances and his decrees, as stands written in the Law of Moses, so that you may be successful in everything you do and undertake,


text:
and that Yahweh may fulfil the promise which he made me, "If your sons are careful how they behave, and walk loyally before me with all their heart and soul, you will never want for a man on the throne of Israel."


text:
'You know too what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two commanders of the army of Israel, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether; how he murdered them, shedding the blood of war in time of peace and staining the belt round my waist and the sandals on my feet with the blood of war.


text:
As regards the sons of Barzillai of Gilead, treat them with faithful love, let them be among those who eat at your table, for they were as kind to me when I was fleeing from your brother Absalom.


text:
You also have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim. He called down a terrible curse on me the day I left for Mahanaim, but he came down to meet me at the Jordan and I swore to him by Yahweh that I would not put him to death.


text:
But you, you must not let him go unpunished; you are a wise man and will know how to deal with him, to bring his grey head down to Sheol in blood.'


text:
David was king of Israel for a period of forty years: he reigned at Hebron for seven years, and in Jerusalem for thirty-three.


text:
Adonijah son of Haggith went to Bathsheba mother of Solomon. 'Do you bring peace?' she asked. He replied, 'Yes, peace.'


text:
'You know', he said, 'that the kingdom should have come to me, and that all Israel expected me to be king; but the crown eluded me and fell to my brother, since it came to him from Yahweh.


text:
He went on, 'Please ask King Solomon -- for he will not refuse you -- to give me Abishag of Shunem in marriage.'


text:
So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him about Adonijah; the king got up to meet her and bowed before her; he then sat down on his throne; a seat was brought for the king's mother, and she sat down on his right.


text:
She said, 'I have one small request to make you; do not refuse me.' 'Mother,' the king replied, 'make your request, for I shall not refuse you.'


text:
King Solomon replied to his mother, 'And why do you request Abishag of Shunem for Adonijah? You might as well request the kingdom for him, since he is my elder brother and Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah are on his side.'


text:
And King Solomon swore by Yahweh: 'May God bring unnameable ills on me, and worse ills, too,' he said, 'if Adonijah does not pay for these words of his with his life!


text:
As Yahweh lives who has set me securely on the throne of my father David, and who, as he promised, has given him a dynasty, Adonijah shall be put to death this very day.'


text:
As for Abiathar the priest, the king said to him, 'Go to Anathoth to your estate. You deserve to die, but I am not going to put you to death now, since you carried the ark of Yahweh in the presence of my father David and shared all my father's hardships.'


text:
Solomon deprived Abiathar of the priesthood of Yahweh, thus fulfilling the prophecy which Yahweh had uttered against the House of Eli at Shiloh.


text:
When the news reached Joab -- for Joab had lent his support to Adonijah, though he had not supported Absalom -- he fled to the Tent of Yahweh and clung to the horns of the altar.


text:
King Solomon was told, 'Joab has fled to the Tent of Yahweh; he is there beside the altar.' On this, Solomon sent word to Joab, 'What reason did you have for fleeing to the altar?' Joab replied, 'I was afraid of you and fled to Yahweh.' Solomon then sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada. 'Go', he said, 'and strike him down.'


text:
Accordingly Benaiah went to the Tent of Yahweh. 'By order of the king,' he said, 'come out!' 'No,' he said, 'I will die here.' So Benaiah brought word back to the king, 'This is what Joab said, and the answer he gave me.'


text:
'Do as he says,' the king replied. 'Strike him down and bury him, and so rid me and my family today of the innocent blood which Joab has shed.


text:
Yahweh will bring his blood down on his own head, because he struck down two more upright and better men than he, and, without my father David's knowledge, put to the sword Abner son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah.


text:
May their blood come down on the head of Joab and his descendants for ever, but may David, his descendants, his dynasty, his throne, have peace for ever from Yahweh.'


text:
Whereupon Benaiah son of Jehoiada went out, struck Joab down and put him to death; he was buried at his home in the desert.


text:
In his place as head of the army the king appointed Benaiah son of Jehoiada and, in place of Abiathar, the priest Zadok.


text:
The king had Shimei summoned to him. 'Build yourself a house in Jerusalem,' he told him. 'You are to live there; do not leave it to go anywhere at all.


text:
The day you go out and cross the ravine of the Kidron, be sure you will certainly die. Your blood will be on your own head.'


text:
'That is a fair demand,' Shimei replied to the king, 'your servant will do as my lord the king orders.' And for a long time Shimei lived in Jerusalem.


text:
But when three years had gone by, it happened that two of Shimei's slaves ran away to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath; Shimei was told, 'Your slaves are in Gath.'


text:
On this, Shimei got up and saddled his donkey and went to Akish at Gath to find his slaves. He went off and brought his slaves back from Gath.


text:
The king had Shimei summoned to him. 'Did I not make you swear by Yahweh,' he said, 'and did I not warn you, "The day you leave to go anywhere at all, be sure you will certainly die"? To which you replied, "That is a fair demand."


text:
The king then said to Shimei, 'You know well all the evil you did to my father David. Yahweh is about to bring your wickedness down on your own head.


text:
But may King Solomon be blessed, and may the throne of David be kept secure before Yahweh for ever!'


text:
The king gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he went out and struck Shimei down; and that was how he died. And now the kingdom was securely in Solomon's hands.


text:
Solomon became the son-in-law of Pharaoh king of Egypt; he married Pharaoh's daughter, and took her to the City of David until he could complete the building of his palace, the Temple of Yahweh and the ramparts of Jerusalem.


text:
The people, however, were still sacrificing on the high places, because at that time a dwelling-place for the name of Yahweh had not yet been built.


text:
Solomon loved Yahweh: he followed the precepts of his father David, except that he offered sacrifice and incense on the high places.


text:
The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, since that was the principal high place -- Solomon presented a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.


text:
At Gibeon Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream during the night. God said, 'Ask what you would like me to give you.'


text:
Solomon replied, 'You showed most faithful love to your servant David, my father, when he lived his life before you in faithfulness and uprightness and integrity of heart; you have continued this most faithful love to him by allowing a son of his to sit on his throne today.


text:
Now, Yahweh my God, you have made your servant king in succession to David my father. But I am a very young man, unskilled in leadership.


text:
And here is your servant, surrounded with your people whom you have chosen, a people so numerous that its number cannot be counted or reckoned.


text:
So give your servant a heart to understand how to govern your people, how to discern between good and evil, for how could one otherwise govern such a great people as yours?'


text:
'Since you have asked for this,' God said, 'and not asked for long life for yourself or riches or the lives of your enemies but have asked for a discerning judgement for yourself,


text:
here and now I do what you ask. I give you a heart wise and shrewd as no one has had before and no one will have after you.


text:
And I shall give you a long life, if you follow my ways, keeping my laws and commandments, as your father David followed them.'


text:
Then Solomon woke up; it had been a dream. He returned to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh; he presented burnt offerings and communion sacrifices and held a banquet for all those in his service.


text:
'If it please you, my lord,' one of the women said, 'this woman and I live in the same house, and while she was in the house I gave birth to a child.


text:
Now it happened on the third day after my delivery that this woman also gave birth to a child. We were alone together; there was no one else in the house with us; just the two of us in the house.


text:
And in the middle of the night she got up and took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep; she took him in her arms and put her own dead son in mine.


text:
When I got up to suckle my child, there he was, dead. But in the morning I looked at him carefully, and he was not the child I had borne at all.'


text:
Then the other woman spoke. 'That is not true! My son is the live one, yours is the dead one'; and the first retorted, 'That is not true! Your son is the dead one, mine is the live one.' And so they wrangled before the king.


text:
'This one says,' the king observed, ' "My son is the one who is alive; your son is dead," while the other says, "That is not true! Your son is the dead one, mine is the live one."


text:
At this the woman who was the mother of the living child addressed the king, for she felt acutely for her son. 'I beg you, my lord,' she said, 'let them give her the live child; on no account let them kill him!' But the other said, 'He shall belong to neither of us. Cut him in half!'


text:
Then the king gave his decision. 'Give the live child to the first woman,' he said, 'and do not kill him. She is his mother.'


text:
All Israel came to hear of the judgement which the king had pronounced and held the king in awe, recognising that he possessed divine wisdom for dispensing justice.


text:
Ahishar, master of the palace; Eliab son of Joab, commander of the army; Adoram son of Abda, in charge of forced labour.


text:
Solomon had twelve administrators for all Israel who saw to the provisioning of the king and his household; each had to provide for one month in the year.


text:
Baana son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo as far as the other side of Jokmeam, and all Beth-Shean below Jezreel, from Beth-Shean as far as Abel-Meholah by Zarethan.


text:
Son of Geber, in Ramoth-Gilead: his district was the Encampments of Jair son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; he had the region of Argob, which is in Bashan: sixty fortified towns, walled and with bolts of bronze.


text:
Geber son of Uri, in the territory of Gad, the territory of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan. In addition, there was one administrator in the country.


text:
Judah and Israel were numerous, as numerous as the sand on the sea-shore; they ate and drank and were happy.


text:
Solomon was overlord of all the kingdoms from the River to the territory of the Philistines and the Egyptian border. They brought tribute and served him all his life long.


text:
ten fattened oxen, twenty free-grazing oxen, one hundred sheep, besides deer and gazelles, roebucks and fattened poultry.


text:
For he was master of all Transeuphrates -- of all the kings of Transeuphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza -- and he enjoyed peace on all his frontiers.


text:
Judah and Israel lived in security, everyone under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, throughout the lifetime of Solomon.


text:
These administrators provided the food for Solomon and for all those who were admitted by him to the royal table, each for the period of a month; they ensured that nothing was wanting.


text:
They also provided the barley and straw for the horses and draught animals, where required, each according to the quota demanded of him.


text:
God gave Solomon immense wisdom and understanding, and a heart as vast as the sand on the sea-shore.


text:
He was wiser than anyone else, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, than the sons of Mahol, Heman, Calcol and Darda; his fame spread to all the surrounding nations.


text:
He could discourse on plants from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing on the wall; and he could discourse on animals and birds and reptiles and fish.


text:
Men from all nations came to hear Solomon's wisdom, and he received gifts from all the kings in the world, who had heard of his wisdom.


text:
Hiram king of Tyre sent an embassy to Solomon, having learnt that he had been anointed king in succession to his father and because Hiram had always been a friend of David.


text:
'You are aware that my father David was unable to build a temple for the name of Yahweh his God, on account of the wars waged on him from every side, until Yahweh put his enemies under the soles of his feet.


text:
I propose, then, to build a temple for the name of Yahweh my God, in accordance with what Yahweh told my father David, "Your son whom I shall place on your throne to succeed you will be the man to build a temple for my name."


text:
So now have cedars of Lebanon cut down for me; my servants will work with your servants, and I shall pay for the hire of your servants at whatever rate you fix. As you know, we have no one as skilled in felling trees as the Sidonians.'


text:
When Hiram heard what Solomon had said, he was delighted. 'Now blessed be Yahweh,' he said, 'who has given David a wise son to rule over this great people!'


text:
And Hiram sent word to Solomon, 'I have received your message. For my part, I shall supply you with all you require in the way of cedar wood and juniper.


text:
Your servants will bring these down from Lebanon to the sea, and I shall have them towed by sea to any place you name; I shall discharge them there, and you will take them over. For your part, you will see to the provisioning of my household as I desire.'


text:
while Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand kor of wheat to feed his household, and twenty thousand kor of pure oil. Solomon gave Hiram this every year.


text:
Yahweh gave Solomon wisdom as he had promised him; good relations persisted between Solomon and Hiram, and the two of them concluded a treaty.


text:
King Solomon raised a levy throughout Israel for forced labour: the levy numbered thirty thousand men.


text:
He sent these to Lebanon in relays, ten thousand a month; they spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoram was in charge of the forced labour.


text:
as well as the administrators, officials who supervised the work, three thousand three hundred of them in charge of the men employed in the work.


text:
At the king's orders they quarried huge stones, special stones for the laying of the temple foundations, dressed stones.


text:
Solomon's workmen and Hiram's workmen and the Giblites cut and assembled the wood and stone for the building of the Temple.


text:
In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began building the Temple of Yahweh.


text:
The temple which King Solomon built for Yahweh was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and twenty-five high.


text:
The portico in front of the Hekal of the Temple was twenty cubits long across the width of the Temple and ten cubits wide along the length of the Temple.


text:
He also built an annex against the Temple wall, right round the Hekal and Debir. He built lateral storeys all round;


text:
the lowest lateral storey was five cubits wide, the middle one six cubits, and the third seven cubits, for he had made the outside of the Temple wall correspondingly stepped back all round, so that the annex was not attached to the Temple walls.


text:
(The building of the Temple was done with quarry -- dressed stone; no sound of hammer or pick or any iron tool was to be heard in the Temple while it was being built.)


text:
The entrance to the lowest storey was at the right-hand corner of the Temple; access to the middle storey was by a spiral staircase, and so from the middle storey to the third.


text:
Round the outside of the Temple he then built the annex which was five cubits high and was joined to the Temple by cedar-wood beams.


text:
'With regard to this temple which you are now building, if you follow my statutes and obey my ordinances and faithfully follow my commandments, I shall fulfil the promise which I made about you to your father David.


text:
He lined the inside of the Temple walls with panels of cedar wood-panelling them on the inside from the floor of the Temple to the beams of the ceiling -- and laid the floor of the Temple with juniper planks.


text:
The twenty cubits measured from the end of the Temple he built of cedar planks from the floor to the beams, and this part was reserved as the Debir, the Holy of Holies.


text:
There was cedar wood round the inside of the Temple, ornamentally carved with gourds and rosettes; all was cedar wood, with no stone showing.


text:
The Debir was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty high, and he overlaid it on the inside with pure gold. He made an altar of cedar wood


text:
One winged creature's wing was five cubits long and the other wing five cubits: ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip.


text:
The other winged creature also measured ten cubits; both had the same measurements and the same shape.


text:
He placed them in the middle of the inner chamber; their wings were spread out so that the wing of one touched one of the walls and the wing of the other touched the other wall, while their wings met in the middle of the chamber wing to wing.


text:
All round the Temple walls he carved figures of winged creatures, palm trees and rosettes, both inside and outside.


text:
He made the door of the Debir with uprights of wild-olive wood, and door jambs with five indented sections,


text:
and the two leaves of wild-olive wood. He carved figures of great winged creatures, palm trees and rosettes which he overlaid with gold, and he gilded winged creatures and palm trees.


text:
Similarly, he made uprights of wild-olive wood for the door of the Hekal, and door jambs with four indented sections,


text:
and the two leaves of juniper: one leaf had two ribs binding it, and the other had two ribs binding it.


text:
He carved winged creatures, palm trees and rosettes, which he overlaid with gold laid evenly over the carvings.


text:
He built the wall of the inner court in three courses of dressed stone and one course of cedar beams.


text:
in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul -- that is, the eighth month -- the Temple was completed exactly as it had been planned and designed. Solomon took seven years to build it.


text:
He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon, a hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high, on four rows of cedar-wood pillars,


text:
with lengths of cedar wood laid horizontally on the pillars. The upper part was panelled with cedar right down to the tie-beams on forty-five pillars, fifteen in each row.


text:
There were three rows of window-frames, with the windows corresponding to one another at three levels.


text:
All the doorways and windows were rectangular, with the windows corresponding to one another at three levels.


text:
He also made the Hall of the Throne where he used to dispense justice, that is, the Hall of Justice; it was panelled in cedar from floor to beams.


text:
His own living quarters, in the other court and inwards from the Hall, were of the same construction. And there was a house similar to this Hall for Pharaoh's daughter whom he had taken in marriage.


text:
All these buildings were of special stones cut to measure, trimmed on the inner and outer sides with the saw, from the foundations to the coping-


text:
and, on the outside, the great court had three courses of dressed stone round it and one course of cedar beams; so also had the inner court of the Temple of Yahweh and the vestibule of the Temple.


text:
he was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, but his father had been a Tyrian, a bronzeworker. He was a highly intelligent craftsman, skilled in all types of bronzework. He came to King Solomon and did all this work for him.


text:
He cast the two bronze pillars; the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a cord twelve cubits long gave the measurement of its girth; so also was the second pillar.


text:
He made two capitals of cast bronze for the tops of the pillars; the height of one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other five cubits.


text:
He made two sets of filigree to cover the moulding of the two capitals surmounting the pillars, one filigree for one capital and one filigree for the other.


text:
applied on the raised moulding behind the filigree; there were two hundred pomegranates round one capital and the same round the other capital.


text:
He erected the pillars in front of the portico of the Temple, he erected the right-hand pillar and named it Jachin; he erected the left-hand pillar and named it Boaz.


text:
He made the Sea of cast metal, ten cubits from rim to rim, circular in shape and five cubits high; a cord thirty cubits long gave the measurement of its girth.


text:
Under its rim and completely encircling it were gourds surrounding the Sea; over a length of thirty cubits the gourds were in two rows, of one and the same casting with the rest.


text:
It rested on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, three facing east; on these, their hindquarters all turned inwards, stood the Sea.


text:
It was a hand's breadth in thickness, and its rim was shaped like the rim of a cup, lily-shaped. It could hold two thousand measures.


text:
On the crosspieces of the undercarriage were lions and bulls and winged creatures, and on top of the undercarriage was a support; under the lions and oxen there were scrolls in the style of. . .


text:
Each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles; its four feet had shoulderings under the basin, and the shoulderings were cast. . .


text:
Its mouth measured one and a half cubits from where the shoulderings met to the top; its mouth was round like a stand for a vessel, and on the mouth there were engravings too; the crosspieces, however, were rectangular and not round.


text:
The four wheels were under the crosspieces. The axles of the wheels were inside the stands; the height of the wheels was one and a half cubits.


text:
The wheels were designed like chariot wheels: their axles, felloes, spokes and naves had all been cast.


text:
There were four shoulderings at the four corners of each stand: the stand and the shoulderings were all of a piece.


text:
At the top of the stand there was a support, circular in shape and half a cubit high; and on top of the stand there were lugs. The crosspieces were of a piece with the stand.


text:
He made ten bronze basins; each basin held forty measures and each basin measured four cubits, one basin to each of the ten stands.


text:
He arranged the stands, five on the right-hand side of the Temple, five on the left-hand side of the Temple; the Sea he placed on the right-hand side of the Temple, to the south east.


text:
Hiram made the ash containers, the scoops and the sprinkling bowls. He finished all the work that he did for King Solomon on the Temple of Yahweh:


text:
Two pillars; the two mouldings of the capitals surrounding the pillars; the two sets of filigree to cover the two mouldings of the capitals surmounting the pillars;


text:
the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of filigree -- two rows of pomegranates for each set of filigree;


text:
the ash containers, the scoops, and sprinkling bowls. All these objects made by Hiram for King Solomon for the Temple of Yahweh were of burnished bronze.


text:
He made them by the process of sand casting, in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan.


text:
Solomon made all the objects designed for the Temple of Yahweh: the golden altar and the gold table for the loaves of permanent offering;


text:
the lamp-stands, five on the right and five on the left in front of the Debir, of pure gold; the floral work, the lamps, the tongs, of gold;


text:
the basins, the snuffers, the sprinkling bowls, the incense ladles and the pans, of real gold; the door panels -- for the inner shrine -- that is, the Holy of Holies -- and for the Hekal, of gold.


text:
Thus all the work done by King Solomon for the Temple of Yahweh was completed, and Solomon brought in the gifts which his father David had consecrated; and he had the silver, the gold and the utensils put into the treasuries of the Temple of Yahweh.


text:
Solomon then summoned the elders of Israel to Jerusalem to bring the ark of the covenant of Yahweh up from the City of David, that is, Zion.


text:
All the men of Israel assembled round King Solomon in the month of Ethanim, at the time of the feast (that is, the seventh month).


text:
King Solomon and all Israel, present with him before the ark, sacrificed countless, innumerable sheep and oxen.


text:
The priests brought the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place, in the Debir of the Temple, that is, in the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the winged creatures


text:
for the winged creatures spread their wings over the place where the ark stood, forming a canopy over the ark and its shafts.


text:
These were so long, however, that the ends of the shafts could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the Debir, though they could not be seen from outside. They are still there today.


text:
There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets which Moses had placed in it at Horeb, the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh made with the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.


text:
and because of the cloud the priests could not stay and perform their duties. For the glory of Yahweh filled the Temple of Yahweh.


text:
The king then turned round and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while the whole assembly of Israel stood.


text:
He said, 'Blessed be Yahweh, God of Israel, who has carried out by his hand what he promised with his mouth to my father David, when he said,


text:
"From the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt I chose no city, in any of the tribes of Israel, to have a temple built where my name should be; but I did choose David to rule my people Israel."


text:
but Yahweh said to my father David, "You have set your heart on building a temple for my name, and in this you have done well;


text:
and yet, you are not the man to build the temple; but your son, yet to be born to you, will be the one to build the temple for my name."


text:
Yahweh has kept the promise which he made: I have succeeded my father David and am seated on the throne of Israel, as Yahweh promised; I have built the temple for the name of Yahweh, God of Israel,


text:
and in it I have made a place for the ark containing the covenant of Yahweh which he made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt.'


text:
Then, in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel, Solomon stood facing the altar of Yahweh and, stretching out his hands towards heaven,


text:
said, 'Yahweh, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, as loyal to the covenant and faithful in love to your servants as long as they walk wholeheartedly in your way.


text:
You have kept the promise you made to your servant, my father David, as you promised him you would. Today you have carried it out by your power.


text:
And now, Yahweh, God of Israel, keep the promise which you made to your servant David when you said, "You will never lack for a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, provided that your sons are careful how they behave, walking before me as you yourself have done."


text:
Yet will God really live with human beings on earth? Why, the heavens, the highest of the heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple built by me!


text:
Even so, listen favourably to the prayer and entreaty of your servant, Yahweh my God; listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant makes to you today:


text:
day and night may your eyes watch over this temple, over this place of which you have said, "My name will be there." Listen to the prayer which your servant offers in this place.


text:
'Listen to the entreaty of your servant and of your people Israel; whenever they pray in this place, listen from the place where you reside in heaven; and when you hear, forgive.


text:
'If someone has wronged his neighbour and a curse is laid on him to make him swear an oath here before your altar in this Temple,


text:
then listen from the place where you reside in heaven and do justice between your servants: condemning the guilty one by making him suffer for his conduct, and acquitting the upright by rewarding him as his uprightness deserves.


text:
'When your people Israel are defeated by the enemy because they have sinned against you, but then return to you and acknowledge your name, and pray and seek your favours in this Temple,


text:
then listen from the place where you reside in heaven; forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the country which you gave to their ancestors.


text:
'When the heavens are shut and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray in this place and praise your name and, having been humbled by you, desist from their sin,


text:
then listen from the place where you reside in heaven and forgive the sin of your servant and your people Israel -- for you are constantly showing them the good way which they must follow -- and send rain on your country, which you have given to your people as their heritage.


text:
'Should there be famine in the country, or pestilence, wind-blast or mildew, locust or caterpillar; should their enemy lay siege to one of their gates; should there be any plague or any disease:


text:
whatever be the prayer or entreaty of any individual aware of a particular affliction: when that person stretches out the hands towards this Temple,


text:
then listen from heaven where you reside; forgive and, since you know what is in the heart, deal with each as their conduct deserves -- for you alone know what is in every human heart-


text:
so that they may reverence you throughout their lives in the country which you gave to our ancestors.


text:
'Even the foreigner, not belonging to your people Israel but coming from a distant country, attracted by your name-


text:
for they too will hear of your name, of your mighty hand and outstretched arm -- if a foreigner comes and prays in this Temple,


text:
listen from heaven where you reside, and grant all that the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may acknowledge your name and, like your people Israel, revere you and know that this Temple, which I have built, bears your name.


text:
'If your people go out to war against the enemy, on whatever missions you send them, and they pray to Yahweh, turning towards the city which you have chosen and towards the Temple which I have built for your name,


text:
'When they sin against you -- for there is no one who does not sin -- and you are angry with them and abandon them to the enemy, and their captors carry them off to a hostile country, be it far away or near,


text:
if they come to their senses in the country to which they have been taken as captives and repent and entreat you in the country of their captors, saying, "We have sinned, we have acted perversely and wickedly,"


text:
and turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the country of the enemies who have taken them captive, and pray to you, turning towards the country which you gave to their ancestors, towards the city which you have chosen and towards the Temple which I have built for your name,


text:
listen to their prayer and their entreaty from the place where you reside in heaven, uphold their case,


text:
forgive your people for having sinned against you and for all the crimes against you of which they have been guilty, and allow them to arouse the pity of their captors so that these may have pity on them:


text:
'May your eyes be open to the entreaty of your servant and the entreaty of your people Israel, to listen to them, whatever they ask of you.


text:
For you it was who set them apart from all the peoples of the earth to be your heritage, as you declared through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, Lord Yahweh.'


text:
When Solomon had finished offering to Yahweh this whole prayer and entreaty, he rose from where he was kneeling with hands stretched out towards heaven before the altar of Yahweh,


text:
'Blessed be Yahweh,' he said, 'who has granted rest to his people Israel, keeping all his promises. Of all the promises of good that he made through his servant Moses, not one has failed.


text:
May he turn our hearts towards him so that we may follow all his ways and keep the commandments and laws and ordinances which he gave to our ancestors.


text:
May these words of mine, of my entreaty before Yahweh, be present with Yahweh our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of Israel his people, as each day requires,


text:
so that all the peoples of the earth may come to know that Yahweh is God indeed and that there is no other.


text:
May your hearts be wholly with Yahweh our God, following his laws and keeping his commandments as at this present day.'


text:
Solomon offered a communion sacrifice of twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep to Yahweh; and thus the king and all the Israelites dedicated the Temple of Yahweh.


text:
On the same day the king consecrated the middle part of the court in front of the Temple of Yahweh; for that was where he presented the burnt offerings, oblations and fatty parts of the communion sacrifices, since the bronze altar which stood before Yahweh was too small to hold the burnt offering, oblation and the fatty parts of the communion sacrifice.


text:
And then Solomon and with him all Israel from the Pass of Hamath to the Torrent of Egypt -- a great assembly -- celebrated the feast before Yahweh our God for seven days.


text:
On the eighth day he dismissed the people, who bade farewell to the king and went home joyful and happy of heart over all the goodness which Yahweh had shown to his servant and his people Israel.


text:
When Solomon had finished building the Temple of Yahweh, the royal palace and everything else which Solomon had wanted to do,


text:
Yahweh said to him, 'I have heard your prayer and the entreaty which you have before me. I consecrate this temple which you have built: I place my name there for ever; my eyes and my heart will be there always.


text:
For your part, if you walk before me in innocence of heart and in honesty, like your father David, if you do everything that I command and keep my laws and my ordinances,


text:
I shall make your royal throne secure over Israel for ever, as I promised your father David when I said, "You will never lack for a man on the throne of Israel."


text:
But if you turn away from me, either you or your descendants, and instead of keeping my commandments and laws which I have laid down for you, you go and serve other gods and worship them,


text:
then I shall banish Israel from the country which I have given them, and shall disown this Temple which I have consecrated for my name, and Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.


text:
As for this once-exalted Temple, everyone who passes by will be appalled, and they will whistle and say, "Why has Yahweh treated this country and this Temple like this?"


text:
And the answer will be, "Because they deserted Yahweh their God who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshipped and served them; that is why Yahweh has brought all these disasters on them." '


text:
At the end of the twenty years that it took Solomon to erect the two buildings, the Temple of Yahweh and the royal palace


text:
(Hiram king of Tyre had provided Solomon with all the cedar wood, juniper wood and gold that he wanted), King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the territory of Galilee.


text:
But when Hiram came from Tyre to view the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them.


text:
He said, 'What kind of towns are these you have given me, brother?' And to this day they are known as 'cabul-land'.


text:
This is an account of the forced labour levied by King Solomon for building the Temple of Yahweh, his own palace, the Millo and the fortifications of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer


text:
(Pharaoh king of Egypt mounted an expedition, captured Gezer, burnt it down and massacred the Canaanites living there; he then gave the town as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife,


text:
all Solomon's storage towns owned by Solomon, all the towns for his chariots and horses, and whatever Solomon was pleased to build in Jerusalem, in the Lebanon and in all the countries under his rule.


text:
All those who survived of the Amorite, Hittite, Perizzite, Hivite and Jebusite peoples, who were not Israelites-


text:
their descendants still remaining in the country on whom the Israelites had not been able to enforce the curse of destruction -- these Solomon levied as forced labourers, as is still the case today.


text:
Solomon did not, however, impose forced labour on the Israelites; for they were soldiers, his officials, his administrators, his officers and his chariot and cavalry commanders.


text:
There were five hundred and fifty officials in charge of the foremen over Solomon's work, who supervised the people employed on the work.


text:
After Pharaoh's daughter had moved from the City of David up to the palace which he had built for her, he then built the Millo.


text:
Three times a year Solomon presented burnt offerings and communion sacrifices on the altar which he had built for Yahweh and set his burnt offerings smoking before Yahweh. Thus he completed the Temple.


text:
King Solomon equipped a fleet at Ezion-Geber, which is near Elath on the shores of the Red Sea, in Edom.


text:
For this fleet Hiram sent men of his, experienced sailors, to serve with those in Solomon's service.


text:
They went to Ophir and took on four hundred and twenty talents of gold, which they brought back to Solomon.


text:
She arrived in Jerusalem with a very large retinue, with camels laden with spices and an immense quantity of gold and precious stones. Having reached Solomon, she discussed with him everything that she had in mind,


text:
and Solomon had an answer for all her questions; not one of them was too obscure for the king to answer for her.


text:
the food at his table, the accommodation for his officials, the organisation of his staff and the way they were dressed, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings which he presented in the Temple of Yahweh, it left her breathless,


text:
and she said to the king, 'The report I heard in my own country about your wisdom in handling your affairs was true then!


text:
Until I came and saw for myself, I did not believe the reports, but clearly I was told less than half: for wisdom and prosperity, you surpass what was reported to me.


text:
How fortunate your wives are! How fortunate these courtiers of yours, continually in attendance on you and listening to your wisdom!


text:
Blessed be Yahweh your God who has shown you his favour by setting you on the throne of Israel! Because of Yahweh's everlasting love for Israel, he has made you king to administer law and justice.'


text:
And she presented the king with a hundred and twenty talents of gold and great quantities of spices and precious stones; no such wealth of spices ever came again as those which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.


text:
Similarly, Hiram's fleet, which brought the gold from Ophir, also brought back great cargoes of almug timber and precious stones.


text:
Of the almug timber the king made supports for the Temple of Yahweh and for the royal palace, and harps and lyres for the musicians; no more of this almug timber has since come or been seen to this day.


text:
And King Solomon, in his turn, presented the queen of Sheba with everything that she expressed a wish for, besides those presents which he gave her with a munificence worthy of King Solomon. After which, she went home to her own country, she and her servants.


text:
The weight of gold received annually by Solomon amounted to six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,


text:
besides what tolls and foreign trade, as well as everything the Arab kings and the provincial governors brought in.


text:
King Solomon made two hundred great shields of beaten gold, six hundred shekels of gold going into one shield;


text:
also three hundred small shields of beaten gold, three mina of gold going into one shield; and the king put these into the House of the Forest of Lebanon.


text:
The throne had six steps, a back with a rounded top, and arms on each side of the seat; two lions stood beside the arms,


text:
and twelve lions stood on each side of the six steps. Nothing like it has ever been made in any other kingdom.


text:
All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the plate in the House of the Forest of Lebanon was of pure gold; silver was little thought of in Solomon's days,


text:
since the king had a fleet of Tarshish at sea with Hiram's fleet, and once every three years the fleet of Tarshish would come back laden with gold and silver, ivory, apes and baboons.


text:
and everyone would bring a present with him: things made of silver, things made of gold, robes, armour, spices, horses and mules; and this went on year after year.


text:
Solomon then built up a force of chariots and cavalry; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, these he stationed in the chariot towns and near the king in Jerusalem.


text:
In Jerusalem the king made silver as common as stones, and cedar wood as plentiful as sycamore in the lowlands.


text:
Solomon's horses were imported from Muzur and Cilicia. The king's dealers acquired them from Cilicia at the prevailing price.


text:
A chariot was imported from Egypt for six hundred silver shekels and a horse from Cilicia for a hundred and fifty. They also supplied the Hittite and Aramaean kings, who all used them as middlemen.


text:
King Solomon loved many foreign women: not only Pharaoh's daughter but Moabites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites,


text:
from those peoples of whom Yahweh had said to the Israelites, 'You are not to go among them nor they among you, or they will be sure to sway your hearts to their own gods.' But Solomon was deeply attached to them.


text:
When Solomon grew old his wives swayed his heart to other gods; and his heart was not wholly with Yahweh his God as his father David's had been.


text:
Solomon became a follower of Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and of Milcom, the Ammonite abomination.


text:
He did what was displeasing to Yahweh, and was not a wholehearted follower of Yahweh, as his father David had been.


text:
Then it was that Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, on the mountain to the east of Jerusalem, and to Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.


text:
Yahweh was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from Yahweh, God of Israel, who had twice appeared to him


text:
Yahweh therefore said to Solomon, 'Since you have behaved like this and have not kept my covenant or the laws which I laid down for you, I shall tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants.


text:
For your father David's sake, however, I shall not do this during your lifetime, but shall tear it out of your son's hands.


text:
Even so, I shall not tear the whole kingdom from him. For the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen, I shall leave your son one tribe.'


text:
After David had crushed Edom, Joab the army commander had gone to bury the dead and had slaughtered the entire male population of Edom


text:
(Joab stayed there with all Israel for six months until he had exterminated the entire male population of Edom),


text:
but Hadad with a number of Edomites in his father's service had fled to Egypt. Hadad had been only a boy at the time.


text:
They set out from Midian, and on reaching Paran, took a number of men from Paran with them and went on to Egypt, to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, who provided him with a house, undertook to maintain him, and assigned him an estate.


text:
Hadad became a great favourite of Pharaoh who gave him his own wife's sister in marriage, the sister of the Great Lady Tahpenes.


text:
The sister of Tahpenes bore him his son Genubath whom Tahpenes brought up in Pharaoh's palace, Genubath living in Pharaoh's palace with Pharaoh's own children.


text:
But when news reached Hadad in Egypt that David had fallen asleep with his ancestors and that Joab the army commander was dead, he said to Pharaoh, 'Give me leave to go that I may return to my own country.'


text:
'What do you lack here with me,' Pharaoh said, 'for you to want to go back to your country?' 'Nothing,' he replied, 'but please let me go.'Hence the harm which Hadad caused: he loathed Israel and ruled Edom.


text:
God raised a second enemy against Solomon, Rezon son of Eliada. He had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah.


text:
A number of men having rallied to him, he became leader of a marauding band (which was then massacred by David). Rezon captured Damascus and settled there and became king of Damascus.


text:
Jeroboam was the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zeredah; the name of his mother, a widow, was Zeruah; he was in Solomon's service but revolted against the king.


text:
This is the account of his revolt. Solomon was building the Millo and closing the breach in the City of David his father.


text:
Now this Jeroboam was a man of great energy; Solomon, noticing how the young man set about his work, put him in charge of all the forced labour of the House of Joseph.


text:
One day when Jeroboam had gone out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh accosted him on the road. Ahijah was wearing a new cloak; the two of them were in the open country by themselves.


text:
saying to Jeroboam: 'Take ten strips for yourself, for Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, "I am going to tear the kingdom from Solomon's hand and give ten tribes to you.


text:
He will keep one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel;


text:
for he has forsaken me to worship Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, Milcom the god of the Ammonites; he has not followed my ways by doing what I regard as right, or by keeping my laws and ordinances as his father David did.


text:
But it is not from his hands that I will take the kingdom, since I have made him a prince for as long as he lives, for the sake of my servant David who kept my commandments and laws.


text:
I shall, however, take the kingdom from the hand of his son, and I shall give it to you, that is, the ten tribes.


text:
I shall give one tribe to his son, so that my servant David may always have a lamp in my presence in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen as a dwelling-place for my name.


text:
If you listen to all my orders and follow my ways, by doing what I regard as right and by keeping my laws and commandments as my servant David did, then I shall be with you and shall build you as enduring a dynasty as the one which I built for David. I shall give Israel to you,


text:
Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam but he made off and fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and he remained in Egypt until Solomon's death.


text:
The rest of the history of Solomon, his entire career, his wisdom, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of Solomon?


text:
When Solomon fell asleep with his ancestors, he was buried in the City of David his father; his son Rehoboam succeeded him.


text:
(As soon as Jeroboam son of Nebat heard the news -- he was still in Egypt, where he had taken refuge from King Solomon -- he returned from Egypt.


text:
They now sent for him, and Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came.) And they spoke as follows to Rehoboam,


text:
'Your father laid a cruel yoke on us; if you will lighten your father's cruel slavery, that heavy yoke which he imposed on us, we are willing to serve you.'


text:
King Rehoboam then consulted the elders who had been in attendance on his father Solomon while he was alive, and said, 'How do you advise me to answer this people?'


text:
They replied, 'If you become the servant of this people today, and submit to them and give them a fair reply, then they will remain your servants for ever.'


text:
But he rejected the advice given him by the elders and consulted the young men in attendance on him, who had grown up with him.


text:
He said, 'How do you advise us to answer these people who have been saying, "Lighten the yoke which your father imposed on us!"? '


text:
The young men who had grown up with him replied, 'This is the way to answer these people who have been saying, "Your father made our yoke heavy, you must lighten it for us!" This is the right thing to say to them, "My little finger is thicker than my father's loins.


text:
Although my father laid a heavy yoke on you, I shall make it heavier still. My father controlled you with the whip, but I shall apply a spiked lash!" '


text:
On the third day Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam in obedience to the king's instruction: 'Come back to me in three days' time.'


text:
and speaking to them as the young men had recommended, 'My father made your yoke heavy, I shall make it heavier still! My father controlled you with the whip, but I shall apply a spiked lash!'


text:
Thus the king refused to listen to the people, and this was brought about by Yahweh to fulfil the promise which he had made through Ahijah of Shiloh to Jeroboam son of Nebat.


text:
When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, the people answered the king thus: What share have we in David? -No heritage in the son of Jesse! Away to your tents, Israel! Now look after your own House, David! So Israel went home again.


text:
When King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was in charge of forced labour, all Israel stoned him to death, while King Rehoboam managed to mount his chariot and escape to Jerusalem.


text:
When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king of all Israel; no one remained loyal to the House of David, except the tribe of Judah.


text:
When Rehoboam reached Jerusalem he mustered the whole House of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand picked warriors, to fight the House of Israel and win back the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.


text:
'Say this to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to the whole House of Judah, to Benjamin and to the rest of the people,


text:
"Yahweh says this: Do not go and make war on your brothers, the Israelites; let everyone go home, for this is my doing." ' They obeyed the command of Yahweh and turned back in accordance with his word.


text:
Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the mountain country of Ephraim and made that his residence. Then, leaving there, he fortified Penuel.


text:
If this people continues to go up to the Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, the people's heart will turn back again to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will put me to death.'


text:
So the king thought this over and then made two golden calves; he said to the people, 'You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here is your God, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt!'


text:
and the people went in procession in front of the other one all the way to Dan. In Israel this gave rise to sin, for the people went to Bethel to worship the one, and all the way to Dan to worship the other.


text:
He set up shrines on the high places and appointed priests from ordinary families, who were not of levitical descent.


text:
Jeroboam also instituted a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth of the month, like the feast kept in Judah, when he offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did at Bethel, offering sacrifices to the calves which he had made and, at Bethel, installing the priests of the high places which he had set up.


text:
On the fifteenth of the eighth month, the month which he had chosen deliberately, he offered sacrifices on the altar which he had made at Bethel; he instituted a feast for the Israelites and himself went up to the altar to burn the sacrifice.


text:
There came to Bethel at Yahweh's command a man of God from Judah, just as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer the sacrifice,


text:
and at Yahweh's command this man denounced the altar. 'Altar, altar,' he said, 'Yahweh says this, "A son is to be born to the House of David, Josiah by name, and on you he will slaughter the priests of the high places who have offered sacrifice on you, and on you he will burn human bones." '


text:
At the same time he gave a sign. 'This is the sign', he said, 'that Yahweh has spoken, "This altar will burst apart and the ashes which are on it will be spilt." '


text:
When the king heard how the man of God denounced the altar of Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, 'Seize him!' But the hand he stretched out against the man withered, and he could not draw it back,


text:
and the altar burst apart and the ashes from the altar were spilt, in accordance with the sign given by the man of God at Yahweh's command.


text:
The king said to the man of God, 'I beg you to placate Yahweh your God, and so restore me the use of my hand.' The man of God placated Yahweh; the king's hand was restored as it had been before.


text:
The king then said to the man of God, 'Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I shall give you a present,'


text:
but the man of God replied to the king, 'Were you to give me half your palace, I would not go with you. I will eat and drink nothing here,


text:
for I have had Yahweh's order, "You are to eat or drink nothing, nor to return by the way you came." '


text:
Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel, and his sons came to tell him all that the man of God had done in Bethel that day; and the words which he had said to the king, they told these to their father too.


text:
'Which road did he take?' their father asked. His sons showed him the road which the man of God who came from Judah had taken.


text:
He followed the man of God and found him sitting under a terebinth. 'Are you the man of God', he said, 'who came from Judah?' 'I am,' he replied.


text:
for I have received Yahweh's order, "You are to eat or drink nothing there, nor to return by the way you came." '


text:
'I too am a prophet like you,' the other replied, 'and an angel told me this by Yahweh's command, "Bring him back with you to your house to eat and drink." ' He was lying to him.


text:
and he addressed the man of God who came from Judah. 'Yahweh says this,' he said. ' "Since you have defied Yahweh's command and not obeyed the orders which Yahweh your God gave you,


text:
but have come back and eaten and drunk where he forbade you to eat and drink, your corpse will never reach the tomb of your ancestors." '


text:
After he had eaten and drunk, the prophet saddled the donkey for him, and he turned about and went away.


text:
A lion met him on the road and killed him; his corpse lay stretched out on the road; the donkey stood there beside it; the lion stood by the corpse too.


text:
People going by saw the corpse lying on the road and the lion standing by the corpse, and went and spoke about it in the town where the old prophet lived.


text:
When the prophet who had made the man turn back heard about it, he said, 'That is the man of God who defied Yahweh's command! Yahweh has handed him over to the lion, which has mauled and killed him, just as Yahweh had foretold it would.'


text:
He set off and found the man's corpse lying on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse; the lion had neither eaten the corpse nor mauled the donkey.


text:
The prophet lifted the corpse of the man of God and put it on the donkey and brought it back to the town where he lived to hold mourning for him and bury him.


text:
After burying him, the prophet said to his sons, 'When I die, bury me in the same tomb as the man of God, lay my bones beside his.


text:
For the word he uttered at Yahweh's command against the altar of Bethel and against all the shrines of the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.'


text:
Jeroboam did not give up his wicked ways after this incident, but went on appointing priests for the high places from the common people. He consecrated as priests of the high places any who wished to be.


text:
Such conduct made the House of Jeroboam a sinful House, and caused its ruin and extinction from the face of the earth.


text:
and Jeroboam said to his wife, 'Come, please disguise yourself so that no one will recognise you as Jeroboam's wife, and go to Shiloh; the prophet Ahijah is there, the man who said I was to be king of this people.


text:
Go to him, and take ten loaves and some savoury food and a jar of honey; he will tell you what will happen to the child.'


text:
Now Ahijah could not see, his eyes were fixed with age, but Yahweh had told him, 'Jeroboam's wife is now on her way to ask you for a prophecy about her son, as he is sick. You will tell her such and such. When she comes, she will pretend to be some other woman.'


text:
So when Ahijah heard her footsteps at the door, he called, 'Come in, wife of Jeroboam; why pretend to be someone else? I have bad news for you.


text:
Go and tell Jeroboam, "Yahweh, God of Israel, says this: I raised you from the people and made you leader of my people Israel;


text:
I tore the kingdom from the House of David and gave it to you. But you have not been like my servant David who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart, doing only what I regard as right;


text:
you have done more evil than all your predecessors, you have gone and made yourself other gods, idols of cast metal, provoking my anger, and you have turned your back on me.


text:
For this I shall bring disaster on the House of Jeroboam, I shall wipe out every manjack of the family of Jeroboam, fettered or free in Israel, I shall sweep away the House of Jeroboam as a man sweeps dung away till none is left.


text:
Those of Jeroboam's family who die in the city, the dogs will eat; and those who die in the open country, the birds of the air will eat, for Yahweh has spoken."


text:
All Israel will mourn for him, and bury him; and he alone of Jeroboam's family will have a proper burial, for in him alone of the House of Jeroboam can Yahweh, God of Israel, find anything good.


text:
Yahweh will make Israel shake, till it quivers like a reed in the water; he will uproot Israel from this prosperous land which he gave to their ancestors and scatter them beyond the River for provoking Yahweh to anger by making their sacred poles.


text:
Jeroboam's wife rose and left. She arrived at Tirzah, and when she crossed the threshold of the palace, the child was already dead.


text:
They buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, just as Yahweh had foretold through his servant Ahijah the prophet.


text:
The rest of the history of Jeroboam, what wars he waged, how he governed, this is recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel.


text:
Jeroboam's reign lasted twenty-two years. Then he fell asleep with his ancestors; his son Nadab succeeded him.


text:
In Judah, Rehoboam son of Solomon became king; he was forty-one years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which Yahweh had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to give his name a home there. His mother's name was Naamah, the Ammonite.


text:
He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, arousing his resentment more than his ancestors by all the sins which they had committed;


text:
they had built themselves high places, and had set up pillars and sacred poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree.


text:
There were even male sacred prostitutes in the country. He copied all the shameful practices of the nations whom Yahweh had dispossessed for the Israelites.


text:
And so it happened that in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt advanced on Jerusalem


text:
and carried off all the treasures of the Temple of Yahweh and the treasures of the royal palace; he took everything away, including all the golden shields which Solomon had made.


text:
To replace those King Rehoboam made bronze shields, entrusting them to the commanders of the guard who guarded the king's palace gate.


text:
Whenever the king went to the Temple of Yahweh, the guards would carry them, returning them to the guardroom afterwards.


text:
The rest of the history of Rehoboam, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?


text:
When Rehoboam fell asleep with his ancestors, he was buried in the City of David; his son Abijam succeeded him.


text:
In everything he followed the sinful example of his father before him; his heart was not wholly with Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his ancestor had been.


text:
However, for David's sake, Yahweh his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, with a son to succeed him, so keeping Jerusalem secure;


text:
for David had done what Yahweh regarded as right and had never in all his life disobeyed whatever he commanded him (except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite).


text:
The rest of the history of Abijam, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? Abijam and Jeroboam made war on each other.


text:
When Abijam fell asleep with his ancestors, he was buried in the City of David; his son Asa succeeded him.


text:
He drove the male prostitutes out of the country and got rid of all the idols which his ancestors had made.


text:
He even deprived his grandmother Maacah of the dignity of Great Lady for having made an obscenity for Asherah; Asa cut down her obscenity and burnt it in the ravine of the Kidron.


text:
He deposited his father's and his own dedicated gifts of silver, gold and sacred vessels in the Temple of Yahweh.


text:
Asa then took all the remaining silver and gold left in the treasuries of the Temple of Yahweh and the royal palace. Entrusting this to his servants, King Asa sent them with the following message to Ben-Hadad son of Tabrimmon, son of Hezion, the king of Aram who lived in Damascus,


text:
'Let us make an alliance between myself and yourself, between my father and your father! Look, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Come, break off your alliance with Baasha king of Israel, which will make him withdraw from me.'


text:
Ben-Hadad listened favourably to King Asa, and sent the generals of his armies to attack the towns of Israel; he ravaged Ijon, Dan, Abel-Beth-Maacah, all Chinneroth, and the whole territory of Naphtali.


text:
King Asa then summoned all Judah, no one was exempt; they took away the stones and timber with which Baasha had been fortifying Ramah, and King Asa used them to fortify Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah.


text:
The rest of the history of Asa, all his valour, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? In his old age, however, he contracted a disease of his feet.


text:
When Asa fell asleep with his ancestors, he was buried with his ancestors in the City of his ancestor David; his son Jehoshaphat succeeded him.


text:
Nadab son of Jeroboam became king of Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel for two years.


text:
He did what is displeasing to Yahweh; he copied his father's example and the sin into which he had led Israel.


text:
Baasha son of Ahijah, of the House of Issachar, plotted against him and murdered him at Gibbethon, a Philistine town which Nadab and all Israel were besieging.


text:
No sooner was he king than he butchered the entire House of Jeroboam, not sparing a soul, and put an end to it, just as Yahweh had foretold through his servant Ahijah of Shiloh,


text:
because of the sins which he had committed and into which he had led Israel, and because he had provoked the anger of Yahweh, God of Israel.


text:
In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king of Israel at Tirzah for twenty-four years.


text:
He did what is displeasing to Yahweh; he copied the example of Jeroboam and the sin into which he had led Israel.


text:
'I raised you from the dust and made you leader of my people Israel, but you have followed Jeroboam's example and led my people Israel into sins which provoke my anger.


text:
Now I shall sweep away Baasha and his House; I shall make your House like the House of Jeroboam son of Nebat.


text:
Those of Baasha's family who die in the city, the dogs will eat; and those who die in the open country, the birds of the air will eat.'


text:
The rest of the history of Baasha, his career, his valour, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?


text:
Furthermore, the word of Yahweh was delivered through the prophet Jehu son of Hanani against Baasha and his House, first because of the many ways in which he had displeased Yahweh, provoking him to anger by his actions and becoming like the House of Jeroboam; secondly because he had destroyed that House.


text:
In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah son of Baasha became king of Israel at Tirzah, for two years.


text:
Zimri, one of his officers, captain of half his chariotry, plotted against him. While he was at Tirzah, drinking himself senseless in the house of Arza who was master of the palace in Tirzah,


text:
Zimri came in, struck him down and killed him in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and succeeded him.


text:
On his accession, as soon as he was seated on the throne, he butchered Baasha's entire family, not leaving him one manjack of them alive, neither relative nor friend.


text:
Zimri destroyed the whole House of Baasha, in accordance with the word which Yahweh had spoken against Baasha through the prophet Jehu,


text:
because of all the sins of Baasha and his son Elah into which they had led Israel, provoking the anger of Yahweh, God of Israel, with their worthless idols.


text:
The history of Elah, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?


text:
In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri became king for seven days, at Tirzah. The people were then encamped in front of Gibbethon, a Philistine town.


text:
When news reached the camp of how Zimri had not only plotted against but actually killed the king, all Israel proclaimed the army commander Omri as king of Israel in the camp that very day.


text:
When Zimri saw that the town had been captured, he went into the keep of the royal palace, burned the palace over his own head, and died.


text:
This was because of the sin which he had committed in doing what is displeasing to Yahweh, by copying the example of Jeroboam and the sin into which he had led Israel.


text:
The rest of the history of Zimri and of his conspiracy, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?


text:
The people of Israel then split into two factions: one half following Tibni son of Ginath to make him king, the other half following Omri.


text:
But the faction of Omri proved stronger than that of Tibni son of Ginath; thus Tibni lost his life and Omri became king.


text:
In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king of Israel and reigned for twelve years. He reigned for six years at Tirzah.


text:
Then for two talents of silver he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer and on it built a town which he named Samaria after Shemer who had owned the hill.


text:
In every way he copied the example of Jeroboam son of Nebat and the sins into which he had led Israel, provoking the anger of Yahweh, God of Israel, with their worthless idols.


text:
The rest of the history of Omri, his career, his valour, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?


text:
Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned over Israel for twenty-two years in Samaria.


text:
The least that he did was to follow the sinful example of Jeroboam son of Nebat: he married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and then proceeded to serve Baal and worship him.


text:
Ahab also put up a sacred pole and committed other crimes as well, provoking the anger of Yahweh, God of Israel, more than all the kings of Israel his predecessors.


text:
It was in his time that Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. Laying its foundations cost him his eldest son Abiram and erecting its gates cost him his youngest son Segub, just as Yahweh had foretold through Joshua son of Nun.


text:
Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, 'By the life of Yahweh, God of Israel, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain these coming years unless I give the word.'


text:
So he set out and did as Yahweh had said; he went and stayed by the torrent of Cherith, east of the Jordan.


text:
The ravens brought him bread in the morning and meat in the evening, and he quenched his thirst at the stream.


text:
So he went off to Sidon. And when he reached the city gate, there was a widow gathering sticks. Addressing her he said, 'Please bring a little water in a pitcher for me to drink.'


text:
She was on her way to fetch it when he called after her. 'Please', he said, 'bring me a scrap of bread in your hand.'


text:
'As Yahweh your God lives,' she replied, 'I have no baked bread, but only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug; I am just gathering a stick or two to go and prepare this for myself and my son to eat, and then we shall die.'


text:
But Elijah said to her, 'Do not be afraid, go and do as you have said; but first make a little scone of it for me and bring it to me, and then make some for yourself and for your son.


text:
For Yahweh, God of Israel, says this: Jar of meal shall not be spent, jug of oil shall not be emptied, before the day when Yahweh sends rain on the face of the earth.'


text:
The jar of meal was not spent nor the jug of oil emptied, just as Yahweh had foretold through Elijah.


text:
It happened after this that the son of the mistress of the house fell sick; his illness was so severe that in the end he expired.


text:
And the woman said to Elijah, 'What quarrel have you with me, man of God? Have you come here to bring my sins home to me and to kill my son?'


text:
'Give me your son,' he said and, taking him from her lap, he carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his bed.


text:
He cried out to Yahweh, 'Yahweh my God, by killing her son do you mean to bring grief even to the widow who is looking after me?'


text:
He stretched himself on the child three times and cried out to Yahweh, 'Yahweh my God, may the soul of this child, I beg you, come into him again!'


text:
Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. 'Look,' Elijah said, 'your son is alive.'


text:
And the woman replied, 'Now I know you are a man of God and the word of Yahweh in your mouth is truth itself.'


text:
A long time went by, and the word of Yahweh came to Elijah in the third year, 'Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the country.'


text:
when Jezebel was butchering the prophets of Yahweh, Obadiah took a hundred of them and hid them, fifty at a time, in a cave, and kept them provided with food and water-


text:
and Ahab said to Obadiah, 'Come along, we must scour the country, all the springs and all the ravines in the hope of finding grass to keep horses and mules alive, or we shall have to slaughter some of our stock.'


text:
They divided the country for the purpose of their survey; Ahab went one way by himself and Obadiah went another way by himself.


text:
While Obadiah was on his way, whom should he meet but Elijah. Recognising him he fell on his face and said, 'So it is you, my lord Elijah!'


text:
But Obadiah said, 'What sin I have committed, for you to put your servant into Ahab's power and cause my death?


text:
As Yahweh your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent in search of you; and when they said, "He is not there," he made the kingdom or nation swear an oath that they did not know where you were.


text:
But as soon as I leave you, the spirit of Yahweh will carry you away and I shall not know where; I shall go and tell Ahab; he will not be able to find you, and then he will kill me. Yet from his youth your servant has revered Yahweh.


text:
Has no one told my lord what I did when Jezebel butchered the prophets of Yahweh, how I hid a hundred of them in a cave, fifty at a time, and kept them provided with food and water?


text:
'Not I,' he replied, 'I am not the scourge of Israel, you and your family are; because you have deserted Yahweh and followed Baal.


text:
Now give orders for all Israel to gather round me on Mount Carmel, and also the four hundred prophets of Baal who eat at Jezebel's table.'


text:
Elijah stepped out in front of all the people. 'How long', he said, 'do you mean to hobble first on one leg then on the other? If Yahweh is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.' But the people had nothing to say.


text:
Elijah then said to them, 'I, I alone, am left as a prophet of Yahweh, while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty.


text:
Let two bulls be given us; let them choose one for themselves, dismember it but not set fire to it. I in my turn shall prepare the other bull, but not set fire to it.


text:
You must call on the name of your god, and I shall call on the name of Yahweh; the god who answers with fire, is God indeed.' The people all answered, 'Agreed!'


text:
Elijah then said to the prophets of Baal, 'Choose one bull and begin, for there are more of you. Call on the name of your god but light no fire.'


text:
They took the bull and prepared it, and from morning to midday they called on the name of Baal. 'O Baal, answer us!' they cried, but there was no voice, no answer, as they performed their hobbling dance round the altar which they had made.


text:
Midday came, and Elijah mocked them. 'Call louder,' he said, 'for he is a god: he is preoccupied or he is busy, or he has gone on a journey; perhaps he is asleep and needs to be woken up!'


text:
So they shouted louder and gashed themselves, as their custom was, with swords and spears until the blood flowed down them.


text:
Midday passed, and they ranted on until the time when the offering is presented; but there was no voice, no answer, no sign of attention.


text:
Then Elijah said to all the people, 'Come over to me,' and all the people came over to him. He repaired Yahweh's altar which had been torn down.


text:
Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Yahweh had come, 'Israel is to be your name,'


text:
and built an altar in the name of Yahweh. Round the altar he dug a trench of a size to hold two measures of seed.


text:
Then he said, 'Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.' They did this. He said, 'Do it a second time;' they did it a second time. He said, 'Do it a third time;' they did it a third time.


text:
At the time when the offering is presented, Elijah the prophet stepped forward. 'Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel,' he said, 'let them know today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, that I have done all these things at your command.


text:
Answer me, Yahweh, answer me, so that this people may know that you, Yahweh, are God and are winning back their hearts.'


text:
Then Yahweh's fire fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and licked up the water in the trench.


text:
When all the people saw this they fell on their faces. 'Yahweh is God,' they cried, 'Yahweh is God!'


text:
Elijah said, 'Seize the prophets of Baal: do not let one of them escape.' They seized them, and Elijah took them down to the Kishon, and there he slaughtered them.


text:
While Ahab went back to eat and drink, Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel and bowed down to the ground, putting his face between his knees.


text:
'Now go up', he told his servant, 'and look out to sea.' He went up and looked. 'There is nothing at all,' he said. Seven times Elijah told him to go back.


text:
The seventh time, the servant said, 'Now there is a cloud, small as a man's hand, rising from the sea.' Elijah said, 'Go and say to Ahab, "Harness the chariot and go down before the rain stops you." '


text:
And with that the sky grew dark with cloud and storm, and rain fell in torrents. Ahab mounted his chariot and made for Jezreel.


text:
But the hand of Yahweh had come on Elijah and, hitching up his clothes, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.


text:
When Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done, and how he had put all the prophets to the sword,


text:
Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, 'May the gods bring unnameable ills on me and worse ills too, if by this time tomorrow I have not made your life like one of theirs!'


text:
He was afraid and fled for his life. He came to Beersheba, a town of Judah, where he left his servant.


text:
He himself went on into the desert, a day's journey, and sitting under a furze bush wished he were dead. 'Yahweh,' he said, 'I have had enough. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.'


text:
Then he lay down and went to sleep. Then all of a sudden an angel touched him and said, 'Get up and eat.'


text:
He looked round, and there at his head was a scone baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.


text:
But the angel of Yahweh came back a second time and touched him and said, 'Get up and eat, or the journey will be too long for you.'


text:
So he got up and ate and drank, and strengthened by that food he walked for forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, God's mountain.


text:
There he went into a cave and spent the night there. Then the word of Yahweh came to him saying, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?'


text:
He replied, 'I am full of jealous zeal for Yahweh Sabaoth, because the Israelites have abandoned your covenant, have torn down your altars and put your prophets to the sword. I am the only one left, and now they want to kill me.'


text:
Then he was told, 'Go out and stand on the mountain before Yahweh.' For at that moment Yahweh was going by. A mighty hurricane split the mountains and shattered the rocks before Yahweh. But Yahweh was not in the hurricane. And after the hurricane, an earthquake. But Yahweh was not in the earthquake.


text:
And after the earthquake, fire. But Yahweh was not in the fire. And after the fire, a light murmuring sound.


text:
And when Elijah heard this, he covered his face with his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then a voice came to him, which said, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?'


text:
He replied, 'I am full of jealous zeal for Yahweh, God Sabaoth, because the Israelites have abandoned your covenant, have torn down your altars and put your prophets to the sword. I am the only one left and now they want to kill me.'


text:
'Go,' Yahweh said, 'go back by the same way to the desert of Damascus. You must go and anoint Hazael as king of Aram.


text:
You must anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king of Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat, of Abel-Meholah, as prophet to succeed you.


text:
Anyone who escapes the sword of Hazael will be put to death by Jehu; and anyone who escapes the sword of Jehu will be put to death by Elisha.


text:
But I shall spare seven thousand in Israel; all the knees that have not bent before Baal, all the mouths that have not kissed him.'


text:
Leaving there, he came on Elisha son of Shaphat as he was ploughing behind twelve yoke of oxen, he himself being with the twelfth. Elijah passed near to him and threw his cloak over him.


text:
Elisha left his oxen and ran after Elijah. 'Let me kiss my father and mother, then I will follow you,' he said. Elijah answered, 'Go, go back; for have I done anything to you?'


text:
Elisha turned away, took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He used the oxen's tackle for cooking the meat, which he gave the people to eat. He then rose and, following Elijah, became his servant.


text:
Ben-Hadad king of Aram mustered his whole army -- thirty-two kings were with him, and horses and chariots -- and marched on Samaria, to besiege it and take it by assault.


text:
The messengers came again, this time they said, 'Ben-Hadad says this, "I have already sent you an order to hand over your silver and your gold, your wives and your children;


text:
but I swear, this time tomorrow, I shall send my servants to ransack your house and your servants' houses and lay hands on everything that they value and take it away." '


text:
The king of Israel summoned all the elders of the country and said, 'You can see clearly how this man intends to ruin us. He has already demanded my wives and my children, although I have not refused him my silver and gold.'


text:
So he gave this answer to Ben-Hadad's messengers, 'Say to my lord the king, "All you first required of your servant I will do, but this I cannot do." ' And the messengers went back with the answer.


text:
Ben-Hadad then sent him the following message, 'May the gods bring unnameable ills on me and worse ills too, if there is enough dust in Samaria for each of my followers to have a handful!'


text:
But the king of Israel returned this answer, 'Say: the man who puts on his armour is not the one to boast, but the man who takes it off.'


text:
When Ben-Hadad heard this message -- he was under the awnings drinking with the kings -- he gave orders to his servants, 'Take up position!' And they took up their positions against the city.


text:
A prophet then arrived, looking for Ahab king of Israel. 'Yahweh says this,' he said. ' "You have seen this huge army? This very day I shall deliver it into your hands, and you will know that I am Yahweh." '


text:
'By whose means?' Ahab asked. The prophet replied, 'Yahweh says this, "By means of the guards of the district governors." ' 'Who will co-ordinate the attack?' Ahab asked. 'You will,' the prophet replied.


text:
So Ahab inspected the guards of the district governors: there were two hundred and thirty-two. After these he reviewed the army, all the Israelites: there were seven thousand.


text:
They made a sortie at midday, when Ben-Hadad was drinking himself senseless under the awnings, he and the thirty-two kings who were allies.


text:
The guards of the district governors led the sortie. A report was made to Ben-Hadad: 'Some men have come out of Samaria.'


text:
He said, 'If they have come out for peace, take them alive; if they have come out for war, take them alive too.'


text:
and each struck down his man. Aram took to flight and Israel pursued; Ben-Hadad king of Aram escaped on horseback.


text:
The king of Israel then advanced, capturing horses and chariots and inflicting a great defeat on Aram.


text:
The prophet then went to the king of Israel and said, 'Now is the time to be resolute and think carefully about what you should do, for at the turn of the year the king of Aram will march against you.'


text:
The servants of the king of Aram said to him, 'Their gods are gods of the mountains; that is why they have proved stronger than we are. But if we fight them on level ground, we shall certainly beat them.


text:
This is what you must do: remove all these kings from their commands and appoint professional soldiers in their place.


text:
You, for your part, must recruit an army as large as the one which deserted you, with as many horses and as many chariots; then if we fight them on level ground, we shall certainly beat them.' He listened to their advice and acted accordingly.


text:
The Israelites were already mobilised and provisioned, and marched out to meet them. Encamped opposite them, the Israelites looked like two herds of goats, whereas the Aramaeans filled the countryside.


text:
The man of God then went to the king of Israel and said, 'Yahweh says this, "Since Aram has said that Yahweh is a god of the mountains and not a god of the plains, I shall put the whole of this huge army into your power, and you will know that I am Yahweh." '


text:
For seven days they were encamped opposite each other. On the seventh day battle was joined and the Israelites slaughtered the Aramaeans, a hundred thousand foot soldiers in one day.


text:
The rest fled to Aphek, into the citadel, but the city walls collapsed on twenty-seven thousand of the survivors. Now Ben-Hadad had fled and taken refuge in an inner room inside the citadel.


text:
'Look,' his servants said to him, 'we have heard that the kings of Israel are faithful and kind kings. Let us put sackcloth round our waists and cords round our heads and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will spare your life.'


text:
So they wrapped sackcloth round their waists and put cords round their heads and went to the king of Israel, and said, 'Your servant Ben-Hadad says, "Spare my life." '


text:
'So he is still alive?' he replied. 'He is my brother.' The men took this for a good omen and quickly seized on his words. 'Yes,' they said, 'Ben-Hadad is your brother.' Ahab said, 'Go and fetch him.' Then Ben-Hadad came out to him and Ahab made him get up into his chariot.


text:
Ben-Hadad said, 'I shall restore the towns which my father took from your father and you may set up a trading quarter for yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria.' 'With a treaty,' Ahab said, 'I shall set you free.' Granting him a treaty, Ahab let him go.


text:
At Yahweh's command a member of the brotherhood of prophets said to a companion of his, 'Strike me,' but the man refused to strike him.


text:
So he said to him, 'Since you have disobeyed Yahweh's order, the very moment you leave me a lion will kill you.' And no sooner had he left him than he met a lion, which killed him.


text:
The prophet then went to find another man and said, 'Strike me,' and the man struck him and wounded him.


text:
The prophet then went and stood waiting for the king on the road, disguising himself with a bandage over his eyes.


text:
As the king passed, he called out to him, 'Your servant was making his way to where the fight was thickest when someone left the fighting to bring a man to me, and said, "Guard this man; if he is found missing, your life will pay for his, or else you will have to pay one talent of silver."


text:
But your servant was busy with one thing and another, the man disappeared.' The king of Israel said, 'That is your sentence then. You have pronounced it yourself.'


text:
At this the man quickly pulled off the bandage over his eyes, and the king of Israel recognised him as one of the prophets.


text:
He said to the king, 'Yahweh says this, "Since you have let the man escape who was under my curse of destruction, your life will pay for his, your people for his people." '


text:
This is what happened next: Naboth of Jezreel had a vineyard close by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria,


text:
and Ahab said to Naboth, 'Give me your vineyard to be my vegetable garden, since it adjoins my palace; I will give you a better vineyard for it or, if you prefer, I will give you its value in money.'


text:
Ahab went home gloomy and out of temper at the words of Naboth of Jezreel, 'I will not give you my heritage from my ancestors.' He lay down on his bed and turned his face away and refused to eat.


text:
He said, 'I have been talking to Naboth of Jezreel. I said, "Give me your vineyard either for money or, if you prefer, for another vineyard in exchange." But he said, "I will not give you my vineyard." '


text:
Then his wife Jezebel said, 'Some king of Israel you make! Get up, eat and take heart; I myself shall get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.'


text:
So she wrote a letter in Ahab's name and sealed it with his seal, sending the letter to the elders and notables of the city where Naboth lived.


text:
There confront him with a couple of scoundrels who will accuse him as follows, "You have cursed God and the king." Then take him outside and stone him to death.'


text:
The men of Naboth's city, the elders and notables living in his city, did what Jezebel ordered, as was written in the letter which she had sent him.


text:
The two scoundrels then came and confronted him, and the scoundrels then publicly accused Naboth as follows, 'Naboth has cursed God and the king.' He was then taken outside the city and stoned to death.


text:
When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, 'Get up! Take possession of the vineyard which Naboth of Jezreel refused to sell you, for Naboth is no longer alive, he is dead.'


text:
When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth of Jezreel and take possession of it.


text:
'Up! Go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, in Samaria. You will find him in Naboth's vineyard; he has gone down to take possession of it.


text:
You are to say this to him, "Yahweh says this: You have committed murder and now you usurp as well. For this -- and Yahweh says this -- in the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs will lick your blood too." '


text:
Ahab said to Elijah, 'So you have caught me, O my enemy!' Elijah answered, 'I have caught you! For your double dealing, and since you have done what is displeasing to Yahweh,


text:
I shall now bring disaster down on you; I shall sweep away your descendants and wipe out every manjack of the House of Ahab, fettered or free in Israel.


text:
I shall treat your House as I treated the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and of Baasha son of Ahijah, for provoking my anger and leading Israel into sin.


text:
(Against Jezebel too Yahweh spoke these words, "The dogs will eat Jezebel in the Field of Jezreel.")


text:
Those of Ahab's family who die in the city, the dogs will eat; and those who die in the open country, the birds of the air will eat.'


text:
And indeed there never was anyone like Ahab for double dealing and for doing what is displeasing to Yahweh, urged on by Jezebel his wife.


text:
He behaved in the most abominable way, adhering to idols, just as the Amorites had, whom Yahweh had dispossessed for the Israelites.


text:
When Ahab heard these words, he tore his garments and put sackcloth next to his skin and fasted; he slept in the sackcloth; he walked with slow steps.


text:
'Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Since he has humbled himself before me, I shall not bring the disaster in his days; I shall bring the disaster down on his House in his son's days.'


text:
The king of Israel said to his officers, 'You are aware that Ramoth in Gilead belongs to us? And yet we do nothing to wrest it away from the king of Aram.'


text:
He said to Jehoshaphat, 'Will you come with me to attack Ramoth in Gilead?' Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, 'I will be as you, my men as yours, my horses as yours.'


text:
Jehoshaphat, however, said to the king of Israel, 'First, please enquire what the word of Yahweh is.'


text:
The king of Israel then called the prophets together, about four hundred of them. 'Should I go and attack Ramoth in Gilead,' he asked, 'or should I hold back?' 'Go ahead,' they replied, 'for Yahweh has already given it to the king.'


text:
Jehoshaphat, however, said, 'Is there no other prophet of Yahweh here, so that we can enquire through him?'


text:
The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, 'There is one more man through whom we can consult Yahweh, but I hate him because he never has a favourable prophecy for me, only unfavourable ones; he is Micaiah son of Imlah.' 'I hope the king's words are unjustified,' said Jehoshaphat.


text:
The king of Israel then summoned a court official and said, 'Bring Micaiah son of Imlah immediately.'


text:
The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting each on his throne, wearing their robes, in an open space just outside the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets in a state of ecstasy before them.


text:
Zedekiah son of Kenaanah, who had made himself some iron horns, said, 'Yahweh says, "With horns like these you will gore the Aramaeans till you make an end of them." '


text:
And all the prophets cried ecstatically in the same vein, saying, 'March on Ramoth in Gilead! Success is sure, for Yahweh has already given it to the king!'


text:
The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, 'Look here, what the prophets are saying is uniformly favourable to the king. I hope you will say the same as they do and speak favourably.'


text:
When he came to the king, the king said, 'Micaiah, should we go and attack Ramoth in Gilead, or should we hold back?' He replied, 'Go ahead! Success is sure, for Yahweh has already given it to the king!'


text:
The king then said, 'How often must I put you on oath to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of Yahweh?'


text:
Then he spoke out: I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep without a shepherd. And Yahweh said, 'These have no master, let them all go safely home!'


text:
At this the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, 'Did I not tell you that he never gives me favourable prophecies, but only unfavourable ones?'


text:
Micaiah went on, 'Now listen to the word of Yahweh. I saw Yahweh seated on his throne with the whole array of heaven standing by him, on his right and on his left.


text:
Yahweh said, "Who will entice Ahab into marching to his death at Ramoth in Gilead?" At which some answered one way, and some another.


text:
"How?" Yahweh asked. He replied, "I shall go and be a deceptive spirit in the mouths of all his prophets." Yahweh said, "You will succeed in enticing him. Go and do it."


text:
And now, you see, Yahweh has put a deceptive spirit into the mouths of all your prophets here, for in fact Yahweh has pronounced disaster on you.'


text:
Zedekiah son of Chenaanah then came up, struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, 'Which way did Yahweh's spirit leave me, to speak to you?'


text:
'That is what you will find out,' Micaiah retorted, 'the day you go from room to room, trying to hide.'


text:
The king of Israel said, 'Seize Micaiah and hand him over to Amon, governor of the city, and Joash, the king's son,


text:
and say, "These are the king's orders: Put this man in prison and feed him on nothing but bread and water until I am safely home." '


text:
The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, 'I shall disguise myself to go into battle, but you put on your robes.' So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.


text:
Now, the king of Aram had given his chariot commanders the following order, 'Do not attack anyone of whatever rank, except the king of Israel.'


text:
So, when the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, 'That is obviously the king of Israel,' and surrounded him to attack. But when Jehoshaphat shouted his war cry


text:
Someone, however, drawing his bow without any special aim, shot the king of Israel between the joints of his armour. 'Turn about!' said the king to his charioteer. 'Get me out of the fighting; I am collapsing.'


text:
But the battle grew fiercer as the day went on and the king had to be held upright in his chariot facing the Aramaeans, the blood from the wound running into the bottom of the chariot, until in the evening he died.


text:
At sundown a shout ran through the ranks, 'Every man back to his town, every man back to his country!


text:
They washed the chariot at the Pool of Samaria; the dogs licked up the blood, and the prostitutes washed in it, in accordance with the word which Yahweh had spoken.


text:
The rest of the history of Ahab, his entire career, the ivory house he erected, all the towns he built, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?


text:
Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi.


text:
In every way he followed the example of his father Asa undeviatingly, doing what is pleasing to Yahweh.


text:
The high places, however, were not abolished; the people still offered sacrifice and incense on the high places.


text:
The rest of the history of Jehoshaphat, the valour he showed, the wars he waged, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?


text:
The few male sacred prostitutes left over from the days of his father Asa, he expelled from the country.


text:
Jehoshaphat built ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they never made the voyage since the ships were wrecked at Ezion-Geber.


text:
Ahaziah son of Ahab then proposed to Jehoshaphat, 'Let my men go to sea with yours.' But Jehoshaphat would not agree.


text:
When Jehoshaphat fell asleep with his ancestors he was buried in the City of his ancestor, David; his son Jehoram succeeded him.


text:
Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned over Israel for two years.


text:
He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, by following the example of his father and mother, and of Jeroboam son of Nebat who had led Israel into sin.


text:
He served Baal and worshipped him, and provoked the anger of Yahweh God of Israel just as his father had done.


text:
Ahaziah had fallen from the balcony of his upper room in Samaria, and was lying ill; so he sent messengers, saying to them, 'Go and consult Baal-Zebub god of Ekron and ask whether I shall recover from my illness.'


text:
But the angel of Yahweh said to Elijah the Tishbite, 'Up! Go and intercept the king of Samaria's messengers. Say to them, "Is there no God in Israel, for you to go and consult Baal-Zebub god of Ekron?


text:
Yahweh says this: You will never leave the bed you have got into; you are certainly going to die." ' And Elijah set out.


text:
'A man came to meet us,' they answered. 'He said, "Go back to the king who sent you and tell him: Yahweh says this: Is there no God in Israel, for you to go and consult Baal-Zebub god of Ekron? For this, you will never leave the bed you have got into; you are certainly going to die." '


text:
'A man wearing a hair cloak', they answered, 'and a leather loincloth.' 'It was Elijah the Tishbite,' he said.


text:
He then sent a captain of fifty soldiers with his fifty men to Elijah, whom they found sitting on top of a hill; the captain went up to him and said, 'Man of God, the king says, "Come down." '


text:
Elijah answered the captain, 'If I am a man of God, may fire fall from heaven and destroy both you and your fifty men.' And fire fell from heaven and destroyed him and his fifty men.


text:
The king sent a second captain of fifty to him, again with fifty men, and he too went up and said, 'Man of God, this is the king's order, "Come down at once." '


text:
Elijah answered them, 'If I am a man of God, may fire fall from heaven and destroy both you and your fifty men.' And lightning fell from heaven and destroyed him and his fifty men.


text:
The king then sent a third captain of fifty to him, with another fifty men. The third captain of fifty came up to Elijah, fell on his knees before him and pleaded with him. 'Man of God,' he said, 'may my life and the lives of these fifty servants of yours count for something in your eyes.


text:
Fire has fallen from heaven and destroyed two captains of fifties and their companies, but this time may my life count for something in your eyes!'


text:
The angel of Yahweh said to Elijah, 'Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.' He rose and accompanied him down to the king,


text:
and said to him, 'Yahweh says this, "Since you sent messengers to consult Baal-Zebub god of Ekron, you will never leave the bed you have got into; you are certainly going to die." '


text:
And, in accordance with the word of Yahweh which Elijah had uttered, he died. Since he had no son, his brother Jehoram succeeded him, in the second year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.


text:
The rest of the history of Ahaziah, and his career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?


text:
This is what happened when Yahweh took Elijah up to heaven in the whirlwind: Elijah and Elisha set out from Gilgal,


text:
and Elijah said to Elisha, 'You stay here, for Yahweh is only sending me to Bethel.' But Elisha replied, 'As Yahweh lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you!' and they went down to Bethel.


text:
The brotherhood of prophets living at Bethel came out to meet Elisha and said, 'Do you know that Yahweh will carry your lord and master away today?' 'Yes, I know,' he said, 'be quiet.'


text:
Elijah said, 'Elisha, you stay here, Yahweh is only sending me to Jericho.' But he replied, 'As Yahweh lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you!' and they went on to Jericho.


text:
The brotherhood of prophets living at Jericho went up to Elisha and said, 'Do you know that Yahweh will carry your lord and master away today?' 'Yes, I know,' he said, 'be quiet.'


text:
Elijah said, 'Elisha, you stay here, Yahweh is only sending me to the Jordan.' But he replied, 'As Yahweh lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you!' And they went on together.


text:
Fifty of the brotherhood of prophets followed them, halting some distance away as the two of them stood beside the Jordan.


text:
Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water; and the water divided to left and right, and the two of them crossed over dry-shod.


text:
When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, 'Make your request. What can I do for you before I am snatched away from you?' Elisha answered, 'Let me inherit a double share of your spirit.'


text:
'Your request is difficult,' Elijah said. 'If you see me while I am being snatched away from you, it will be as you ask; if not, it will not be so.'


text:
Now as they walked on, talking as they went, a chariot of fire appeared and horses of fire coming between the two of them; and Elijah went up to heaven in the whirlwind.


text:
Elisha saw it, and shouted, 'My father! My father! Chariot of Israel and its chargers!' Then he lost sight of him, and taking hold of his own clothes he tore them in half.


text:
He took Elijah's cloak and struck the water. 'Where is Yahweh, the God of Elijah?' he cried. As he struck the water it divided to right and left, and Elisha crossed over.


text:
The brotherhood of prophets saw him in the distance, and said, 'The spirit of Elijah has come to rest on Elisha'; they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.


text:
'Look,' they said, 'your servants have fifty strong men with them, let them go and look for your master; the Spirit of Yahweh may have taken him up and thrown him down on a mountain or into a valley.' 'Send no one,' he replied.


text:
But they so shamed him with their insistence that he consented. So they sent fifty men who searched for three days without finding him.


text:
The people of the city said to Elisha, 'The city is pleasant to live in, as my lord indeed can see, but the water is foul and the country suffers from miscarriages.'


text:
Then he went to the source of the water, threw salt into it and said, 'Yahweh says this, "I make this water wholesome: neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it any more." '


text:
From there he went up to Bethel, and while he was on the road, some small boys came out of the town and jeered at him. 'Hurry up, baldy!' they shouted. 'Come on up, baldy!'


text:
He turned round and looked at them; and he cursed them in the name of Yahweh. And two bears came out of the forest and savaged forty-two of the boys.


text:
Jehoram son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned for twelve years.


text:
He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, though not like his father and mother, for he did away with the pillar to Baal which his father had made.


text:
Nonetheless, he continued to practise the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel and did not give them up.


text:
Mesha king of Moab was a sheep-breeder and used to pay the king of Israel in tribute a hundred thousand lambs and a hundred thousand rams with their wool.


text:
After this he sent word to the king of Judah, 'The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go to war with me against Moab?' 'I will,' he replied. 'I will be as you, my men as yours, my horses as yours,'


text:
So they set out, the king of Israel, the king of Judah and the king of Edom. They carried out a flanking movement for seven days, until there was no water left for the troops or for the beasts of their baggage train.


text:
'Alas!' the king of Israel exclaimed, 'Yahweh has summoned us three kings, only to put us into the power of Moab.'


text:
But the king of Judah said, 'Is there no prophet of Yahweh here for us to consult Yahweh through him?' One of the king of Israel's servants answered, 'Elisha son of Shaphat is here, who used to pour water on the hands of Elijah.'


text:
'The word of Yahweh is with him,' the king of Judah said. So the king of Israel, the king of Judah and the king of Edom went to consult him.


text:
But Elisha said to the king of Israel, 'What business have you with me? Go to your father's and your mother's prophets.' 'No,' the king of Israel answered, 'Yahweh is the one who has summoned us three kings, only to put us into the power of Moab.' Elisha replied,


text:
'By the life of Yahweh Sabaoth whom I serve, if I did not respect the king of Judah, I would take no notice of you, nor so much as look at you.


text:
Now bring me someone who can play the lyre.' And as the musician played, the hand of Yahweh came on him


text:
for Yahweh says, "You will see no wind, you will see no rain, but this valley will become full of water, and you and your troops and your baggage animals will drink."


text:
You will storm every fortified town, fell every productive tree, block every water-hole, ruin all the best fields with stones.'


text:
Next morning at the time when the oblation was being offered, water came from the direction of Edom, and the whole terrain was flooded.


text:
When the Moabites learned that the kings were advancing to fight them, all those of an age to bear arms were mobilised; they took up position on the frontier.


text:
In the morning when they got up, the sun was shining on the water; and in the distance the Moabites saw the water as red as blood.


text:
'This is blood!' they said. 'The kings must have fought among themselves and killed one another. So now for the booty, Moab!'


text:
But when they reached the Israelite camp, the Israelites launched their attack and the Moabites fled before them, and as they advanced they cut the Moabites to pieces.


text:
They laid the towns in ruins, and each man threw a stone into all the best fields to fill them up, and they blocked every water-hole and felled every productive tree. In the end, there was only Kir-Hareseth left, which the slingers surrounded and bombarded.


text:
When the king of Moab saw that the battle had turned against him, he mustered seven hundred swordsmen in the hope of breaking a way out and going to the king of Aram, but he failed.


text:
Then he took his eldest son who was to succeed him and offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall. Alarmed at this, the Israelites withdrew and retired to their own territory.


text:
The wife of a member of the prophetic brotherhood appealed to Elisha. 'Your servant my husband is dead,' she said, 'and you know how your servant revered Yahweh. A creditor has now come to take my two children and make them his slaves.'


text:
Elisha said, 'What can I do for you? Tell me, what have you got in the house?' 'Your servant has nothing in the house,' she replied, 'except a flask of oil.'


text:
When you come back, shut the door on yourself and your sons, and pour the oil into all these jars, putting each aside when it is full.'


text:
So she left him; and she shut the door on herself and her sons; they passed her the jars and she went on pouring.


text:
When the jars were full, she said to her son, 'Pass me another jar.' 'There are no more,' he replied. Then the oil stopped flowing.


text:
She went and told the man of God, who said, 'Go and sell the oil and redeem your pledge; you and your children can live on the remainder.'


text:
One day as Elisha was on his way to Shunem, a woman of rank who lived there pressed him to stay and eat there. After this he always broke his journey for a meal when he passed that way.


text:
She said to her husband, 'Look, I am sure the man who is constantly passing our way must be a holy man of God.


text:
Let us build him a small walled room, and put him a bed in it, and a table and chair and lamp; whenever he comes to us he can rest there.'


text:
He said to his servant Gehazi, 'Call our Shunammite.' He called her and when she appeared, Elisha said,


text:
'Tell her this: "Look, you have gone to all this trouble for us, what can we do for you? Is there anything you would like said for you to the king or to the commander of the army?" ' But she replied, 'I live with my own people about me.'


text:
'What can I do for you then?' he asked. Gehazi replied, 'Well, she has no son and her husband is old.'


text:
'This time next year', he said, 'you will hold a son in your arms.' But she said, 'No, my lord, do not deceive your servant.'


text:
and exclaimed to his father, 'Oh, my head! My head!' The father told a servant to carry him to his mother.


text:
She called her husband and said, 'Send me one of the servants with a donkey. I must hurry to the man of God and back.'


text:
She had the donkey saddled and said to her servant, 'Lead on, go! Do not draw rein until I give the order.'


text:
She set off and made her way to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her in the distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, 'Look, here comes our Shunammite!


text:
Now run and meet her and ask her, "Are you well? Is your husband well? Your child well?" ' 'Yes,' she replied.


text:
When she came to the man of God there on the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi stepped forward to push her away, but the man of God said, 'Leave her; there is bitterness in her soul and Yahweh has hidden it from me, he has not told me.'


text:
Elisha said to Gehazi, 'Hitch up your clothes, take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him; if anyone greets you, do not answer him. You are to stretch out my staff over the child.'


text:
But the child's mother said, 'As Yahweh lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.' Then he stood up and followed her.


text:
Gehazi had gone ahead of them and had stretched out the staff over the child, but there was no sound or response. He went back to meet Elisha and told him. 'The child has not woken up,' he said.


text:
Then he climbed on to the bed and stretched himself on top of the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes to his eyes, and his hands on his hands, and as he lowered himself on to him, the child's flesh grew warm.


text:
Then he got up and walked to and fro inside the house, and then climbed on to the bed again and lowered himself on to the child seven times in all; then the child sneezed and opened his eyes.


text:
He then summoned Gehazi. 'Call our Shunammite,' he said. He called her. When she came to him, he said, 'Pick up your son.'


text:
She went in and, falling at his feet, prostrated herself on the floor and then picked up her son and went out.


text:
Elisha went back to Gilgal while there was famine in the country. As the brotherhood of prophets were sitting with him, he said to his servant, 'Put the large pot on the fire and cook some soup for the brotherhood.'


text:
One of them went into the fields to gather herbs and came on some wild vine, off which he gathered enough gourds to fill his lap. On his return, he cut them up into the pot of soup; they did not know what they were.


text:
They then poured the soup out for the men to eat, but they had no sooner tasted the soup than they cried, 'Man of God, there is death in the pot!' And they could not eat it.


text:
'Bring some meal then,' Elisha said. This he threw into the pot, and said, 'Pour out, for the company to eat!' And there was nothing harmful in the pot.


text:
A man came from Baal-Shalishah, bringing the man of God bread from the first-fruits, twenty barley loaves and fresh grain still in the husk. 'Give it to the company to eat,' Elisha said.


text:
But his servant replied, 'How can I serve this to a hundred men?' 'Give it to the company to eat,' he insisted, 'for Yahweh says this, "They will eat and have some left over." '


text:
Naaman, army commander to the king of Aram, was a man who enjoyed his master's respect and favour, since through him Yahweh had granted victory to the Aramaeans.


text:
But the man suffered from a virulent skin-disease. Now, on one of their raids into Israelite territory, the Aramaeans had carried off a little girl, who became a servant of Naaman's wife.


text:
She said to her mistress, 'If only my master would approach the prophet of Samaria! He would cure him of his skin-disease.'


text:
Naaman went and told his master. 'This and this', he reported, 'is what the girl from Israel has said.'


text:
'Go by all means,' said the king of Aram, 'I shall send a letter to the king of Israel.' So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten festal robes.


text:
He presented the letter to the king of Israel. It read, 'With this letter, I am sending my servant Naaman to you for you to cure him of his skin-disease.'


text:
When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes. 'Am I a god to give death and life,' he said, 'for him to send a man to me and ask me to cure him of his skin-disease? Listen to this and take note of it and see how he intends to pick a quarrel with me.'


text:
When Elisha heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent word to the king, 'Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, and he will find there is a prophet in Israel.'


text:
And Elisha sent him a messenger to say, 'Go and bathe seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will become clean once more.'


text:
But Naaman was indignant and went off, saying, 'Here was I, thinking he would be sure to come out to me, and stand there, and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hand over the spot and cure the part that was diseased.


text:
Surely, Abana and Parpar, the rivers of Damascus, are better than any water in Israel? Could I not bathe in them and become clean?' And he turned round and went off in a rage.


text:
But his servants approached him and said, 'Father, if the prophet had asked you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? All the more reason, then, when he says to you, "Bathe, and you will become clean." '


text:
So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, as Elisha had told him to do. And his flesh became clean once more like the flesh of a little child.


text:
Returning to Elisha with his whole escort, he went in and, presenting himself, said, 'Now I know that there is no God anywhere on earth except in Israel. Now, please, accept a present from your servant.'


text:
But Elisha replied, 'As Yahweh lives, whom I serve, I will accept nothing.' Naaman pressed him to accept, but he refused.


text:
Then Naaman said, 'Since your answer is "No," allow your servant to be given as much earth as two mules may carry, since your servant will no longer make burnt offerings or sacrifice to any god except Yahweh.


text:
Only -- and may Yahweh forgive your servant for this -- when my master goes to the temple of Rimmon to worship there, he leans on my arm, and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon when he does; may Yahweh forgive your servant for doing this!'


text:
Naaman had gone a small distance, when Gehazi, Elisha's servant, said to himself, 'My master has let this Aramaean Naaman off lightly, by not accepting what he offered. As Yahweh lives, I will run after him and get something out of him.'


text:
So Gehazi set off in pursuit of Naaman. When Naaman saw him running after him, he jumped down from his chariot to meet him. 'Is all well?' he asked.


text:
'All is well,' he said. 'My master has sent me to say, "This very moment two young men of the prophetic brotherhood have arrived from the highlands of Ephraim. Be kind enough to give them a talent of silver and two festal robes." '


text:
'Please accept two talents,' Naaman replied, and pressed him, tying up the two talents of silver in two bags with the two festal robes and consigning them to two of his servants who carried them ahead of Gehazi.


text:
When he reached Ophel, he took these from them and put them away in the house. He then dismissed the men, who went away.


text:
He, for his part, went and presented himself to his master. Elisha said, 'Gehazi, where have you been?' 'Your servant has not been anywhere,' he replied.


text:
But Elisha said to him, 'Was not my heart present there when someone left his chariot to meet you? Now you have taken the money, you can buy gardens with it, and olive groves, sheep and oxen, male and female slaves.


text:
But Naaman's disease of the skin will cling to you and your descendants for ever.' And Gehazi left his presence white as snow from skin-disease.


text:
The brotherhood of prophets said to Elisha, 'Look, the place where we are living with you is too small for us.


text:
Let us go to the Jordan, then, and each of us cut a beam there, and we will make our living quarters there.' He replied, 'Go.'


text:
But, as one of them was felling his beam, the iron axehead fell into the water. 'Alas, my lord,' he exclaimed, 'and it was a borrowed one too!'


text:
'Where did it fall?' the man of God asked; and he showed him the spot. Then, cutting a stick, Elisha threw it in at that point and made the iron axehead float.


text:
The king of Aram was at war with Israel. He conferred with his officers and said, 'You must attack at such and such a place.'


text:
Elisha, however, sent word to the king of Israel, 'Be on your guard about such and such a place, because the Aramaeans are going to attack it.'


text:
The king of Israel accordingly sent men to the place which Elisha had named. And he kept warning the king, and the king stayed on the alert; and this happened more than once or twice.


text:
The king of Aram grew very much disturbed over this. He summoned his officers, and said, 'Tell me which of you is betraying us to the king of Israel.'


text:
'No one, my lord king,' one of his officers replied. 'It is Elisha, the prophet in Israel. The words you utter in your bedchamber, he reveals to the king of Israel.'


text:
'Go and find out where he is,' the king said, 'so that I can send people to capture him.' Word was brought to him, 'He is now in Dothan.'


text:
So he sent horses and chariots there, and a large force; and these, arriving during the night, surrounded the town.


text:
Next day, Elisha got up early and went out; and there surrounding the town was an armed force with horses and chariots. 'Oh, my lord,' his servant said, 'what are we to do?'


text:
And Elisha prayed. 'Yahweh,' he said, 'open his eyes and make him see.' Yahweh opened the servant's eyes, and he saw the mountain covered in fiery horses and chariots surrounding Elisha.


text:
As the Aramaeans came down towards him, Elisha prayed to Yahweh, 'I beg you to strike these people sun-blind.' And, at Elisha's word, he struck them sun-blind.


text:
Then Elisha said to them, 'This is not the road, nor is this the town. Follow me; I shall lead you to the man you are looking for.' But he led them to Samaria.


text:
As they entered Samaria, Elisha said, 'Yahweh, open these people's eyes, and let them see.' Yahweh opened their eyes and they saw; they were inside Samaria.


text:
'Do not kill them,' he replied. 'Do you kill your own prisoners with sword and bow? Offer them food and water, so that they can eat and drink, and then let them go back to their master.'


text:
So the king provided a great feast for them; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them off and they went back to their master. Aramaean raiding parties never invaded the territory of Israel again.


text:
It happened after this that Ben-Hadad king of Aram, mustering his whole army, marched on and laid siege to Samaria.


text:
In Samaria there was great famine, and so strict was the siege that the head of a donkey sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one quarter-kab of wild onions for five shekels of silver.


text:
'If Yahweh does not help you,' he retorted, 'where can I find help for you? From the threshing-floor? From the winepress?'


text:
Then the king asked, 'What is the matter?' 'This woman here', she answered, 'said to me, "Give up your son; we will eat him today, and eat my son tomorrow."


text:
So we cooked my son and ate him. Next day, I said to her, "Give up your son for us to eat." But she has hidden her son.'


text:
On hearing the woman's words, the king tore his clothes; the king was walking on the wall, and the people saw that underneath he was wearing sackcloth next his body.


text:
'May God bring unnameable ills on me, and worse ills, too,' he said, 'if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!'


text:
Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead but, before the man arrived, Elisha had said to the elders, 'Do you see how this son of a murderer has given orders to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door; hold the door against him. Isn't that the sound of his master's step behind him?'


text:
He was still actually speaking, when the king arrived and said, 'This misery plainly comes from Yahweh. Why should I still trust in Yahweh?'


text:
'Listen to the word of Yahweh,' Elisha said. 'Yahweh says this, "By this time tomorrow a measure of finest flour will sell for one shekel, and two measures of barley for one shekel, at the gate of Samaria." '


text:
The equerry on whose arm the king was leaning retorted to Elisha, 'Even if Yahweh made windows in the sky, could this word come true?' 'You will see it with your own eyes,' Elisha replied, 'though you will eat none of it.'


text:
Now at the entrance to the gate -- for they were afflicted with virulent skin-disease -- there were four men and they debated among themselves, 'Why sit here waiting for death?


text:
If we decide to go into the city, what with the famine in it, we shall die there; if we stay where we are, we shall die just the same. Come on, let us go over to the Aramaean camp; if they spare our lives, we live; if they kill us, well, then we die.'


text:
So at dusk they set out and made for the Aramaean camp, but when they reached the confines of the camp there was not a soul there.


text:
For Yahweh had caused the Aramaeans in their camp to hear a noise of chariots and horses, the noise of a great army; and they had said to one another, 'Listen! The king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings against us, to attack us.'


text:
So in the dusk they had made off and fled, abandoning their tents, their horses and their donkeys; leaving the camp just as it was, they had fled for their lives.


text:
The men with skin-disease, then, reached the confines of the camp. They went into one of the tents and ate and drank, and from it carried off silver and gold and clothing; these they took and hid. Then they came back and, entering another tent, looted it too, and took and hid their booty.


text:
Then they said to one another, 'We are doing wrong. This is a day of good news, yet we are holding our tongues! If we wait till morning, we shall certainly be punished. Come on, let us go and take the news to the palace.'


text:
Off they went and shouted out to the guards on the city gate, 'We have been to the Aramaean camp. There was not a soul there, no sound of anyone, only tethered horses and tethered donkeys, and their tents just as they were.'


text:
The king got up while it was still dark and said to his officers, 'I can tell you what the Aramaeans have done to us. They know we are starving, so they have left the camp to hide in the open country. "They will come out of the city," they think, "we shall catch them alive and get into the city." '


text:
One of his officers replied, 'Five of the surviving horses still left us had better be taken -- they would die in any case like all the rest. Let us send them and see.'


text:
So they took two chariot teams and the king sent them after the Aramaean army, saying, 'Go and see.'


text:
They followed them as far as the Jordan, finding the whole way strewn with clothes and gear which the Aramaeans had thrown away in their panic. The scouts returned and informed the king.


text:
Then the people went out and plundered the Aramaean camp: a measure of finest flour sold for one shekel, and two measures of barley for one shekel, as Yahweh had promised they would.


text:
The king had detailed the equerry, on whose arm he leaned, as commander of the guard on the gate, but the people trampled on him in the gateway and he died, as the man of God had foretold when the king had come down to him.


text:
(What Elisha had said to the king came true, 'Two measures of barley will sell for one shekel, and a measure of finest flour for one shekel, by this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria.'


text:
And the equerry in question had replied to the man of God, 'Even if Yahweh made windows in the sky, could this word come true?' 'You will see it with your own eyes,' Elisha had answered, 'though you will eat none of it.'


text:
Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had raised to life, 'Move away with your family, and live where you can in some foreign country, for Yahweh has called up a famine -- it is already coming on the country -- for seven years.'


text:
The woman hurried to do what the man of God had told her: she set out, she and her family, and for seven years she lived in Philistine territory.


text:
When the seven years were over, the woman returned from Philistine territory and went to lodge a claim with the king for her house and land.


text:
Now the king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. 'Tell me', he was saying, 'all about the marvels which Elisha did.'


text:
Gehazi was just telling the king how Elisha had raised the dead child to life, when the woman whose son Elisha had raised lodged her claim with the king for her house and land. 'My lord king,' Gehazi said, 'this is the very woman, and that is her son whom Elisha raised to life.'


text:
The king questioned the woman, who told him the story. The king then delegated one of the officials to her with this order, 'See that all her property is restored to her, and all the revenue from her land from the day she left the country until now.'


text:
Elisha went to Damascus. Ben-Hadad king of Aram was ill, and was told, 'The man of God has come all the way to us.'


text:
Then the king said to Hazael, 'Take a present with you and go and meet the man of God; consult Yahweh through him, and find out if I shall recover from my illness.'


text:
So Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a present the best that Damascus could offer, a load for forty camels. He arrived and, presenting himself, said, 'Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask you, "Shall I recover from my illness?" '


text:
Elisha replied, 'Go and tell him, "You might recover," though Yahweh has shown me that he will certainly die.'


text:
'Why', Hazael asked, 'does my lord weep?' 'Because I know', Elisha replied, 'what harm you will do to the Israelites: you will burn down their fortresses, put their picked warriors to the sword, dash their little children to pieces, disembowel their pregnant women.'


text:
'But what is your servant?' Hazael said. 'How could this dog achieve anything so great?' 'In a vision from Yahweh,' Elisha replied, 'I have seen you king of Aram.'


text:
Leaving Elisha, Hazael went back to his master who asked, 'What did Elisha say to you?' He replied, 'He told me that you might recover.'


text:
Next day he took a blanket, soaked it in water, and spread it over his face. So died Ben-Hadad, and Hazael succeeded him.


text:
In the fifth year of Jehoram son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat became king of Judah.


text:
He was thirty-two years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem.


text:
He followed the example of the kings of Israel as the House of Ahab were doing; he had married one of Ahab's daughters; and he did what is displeasing to Yahweh.


text:
But Yahweh was unwilling to destroy Judah, because of his servant David, and was faithful to the promise which he had made him to leave him a lamp for ever in his presence.


text:
Jehoram crossed to Zair, and with him all the chariots . . . Under cover of dark, he and his chariot commanders broke through the Edomites surrounding him; the people fled to their tents.


text:
Even so, Edom threw off the domination of Judah, remaining free to the present day. Libnah also revolted at that time.


text:
The rest of the history of Jehoram, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?


text:
Then Jehoram fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David; his son Ahaziah succeeded him.


text:
In the twelfth year of Jehoram son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram, king of Judah, became king.


text:
Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.


text:
He followed the example of the House of Ahab and did what is displeasing to Yahweh, as the House of Ahab were doing, to whom he was related by marriage.


text:
He went with Jehoram son of Ahab to make war on Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth in Gilead, but the Aramaeans wounded Jehoram.


text:
King Jehoram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which he had received at Ramah, fighting against Hazael king of Aram. Ahaziah son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to Jezreel to visit Jehoram son of Ahab because he was ailing.


text:
The prophet Elisha summoned a member of the prophetic brotherhood to him, 'Hitch up your clothes, take this flask of oil, and go to Ramoth in Gilead.


text:
When you arrive there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. Then, when you find him, tell him to get up and leave his companions, and take him into an inner room.


text:
Take the flask of oil then and pour it over his head, and say, "Yahweh says this: I have anointed you king of Israel." Then open the door and flee as fast as you can.'


text:
and when he arrived, found the senior officers of the army sitting together. 'I have a message for you, commander,' he said. 'For which of us?' asked Jehu. 'For you, commander,' he answered.


text:
Jehu then got up and went into the house. And the young man poured the oil on his head, saying, 'Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, "I have anointed you king of Yahweh's people, of Israel.


text:
You will strike down the family of Ahab your master, and I shall avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and all of Yahweh's servants, on Jezebel


text:
and on the whole family of Ahab. I shall destroy every manjack of Ahab's family, fettered or free in Israel.


text:
As for Jezebel, the dogs will eat her in the field of Jezreel; no one will bury her." ' With this, he opened the door and made his escape.


text:
Jehu came out to his master's officers. 'Is all well?' they asked him. 'Why did this madman come to you?' 'You know the fellow and how he talks,' he answered.


text:
'Evasion!' they cried, 'Come on, tell us.' He replied, 'He said this and that to me. He said, "Yahweh says this: I have anointed you king of Israel." '


text:
Whereupon they all took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps; they sounded the trumpet and shouted, 'Jehu is king!'


text:
Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi plotted against Jehoram. (At the time, Jehoram, with all Israel, was holding Ramoth in Gilead against an attack by Hazael king of Aram,


text:
but King Jehoram had gone back to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which he had received from the Aramaeans while he was fighting against Hazael king of Aram.) 'If you agree,' Jehu said, 'let no one leave the town to go and take the news to Jezreel.'


text:
Jehu then mounted his chariot and left for Jezreel; Jehoram had taken to his bed there, and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to visit him.


text:
The lookout posted on the tower of Jezreel saw Jehu's troop approaching. 'I can see a body of men,' he shouted. Jehoram gave the order: 'Have a horseman sent to meet them and ask, "Is all well?" '


text:
The horseman went to meet Jehu and said, 'The king says, "Is all well?" ' 'What has it to do with you whether all is well?' Jehu replied. 'Fall in behind me.' The lookout reported, 'The messenger has reached them and is not coming back.'


text:
The king sent a second horseman who reached them and said, 'The king says, "Is all well?" ' 'What has it to do with you whether all is well?' Jehu replied. 'Fall in behind me.'


text:
The lookout reported, 'He has reached them and is not coming back. The manner of driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi: he drives like a madman.'


text:
'Harness!' Jehoram cried; and they harnessed his chariot. Then Jehoram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah, each in his chariot, set out to meet Jehu. They reached him in the field of Naboth of Jezreel.


text:
As soon as Jehoram saw Jehu he asked, 'Is all well, Jehu?' 'What a question!' he replied, 'when all the while the prostitutions and countless sorceries of your mother Jezebel go on.'


text:
But Jehu had drawn his bow; he struck Jehoram between the shoulder-blades, the arrow went through the king's heart, and he sank down in his chariot.


text:
'Pick him up,' Jehu said to Bidkar, his equerry, 'and throw him into the field of Naboth of Jezreel. Remember how, when you and I manned a chariot together behind Ahab his father, Yahweh pronounced this sentence against him,


text:
"This I swear. Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons -- Yahweh says this. And in this same field I shall requite you -- Yahweh says this." So pick him up, and throw him into the field, as Yahweh declared should happen!'


text:
When Ahaziah king of Judah saw this, he fled along the Beth-ha-Gan road, but Jehu went in pursuit of him. 'Strike him down too,' he said. And they wounded him in his chariot at the slope of Gur, which is near Ibleam, and he took refuge in Megiddo, where he died.


text:
When Jehu went back to Jezreel, Jezebel was told. She made up her eyes with mascara, adorned her head and appeared at the window.


text:
Jehu looked up to the window and said, 'Who is on my side? Who?' And two or three officials looked down at him.


text:
'Throw her down,' he said. They threw her down and her blood spattered the walls and the horses; and Jehu rode over her.


text:
He went in and ate and drank, then said, 'See to this accursed woman, and give her burial; after all, she was a king's daughter.'


text:
They came back and told Jehu, who said, 'This is the word of Yahweh which he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite, "The dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel in the field of Jezreel;


text:
the corpse of Jezebel will be like dung spread on the fields, so that no one will be able to say: This was Jezebel." '


text:
There were seventy of Ahab's sons in Samaria. Jehu sent to Samaria, to the authorities of the city, to the elders and to the guardians of Ahab's children. He said,


text:
'Now, when this letter reaches you, you have your master's sons with you; you also have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons.


text:
See which of your master's sons is the best and worthiest, put him on his father's throne and fight for your master's dynasty!'


text:
They were utterly terrified. 'We have seen how the two kings could not stand up to him,' they said, 'so how could we?'


text:
Consequently the master of the palace, the governor of the city, the elders and the guardians sent word to Jehu, 'We are your servants. We shall do whatever you order us. We shall not proclaim a king; act as you think best.'


text:
Jehu then wrote them a second letter. He said, 'If you are for me and if you are prepared to accept orders from me, take the heads of the men of your master's family and come to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow.' (There were seventy of Ahab's sons being educated there by the leading men of the city.)


text:
When this letter reached them, they took the king's sons and butchered all seventy of them, put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel.


text:
The messenger came and told Jehu, 'They have brought the heads of the king's sons.' 'Leave them in two heaps at the entrance to the gate until morning,' he replied.


text:
When morning came, he went out and, standing, said to all the people, 'No guilt attaches to you! I did indeed plot against my master and have killed him; but what about all these? Who struck them?


text:
Know, then, that nothing will fail to be fulfilled of the prophecy uttered by Yahweh against the House of Ahab; Yahweh has done what he said through his servant Elijah.'


text:
Jehu then killed every member of the House of Ahab surviving in Jezreel, all his leading men, his close friends, his priests; he did not leave a single one alive.


text:
he met the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah. 'Who are you?' he asked. 'We are Ahaziah's brothers,' they replied, 'and we are on our way to pay our respects to the king's sons and the queen mother's sons.'


text:
'Take them alive,' he said. They took them alive, and he slaughtered them at the storage-well of Beth-Eked, forty-two of them; he did not spare a single one.


text:
Leaving there, he came on Jehonadab son of Rechab who was on his way to meet him. He greeted him and said, 'Is your heart true to mine, as my heart is to yours?' Jehonadab replied, 'Yes.' 'If so,' Jehu said, 'give me your hand.' Jehonadab gave him his hand, and Jehu took him up beside him in his chariot.


text:
When he entered Samaria, he killed all the survivors of Ahab's family there; he destroyed it, as Yahweh had told Elijah it would happen.


text:
Then Jehu assembled all the people. 'Ahab did Baal some small service,' he said, 'but Jehu will do him a great one.


text:
Now call me all the prophets of Baal and all his priests. Not one is to be absent: I have a great sacrifice to offer to Baal. If anyone is absent, he will forfeit his life.' This was a trick on Jehu's part to destroy the devotees of Baal.


text:
Jehu sent messengers throughout Israel, and all the devotees of Baal arrived, not a man was left who did not attend. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was full from wall to wall.


text:
Jehu then said to the keeper of the wardrobe, 'Bring out vestments for all the devotees of Baal'; he brought out the vestments for them.


text:
Jehu then went into the temple of Baal with Jehonadab son of Rechab and said to Baal's devotees, 'Make quite sure that there are no devotees of Yahweh in here with you, but only devotees of Baal.'


text:
He then proceeded to present sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty of his men outside, having said, 'Whoever lets one of the people go whom I am now putting within your clutches, will pay for it with his life.'


text:
When he had finished making the burnt offering, he gave the order to the guards and equerries, 'Go in, strike them down! Let no one out!' The guards and equerries went in, putting everyone to the sword all the way to the sanctuary of Baal's temple.


text:
They demolished Baal's image and demolished Baal's temple too, making it into a latrine, which it still is today.


text:
Even so, Jehu did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel, the golden calves of Bethel and Dan.


text:
Yahweh said to Jehu, 'Since you have done well in carrying out what pleases me, and have done everything I required to be done to the House of Ahab, your sons will occupy the throne of Israel down to the fourth generation.'


text:
Jehu, however, did not faithfully and wholeheartedly follow the law of Yahweh, God of Israel; he did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel.


text:
At that time Yahweh began to whittle Israel down, and Hazael defeated the Israelites throughout the territory east of the Jordan:


text:
the whole territory of Gilead -- of the Gadites, the Reubenites and the Manassehites -- from Aroer on the River Arnon: Gilead and Bashan.


text:
The rest of the history of Jehu, his entire career, all his prowess, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?


text:
When Athaliah mother of Ahaziah learned that her son was dead, she promptly murdered all those of royal stock.


text:
But Jehosheba, daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, surreptitiously rescued Jehoash son of Ahaziah from among the princes who were to be murdered, and put him with his nurse in the sleeping quarters; in this way she hid him from Athaliah, and he was not killed.


text:
He stayed, hidden with her in the Temple of Yahweh for six years, while Athaliah governed the country.


text:
In the seventh year, Jehoiada sent for the regimental commanders of the Carians and the guards, and had them brought to him in the Temple of Yahweh. He made a pact with them, put them on oath, then showed them the king's son. He gave them this order,


text:
'This is what you must do: a third of you who come on duty on the Sabbath must mount guard at the royal palace,


text:
and your two other sections who come off duty on the Sabbath and mount guard at the Temple of Yahweh


text:
must surround the king, each man with his weapons in his hand; anyone forcing his way through the ranks is to be killed. And you will escort the king as he leaves and as he comes in.'


text:
The regimental commanders did everything as Jehoiada the priest had ordered, and each one brought his men, those coming on duty on the Sabbath and those going off duty on the Sabbath, and reported to Jehoiada the priest.


text:
The priest then issued the regimental commanders with King David's spears and shields, which were kept in the Temple of Yahweh.


text:
The guards then took position, each man with his weapons in his hand, from the south corner of the Temple to the north corner of the Temple, all round the altar and the Temple.


text:
Then Jehoiada brought the king's son out -- crowned him and gave him a copy of the covenant; and they made him king and anointed him, and they clapped their hands and shouted, 'Long live the king!'


text:
When she looked, there stood the king on a dais, as the custom was, with the officers and trumpeters at the king's side, and all the people of the country rejoicing and blowing the trumpets; then Athaliah tore her clothes and shouted, 'Treason, treason!'


text:
Jehoiada the priest then gave the orders to the commanders in charge of the troops, 'Take her out under guard and put to death anyone who follows her.' 'For', the priest had already said, 'she must not be killed inside the Temple of Yahweh.'


text:
Jehoiada made a covenant between Yahweh, the king and the people that they would remain Yahweh's people; and another one between the king and the people.


text:
All the people of the country then went to the temple of Baal and demolished it; they smashed its altars and its images and killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars. The priest made arrangements for the security of the Temple of Yahweh.


text:
He then took the regimental commanders, the Carians, the guards and all the people of the country, and they escorted the king down from the Temple of Yahweh, entering the palace through the Gate of the Guards. Jehoash took his seat on the throne of the kings.


text:
All the people of the country were delighted; the city, however, made no move. And Athaliah was put to death inside the palace.


text:
Jehoash became king in the seventh year of Jehu, and reigned for forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.


text:
All his life Jehoash did what Yahweh regards as right, having been instructed by Jehoiada the priest.


text:
The high places, however, were not abolished, and the people still offered sacrifices and incense on the high places.


text:
Jehoash said to the priests, 'All the money from the sacred revenues brought to the Temple of Yahweh, the money from personal taxes, and all the money voluntarily offered to the Temple-


text:
the priests are to receive this individually from people of their acquaintance and will carry out all the repairs to the Temple which need to be made.'


text:
so King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests. 'Why are you not repairing the Temple?' he asked. 'You are no longer to accept money from people of your acquaintance but are to hand it over for the Temple repairs.'


text:
The priests agreed to accept no money from the people and no longer to be responsible for repairs to the Temple.


text:
Jehoiada the priest took a chest, bored a hole in the lid and placed it beside the pillar, to the right of the entry to the Temple of Yahweh; in it the priests who guarded the threshold put all the money which was given for the Temple of Yahweh.


text:
Whenever they saw that there was a great deal of money in the chest, the king's secretary would come, and they would empty it out and reckon the money then in the Temple of Yahweh.


text:
Once checked, they paid this money over to the masters of works attached to the Temple of Yahweh, and these in turn spent it on carpenters and builders working on the Temple of Yahweh,


text:
on masons and stonecutters, and on buying timber and dressed stone to be used for repairs to the Temple of Yahweh; in short, for all the costs of the Temple repairs.


text:
But no silver basins, knives, sprinkling bowls, trumpets or gold or silver objects were made for the Temple of Yahweh out of the money presented,


text:
No accounts were kept with the men to whom the money was paid over to be spent on the workmen, since they were honest in their work.


text:
Money offered in expiation of an offence or of a sin was not given to the Temple of Yahweh; that was for the priests.


text:
At that time Hazael king of Aram went to war against Gath, and captured it; he then prepared to attack Jerusalem.


text:
Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred offerings dedicated by his ancestors, the kings of Judah, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah, with those which he himself had dedicated, and all the gold which was to be found in the treasuries of the Temple of Yahweh and of the palace; he sent it all to Hazael king of Aram, who retired from Jerusalem.


text:
The rest of the history of Joash, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?


text:
Jozacar son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer were the retainers who struck the blows from which he died. He was buried with his ancestors in the City of David; his son Amaziah succeeded him.


text:
In the twenty-third year of Joash son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king of Israel in Samaria. He reigned for seventeen years.


text:
He did what is displeasing to Yahweh and copied the sin into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel; he did not give it up.


text:
This aroused Yahweh's anger against the Israelites, and he delivered them without respite into the power of Hazael king of Aram and of Ben-Hadad son of Hazael.


text:
Jehoahaz, however, tried to placate Yahweh, and Yahweh heard him, for he had seen the oppression which the king of Aram was inflicting on Israel.


text:
Yahweh gave Israel a saviour who freed them from the grip of Aram, and the Israelites lived in their tents as in the past.


text:
But they did not give up the sin into which Jeroboam had led Israel; they persisted in it, and even the sacred pole stayed standing in Samaria.


text:
Of Jehoahaz's army Yahweh left only fifty horsemen, ten chariots and ten thousand foot soldiers. The king of Aram had destroyed them, making them like dust trampled under foot.


text:
The rest of the history of Jehoahaz, his entire career, his prowess, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?


text:
Then Jehoahaz fell asleep with his ancestors, and was buried in Samaria; his son Joash succeeded him.


text:
In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, became king of Israel in Samaria. He reigned for sixteen years.


text:
He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, he did not give up the sin into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel; he persisted in it.


text:
The rest of the history of Joash, his entire career, his prowess, how he waged war on Amaziah king of Judah, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?


text:
Then Joash fell asleep with his ancestors, and Jeroboam ascended his throne. Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.


text:
When Elisha had fallen ill of the illness of which he was to die, Joash king of Israel went down to him and shedding tears over him said, 'Father! Father! Chariot of Israel and its chargers!'


text:
Then Elisha said to the king, 'Draw the bow,' and he drew it. Elisha put his hands over the hands of the king,


text:
then he said, 'Open the window towards the east,' and he opened it. Then Elisha said, 'Shoot!' And he shot. Elisha said, 'Arrow of victory over Aram! You will defeat Aram at Aphek-completely.'


text:
Elisha said, 'Take the arrows,' and he took them. Then he said to the king, 'Strike the ground,' and he struck it three times, then stopped.


text:
At this the man of God grew angry with him. 'You should have struck half a dozen times,' he said, 'and you would have beaten Aram completely; now you will beat Aram only three times.'


text:
Some people happened to be carrying a man out for burial; at the sight of one of these bands, they flung the man into the tomb of Elisha and made off. The man had no sooner touched the bones of Elisha than he came to life and stood up on his feet.


text:
but Yahweh was kind and took pity on them. Because of the covenant which he had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he relented towards them; he had no wish to destroy them, he did not cast them out of his presence.


text:
From Ben-Hadad son of Hazael, Jehoash son of Jehoahaz recaptured the towns which Hazael had seized from his father Jehoahaz by force of arms. Joash defeated him three times and recovered the Israelite towns.


text:
In the second year of Joash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, Amaziah son of Joash became king of Judah.


text:
He was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem.


text:
He did what Yahweh regards as right, though not like his ancestor David; he imitated his father Joash in all respects.


text:
Once the kingdom was firmly under his control, he killed those of his retainers who had murdered the king his father.


text:
But he did not put the murderers' sons to death, in accordance with what is written in the Book of Moses, where Yahweh has commanded: 'Parents may not be put to death for their children, nor children for parents, but each must be put to death for his own crime.'


text:
It was he who slaughtered the Edomites in the Valley of Salt, ten thousand of them, and captured the Rock; he gave it the name Joktheel, which it bears to the present day.


text:
Amaziah then sent messengers to Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, saying, 'Come and make a trial of strength!'


text:
Jehoash king of Israel sent back word to Amaziah king of Judah, 'The thistle of Lebanon sent a message to the cedar of Lebanon, saying, "Give my son your daughter in marriage"; but a wild animal of the Lebanon ran over the thistle and squashed it.


text:
You have conquered Edom and now aspire to even greater glory. Stay where you belong! Why provoke disaster, to your own and Judah's ruin?'


text:
But Amaziah would not listen, so Jehoash king of Israel marched to the attack. And at Beth-Shemesh, which belongs to Judah, he and Amaziah king of Judah made their trial of strength.


text:
The king of Judah, Amaziah son of Jehoash, son of Ahaziah, was taken prisoner at Beth-Shemesh by Jehoash king of Israel who led him off to Jerusalem, where he demolished four hundred cubits of the city wall between the Ephraim Gate and the Corner Gate;


text:
all the gold and silver, and all the vessels to be found in the Temple of Yahweh and in the palace treasury, and hostages besides, he then took back with him to Samaria.


text:
The rest of the history of Jehoash, his entire career, his prowess, how he waged war on Amaziah king of Judah, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?


text:
Then Joash fell asleep with his ancestors, and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; his son Jeroboam succeeded him.


text:
Amaziah son of Joash, king of Judah, lived for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel.


text:
The rest of the history of Amaziah, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?


text:
A plot having been hatched against him in Jerusalem, he fled to Lachish; but he was followed to Lachish where he was murdered.


text:
All the people of Judah then chose Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in succession to his father Amaziah.


text:
It was he who rebuilt Elath, recovering it for Judah, after the king had fallen asleep with his ancestors.


text:
In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Joash became king of Israel in Samaria. He reigned for forty-one years.


text:
He did what is displeasing to Yahweh and did not give up any of the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel.


text:
It was he who recovered the territory of Israel from the Pass of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the word which Yahweh, God of Israel, had spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-Hepher.


text:
For Yahweh had seen how very bitter the affliction of Israel was, with no one, either fettered or free, to come to Israel's help.


text:
But Yahweh had resolved not to blot out the name of Israel under heaven; he rescued them by means of Jeroboam son of Joash.


text:
The rest of the history of Jeroboam, his entire career, his prowess, what wars he waged, how he brought Damascus and Hamath back to their allegiance to Judah and Israel, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?


text:
Then Jeroboam fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; his son Zechariah succeeded him.


text:
He was sixteen years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.


text:
But Yahweh struck the king, and he was afflicted with a virulent skin-disease till his dying day. He lived confined to his room, while Jotham the king's son, who was master of the palace, governed the country.


text:
The rest of the history of Uzziah, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?


text:
Then Uzziah fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David; his son Jotham then succeeded him.


text:
In the thirty-eighth year of Uzziah king of Judah, Zechariah son of Jeroboam became king of Israel in Samaria for six months.


text:
He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, as his fathers had done; he did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel. Shallum son of Jabesh plotted against him, murdered him at Ibleam,


text:
This was the word which Yahweh had spoken to Jehu, 'Your sons will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.' And so it turned out.


text:
Shallum son of Jabesh became king in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah and reigned for one month in Samaria.


text:
Then Menahem son of Gadi marched from Tirzah, entered Samaria, murdered Shallum son of Jabesh there and succeeded him.


text:
The rest of the history of Shallum, and the plot he hatched, is recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel.


text:
Menahem then sacked Tappuah -- killing all who were in it -- and its territory from Tirzah onwards, because it had not opened its gates to him; he sacked the town and disembowelled all the pregnant women.


text:
In the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah, Menahem son of Gadi became king of Israel. He reigned for ten years in Samaria.


text:
He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, he did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel. In his days


text:
Pul king of Assyria invaded the country. Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver in return for his support in strengthening his hold on the royal power.


text:
Menahem levied this sum from Israel, from all the men of rank, at the rate of fifty shekels a head, to be given to the king of Assyria, who then withdrew and did not stay in the country.


text:
The rest of the history of Menahem, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?


text:
In the fiftieth year of Uzziah king of Judah, Pekahiah son of Menahem became king of Israel in Samaria. He reigned for two years.


text:
He did what is displeasing to Yahweh; he did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel.


text:
Pekah son of Remaliah, his equerry, plotted against him and assassinated him in the palace keep . . . He had fifty Gileadites with him. He killed the king and succeeded him.


text:
The rest of the history of Pekahiah, his entire career, is recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel.


text:
In the fifty-second year of Uzziah king of Judah, Pekah son of Remaliah became king of Israel in Samaria. He reigned for twenty years.


text:
In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-Beth-Maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead and Galilee -- the whole territory of Naphtali and deported the population to Assyria.


text:
Hoshea son of Elah hatched a plot against Pekah son of Remaliah; he murdered the king and succeeded him.


text:
The rest of the history of Pekah, his entire career, is recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel.


text:
In the second year of Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham son of Uzziah became king of Judah.


text:
He was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerusha daughter of Zadok.


text:
The high places, however, were not abolished, and the people still offered sacrifices and incense on the high places. It was he who built the Upper Gate of the Temple of Yahweh.


text:
The rest of the history of Jotham, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?


text:
Then Jotham fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David, his ancestor; his son Ahaz succeeded him.


text:
Ahaz was twenty years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what Yahweh his God regards as right, as his ancestor David had done.


text:
He followed the example of the kings of Israel, even causing his son to pass through the fire of sacrifice, also copying the disgusting practices of the nations whom Yahweh had dispossessed for the Israelites.


text:
Then it was that Razon king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, launched their campaign against Jerusalem. They besieged it but could not reduce it.


text:
(At that time, the king of Edom recovered Elath for Edom; he drove the Judaeans out of Elath, and the Edomites occupied it and have been there ever since.)


text:
Ahaz then sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria to say, 'I am your servant and your son. Come and rescue me from the king of Aram and the king of Israel who are making war on me.'


text:
And Ahaz took what silver and gold was to be found in the Temple of Yahweh and in the palace treasury, and sent this as a present to the king of Assyria.


text:
The king of Assyria granted his request and, marching on Damascus, captured it; he deported its population to Kir and put Razon to death.


text:
When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar which was in Damascus. King Ahaz then sent a picture and model of the altar, with details of its construction, to Uriah the priest.


text:
Uriah the priest constructed the altar; all the instructions sent by King Ahaz from Damascus were carried out by Uriah the priest before King Ahaz returned from Damascus.


text:
And on the altar he made his burnt offering and his oblation; he poured out his libation and sprinkled the blood of his communion sacrifices.


text:
The altar which used to stand before Yahweh he removed from the front of the Temple, where it had stood between the new altar and the Temple of Yahweh, and placed it at the north side of the new altar.


text:
King Ahaz gave this order to Uriah the priest, 'In future you will present the morning burnt offering, the evening oblation, the king's burnt offering and oblation, the burnt offering, the oblation and the libations of all the people of the country on the large altar; on it you will pour out all the blood of the burnt offerings and sacrifices. As regards the bronze altar, I shall see to that.'


text:
King Ahaz broke up the wheeled stands; removed the crosspieces and the basins from them, and took the bronze Sea off the oxen supporting it, and rested it on the stone pavement.


text:
And from the Temple of Yahweh, in deference to the king of Assyria, he removed the dais for the throne which had been built inside, and the royal entrance on the outside.


text:
The rest of the history of Ahaz, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?


text:
Then Ahaz fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David; his son Hezekiah succeeded him.


text:
In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and reigned for nine years.


text:
But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was playing a double game with him; he had sent messengers to Sais, to the king of Egypt, and had not, as in previous years, handed over the tribute to the king of Assyria. For this the king of Assyria imprisoned him in chains.


text:
The king of Assyria invaded the whole country and, coming to Samaria, laid siege to it for three years.


text:
In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah on the Habor, a river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.


text:
This happened because the Israelites had sinned against Yahweh their God who had brought them out of Egypt, out of the grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshipped other gods,


text:
The Israelites spoke slightingly of Yahweh their God. They built themselves high places wherever they lived, from watchtower to fortified town.


text:
They set up pillars and sacred poles for themselves on every high hill and under every luxuriant tree.


text:
They sacrificed on all the high places like the nations which Yahweh had expelled for them, and did wicked things there, provoking Yahweh's anger.


text:
And yet through all the prophets and the seers, Yahweh had given Israel and Judah this warning, 'Turn from your wicked ways and keep my commandments and my laws in accordance with the entire Law which I laid down for your fathers and delivered to them through my servants the prophets.'


text:
But they would not listen, they were as stubborn as their ancestors, who had no faith in Yahweh their God.


text:
They despised his laws and the covenant which he had made with their ancestors and the warnings which he had given them. Pursuing futility, they themselves became futile through copying the nations round them, although Yahweh had ordered them not to act as they did.


text:
They rejected all the commandments of Yahweh their God and cast themselves metal idols, two calves; they made themselves sacred poles, they worshipped the whole array of heaven, and they served Baal.


text:
They caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire of sacrifice, also they practised divination and sorcery, they sold themselves to doing what displeases Yahweh, provoking his anger.


text:
Because of which, Yahweh became enraged with Israel and thrust them away from him. The tribe of Judah was the only one left.


text:
Judah did not keep the commandments of Yahweh their God either but copied the practices which Israel had introduced.


text:
Yahweh rejected the whole race of Israel; he brought them low, delivering them into the hands of marauders, until at length he thrust them away from him.


text:
And indeed he had torn Israel away from the House of David, and they had made Jeroboam son of Nebat king; Jeroboam had drawn Israel away from Yahweh and led them into a great sin.


text:
until at length Yahweh thrust Israel away from him, as he had foretold through all his servants the prophets; he deported the Israelites from their own country to Assyria, where they have been ever since.


text:
The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites; these took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.


text:
When they first came to live there, they did not worship Yahweh; hence, Yahweh set lions on them, which killed a number of them.


text:
Consequently, the king of Assyria was informed as follows, 'The nations whom you deported and settled in the towns of Samaria do not know how to worship the local god, and he has set lions on them; and now these are killing them because they do not know how to worship the local god.'


text:
So the king of Assyria gave this order, 'Send back one of the priests whom I deported from there; let him go and live there and teach them how to worship the local god.'


text:
Accordingly, one of the priests who had been deported from Samaria came to live in Bethel; he taught them how to worship Yahweh.


text:
Each nationality made gods of its own and put them in the shrines on the high places built by the Samaritans; each nationality did this in the towns where it lived.


text:
The people from Babylon had made a Succoth-Benoth, the people from Cuthah a Nergal, the people from Hamath an Ashima,


text:
the Avvites a Nibhaz and a Tartak; while the Sepharvites caused their children to pass through the fire of sacrifice to Adrammelech and Anammelech, gods of Sepharvaim.


text:
They worshipped Yahweh as well, and they appointed priests out of their own number for the high places, and these officiated in the shrines on the high places.


text:
They worshipped Yahweh and served their own gods at the same time, with the rites of the countries from which they had been deported.


text:
They still follow their old rites even now. They did not worship Yahweh and did not conform to his statutes or ritual, or the law or the commandments, which Yahweh had laid down for the sons of Jacob to whom he gave the name Israel.


text:
Yahweh had made a covenant with them and had given them this command, 'You are not to worship alien gods, you are not to bow down to them or serve them or offer them sacrifices.


text:
You are to bow down and offer sacrifice only to Yahweh who brought you out of Egypt with great power and outstretched arm.


text:
You are to observe the statutes and ritual, the law and the commandments which he has given you in writing and to which you are always to conform; you are not to worship alien gods.


text:
These nationalities, then, worshipped Yahweh and served their idols as well, as did their children; and their children's children still behave today as their ancestors behaved in the past.


text:
He was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah.


text:
He abolished the high places, broke the pillars, cut down the sacred poles and smashed the bronze serpent which Moses had made; for up to that time the Israelites had offered sacrifices to it; it was called Nehushtan.


text:
He put his trust in Yahweh, God of Israel. No king of Judah after him could be compared with him -- nor any of those before him.


text:
He was devoted to Yahweh, never turning from him, but keeping the commandments which Yahweh had laid down for Moses.


text:
And so Yahweh was with him, and he was successful in all that he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him.


text:
He beat the Philistines back to Gaza, laying their territory waste from watchtower to fortified town.


text:
In the fourth year of Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched on Samaria and laid siege to it.


text:
He captured it after three years. Samaria fell in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel.


text:
The king of Assyria deported the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah on the Habor, a river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.


text:
This happened because they had not obeyed the voice of Yahweh their God and had broken his covenant, everything that Moses servant of Yahweh had laid down. They neither listened to it nor put it into practice.


text:
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria advanced on all the fortified towns of Judah and captured them.


text:
Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish, 'I have been at fault. Call off the attack, and I will submit to whatever you impose on me.' The king of Assyria exacted three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold from Hezekiah king of Judah,


text:
At which time, Hezekiah stripped the facing from the leaves and jambs of the doors of the Temple of Yahweh, which an earlier king of Judah had put on, and gave it to the king of Assyria.


text:
From Lachish the king of Assyria sent the cupbearer-in-chief with a large force to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. He marched on Jerusalem and, on his arrival, took up position near the conduit of the upper pool which is on the road to the Fuller's Field.


text:
He summoned the king. The master of the palace, Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebnah the secretary and the herald Joah son of Asaph went out to him.


text:
The cupbearer-in-chief said to them, 'Say to Hezekiah, "The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What makes you so confident?


text:
Do you think empty words are as good as strategy and military strength? Who are you relying on, to dare to rebel against me?


text:
There you are, relying on that broken reed Egypt, which pricks and pierces the hand of whoever leans on it. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like to all who rely on him.


text:
You may say to me: We rely on Yahweh our God. But have his high places and altars not been suppressed by Hezekiah who told Judah and Jerusalem: Here, in Jerusalem, is the altar before which you must worship?


text:
Very well, then, make a wager with my lord the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses if you can find horsemen to ride them.


text:
How could you repel a single one of the least of my master's soldiers? And yet you have relied on Egypt for chariots and horsemen.


text:
And lastly, have I marched on this place to lay it waste without warrant from Yahweh? Yahweh himself said to me: March on this country and lay it waste." '


text:
Eliakim, Shebnah and Joah said to the cupbearer-in-chief, 'Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the Judaean language within earshot of the people on the ramparts.'


text:
But the cupbearer-in-chief said, 'Do you think my lord sent me here to say these things to your master or to you? On the contrary, it was to the people sitting on the ramparts who, like you, are doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine.'


text:
The cupbearer-in-chief then drew himself up and shouted loudly in the Judaean language, 'Listen to the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.


text:
The king says this, "Do not let Hezekiah delude you. He will be powerless to save you from my clutches.


text:
Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on Yahweh by saying: Yahweh is sure to save us; this city will not fall into the king of Assyria's clutches.


text:
Do not listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says this: Make peace with me, surrender to me, and every one of you will be free to eat the fruit of his own vine and of his own fig tree and to drink the water of his own storage-well


text:
until I come and take you away to a country like your own, a land of corn and good wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil and honey: and so you will survive and not die. Do not listen to Hezekiah; he is deluding you when he says: Yahweh will save us.


text:
Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim and Hena and Ivvah? Where are the local gods of Samaria? Did they save Samaria from my clutches?


text:
Of all the local gods, which ones have saved their countries from my clutches, for Yahweh to be able to save Jerusalem from my clutches?" '


text:
The people, however, kept quiet and said nothing in reply, since the king had given the order, 'You are not to answer him.'


text:
The master of the palace, Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebnah the secretary and the herald Joah son of Asaph, with their clothes torn, went to Hezekiah and reported what the cupbearer-in-chief had said.


text:
He sent Eliakim master of the palace, Shebnah the secretary and the elders of the priests, wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.


text:
They said to him, 'This is what Hezekiah says, "Today is a day of suffering, of punishment, of disgrace. Children come to birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.


text:
May Yahweh your God hear the words of the cupbearer-in-chief whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to insult the living God, and may Yahweh your God punish the words he has heard. Offer your prayer for the remnant still remaining." '


text:
and Isaiah said to them, 'Say to your master, "Yahweh says this: Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard or the blasphemies which the king of Assyria's minions have uttered against me.


text:
Look, I am going to put a spirit in him and, on the strength of a rumour, he will go back to his own country, and in that country I shall make him fall by the sword." '


text:
The cupbearer turned about and rejoined the king of Assyria, who was then attacking Libnah, as the cupbearer had learnt that the king had already left Lachish


text:
Sennacherib again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 'Tell Hezekiah king of Judah this, "Do not let your God on whom you are relying deceive you with the promise: Jerusalem will not fall into the king of Assyria's clutches.


text:
You have learnt by now what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction. Are you likely to be saved?


text:
Did the gods of the nations whom my ancestors devastated save them-Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the Edenites who were in Tel Basar?


text:
Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of Lair, of Sepharvaim, of Hena, of Ivvah?" '


text:
Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers' hands and read it; he then went up to the Temple of Yahweh and spread it out before Yahweh.


text:
Hezekiah said this prayer in the presence of Yahweh, 'Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, enthroned on the winged creatures, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the world, you made heaven and earth.


text:
Give ear, Yahweh, and listen; open your eyes, Yahweh, and see! Hear the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to insult the living God.


text:
they have thrown their gods on the fire, for these were not gods but human artefacts -- wood and stone -- and hence they have destroyed them.


text:
But now, Yahweh our God, save us from his clutches, I beg you, and let all the kingdoms of the world know that you alone are God, Yahweh.'


text:
Isaiah son of Amoz then sent the following message to Hezekiah, 'Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, "I have heard the prayer which you have addressed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria."


text:
Here is the pronouncement which Yahweh has made about him: "She despises you, she scorns you, the virgin daughter of Zion; she tosses her head at you, the daughter of Jerusalem!


text:
Whom have you insulted, whom have you blasphemed? Against whom raised your voice and lifted your haughty eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!


text:
Through your envoys you have insulted the Lord, thinking: With my many chariots I have climbed the mountain-tops, the utmost peaks of Lebanon. I have felled its mighty cedars, its finest cypresses, have reached its furthest recesses, its forest garden.


text:
Yes, I have dug and drunk of foreign waters; under the soles of my feet I have dried up all Egypt's rivers.


text:
"Do you hear? Long ago I prepared this, from days of old I actually planned it, now I carry it out. You were to lay walled cities in heaps of ruins;


text:
that was why their inhabitants, feeble of hand, were dismayed and discomfited, were weak as grass, were frail as plants, were like grass of housetop and meadow under the east wind.


text:
Because you have raved against me, and your arrogance has reached my ears, I shall put a hook through your nostrils and a muzzle on your lips, and make you return by the road by which you came.


text:
"And this will be the sign for you: this year will be eaten the self-sown grain, next year what sprouts in the fallow; but in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.


text:
for a remnant will issue from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. Yahweh Sabaoth's jealous love will accomplish this.


text:
"This, then, is what Yahweh says about the king of Assyria: "He will not enter this city, will shoot no arrow at it, confront it with no shield, throw up no earthwork against it.


text:
That same night the angel of Yahweh went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. In the early morning when it was time to get up, there they lay, so many corpses.


text:
One day when he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped into the territory of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him.


text:
About then Hezekiah fell ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, 'Yahweh says this, "Put your affairs in order, for you are going to die, you will not live." '


text:
'Ah, Yahweh, remember, I beg you, that I have behaved faithfully and with sincerity of heart in your presence and done what you regard as right.' And Hezekiah shed many tears.


text:
'Go back and say to Hezekiah, prince of my people, "Yahweh, the God of your ancestor David, says this: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I shall cure you: in three days' time you will go up to the Temple of Yahweh.


text:
I shall add fifteen years to your life. I shall save you and this city from the king of Assyria's clutches and defend this city for my sake and my servant David's sake." '


text:
'Bring a fig poultice,' Isaiah said; they brought one, applied it to the ulcer, and the king recovered.


text:
Hezekiah said to Isaiah, 'What is the sign to tell me that Yahweh will cure me and that I shall be going up to the Temple of Yahweh in three days' time?'


text:
'Here', Isaiah replied, 'is the sign from Yahweh that he will do what he has said; would you like the shadow to go forward ten steps, or to go back ten steps?'


text:
'It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps,' Hezekiah replied. 'No, I would rather the shadow went back ten steps.'


text:
The prophet Isaiah then called on Yahweh, who made the shadow cast by the declining sun on the steps -- the steps to Ahaz's roof-room -- go back ten steps.


text:
At that time the king of Babylon, Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard of his illness and his recovery.


text:
Hezekiah was delighted at this and showed the ambassadors his entire treasury, the silver, gold, spices, precious oil, his armoury too, and everything to be seen in his storehouses. There was nothing in his palace or in his whole domain that Hezekiah did not show them.


