# 1 Kings - Bible in Basic English (BBE)

**[1:1]** Now King David was old and far on in years; and though they put covers over him, his body was cold.

**[1:2]** So his servants said to him, Let search be made for a young virgin for my lord the king, to take care of him and be waiting on him; and you may take her in your arms, and so my lord the king will be warm.

**[1:3]** So after searching through all the land of Israel for a fair young girl, they saw Abishag the Shunammite, and took her to the king.

**[1:4]** Now she was very beautiful; and she took care of the king, waiting on him at all times; but the king had no connection with her.

**[1:5]** Then Adonijah, the son of Haggith, lifting himself up in pride, said, I will become king; and he made ready his carriages of war and his horsemen, with fifty runners to go before him.

**[1:6]** Now all his life his father had never gone against him or said to him, Why have you done so? and he was a very good-looking man, and younger than Absalom.

**[1:7]** And he had talk with Joab, the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest; and they were on his side and gave him their support.

**[1:8]** But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet and Shimei and Rei, and David's men of war did not take the side of Adonijah.

**[1:9]** Then Adonijah put to death sheep and oxen and fat beasts by the stone of Zoheleth, by En-rogel; and he sent for all his brothers, the king's sons, and all the men of Judah, the king's servants, to come to him:

**[1:10]** But he did not send for Nathan the prophet and Benaiah and the other men of war and Solomon his brother.

**[1:11]** Then Nathan said to Bath-sheba, the mother of Solomon, Has it not come to your ears that Adonijah, the son of Haggith, has made himself king without the knowledge of David our lord?

**[1:12]** So now, let me make a suggestion, so that you may keep your life safe and the life of your son Solomon.

**[1:13]** Come now, go to King David and say to him, Did you not, O my lord, take an oath to me, your servant, saying, Truly Solomon your son will be king after me, seated on the seat of my kingdom? why then is Adonijah acting as king?

**[1:14]** And while you are still talking there with the king, see, I will come in after you and say that your story is true.

**[1:15]** Then Bath-sheba went into the king's room; now the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite was waiting on him.

**[1:16]** And Bath-sheba went down on her face on the earth before the king giving him honour. And he said, What is your desire?

**[1:17]** And she said to him, My lord, you took an oath by the Lord your God and gave your word to your servant, saying, Truly, Solomon your son will be king after me, seated on the seat of my kingdom.

**[1:18]** And now, see, Adonijah has made himself king without my lord's knowledge;

**[1:19]** And has put to death oxen and fat beasts and sheep in great numbers, and has sent for all the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab, the captain of the army; but he has not sent for Solomon your servant.

**[1:20]** And now, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are on you, waiting for you to say who is to take the place of my lord the king after him.

**[1:21]** For as things are, it will come about, when my lord the king is sleeping with his fathers, that I and Solomon my son will be made outlaws.

**[1:22]** And while she was still talking with the king, Nathan the prophet came in.

**[1:23]** And they said to the king, Here is Nathan the prophet. And when he came in before the king, he went down on his face on the earth.

**[1:24]** And Nathan said, O my lord king, have you said, Adonijah is to be king after me, seated on the seat of my kingdom?

**[1:25]** Because today he has gone down and has put to death oxen and fat beasts and sheep in great numbers, and has sent for all the king's sons to come to him, with the captains of the army and Abiathar the priest; and they are feasting before him and crying, Long life to King Adonijah!

**[1:26]** But me, your servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon, he has not sent for.

**[1:27]** Has this thing been done by my lord the king, without giving word to your servants who was to be placed on my lord the king's seat after him?

**[1:28]** Then King David in answer said, Send for Bath-sheba to come to me. And she came in and took her place before the king.

**[1:29]** And the king took an oath, and said, By the living Lord, who has been my saviour from all my troubles,

**[1:30]** As I took an oath to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, saying, Certainly Solomon your son will become king after me, seated on my seat in my place; so will I do this day.

**[1:31]** Then Bath-sheba went down on her face on the earth before the king giving him honour, and said, May my lord King David go on living for ever.

**[1:32]** And King David said, Send for Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada. And they came before the king.

**[1:33]** And the king said to them, Take with you the servants of your lord, and put Solomon my son on my beast, yes, mine, and take him down to Gihon;

**[1:34]** And there let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet put the holy oil on him to make him king over Israel; and sounding the horn say, Long life to King Solomon!

**[1:35]** Then come up after him and he will come in and take his place on the seat of my kingdom; for he is to be king in my place, and I have given orders that he is to be ruler over Israel and over Judah.

**[1:36]** And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, answering the king, said, So be it: and may the Lord, the God of my lord the king, say so.

**[1:37]** As the Lord has been with my lord the king, even so may he be with Solomon and make the seat of his authority greater than that of my lord King David.

**[1:38]** So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, went down and put Solomon on King David's beast and took him to Gihon.

**[1:39]** And Zadok the priest took the vessel of oil out of the Tent, and put the holy oil on Solomon. And when the horn was sounded, all the people said, Long life to King Solomon!

**[1:40]** And all the people came up after him, piping with pipes, and they were glad with great joy, so that the earth was shaking with the sound.

**[1:41]** And it came to the ears of Adonijah and all the guests who were with him, when their meal was ended. And Joab, hearing the sound of the horn, said, What is the reason of this noise as if the town was worked up?

**[1:42]** And while the words were on his lips, Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the priest, came; and Adonijah said, Come in; for you are a man of good faith and the news which you have for us will be good.

**[1:43]** And Jonathan, answering, said to Adonijah, Not so, but our lord King David has made Solomon king:

**[1:44]** And he sent with him Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and they put him on the king's beast:

**[1:45]** And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet put the holy oil on him and made him king in Gihon; and they came back from there with joy, and the town was all worked up. This is the noise which has come to your ears.

**[1:46]** And now Solomon is seated on the seat of the kingdom.

**[1:47]** And the king's servants came to our lord King David, blessing him and saying, May God make the name of Solomon better than your name, and the seat of his authority greater than your seat; and the king was bent low in worship on his bed.

**[1:48]** Then the king said, May the God of Israel be praised, who has given one of my seed to be king in my place this day and has let my eyes see it.

**[1:49]** And all the guests of Adonijah got up in fear and went away, every man to his place.

**[1:50]** And Adonijah himself was full of fear because of Solomon; and he got up and went to the altar, and put his hands on its horns.

**[1:51]** And they gave Solomon word of it, saying, See, Adonijah goes in such fear of King Solomon, that he has put his hands on the horns of the altar, saying, Let King Solomon first give me his oath that he will not put his servant to death with the sword.

**[1:52]** And Solomon said, If he is seen to be a man of good faith, not a hair of him will be touched; but if any wrongdoing is seen in him, he is to be put to death.

**[1:53]** So King Solomon sent, and they took him down from the altar. And he came and gave honour to King Solomon; and Solomon said to him, Go to your house.

**[2:1]** Now the time of David's death came near; and he gave orders to Solomon his son, saying,

**[2:2]** I am going the way of all the earth: so be strong and be a man;

**[2:3]** And keep the orders of the Lord your God, walking in his ways, keeping his laws and his orders and his rules and his words, as they are recorded in the law of Moses; so that you may do well in all you do and wherever you go,

**[2:4]** So that the Lord may give effect to what he said of me, If your children give attention to their ways, living uprightly before me with all their heart and their soul, you will never be without a man to be king in Israel.

**[2:5]** Now you have knowledge of what Joab, the son of Zeruiah, did to me, and to the two captains of the army of Israel, Abner, the son of Ner, and Amasa, the son of Jether, whom he put to death, taking payment for the blood of war in time of peace, and making the band of my clothing and the shoes on my feet red with the blood of one put to death without cause.

**[2:6]** So be guided by your wisdom, and let not his white head go down to the underworld in peace.

**[2:7]** But be good to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be guests at your table; for so they came to me when I went in flight from Absalom your brother.

**[2:8]** Now you have with you Shimei, the son of Gera the Benjamite of Bahurim, who put a bitter curse on me on the day when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to see me at Jordan, and I gave him my oath by the Lord, saying, I will not put you to death by the sword.

**[2:9]** But do not let him be free from punishment, for you are a wise man; and it will be clear to you what you have to do with him; see that his white head goes down to the underworld in blood.

**[2:10]** Then David went to rest with his fathers, and his body was put into the earth in the town of David.

**[2:11]** David was king over Israel for forty years: for seven years he was king in Hebron and for thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

**[2:12]** And Solomon took his place on the seat of David his father, and his kingdom was made safe and strong.

**[2:13]** Then Adonijah, the son of Haggith, came to Bath-sheba, the mother of Solomon. And she said, Come you in peace? And he said, Yes, in peace.

**[2:14]** Then he said, I have something to say to you. And she said, Say on.

**[2:15]** And he said, You saw how the kingdom was mine, and all Israel had the idea that I would be their king; but now the kingdom is turned about, and has become my brother's, for it was given to him by the Lord.

**[2:16]** Now I have one request to make to you, and do not say, No, to me. And she said to him, Say on.

**[2:17]** Then he said, Will you go to Solomon the king (for he will not say, No, to you) and put before him my request that he will give me Abishag the Shunammite for a wife?

**[2:18]** And Bath-sheba said, Good! I will make your request to the king.

**[2:19]** So Bath-sheba went to King Solomon to have talk with him on Adonijah's account. And the king got up to come to her, and went down low to the earth before her; then he took his place on the king's seat and had a seat made ready for the king's mother and she took her place at his right hand.

**[2:20]** Then she said, I have one small request to make to you; do not say, No, to me. And the king said, Say on, my mother, for I will not say, No, to you.

**[2:21]** And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother for a wife.

**[2:22]** Then King Solomon made answer and said to his mother, Why are you requesting me to give Abishag the Shunammite to Adonijah? Take the kingdom for him in addition, for he is my older brother, and Abiathar the priest and Joab, the son of Zeruiah, are on his side.

**[2:23]** Then King Solomon took an oath by the Lord, saying, May God's punishment be on me if Adonijah does not give payment for these words with his life.

**[2:24]** Now by the living Lord, who has given me my place on the seat of David my father, and made me one of a line of kings, as he gave me his word, truly Adonijah will be put to death this day.

**[2:25]** And King Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and he made an attack on him and put him to death.

**[2:26]** And to Abiathar the priest the king said, Go to Anathoth, to your fields; for death would be your right reward; but I will not put you to death now, because you took up the ark of the Lord God before David my father, and you were with him in all his troubles.

**[2:27]** So Solomon let Abiathar be priest no longer, so that he might make the word of the Lord come true which he said about the sons of Eli in Shiloh.

**[2:28]** And news of this came to Joab; for Joab had been one of Adonijah's supporters, though he had not been on Absalom's side. Then Joab went in flight to the Tent of the Lord, and put his hands on the horns of the altar.

**[2:29]** And they said to King Solomon, Joab has gone in flight to the Tent of the Lord and is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, make an attack on him.

**[2:30]** And Benaiah came to the Tent of the Lord and said to him, The king says, Come out. And he said, No; but let death come to me here. And Benaiah went back to the king and gave him word of the answer which Joab had given.

**[2:31]** And the king said, Do as he has said and make an attack on him there, and put his body into the earth; so that you may take away from me and from my family the blood of one put to death by Joab without cause.

**[2:32]** And the Lord will send back his blood on his head, because of the attack he made on two men more upright and better than himself, putting them to the sword without my father's knowledge; even Abner, the son of Ner, captain of the army of Israel, and Amasa, the son of Jether, captain of the army of Judah.

**[2:33]** So their blood will be on the head of Joab, and on the head of his seed for ever; but for David and his seed and his family and the seat of his kingdom, there will be peace for ever from the Lord.

**[2:34]** So Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, went up, and falling on him, put him to death; and his body was put to rest in his house in the waste land.

**[2:35]** And the king put Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, in his place over the army; and Zadok the priest he put in the place of Abiathar.

**[2:36]** Then the king sent for Shimei, and said to him, Make a house for yourself in Jerusalem and keep there and go to no other place.

**[2:37]** For be certain that on the day when you go out and go over the stream Kidron, death will overtake you: and your blood will be on your head.

**[2:38]** And Shimei said to the king, Very well! as my lord the king has said, so will your servant do. And for a long time Shimei went on living in Jerusalem.

**[2:39]** But after three years, two of the servants of Shimei went in flight to Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath. And word was given to Shimei that his servants had gone to Gath.

**[2:40]** Then Shimei got up, and making ready his ass, he went to Gath, to Achish, in search of his servants; and he sent and got them from Gath.

**[2:41]** And news was given to Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had come back again.

**[2:42]** Then the king sent for Shimei, and said to him, Did I not make you take an oath by the Lord, protesting to you and saying, Be certain that on the day when you go out from here, wherever you go, death will overtake you? and you said to me, Very well!

**[2:43]** Why then have you not kept the oath of the Lord and the order which I gave you?

**[2:44]** And the king said to Shimei, You have knowledge of all the evil which you did to David my father; and now the Lord has sent back your evil on yourself.

**[2:45]** But a blessing will be on King Solomon, and the kingdom of David will keep its place before the Lord for ever.

**[2:46]** So the king gave orders to Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada; and he went out and, falling on him, put him to death. And Solomon's authority over the kingdom was complete.

**[3:1]** Solomon became the son-in-law of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter as his wife, keeping her in the town of David, till the house he was building for himself, and the house of the Lord and the wall round Jerusalem, were complete.

**[3:2]** But all this time the people were making their offerings in the high places, because no house had been put up to the name of the Lord till those days.

**[3:3]** And Solomon, in his love for the Lord, kept the laws of David his father; but he made offerings and let them go up in smoke on the high places.

**[3:4]** And the king went to Gibeon to make an offering there, because that was the chief high place: it was Solomon's way to make a thousand burned offerings on that altar.

**[3:5]** In Gibeon, Solomon had a vision of the Lord in a dream by night; and God said to him, Say what I am to give you.

**[3:6]** And Solomon said, Great was your mercy to David my father, as his life before you was true and upright and his heart was true to you; and you have kept for him this greatest mercy, a son to take his place this day.

**[3:7]** And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in the place of David my father; and I am only a young boy, with no knowledge of how to go out or come in.

**[3:8]** And your servant has round him the people of your selection, a people so great that they may not be numbered, and no account of them may be given.

**[3:9]** Give your servant, then, a wise heart for judging your people, able to see what is good and what evil; for who is able to be the judge of this great people?

**[3:10]** Now these words and Solomon's request were pleasing to the Lord.

**[3:11]** And God said to him, Because your request is for this thing, and not for long life for yourself or for wealth or for the destruction of your haters, but for wisdom to be a judge of causes;

**[3:12]** I have done as you said: I have given you a wise and far-seeing heart, so that there has never been your equal in the past, and never will there be any like you in the future.

**[3:13]** And with this I have given you what you made no request for: wealth and honour, so that no king was ever your equal.

**[3:14]** And if you go on in my ways, keeping my laws and my orders as your father David did, I will give you a long life.

**[3:15]** And Solomon, awakening, saw that it was a dream; then he came to Jerusalem, where he went before the ark of the agreement of the Lord, offering burned offerings and peace-offerings; and he made a feast for all his servants.

**[3:16]** Then two loose women of the town came and took their places before the king;

**[3:17]** And one of them said, O my lord, I and this woman are living in the same house; and I gave birth to a child by her side in the house.

**[3:18]** And three days after the birth of my child, this woman had a child: we were together, no other-person was with us in the house but we two only.

**[3:19]** In the night, this woman, sleeping on her child, was the cause of its death.

**[3:20]** And she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while your servant was sleeping; and she took it in her arms and put her dead child in my arms.

**[3:21]** And when I got up to give my child the breast, I saw that it was dead; but in the morning, looking at it with care, I saw that it was not my son.

**[3:22]** And the other woman said, No; but the living child is my son and the dead one yours. But the first said, No; the dead child is your son and the living one mine. So they kept on talking before the king.

**[3:23]** Then the king said, One says, The living child is my son, and yours is the dead: and the other says, Not so; but your son is the dead one and mine is the living.

**[3:24]** Then he said, Get me a sword. So they went and put a sword before the king.

**[3:25]** And the king said, Let the living child be cut in two and one half given to one woman and one to the other.

**[3:26]** Then the mother of the living child came forward, for her heart went out to her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the child; do not on any account put it to death. But the other woman said, It will not be mine or yours; let it be cut in two.

**[3:27]** Then the king made answer and said, Give her the child, and do not put it to death; she is the mother of it.

**[3:28]** And news of this decision which the king had made went through all Israel; and they had fear of the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to give decisions.

**[4:1]** Now Solomon was king over all Israel.

**[4:2]** And these were his chief men: Azariah, the son of Zadok, was the priest;

**[4:3]** Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, were scribes; Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was the recorder;

**[4:4]** Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was head of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

**[4:5]** Azariah, the son of Nathan, was over those in authority in the different divisions of the country; Zabud, the son of Nathan, was priest and the king's friend;

**[4:6]** Ahishar was controller of the king's house; Adoniram, the son of Abda, was overseer of the forced work.

**[4:7]** And Solomon put twelve overseers over all Israel, to be responsible for the stores needed for the king and those of his house; every man was responsible for one month in the year.

**[4:8]** And these are their names: ... the son of Hur in the hill country of Ephraim;

**[4:9]** ... the son of Deker in Makaz and Shaalbim and Beth-shemesh and Elonbeth-hanan;

**[4:10]** ... the son of Hesed in Arubboth; Socoh and all the land of Hepher were under his control;

**[4:11]** ... the son of Abinadab in all Naphath-dor; his wife was Taphath, the daughter of Solomon.

**[4:12]** Baana, the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is by the side of Zarethan, under Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as the far side of Jokmeam;

**[4:13]** ... the son of Geber in Ramoth-gilead; he had the towns of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and the country of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great towns with walls and locks of brass.

**[4:14]** Ahinadab, the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;

**[4:15]** Ahimaaz in Naphtali; he took Basemath, the daughter of Solomon, as his wife;

**[4:16]** Baana, the son of Hushai, in Asher and Aloth;

**[4:17]** Jehoshaphat, the son of Paruah, in Issachar;

**[4:18]** Shimei, the son of Ela, in Benjamin;

**[4:19]** Geber, the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan; and one overseer had authority over all the overseers who were in the land.

**[4:20]** Judah and Israel were as great in number as the sand by the seaside, and they took their food and drink with joy in their hearts.

**[4:21]** And Solomon was ruler over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the edge of Egypt; men gave him offerings and were his servants all the days of his life.

**[4:22]** And the amount of Solomon's food for one day was thirty measures of crushed grain and sixty measures of meal;

**[4:23]** Ten fat oxen and twenty oxen from the fields, and a hundred sheep, in addition to harts and gazelles and roes and fat fowls.

**[4:24]** For he had authority over all the country on this side of the River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings on this side of the River; and he had peace round him on every side.

**[4:25]** So Judah and Israel were living safely, every man under his vine and his fig-tree, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon.

**[4:26]** And Solomon had four thousand boxed-off spaces for horses for his carriages, and twelve thousand horsemen.

**[4:27]** And those overseers, every man in his month, saw that food was produced for Solomon and all his guests, they took care that nothing was overlooked.

**[4:28]** And they took grain and dry grass for the horses and the carriage-horses, to the right place, every man as he was ordered.

**[4:29]** And God gave Solomon a great store of wisdom and good sense, and a mind of wide range, as wide as the sand by the seaside.

**[4:30]** And Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt.

**[4:31]** For he was wiser than all men, even than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman and Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and he had a great name among all the nations round about.

**[4:32]** He was the maker of three thousand wise sayings, and of songs to the number of a thousand and five.

**[4:33]** He made sayings about all plants, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop hanging on the wall; and about all beasts and birds and fishes and the small things of the earth.

**[4:34]** People came from every nation to give ear to the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had word of his wisdom.

**[5:1]** Now Hiram, king of Tyre, hearing that Solomon had been made king in place of his father, sent his servants to him; for Hiram had ever been a friend to David.

**[5:2]** And Solomon sent back word to Hiram, saying,

**[5:3]** You have knowledge that David my father was not able to make a house for the name of the Lord his God, because of the wars which were round him on every side, till the Lord put all those who were against him under his feet.

**[5:4]** But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side; no one is making trouble, and no evil is taking place.

**[5:5]** And so it is my purpose to make a house for the name of the Lord my God, as he said to David my father, Your son, whom I will make king in your place, will be the builder of a house for my name.

**[5:6]** So now, will you have cedar-trees from Lebanon cut down for me, and my servants will be with your servants; and I will give you payment for your servants at whatever rate you say; for it is common knowledge that we have no such wood-cutters among us as the men of Zidon.

**[5:7]** And these words of Solomon made Hiram glad, and he said, Now may the Lord be praised who has given to David a wise son to be king over this great people.

**[5:8]** Then Hiram sent to Solomon, saying; The words you sent have been given to me: I will do all your desire in the question of cedar-wood and cypress-wood.

**[5:9]** My men will take them down from Lebanon to the sea, where I will have them corded together to go by sea to whatever place you say, and I will have them cut up there so that you may take them away; as for payment, it will be enough if you give me food for my people.

**[5:10]** So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar-wood and cypress-wood he had need of;

**[5:11]** And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of grain, as food for his people, and twenty measures of clear oil; this he did every year.

**[5:12]** Now the Lord had given Solomon wisdom, as he had said to him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they made an agreement together.

**[5:13]** Then King Solomon got together men for the forced work through all Israel, thirty thousand men in number;

**[5:14]** And sent them to Lebanon in bands of ten thousand every month: for a month they were working in Lebanon and for two months in their country, and Adoniram was in control of them.

**[5:15]** Then he had seventy thousand for the work of transport, and eighty thousand stone-cutters in the mountains;

**[5:16]** In addition to the chiefs of the responsible men put by Solomon to oversee the work, three thousand and three hundred in authority over the workmen.

**[5:17]** By the king's orders great stones, stones of high price, were cut out, so that the base of the house might be made of squared stone.

**[5:18]** Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did the work of cutting them, and put edges on them, and got the wood and the stone ready for the building of the house.

**[6:1]** In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year that Solomon was king of Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, the building of the Lord's house was started.

**[6:2]** The house which Solomon made for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.

**[6:3]** The covered way before the Temple of the house was twenty cubits long, as wide as the house, and ten cubits wide in front of the house.

**[6:4]** And for the house he made windows, with network across.

**[6:5]** And against the walls all round, and against the walls of the Temple and of the inmost room, he put up wings, with side rooms all round:

**[6:6]** The lowest line of them being five cubits wide, the middle six cubits wide and the third seven cubits; for there was a space all round the outside walls of the house so that the boards supporting the rooms did not have to be fixed in the walls of the house.

**[6:7]** (And the stones used in the building of the house were squared at the place where they were cut out; there was no sound of hammer or axe or any iron instrument while they were building the house.)

**[6:8]** The door to the lowest side rooms was in the right side of the house; and they went up by twisting steps into the middle rooms, and from the middle into the third.

**[6:9]** So he put up the house and made it complete, roofing it with boards of cedar-wood.

**[6:10]** And he put up the line of side rooms against the walls of the house, fifteen cubits high, resting against the house on boards of cedar-wood.

**[6:11]** (And the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying,

**[6:12]** About this house which you are building: if you will keep my laws and give effect to my decisions and be guided by my rules, I will give effect to my word which I gave to David your father.

**[6:13]** And I will be ever among the children of Israel, and will not go away from my people.

**[6:14]** So Solomon made the building of the house complete.)

**[6:15]** The walls of the house were covered inside with cedar-wood boards; from the floor to the roof of the house they were covered inside with wood; and the floor was covered with boards of cypress-wood.

**[6:16]** And at the back of the house a further space of twenty cubits was shut in with boards of cedar-wood, for the inmost room.

**[6:17]** And the house, that is, the Temple, in front of the holy place was forty cubits long.

**[6:18]** (All the inside of the house was cedar-wood, ornamented with designs of buds and flowers; no stonework was to be seen inside.)

**[6:19]** And he made ready an inmost room in the middle of the house, in which to put the ark of the agreement of the Lord.

**[6:20]** And the inmost room was twenty cubits square and twenty cubits high, plated over with clear gold, and he made an altar of cedar-wood, plating it with gold.

**[6:21]** Solomon had all the inside of the house covered with gold, and he put chains of gold across in front of the inmost room, which itself was covered with gold.

**[6:22]** Plates of gold were put all through the house till it was covered completely (and the altar in the inmost room was all covered with gold).

**[6:23]** In the inmost room he made two winged beings of olive-wood, ten cubits high;

**[6:24]** With outstretched wings five cubits wide; the distance from the edge of one wing to the edge of the other was ten cubits.

**[6:25]** The two winged ones were ten cubits high, of the same size and form.

**[6:26]** The two of them were ten cubits high.

**[6:27]** These were placed inside the inner house, their outstretched wings touching the walls of the house, one touching one wall and one the other, while their other wings were touching in the middle.

**[6:28]** These winged ones were plated over with gold.

**[6:29]** And all the walls of the house inside and out were ornamented with forms of winged ones and palm-trees and open flowers.

**[6:30]** And the floor of the house was covered with gold, inside and out.

**[6:31]** For the way into the inmost room he made doors of olive-wood, the arch and the door supports forming a five-sided opening.

**[6:32]** On the olive-wood doors were cut designs of winged ones and palm-trees and open flowers, all of them, with the doors, plated with gold.

**[6:33]** Then he made pillars of olive-wood for the way into the Temple; the pillars were square:

**[6:34]** And two folding doors of cypress-wood, with two leaves.

**[6:35]** These were ornamented with designs of winged ones and palm-trees and open flowers, plated over with gold.

**[6:36]** And the inner space was walled with three lines of squared stones and a line of cedar-wood boards.

**[6:37]** In the fourth year the base of the house was put in its place, in the month Ziv.

**[6:38]** And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, the building of the house was complete in every detail, as it had been designed. So he was seven years building it.

**[7:1]** Solomon was thirteen years building a house for himself till it was complete.

**[7:2]** And he made the house of the Woods of Lebanon, which was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high, resting on four lines of cedar-wood pillars with cedar-wood supports on the pillars.

**[7:3]** And it was covered with cedar over the forty-five supports which were on the pillars, fifteen in a line.

**[7:4]** There were three lines of window-frames, window facing window in every line.

**[7:5]** And all the doors and windows had square frames, with the windows facing one another in three lines.

**[7:6]** And he made a covered room of pillars, fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide, and ... with steps before it.

**[7:7]** Then he made a covered room for his high seat when he gave decisions; this was the covered room of judging; it was covered with cedar-wood from floor to roof.

**[7:8]** And the house for his living-place, the other open square in the covered room, was made in the same way. And then he made a house like it for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Solomon had taken as his wife.

**[7:9]** All these buildings were made, inside and out, from base to crowning stone, and outside to the great walled square, of highly priced stone, cut to different sizes with cutting-instruments.

**[7:10]** And the base was of great masses of highly priced stone, some ten cubits and some eight cubits square.

**[7:11]** Overhead were highly priced stones cut to measure, and cedar-wood.

**[7:12]** The great outer square all round was walled with three lines of squared stones and a line of cedar-wood boards, round about the open square inside the house of the Lord and the covered room of the king's house.

**[7:13]** Then King Solomon sent and got Hiram from Tyre.

**[7:14]** He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass; he was full of wisdom and knowledge and an expert worker in brass. He came to King Solomon and did all his work for him.

**[7:15]** He it was who made the two brass pillars; the first pillar was eighteen cubits high, and a line of twelve cubits went round it; and the second was the same.

**[7:16]** And he made the two crowns to be put on the tops of the pillars, of brass made soft in the fire; the crowns were five cubits high.

**[7:17]** There were nets of open-work for the crowns on the tops of the pillars, a net of open-work for one and a net of open-work for the other.

**[7:18]** And he made ornaments of apples; and two lines of apples all round over the network, covering the crowns of the pillars, the two crowns in the same way.

**[7:19]** The crowns on the tops of the pillars were ornamented with a design of flowers, and were four cubits across.

**[7:20]** And there were crowns on the two pillars near the round part by the network, and there were two hundred apples in lines round every crown.

**[7:21]** He put up the pillars at the doorway of the Temple, naming the one on the right Jachin, and that on the left Boaz.

**[7:22]** The tops of the pillars had a design of flowers; and the work of making the pillars was complete.

**[7:23]** And he made a great metal water-vessel ten cubits across from edge to edge, five cubits high and thirty cubits round.

**[7:24]** And under the edge of it, circling it all round for ten cubits, were two lines of flower buds, made together with it from liquid metal.

**[7:25]** It was supported on twelve oxen, with their back parts turned to the middle of it, three of them facing to the north, three to the west, three to the south, and three to the east; the vessel was resting on top of them.

**[7:26]** It was as thick as a man's open hand, and was curved like the edge of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it would take two thousand baths.

**[7:27]** And he made ten wheeled bases of brass; every one four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high.

**[7:28]** And the bases were made in this way; their sides were square, fixed in a framework;

**[7:29]** And on the square sides between the frames were lions, oxen, and winged ones; and the same on the frame; and over and under the lions and the oxen and the winged ones were steps.

**[7:30]** Every base had four wheels of brass, turning on brass rods, and their four angles had angle-plates under them; the angle-plates under the base were of metal, and there were ornaments at the side of every one.

**[7:31]** The mouth of it inside the angle-plate was one cubit across; it was round like a pillar, a cubit and a half across; it had designs cut on it; the sides were square, not round.

**[7:32]** The four wheels were under the frames, and the rods on which the wheels were fixed were in the base; the wheels were a cubit and a half high.

**[7:33]** The wheels were made like carriage-wheels, the rods on which they were fixed, the parts forming their edges, their rods and the middle points of them, were all formed out of liquid metal.

**[7:34]** And there were four angle-plates at the four angles of every base, forming part of the structure of the base.

**[7:35]** And at the top of the base there was a round vessel, half a cubit high;

**[7:36]** In the spaces of the flat sides and on the frames of them, he made designs of winged ones, lions, and palm-trees, with ornamented edges all round.

**[7:37]** All the ten bases were made in this way, after the same design, of the same size and form.

**[7:38]** And he made ten brass washing-vessels, everyone taking forty baths, and measuring four cubits; one vessel was placed on every one of the ten bases.

**[7:39]** And he put the bases by the house, five on the right side and five on the left; and he put the great water-vessel on the right side of the house, to the east, facing south.

**[7:40]** And Hiram made the pots and spades and the basins. So Hiram came to the end of all the work he did for King Solomon in the house of the Lord:

**[7:41]** The two pillars and the two cups of the crowns which were on the tops of the two pillars; and the network covering the two cups of the crowns on the tops of the pillars,

**[7:42]** And the four hundred apples for the network, two lines of apples for every network, covering the two cups of the crowns on the pillars;

**[7:43]** And the ten bases, with the ten washing-vessels on them;

**[7:44]** And the great water-vessel, with the twelve oxen under it;

**[7:45]** And the pots and the spades and the basins; all the vessels which Hiram made for King Solomon, for the house of the Lord, were of polished brass.

**[7:46]** He made them of liquid metal in the lowland of Jordan, at the way across the river, at Adama, between Succoth and Zarethan.

**[7:47]** The weight of all these vessels was not measured, because there was such a number of them; it was not possible to get the weight of the brass.

**[7:48]** And Solomon had all the vessels made for use in the house of the Lord: the altar of gold and the gold table on which the holy bread was placed;

**[7:49]** And the supports for the lights, five on the right side and five on the left before the inmost room, of clear gold; and the flowers and the lights and all the instruments of gold;

**[7:50]** And the cups and the scissors and the basins and the spoons and the fire-trays, all of gold; and the pins on which the doors were turned, the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and the doors of the Temple, all of gold.

**[7:51]** So all the work King Solomon had done in the house of the Lord was complete. Then Solomon took the holy things which David his father had given, the silver and the gold and all the vessels, and put them in the store-houses of the house of the Lord.

**[8:1]** Then Solomon sent for all the responsible men of Israel, and all the chiefs of the tribes, and the heads of families of the children of Israel, to come to him in Jerusalem to take the ark of the Lord's agreement up out of the town of David, which is Zion.

**[8:2]** And all the men of Israel came together to King Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim, the seventh month.

**[8:3]** And all the responsible men of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark.

**[8:4]** They took up the ark of the Lord, and the Tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels which were in the Tent; all these the priests and the Levites took up.

**[8:5]** And King Solomon and all the men of Israel who had come together there, were with him before the ark, making offerings of sheep and oxen more than might be numbered.

**[8:6]** And the priests took the ark of the agreement of the Lord and put it in its place in the inner room of the house, in the most holy place, under the wings of the winged ones.

**[8:7]** For their wings were outstretched over the place where the ark was, covering the ark and its rods.

**[8:8]** The rods were so long that their ends were seen from the holy place, in front of the inmost room; but they were not seen from outside: and there they are to this day.

**[8:9]** There was nothing in the ark but the two flat stones which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made an agreement with the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.

**[8:10]** Now when the priests had come out of the holy place, the house of the Lord was full of the cloud,

**[8:11]** So that the priests were not able to keep their places to do their work because of the cloud, for the house of the Lord was full of the glory of the Lord.

**[8:12]** Then Solomon said, O Lord, to the sun you have given the heaven for a living-place, but your living-place was not seen by men;

**[8:13]** So I have made for you a living-place, a house in which you may be for ever present.

**[8:14]** Then, turning his face about, the king gave a blessing to all the men of Israel; and they were all on their feet together.

**[8:15]** And he said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who himself gave his word to David my father, and with his strong hand has made his word come true, saying,

**[8:16]** From the day when I took my people Israel out of Egypt, no town in all the tribes of Israel has been marked out by me for the building of a house for the resting-place of my name; but I made selection of David to be king over my people Israel.

**[8:17]** Now it was in the heart of David my father to put up a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

**[8:18]** But the Lord said to David my father, You did well to have in your heart the desire to make a house for my name;

**[8:19]** But you yourself will not be the builder of my house; but your son, the offspring of your body, he it is who will put up a house for my name.

**[8:20]** And the Lord has made his word come true; for I have taken my father David's place on the seat of the kingdom of Israel, as the Lord gave his word; and I have made a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

**[8:21]** In it I have made a place for the ark, in which is the agreement which the Lord made with our fathers, when he took them out of the land of Egypt.

**[8:22]** Then Solomon took his place before the altar of the Lord, all the men of Israel being present, and stretching out his hands to heaven,

**[8:23]** Said, O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on the earth; keeping faith and mercy unchanging for your servants, while they go in your ways with all their hearts.

**[8:24]** And you have kept the word which you gave to your servant David, my father; with your mouth you said it and with your hand you have made it come true this day.

**[8:25]** So now, O Lord, the God of Israel, let your word to your servant David, my father, come true, when you said, You will never be without a man to take his place on the seat of the kingdom of Israel before me, if only your children give attention to their ways, walking before me as you have done.

**[8:26]** So now, O God of Israel, it is my prayer that you will make your word come true which you said to your servant David, my father.

**[8:27]** But is it truly possible that God may be housed on earth? see, heaven and the heaven of heavens are not wide enough to be your resting-place; how much less this house which I have made!

**[8:28]** Still, let your heart be turned to the prayer of your servant, O Lord God, and to his prayer for grace; give ear to the cry and the prayer which your servant sends up to you this day;

**[8:29]** That your eyes may be open to this house night and day, to this place of which you have said, My name will be there; hearing the prayer which your servant may make, turning to this place.

**[8:30]** Give ear to the prayers of your servant, and the prayers of your people Israel, when they make their prayers, turning to this place; give ear in heaven your living-place, and hearing, have mercy.

**[8:31]** If a man does wrong to his neighbour, and has to take an oath, and comes before your altar to take his oath in this house:

**[8:32]** Then let your ear be open in heaven, and be the judge of your servants, giving your decision against the wrongdoer, so that punishment for his sins may come on his head; and, by your decision, keeping from evil him who has done no wrong.

**[8:33]** When your people Israel are overcome in war, because of their sin against you; if they are turned to you again, honouring your name, making prayers to you and requesting your grace in this house:

**[8:34]** Then give ear in heaven, and let the sin of your people Israel have forgiveness, and take them back again into the land which you gave to their fathers.

**[8:35]** When heaven is shut up and there is no rain, because of their sin against you; if they make prayers with their faces turned to this place, honouring your name and turning away from their sin when you send trouble on them:

**[8:36]** Then give ear in heaven, so that the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, may have forgiveness, when you make clear to them the good way in which they are to go; and send rain on your land which you have given to your people for their heritage.

**[8:37]** If there is no food in the land, or if there is disease, or if the fruits of the earth are damaged through heat or water, locust or worm; if their towns are shut in by their attackers; whatever trouble, whatever disease there may be:

**[8:38]** Whatever prayer or request for your grace is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, whatever his trouble may be, whose hands are stretched out to this house:

**[8:39]** Give ear in heaven your living-place, acting in mercy; and give to every man whose secret heart is open to you, the reward of all his ways; for you, and you only, have knowledge of the hearts of all the children of men:

**[8:40]** So that they may give you worship all the days of their life in the land which you gave to our fathers.

**[8:41]** And as for the man from a strange land, who is not of your people Israel; when he comes from a far country because of the glory of your name:

**[8:42]** (For they will have news of your great name and your strong hand and your out-stretched arm;) when he comes to make his prayer, turning to this house:

**[8:43]** Give ear in heaven your living-place, and give him his desire, whatever it may be; so that all the peoples of the earth may have knowledge of your name, worshipping you as do your people Israel, and that they may see that this house which I have put up is truly named by your name.

**[8:44]** If your people go out to war against their attackers, by whatever way you may send them, if they make their prayer to the Lord, turning their faces to this town of yours and to this house which I have made for your name:

**[8:45]** Give ear in heaven to their prayer and their cry for grace, and see right done to them.

**[8:46]** If they do wrong against you, (for no man is without sin,) and you are angry with them and give them up into the power of those who are fighting against them, so that they take them away as prisoners into a strange land, far off or near;

**[8:47]** And if they take thought, in the land where they are prisoners, and are turned again to you, crying out in prayer to you in that land, and saying, We are sinners, we have done wrong, we have done evil;

**[8:48]** And with all their heart and soul are turned again to you, in the land of those who took them prisoners, and make their prayer to you, turning their eyes to this land which you gave to their fathers, and to the town which you took for yourself, and the house which I made for your name:

**[8:49]** Then give ear to their prayer and to their cry in heaven your living-place, and see right done to them;

**[8:50]** Answering with forgiveness the people who have done wrong against you, and overlooking the evil which they have done against you; let those who made them prisoners be moved with pity for them, and have pity on them;

**[8:51]** For they are your people and your heritage, which you took out of Egypt, out of the iron fireplace;

**[8:52]** Let your eyes be open to your servant's prayer for grace and to the prayer of your people Israel, hearing them when their cry comes to you.

**[8:53]** For you made them separate from all the peoples of the earth, to be your heritage, as you said by Moses your servant, when you took our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.

**[8:54]** Then Solomon, after making all these prayers and requests for grace to the Lord, got up from his knees before the altar of the Lord, where his hands had been stretched out in prayer to heaven;

**[8:55]** And, getting on his feet, he gave a blessing to all the men of Israel, saying with a loud voice,

**[8:56]** Praise be to the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, as he gave them his word to do; every word of all his oath, which he gave by the hand of Moses his servant, has come true.

**[8:57]** Now may the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers; let him never go away from us or give us up;

**[8:58]** Turning our hearts to himself, guiding us to go in all his ways, to keep his orders and his laws and his decisions, which he gave to our fathers.

**[8:59]** And may these my words, the words of my prayer to the Lord, be before the Lord our God day and night, so that he may see right done to his servant and to his people Israel, day by day as we have need.

**[8:60]** So that all the peoples of the earth may see that the Lord is God, and there is no other.

**[8:61]** Then let your hearts be without sin before the Lord our God, walking in his laws and keeping his orders as at this day.

**[8:62]** Now the king, and all Israel with him, were making offerings before the Lord.

**[8:63]** And Solomon gave to the Lord for peace-offerings, twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel kept the feast of the opening of the Lord's house.

**[8:64]** The same day the king made holy the middle of the open square in front of the house of the Lord, offering there the burned offering and the meal offering and the fat of the peace-offerings; for there was not room on the brass altar of the Lord for the burned offerings and the meal offerings and the fat of the peace-offerings.

**[8:65]** So Solomon and all Israel with him, a very great meeting, (for the people had come together from the way into Hamath to the river of Egypt,) kept the feast at that time before the Lord our God, for two weeks, even fourteen days.

**[8:66]** And on the eighth day he sent the people away, and, blessing the king, they went to their tents full of joy and glad in their hearts, because of all the good which the Lord had done to David his servant and to Israel his people.

**[9:1]** Now when Solomon came to the end of building the house of the Lord and the king's house, and all Solomon's desires, which he had in mind were effected;

**[9:2]** The Lord came to him again in a vision, as he had done at Gibeon;

**[9:3]** And the Lord said to him, Your prayers and your requests for grace have come to my ears: I have made holy this house which you have made, and I have put my name there for ever; my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.

**[9:4]** As for you, if you will go on your way before me, as David your father did, uprightly and with a true heart, doing what I have given you orders to do, keeping my laws and my decisions;

**[9:5]** Then I will make the seat of your rule over Israel certain for ever, as I gave my word to David your father, saying, You will never be without a man to be king in Israel.

**[9:6]** But if you are turned from my ways, you or your children, and do not keep my orders and my laws which I have put before you, but go and make yourselves servants to other gods and give them worship:

**[9:7]** Then I will have Israel cut off from the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for myself, I will put away from before my eyes; and Israel will be a public example, and a word of shame among all peoples.

**[9:8]** And this house will become a mass of broken walls, and everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder at it and make whistling sounds; and they will say, Why has the Lord done so to this land and to this house?

**[9:9]** And their answer will be, Because they were turned away from the Lord their God, who took their fathers out of the land of Egypt; they took for themselves other gods and gave them worship and became their servants: that is why the Lord has sent all this evil on them.

**[9:10]** Now at the end of twenty years, in which time Solomon had put up the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king's house,

**[9:11]** (Hiram, king of Tyre, had given Solomon cedar-trees and cypress-trees and gold, as much as he had need of,) King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the land of Galilee.

**[9:12]** But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the towns which Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them.

**[9:13]** And he said, What sort of towns are these which you have given me, my brother? So they were named the land of Cabul, to this day.

**[9:14]** And Hiram sent the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold.

**[9:15]** Now, this was the way of Solomon's system of forced work for the building of the Lord's house and of the king's house, and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Megiddo and Gezer. ...

**[9:16]** Pharaoh, king of Egypt, came and took Gezer, burning it down and putting to death the Canaanites living in the town, and he gave it for a bride-offering to his daughter, Solomon's wife. ...

**[9:17]** ... and Solomon was the builder of Gezer and Beth-horon the lower,

**[9:18]** And Baalath and Tamar in the waste land, in that land;

**[9:19]** And all the store-towns and the towns which Solomon had for his war-carriages and for his horsemen, and everything which it was his pleasure to put up in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land under his rule.

**[9:20]** As for the rest of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not children of Israel;

**[9:21]** Their children who were still in the land, and whom the children of Israel had not been able to put to complete destruction, them did Solomon put to forced work, to this day.

**[9:22]** But Solomon did not put the children of Israel to forced work; they were the men of war, his servants, his captains, and his chiefs, captains of his war-carriages and of his horsemen.

**[9:23]** These were the chiefs of the overseers of Solomon's work, five hundred and fifty, in authority over the people who did the work.

**[9:24]** At that time Solomon made Pharaoh's daughter come up from the town of David to the house which he had made for her: then he made the Millo.

**[9:25]** Three times in the year it was Solomon's way to give burned offerings and peace-offerings on the altar he had made to the Lord, causing his fire-offering to go up on the altar before the Lord.

**[9:26]** And King Solomon made a sea-force of ships in Ezion-geber, by Eloth, on the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

**[9:27]** Hiram sent his servants, who were experienced seamen, in the sea-force with Solomon's men.

**[9:28]** And they came to Ophir, where they got four hundred and twenty talents of gold, and took it back to King Solomon.

**[10:1]** Now the queen of Sheba, hearing great things of Solomon, came to put his wisdom to the test with hard questions.

**[10:2]** And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels weighted down with spices, and stores of gold and jewels: and when she came to Solomon she had talk with him of everything in her mind.

**[10:3]** And Solomon gave her answers to all her questions; there was no secret which the king did not make clear to her.

**[10:4]** And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house which he had made,

**[10:5]** And the food at his table, and all his servants seated there, and those who were waiting on him in their places, and their robes, and his wine-servants, and the burned offerings which he made in the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her.

**[10:6]** And she said to the king, The account which was given to me in my country of your acts and your wisdom was true.

**[10:7]** But I had no faith in what was said about you, till I came and saw for myself; and now I see that it was not half the story; your wisdom and your wealth are much greater than they said.

**[10:8]** Happy are your wives, happy are these your servants whose place is ever before you, hearing your words of wisdom.

**[10:9]** May the Lord your God be praised, whose pleasure it was to put you on the seat of the kingdom of Israel; because the Lord's love for Israel is eternal, he has made you king, to be their judge in righteousness.

**[10:10]** And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a great store of spices and jewels: never again was such a wealth of spices seen as that which the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon.

**[10:11]** And the sea-force of Hiram, in addition to gold from Ophir, came back with much sandal-wood and jewels.

**[10:12]** And from the sandal-wood the king made pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king's house, and instruments of music for the makers of melody: never has such sandal-wood been seen to this day.

**[10:13]** And King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatever she made request for, in addition to what he gave her freely from the impulse of his heart. So she went back to her country, she and her servants.

**[10:14]** Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents;

**[10:15]** In addition to what came to him from the business of the traders, and from all the kings of the Arabians, and from the rulers of the country.

**[10:16]** And Solomon made two hundred body-covers of hammered gold, every one having six hundred shekels of gold in it.

**[10:17]** And he made three hundred smaller body-covers of hammered gold, with three pounds of gold in every cover: and the king put them in the house of the Woods of Lebanon.

**[10:18]** Then the king made a great ivory seat, plated with the best gold.

**[10:19]** There were six steps going up to it, and the top of it was round at the back, there were arms on the two sides of the seat, and two lions by the side of the arms;

**[10:20]** And twelve lions were placed on the one side and on the other side on the six steps: there was nothing like it in any kingdom.

**[10:21]** And all King Solomon's drinking-vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the Woods of Lebanon were of the best gold; not one was of silver, for no one gave a thought to silver in the days of King Solomon.

**[10:22]** For the king had Tarshish-ships at sea with the ships of Hiram; once every three years the Tarshish-ships came with gold and silver and ivory and monkeys and peacocks.

**[10:23]** And King Solomon was greater than all the kings of the earth in wealth and in wisdom.

**[10:24]** And from all over the earth they came to see Solomon and to give ear to his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.

**[10:25]** And everyone took with him an offering, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and robes, and coats of metal, and spices, and horses, and beasts of transport, regularly year by year.

**[10:26]** And Solomon got together war-carriages and horsemen; he had one thousand, four hundred carriages and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king at Jerusalem.

**[10:27]** And the king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem and cedars like the sycamore-trees of the lowlands in number.

**[10:28]** And Solomon's horses came from Egypt and from Kue; the king's traders got them at a price from Kue.

**[10:29]** A war-carriage might be got from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty; they got them at the same rate for all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.

**[11:1]** Now a number of strange women were loved by Solomon, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites:

**[11:2]** The nations of which the Lord had said to the children of Israel, You are not to take wives from them and they are not to take wives from you; or they will certainly make you go after their gods: to these Solomon was united in love.

**[11:3]** He had seven hundred wives, daughters of kings, and three hundred other wives; and through his wives his heart was turned away.

**[11:4]** For it came about that when Solomon was old, his heart was turned away to other gods by his wives; and his heart was no longer true to the Lord his God as the heart of his father David had been.

**[11:5]** For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and Milcom, the disgusting god of the Ammonites.

**[11:6]** And Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not walking in the Lord's ways with all his heart as David his father did.

**[11:7]** Then Solomon put up a high place for Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, in the mountain before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the disgusting god worshipped by the children of Ammon.

**[11:8]** And so he did for all his strange wives, who made offerings with burning of perfumes to their gods.

**[11:9]** And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had twice come to him in a vision;

**[11:10]** And had given him orders about this very thing, that he was not to go after other gods; but he did not keep the orders of the Lord.

**[11:11]** So the Lord said to Solomon, Because you have done this, and have not kept my agreement and my laws, which I gave you, I will take the kingdom away from you by force and will give it to your servant.

**[11:12]** I will not do it in your life-time, because of your father David, but I will take it from your son.

**[11:13]** Still I will not take all the kingdom from him; but I will give one tribe to your son, because of my servant David, and because of Jerusalem, the town of my selection.

**[11:14]** So the Lord sent Hadad the Edomite to make trouble for Solomon: he was of the king's seed in Edom.

**[11:15]** And when David had sent destruction on Edom, and Joab, the captain of the army, had gone to put the dead into the earth, and had put to death every male in Edom;

**[11:16]** (For Joab and all Israel were there six months till every male in Edom had been cut off;)

**[11:17]** Hadad, being still a young boy, went in flight to Egypt, with certain Edomites, servants of his father;

**[11:18]** And they went on from Midian and came to Paran; and, taking men from Paran with them, they came to Egypt, to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who gave him a house and gave orders for his food and gave him land.

**[11:19]** Now Hadad was very pleasing to Pharaoh, so that he gave him the sister of his wife, Tahpenes the queen, for his wife.

**[11:20]** And the sister of Tahpenes had a son by him, Genubath, whom Tahpenes took care of in Pharaoh's house; and Genubath was living in Pharaoh's house among Pharaoh's sons.

**[11:21]** Now when Hadad had news in Egypt that David had been put to rest with his fathers, and that Joab, the captain of the army, was dead, he said to Pharaoh, Send me back to my country.

**[11:22]** But Pharaoh said to him, What have you been short of while you have been with me, that you are desiring to go back to your country? And he said, Nothing; but even so, send me back.

**[11:23]** And God sent another trouble-maker, Rezon, the son of Eliada, who had gone in flight from his lord, Hadadezer, king of Zobah:

**[11:24]** He got some men together and made himself captain of a band of outlaws; and went to Damascus and became king there.

**[11:25]** He was a trouble to Israel all through the days of Solomon. And this is the damage Hadad did: he was cruel to Israel while he was ruler over Edom.

**[11:26]** And there was Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother was Zeruah, a widow; and his hand was lifted up against the king.

**[11:27]** The way in which his hand came to be lifted up against the king was this: Solomon was building the Millo and making good the damaged parts of the town of his father David;

**[11:28]** And Jeroboam was an able and responsible man; and Solomon saw that he was a good worker and made him overseer of all the work given to the sons of Joseph.

**[11:29]** Now at that time, when Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite came across him on the road; now Ahijah had put on a new robe; and the two of them were by themselves in the open country.

**[11:30]** And Ahijah took his new robe in his hands, parting it violently into twelve.

**[11:31]** And he said to Jeroboam, Take ten of the parts, for this is what the Lord has said: See, I will take the kingdom away from Solomon by force, and will give ten tribes to you;

**[11:32]** (But one tribe will be his, because of my servant David, and because of Jerusalem, the town which, out of all the tribes of Israel, I have made mine,)

**[11:33]** Because they are turned away from me to the worship of Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and Chemosh, the god of Moab, and Milcom, the god of the Ammonites; they have not been walking in my ways or doing what is right in my eyes or keeping my laws and my decisions as his father David did.

**[11:34]** But I will not take the kingdom from him; I will let him be king all the days of his life, because of David my servant, in whom I took delight because he kept my orders and my laws.

**[11:35]** But I will take the kingdom from his son, and give it to you.

**[11:36]** And one tribe I will give to his son, so that David my servant may have a light for ever burning before me in Jerusalem, the town which I have made mine to put my name there.

**[11:37]** And you I will take, and you will be king over Israel, ruling over whatever is the desire of your soul.

**[11:38]** And if you give attention to the orders I give you, walking in my ways and doing what is right in my eyes and keeping my laws and my orders as David my servant did; then I will be with you, building up for you a safe house, as I did for David, and I will give Israel to you.

**[11:39]** (So that I may send trouble for this on the seed of David, but not for ever.)

**[11:40]** And Solomon was looking for a chance to put Jeroboam to death; but he went in flight to Egypt, to Shishak, king of Egypt, and was in Egypt till the death of Solomon.

**[11:41]** Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all he did, and his wisdom, are they not recorded in the book of the acts of Solomon?

**[11:42]** And the time Solomon was king in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.

**[11:43]** And Solomon went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in the town of David his father: and Solomon went to rest with his fathers and Rehoboam his son became king in his place.

**[12:1]** And Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel had come together to make him king,

**[12:2]** And, hearing of it, Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who was still in Egypt, where he had gone in flight from Solomon, and was living there, came back to his town Zeredah, in the hill-country of Ephraim;

**[12:3]** And all the men of Israel came to Rehoboam and said,

**[12:4]** Your father put a hard yoke on us: if you will make the conditions under which your father kept us down less cruel, and the weight of the yoke he put on us less hard, then we will be your servants.

**[12:5]** And he said to them, Go away for three days and then come back to me again. So the people went away.

**[12:6]** Then King Rehoboam took the opinion of the old men who had been with Solomon his father when he was living, and said, In your opinion, what answer am I to give to this people?

**[12:7]** And they said to him, If you will be a servant to this people today, caring for them and giving them a gentle answer, then they will be your servants for ever.

**[12:8]** But he gave no attention to the opinion of the old men, and went to the young men of his generation who were waiting before him:

**[12:9]** And said to them, What is your opinion? What answer are we to give to this people who have said to me, Make less the weight of the yoke which your father put on us?

**[12:10]** And the young men of his generation said to him, This is the answer to give to the people who came to you saying, Your father put a hard yoke on us; will you make it less? say to them, My little finger is thicker than my father's body;

**[12:11]** If my father put a hard yoke on you, I will make it harder: my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will give you blows with snakes.

**[12:12]** So all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had given orders, saying, Come back to me the third day.

**[12:13]** And the king gave them a rough answer, giving no attention to the suggestion of the old men;

**[12:14]** But giving them the answer put forward by the young men, saying, My father made your yoke hard, but I will make it harder; my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will give it with snakes.

**[12:15]** So the king did not give ear to the people; and this came about by the purpose of the Lord, so that what he had said by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, son of Nebat, might be effected.

**[12:16]** And when all Israel saw that the king would give no attention to them, the people in answer said to the king, What part have we in David? what is our heritage in the son of Jesse? to your tents, O Israel; now see to your people, David. So Israel went away to their tents.

**[12:17]** (But Rehoboam was still king over those of the children of Israel who were living in the towns of Judah.)

**[12:18]** Then King Rehoboam sent Adoniram, the overseer of the forced work; and he was stoned to death by all Israel. And King Rehoboam went quickly and got into his carriage to go in flight to Jerusalem.

**[12:19]** So Israel was turned away from the family of David to this day.

**[12:20]** Now when all Israel had news that Jeroboam had come back, they sent for him to come before the meeting of the people, and made him king over Israel: not one of them was joined to the family of David but only the tribe of Judah.

**[12:21]** When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he got together all the men of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand of his best fighting-men, to make war against Israel and get the kingdom back for Rehoboam, the son of Solomon.

**[12:22]** But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying,

**[12:23]** Say to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the men of Judah and Benjamin and the rest of the people:

**[12:24]** The Lord has said, You are not to go to war against your brothers, the children of Israel; go back, every man to his house, because this thing is my purpose. So they gave ear to the word of the Lord, and went back, as the Lord had said.

**[12:25]** Then Jeroboam made the town of Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim a strong place, and was living there; and from there he went out and did the same to Penuel.

**[12:26]** And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom will go back to the family of David:

**[12:27]** If the people go up to make offerings in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, their heart will be turned again to their lord, to Rehoboam, king of Judah; and they will put me to death and go back to Rehoboam, king of Judah.

**[12:28]** So after taking thought the king made two oxen of gold; and he said to the people, You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough; see! these are your gods, O Israel, who took you out of the land of Egypt.

**[12:29]** And he put one in Beth-el and the other in Dan.

**[12:30]** And this became a sin in Israel; for the people went to give worship to the one at Beth-el, and to the other at Dan.

**[12:31]** And he made places for worship at the high places, and made priests, who were not Levites, from among all the people.

**[12:32]** And Jeroboam gave orders for a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast which is kept in Judah, and he went up to the altar. And in the same way, in Beth-el, he gave offerings to the oxen which he had made, placing in Beth-el the priests of the high places he had made.

**[12:33]** He went up to the altar he had made in Beth-el on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the month fixed by him at his pleasure; and he gave orders for a feast for the people of Israel, and went up to the altar, and there he made the smoke of his offerings go up.

**[13:1]** Then a man of God came from Judah by the order of the Lord to Beth-el, where Jeroboam was by the altar, burning offerings.

**[13:2]** And by the order of the Lord he made an outcry against the altar, saying, O altar, altar, the Lord has said, From the seed of David will come a child, named Josiah, and on you he will put to death the priests of the high places, who are burning offerings on you, and men's bones will be burned on you.

**[13:3]** The same day he gave them a sign, saying, This is the sign which the Lord has given: See, the altar will be broken and the burned waste on it overturned.

**[13:4]** Then the king, hearing the man of God crying out against the altar at Beth-el, put out his hand from the altar, saying, Take him prisoner. And his hand, stretched out against him, became dead, and he had no power of pulling it back.

**[13:5]** And the altar was broken and the burned waste on it overturned; this was the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.

**[13:6]** Then the king made answer and said to the man of God, Make a prayer now for the grace of the Lord your God, and for me, that my hand may be made well. And in answer to the prayer of the man of God, the king's hand was made well again, as it was before.

**[13:7]** And the king said to the man of God, Come with me to my house for food and rest, and I will give you a reward.

**[13:8]** But the man of God said to the king, Even if you gave me half of all you have, I would not go in with you, and I would not take food or a drink of water in this place;

**[13:9]** For so I was ordered by the word of the Lord, who said, You are not to take food or a drink of water, and you are not to go back the way you came.

**[13:10]** So he went another way, and not by the way he came to Beth-el.

**[13:11]** Now there was an old prophet living in Beth-el; and one of his sons came and gave him word of all the man of God had done that day in Beth-el, and they gave their father an account of the words he had said to the king.

**[13:12]** Then their father said to them, Which way did he go? Now his sons had seen which way the man of God who came from Judah had gone.

**[13:13]** So the prophet said to his sons, Make ready an ass for me. So they made an ass ready, and he got on it,

**[13:14]** And went after the man of God, and came up with him while he was seated under an oak-tree. And he said to him, Are you the man of God who came from Judah? And he said, I am.

**[13:15]** Then he said to him, Come back to the house with me and have a meal.

**[13:16]** But he said, I may not go back with you or go into your house; and I will not take food or a drink of water with you in this place;

**[13:17]** For the Lord said to me, You are not to take food or water there, or go back again by the way you came.

**[13:18]** Then he said to him, I am a prophet like you; and an angel said to me by the word of the Lord, Take him back with you and give him food and water. But he said false words to him.

**[13:19]** So he went back with him, and had a meal in his house and a drink of water.

**[13:20]** But while they were seated at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had taken him back;

**[13:21]** And crying out to the man of God who came from Judah, he said, The Lord says, Because you have gone against the voice of the Lord, and have not done as you were ordered by the Lord,

**[13:22]** But have come back, and have taken food and water in this place where he said you were to take no food or water; your dead body will not be put to rest with your fathers.

**[13:23]** Now after the meal he made ready the ass for him, for the prophet whom he had taken back.

**[13:24]** And he went on his way; but on the road a lion came rushing at him and put him to death; and his dead body was stretched in the road with the ass by its side, and the lion was there by the body.

**[13:25]** And some men, going by, saw the body stretched out in the road with the lion by its side; and they came and gave news of it in the town where the old prophet was living.

**[13:26]** Then the prophet who had made him come back, hearing it, said, It is the man of God, who went against the word of the Lord; that is why the Lord has given him to the lion to be wounded to death, as the Lord said.

**[13:27]** And he said to his sons, Make ready the ass for me. And they did so.

**[13:28]** And he went and saw the dead body stretched out in the road with the ass and the lion by its side: the lion had not taken the body for its food or done any damage to the ass.

**[13:29]** Then the prophet took up the body of the man of God and put it on the ass and took it back; and he came to the town to put the body to rest with weeping.

**[13:30]** And he put the body in the resting-place made ready for himself, weeping and sorrowing over it, saying, O my brother!

**[13:31]** And when he had put it to rest, he said to his sons, When I am dead, then you are to put my body into the earth with the body of this man of God, and put me by his bones so that my bones may be kept safe with his bones.

**[13:32]** For the outcry he made by the word of the Lord against the altar in Beth-el and against all the houses of the high places in the towns of Samaria, will certainly come about.

**[13:33]** After this Jeroboam, not turning back from his evil ways, still made priests for his altars from among all the people; he made a priest of anyone desiring it, so that there might be priests of the high places.

**[13:34]** And this became a sin in the family of Jeroboam, causing it to be cut off and sent to destruction from the face of the earth.

**[14:1]** At that time Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, became ill.

**[14:2]** And Jeroboam said to his wife, Now come, put on different clothing so that you may not seem to be the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh; see, Ahijah is there, the prophet who said I would be king over this people.

**[14:3]** And take with you ten cakes of bread and dry cakes and a pot of honey, and go to him: he will give you word of what is to become of the child.

**[14:4]** So Jeroboam's wife did so, and got up and went to Shiloh and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah was unable to see, because he was very old.

**[14:5]** And the Lord had said to Ahijah, The wife of Jeroboam is coming to get news from you about her son, who is ill; give her such and such an answer; for she will make herself seem to be another woman.

**[14:6]** Then Ahijah, hearing the sound of her footsteps coming in at the door, said, Come in, O wife of Jeroboam; why do you make yourself seem like another? for I am sent to you with bitter news.

**[14:7]** Go, say to Jeroboam, These are the words of the Lord, the God of Israel: Though I took you from among the people, lifting you up to be a ruler over my people Israel,

**[14:8]** And took the kingdom away by force from the seed of David and gave it to you, you have not been like my servant David, who kept my orders, and was true to me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes.

**[14:9]** But you have done evil more than any before you, and have made for yourself other gods, and images of metal, moving me to wrath, and turning your back on me.

**[14:10]** So I will send evil on the line of Jeroboam, cutting off from his family every male child, those who are shut up and those who go free in Israel; the family of Jeroboam will be brushed away like a man brushing away waste till it is all gone.

**[14:11]** Those of the family of Jeroboam who come to death in the town, will become food for the dogs; and those on whom death comes in the open country, will be food for the birds of the air; for the Lord has said it.

**[14:12]** Up, then! go back to your house; and in the hour when your feet go into the town, the death of the child will take place.

**[14:13]** And all Israel will put his body to rest, weeping over him, because he only of the family of Jeroboam will be put into his resting-place in the earth; for of all the family of Jeroboam, in him only has the Lord, the God of Israel, seen some good.

**[14:14]** And the Lord will put up a king over Israel who will send destruction on the family of Jeroboam in that day;

**[14:15]** And even now the hand of the Lord has come down on Israel, shaking it like a river-grass in the water; and, uprooting Israel from this good land, which he gave to their fathers, he will send them this way and that on the other side of the River; because they have made for themselves images, moving the Lord to wrath.

**[14:16]** And he will give Israel up because of the sins which Jeroboam has done and made Israel do.

**[14:17]** Then Jeroboam's wife got up and went away and came to Tirzah; and when she came to the doorway of the house, death came to the child.

**[14:18]** And all Israel put his body to rest, weeping over him, as the Lord had said by his servant Ahijah the prophet.

**[14:19]** Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he became king, are recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel.

**[14:20]** And Jeroboam was king for twenty-two years, and was put to rest with his fathers, and Nadab his son became king in his place.

**[14:21]** And Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, was king in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he was king for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the town which the Lord had made his out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there; his mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonite woman.

**[14:22]** And Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and made him more angry than their fathers had done by their sins.

**[14:23]** For they made high places and upright stones and wood pillars on every high hill and under every green tree;

**[14:24]** And more than this, there were those in the land who were used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods, doing the same disgusting crimes as the nations which the Lord had sent out before the children of Israel.

**[14:25]** Now in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem;

**[14:26]** And took away all the stored wealth from the house of the Lord, and from the king's house, and all the gold body-covers which Solomon had made.

**[14:27]** So in their place King Rehoboam had other body-covers made of brass, and gave them into the care of the captains of the armed men who were stationed at the door of the king's house.

**[14:28]** And whenever the king went into the house of the Lord, the armed men went with him taking the body-covers, and then took them back to their room.

**[14:29]** Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?

**[14:30]** And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.

**[14:31]** And Rehoboam went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth with his fathers in the town of David; his mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonite woman. And Abijam his son became king in his place.

**[15:1]** Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah.

**[15:2]** For three years he was king in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.

**[15:3]** And he did the same sins which his father had done before him: his heart was not completely true to the Lord his God, like the heart of David his father.

**[15:4]** But because of David, the Lord gave him a light in Jerusalem, making his sons king after him, so that Jerusalem might be safe;

**[15:5]** Because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and never in all his life went against his orders, but only in the question of Uriah the Hittite.

**[15:6]** ...

**[15:7]** Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

**[15:8]** Then Abijam went to rest with his fathers, and they put him into the earth in the town of David: and Asa his son became king in his place.

**[15:9]** In the twentieth year that Jeroboam was king of Israel, Asa became king over Judah.

**[15:10]** And he was king for forty-one years in Jerusalem; his mother's name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.

**[15:11]** Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as David his father did.

**[15:12]** Those used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods he sent out of the country, and he took away all the images which his fathers had made.

**[15:13]** And he would not let Maacah his mother be queen, because she had made a disgusting image for Asherah; and Asa had the image cut down and burned by the stream Kidron.

**[15:14]** The high places, however, were not taken away: but still the heart of Asa was true to the Lord all his life.

**[15:15]** He took into the house of the Lord all the things which his father had made holy, and those which he himself had made holy, silver and gold and vessels.

**[15:16]** Now there was war between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, all their days.

**[15:17]** And Baasha, king of Israel, went up against Judah, building Ramah, so that no one was able to go out or in to Asa, king of Judah.

**[15:18]** Then Asa took all the silver and gold which was still stored in the Lord's house, and in the king's house, and sent them, in the care of his servants, to Ben-hadad, son of Tabrimmon, son of Rezon, king of Aram, at Damascus, saying,

**[15:19]** Let there be an agreement between me and you as there was between my father and your father: see, I have sent you an offering of silver and gold; go and put an end to your agreement with Baasha, king of Israel, so that he may give up attacking me.

**[15:20]** So Ben-hadad did as King Asa said, and sent the captains of his armies against the towns of Israel, attacking Ijon and Dan and Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth as far as all the land of Naphtali.

**[15:21]** And Baasha, hearing of it, put a stop to the building of Ramah, and was living in Tirzah.

**[15:22]** Then King Asa got all Judah together, making every man come; and they took away the stones and the wood with which Baasha was building Ramah, and King Asa made use of them for building Geba in the land of Benjamin, and Mizpah.

**[15:23]** Now the rest of the acts of Asa, and his power, and all he did, and the towns of which he was the builder, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? But when he was old he had a disease of the feet.

**[15:24]** So Asa went to rest with his fathers and was put into the earth in the town of David his father: and Jehoshaphat his son became king in his place.

**[15:25]** Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, became king over Israel in the second year that Asa was king of Judah; and he was king of Israel for two years.

**[15:26]** He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the evil ways of his father, and the sin which he did and made Israel do.

**[15:27]** And Baasha, the son of Ahijah, of the family of Issachar, made a secret design against him, attacking him at Gibbethon, a town of the Philistines; for Nadab and the armies of Israel were making war on Gibbethon.

**[15:28]** In the third year of the rule of Asa, king of Judah, Baasha put him to death, and became king in his place.

**[15:29]** And straight away when he became king, he sent destruction on all the offspring of Jeroboam; there was not one living person of all the family of Jeroboam whom he did not put to death, so the word of the Lord, which he said by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite, came about;

**[15:30]** Because of the sins which Jeroboam did and made Israel do, moving the Lord, the God of Israel, to wrath.

**[15:31]** Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

**[15:32]** And there was war between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, all their days.

**[15:33]** In the third year of the rule of Asa, king of Judah, Baasha, the son of Ahijah, became king over all Israel in Tirzah, and was king for twenty-four years.

**[15:34]** He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the evil ways of Jeroboam and the sin which he made Israel do.

**[16:1]** And the word of the Lord came to Jehu, son of Hanani, protesting against Baasha and saying,

**[16:2]** Because I took you up out of the dust, and made you ruler over my people Israel; and you have gone in the ways of Jeroboam, and made my people Israel do evil, moving me to wrath by their sins;

**[16:3]** Truly, I will see that Baasha and all his family are completely brushed away; I will make your family like the family of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.

**[16:4]** Anyone of the family of Baasha who comes to death in the town, will become food for the dogs; and he to whom death comes in the open country, will be food for the birds of the air.

**[16:5]** Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, and what he did, and his power, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

**[16:6]** And Baasha went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth at Tirzah; and Elah his son became king in his place.

**[16:7]** And the Lord sent his word against Baasha and his family by the mouth of the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani, because of all the evil he did in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to wrath by the work of his hands, because he was like the family of Jeroboam, and because he put it to death.

**[16:8]** In the twenty-sixth year that Asa was king of Judah, Elah, the son of Baasha, became king of Israel in Tirzah, and he was king for two years.

**[16:9]** And his servant Zimri, captain of half his war-carriages, made secret designs against him: now he was in Tirzah, drinking hard in the house of Arza, controller of the king's house in Tirzah.

**[16:10]** And Zimri went in and made an attack on him and put him to death, in the twenty-seventh year that Asa was king of Judah, and made himself king in his place.

**[16:11]** And straight away when he became king and took his place on the seat of the kingdom, he put to death all the family of Baasha: not one male child of his relations or his friends kept his life.

**[16:12]** So Zimri put to death all the family of Baasha, so that the word which the Lord said against him by the mouth of Jehu the prophet came about;

**[16:13]** Because of all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, which they did and made Israel do, moving the Lord, the God of Israel, to wrath by their foolish acts.

**[16:14]** Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

**[16:15]** In the twenty-seventh year of Asa, king of Judah, Zimri was king for seven days in Tirzah. Now the people were attacking Gibbethon in the land of the Philistines.

**[16:16]** And news came to the people in the tents that Zimri had made a secret design and had put the king to death: so all Israel made Omri, the captain of the army, king that day in the tents.

**[16:17]** Then Omri went up from Gibbethon, with all the army of Israel, and they made an attack on Tirzah, shutting in the town on every side.

**[16:18]** And when Zimri saw that the town was taken, he went into the inner room of the king's house, and burning the house over his head, came to his end,

**[16:19]** Because of his sin in doing evil in the eyes of the Lord, in going in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made Israel do.

**[16:20]** Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and the secret design he made, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

**[16:21]** Then there was a division among the people of Israel; half the people were for making Tibni, son of Ginath, king, and half were supporting Omri.

**[16:22]** But the supporters of Omri overcame those who were on the side of Tibni, the son of Ginath; and death came to Tibni and to his brother Joram at that time: and Omri became king in the place of Tibni.

**[16:23]** In the thirty-first year of Asa, king of Judah, Omri became king over Israel, and he was king for twelve years; for six years he was ruling in Tirzah.

**[16:24]** He got the hill Samaria from Shemer for the price of two talents of silver, and he made a town there, building it on the hill and naming it Samaria, after Shemer the owner of the hill.

**[16:25]** And Omri did evil in the eyes of the Lord, even worse than all those before him,

**[16:26]** Copying all the evil ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and all the sins he did and made Israel do, moving the Lord, the God of Israel, to wrath by their foolish ways.

**[16:27]** Now the rest of the acts which Omri did, and his great power, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

**[16:28]** So Omri went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in Samaria; and Ahab his son became king in his place.

**[16:29]** In the thirty-eighth year that Asa was king of Judah, Ahab, the son of Omri, became king over Israel; and Ahab was king in Samaria for twenty-two years.

**[16:30]** And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the eyes of the Lord, even worse than all who went before him.

**[16:31]** And as if copying the evil ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, was a small thing for him, he took as his wife Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Zidon, and became a servant and worshipper of Baal.

**[16:32]** And he put up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he had made in Samaria.

**[16:33]** And Ahab made an image of Asherah and did more than all the kings of Israel before him to make the Lord, the God of Israel, angry.

**[16:34]** In his days Hiel made Jericho; he put its base in position at the price of Abiram, his oldest son, and he put its doors in place at the price of his youngest son Segub; even as the Lord had said by Joshua, the son of Nun.

**[17:1]** And Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, By the living Lord, the God of Israel, whose servant I am, there will be no dew or rain in these years, but only at my word.

**[17:2]** Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

**[17:3]** Go from here in the direction of the east, and keep yourself in a secret place by the stream Cherith, east of Jordan.

**[17:4]** The water of the stream will be your drink, and by my orders the ravens will give you food there.

**[17:5]** So he went and did as the Lord said, living by the stream Cherith, east of Jordan.

**[17:6]** And the ravens took him bread in the morning and meat in the evening; and the water of the stream was his drink.

**[17:7]** Now after a time the stream became dry, because there was no rain in the land.

**[17:8]** Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

**[17:9]** Up! go now to Zarephath, in Zidon, and make your living-place there; I have given orders to a widow woman there to see that you have food.

**[17:10]** So he got up and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the door of the town, he saw a widow woman getting sticks together; and crying out to her he said, Will you give me a little water in a vessel for my drink?

**[17:11]** And when she was going to get it, he said to her, And get me with it a small bit of bread.

**[17:12]** Then she said, By the life of the Lord your God, I have nothing but a little meal in my store, and a drop of oil in the bottle; and now I am getting two sticks together so that I may go in and make it ready for me and my son, so that we may have a meal before our death.

**[17:13]** And Elijah said to her, Have no fear; go and do as you have said, but first make me a little cake of it and come and give it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.

**[17:14]** For this is the word of the Lord, the God of Israel: The store of meal will not come to an end, and the bottle will never be without oil, till the day when the Lord sends rain on the earth.

**[17:15]** So she went and did as Elijah said; and she and he and her family had food for a long time.

**[17:16]** The store of meal did not come to an end, and the bottle was never without oil, as the Lord had said by the mouth of Elijah.

**[17:17]** Now after this, the son of the woman of the house became ill, so ill that there was no breath in him.

**[17:18]** And she said to Elijah, What have I to do with you, O man of God? have you come to put God in mind of my sin, and to put my son to death?

**[17:19]** And he said to her, Give your son to me. And lifting him out of her arms, he took him up to his room and put him down on his bed.

**[17:20]** And crying to the Lord he said, O Lord my God, have you sent evil even on the widow whose guest I am, by causing her son's death?

**[17:21]** And stretching herself out on the child three times, he made his prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord my God, be pleased to let this child's life come back to him again.

**[17:22]** And the Lord gave ear to the voice of Elijah, and the child's spirit came into him again, and he came back to life.

**[17:23]** And Elijah took the child down from his room into the house and gave him to his mother and said to her, See, your son is living.

**[17:24]** Then the woman said to Elijah, Now I am certain that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is true.

**[18:1]** Now after a long time, the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, Go and let Ahab see you, so that I may send rain on the earth.

**[18:2]** So Elijah went to let Ahab see him. Now there was no food to be had in Samaria.

**[18:3]** And Ahab sent for Obadiah, the controller of the king's house. (Now Obadiah had the fear of the Lord before him greatly;

**[18:4]** For when Jezebel was cutting off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred of them, and kept them secretly in a hole in the rock, fifty at a time, and gave them bread and water.)

**[18:5]** And Ahab said to Obadiah, Come, let us go through all the country, to all the fountains of water and all the rivers, and see if there is any grass to be had for the horses and the transport beasts, so that we may be able to keep some of the beasts from destruction.

**[18:6]** So they went through all the country, covering it between them; Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another by himself.

**[18:7]** And while Obadiah was on his way, he came face to face with Elijah; and seeing who it was, he went down on his face and said, Is it you, my lord Elijah?

**[18:8]** And Elijah in answer said, It is I; now go and say to your lord, Elijah is here.

**[18:9]** And he said, What sin have I done, that you would give up your servant into the hand of Ahab, and be the cause of my death?

**[18:10]** By the life of the Lord your God, there is not a nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent in search of you; and when they said, He is not here; he made them take an oath that they had not seen you.

**[18:11]** And now you say, Go, say to your lord, Elijah is here.

**[18:12]** And straight away, when I have gone from you, the spirit of the Lord will take you away, I have no idea where, so that when I come and give word to Ahab, and he sees you not, he will put me to death: though I, your servant, have been a worshipper of the Lord from my earliest years.

**[18:13]** Has my lord not had word of what I did when Jezebel was putting the Lord's prophets to death? how I kept a hundred of them in a secret hole in the rock, fifty at a time, and gave them bread and water?

**[18:14]** And now you say, Go and say to your Lord, Elijah is here; and he will put me to death.

**[18:15]** And Elijah said, By the life of the Lord of armies, whose servant I am, I will certainly let him see me today.

**[18:16]** So Obadiah went to Ahab and gave him the news; and Ahab went to see Elijah.

**[18:17]** And when he saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, Is it you, you troubler of Israel?

**[18:18]** Then he said in answer, I have not been troubling Israel, but you and your family; because, turning away from the orders of the Lord, you have gone after the Baals.

**[18:19]** Now send, and get Israel together before me at Mount Carmel, with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal who get their food at Jezebel's table.

**[18:20]** So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and got the prophets together at Mount Carmel.

**[18:21]** And Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long will you go on balancing between two opinions? if the Lord is God, then give worship to him; but if Baal, give worship to him. And the people said not a word in answer.

**[18:22]** Then Elijah said to the people, I, even I, am the only living prophet of the Lord; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men.

**[18:23]** Now, let them give us two oxen; and let them take one for themselves, and have it cut up, and put it on the wood, but put no fire under it; I will get the other ox ready, and put it on the wood, and put no fire under it.

**[18:24]** And do you make prayers to your god, and I will make a prayer to the Lord: and it will be clear that the one who gives an answer by fire is God. And all the people in answer said, It is well said.

**[18:25]** Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Take one ox for yourselves and get it ready first, for there are more of you; and make your prayers to your god, but put no fire under.

**[18:26]** So they took the ox which was given them, and made it ready, crying out to Baal from morning till the middle of the day, and saying, O Baal, give ear to us. But there was no voice and no answer. And they were jumping up and down before the altar they had made.

**[18:27]** And in the middle of the day, Elijah made sport of them, saying, Give louder cries, for he is a god; he may be deep in thought, or he may have gone away for some purpose, or he may be on a journey, or by chance he is sleeping and has to be made awake.

**[18:28]** So they gave loud cries, cutting themselves with knives and swords, as was their way, till the blood came streaming out all over them.

**[18:29]** And from the middle of the day they went on with their prayers till the time of the offering; but there was no voice, or any answer, or any who gave attention to them.

**[18:30]** Then Elijah said to all the people, Come near to me; and all the people came near. And he put up again the altar of the Lord which had been broken down.

**[18:31]** And Elijah took twelve stones, the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the Lord had said, Israel will be your name:

**[18:32]** And with the stones he made an altar to the name of the Lord; and he made a deep drain all round the altar, great enough to take two measures of seed.

**[18:33]** And he put the wood in order, and, cutting up the ox, put it on the wood. Then he said, Get four vessels full of water and put it on the burned offering and on the wood. And he said, Do it a second time, and they did it a second time;

**[18:34]** And he said, Do it a third time, and they did it a third time.

**[18:35]** And the water went all round the altar, till the drain was full.

**[18:36]** Then at the time of the offering, Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Lord, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be seen this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things by your order.

**[18:37]** Give me an answer, O Lord, give me an answer, so that this people may see that you are God, and that you have made their hearts come back again.

**[18:38]** Then the fire of the Lord came down, burning up the offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and drinking up the water in the drain.

**[18:39]** And when the people saw it, they all went down on their faces, and said, The Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God.

**[18:40]** And Elijah said to them, Take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them get away. So they took them, and Elijah made them go down to the stream Kishon, and put them to death there.

**[18:41]** Then Elijah said to Ahab, Up! take food and drink, for there is a sound of much rain.

**[18:42]** So Ahab went up to have food and drink, while Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he went down on the earth, putting his face between his knees.

**[18:43]** And he said to his servant, Go now, and take a look in the direction of the sea. And he went up, and after looking said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times; and he went seven times.

**[18:44]** And the seventh time he said, I see a cloud coming up out of the sea, as small as a man's hand. Then he said, Go up and say to Ahab, Get your carriage ready and go down or the rain will keep you back.

**[18:45]** And after a very little time, the heaven became black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab went in his carriage to Jezreel.

**[18:46]** And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; and he made himself strong, and went running before Ahab till they came to Jezreel.

**[19:1]** Ahab gave Jezebel news of all Elijah had done, and how he had put all the prophets to death with the sword.

**[19:2]** Then Jezebel sent a servant to Elijah, saying, May the gods' punishment be on me if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.

**[19:3]** And he got up, fearing for his life, and went in flight, and came to Beer-sheba in Judah, parting there from his servant;

**[19:4]** While he himself went a day's journey into the waste land, and took a seat under a broom-plant, desiring for himself only death; for he said, It is enough: now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.

**[19:5]** And stretching himself on the earth, he went to sleep under the broom-plant; but an angel, touching him, said to him, Get up and have some food.

**[19:6]** And looking up, he saw by his head a cake cooked on the stones and a bottle of water. So he took food and drink and went to sleep again.

**[19:7]** And the angel of the Lord came again a second time, and touching him said, Get up and have some food, or the journey will be overmuch for your strength.

**[19:8]** So he got up and took food and drink, and in the strength of that food he went on for forty days and nights, to Horeb, the mountain of God.

**[19:9]** And there he went into a hole in the rock for the night; then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, What are you doing here, Elijah?

**[19:10]** And he said, I have been burning for the honour of the Lord, the God of armies; for the children of Israel have not kept your agreement; they have made destruction of your altars, and have put your prophets to death with the sword: till I, even I, am the only one living; and now they are attempting to take away my life.

**[19:11]** Then he said, Go out and take your place on the mountain before the Lord. Then the Lord went by, and mountains were parted by the force of a great wind, and rocks were broken before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind there was an earth-shock, but the Lord was not in the earth-shock.

**[19:12]** And after the earth-shock a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, the sound of a soft breath.

**[19:13]** And Elijah, hearing it, went out, covering his face with his robe, and took his place in the opening of the hole. And there a voice came to him saying, What are you doing here, Elijah?

**[19:14]** And he said, I have been burning for the honour of the Lord, the God of armies; for the children of Israel have not kept your agreement; they have had your altars broken down, and have put your prophets to death with the sword: till I, even I, am the only one living; and now they are attempting to take away my life.

**[19:15]** And the Lord said to him, Go back on your way through the waste land to Damascus; and when you come there, put the holy oil on Hazael to make him king over Aram;

**[19:16]** And on Jehu, son of Nimshi, making him king over Israel; and on Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, to be prophet in your place.

**[19:17]** And it will come about that the man who gets away safe from the sword of Hazael, Jehu will put to death; and whoever gets away safe from the sword of Jehu, Elisha will put to death.

**[19:18]** But I will keep safe seven thousand in Israel, all those whose knees have not been bent to Baal, and whose mouths have given him no kisses.

**[19:19]** So he went away from there and came across Elisha, the son of Shaphat, ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen, he himself walking with the twelfth; and Elijah went up to him and put his robe on him.

**[19:20]** And letting the oxen be where they were, he came running after Elijah, and said, Only let me give a kiss to my father and mother, and then I will come after you. But he said to him, Go back again; for what have I done to you?

**[19:21]** And he went back, and took the oxen and put them to death, and cooking their flesh with the yokes of the oxen, he gave the people a feast. Then he got up and went after Elijah and became his servant.

**[20:1]** Now Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got all his army together, and thirty-two kings with him, and horses and carriages of war; he went up and made war on Samaria, shutting it in.

**[20:2]** And he sent representatives into the town to Ahab, king of Israel;

**[20:3]** And they said to him, Ben-hadad says, Your silver and your gold are mine; and your wives and children are mine.

**[20:4]** And the king of Israel sent him an answer saying, As you say, my lord king, I am yours with all I have.

**[20:5]** Then the representatives came back again, and said, These are the words of Ben-hadad: I sent to you saying, Give up to me your silver and your gold, your wives and your children;

**[20:6]** But I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, to make a search through your house and the houses of your people, and everything which is pleasing in your eyes they will take away in their hands.

**[20:7]** Then the king of Israel sent for all the responsible men of the land, and said, Now will you take note and see the evil purpose of this man: he sent for my wives and my children, my silver and my gold, and I did not keep them back.

**[20:8]** And all the responsible men and the people said to him, Do not give attention to him or do what he says.

**[20:9]** So he said to the representatives of Ben-hadad, Say to my lord the king, All the orders you sent the first time I will do; but this thing I may not do. And the representatives went back with this answer.

**[20:10]** Then Ben-hadad sent to him, saying, May the gods' punishment be on me if there is enough of the dust of Samaria for all the people at my feet to take some in their hands.

**[20:11]** And the king of Israel said in answer, Say to him, The time for loud talk is not when a man is putting on his arms, but when he is taking them off.

**[20:12]** Now when this answer was given to Ben-hadad, he was drinking with the kings in the tents, and he said to his men, Take up your positions. So they put themselves in position for attacking the town.

**[20:13]** Then a prophet came up to Ahab, king of Israel, and said, The Lord says, Have you seen all this great army? See, I will give it into your hands today, and you will see that I am the Lord.

**[20:14]** And Ahab said, By whom? And he said, The Lord says, By the servants of the chiefs who are over the divisions of the land. Then he said, By whom is the fighting to be started? And he made answer, By you.

**[20:15]** Then he got together the servants of all the chiefs who were over the divisions of the land, two hundred and thirty-two of them; and after them, he got together all the people, all the children of Israel, seven thousand.

**[20:16]** And in the middle of the day they went out. But Ben-hadad was drinking in the tents with the thirty-two kings who were helping him.

**[20:17]** And the servants of the chiefs who were over the divisions of the land went forward first; and when Ben-hadad sent out, they gave him the news, saying, Men have come out from Samaria.

**[20:18]** And he said, If they have come out for peace, take them living, and if they have come out for war, take them living.

**[20:19]** So the servants of the chiefs of the divisions of the land went out of the town, with the army coming after them.

**[20:20]** And every one of them put his man to death, and the Aramaeans went in flight with Israel after them; and Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got away safely on a horse with his horsemen.

**[20:21]** And the king of Israel went out and took the horses and the war-carriages, and made great destruction among the Aramaeans.

**[20:22]** Then the prophet came up to the king of Israel, and said to him, Now make yourself strong, and take care what you do, or a year from now the king of Aram will come up against you again.

**[20:23]** Then the king of Aram's servants said to him, Their god is a god of the hills; that is why they were stronger than we: but if we make an attack on them in the lowlands, we will certainly be stronger than they.

**[20:24]** This is what you have to do: take away the kings from their positions, and put captains in their places;

**[20:25]** And get together another army like the one which came to destruction, horse for horse, and carriage for carriage; and let us make war on them in the lowlands, and certainly we will be stronger than they. And he gave ear to what they said, and did so.

**[20:26]** So, a year later, Ben-hadad got the Aramaeans together and went up to Aphek to make war on Israel.

**[20:27]** And the children of Israel got themselves together, and food was made ready and they went against them; the tents of the children of Israel were like two little flocks of goats before them, but all the country was full of the Aramaeans.

**[20:28]** And a man of God came up and said to the king of Israel, The Lord says, Because the Aramaeans have said, The Lord is a god of the hills and not of the valleys; I will give all this great army into your hands, and you will see that I am the Lord.

**[20:29]** Now the two armies kept their positions facing one another for seven days. And on the seventh day the fight was started; and the children of Israel put to the sword a hundred thousand Aramaean footmen in one day.

**[20:30]** But the rest went in flight to Aphek, into the town, where a wall came down on the twenty-seven thousand who were still living. And Ben-hadad went in flight into the town, into an inner room.

**[20:31]** Then his servants said to him, It is said that the kings of Israel are full of mercy: let us then put on haircloth, and cords on our heads, and go to the king of Israel; it may be that he will give you your life.

**[20:32]** So they put on haircloth, and cords on their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, Your servant Ben-hadad says, Let me now keep my life. And he said, Is he still living? he is my brother.

**[20:33]** Now the men took it as a sign, and quickly took up his words; and they said, Ben-hadad is your brother. Then he said, Go and get him. So Ben-hadad came out to him and he made him get up into his carriage.

**[20:34]** And Ben-hadad said to him, The towns my father took from your father I will give back; and you may make streets for yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria. And as for me, at the price of this agreement you will let me go. So he made an agreement with him and let him go.

**[20:35]** And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his neighbour by the word of the Lord, Give me a wound. But the man would not.

**[20:36]** Then he said to him, Because you have not given ear to the voice of the Lord, straight away when you have gone from me a lion will put you to death. And when he had gone, straight away a lion came rushing at him and put him to death.

**[20:37]** Then he came across another man, and said, Give me a wound. And the man gave him a blow wounding him.

**[20:38]** So the prophet went away, and pulling his head-band over his eyes to keep his face covered, took his place by the road waiting for the king.

**[20:39]** And when the king went by, crying out to him he said, Your servant went out into the fight; and a man came out to me with another man and said, Keep this man: if by any chance he gets away, your life will be the price of his life, or you will have to give a talent of silver in payment.

**[20:40]** But while your servant was turning this way and that, he was gone. Then the king of Israel said to him, You are responsible; you have given the decision against yourself.

**[20:41]** Then he quickly took the head-band from his eyes; and the king of Israel saw that he was one of the prophets.

**[20:42]** And he said to him, These are the words of the Lord: Because you have let go from your hands the man whom I had put to the curse, your life will be taken for his life, and your people for his people.

**[20:43]** Then the king of Israel went back to his house, bitter and angry, and came to Samaria.

**[21:1]** Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vine-garden in Jezreel, near the house of Ahab, king of Samaria.

**[21:2]** And Ahab said to Naboth, Give me your vine-garden so that I may have it for a garden of sweet plants, for it is near my house; and let me give you a better vine-garden in exchange, or, if it seems good to you, let me give you its value in money.

**[21:3]** But Naboth said to Ahab, By the Lord, far be it from me to give you the heritage of my fathers.

**[21:4]** So Ahab came into his house bitter and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him, I will not give you the heritage of my fathers. And stretching himself on the bed with his face turned away, he would take no food.

**[21:5]** But Jezebel, his wife, came to him and said, Why is your spirit so bitter that you have no desire for food?

**[21:6]** And he said to her, Because I was talking to Naboth the Jezreelite, and I said to him, Let me have your vine-garden for a price, or, if it is pleasing to you, I will give you another vine-garden for it: and he said, I will not give you my vine-garden.

**[21:7]** Then Jezebel, his wife, said, Are you now the ruler of Israel? Get up, take food, and let your heart be glad; I will give you the vine-garden of Naboth the Jezreelite.

**[21:8]** So she sent a letter in Ahab's name, stamped with his stamp, to the responsible men and the chiefs who were in authority with Naboth.

**[21:9]** And in the letter she said, Let a time of public sorrow be fixed, and put Naboth at the head of the people;

**[21:10]** And get two good-for-nothing persons to come before him and give witness that he has been cursing God and the king. Then take him out and have him stoned to death.

**[21:11]** So the responsible men and the chiefs who were in authority in his town, did as Jezebel had said in the letter she sent them.

**[21:12]** They gave orders for a day of public sorrow, and put Naboth at the head of the people.

**[21:13]** And the two good-for-nothing persons came in and took their seats before him and gave witness against Naboth, in front of the people, saying, Naboth has been cursing God and the king. Then they took him outside the town and had him stoned to death.

**[21:14]** And they sent word to Jezebel, saying, Naboth has been stoned and is dead.

**[21:15]** Then Jezebel, hearing that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, said to Ahab, Get up and take as your heritage the vine-garden of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he would not give you for money, for Naboth is no longer living but is dead.

**[21:16]** So Ahab, hearing that Naboth was dead, went down to the vine-garden of Naboth the Jezreelite to take it as his heritage.

**[21:17]** And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,

**[21:18]** Go down to Ahab, king of Israel, in Samaria; see, he is in the vine-garden of Naboth the Jezreelite, where he has gone to take it as his heritage.

**[21:19]** Say to him, The Lord says, Have you put a man to death and taken his heritage? Then say to him, The Lord says, In the place where dogs have been drinking the blood of Naboth, there will your blood become the drink of dogs.

**[21:20]** And Ahab said to Elijah, Have you come face to face with me, O my hater? And he said, I have come to you because you have given yourself up to do evil in the eyes of the Lord.

**[21:21]** See, I will send evil on you and put an end to you completely, cutting off from Ahab every male child, him who is shut up and him who goes free in Israel;

**[21:22]** And I will make your family like the family of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and like the family of Baasha, the son of Ahijah, because you have made me angry, and have made Israel do evil.

**[21:23]** And of Jezebel the Lord said, Jezebel will become food for dogs in the heritage of Jezreel.

**[21:24]** Any man of the family of Ahab who comes to his death in the town will become food for the dogs; and he who comes to his death in the open country will be food for the birds of the air.

**[21:25]** (There was no one like Ahab, who gave himself up to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, moved to it by Jezebel his wife.

**[21:26]** He did a very disgusting thing in going after false gods, doing all the things the Amorites did, whom the Lord sent out before the children of Israel.)

**[21:27]** Hearing these words, Ahab, in great grief, put haircloth on his flesh and went without food, sleeping in haircloth, and going about quietly.

**[21:28]** Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,

**[21:29]** Do you see how Ahab has made himself low before me? because he has made himself low before me, I will not send the evil in his life-time, but in his son's time I will send the evil on his family.

**[22:1]** Now for three years there was no war between Aram and Israel.

**[22:2]** And it came about in the third year, that Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel.

**[22:3]** And the king of Israel said to his servants, Do you not see that Ramoth-gilead is ours? and we are doing nothing to get it back from the hands of the king of Aram.

**[22:4]** And he said to Jehoshaphat, Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead to make war? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are: my people as your people, my horses as your horses.

**[22:5]** Then Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Let us now get directions from the Lord.

**[22:6]** So the king of Israel got all the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, Am I to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And they said, Go up: for the Lord will give it into the hands of the king.

**[22:7]** But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no other prophet of the Lord here from whom we may get directions?

**[22:8]** And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still one man by whom we may get directions from the Lord, Micaiah, son of Imlah; but I have no love for him, for he is a prophet of evil to me and not of good. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.

**[22:9]** Then the king of Israel sent for one of his unsexed servants and said, Go quickly and come back with Micaiah, the son of Imlah.

**[22:10]** Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, were seated on their seats of authority, dressed in their robes, by the doorway into Samaria; and all the prophets were acting as prophets before them.

**[22:11]** And Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, made himself horns of iron and said, The Lord says, Pushing back the Aramaeans with these, you will put an end to them completely.

**[22:12]** And all the prophets said the same thing, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and it will go well for you, for the Lord will give it into the hands of the king.

**[22:13]** Now the servant who had gone to get Micaiah said to him, See now, all the prophets with one voice are saying good things to the king; so let your words be like theirs and say good things.

**[22:14]** And Micaiah said, By the living Lord, whatever the Lord says to me I will say.

**[22:15]** When he came to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, are we to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And in answer he said, Go up, and it will go well for you; and the Lord will give it into the hands of the king.

**[22:16]** Then the king said to him, Have I not, again and again, put you on your oath to say nothing to me but what is true in the name of the Lord?

**[22:17]** Then he said, I saw all Israel wandering on the mountains like sheep without a keeper; and the Lord said, These have no master: let them go back, every man to his house in peace.

**[22:18]** And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not say that he would not be a prophet of good but of evil?

**[22:19]** And he said, Give ear now to the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord seated on his seat of power, with all the army of heaven in their places round him at his right hand and at his left.

**[22:20]** And the Lord said, How may Ahab be tricked into going up to Ramoth-gilead to his death? And one said one thing and one another.

**[22:21]** Then a spirit came forward and took his place before the Lord and said, I will get him to do it by a trick.

**[22:22]** And the Lord said, How? And he said, I will go out and be a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Your trick will have its effect on him: go out and do so.

**[22:23]** And now, see, the Lord has put a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the Lord has said evil against you.

**[22:24]** Then Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, came near and gave Micaiah a blow on the side of the face, saying, Where is the spirit of the Lord whose word is in you?

**[22:25]** And Micaiah said, Truly, you will see on that day when you go into an inner room to keep yourself safe.

**[22:26]** And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon, the ruler of the town, and to Joash, the king's son;

**[22:27]** And say, It is the king's order that this man is to be put in prison and given prison food till I come again in peace.

**[22:28]** And Micaiah said, If you come back at all in peace, the Lord has not sent his word by me.

**[22:29]** So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-gilead.

**[22:30]** And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will make a change in my clothing, so that I do not seem to be the king, and will go into the fight; but do you put on your robes. So the king of Israel made a change in his dress and went into the fight.

**[22:31]** Now the king of Aram had given orders to the thirty-two captains of his war-carriages, saying, Make no attack on small or great, but only on the king of Israel.

**[22:32]** So when the captains of the war-carriages saw Jehoshaphat, they said, Truly, this is the king of Israel; and turning against him, they came round him, but Jehoshaphat gave a cry.

**[22:33]** And when the captains of the war-carriages saw that he was not the king of Israel, they went back from going after him.

**[22:34]** And a certain man sent an arrow from his bow without thought of its direction, and gave the king of Israel a wound where his breastplate was joined to his clothing; so he said to the driver of his war-carriage, Go to one side and take me away out of the army, for I am badly wounded.

**[22:35]** But the fight became more violent while the day went on; and the king was supported in his war-carriage facing the Aramaeans, and the floor of the carriage was covered with the blood from his wound, and by evening he was dead.

**[22:36]** And about sundown a cry went up from all parts of the army, saying, Let every man go back to his town and his country, for the king is dead.

**[22:37]** And they came to Samaria, and put the king's body to rest in Samaria.

**[22:38]** And the war-carriage was washed by the pool of Samaria, which was the bathing-place of the loose women, and the dogs were drinking his blood there, as the Lord had said.

**[22:39]** Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all he did, and his ivory house, and all the towns of which he was the builder, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

**[22:40]** So Ahab was put to rest with his fathers; and Ahaziah his son became king in his place.

**[22:41]** And Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, became king over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab's rule over Israel.

**[22:42]** Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he was king for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.

**[22:43]** He did as Asa his father had done, not turning away from it, but doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord; but the high places were not taken away: the people went on making offerings and burning them in the high places.

**[22:44]** And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.

**[22:45]** Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his great power, and how he went to war, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?

**[22:46]** He put an end to the rest of those who were used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods, all those who were still in the land in the time of his father Asa.

**[22:47]** At that time there was no king in Edom;

**[22:48]** And the representative of King Jehoshaphat made a Tarshish-ship to go to Ophir for gold, but it did not go, because it was broken at Ezion-geber.

**[22:49]** Then Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, said to Jehoshaphat, Let my men go with yours in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not let them.

**[22:50]** Then Jehoshaphat went to rest with his fathers, and his body was put into the earth in the town of David his father; and Jehoram his son became king in his place.

**[22:51]** Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, became king over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of the rule of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, and he was king over Israel for two years.

**[22:52]** He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, going in the ways of his father and his mother, and in the ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel do evil.

**[22:53]** He was a servant and worshipper of Baal, moving the Lord, the God of Israel, to wrath, as his father had done.