The First of Kings*
or, according to the Greek Septuagint, THE THIRD OF KINGS
1 Now King* David was old,+ advanced in days; and they would cover him with garments, but he would not feel warm. 2 So his servants said to him: “Let them look for a girl, a virgin,+ for my lord the king, and she will have to attend+ upon the king, that she may become his nurse;+ and she must lie in your bosom,+ and my lord the king will certainly feel warm.”+ 3 And they* went looking for a beautiful girl throughout all the territory of Israel, and finally found Abʹi·shag+ the Shuʹnam·mite+ and then brought her in to the king. 4 And the girl was beautiful in the extreme;+ and she came to be the king’s nurse and kept waiting upon him, and the king himself had no intercourse with her.
5 All the while Ad·o·niʹjah+ the son of Hagʹgith+ was lifting himself up,+ saying: “I myself am going to rule as king!”+ And he proceeded to have a chariot made for himself with horsemen and fifty men running before him.+ 6 And his father did not hurt his feelings at any time* by saying: “Why is this the way you have done?”+ And he was also very good-looking in form,+ and [his mother]* had borne him after Abʹsa·lom. 7 And he came to have dealings with Joʹab the son of Ze·ruʹiah and with A·biʹa·thar+ the priest, and they began offering help as followers of Ad·o·niʹjah.+ 8 As for Zaʹdok+ the priest and Be·naiʹah*+ the son of Je·hoiʹa·da and Nathan+ the prophet and Shimʹe·i+ and Reʹi and the mighty men+ that belonged to David, they did not become involved+ with Ad·o·niʹjah.*
9 Eventually Ad·o·niʹjah held a sacrifice+ of sheep and cattle and fatlings close by the stone of Zoʹhe·leth,* which is beside En-roʹgel,+ and he proceeded to invite all his brothers the king’s sons+ and all the men of Judah the king’s servants; 10 and Nathan the prophet and Be·naiʹah and the mighty men and Solʹo·mon his brother he did not invite. 11 Nathan+ now said to Bath-sheʹba,+ Solʹo·mon’s mother:+ “Have you not heard that Ad·o·niʹjah the son of Hagʹgith+ has become king, and our lord* David does not know of it at all? 12 So now come, let me, please, solemnly counsel you.+ And provide escape for your own soul and for the soul of your son Solʹo·mon.+ 13 Go and enter in to King David, and you must say to him, ‘Was it not you, my lord the king, that swore to your slave girl, saying: “Solʹo·mon your son is the one that will become king after me, and he is the one that will sit upon my throne”?+ So why has Ad·o·niʹjah become king?’ 14 Look! While you are yet speaking there with the king, then I myself shall come in after you, and I shall certainly confirm your words.”+
15 Accordingly Bath-sheʹba went in to the king in the interior+ room, and the king was very old,+ and Abʹi·shag+ the Shuʹnam·mite was waiting upon the king. 16 Then Bath-sheʹba bowed low and prostrated+ herself to the king, upon which the king said: “What do you have [to ask]?”+ 17 At this she said to him: “My lord,+ it was you that swore by Jehovah your God to your slave girl, ‘Solʹo·mon your son is the one that will become king after me, and he is the one that will sit upon my throne.’+ 18 And now, look! Ad·o·niʹjah+ himself has become king, and now my lord the king himself does not know of it at all.+ 19 So he sacrificed bulls and fatlings and sheep in great quantity and invited all the sons of the king+ and A·biʹa·thar+ the priest and Joʹab+ the chief of the army; but Solʹo·mon your servant he has not invited.+ 20 And you my lord the king—the eyes+ of all Israel are upon you, to tell them who is going to sit upon the throne of my lord the king after him.+ 21 And it will certainly occur that as soon as my lord the king lies down with his forefathers,+ I myself and also my son Solʹo·mon shall certainly become offenders.”
22 And, look! while she was yet speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet himself came in.+ 23 At once they told the king, saying: “Here is Nathan the prophet!” After that he came in before the king and prostrated himself to the king with his face to the earth.+ 24 Then Nathan said: “My lord the king, did you yourself say, ‘Ad·o·niʹjah is the one that will become king after me, and he is the one that will sit upon my throne’?+ 25 For he has today gone down that he might sacrifice+ bulls and fatlings and sheep in great quantity and might invite all the sons of the king and the chiefs of the army and A·biʹa·thar the priest;+ and there they are eating and drinking before him and they keep saying, ‘Let King Ad·o·niʹjah live!’+ 26 But as for me your servant, me and Zaʹdok+ the priest and Be·naiʹah+ the son of Je·hoiʹa·da and Solʹo·mon your servant he has not invited.+ 27 If it is from my lord the king that this thing has been brought about, then you have not caused your servant to know+ who should sit upon the throne of my lord the king after him.”
28 King David now answered and said: “YOU men, call Bath-sheʹba+ for me.” At that she came in before the king and stood before the king. 29 And the king proceeded to swear+ and say: “As Jehovah is living+ who redeemed+ my soul+ out of all distress,+ 30 just as I have sworn to you by Jehovah the God of Israel, saying, ‘Solʹo·mon your son is the one that will become king after me, and he is the one that will sit upon my throne in place of me!’ that is the way I shall do this day.”+ 31 Then Bath-sheʹba bowed low with her face to the earth and prostrated+ herself to the king and said: “Let my lord King David live to time indefinite!”+
32 Immediately King David said: “YOU men, call for me Zaʹdok+ the priest and Nathan the prophet and Be·naiʹah+ the son of Je·hoiʹa·da.” So they came in before the king. 33 And the king went on to say to them: “Take with YOU the servants+ of YOUR lord,* and YOU must make Solʹo·mon my son ride upon the she-mule that belongs to me+ and lead him down to Giʹhon.+ 34 And Zaʹdok the priest and Nathan the prophet must anoint+ him there as king over Israel; and YOU must blow the horn+ and say, ‘Let King Solʹo·mon live!’+ 35 And YOU must come up following him, and he must come in and sit upon my throne; and he himself will be king in place of me, and him I shall have to commission to become leader over Israel and over Judah.” 36 At once Be·naiʹah the son of Je·hoiʹa·da answered the king and said: “Amen!*+ Thus may Jehovah the God of my lord the king say.*+ 37 Just as Jehovah proved to be with my lord the king,+ so let him prove to be with Solʹo·mon,+ and may he make his throne greater+ than the throne of my lord King David.”
38 And Zaʹdok+ the priest and Nathan+ the prophet and Be·naiʹah+ the son of Je·hoiʹa·da and the Cherʹe·thites+ and the Pelʹe·thites+ proceeded to go down and make Solʹo·mon ride upon the she-mule of King David,+ and then brought him to Giʹhon.+ 39 Zaʹdok the priest now took the horn of oil+ out of the tent+ and anointed+ Solʹo·mon; and they began to blow the horn, and all the people broke out saying: “Let King Solʹo·mon live!”+ 40 After that all the people came on up following him, and the people were playing on flutes+ and rejoicing with great joy,+ so that the earth+ was split by the noise of them.
41 And Ad·o·niʹjah and all the ones invited that were with him got to hear it, when they themselves had finished eating.+ When Joʹab got to hear the sound of the horn, he at once said: “What does the noise of the town in an uproar+ mean?” 42 While he was yet speaking, why, here Jonʹa·than+ the son of A·biʹa·thar the priest came. Then Ad·o·niʹjah said: “Come on in, for you are a valiant man, and you bring good news.”+ 43 But Jonʹa·than answered and said to Ad·o·niʹjah: “No! Our lord* King David himself has made Solʹo·mon king.+ 44 So the king sent with him Zaʹdok the priest and Nathan the prophet and Be·naiʹah the son of Je·hoiʹa·da and the Cherʹe·thites and the Pelʹe·thites, and they made him ride upon the she-mule of the king.+ 45 Then Zaʹdok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed him as king+ in Giʹhon; after which they came up from there rejoicing, and the town is in an uproar. That was the noise that YOU men heard.+ 46 And, besides, Solʹo·mon has sat down upon the throne of the kingship.+ 47 And, another thing, the servants of the king have come in to wish our lord King David well, saying, ‘May your God* make Solʹo·mon’s name more splendid than your name, and may he make his throne greater than your throne!’+ At that the king bowed down upon the bed.+ 48 And too this is what the king said, ‘Blessed+ be Jehovah the God of Israel, who has today given one to sit upon my throne, with my own eyes seeing it!’”+
49 And all those invited that were with Ad·o·niʹjah began to tremble and rise up and go each one on his own way.+ 50 And Ad·o·niʹjah himself was afraid because of Solʹo·mon. So he rose up and went away and grabbed hold of the horns of the altar.+ 51 In time the report was made to Solʹo·mon, saying: “Here Ad·o·niʹjah himself has become afraid of King Solʹo·mon; and here he has taken hold on the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solʹo·mon first of all swear to me that he will not put his servant to death by the sword.’” 52 To this Solʹo·mon said: “If he will become a valiant man, there will not fall a single hair+ of his to the earth; but if what is bad should be found in him,+ he will also have to die.”+ 53 So King Solʹo·mon sent and they brought him down from off the altar. Then he came in and bowed down to King Solʹo·mon; after which Solʹo·mon said to him: “Go to your own house.”+
2 And the days of David gradually drew near for him to die;+ and he proceeded to command Solʹo·mon his son, saying: 2 “I am going in the way of all the earth,+ and you must be strong+ and prove yourself to be a man.+ 3 And you must keep the obligation to Jehovah your God by walking in his ways,+ by keeping his statutes, his commandments and his judicial decisions+ and his testimonies,* according to what is written in the law of Moses,+ in order that you may act prudently in everything that you do and everywhere that you turn; 4 in order that Jehovah may carry out his word that he spoke respecting me,+ saying, ‘If your sons+ will take care of their way by walking+ before me in truth*+ with all their heart+ and with all their soul, there will not be cut off a man of yours from [sitting] upon the throne of Israel.’+
5 “And you yourself also well know what Joʹab the son of Ze·ruʹiah did to me+ in what he did to two chiefs of the armies of Israel, to Abʹner+ the son of Ner and A·maʹsa+ the son of Jeʹther,+ when he killed them and placed the blood+ of war in peacetime and put the blood of war on his belt that was about his hips and in his sandals that were on his feet. 6 And you must act according to your wisdom,+ and not let his gray hairs go down in peace+ to Sheʹol.*+
7 “And toward the sons of Bar·zilʹlai+ the Gilʹe·ad·ite you should exercise loving-kindness,* and they must prove to be among those eating at your table;+ for that was the way they drew near+ to me when I ran away from before Abʹsa·lom your brother.+
8 “And here there is with you Shimʹe·i+ the son of Geʹra the Benʹja·min·ite from Ba·huʹrim,+ and he it was that called down evil upon me with a painful malediction+ on the day that I was going to Ma·ha·naʹim;+ and he it was that came down to meet me at the Jordan,+ so that I swore to him by Jehovah, saying, ‘I shall not put you to death by the sword.’+ 9 And now do not leave him unpunished,+ for you are a wise+ man and you well know what you ought to do to him, and you must bring his gray+ hairs down to Sheʹol with blood.”+
10 Then David lay down with his forefathers+ and was buried in the City of David.+ 11 And the days that David had reigned over Israel were forty years.+ In Heʹbron+ he had reigned seven years,+ and in Jerusalem he had reigned thirty-three years.+
12 As for Solʹo·mon, he sat down upon the throne of David his father;+ and gradually his kingship became very firmly established.+
13 In time Ad·o·niʹjah the son of Hagʹgith came to Bath-sheʹba,+ Solʹo·mon’s mother. At this she said: “Is your coming peaceable?”+ to which he said: “It is peaceable.” 14 And he went on to say: “There is a matter I have for you.” So she said: “Speak.”+ 15 And he continued: “You yourself well know that the kingship was to have become mine, and it was toward me that all Israel had set their face for me to become king;+ but the kingship turned and came to be my brother’s, for it was from Jehovah that it became his.+ 16 And now there is one request that I am making of you. Do not turn my face away.”+ Accordingly she said to him: “Speak.” 17 And he went on to say: “Please, say to Solʹo·mon the king (for he will not turn your face away) that he should give me Abʹi·shag+ the Shuʹnam·mite+ as a wife.” 18 To this Bath-sheʹba said: “Good! I myself shall speak for you to the king.”
19 So Bath-sheʹba came in to King Solʹo·mon to speak to him for Ad·o·niʹjah.+ At once the king rose+ to meet her and bowed down to her.+ Then he sat down upon his throne and had a throne set for the mother of the king, that she might sit at his right.+ 20 And she proceeded to say: “There is one little request that I am making of you. Do not turn my face away.” So the king said to her: “Make it, my mother; for I shall not turn your face away.” 21 And she went on to say: “Let Abʹi·shag the Shuʹnam·mite be given to Ad·o·niʹjah your brother as a wife.” 22 At this King Solʹo·mon answered and said to his mother: “And why are you requesting Abʹi·shag the Shuʹnam·mite for Ad·o·niʹjah? Request also for him the kingship+ (because he is my brother older than I am),+ even for him and for A·biʹa·thar+ the priest and for Joʹab+ the son of Ze·ruʹiah.”+
23 With that King Solʹo·mon swore by Jehovah, saying: “So may God do to me, and so may he add to it,+ if it was not against his own soul that Ad·o·niʹjah spoke this thing.+ 24 And now, as Jehovah is living+ who has firmly established me+ and keeps me seated upon the throne of David my father+ and who made a house+ for me just as he has spoken,+ today Ad·o·niʹjah will be put to death.”+ 25 Immediately King Solʹo·mon sent by means of Be·naiʹah+ the son of Je·hoiʹa·da; and he proceeded to fall upon him, so that he died.*+
26 And to A·biʹa·thar+ the priest the king said: “Go to Anʹa·thoth+ to your fields! For you are deserving of death;*+ but on this day I shall not put you to death, because you carried the ark of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah+ before David my father,+ and because you suffered affliction during all the time that my father suffered affliction.”+ 27 So Solʹo·mon drove out A·biʹa·thar from serving as a priest of Jehovah, to fulfill Jehovah’s word that he had spoken against the house of Eʹli+ in Shiʹloh.+
28 And the report itself came clear to Joʹab+—for Joʹab himself had inclined to follow Ad·o·niʹjah,+ although Abʹsa·lom* he had not inclined to follow+—and Joʹab went fleeing to the tent+ of Jehovah and began to hold fast to the horns of the altar.+ 29 Then King Solʹo·mon was told: “Joʹab has fled to the tent of Jehovah, and there he is beside the altar.” So Solʹo·mon sent Be·naiʹah the son of Je·hoiʹa·da, saying: “Go, fall upon him!”+ 30 Accordingly Be·naiʹah came to the tent of Jehovah and said to him: “This is what the king has said, ‘Come on out!’” But he said: “No! For here+ is where I shall die.” At that Be·naiʹah brought word back to the king, saying: “This is what Joʹab spoke, and this is what he answered me.” 31 Then the king said to him: “Do just as he has spoken and fall upon him; and you must bury him and remove from off me and from off the house of my father the blood*+ undeservedly shed that Joʹab spilled.+ 32 And Jehovah will certainly bring back his blood upon his own head,+ because he fell upon two men more righteous and better than he was,+ and he proceeded to kill them with the sword, when my father David himself had not known of it,+ namely, Abʹner+ the son of Ner the chief of the army of Israel+ and A·maʹsa+ the son of Jeʹther the chief of the army of Judah.+ 33 And their blood must come back upon the head of Joʹab and upon the head of his offspring to time indefinite;+ but for David+ and for his offspring and for his house and for his throne there will come to be peace to time indefinite from Jehovah.”+ 34 Then Be·naiʹah the son of Je·hoiʹa·da went on up+ and fell upon him and put him to death;+ and he got to be buried at his own house in the wilderness. 35 Upon that the king put Be·naiʹah+ the son of Je·hoiʹa·da in place of him over the army;+ and Zaʹdok the priest the king put* in the place of A·biʹa·thar.+
36 Finally the king sent and called Shimʹe·i+ and said to him: “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and you must dwell there and not go out from there to this place and that. 37 And it must occur that on the day of your going out and when you do pass over the torrent valley of Kidʹron,+ you should unmistakably know that you will positively die.+ Bloodguilt for you* will itself come to be upon your own head.”+ 38 At this Shimʹe·i said to the king: “The word is good. Just as my lord the king has spoken is the way that your servant will do.” And Shimʹe·i kept dwelling in Jerusalem many days.
39 And it came about at the end of three years that two slaves+ of Shimʹe·i went running away to Aʹchish+ the son of Maʹa·cah the king of Gath;+ and people came telling Shimʹe·i, saying: “Look! Your slaves are at Gath.” 40 Immediately Shimʹe·i got up and saddled his ass and went to Gath to Aʹchish to look for his slaves; after which Shimʹe·i went and brought his slaves from Gath. 41 Then Solʹo·mon was told: “Shimʹe·i has gone out of Jerusalem to Gath and is back.” 42 At that the king sent and called+ Shimʹe·i and said to him: “Did I not put you under oath by Jehovah that I might warn you,+ saying, ‘On the day of your going outside and when you do go here and there you should unmistakably know that you will positively die,’ and so did you not say to me, ‘Good is the word that I have heard’?+ 43 Why, then, did you not keep the oath of Jehovah+ and the commandment that I solemnly laid upon you?”+ 44 And the king went on to say to Shimʹe·i: “You yourself certainly know all the injury which your heart well knows that you did to David my father;+ and Jehovah will certainly return the injury by you upon your own head.+ 45 But King Solʹo·mon will be blessed,+ and the throne of David itself will prove to be firmly established before Jehovah forever.”*+ 46 With that the king commanded Be·naiʹah the son of Je·hoiʹa·da, who then went out and fell upon him, so that he died.+
And the kingdom was firmly established in the hand of Solʹo·mon.+
3 And Solʹo·mon proceeded to form a marriage alliance+ with Pharʹaoh the king of Egypt and to take Pharʹaoh’s daughter+ and bring her to the City of David,+ until he finished building his own house+ and the house of Jehovah+ and Jerusalem’s wall all around.+ 2 Only the people were sacrificing on the high places,+ for a house had not been built to the name of Jehovah down to those days.+ 3 And Solʹo·mon continued to love+ Jehovah by walking in the statutes of David his father.+ Only it was on the high places+ that he was regularly sacrificing and making offerings smoke.
4 Accordingly the king went to Gibʹe·on+ to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place.+ A thousand burnt sacrifices Solʹo·mon proceeded to offer upon that altar.+ 5 In Gibʹe·on Jehovah appeared+ to Solʹo·mon in a dream+ by night; and God* proceeded to say: “Request what I should give you.”+ 6 At this Solʹo·mon said: “You yourself have exercised great loving-kindness*+ toward your servant David my father according as he walked before you in truth and in righteousness+ and in uprightness of heart with you; and you continued keeping toward him this great loving-kindness, so that you gave him a son to sit* upon his throne as at this day.+ 7 And now, Jehovah my God, you yourself have made your servant king in the place of David my father, and I am but a little boy.+ I do not know how to go out and how to come in.+ 8 And your servant is in the middle of your people whom you have chosen,+ a multitudinous people that cannot be numbered or counted for multitude.+ 9 And you must give to your servant an obedient heart* to judge+ your people, to discern between good and bad;+ for who is able to judge+ this difficult* people of yours?”+
10 And the thing was pleasing* in the eyes of Jehovah,* because Solʹo·mon had requested this thing.+ 11 And God* went on to say to him: “For the reason that you have requested this thing and have not requested for yourself many days nor requested for yourself riches+ nor requested the soul* of your enemies, and you have requested for yourself understanding* to hear judicial cases,*+ 12 look! I shall certainly do according to your words.+ Look! I shall certainly give you a wise and understanding* heart,+ so that one like you there has not happened to be before you, and after you there will not rise up one like you.+ 13 And also what you have not requested I will give you,+ both riches+ and glory, so that there will not have happened to be any among the kings like you, all your days.+ 14 And if you will walk in my ways by keeping my regulations+ and my commandments, just as David your father walked,+ I will also lengthen your days.”+
15 When Solʹo·mon awoke,+ why, here it had been a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark+ of the covenant of Jehovah* and offered up burnt sacrifices and rendered up communion+ offerings and spread a feast+ for all his servants.+
16 At that time two women, prostitutes,+ got to come in to the king and stand before him.+ 17 Then the one woman said: “Excuse me, my lord,+ I and this woman are dwelling in one house, so that I gave birth close by her in the house. 18 And it came about on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also proceeded to give birth. And we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, no one but the two of us in the house. 19 Later the son of this woman died at night, because she lay upon him. 20 So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your slave girl herself was asleep and laid him in her own bosom, and her dead son she laid in my bosom. 21 When I got up in the morning to nurse+ my son, why, there he was dead. So I examined him closely in the morning, and, look! he did not prove to be my son that I had borne.” 22 But the other woman said: “No, but my son is the living one and your son is the dead one!” All the while this woman was saying: “No, but your son is the dead one and my son is the living one.” And they kept on speaking before the king.+
23 Finally the king said: “This one is saying, ‘This is my son, the living one, and your son is the dead one!’ and that one is saying, ‘No, but your son is the dead one and my son is the living one!’” 24 And the king went on to say:+ “YOU men, get me a sword.” So they brought the sword before the king. 25 And the king proceeded to say: “YOU men, sever the living child in two and give the one half to the one woman and the other half to the other.” 26 At once the woman whose son was the living one said to the king (for her inward emotions+ were excited toward her son,+ so that she said): “Excuse me,+ my lord! YOU men, give her the living child. Do not by any means put him to death.” All the while this other woman was saying: “Neither mine nor yours will he become. YOU men, do the severing!”+ 27 At that the king answered and said: “YOU men, give her the living child, and YOU must by no means put him to death. She is his mother.”
28 And all Israel got to hear of the judicial decision+ that the king had handed down; and they became fearful because of the king,+ for they saw that the wisdom+ of God was within him to execute judicial decision.
4 And King Solʹo·mon continued king over all Israel.+ 2 And these are the princes*+ that he had: Az·a·riʹah* the son of Zaʹdok,+ the priest; 3 El·i·horʹeph and A·hiʹjah, the sons of Shiʹsha, secretaries;+ Je·hoshʹa·phat+ the son of A·hiʹlud, the recorder;* 4 and Be·naiʹah+ the son of Je·hoiʹa·da was over the army,+ and Zaʹdok and A·biʹa·thar+ were priests; 5 and Az·a·riʹah the son of Nathan+ was over the deputies, and Zaʹbud the son of Nathan was a priest, the friend+ of the king; 6 and A·hiʹshar was over the household, and Ad·o·niʹram+ the son of Abʹda, over those conscripted for forced labor.+
7 And Solʹo·mon had twelve deputies over all Israel, and they provided the king and his household with food. It would devolve upon each one to provide the food one month in the year.+ 8 And these were their names: The son of Hur, in the mountainous region of Eʹphra·im;+ 9 the son of Deʹker, in Maʹkaz and in Sha·alʹbim+ and Beth-sheʹmesh+ and Eʹlon-beth-haʹnan; 10 the son of Heʹsed, in A·rubʹboth (he had Soʹcoh and all the land of Heʹpher);+ 11 the son of A·binʹa·dab, all the mountain ridge of Dor+ (Taʹphath, Solʹo·mon’s daughter, herself became his wife); 12 Baʹa·na the son of A·hiʹlud, in Taʹa·nach+ and Me·gidʹdo+ and all Beth-sheʹan,+ which is beside Zarʹe·than+ below Jezʹre·el,+ from Beth-sheʹan to Aʹbel-me·hoʹlah+ to the region of Jokʹme·am;+ 13 the son of Geʹber, in Raʹmoth-gilʹe·ad+ (he had the tent villages of Jaʹir*+ the son of Ma·nasʹseh, which are in Gilʹe·ad;+ he had the region of Arʹgob,+ which is in Baʹshan:+ sixty large cities with wall and copper bar); 14 A·hinʹa·dab the son of Idʹdo, in Ma·ha·naʹim;+ 15 A·himʹa·az, in Naphʹta·li+ (he, too, took Basʹe·math, Solʹo·mon’s daughter, as a wife);+ 16 Baʹa·na the son of Huʹshai, in Ashʹer+ and Be·aʹloth; 17 Je·hoshʹa·phat the son of Pa·ruʹah, in Isʹsa·char;+ 18 Shimʹe·i+ the son of Eʹla, in Benjamin;+ 19 Geʹber the son of Uʹri, in the land of Gilʹe·ad,+ the land of Siʹhon+ the king of the Amʹor·ites,+ and of Og+ the king of Baʹshan,+ and there was one deputy [over all the other deputies] that were in the land.
20 Judah and Israel were many, like the grains of sand that are by the sea for multitude,+ eating and drinking and rejoicing.*+
21 As for Solʹo·mon, he proved to be ruler over all the kingdoms from the River*+ to the land of the Phi·lisʹtines and to the boundary of Egypt. They were bringing gifts and serving Solʹo·mon all the days of his life.+
22 And Solʹo·mon’s food for each day* regularly proved to be thirty cor*+ measures of fine flour and sixty cor measures of flour, 23 ten fat cattle and twenty pastured cattle and a hundred sheep, besides some stags+ and gazelles+ and roebucks and fattened cuckoos. 24 For he was holding in subjection everything this side of the River,+ from Tiphʹsah to Gaʹza,+ even all the kings this side of the River;+ and peace+ itself became his in every region of his, all around.* 25 And Judah+ and Israel continued to dwell in security,+ everyone under his own vine and under his own fig tree,+ from Dan to Beʹer-sheʹba,+ all the days of Solʹo·mon.
26 And Solʹo·mon came to have forty thousand stalls of horses+ for his chariots+ and twelve thousand horsemen.
27 And these deputies+ supplied food to King Solʹo·mon and everyone approaching the table of King Solʹo·mon, each one in his month. They left nothing lacking. 28 And the barley and the straw for the horses and for the teams of horses+ they kept bringing to wherever the place might prove to be, each one according to his commission.+
29 And God* continued giving Solʹo·mon wisdom+ and understanding*+ in very great measure and a broadness of heart,+ like the sand that is upon the seashore.+ 30 And Solʹo·mon’s wisdom was vaster+ than the wisdom of all the Orientals*+ and than all the wisdom of Egypt.+ 31 And he was wiser than any other man,* than Eʹthan+ the Ezʹra·hite and Heʹman+ and Calʹcol+ and Darʹda the sons of Maʹhol; and his fame* came to be in all the nations all around.+ 32 And he could speak three thousand proverbs,+ and his songs+ came to be a thousand and five.* 33 And he would speak about the trees, from the cedar that is in Lebʹa·non+ to the hyssop+ that is coming forth on the wall; and he would speak about the beasts+ and about the flying creatures+ and about the moving things+ and about the fishes.+ 34 And they kept coming from all the peoples to hear Solʹo·mon’s wisdom,+ even from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.+
5 And Hiʹram+ the king of Tyre+ proceeded to send his servants+ to Solʹo·mon, for he had heard that it was he that they had anointed as king in place of his father; for a lover* of David Hiʹram had always proved to be.+ 2 In turn Solʹo·mon sent to Hiʹram, saying:+ 3 “You yourself well know that David my father was not able to build a house to the name of Jehovah his God because of the warfare+ with which they surrounded him, until Jehovah put them under the soles of his feet. 4 And now Jehovah my God has given me rest all around.+ There is no resister,* and there is nothing bad happening.+ 5 And here I am thinking of building* a house to the name of Jehovah my God,+ just as Jehovah promised to David my father, saying, ‘Your son whom I shall put upon your throne in place of you, he is the one that will build the house to my name.’+ 6 And now command that they cut for me cedars* from Lebʹa·non;+ and my servants themselves will prove to be with your servants, and the wages of your servants I shall give to you according to all that you may say, for you yourself well know that there is among us no one knowing how to cut trees like the Si·doʹni·ans.”+
7 And it came about that as soon as Hiʹram+ heard the words of Solʹo·mon, he began to rejoice greatly, and he went on to say: “Blessed+ is Jehovah today in that he has given David a wise+ son over this numerous people!”+ 8 Accordingly Hiʹram sent to Solʹo·mon, saying: “I have heard what you sent to me. For my part, I shall do all your delight in the matter of timbers of cedar trees and timbers of juniper+ trees. 9 My servants themselves will bring them down out of Lebʹa·non+ to the sea; and I, for my part, shall put them in log rafts [to go] by sea clear to the place that you will send me notice of;+ and I shall certainly have them broken up there, and you, for your part, will carry them; and you, for your part, will do my delight by giving the food for my household.”+
10 So Hiʹram became a giver of timbers of cedar trees and timbers of juniper trees to Solʹo·mon according to all his delight. 11 And Solʹo·mon, for his part, gave Hiʹram twenty thousand cor+ measures of wheat as food supplies for his household and twenty cor* measures of beaten-out+ oil.* That was what Solʹo·mon kept giving Hiʹram year by year.+ 12 And Jehovah, for his part, gave Solʹo·mon wisdom, just as he had promised him;+ and there came to be peace between Hiʹram and Solʹo·mon, and both of them proceeded to conclude a covenant.
13 And King Solʹo·mon kept bringing up those conscripted for forced labor out of all Israel; and those conscripted for forced labor+ amounted to thirty thousand men. 14 And he would send them to Lebʹa·non in shifts of ten thousand a month. For a month they would continue in Lebʹa·non, for two months at their homes;+ and Ad·o·niʹram+ was over those conscripted+ for forced labor.+ 15 And Solʹo·mon came to have+ seventy thousand burden bearers+ and eighty thousand cutters+ in the mountain,+ 16 besides Solʹo·mon’s princely deputies*+ who were over the work, three thousand three hundred foremen+ over the people who were active in the work. 17 Accordingly the king commanded that they should quarry great stones, expensive stones,+ to lay the foundation+ of the house with hewn stones.+ 18 So Solʹo·mon’s builders and Hiʹram’s builders and the Geʹbal·ites+ did the cutting, and they kept preparing the timbers and the stones to build the house.
6 And it came about in the four hundred and eightieth year* after the sons of Israel came out from the land of Egypt,+ in the fourth year,+ in the month of Ziv,+ that is, the second month,+ after Solʹo·mon became king over Israel, that he proceeded to build the house to Jehovah.+ 2 And the house that King Solʹo·mon built+ to Jehovah was sixty cubits*+ in its length, and twenty in its width, and thirty cubits in its height.+ 3 And the porch+ in front of the temple* of the house was twenty cubits in its length, in front of the width of the house. Ten cubits it was in its depth, in front of the house.
4 And for the house he went on to make windows of narrowing frames.+ 5 Further, he built against the wall of the house a side structure all around, [against] the walls of the house all around the temple and the innermost room,*+ and made side chambers+ all around. 6 The lowest side chamber* was five cubits in its width, and the middle one was six cubits in its width, and the third one was seven cubits in its width; for there were cutbacks+ that he gave to the house all around outside, that it might not have a hold in the walls of the house.+
7 As for the house, while it was being built, it was of quarry stone+ already completed that it was built; and as for hammers and axes or any tools of iron, they were not heard in the house+ while it was being built. 8 The entrance+ of the lowest* side chamber was on the right* side of the house, and by a winding staircase they would go up to the middle one, and from the middle one up to the third one. 9 Further, he continued building the house that he might finish it,+ and covered in the house with beams and rows in cedarwood.+ 10 Moreover, he built the side chambers+ against the whole house five cubits in their height, and they had a hold on the house by timbers+ of cedar trees.
11 Meantime, the word of Jehovah came to Solʹo·mon,+ saying:+ 12 “As regards this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes+ and perform my judicial decisions+ and actually keep all my commandments by walking in them,+ I also shall certainly carry out my word with you that I spoke to David your father;+ 13 and I shall indeed reside in the middle of the sons of Israel,+ and I shall not leave my people Israel.”+
14 And Solʹo·mon continued building the house that he might finish it.+ 15 And he proceeded to build the walls of the house inside it with boards of cedar. From the floor of the house up to the rafters* of the ceiling he overlaid it with timber inside; and he went on to overlay the floor of the house with boards of juniper.+ 16 Further, he built twenty cubits at the rear sides of the house with boards of cedar, from the floor up to the rafters, and built for it inside the innermost+ room, the Most Holy.+ 17 And it was forty cubits that the house proved to be, that is, the temple+ in front of it.*+ 18 And [the] cedarwood on the house inside was with carvings of gourd-shaped+ ornaments and garlands of blossoms.+ All of it was cedarwood; there was no stone to be seen.
19 And the innermost+ room in the interior of the house he prepared inside, to put there the ark+ of the covenant+ of Jehovah. 20 And the innermost room was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in width,+ and twenty cubits in its height; and he proceeded to overlay it with pure gold,+ and to overlay the altar+ with cedarwood. 21 And Solʹo·mon went on to overlay+ the house inside with pure gold,+ and to make chainwork+ of gold pass across in front of the innermost room,+ and to overlay it with gold. 22 And the whole house he overlaid with gold,+ until all the house was completed; and all the altar+ that was toward the innermost room he overlaid with gold.+
23 Further, he made in the innermost room two cherubs+ of oil-tree wood, ten cubits being the height of each one.+ 24 And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits was the other wing of the cherub. Ten cubits it was from the tip of his wing to the tip of his wing.+ 25 And the second cherub was ten cubits. The two cherubs had the same measure and the same shape. 26 The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and that was so of the other cherub. 27 Then he put the cherubs inside the inner house, so that they spread out the wings of the cherubs.+ Thus the wing of the one reached to the wall and the wing of the other cherub was reaching to the other wall; and their wings were toward the middle of the house, reaching wing to wing.+ 28 Moreover, he overlaid the cherubs with gold.+
29 And all the walls of the house round about he carved with engraved carvings of cherubs+ and palm-tree figures+ and engravings of blossoms,+ inside and outside; 30 and the floor+ of the house he overlaid with gold, inside and outside. 31 And the entrance of the innermost room he made with doors+ of oil-tree+ wood: side pillars, doorposts [and] a fifth. 32 And the two doors were of oil-tree wood, and he carved upon them carvings of cherubs and palm-tree figures and the engravings of blossoms, and he overlaid them with gold; and he proceeded to beat the gold down upon the cherubs and the palm-tree figures. 33 And that was the way he made for the entrance of the temple, the doorposts of oil-tree wood, foursquare. 34 And the two doors were of juniper wood.+ The two leaves of the one door turned on pivots, and the two leaves of the other door turned on pivots.+ 35 And he carved cherubs and palm-tree figures and engravings of blossoms, and overlaid gold foil upon the representations.+
36 And he went on to build the inner+ courtyard with three rows+ of hewn stone and a row of beams of cedarwood.
37 In the fourth year the house of Jehovah had its foundation+ laid, in the lunar month of Ziv;+ 38 and in the eleventh year, in the lunar month of Bul,* that is, the eighth month, the house was finished+ as regards all its details and all its plan;+ so that he was seven years at building it.
7 And his own house Solʹo·mon built in thirteen years,+ so that he finished all his own house.+
2 And he proceeded to build the House of the Forest of Lebʹa·non+ a hundred cubits* in its length, and fifty cubits in its width, and thirty cubits in its height, upon four rows of pillars of cedarwood; and there were beams+ of cedarwood upon the pillars. 3 And it was paneled in with cedarwood+ above upon the girders that were upon the forty-five pillars. There were fifteen to a row. 4 As for framed windows, there were three rows, and there was an illumination+ opening opposite an illumination opening in three tiers. 5 And all the entrances and the doorposts were squared [with the] frame,+ and also the forefront of the illumination opening opposite an illumination opening in three tiers.
6 And the Porch of Pillars he made fifty cubits in its length, and thirty cubits in its width; and another porch was in front of them with pillars and a canopy in front of them.
7 As for the Porch of the Throne+ where he would do judging, he made the porch of judgment;+ and they covered it in with cedarwood from the floor to the rafters.*+
8 As regards the house of his where he was to dwell, at the other courtyard,+ it was away from the house belonging to the Porch. It proved to be like this in workmanship. And there was a house like this Porch that he proceeded to build for Pharʹaoh’s daughter,+ whom Solʹo·mon had taken.
9 All these were [of] expensive+ stones according to measures, hewn, sawed with stone-saws, inside and outside, and from the foundation up to the coping, and outside as far as the great courtyard.+ 10 And the expensive stones laid as a foundation were great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits. 11 And up above there were expensive stones according to measures, hewn, and also cedarwood. 12 As for the great courtyard, round about were three rows+ of hewn stone and a row of beams of cedarwood; and [this] also for the inner+ courtyard of the house+ of Jehovah, and for the porch+ of the house.
13 And King Solʹo·mon proceeded to send and fetch Hiʹram+ out of Tyre. 14 He was the son of a widowed woman from the tribe of Naphʹta·li, and his father was a Tyrʹi·an man,+ a worker in copper;+ and he was full of the wisdom and the understanding+ and the knowledge for doing every sort of work in copper. Accordingly he came to King Solʹo·mon and began to do all his work.
15 Then he cast the two pillars of copper,+ eighteen cubits being the height of each pillar, and a string of twelve cubits would measure around each of the two pillars.+ 16 And two capitals he made to put upon the tops of the pillars, cast in copper.+ Five cubits was the height of the one capital, and five cubits was the height of the other capital. 17 There were nets in network, twisted ornaments in chainwork,+ for the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars;+ seven* for the one capital, and seven for the other capital. 18 And he went on to make the pomegranates* and two rows round about upon the one network to cover the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars;* and that was what he did for the other capital.+ 19 And the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars at the porch were of lily work,+ of four cubits. 20 And the capitals were upon the two pillars, also up close beside the belly that was adjoining the network; and there were two hundred pomegranates+ in rows all around upon each capital.
21 And he proceeded to set up the pillars+ belonging to the porch+ of the temple. So he set up the right-hand* pillar and called its name Jaʹchin,* and then set up the left-hand* pillar and called its name Boʹaz.* 22 And upon the top of the pillars there was lily work. And the work of the pillars was gradually completed.
23 And he proceeded to make the molten sea+ ten cubits from its one brim to its other brim, circular all around; and its height was five cubits, and it took a line of thirty cubits to circle all around it.+ 24 And there were gourd-shaped+ ornaments+ down below its brim all around, encircling it, ten in a cubit, enclosing the sea all around,+ with two rows of the gourd-shaped ornaments cast in its casting. 25 It was standing upon twelve bulls,*+ three facing north, and three facing west,* and three facing south,* and three facing east; and the sea was above upon them, and all their hind parts were toward the center.+ 26 And its thickness was a handbreadth;*+ and its brim was like the workmanship of the brim of a cup, a lily blossom.+ Two thousand bath+ measures* were what it would contain.+
27 And he went on to make the ten carriages+ of copper, four cubits being the length of each carriage, and four cubits its width, and three cubits its height. 28 And this was the workmanship of the carriages: they had sidewalls, and the sidewalls were between the crossbars. 29 And upon the sidewalls that were between the crossbars there were lions,+ bulls+ and cherubs,+ and over the crossbars it was like that. Up above and beneath the lions and the bulls there were wreaths+ in hanging work.* 30 And there were four wheels of copper to each carriage, with axles of copper; and its four cornerpieces were supports for them. Beneath the basin were the supports, cast with wreaths across from each. 31 And its mouth from inside to the supports and upward was [?] cubits;* and its mouth was round, the workmanship of a stand of one and a half cubits, and also upon its mouth there were carvings. And their sidewalls were squared, not round. 32 And the four wheels were down below the sidewalls, and the supports of the wheels were by the carriage; and the height of each wheel was one and a half cubits. 33 And the workmanship of the wheels was like the workmanship of a chariot wheel.+ Their supports and their felloes and their spokes and their hubs, they were all cast. 34 And there were four supports upon the four corners of each carriage; its supports were of one piece with the carriage. 35 And on top of the carriage there was [a stand]* a half a cubit in height, circular all around; and upon the top of the carriage its sides and its sidewalls were of one piece with it. 36 Further, he engraved+ upon the plates of its sides and upon its sidewalls cherubs, lions and palm-tree figures according to the clear space of each, and wreaths all around.+ 37 It was like this that he made the ten carriages;+ they all had one cast,+ one measure, one shape.
38 And he proceeded to make ten basins+ of copper. Forty bath* measures were what each basin would contain. Each basin was four cubits. There was one basin upon each carriage for the ten carriages. 39 Then he put five carriages on the right side* of the house, and five on the left side* of the house;+ and the sea itself he put to the right side of the house eastward, toward the south.+
40 And Hiʹram+ gradually made the basins+ and the shovels+ and the bowls.+ At length Hiʹram finished+ doing all the work that he did for King Solʹo·mon as respects the house of Jehovah: 41 The two pillars+ and the bowl-shaped capitals+ that were upon the top of the two pillars, and the two networks+ to cover the two round capitals that were upon the top of the pillars, 42 and the four hundred pomegranates+ for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates to each network, to cover the two bowl-shaped capitals that were upon the two pillars;* 43 and the ten carriages+ and the ten basins+ upon the carriages, 44 and the one sea+ and the twelve bulls beneath the sea;+ 45 and the cans and the shovels and the bowls and all these utensils,+ which Hiʹram made of polished copper for King Solʹo·mon for the house of Jehovah. 46 In the District* of the Jordan+ it was that the king cast them in the clay mold,* between Sucʹcoth+ and Zarʹe·than.+
47 And Solʹo·mon left all the utensils+ [unweighed] because of so extraordinarily great a quantity.+ The weight of the copper was not ascertained.+ 48 And Solʹo·mon gradually made all the utensils that pertained to the house of Jehovah, the altar+ of gold and the table+ on which was the showbread,* of gold, 49 and the lampstands,+ five to the right and five to the left before the innermost room, of pure gold,+ and the blossoms+ and the lamps+ and the snuffers,+ of gold, 50 and the basins and the extinguishers+ and the bowls+ and the cups+ and the fire holders,+ of pure gold, and the sockets for the doors+ of the inner house, that is, the Most Holy,* and for the doors+ of the house of the temple,+ of gold.
51 Finally all the work that King Solʹo·mon had to do as regards the house of Jehovah was at its completion;+ and Solʹo·mon began to bring in the things made holy by David his father;+ the silver and the gold and the articles he put in the treasures of the house of Jehovah.+
8 At that time Solʹo·mon+ proceeded to congregate+ the older+ men* of Israel, all the heads of the tribes,+ the chieftains* of the fathers,+ of the sons of Israel, to King Solʹo·mon at Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant+ of Jehovah out of the City of David,+ that is to say, Zion.+ 2 So all the men of Israel congregated themselves to King Solʹo·mon in the lunar month of Ethʹa·nim in the festival,+ that is, the seventh month.+ 3 So all the older men of Israel came, and the priests began to carry+ the Ark.+ 4 And they came bringing up the ark of Jehovah and the tent+ of meeting+ and all the holy utensils that were in the tent; and the priests and the Levites+ came bringing them up.+ 5 And King Solʹo·mon and with him all the assembly of Israel, those keeping their appointment with him, were before the Ark, sacrificing+ sheep and cattle that could not be counted or numbered for multitude.+
6 Then the priests brought in the ark+ of the covenant of Jehovah to its place,+ to the innermost room of the house, the Most Holy, to underneath the wings of the cherubs.+
7 For the cherubs were spreading out their wings over the place of the Ark, so that the cherubs kept the Ark and its poles screened over from above.+ 8 But the poles+ proved to be long, so that the tips of the poles were visible from the Holy in front of the innermost room, but they were not visible outside. And there they continue down to this day.+ 9 There was nothing in the Ark but the two stone tablets*+ which Moses had deposited+ there in Hoʹreb, when Jehovah had covenanted*+ with the sons of Israel while they were coming out from the land of Egypt.+
10 And it came about that when the priests came out from the holy place, the cloud+ itself filled the house of Jehovah. 11 And the priests+ were unable to stand to do their ministering+ because of the cloud, for the glory+ of Jehovah filled the house of Jehovah.+ 12 At that time Solʹo·mon said: “Jehovah himself said he was to reside in the thick gloom.+ 13 I have successfully built a house of lofty abode for you,+ an established place+ for you to dwell in to time indefinite.”*+
14 Then the king turned his face and began to bless+ all the congregation* of Israel, while all the congregation of Israel were standing up. 15 And he went on to say: “Blessed is Jehovah+ the God of Israel, who spoke by his own mouth with David+ my father, and by his own hand has given fulfillment,+ saying, 16 ‘From the day that I brought my people Israel out from Egypt I have not chosen+ a city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house+ for my name+ to continue there; but I shall choose David to come to be over my people Israel.’+ 17 And it came to be close to the heart of David my father to build a house to the name of Jehovah the God of Israel.+ 18 But Jehovah said to David my father, ‘For the reason that it proved to be close to your heart to build a house to my name, you did well, because it proved to be close to your heart.+ 19 Only you yourself will not build the house, but your son who is coming forth from your loins is the one that will build the house to my name.’+ 20 And Jehovah proceeded to carry out his word+ that he had spoken, that I might rise up in the place of David my father and sit upon the throne of Israel,+ just as Jehovah had spoken, and that I might build the house to the name of Jehovah the God of Israel,+ 21 and that I might locate a place there for the Ark where the covenant+ of Jehovah is that he concluded with our forefathers when he was bringing them out from the land of Egypt.”
22 And Solʹo·mon began standing before the altar+ of Jehovah in front of all the congregation of Israel, and he now spread his palms out to the heavens;+ 23 and he went on to say: “O Jehovah the God of Israel,+ there is no God* like you+ in the heavens above or on the earth beneath, keeping the covenant and the loving-kindness*+ toward your servants+ who are walking before you with all their heart,+ 24 you who have kept toward your servant David my father that which you promised him, so that you made the promise* with your own mouth, and with your own hand you have made the fulfillment, as at this day.+ 25 And now, O Jehovah the God of Israel, keep toward your servant David my father that which you promised him, saying, ‘There will not be cut off a man of yours from before me to sit upon the throne of Israel,+ if only your sons will take care of their way by walking before me just as you have walked before me.’ 26 And now, O God of Israel,* let your promise*+ that you have promised to your servant David my father prove trustworthy, please.
27 “But will God truly dwell upon the earth?+ Look! The heavens,+ yes, the heaven of the heavens,+ themselves cannot contain you;+ how much less, then, this house+ that I have built! 28 And you must turn toward the prayer+ of your servant and to his request for favor,+ O Jehovah my God, to listen to the entreating cry and to the prayer with which your servant is praying before you today;+ 29 that your eyes may prove to be opened+ toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you said, ‘My name will prove to be there,’+ to listen to the prayer with which your servant prays toward this place.+ 30 And you must listen to the request for favor+ on the part of your servant and of your people Israel with which they pray toward this place; and may you yourself hear at the place of your dwelling, in the heavens,+ and you must hear and forgive.+
31 “When a man sins against his fellowman,+ and he actually lays a cursing upon him to bring him under liability to the curse,+ and he actually comes [within] the curse before your altar in this house, 32 then may you yourself hear from the heavens, and you must act and judge your servants by pronouncing the wicked one wicked by putting his way upon his own head,+ and by pronouncing the righteous one righteous+ by giving to him according to his own righteousness.+
33 “When your people Israel are defeated before the enemy,+ because they kept sinning against you,+ and they indeed return to you+ and laud your name+ and pray+ and make request for favor toward you in this house,+ 34 then may you yourself hear from heaven, and you must forgive the sin of your people Israel+ and you must bring them back+ to the ground that you gave to their forefathers.+
35 “When heaven is shut up so that no rain occurs,+ because they kept sinning+ against you, and they actually pray toward this place+ and laud your name, and from their sin they turn back, because you kept afflicting them,+ 36 then may you yourself hear from the heavens, and you must forgive the sin of your servants, even of your people Israel, because you teach+ them the good way in which they should walk;+ and you must give rain+ upon your land that you have given to your people as a hereditary possession.
37 “In case a famine+ occurs in the land, in case a pestilence+ occurs, in case scorching, mildew,+ locusts,+ cockroaches+ occur; in case their enemy besieges them in the land of their gates*—any sort of plague, any sort of malady— 38 whatever prayer,+ whatever request for favor+ there may occur on the part of any man [or] of all your people Israel,+ because they know each one the plague of his own heart,+ and they actually spread out their palms to this house,+ 39 then may you yourself hear from the heavens,+ your established place of dwelling,+ and you must forgive+ and act+ and give to each one according to all his ways,+ because you know his heart+ (for you yourself alone well know the heart of all the sons of mankind*);+ 40 to the end that they may fear+ you all the days that they are alive upon the surface of the ground that you gave to our forefathers.+
41 “And also to the foreigner,+ who is no part of your people Israel and who actually comes from a distant land by reason of your name+ 42 (for they shall hear of your great name+ and of your strong hand+ and of your stretched-out arm), and he actually comes and prays toward this house,+ 43 may you yourself listen from the heavens, your established place of dwelling,+ and you must do according to all that for which the foreigner calls to you;+ in order that all the peoples of the earth may get to know your name+ so as to fear you the same as your people Israel do, and so as to know that your name itself has been called upon this house that I have built.+
44 “In case your people go out to the war+ against their enemy in the way that you send them,+ and they indeed pray+ to Jehovah in the direction of the city that you have chosen+ and the house that I have built to your name,+ 45 you must also hear from the heavens their prayer and their request for favor, and you must execute judgment for them.+
46 “In case they sin against you+ (for there is no man that does not sin),+ and you have to be incensed at them and abandon them to the enemy, and their captors actually carry them off captive to the land of the enemy distant or nearby;+ 47 and they indeed come to their senses* in the land where they have been carried off captive,+ and they actually return+ and make request+ to you for favor in the land of their captors,+ saying, ‘We have sinned+ and erred,+ we have acted wickedly’;+ 48 and they indeed return to you with all their heart+ and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who carried them off captive, and they indeed pray to you in the direction of their land that you gave to their forefathers, the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built to your name;+ 49 you must also hear from the heavens, your established place of dwelling,+ their prayer and their request for favor, and you must execute judgment for them,+ 50 and you must forgive+ your people who had sinned+ against you and all their transgressions+ with which they transgressed against you;+ and you must make them objects of pity+ before their captors and they must pity them 51 (for they are your people and your inheritance,+ whom you brought out from Egypt,+ from inside the iron furnace),+ 52 that your eyes may prove to be opened to the request for favor of your servant and to the request for favor+ of your people Israel, by listening to them in all for which they call to you.+ 53 For you yourself separated them as your inheritance out of all the peoples of the earth,+ just as you have spoken by means of Moses+ your servant* when you were bringing our forefathers out from Egypt, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”
54 And it came about that, as soon as Solʹo·mon finished praying to Jehovah with all this prayer and request for favor, he rose up from before the altar of Jehovah, from bending down upon his knees+ with his palms spread out to the heavens;+ 55 and he began to stand+ and bless+ all the congregation* of Israel with a loud voice, saying: 56 “Blessed be Jehovah,+ who has given a resting-place to his people Israel according to all that he has promised.+ There has not failed one word+ of all his good promise that he has promised* by means of Moses his servant.+ 57 May Jehovah our God prove to be with us+ just as he proved to be with our forefathers.+ May he neither leave us nor forsake us,+ 58 so as to incline our heart+ to himself to walk in all his ways+ and to keep his commandments+ and his regulations+ and his judicial decisions,+ which he gave in command to our forefathers. 59 And may these words of mine with which I have made request for favor before Jehovah prove to be near+ to Jehovah our God by day and night, that he may execute judgment for his servant and judgment for his people Israel as it may require day+ by day; 60 to the end that all the peoples of the earth may know+ that Jehovah is the [true] God.+ There is no other.+ 61 And YOUR heart must prove to be complete+ with Jehovah our God by walking in his regulations and by keeping his commandments as at this day.”
62 And the king and all Israel with him were offering a grand sacrifice before Jehovah.+ 63 And Solʹo·mon proceeded to offer the communion sacrifices+ that he had to offer to Jehovah, twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep,+ that the king and all the sons of Israel might inaugurate+ the house of Jehovah. 64 On that day the king had to sanctify the middle of the courtyard that is before the house of Jehovah,+ because there he had to render up the burnt sacrifice and the grain offering and the fat pieces of the communion sacrifices; for the copper altar+ that is before Jehovah was too small to contain the burnt sacrifice and the grain offering and the fat+ pieces of the communion sacrifices. 65 And Solʹo·mon proceeded to carry on at that time the festival,+ and all Israel with him, a great congregation+ from the entering in of Haʹmath*+ down to the torrent valley of Egypt,+ before Jehovah our God* seven days and another seven days,+ fourteen days. 66 On the eighth day he sent the people away;+ and they began to bless the king and to go to their homes,* rejoicing+ and feeling merry of heart+ over all the goodness+ that Jehovah had performed for David his servant and for Israel his people.
9 And it came about that, as soon as Solʹo·mon had finished building the house+ of Jehovah and the house of the king+ and every desirable thing of Solʹo·mon that he took delight in making,+ 2 then Jehovah appeared to Solʹo·mon the second time, the same as he had appeared to him in Gibʹe·on.+ 3 And Jehovah went on to say to him: “I have heard your prayer+ and your request for favor with which you requested favor before me. I have sanctified+ this house that you have built by putting my name+ there to time indefinite; and my eyes+ and my heart will certainly prove to be there always.+ 4 And you, if you will walk+ before me, just as David+ your father walked, with integrity+ of heart and with uprightness+ by doing according to all that I have commanded you,+ and you will keep my regulations+ and my judicial decisions,+ 5 I also shall indeed establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel to time indefinite,* just as I promised David your father, saying, ‘Not a man of yours will be cut off from [sitting] upon the throne of Israel.’+ 6 If YOU yourselves and YOUR sons should definitely turn back from following me+ and not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have put before YOU men, and YOU actually go and serve other gods+ and bow down to them,* 7 I will also cut Israel off from upon the surface of the ground that I have given to them;+ and the house that I have sanctified to my name I shall throw away* from before me,+ and Israel will indeed become a proverbial saying+ and a taunt among all the peoples. 8 And this house itself will become heaps of ruins.*+ Everyone passing by it will stare in amazement+ and will certainly whistle and say, ‘For what reason did Jehovah do like that to this land and this house?’+ 9 And they will have to say, ‘For the reason that they left Jehovah their God who had brought their forefathers out from the land of Egypt,+ and they proceeded to take hold of other gods+ and bow down to them and serve them. That is why Jehovah brought upon them all this calamity.’”+
10 And it came about at the end of twenty years, in which Solʹo·mon built the two houses, the house of Jehovah+ and the house of the king,+ 11 (Hiʹram+ the king of Tyre had himself assisted Solʹo·mon+ with timbers of cedar trees and timbers of juniper trees and with gold as much as he delighted in,)+ that at that time King Solʹo·mon proceeded to give to Hiʹram twenty cities in the land of Galʹi·lee.*+ 12 Accordingly Hiʹram went out from Tyre to see the cities that Solʹo·mon had given him, and they were not just right in his eyes.+ 13 So he said: “What sort of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” And they came to be called the Land of Caʹbul* down to this day.
14 In the meantime Hiʹram sent to the king a hundred and twenty talents* of gold.+
15 Now this is the account of those conscripted for forced labor+ that King Solʹo·mon levied to build the house of Jehovah+ and his own house and the Mound*+ and the wall+ of Jerusalem and Haʹzor+ and Me·gidʹdo+ and Geʹzer.+ 16 (Pharʹaoh the king of Egypt himself had come up and then captured Geʹzer and burned it with fire, and the Caʹnaan·ites+ dwelling in the city he had killed. So he gave it as a parting gift to his daughter,+ the wife of Solʹo·mon.) 17 And Solʹo·mon went on to build Geʹzer and Lower Beth-hoʹron,+ 18 and Baʹal·ath+ and Taʹmar* in the wilderness, in the land, 19 and all the storage+ cities that became Solʹo·mon’s and the chariot cities+ and the cities for the horsemen, and the desirable things of Solʹo·mon+ that he had desired to build in Jerusalem and in Lebʹa·non and in all the land of his dominion. 20 As for all the people remaining over from the Amʹor·ites,+ the Hitʹtites,+ the Perʹiz·zites,+ the Hiʹvites+ and the Jebʹu·sites,+ who were no part of the sons of Israel,+ 21 their sons who had been left over after them in the land whom the sons of Israel had been unable to devote to destruction,+ Solʹo·mon kept levying them for slavish forced labor until this day.+ 22 And there were none of the sons of Israel that Solʹo·mon constituted slaves;+ for they were the warriors and his servants and his princes and his adjutants and chiefs of his charioteers and of his horsemen.+ 23 These were the chiefs of the deputies who were over the work of Solʹo·mon, five hundred and fifty, the foremen over the people who were active in the work.+
24 However, Pharʹaoh’s daughter+ herself came up out of the City of David+ to her own house that he had built for her. It was then that he built the Mound.+
25 And Solʹo·mon continued three+ times in the year to offer up burnt sacrifices and communion sacrifices upon the altar that he had built for Jehovah,+ and there was a making of sacrificial smoke* on the [altar],+ which was before Jehovah; and he completed the house.+
26 And there was a fleet of ships that King Solʹo·mon made in Eʹzi·on-geʹber,+ which is by Eʹloth,+ upon the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Eʹdom.+ 27 And Hiʹram kept sending in the fleet of ships his own servants,+ seamen,* having a knowledge of the sea, along with the servants of Solʹo·mon. 28 And they proceeded to go to Oʹphir+ and take from there four hundred and twenty talents* of gold+ and bring it in to King Solʹo·mon.
10 Now the queen of Sheʹba+ was hearing the report about Solʹo·mon in connection with the name of Jehovah.+ So she came to test him with perplexing questions.*+ 2 Finally she arrived at Jerusalem with a very impressive train,+ camels+ carrying balsam oil+ and very much gold and precious stones; and she came on in to Solʹo·mon and began to speak to him all that happened to be close to her heart.+ 3 Solʹo·mon, in turn, went on to tell her all her matters.+ There proved to be no matter hidden from the king that he did not tell her.+
4 When the queen of Sheʹba got to see all the wisdom of Solʹo·mon+ and the house that he had built,+ 5 and the food* of his table+ and the sitting of his servants and the table service* of his waiters and their attire and his drinks+ and his burnt sacrifices that he regularly offered up at the house of Jehovah, then there proved to be no more spirit in her.+ 6 So she said to the king: “True has the word proved to be that I heard in my own land about your matters and about your wisdom.+ 7 And I did not put faith in the words until I had come that my own eyes might see; and, look! I had not been told the half.+ You have surpassed in wisdom and prosperity the things heard to which I listened.+ 8 Happy are your men;*+ happy+ are these servants of yours who are standing before you constantly, listening to your wisdom!+ 9 May Jehovah your God come to be blessed,+ who has taken delight+ in you by putting you upon the throne of Israel;+ because Jehovah loves Israel to time indefinite,+ so that he appointed you as king+ to render judicial decision+ and righteousness.”+
10 Then she gave+ the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold+ and a very great deal of balsam oil+ and precious stones. There never came anymore the like of that balsam oil for quantity such as the queen of Sheʹba gave to King Solʹo·mon.
11 And Hiʹram’s fleet of ships+ that carried gold from Oʹphir+ also brought from Oʹphir timbers of algum* trees+ in very great amount and precious stones.+ 12 And the king proceeded to make out of the timbers of the algum trees supports for the house of Jehovah+ and for the house of the king, and also harps+ and stringed+ instruments for the singers. Timbers of algum trees like this have not come in nor have they been seen down to this day.
13 And King Solʹo·mon himself gave the queen of Sheʹba all her delight for which she asked, apart from what he gave her according to the openhandedness+ of King Solʹo·mon. After that she turned about and went to her own land, she together with her servants.+
14 And the weight of the gold+ that came to Solʹo·mon in one year amounted up to six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,*+ 15 apart from the men of travel and the profit from the traders and all the kings+ of the Arabs+ and the governors of the land.
16 And King Solʹo·mon went on to make two hundred large shields of alloyed gold+ (six hundred [shekels]* of gold he proceeded to lay upon each large shield),+ 17 and three hundred bucklers of alloyed gold (three miʹnas* of gold he proceeded to lay upon each buckler*).+ Then the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebʹa·non.+
18 Further, the king made a great ivory+ throne+ and overlaid it with refined gold.+ 19 There were six steps to the throne, and the throne had a round canopy behind it, and there were armrests on this side and on that side by the place of sitting, and two lions+ were standing beside the armrests.+ 20 And there were twelve lions standing there upon the six steps, on this side and on that side. No other kingdom had any made just like it.+
21 And all the drinking vessels of King Solʹo·mon were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebʹa·non+ were of pure gold.+ There was nothing of silver; it was considered in the days of Solʹo·mon as nothing at all. 22 For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarʹshish+ on the sea along with Hiʹram’s fleet of ships. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarʹshish would come carrying gold+ and silver, ivory,+ and apes and peacocks.
23 So King Solʹo·mon was greater in riches+ and wisdom+ than all the other kings of the earth. 24 And all the people of the earth* were seeking the face of Solʹo·mon to hear his wisdom that God* had put in his heart.+ 25 And they were bringing each his gift,+ articles of silver+ and articles of gold and garments and armor+ and balsam oil, horses and mules,+ as a yearly matter of course.+
26 And Solʹo·mon kept gathering more chariots and steeds;* and he came to have a thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand steeds,+ and he kept them stationed in the chariot cities and close by the king in Jerusalem.+
27 And the king came to make the silver in Jerusalem like the stones,+ and cedarwood he made like the sycamore trees that are in the She·pheʹlah* for great quantity.+
28 And there was the export of the horses that Solʹo·mon had from Egypt, and the company of the king’s merchants would themselves take the horse drove for a price.+ 29 And a chariot customarily came up and was exported from Egypt for six hundred silver pieces, and a horse for a hundred and fifty; and that was the way it was for all the kings of the Hitʹtites+ and the kings of Syria. It was by means of them* that they did the exporting.
11 And King Solʹo·mon himself loved many foreign wives+ along with the daughter of Pharʹaoh,+ Moʹab·ite,+ Amʹmon·ite,+ Eʹdom·ite,+ Si·doʹni·an+ [and] Hitʹtite+ women, 2 from the nations of whom Jehovah had said to the sons of Israel: “YOU must not go in among them,+ and they themselves should not come in among YOU; truly they will incline YOUR heart to follow their gods.”+ It was to them that Solʹo·mon clung+ to love [them]. 3 And he came to have seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives gradually+ inclined his heart. 4 And it came about in the time of Solʹo·mon’s growing old+ that his wives themselves had inclined+ his heart to follow other gods;+ and his heart did not prove to be complete+ with Jehovah his God like the heart of David his father. 5 And Solʹo·mon began going after Ashʹto·reth+ the goddess* of the Si·doʹni·ans and after Milʹcom+ the disgusting thing of the Amʹmon·ites. 6 And Solʹo·mon began to do what was bad+ in the eyes of Jehovah, and he did not follow Jehovah fully like David his father.+
7 It was then that Solʹo·mon proceeded to build a high place+ to Cheʹmosh+ the disgusting+ thing of Moʹab on the mountain+ that was in front+ of Jerusalem, and to Moʹlech the disgusting thing of the sons of Amʹmon. 8 And that was the way he did for all his foreign wives+ who were making sacrificial smoke and sacrificing to their gods.+
9 And Jehovah came to be incensed+ at Solʹo·mon, because his heart had inclined away from Jehovah the God of Israel,+ the one appearing to him twice.+ 10 And respecting this thing he commanded him not to go after other gods;+ but he had not kept that which Jehovah had commanded. 11 Jehovah now said to Solʹo·mon: “For the reason that this has taken place with you and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I laid in command upon you, I shall without fail rip the kingdom away from off you, and I shall certainly give it to your servant.+ 12 However, in your days I shall not do it,+ for the sake of David your father.+ Out of the hand of your son I shall rip it away.+ 13 Only it will not be all the kingdom that I shall rip away.+ One tribe I shall give to your son, for the sake of David my servant+ and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”+
14 And Jehovah began to raise up a resister*+ to Solʹo·mon,+ namely, Haʹdad the Eʹdom·ite of the offspring of the king. He was in Eʹdom.+ 15 And it came about when David struck down Eʹdom,*+ when Joʹab the chief of the army came up to bury those slain, that he tried to strike down every male in Eʹdom.+ 16 (For it was six months that Joʹab and all Israel dwelt there until he had cut off every male in Eʹdom.) 17 And Haʹdad went running away, he and some Eʹdom·ite men of the servants of his father with him, to come into Egypt, while Haʹdad was a young* boy. 18 So they rose up out of Midʹi·an+ and came into Paʹran and took men with them from Paʹran+ and came into Egypt to Pharʹaoh the king of Egypt, who then gave him a house. Also, bread he assigned to him, and land he gave him. 19 And Haʹdad continued to find favor+ in the eyes of Pharʹaoh, so much that he gave him a wife,+ the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahʹpe·nes the lady. 20 In time the sister of Tahʹpe·nes bore him Ge·nuʹbath his son, and Tahʹpe·nes got to wean+ him right inside the house of Pharʹaoh; and Ge·nuʹbath continued at the house of Pharʹaoh right among the sons of Pharʹaoh.
21 And Haʹdad himself heard in Egypt that David had lain down with his forefathers+ and that Joʹab the chief of the army had died.+ So Haʹdad said to Pharʹaoh: “Send me away,+ that I may go to my own land.” 22 But Pharʹaoh said to him: “What are you in need of while with me that here you are seeking to go to your own land?” To this he said: “Nothing; but you ought to send me away without fail.”
23 And God proceeded to raise up to him another resister,+ namely, Reʹzon the son of E·liʹa·da, who had run away from Had·ad·eʹzer+ the king of Zoʹbah+ his lord.* 24 And he kept collecting men to his side and came to be chief of a marauder band, when David killed them.*+ So they went to Damascus+ and took up dwelling in it and began reigning in Damascus. 25 And he came to be a resister of Israel all the days of Solʹo·mon,+ and that along with the injury that Haʹdad did; and he had an abhorrence+ of Israel while he continued reigning over Syria.
26 And there was Jer·o·boʹam+ the son of Neʹbat an Eʹphra·im·ite from Zerʹe·dah, a servant of Solʹo·mon,+ and his mother’s name was Ze·ruʹah, a widowed woman. He too began to lift up his hand against the king.+ 27 And this is the reason why he lifted up his hand against the king: Solʹo·mon himself had built the Mound.*+ He had closed up the gap of the City of David his father.+ 28 Now the man Jer·o·boʹam was a valiant, mighty man.+ When Solʹo·mon got to see that the young man was a hard worker,+ he proceeded to make him overseer*+ over all the compulsory service+ of the house of Joseph.+ 29 And it came about at that particular time that Jer·o·boʹam himself went out from Jerusalem, and A·hiʹjah+ the Shiʹlo·nite+ the prophet got to find him on the road, and [A·hiʹjah]* was covering himself with a new garment; and the two of them were by themselves in the field. 30 A·hiʹjah now took hold of the new garment that was on him and ripped+ it into twelve+ pieces. 31 And he went on to say to Jer·o·boʹam:
“Take for yourself ten pieces; for this is what Jehovah the God of Israel has said, ‘Here I am ripping the kingdom out of the hand of Solʹo·mon, and I shall certainly give you ten tribes.+ 32 And the one tribe+ is what will continue his for the sake of my servant David+ and for the sake of Jerusalem,+ the city that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. 33 The reason why is that they have left me+ and begun to bow down to Ashʹto·reth+ the goddess* of the Si·doʹni·ans, to Cheʹmosh+ the god* of Moʹab and to Milʹcom+ the god of the sons of Amʹmon; and they have not walked in my ways by doing what is right in my eyes and my statutes and my judicial decisions like David his father. 34 But I shall not take the entire kingdom out of his hand, because a chieftain* I shall set him for all the days of his life, for the sake of David my servant whom I chose,+ because he kept my commandments and my statutes. 35 And I shall certainly take the kingship out of the hand of his son and give it to you, even ten tribes.+ 36 And to his son I shall give one tribe, in order that David my servant may continue having a lamp always before me in Jerusalem,+ the city that I have chosen for myself to put my name there.+ 37 And you are the one that I shall take, and you will indeed reign over all that your soul craves,+ and you will certainly become king over Israel. 38 And it must occur that, if you obey all that I shall command you, and you do walk in my ways and actually do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments, just as David my servant did,+ I will also prove to be with you,+ and I will build you a lasting house, just as I have built for David,+ and I will give you Israel. 39 And I shall humiliate the offspring of David on account of this,+ only not always.’”+
40 And Solʹo·mon began seeking to put Jer·o·boʹam to death.+ So Jer·o·boʹam got up and went running+ off to Egypt to Shiʹshak+ the king of Egypt, and he continued in Egypt until Solʹo·mon’s death.
41 As for the rest of the affairs of Solʹo·mon and all that he did and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the affairs of Solʹo·mon? 42 And the days that Solʹo·mon had reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel were forty years.+ 43 Then Solʹo·mon lay down with his forefathers,+ and was buried in the City of David+ his father; and Re·ho·boʹam+ his son began to reign in place of him.
12 And Re·ho·boʹam+ proceeded to go to Sheʹchem, for it was to Sheʹchem+ that all Israel came to make him king. 2 And it came about that as soon as Jer·o·boʹam+ the son of Neʹbat heard of it while he was yet in Egypt (because he had run off on account of King Solʹo·mon, that Jer·o·boʹam might dwell in Egypt),+ 3 then they sent and called him. After that Jer·o·boʹam and all the congregation of Israel came and began to speak to Re·ho·boʹam, saying:+ 4 “Your father, for his part, made our yoke hard, and, as for you, now make the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke+ that he put upon us lighter,+ and we shall serve you.”+
5 At this he said to them: “Go away for three days and return to me.”+ So the people went away. 6 And King Re·ho·boʹam began to take counsel with the older men+ who had continued attending upon Solʹo·mon his father while he continued alive, saying: “How are YOU advising to reply to this people?”+ 7 Accordingly they spoke to him, saying: “If today you would prove yourself a servant to this people and actually serve them,+ you must also answer them and speak to them with good words;+ and they will be bound to become your servants always.”+
8 However, he left the counsel of the older men with which they had advised him, and he began to take counsel with the young men that had grown up with him,+ who were the ones attending upon him.+ 9 And he went on to say to them: “What is it that YOU are offering in counsel+ that we may reply to this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Make the yoke that your father put upon us lighter’?”+ 10 In turn the young men that had grown up with him spoke to him, saying: “This is what you should say+ to this people who have spoken to you, saying, ‘Your father, for his part, made our yoke heavy, but, as for you, make it lighter upon us’; this is what you should speak to them, ‘My little finger itself will certainly be thicker than my father’s hips.+ 11 And now my father, for his part, loaded upon YOU a heavy yoke; but I, for my part, shall add to YOUR yoke.+ My father, for his part, chastised YOU with whips, but I, for my part, shall chastise YOU with scourges.’”*+
12 And Jer·o·boʹam and all the people proceeded to come to Re·ho·boʹam on the third day, just as the king had spoken, saying: “Return to me on the third day.”+ 13 And the king began to answer the people harshly,+ and to leave the counsel of the older men who had counseled him.+ 14 And he went on to speak to them according to the counsel of the young men,+ saying: “My father, for his part, made YOUR yoke heavy, but I, for my part, shall add to YOUR yoke. My father, for his part, chastised YOU with whips, but I, for my part, shall chastise YOU with scourges.”+ 15 And the king did not listen to the people,+ because the turn of affairs took place at the instance of Jehovah,+ in order that he might indeed carry out his word+ that Jehovah had spoken by means of A·hiʹjah+ the Shiʹlo·nite to Jer·o·boʹam the son of Neʹbat.
16 When all Israel got to see that the king had not listened to them, then the people replied to the king, saying: “What share do we have in David?+ And there is no inheritance in the son of Jesʹse. To your gods,*+ O Israel. Now see to your own house, O David!”+ With that Israel began to go to their tents. 17 As for the sons of Israel that were dwelling in the cities of Judah, Re·ho·boʹam continued to reign over them.+
18 Subsequently King Re·ho·boʹam sent A·doʹram,+ who was over those conscripted for forced labor,+ but all Israel pelted him with stones,+ so that he died. And King Re·ho·boʹam himself managed to get up into the chariot to flee to Jerusalem. 19 And the Israelites kept up their revolt+ against the house of David down to this day.+
20 And it came about that as soon as all Israel heard that Jer·o·boʹam had returned, they at once sent and called him to the assembly* and made him king over all Israel.+ None became a follower of the house of David except the tribe of Judah by itself.+
21 When Re·ho·boʹam arrived at Jerusalem,+ he immediately congregated all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin,+ a hundred and eighty thousand choice men able-bodied for war,* to fight against the house of Israel, so as to bring the kingship back to Re·ho·boʹam the son of Solʹo·mon. 22 Then the word of the [true] God* came to She·maiʹah+ the man of the [true] God,+ saying: 23 “Say to Re·ho·boʹam the son of Solʹo·mon the king of Judah and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and the rest of the people, 24 ‘This is what Jehovah has said: “YOU must not go up and fight against YOUR brothers the sons of Israel.+ Go back each one to his house, for it is at the instance of myself that this thing has been brought about.”’”+ So they obeyed the word of Jehovah,+ and went back home according to the word of Jehovah.+
25 And Jer·o·boʹam proceeded to build Sheʹchem+ in the mountainous region of Eʹphra·im and to dwell in it. Then he went forth from there and built Pe·nuʹel.+ 26 And Jer·o·boʹam began to say in his heart:+ “Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.+ 27 If this people continues going up to render sacrifices in the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem,+ the heart of this people will also be bound to return to their lord,* Re·ho·boʹam the king of Judah; and they will certainly kill me+ and return to Re·ho·boʹam the king of Judah.” 28 Consequently the king took counsel+ and made two golden calves+ and said to the people:* “It is too much for YOU to go up to Jerusalem. Here is your God,*+ O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”+ 29 Then he placed the one in Bethʹel,+ and the other he put in Dan.+ 30 And this thing came to be a cause for sin,+ and the people began to go before the one as far as Dan.
31 And he began to make a house of high places+ and to make priests from the people in general, who did not happen to be of the sons of Leʹvi.+ 32 And Jer·o·boʹam went on to make a festival in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival that was in Judah,+ that he might make offerings upon the altar that he had made in Bethʹel, to sacrifice to the calves that he had made; and he put in attendance at Bethʹel+ the priests of the high places that he had made. 33 And he began to make offerings upon the altar that he had made in Bethʹel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had invented by himself;*+ and he proceeded to make a festival for the sons of Israel and to make offerings upon the altar to make sacrificial smoke.+
13 And here there was a man+ of God* that had come out of Judah by the word+ of Jehovah to Bethʹel, while Jer·o·boʹam was standing by the altar+ to make sacrificial smoke.+ 2 Then he called out against the altar by the word of Jehovah and said: “O altar, altar, this is what Jehovah has said, ‘Look! A son born to the house of David, whose name is Jo·siʹah!+ And he will certainly sacrifice upon you the priests of the high places that are making sacrificial smoke upon you, and men’s bones he* will burn upon you.’”+ 3 And he gave a portent+ on that day, saying: “This is the portent of which Jehovah has spoken: Look! The altar is ripped apart, and the fatty ashes that are upon it will certainly be spilled out.”
4 And it came about that, as soon as the king heard the word of the man of the [true] God* that he had called out against the altar in Bethʹel, Jer·o·boʹam at once thrust out his hand from off the altar, saying: “YOU men, grab hold of him!”+ Immediately his hand that he had thrust out against him became dried up, and he was not able to draw it back to himself.+ 5 And the altar itself was ripped apart so that the fatty ashes were spilled out from the altar, according to the portent that the man of the [true] God had given by the word of Jehovah.+
6 The king now answered and said to the man of the [true] God: “Soften, please, the face of Jehovah your God and pray in my behalf that my hand may be restored to me.”+ At this the man of the [true] God softened+ the face of Jehovah, so that the king’s hand was restored to him, and it came to be as at first.+ 7 And the king went on to say to the man of the [true] God: “Do come with me to the house and take sustenance,+ and let me give you a gift.”+ 8 But the man of the [true] God said to the king: “If you gave me half of your house+ I would not come with you+ and eat bread or drink water in this place. 9 For that is the way he commanded me by the word of Jehovah, saying, ‘You must not eat bread+ or drink water, and you must not return by the way that you went.’” 10 And he began to go by another way, and he did not return by the way by which he had come to Bethʹel.
11 And a certain old prophet+ was dwelling in Bethʹel, and his sons* now came in and related to him all the work that the man of the [true] God had done that day in Bethʹel [and] the words that he had spoken to the king, and they went on relating them to their father. 12 Then their father spoke to them: “Which way, then, did he go?” So his sons showed him the way that the man of the [true] God that had come out of Judah had gone. 13 He now said to his sons: “Saddle the ass for me.” Accordingly they saddled the ass+ for him, and he went riding on it.
14 And he went following the man of the [true] God and got to find him sitting under the big tree.+ Then he said to him: “Are you the man of the [true] God who has come out of Judah?”+ to which he said: “I am.” 15 And he went on to say to him: “Go with me to the house and eat bread.” 16 But he said: “I am not able to go back with you or to come in with you, and I may not eat bread or drink water with you in this place.+ 17 For it has been spoken to me by the word of Jehovah,+ ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there. You must not go back again by the way by which you went.’”+ 18 At this he said to him: “I too am a prophet like you, and an angel+ himself spoke to me by the word of Jehovah, saying, ‘Have him come back with you to your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (He deceived him.)+ 19 So he went back with him that he might eat bread in his house and drink water.+
20 And it came about, while they were sitting at the table, that the word+ of Jehovah came to the prophet that had brought him back; 21 and he began to call out to the man of the [true] God that had come out of Judah, saying: “This is what Jehovah has said, ‘For the reason that you rebelled+ against the order of Jehovah and did not keep the commandment with which Jehovah your God commanded you,+ 22 but you went back that you might eat bread and drink water in the place about which he spoke to you: “Do not eat bread or drink water,” your dead body will not come into the burial place of your forefathers.’”+
23 And it came about after his eating bread and after his drinking that he at once saddled for him the ass, that is, for the prophet whom he had brought back. 24 And he got on his way. Later a lion+ found him on the road and put him to death,+ and his dead body came to be thrown onto the road. And the ass was standing beside it, and the lion was standing beside the dead body. 25 And here there were men passing by, so that they got to see the dead body thrown onto the road and the lion standing beside the dead body. Then they came in and spoke of it in the city in which the old prophet was dwelling.
26 When the prophet that had brought him back from the way heard of it, he immediately said: “It is the man of the [true] God that rebelled against the order of Jehovah;+ and so Jehovah gave him to the lion, that he might crush him and put him to death, according to the word of Jehovah that he spoke to him.”+ 27 And he went on to speak to his sons, saying: “Saddle the ass for me.” So they saddled it.+ 28 Then he got on his way and found the dead body of him thrown onto the road with the ass and the lion standing beside the dead body. The lion had not eaten the dead body, nor had it crushed the ass.+ 29 And the prophet proceeded to lift up the dead body of the man of the [true] God and to deposit him upon the ass and to bring him back. Thus he came into the city of the old prophet to bewail and bury him. 30 Accordingly he deposited his dead body in his own burial place; and they kept wailing over him:+ “Too bad, my brother!” 31 And it came about after his burying him that he went on to say to his sons: “When I die YOU must bury me in the burial place in which the man of the [true] God is buried. Beside his bones deposit my own bones.*+ 32 For without fail the word that he called out by the word of Jehovah against the altar+ that is in Bethʹel and against all the houses of the high places+ that are in the cities of Sa·marʹi·a+ will take place.”+
33 After this thing Jer·o·boʹam did not turn back from his bad way, but he again went making priests of high places from the people in general.+ As for anyone delighting in it, he would fill his hand with power,*+ [saying]: “And let him become [one of the] priests* of high places.” 34 And in this thing there came to be a cause of sin on the part of the household of Jer·o·boʹam+ and an occasion for effacing them and annihilating them off the surface of the ground.+
14 At that particular time A·biʹjah the son of Jer·o·boʹam fell sick.+ 2 So Jer·o·boʹam said to his wife: “Rise up, please, and you must disguise+ yourself that they may not know that you are the wife of Jer·o·boʹam, and you must go to Shiʹloh. Look! There is where A·hiʹjah+ the prophet is. He is the one that spoke with reference to me as to becoming king* over this people.+ 3 And you must take in your hand ten loaves of bread+ and sprinkled cakes and a flask+ of honey, and you must come in to him.+ He it is that will certainly tell you what is going to happen to the boy.”+
4 And the wife of Jer·o·boʹam proceeded to do so. Consequently she rose up and went to Shiʹloh+ and came to the house of A·hiʹjah. Now A·hiʹjah* himself was unable to see, for his eyes had set because of his age.+
5 And Jehovah himself had said to A·hiʹjah: “Here is the wife of Jer·o·boʹam coming to apply for a word from you regarding her son; for he is sick. This way and that is how you should speak to her. And it will occur* that as soon as she arrives, she will be making herself unrecognizable.”+
6 And it came about that as soon as A·hiʹjah heard the sound of her feet as she was coming into the entrance, he began to say: “Come in, you wife of Jer·o·boʹam.+ Why is it that you are making yourself unrecognizable while I am being sent to you with a severe message? 7 Go, say to Jer·o·boʹam, ‘This is what Jehovah the God of Israel has said: “For the reason that I raised you up out of the middle of your people, that I might constitute you a leader over my people Israel,+ 8 and I went on to rip+ the kingdom away from the house of David and give it to you, and you have not become like my servant David, who kept my commandments and who walked after me with all his heart by doing only what was right in my eyes,+ 9 but you began to act worse than all those who happened to be prior to you, and you went and made for yourself another god*+ and molten images+ to offend+ me, and it is I whom you have cast behind your back;+ 10 for that reason here I am bringing calamity upon the house of Jer·o·boʹam, and I shall certainly cut off from Jer·o·boʹam anyone urinating against a wall,*+ a helpless and worthless one in Israel;*+ and I shall indeed make a clean sweep behind the house of Jer·o·boʹam,+ just as one clears away the dung until it is disposed of.+ 11 The one dying of Jer·o·boʹam’s in the city, the dogs will eat;+ and the one dying in the field, the fowls of the heavens will eat,+ because Jehovah himself has spoken it.”’
12 “And you yourself, rise up, go to your house. When your feet come into the city the child will certainly die. 13 And all Israel will indeed bewail him+ and bury him, because this one alone of Jer·o·boʹam’s will come into a burial place; for the reason that something good toward Jehovah the God of Israel has been found in him in the house of Jer·o·boʹam.+ 14 And Jehovah will certainly raise up to himself a king+ over Israel who will cut off the house of Jer·o·boʹam the said day, and what if right now?+ 15 And Jehovah will indeed strike Israel down, just as the reed sways in the water;+ and he will certainly uproot+ Israel off this good ground+ that he gave to their forefathers, and he will indeed scatter+ them beyond the River,*+ for the reason that they made their sacred poles,+ so offending+ Jehovah. 16 And he will give Israel up+ on account of the sins of Jer·o·boʹam with which he sinned and with which he caused Israel to sin.”+
17 At that Jer·o·boʹam’s wife rose up and went her way and came to Tirʹzah.+ As she was arriving at the threshold of the house, the boy himself died. 18 So they buried him, and all Israel went wailing for him, according to Jehovah’s word that he had spoken by means of his servant A·hiʹjah the prophet.
19 And the rest of the affairs of Jer·o·boʹam, how he warred+ and how he reigned, there they are written in the book+ of the affairs of the days of the kings of Israel. 20 And the days that Jer·o·boʹam reigned were twenty-two years, after which he lay down with his forefathers;+ and Naʹdab+ his son began to reign in place of him.
21 As for Re·ho·boʹam+ the son of Solʹo·mon, he had become king in Judah. Forty-one years old Re·ho·boʹam was when he began to reign, and seventeen years he reigned in Jerusalem, the city+ that Jehovah had chosen out of all the tribes+ of Israel to put his name there.+ And his mother’s name was Naʹa·mah the Amʹmon·it·ess.+ 22 And Judah went on doing what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah,+ so that they incited+ him to jealousy more than all that their forefathers had done by their sins with which they sinned.+ 23 And they too kept building for themselves high places+ and sacred pillars+ and sacred poles+ upon every high hill+ and under every luxuriant tree.+ 24 And even the male temple prostitute* proved to be in the land.+ They acted according to all the detestable things of the nations whom Jehovah had driven out from before the sons of Israel.+
25 And it came about in the fifth year of King Re·ho·boʹam that Shiʹshak+ the king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. 26 And he got to take the treasures of the house of Jehovah and the treasures of the house of the king;+ and everything he took.+ And he went on to take all the gold shields that Solʹo·mon had made.+ 27 Consequently King Re·ho·boʹam made in place of them copper shields, and he committed them to the control of the chiefs of the runners,+ the guards of the entrance of the king’s house.+ 28 And it would occur that as often as the king came to the house of Jehovah, the runners would carry them, and they returned them to the guard chamber of the runners.+
29 And the rest of the affairs of Re·ho·boʹam and all that he did, are they not written in the book+ of the affairs of the times of the kings of Judah? 30 And warfare itself took place between Re·ho·boʹam and Jer·o·boʹam always.+ 31 Finally Re·ho·boʹam lay down with his forefathers and was buried with his forefathers in the City of David.+ And his mother’s name was Naʹa·mah the Amʹmon·it·ess.+ And A·biʹjam*+ his son began to reign in place of him.
15 And in the eighteenth year of King Jer·o·boʹam+ the son of Neʹbat,+ A·biʹjam became king over Judah.+ 2 Three years he reigned in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Maʹa·cah+ the granddaughter* of A·bishʹa·lom.*+ 3 And he went on walking in all the sins of his father that he did prior to him; and his heart did not prove to be complete+ with Jehovah his God, like the heart of David his forefather.+ 4 For, on account of David,+ Jehovah his God gave him a lamp+ in Jerusalem by raising his son up after him and keeping Jerusalem in existence,*+ 5 because David did what was right in the eyes of Jehovah, and he did not turn aside from anything that He had commanded him all the days of his life,+ only in the matter of U·riʹah the Hitʹtite.+ 6 And warfare itself took place between Re·ho·boʹam* and Jer·o·boʹam all the days of his life.+
7 As for the rest of the affairs of A·biʹjam and all that he did, are they not written in the book+ of the affairs of the days of the kings of Judah? There was warfare also that took place between A·biʹjam and Jer·o·boʹam.+ 8 Finally A·biʹjam lay down with his forefathers and they buried him in the City of David;+ and Aʹsa+ his son began to reign in place of him.
9 In the twentieth year of Jer·o·boʹam the king of Israel, Aʹsa reigned as king of Judah. 10 And forty-one years he reigned in Jerusalem; and his grandmother’s* name was Maʹa·cah+ the granddaughter of A·bishʹa·lom.+ 11 And Aʹsa proceeded to do what was right in the eyes of Jehovah, like David his forefather.+ 12 Accordingly he had the male temple prostitutes pass out of the land+ and removed all the dungy idols+ that his forefathers had made.+ 13 As for even Maʹa·cah+ his grandmother, he went on to remove her from [being] lady,+ because she had made a horrible idol to the sacred pole; after which Aʹsa cut down her horrible idol+ and burned it+ at the torrent valley of Kidʹron.+ 14 And the high places+ he did not remove.+ Nevertheless, Aʹsa’s heart itself proved to be complete with Jehovah all his days.+ 15 And he began to bring in the things made holy by his father and the things made holy by himself into the house of Jehovah, silver and gold and articles.+
16 And warfare itself took place between Aʹsa and Baʹa·sha+ the king of Israel all their days. 17 So Baʹa·sha the king of Israel came up against Judah and began to build Raʹmah,+ to allow no one to go out or come in to Aʹsa the king of Judah.+ 18 At that Aʹsa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures of the house of Jehovah and the treasures of the house of the king and put them in the hand of his servants; and King Aʹsa now sent them to Ben-haʹdad+ the son of Tab·rimʹmon the son of Heʹzi·on, the king of Syria,+ who was dwelling in Damascus,+ saying: 19 “There is a covenant between me and you, between my father and your father. Here I have sent you a present+ of silver and gold. Come, do break your covenant with Baʹa·sha the king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.”+ 20 Accordingly Ben-haʹdad listened to King Aʹsa and sent the chiefs of the military forces that were his against the cities of Israel and went striking down Iʹjon+ and Dan+ and Aʹbel-beth-maʹa·cah+ and all Chinʹne·reth, as far as all the land of Naphʹta·li.+ 21 And it came about that as soon as Baʹa·sha heard of it, he immediately quit building Raʹmah+ and continued dwelling in Tirʹzah.+ 22 And King Aʹsa, for his part, summoned all Judah+—there was none exempt—and they proceeded to carry the stones of Raʹmah and the timbers of it, with which Baʹa·sha had been building; and King Aʹsa began to build with them Geʹba+ in Benjamin, and Mizʹpah.+
23 As for the rest of all the affairs of Aʹsa and all his mightiness and all that he did and the cities that he built, are they not written in the book+ of the affairs of the days of the kings of Judah? Only at the time of his growing old+ he got diseased in his feet.+ 24 Finally Aʹsa lay down with his forefathers+ and was buried with his forefathers in the City of David his forefather;+ and Je·hoshʹa·phat+ his son began to reign in place of him.
25 As for Naʹdab+ the son of Jer·o·boʹam, he became king over Israel in the second year of Aʹsa the king of Judah; and he continued to reign over Israel two years. 26 And he kept doing what was bad+ in the eyes of Jehovah and went on walking in the way of his father+ and in his sin with which he caused Israel to sin.+ 27 And Baʹa·sha+ the son of A·hiʹjah of the house of Isʹsa·char began to conspire against him; and Baʹa·sha got to strike him down at Gibʹbe·thon,+ which belonged to the Phi·lisʹtines, while Naʹdab and all Israel were besieging Gibʹbe·thon. 28 So Baʹa·sha put him to death in the third year of Aʹsa the king of Judah and began to reign in place of him.+ 29 And it came about that as soon as he became king, he struck down all the house of Jer·o·boʹam. He did not let anyone breathing* remain of Jer·o·boʹam’s until he had annihilated them, according to Jehovah’s word that he had spoken by means of his servant A·hiʹjah the Shiʹlo·nite,+ 30 on account of the sins of Jer·o·boʹam with which he sinned+ and with which he caused Israel to sin [and] by his offensiveness with which he offended Jehovah the God of Israel.+ 31 As for the rest of the affairs of Naʹdab and all that he did, are they not written in the book+ of the affairs of the days of the kings of Israel? 32 And warfare itself took place between Aʹsa and Baʹa·sha the king of Israel all their days.+
33 In the third year of Aʹsa the king of Judah, Baʹa·sha the son of A·hiʹjah became king over all Israel in Tirʹzah for twenty-four years.+ 34 And he kept doing what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah+ and went walking in the way of Jer·o·boʹam+ and in his sin with which he caused Israel to sin.+
16 The word of Jehovah now came to Jeʹhu+ the son of Ha·naʹni+ against Baʹa·sha, saying: 2 “Inasmuch as I raised you up out of the dust+ that I might constitute you leader over my people Israel,+ but you went walking in the way of Jer·o·boʹam+ and so caused my people Israel to sin by offending me with their sins,+ 3 here I am making a clean sweep after Baʹa·sha and after his house, and I shall certainly constitute his house like the house of Jer·o·boʹam the son of Neʹbat.+ 4 Anyone of Baʹa·sha that is dying in the city the dogs will eat; and anyone of his that is dying in the field the fowls of the heavens will eat.”+
5 As for the rest of the affairs of Baʹa·sha and what he did and his mightiness, are they not written in the book+ of the affairs of the days of the kings of Israel? 6 Finally Baʹa·sha lay down with his forefathers and was buried in Tirʹzah;+ and Eʹlah his son began to reign in place of him. 7 And also by means of Jeʹhu the son of Ha·naʹni the prophet, Jehovah’s word itself had come against Baʹa·sha and his house,+ both because of all the badness that he committed in the eyes of Jehovah by offending+ him with the work of his hands,+ that it might become like the house of Jer·o·boʹam, and because he struck him* down.+
8 In the twenty-sixth year of Aʹsa the king of Judah, Eʹlah the son of Baʹa·sha became king over Israel in Tirʹzah for two years. 9 And his servant Zimʹri+ the chief of half the chariots began to conspire against him, while he was in Tirʹzah drinking+ himself drunk at the house of Arʹza, who was over the household+ in Tirʹzah. 10 And Zimʹri proceeded to come in and strike him down+ and put him to death in the twenty-seventh year of Aʹsa the king of Judah, and he began to reign in place of him. 11 And it came about that when he began to reign, as soon as he sat down upon his throne, he struck down all the house of Baʹa·sha. He did not let anyone of his remain that urinates against a wall*+ or his avengers of blood*+ or his friends. 12 Thus Zimʹri annihilated the whole house of Baʹa·sha,+ according to the word of Jehovah+ that he had spoken against Baʹa·sha by means of Jeʹhu the prophet,+ 13 on account of all the sins of Baʹa·sha and the sins of Eʹlah+ his son with which they sinned and with which they caused Israel to sin by offending Jehovah the God of Israel with their vain idols.*+ 14 As for the rest of the affairs of Eʹlah and all that he did, are they not written in the book+ of the affairs of the days of the kings of Israel?
15 In the twenty-seventh year of Aʹsa the king of Judah, Zimʹri became king for seven days+ in Tirʹzah, while the people were encamping against Gibʹbe·thon,+ which belonged to the Phi·lisʹtines. 16 In time the people that were encamped heard it said: “Zimʹri has conspired and also struck down the king.” So all Israel made Omʹri,+ the chief of the army, king over Israel on that day in the camp. 17 Omʹri and all Israel with him now went on up from Gibʹbe·thon and began to lay siege+ to Tirʹzah. 18 And it came about that as soon as Zimʹri saw that the city had been captured, he then came into the dwelling tower of the king’s house and burned the king’s house over himself with fire, so that he died,+ 19 for the sins of his with which he had sinned by doing what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah+ by walking in the way of Jer·o·boʹam and in his sin which he did by causing Israel to sin.+ 20 As for the rest of the affairs of Zimʹri and his conspiracy with which he conspired, are they not written in the book+ of the affairs of the days of the kings of Israel?
21 It was then that the people of Israel began to divide themselves into two parts.+ There was one part of the people that became followers of Tibʹni the son of Giʹnath, to make him king, and the other part followers of Omʹri. 22 Finally the people that were following Omʹri overcame the people that were following Tibʹni the son of Giʹnath; so that Tibʹni met death, and Omʹri began to reign.
23 In the thirty-first year of Aʹsa the king of Judah, Omʹri became king* over Israel for twelve years. In Tirʹzah he reigned six years. 24 And he proceeded to buy the mountain of Sa·marʹi·a* from Sheʹmer for two talents* of silver, and began to build [on] the mountain and call the name of the city that he built by the name of Sheʹmer the master* of the mountain, Sa·marʹi·a.+ 25 And Omʹri kept doing what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah and came to do worse than all who were prior to him.+ 26 And he went walking in all the way of Jer·o·boʹam the son of Neʹbat+ and in his sin with which he caused Israel to sin by offending Jehovah the God of Israel with their vain idols.+ 27 As for the rest of the affairs of Omʹri, what he did and his mightiness with which he acted, are they not written in the book+ of the affairs of the days of the kings of Israel? 28 Finally Omʹri lay down with his forefathers and was buried in Sa·marʹi·a; and Aʹhab+ his son began to reign in place of him.
29 And as for Aʹhab the son of Omʹri, he became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Aʹsa the king of Judah; and Aʹhab the son of Omʹri continued to reign over Israel in Sa·marʹi·a+ twenty-two years. 30 And Aʹhab the son of Omʹri proceeded to do worse in the eyes of Jehovah than all those who were prior to him.+ 31 And it came about that, [as if it were] the most trivial+ thing for him to walk in the sins of Jer·o·boʹam+ the son of Neʹbat, he now took as wife+ Jezʹe·bel+ the daughter of Eth·baʹal the king of the Si·doʹni·ans+ and began to go and serve Baʹal*+ and to bow down to him. 32 Further, he set up an altar to Baʹal at the house+ of Baʹal that he built in Sa·marʹi·a. 33 And Aʹhab went on to make the sacred pole;*+ and Aʹhab came to do more to offend+ Jehovah the God of Israel than all the kings of Israel that happened to be prior to him.
34 In his days Hiʹel the Bethʹel·ite built Jerʹi·cho. At the forfeit of A·biʹram his firstborn he laid the foundation of it, and at the forfeit of Seʹgub his youngest he put up its doors, according to Jehovah’s word that he spoke by means of Joshua* the son of Nun.+
17 And E·liʹjah*+ the Tishʹbite from the inhabitants* of Gilʹe·ad+ proceeded to say to Aʹhab: “As Jehovah the God of Israel before whom I do stand*+ is living,+ there will occur during these years neither dew nor rain,+ except at the order of my word!”+
2 The word+ of Jehovah now came to him, saying: 3 “Go away from here, and you must turn your way eastward and conceal+ yourself at the torrent valley of Cheʹrith that is east of the Jordan. 4 And it must occur that from the torrent valley you should drink,+ and the ravens+ I shall certainly command to supply you food there.”+ 5 Immediately he went and did according to the word of Jehovah,+ and so went and took up dwelling by the torrent valley of Cheʹrith that is east of* the Jordan. 6 And the ravens themselves were bringing him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and from the torrent valley he kept drinking.+ 7 But it came about at the end of some days that the torrent valley became dry,+ because there had occurred no downpour upon the earth.
8 The word of Jehovah now came to him, saying:+ 9 “Rise up, go to Zarʹe·phath,+ which belongs to Siʹdon, and you must dwell there. Look! I shall certainly command there a woman, a widow, to supply you food.” 10 Accordingly he rose up and went to Zarʹe·phath and came into the entrance of the city; and, look! a woman, a widow, was there gathering up pieces of wood. So he called to her and said: “Please, get me a sip of water in a vessel that I may drink.”+ 11 When she began to go and get it, he went on to call to her and say: “Please, get me a bit of bread+ in your hand.” 12 At this she said: “As Jehovah your God is living,+ I have no round cake,*+ but a handful+ of flour in the large jar and a little oil+ in the small jar; and here I am gathering up a few* pieces of wood, and I must go in and make something for myself and my son, and we shall have to eat it and die.”+
13 Then E·liʹjah said to her: “Do not be afraid.+ Go in, do according to your word. Only from what is there make me a small round cake first,+ and you must bring it out to me, and for yourself and your son you can make something afterward. 14 For this is what Jehovah the God of Israel has said, ‘The large jar of flour itself will not get exhausted, and the small jar of oil itself will not fail until the day of Jehovah’s giving a downpour upon the surface of the ground.’”+ 15 So she went and did according to E·liʹjah’s word; and she continued to eat, she together with him and her household, for days.+ 16 The large jar of flour itself did not get exhausted, and the small jar of oil itself did not fail,+ according to Jehovah’s word that he had spoken by means of E·liʹjah.
17 And it came about after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick, and his sickness came to be so severe that there was no breath left in him.+ 18 At this she said to E·liʹjah: “What do I have to do with you,*+ O man of the [true] God? You have come to me to bring my error to mind+ and to put my son to death.” 19 But he said to her:* “Give me your son.” Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the roof chamber,+ where he was dwelling, and laid him upon his own couch.+ 20 And he began calling to Jehovah and saying: “O Jehovah my God,+ is it also upon the widow with whom I am residing as an alien that you must bring injury by putting her son to death?” 21 And he proceeded to stretch himself upon the child+ three times and call to Jehovah and say: “O Jehovah my God, please, cause the soul+ of this child to come back within him.” 22 Finally Jehovah listened to E·liʹjah’s voice,+ so that the soul of the child came back within him and he came to life.+ 23 E·liʹjah now took the child and brought him down from the roof chamber into the house and gave him to his mother; and E·liʹjah then said: “See, your son is alive.”+ 24 Upon that the woman said to E·liʹjah: “Now, indeed, I do know that you are a man of God+ and that Jehovah’s word in your mouth is true.”*+
18 And it came about [after] many days+ that Jehovah’s own word came to E·liʹjah in the third year, saying: “Go, show yourself to Aʹhab, as I am determined to give rain* upon the surface of the ground.”+ 2 Accordingly E·liʹjah went to show himself to Aʹhab, while the famine was severe+ in Sa·marʹi·a.
3 Meantime, Aʹhab called O·ba·diʹah,* who was over the household.+ (Now O·ba·diʹah himself had proved to be one greatly fearing+ Jehovah. 4 Hence it came about that when Jezʹe·bel+ cut off Jehovah’s prophets,+ O·ba·diʹah proceeded to take a hundred prophets and keep them hid by fifties in a cave, and he supplied them bread and water.)+ 5 And Aʹhab went on to say to O·ba·diʹah: “Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the torrent valleys. Perhaps we may find green grass,+ that we may preserve the horses and mules alive and may not have [any more] of the beasts cut off.”+ 6 So they divided between themselves the land through which to pass. Aʹhab himself went alone by one way, and O·ba·diʹah himself went alone by another way.+
7 As O·ba·diʹah continued on the way, why, there was E·liʹjah to meet him.+ At once he recognized him and fell upon his face+ and said: “Is this you, my lord+ E·liʹjah?” 8 At this he said to him: “It is I. Go, say to your lord,+ ‘Here is E·liʹjah.’” 9 But he said: “What sin+ have I committed that you should be putting your servant into the hand of Aʹhab to put me to death? 10 As Jehovah your God is living,+ there is not a nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to look for you. After they had said, ‘He is not [here],’ he made the kingdom and the nation swear that they could not find you.+ 11 And now you are saying, ‘Go, say to your lord: “Here is E·liʹjah.”’ 12 And it is bound to occur that, when I myself go from you, then the spirit+ of Jehovah itself will carry you away to where I shall not know; and I shall have come to tell Aʹhab, and he will not find you, and he will be bound to kill+ me, as your servant himself has feared Jehovah from his youth.+ 13 Has not my lord been told what I did when Jezʹe·bel killed the prophets of Jehovah, how I kept some of the prophets of Jehovah hid, a hundred men by fifties in a cave,+ and kept supplying them bread and water?+ 14 And now you are saying, ‘Go, say to your lord: “Here is E·liʹjah.”’ And he will be bound to kill me.”+ 15 However, E·liʹjah said: “As Jehovah of armies+ before whom I do stand* is living,+ today I shall show myself to him.”
16 Accordingly O·ba·diʹah went off to meet Aʹhab and told him; and so Aʹhab went to meet E·liʹjah.
17 And it came about that, as soon as Aʹhab saw E·liʹjah, Aʹhab immediately said to him: “Is this you, the bringer of ostracism upon Israel?”+
18 To this he said: “I have not brought ostracism+ upon Israel, but you and the house of your father have,+ because YOU men have left the commandments of Jehovah,+ and you went following the Baʹals.+ 19 And now send, collect together all Israel to me at Mount Carʹmel+ and also the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baʹal+ and the four hundred prophets of the sacred pole,+ who are eating at the table of Jezʹe·bel.”+ 20 And Aʹhab proceeded to send among all the sons of Israel and collect the prophets+ together at Mount Carʹmel.
21 Then E·liʹjah approached all the people and said: “How long will YOU be limping upon two different opinions?*+ If Jehovah is the [true] God,* go following him;+ but if Baʹal is, go following him.” And the people did not say a word in answer to him. 22 And E·liʹjah went on to say to the people: “I myself have been left as a prophet of Jehovah,+ I alone, while the prophets of Baʹal are four hundred and fifty men. 23 Now let them give us two young bulls, and let them choose for themselves one young bull and cut it in pieces and put it upon the wood, but they should not put fire to it. And I myself shall dress the other young bull, and I must place it upon the wood, but I shall not put fire to it. 24 And YOU must call upon the name of YOUR god,*+ and I, for my part, shall call upon the name of Jehovah; and it must occur that the [true] God* that answers by fire+ is the [true] God.”*+ To this all the people answered and said: “The thing is good.”
25 E·liʹjah now said to the prophets of Baʹal:* “Choose for yourselves one young bull and dress it first, because YOU are the majority; and call upon the name of YOUR god, but YOU must not put fire to it.” 26 Accordingly they took the young bull that he gave them. Then they dressed it, and they kept calling upon the name of Baʹal from morning till noon, saying: “O Baʹal, answer us!” But there was no voice,+ and there was no one answering.+ And they kept limping around the altar that they had made. 27 And it came about at noon that E·liʹjah began to mock+ them and say: “Call at the top of YOUR voice,* for he is a god;+ for he must be concerned with a matter, and he has excrement+ and has to go to the privy.+ Or maybe he is asleep and ought to wake up!”+ 28 And they began calling at the top of their voice and cutting+ themselves according to their custom with daggers and with lances, until they caused blood to flow out upon them. 29 And it came about that, as soon as noon was past and they continued behaving as prophets+ until the going up of the grain offering, there was no voice, and there was no one answering, and there was no paying of attention.+
30 At length E·liʹjah said to all the people: “Approach me.” So all the people approached him. Then he proceeded to mend the altar of Jehovah that was torn down.+ 31 So E·liʹjah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom Jehovah’s word had come,+ saying: “Israel is what your name will become.”+ 32 And he went on to build the stones into an altar+ in the name of Jehovah+ and to make a trench, of about the area sowed with two seah* measures of seed, all around the altar. 33 After that he put the pieces of wood+ in order and cut the young bull in pieces and placed it upon the pieces of wood. He now said: “FILL four large jars with water and pour it upon the burnt offering and upon the pieces of wood.” 34 Then he said: “Do it again.” So they did it again. But he said: “Do it a third time.” So they did it a third time. 35 Thus the water went all around the altar, and the trench also he filled with water.
36 And it came about at the time+ that the grain offering goes up that E·liʹjah the prophet began to approach and say: “O Jehovah, the God of Abraham,+ Isaac+ and Israel,+ today let it be known that you are God in Israel+ and I am your servant and it is by your word+ that I have done all these things. 37 Answer me, O Jehovah, answer me, that this people may know that you, Jehovah,+ are the [true] God* and you yourself have turned their heart back.”+
38 At that the fire+ of Jehovah came falling and went eating up the burnt+ offering and the pieces of wood and the stones and the dust, and the water that was in the trench it licked up.+ 39 When all the people saw it, they immediately fell upon their faces+ and said: “Jehovah is the [true] God! Jehovah is the [true] God!” 40 Then E·liʹjah said to them: “Seize the prophets of Baʹal! Do not let a single one of them escape!” At once they seized them, and E·liʹjah then brought them down to the torrent valley of Kiʹshon+ and slaughtered them there.+
41 E·liʹjah now said to Aʹhab: “Go up, eat and drink;+ for there is the sound of the turmoil of a downpour.”+ 42 And Aʹhab proceeded to go up to eat and drink. As for E·liʹjah, he went up to the top of Carʹmel and began crouching to the earth+ and keeping his face put between his knees.+ 43 Then he said to his attendant: “Go up, please. Look in the direction of the sea.” So he went up and looked and then said: “There is nothing at all.” And he went on to say, “Go back,” for seven times.+ 44 And it came about at the seventh time that he got to say: “Look! There is a small cloud like a man’s palm ascending out of the sea.”+ He now said: “Go up, say to Aʹhab, ‘Hitch up!+ And go down that the downpour may not detain you!’” 45 And it came about in the meantime that the heavens themselves darkened up with clouds and wind*+ and a great downpour began to occur.+ And Aʹhab kept riding and made his way to Jezʹre·el.+ 46 And the very hand of Jehovah proved to be upon E·liʹjah,+ so that he girded up his hips+ and went running ahead of Aʹhab all the way to Jezʹre·el.+
19 Then Aʹhab+ told Jezʹe·bel+ all that E·liʹjah had done and all about how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.+ 2 At that Jezʹe·bel sent a messenger to E·liʹjah, saying: “So may the gods* do,+ and so may they add to it,+ if at this time tomorrow I shall not make your soul like the soul of each one of them!” 3 And he became afraid.* Consequently he rose up and began to go for his soul*+ and came to Beʹer-sheʹba,+ which belongs to Judah.+ Then he left his attendant behind there. 4 And he himself went into the wilderness a day’s journey, and at length came and sat down under a certain broom tree.+ And he began to ask that his soul might die and to say: “It is enough! Now, O Jehovah, take my soul away,+ for I am no better than my forefathers.”
5 Finally he lay down and fell asleep under the broom+ tree. But, look! now an angel+ was touching+ him. Then he said to him: “Rise up, eat.” 6 When he looked, why, there at his head was a round cake+ upon heated stones and a jug of water. And he began to eat and drink, after which he lay down again. 7 Later the angel+ of Jehovah came back a second time and touched him and said: “Rise up, eat, for the journey is too much for you.”+ 8 So he rose up and ate and drank, and he kept going in the power of that nourishment for forty days+ and forty nights as far as the mountain of the [true] God, Hoʹreb.+
9 There he finally entered into a cave,+ that he might spend the night there; and, look! there was Jehovah’s word for him, and it went on to say to him: “What is your business here, E·liʹjah?”+ 10 To this he said: “I have been absolutely jealous+ for Jehovah the God of armies; for the sons of Israel have left your covenant,+ your altars they have torn down,+ and your prophets they have killed with the sword,+ so that I only am left;+ and they begin looking for my soul to take it away.”+ 11 But it said: “Go out, and you must stand on the mountain before Jehovah.”+ And, look! Jehovah was passing by,+ and a great and strong wind was rending mountains and breaking crags before Jehovah.+ (Jehovah was not in the wind.) And after the wind there was a quaking.+ (Jehovah was not in the quaking.) 12 And after the quaking there was a fire.+ (Jehovah was not in the fire.) And after the fire there was a calm, low voice.*+ 13 And it came about that as soon as E·liʹjah heard it, he immediately wrapped his face in his official garment+ and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave; and, look! there was a voice for him, and it proceeded to say to him: “What is your business here, E·liʹjah?”+ 14 To this he said: “I have been absolutely jealous for Jehovah the God of armies; for the sons of Israel have left your covenant,+ your altars they have torn down, and your prophets they have killed with the sword, so that I only am left; and they begin looking for my soul to take it away.”+
15 Jehovah now said to him: “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus;+ and you must come in and anoint+ Hazʹa·el+ as king over Syria. 16 And Jeʹhu+ the grandson* of Nimʹshi+ you should anoint as king over Israel; and E·liʹsha*+ the son of Shaʹphat from Aʹbel-me·hoʹlah+ you should anoint as prophet in place of you.+ 17 And it must occur that the one escaping from Hazʹa·el’s sword,+ Jeʹhu will put to death;+ and the one escaping from Jeʹhu’s sword, E·liʹsha will put to death.+ 18 And I have let seven thousand remain in Israel,+ all the knees that have not bent down to Baʹal,+ and every mouth that has not kissed+ him.”
19 Accordingly he went from there and found E·liʹsha the son of Shaʹphat while he was plowing+ with twelve spans before him, and he with the twelfth. So E·liʹjah crossed over to him and threw his official garment+ upon him. 20 At that he left the bulls and went running after E·liʹjah and said: “Let me, please, kiss my father and my mother.+ Then I will go following you.” At this he said to him: “Go, return; for what have I done to you?” 21 So he returned from following him and then took a span of the bulls and sacrificed+ them, and with the implements+ of the bulls he boiled their flesh and then gave it to the people, and they proceeded to eat. After that he rose up and went following E·liʹjah and began to minister+ to him.
20* As for Ben-haʹdad+ the king of Syria, he collected all his military forces together and also thirty-two kings with him+ and horses+ and chariots,+ and he proceeded to go up and lay siege+ to Sa·marʹi·a+ and fight against it. 2 Then he sent messengers+ to Aʹhab the king of Israel at the city. And he went on to say to him: “This is what Ben-haʹdad has said, 3 ‘Your silver and your gold are mine, and your wives and your sons, the best looking, are mine.’”+ 4 To this the king of Israel answered and said: “According to your word, my lord the king, yours I am with all that belongs to me.”+
5 Later the messengers came back and said: “This is what Ben-haʹdad has said, ‘I sent to you, saying: “Your silver and your gold and your wives and your sons you will give me. 6 But about this time tomorrow I shall send my servants to you, and they must carefully search your house and the houses of your servants; and it must occur that everything desirable+ to your eyes they will put in their hand, and they must take it away.”’”
7 At that the king of Israel called all the older men of the land+ and said: “Take note, please, and see that it is calamity that this one is seeking;+ for he sent to me for my wives and my sons and my silver and my gold, and I did not hold them back from him.” 8 Then all the older men and all the people said to him: “Do not obey, and you should not consent.” 9 So he said to the messengers of Ben-haʹdad: “Say to my lord the king, ‘All that you sent to your servant at first I shall do; but this thing I am not able to do.’” With that the messengers went off and brought word back to him.
10 Ben-haʹdad now sent to him and said: “So may the gods+ do to me, and so may they add to it,+ if the dust of Sa·marʹi·a will be sufficient for handfuls for all the people that follow me!”*+ 11 In turn the king of Israel answered and said: “YOU men, speak [to him], ‘Do not let one girding+ on boast about himself like one unfastening.’”+ 12 And it came about that as soon as he heard this word, while he himself and the kings were drinking+ in the booths, he immediately said to his servants: “Get set!” And they began to get set against the city.
13 And, look! a certain prophet approached Aʹhab the king of Israel+ and then said: “This is what Jehovah* has said,+ ‘Have you seen all this great crowd? Here I am giving it into your hand today, and you will certainly know that I am Jehovah.’”*+ 14 Then Aʹhab said: “By whom?” to which he said: “This is what Jehovah* has said, ‘By the young men of the princes of the jurisdictional districts.’” Finally he said: “Who will open the battle engagement?” to which he said: “You!”
15 And he proceeded to take the count of the young men of the princes of the jurisdictional districts, and they came to be two hundred and thirty-two;+ and after them he took the count of all the people, all the sons of Israel, seven thousand. 16 And they began to go out at noon while Ben-haʹdad was drinking himself drunk+ in the booths, he together with the kings, the thirty-two kings that were helping him. 17 When the young men+ of the princes of the jurisdictional districts came out first, Ben-haʹdad at once sent out; and they came telling him, saying: “There are men that have come out from Sa·marʹi·a.” 18 At that he said: “Whether it is for peace that they have come out, YOU should seize them alive; or whether it is for battle that they have come out, alive is how YOU should seize them.”+ 19 And these were the ones that came out from the city, the young men of the princes of the jurisdictional districts and the military forces that were behind them. 20 And they began to strike down each one his man; and the Syrians+ took to flight,+ and Israel went in pursuit of them, but Ben-haʹdad the king of Syria got to escape upon a horse together with the horsemen. 21 But the king of Israel went out and kept striking down the horses and the chariots,+ and he struck down the Syrians with a great slaughter.
22 Later the prophet+ approached the king of Israel and said to him: “Go, strengthen yourself+ and take note and see what you are going to do;+ for at the return of the year* the king of Syria is coming up against you.”+
23 As for the servants of the king of Syria, they said to him: “Their God is a God of mountains.*+ That is why they proved stronger than we were. So, on the other hand, let us fight against them on the level land [and see] whether we shall not prove stronger than they are. 24 And do this thing: Remove the kings+ each one from his place and put in governors instead of them.+ 25 As for you, you should number a military force for yourself equal to the military force that fell from your side, with horse for horse and chariot for chariot; and let us fight against them on the level land [and see] whether we shall not prove stronger than they are.”+ Accordingly he listened to their voice and did just that way.
26 And it came about at the return of the year that Ben-haʹdad proceeded to muster the Syrians+ and to go up to Aʹphek+ for battle against Israel. 27 As for the sons of Israel, they were mustered and supplied+ and began to go out to meet them; and the sons of Israel went into camp in front of them like two tiny flocks of goats, while the Syrians, for their part, filled the earth.+ 28 Then the man of the [true] God+ approached and said to the king of Israel, yes, he went on to say: “This is what Jehovah has said, ‘For the reason that the Syrians have said: “Jehovah is a God* of mountains, and he is not a God of low plains,” I shall have to give all this great crowd into your hand,+ and YOU men will certainly know that I am Jehovah.’”+
29 And they continued encamped for seven days, these in front of those.+ And it came about on the seventh day that the engagement in battle began; and the sons of Israel went striking down the Syrians, a hundred thousand men on foot in one day. 30 And those that were left went fleeing to Aʹphek,+ to the city; and the wall came falling down upon twenty-seven thousand men that were left.+ As for Ben-haʹdad, he fled+ and finally came into the city into the innermost+ chamber.
31 So his servants said to him: “Here, now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are kings of loving-kindness.+ Please, let us carry sackcloth+ upon our loins+ and ropes upon our heads, and let us go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will preserve your soul alive.”+ 32 Accordingly they girded sackcloth about their loins, with ropes upon their heads, and came in to the king of Israel and said: “Your servant Ben-haʹdad has said, ‘Please, let my soul live.’” To this he said: “Is he still alive? He is my brother.” 33 So the men+ themselves took it as an omen and quickly took it as a decision of his own accord, and they went on to say: “Ben-haʹdad is your brother.” At that he said: “Come, fetch him.” Then Ben-haʹdad went out to him; and he at once had him get up into the chariot.+
34 [Ben-haʹdad] now said to him: “The cities+ that my father took from your father I shall return; and streets you will assign to yourself in Damascus the same as my father assigned in Sa·marʹi·a.”
“And as for me, in a covenant+ I shall send you away.”
With that he concluded a covenant with him and sent him away.
35 And a certain man of the sons of the prophets*+ said to his friend by the word+ of Jehovah: “Strike me, please.” But the man refused to strike him. 36 Therefore he said to him: “For the reason that you did not listen to the voice of Jehovah, here you are going away from me, and a lion will certainly strike you down.” After that he went away from beside him, and the lion+ got to find him and strike him down.+
37 And he went on to find another man and to say: “Strike me, please.” So the man struck him, striking and wounding.*
38 Then the prophet went and stood still for the king by the road, and he kept himself disguised+ with a bandage over his eyes. 39 And it came about that as the king was passing by, he cried out to the king and proceeded to say:+ “Your servant himself went out into the thick of the battle; and, look! a man was leaving the line, and he came bringing a man to me and then said, ‘Guard this man. If he should in any way be missing, your soul+ will also have to take the place of his soul,+ or else a talent* of silver you will weigh out.’+ 40 And it came about that as your servant was active here and there, why, he himself was gone.” At this the king of Israel said to him: “Thus your own judgment is. You yourself have decided.”+ 41 Upon that he hurriedly removed the bandage from over his eyes, and the king of Israel got to recognize him, that he was from the prophets.+ 42 He now said to him: “This is what Jehovah has said, ‘For the reason that you have let go out of your hand the man devoted to me for destruction,*+ your soul must take the place of his soul,+ and your people the place of his people.’”+ 43 At that the king of Israel went on his way toward his house, sullen and dejected,+ and came to Sa·marʹi·a.+
21 And it came about after these things that there was a vineyard that happened to belong to Naʹboth the Jezʹre·el·ite, which was in Jezʹre·el,+ beside the palace of Aʹhab the king of Sa·marʹi·a. 2 So Aʹhab spoke to Naʹboth, saying: “Do give+ me your vineyard,+ that it may serve as a garden+ of vegetables+ to me, for it is close by my house; and let me give you in place of it a vineyard better than it. [Or] if it is good in your eyes,+ I will give you money as the price of this.” 3 But Naʹboth said to Aʹhab: “It is unthinkable+ on my part, from Jehovah’s standpoint,+ for me to give the hereditary possession of my forefathers to you.”+ 4 Consequently Aʹhab came into his house, sullen and dejected over the word that Naʹboth the Jezʹre·el·ite had spoken to him, when he said: “I shall not give you the hereditary possession of my forefathers.” Then he lay down upon his couch and kept his face turned,+ and he did not eat bread.
5 Finally Jezʹe·bel+ his wife came in to him and spoke to him: “Why is it that your spirit is sad+ and you are not eating bread?” 6 At that he spoke to her: “Because I proceeded to speak to Naʹboth the Jezʹre·el·ite and say to him, ‘Do give me your vineyard for money. Or, if you prefer, let me give you another vineyard in place of it.’ But he said, ‘I shall not give you my vineyard.’”+ 7 Then Jezʹe·bel his wife said to him: “Is it you that now exercise the kingship over Israel?+ Rise up, eat bread and let your heart be merry. I myself shall give you the vineyard of Naʹboth the Jezʹre·el·ite.”+ 8 Accordingly she wrote letters+ in Aʹhab’s name and sealed them with his seal,+ and sent the letters to the older men+ and the nobles that were in his city dwelling with Naʹboth. 9 But she wrote in the letters, saying:+ “Proclaim a fast, and HAVE Naʹboth sit at the head of the people. 10 And MAKE two men,+ good-for-nothing+ fellows,* sit in front of him, and let them bear witness against him,+ saying, ‘You have cursed* God and the king!’+ And BRING him out and stone him that he may die.”+
11 So the men of his city, the older men and the nobles that were dwelling in his city, did just as Jezʹe·bel had sent to them, just as it was written in the letters that she had sent to them.+ 12 They proclaimed a fast+ and had Naʹboth sit at the head of the people. 13 Then two of the men, good-for-nothing fellows, came in and sat down in front of him; and the good-for-nothing men began to bear witness against him, that is, Naʹboth, in front of the people, saying: “Naʹboth has cursed* God and the king!”+ After that they brought him out to the outskirts of the city and stoned him with stones, so that he died.+ 14 They now sent to Jezʹe·bel, saying: “Naʹboth has been stoned so that he is dead.”+
15 And it came about that, as soon as Jezʹe·bel heard that Naʹboth had been stoned so that he died, Jezʹe·bel immediately said to Aʹhab: “Rise up, take possession of the vineyard of Naʹboth the Jezʹre·el·ite,+ which he refused to give you for money; for Naʹboth is no longer alive, but dead.” 16 And it came about that, as soon as Aʹhab heard that Naʹboth was dead, Aʹhab at once rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naʹboth the Jezʹre·el·ite, to take possession of it.+
17 And Jehovah’s word+ came to E·liʹjah+ the Tishʹbite, saying: 18 “Rise up, go down to meet Aʹhab the king of Israel, who is in Sa·marʹi·a.+ There he is in the vineyard of Naʹboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. 19 And you must speak to him, saying, ‘This is what Jehovah has said: “Have you murdered+ and also taken possession?”’+ And you must speak to him, saying, ‘This is what Jehovah has said: “In the place+ where the dogs licked up the blood of Naʹboth, the dogs will lick up your blood, even yours.”’”+
20 And Aʹhab proceeded to say to E·liʹjah: “Have you found me, O enemy of mine?”+ to which he said: “I have found you. ‘For the reason that you have sold yourself to do what is bad in the eyes of Jehovah,+ 21 here I am bringing calamity upon you;+ and I shall certainly make a clean sweep after you+ and cut off from Aʹhab anyone urinating against a wall*+ and the helpless and worthless one* in Israel. 22 And I shall certainly constitute your house like the house of Jer·o·boʹam+ the son of Neʹbat and like the house of Baʹa·sha+ the son of A·hiʹjah, for the offense with which you have offended and then caused Israel to sin.’+ 23 And also as regards Jezʹe·bel Jehovah has spoken, saying, ‘The very dogs will eat up Jezʹe·bel in the plot of land of Jezʹre·el.+ 24 Anyone of Aʹhab’s that is dying in the city the dogs will eat up; and anyone dying in the field the fowls of the heavens will eat up.+ 25 Without exception no one has proved to be like Aʹhab,+ who sold himself to do what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah, whom Jezʹe·bel+ his wife egged+ on. 26 And he went acting very detestably by going after the dungy idols,+ the same as all that the Amʹor·ites had done, whom Jehovah drove out from before the sons of Israel.’”+
27 And it came about that as soon as Aʹhab heard these words, he proceeded to rip his garments apart and to put sackcloth+ upon his flesh; and he went on a fast and kept lying down in sackcloth and walking despondently.+ 28 And Jehovah’s word came to E·liʹjah the Tishʹbite, saying: 29 “Have you seen how Aʹhab has humbled himself on my account?+ For the reason that he has humbled himself because of me, I shall not bring the calamity in his own days.+ In the days of his son I shall bring the calamity upon his house.”+
22 And for three years they continued dwelling without war between Syria and Israel. 2 And it came about in the third year that Je·hoshʹa·phat*+ the king of Judah proceeded to go down to the king of Israel. 3 Then the king of Israel said to his servants: “Do YOU really know that Raʹmoth-gilʹe·ad+ belongs to us? Yet we are hesitating to take it out of the hand of the king of Syria.” 4 And he went on to say to Je·hoshʹa·phat: “Will you go with me to the fight at Raʹmoth-gilʹe·ad?”+ At this Je·hoshʹa·phat said to the king of Israel: “I am the same as you. My people are the same as your people.+ My horses are the same as your horses.”
5 However, Je·hoshʹa·phat went on to say to the king of Israel: “Inquire,+ please, first of all for the word of Jehovah.” 6 So the king of Israel collected the prophets together,+ about four hundred men, and said to them: “Shall I go against Raʹmoth-gilʹe·ad in war, or shall I refrain?” And they began to say: “Go up,+ and Jehovah* will give it into the king’s hand.”
7 But Je·hoshʹa·phat said: “Is there not here a prophet of Jehovah still? Then let us inquire through him.”+ 8 At that the king of Israel said to Je·hoshʹa·phat: “There is still one man through whom to inquire of Jehovah;+ but I myself certainly hate him,+ for he does not prophesy good things concerning me but bad+—Mi·caiʹah* the son of Imʹlah.” However, Je·hoshʹa·phat said: “Do not let the king say a thing like that.”+
9 Accordingly the king of Israel called a certain court official+ and said: “Do bring Mi·caiʹah the son of Imʹlah quickly.”+ 10 Now the king of Israel and Je·hoshʹa·phat the king of Judah were sitting each one on his throne, clothed in garments,+ in the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Sa·marʹi·a; and all the prophets were acting as prophets before them.+ 11 Then Zed·e·kiʹah the son of Che·naʹa·nah made for himself horns of iron and said: “This is what Jehovah has said,+ ‘With these you will push the Syrians until you exterminate them.’”+ 12 And all the other prophets were prophesying the same as that, saying: “Go up to Raʹmoth-gilʹe·ad and prove successful; and Jehovah will certainly give it into the king’s hand.”+
13 And the messenger that had gone to call Mi·caiʹah spoke to him, saying: “Look, now! The words of the prophets are unanimously* of good to the king. Let your word, please, become like the word of one of them, and you must speak good.”+ 14 But Mi·caiʹah said: “As Jehovah is living,+ what Jehovah will say to me, that is what I shall speak.”+ 15 Then he came in to the king, and the king proceeded to say to him: “Mi·caiʹah, shall we go to Raʹmoth-gilʹe·ad in war, or shall we refrain?” At once he said to him: “Go up and prove successful; and Jehovah will certainly give it into the king’s hand.”+ 16 At that the king said to him: “For how many times am I putting you under oath that you should not speak to me anything but truth in the name of Jehovah?”+ 17 So he said: “I certainly see all the Israelites scattered+ on the mountains, like sheep that have no shepherd.+ And Jehovah went on to say: ‘These have no masters.* Let them go back each one to his house in peace.’”+
18 Then the king of Israel said to Je·hoshʹa·phat: “Did I not say to you, ‘He will prophesy concerning me, not good things, but bad’?”+
19 And he went on to say: “Therefore hear the word of Jehovah:+ I certainly see Jehovah sitting upon his throne+ and all the army of the heavens standing by him, to his right and to his left.+ 20 And Jehovah proceeded to say, ‘Who will fool Aʹhab, that he may go up and fall at Raʹmoth-gilʹe·ad?’ And this one began to say something like this, while that one was saying something like that.+ 21 Finally a spirit+ came out and stood before Jehovah and said, ‘I myself shall fool him.’ At that Jehovah said to him, ‘By what means?’+ 22 To this he said, ‘I shall go forth, and I shall certainly become a deceptive spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’+ So he said, ‘You will fool him, and, what is more, you will come off the winner.+ Go out and do that way.’+ 23 And now here Jehovah has put a deceptive spirit into the mouth of all these prophets of yours;+ but Jehovah himself has spoken calamity concerning you.”+
24 Zed·e·kiʹah the son of Che·naʹa·nah now approached and struck Mi·caiʹah upon the cheek+ and said: “In just which [way] did the spirit of Jehovah pass along from me to speak with you?”+ 25 At that Mi·caiʹah said: “Look! You are seeing [which way] on that day when you will enter the innermost+ chamber to hide yourself.”+ 26 Then the king of Israel said: “Take Mi·caiʹah and turn him back to Aʹmon the chief of the city and to Joʹash the king’s son.+ 27 And you must say, ‘This is what the king has said:+ “PUT this fellow in the house of detention+ and feed him with a reduced allowance of bread+ and a reduced allowance of water until I come in peace.”’”+ 28 Upon that Mi·caiʹah said: “If you return at all in peace, Jehovah has not spoken with* me.”+ And he added: “Hear, all YOU peoples.”+
29 And the king of Israel and Je·hoshʹa·phat the king of Judah proceeded to go up to Raʹmoth-gilʹe·ad.+ 30 The king of Israel now said to Je·hoshʹa·phat: “There will be a disguising and entering* into the battle+ [for me], but you, for your part, put on your garments.”+ Accordingly, the king of Israel disguised+ himself and entered into the battle.+ 31 As for the king of Syria, he had commanded the thirty-two chiefs+ of the chariots that were his, saying: “YOU must fight, neither with the small nor the great, but with the king of Israel alone.”+ 32 And it came about that, as soon as the chiefs of the chariots saw Je·hoshʹa·phat, they, for their part, said to themselves: “Surely it is the king of Israel.”+ So they turned aside against him to fight; and Je·hoshʹa·phat began to cry for aid.+ 33 And it came about that, as soon as the chiefs of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they immediately came back from following him.+
34 And there was a man that bent the bow in his innocence, but he got to strike the king of Israel between the appendages and the coat of mail, so that he said to his charioteer:+ “Turn your hand around, and take me out from the camp, because I have been badly wounded.” 35 And the battle kept rising in intensity on that day, and the king himself had to be kept in a standing position in the chariot facing the Syrians, and gradually he died+ in the evening; and the blood of the wound kept pouring out upon the interior of the war chariot.+ 36 And the ringing cry* began to pass through the camp about the setting of the sun, saying: “Everyone to his city, and everyone to his land!”+ 37 Thus the king died. When he was brought* to Sa·marʹi·a, then they buried the king in Sa·marʹi·a.+ 38 And they began to wash off the war chariot by the pool of Sa·marʹi·a, and the dogs went licking up his blood+ (and the prostitutes themselves bathed there), according to Jehovah’s word that he had spoken.+
39 As for the rest of the affairs of Aʹhab and all that he did and the house of ivory+ that he built and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book+ of the affairs of the days of the kings of Israel? 40 Finally Aʹhab lay down with his forefathers;+ and A·ha·ziʹah*+ his son began to reign in place of him.
41 As for Je·hoshʹa·phat+ the son of Aʹsa, he had become king over Judah in the fourth year of Aʹhab the king of Israel. 42 Je·hoshʹa·phat was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and for twenty-five years he reigned in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was A·zuʹbah the daughter of Shilʹhi. 43 And he kept walking in all the way of Aʹsa his father. He did not turn aside from it, by doing what was right in the eyes of Jehovah.+ Only the high places themselves did not disappear.* The people were still sacrificing and making sacrificial smoke on the high places.+ 44 And Je·hoshʹa·phat kept peaceful relations with the king of Israel.+ 45 As for the rest of the affairs of Je·hoshʹa·phat and the mightiness with which he acted and how he warred, are they not written in the book+ of the affairs of the days of the kings of Judah? 46 And the rest of the male temple prostitutes+ that had been left over in the days of Aʹsa his father he cleared out from the land.+
47 As regards a king, there was none in Eʹdom;+ a deputy was king.+
48 Je·hoshʹa·phat, for his part, made Tarʹshish+ ships to go to Oʹphir for gold; but they did not go, because the ships were wrecked at Eʹzi·on-geʹber.+ 49 It was then that A·ha·ziʹah the son of Aʹhab said to Je·hoshʹa·phat: “Let my servants go with your servants in the ships,” but Je·hoshʹa·phat did not consent.+
50 Finally Je·hoshʹa·phat lay down with his forefathers+ and was buried with his forefathers in the City of David+ his forefather; and Je·hoʹram+ his son began to reign in place of him.
51 As for A·ha·ziʹah+ the son of Aʹhab, he became king over Israel in Sa·marʹi·a in the seventeenth year of Je·hoshʹa·phat the king of Judah, and he continued to reign over Israel for two years. 52 And he kept doing what was bad+ in Jehovah’s eyes and went walking in the way of his father+ and in the way of his mother+ and in the way of Jer·o·boʹam+ the son of Neʹbat, who had caused Israel to sin.+ 53 And he continued serving Baʹal+ and bowing down to him and kept offending+ Jehovah the God of Israel according to all that his father had done.
“The First of Kings.” Heb., Mela·khimʹ I, pl.; Gr., Ba·si·leiʹon III; Vgc(Lat.), Liʹber Reʹgum Terʹti·us.
Lit., “Now the King.” Heb., weham·meʹlekh, sing.
Not referring to the “servants” in vs 2, but to those sent out to search.
Or, “all his life.” Lit., “from his days (years).”
Lit., “she.”
“And Benaiah.” Heb., u·Vena·yaʹhu.
“Adonijah.” Heb., ʼAdho·ni·yaʹhu.
Or, “the Gliding Stone.”
“And our lord.” Heb., wa·ʼadho·nehʹnu, pl. of ʼa·dhohnʹ, to denote excellence. See Ge 39:2 ftn.
See vs 11 ftn.
Or, “So let it be!” Heb., ʼa·menʹ.
“Say,” MVg; Sy and two Heb. mss, “do.”
See vs 11 ftn.
“Your God,” M; MmarginLXXVg, “God”; Sy, “Jehovah your God.”
Or, “reminders; exhortations.”
Or, “faithfulness.”
“Sheol.” Heb., sheʼolʹ; Gr., haiʹdou; Syr., la·shiul; Lat., inʹfe·ros. See App 4B.
Or, “loyal love.”
“Upon him, and Adonijah died on that day,” LXX.
Lit., “a man of death.”
“Absalom,” MLXXBVg; LXXSyVgc, “Solomon.”
Lit., “bloods,” denoting cases of bloodshed.
“The king put,” M; LXX, “the king put as the high priest.”
Lit., “Your blood.” Heb., dom·khaʹ.
Or, “before Jehovah until time indefinite.”
“God,” MSy; TLXX, “Jehovah.”
Or, “loyal love.”
Lit., “a son sitting.”
Lit., “a hearing heart.”
Or, “numerous.” Lit., “heavy.”
Or, “good.”
One of 134 scribal changes from YHWH to ʼAdho·naiʹ. See App 1B.
“God,” MVg; LXXSyVgc, “Jehovah.”
Or, “life.” Heb., neʹphesh; Gr., psy·khasʹ, pl.; Vgc(Lat.), aʹni·mas, pl.
Or, “discernment.”
Or, “to obey judgment.”
Or, “discerning.”
See vs 10 ftn, “Jehovah.”
“The princes.” Heb., has·sa·rimʹ; Lat., prinʹci·pes.
Heb., ʽAzar·yaʹhu.
Or, “remembrancer.”
Or, “he had Havvoth-jair.”
M ends chapter 4 here.
That is, the Euphrates.
Lit., “Solomon’s bread for one day.”
A cor equaled 220 L (200 dry qt). See Eze 45:14.
“And peace itself became his at the instance of all his servants all around,” many Heb. mss and editions.
“God,” MSyVg; TLXXSyHexapla, “Jehovah.”
Or, “discernment.”
Lit., “all the sons of the East.”
Or, “mankind.” Lit., “the earthling man.” Heb., ha·ʼa·dhamʹ.
Lit., “name.”
“A thousand and five,” MSyVg; LXXVg12 mss, “five thousand.”
Or, “friend.” Lat., a·miʹcus.
“Resister.” Heb., sa·tanʹ; Syr., sa·ta·naʼ, “the resister”; Lat., saʹtan.
Lit., “I am saying [to myself] to build.”
Or, “fir trees.” Gr., xyʹla, “trees.”
See 4:22 ftn, “Cor.”
That is, especially fine and costly oil made by beating or pounding olives in a mortar; the olives sometimes are trodden by foot.
Lit., “princes of the deputies.”
“Four hundred and eightieth year,” MSyVg; LXX, “four hundred and fortieth year.”
See App 8A.
Or, “and to the hindmost chamber.” Heb., welad·devirʹ; Gr., da·birʹ; Sy, “house of the propitiatory cover,” that is, the Most Holy; Lat., o·raʹcu·li, “the oracle,” based on the incorrect theory that the Heb. noun devirʹ was derived from the verb da·varʹ, “to speak.” Compare Coptic ta·bir, “the innermost”; also Arabic dub(u)r, “back.”
“Side chamber,” LXX; M, “side structure.”
“Lowest,” TLXX; MSyVg, “middle.”
“Right,” that is, south, when one faces east.
“Rafters,” by a slight correction; M, “walls.”
“The temple in front of the doors of the oracle (innermost room),” Vg.
See App 8B.
See App 8A.
“Rafters,” by a slight correction; Sy, “ceiling”; Vg, “top”; M, “floor.”
“Seven,” M; LXX, “a net.”
“Pomegranates,” two Heb. mss; M, “pillars.”
“Pillars,” Sy and 50 Heb. mss; M, “pomegranates.”
Or, “southern,” that is, right, when one faces east.
Meaning “He Will Firmly Establish.”
Or, “northern,” that is, left, when one faces east.
Possibly meaning “In Strength,” and to be read after the name of the other pillar, “Jachin.”
Or, “cattle.”
Lit., “toward the sea,” that is, the Mediterranean. Heb., yamʹmah.
Lit., “toward the Negeb.” Heb., neghʹbah, “southward.”
About 7.4 cm (2.9 in.).
About 44,000 L (11,620 gal). Probably the normal operating level. Compare 2Ch 4:5 ftn, “Measures.”
Or, “punchwork.”
The number of cubits is missing from M.
“A stand,” inserted because this word is evidently missing in M.
About 880 L (230 gal).
Or, “south,” that is, the right side, when one faces east.
Or, “north,” that is, the left side, when one faces east.
“Upon the two pillars,” LXX; SyVg, “upon the tops of the pillars”; M, “in front of the pillars.”
See Ge 13:10 ftn, “District.”
Or, “in the foundry of the ground.” Possibly, “at the ford of Adamah,” by a slight correction.
Or, “the bread of Presence.” Lit., “bread of the faces.” Heb., leʹchem hap·pa·nimʹ; Vg, “the loaves of presentation.”
Or, “that is, the Holy of Holies.” Heb., leQoʹdhesh haq·Qodha·shimʹ.
Or, “elders.”
Or, “nasis.”
LXX adds “tablets of the covenant.”
Lit., “had cut [a covenant].”
“To time indefinite.” Lit., “times indefinite.” Heb., ʽoh·la·mimʹ, pl.
“Congregation of.” Heb., qehalʹ; LXXVg, “ecclesia.”
“God.” Heb., ʼElo·himʹ; Gr., The·osʹ.
Or, “loyal love.”
Lit., “you spoke.”
“O God of Israel,” M; TLXXSyVgc and 35 Heb. mss, “O Jehovah the God of Israel.”
Lit., “word.”
Or, “cities,” represented by the “gates,” by a figure of speech, synecdoche.
Or, “humankind.” Heb., ha·ʼa·dhamʹ; LXXVg, “men.”
Lit., “and they indeed cause a returning to their heart.”
“Congregation of.” Heb., qehalʹ; Gr., ek·kle·siʹan; Lat., ec·cleʹsi·ae.
Lit., “his good word that he has spoken.”
See Jos 13:5 ftn, “Hamath.”
“Before Jehovah our God in the house that he built, eating and drinking and rejoicing before Jehovah our God,” LXX.
Lit., “tents.”
Or, “over Israel forever.”
Or, “and worship them.”
“Throw away,” TLXXVg and 2Ch 7:20; M, “send away.”
“Become heaps of ruins,” by a minor correction to agree with SyIt; M, “become most prominent (outstanding; conspicuous).”
Or, “the circuit.” Heb., hag·Ga·lilʹ; Gr., Ga·li·laiʹai; Lat., Ga·li·leʹae. “Galilee” later designated the Roman province north of Samaria.
Or, “the Land as Good as Nothing”; perhaps, “the Fettered Land.”
See App 8A.
“The Mound.” Lit., “the filling [of earth].” Heb., ham·mil·lohʼʹ. Possibly a citadellike structure.
“Tadmor,” MmarginSy (see 2Ch 8:4); Vg, “Palmyra.”
“There was a making of sacrificial smoke.” In Heb. this is a verb in the infinitive absolute, indefinite as to time and impersonal.
Lit., “men of ships.”
See App 8A.
Or, “with riddles.”
Or, “dishes.”
Lit., “the standing.”
“Men,” MVg; LXXSyIt, “wives.”
Heb., ʼal·mug·gimʹ. Compare 2Ch 2:8 ftn, “Algum.”
About $256,643,000, with gold at $350 (U.S.) per oz t.
“Six hundred shekels,” Vg; M, “six hundred”; Sy, “six hundred minas.” See App 8A.
See App 8A.
“Upon each buckler.” Heb., ʽal-ham·ma·ghenʹ, a shield smaller than the tsin·nahʹ, “large shield,” mentioned in vs 16.
Lit., “And all the earth,” but with the pl. participle “seeking.” LXXSy, “And all the kings of the earth.”
“God,” M(Heb., ʼElo·himʹ)Vg; LXX, “Jehovah.”
Or, “horsemen.”
Or, “the lowland.”
“It was by means of them,” M; LXX, “It was by sea.”
“Goddess of.” Heb., ʼelo·hehʹ, pl. of ʼelohʹah, to denote excellence. Masc., but here applied to a female deity.
“A resister.” Heb. and Gr., sa·tanʹ; Syr., sa·ta·naʼ, “the resister”; Vg, “adversary.”
“When David struck down Edom,” by a slight emendation to agree with LXXSy; M, “when David happened to be with Edom.”
Lit., “little.”
“His lord.” Heb., ʼadho·navʹ, pl. of ʼa·dhohnʹ, to denote excellence.
“Them,” M; by correcting one Heb. consonant, “Syria.”
“The Mound.” Heb., ham·mil·lohʼʹ. See 9:15 ftn.
“He proceeded to make him overseer.” Heb., wai·yaph·qedhʹ ʼo·thohʹ.
“Ahijah,” LXXSy; MVg, “he.”
See vs 5 ftn.
“The god of.” Heb., ʼelo·hehʹ, pl. of ʼelohʹah, applied to a pagan deity. Compare Jg 16:23 ftn.
Or, “nasi.”
“Scourges.” The Heb. word also means “scorpions,” as in De 8:15.
“To your gods.” Lit., “To your tents.” Heb., leʼo·ha·leyʹkha. One of the Eighteen Emendations of the Sopherim. The original Heb. text is alleged to have used a form of ʼelo·himʹ (“gods”; or, “God”), but by transposing l and h, the second and third consonants of the word, the Jewish Sopherim made M read “tents.” See 2Sa 20:1 ftn, “Gods”; 2Ch 10:16 ftn; App 2B.
“Assembly.” Gr., sy·na·go·genʹ.
“Able-bodied for war.” Lit., “making war.”
“The [true] God.” Heb., ha·ʼElo·himʹ; LXXSyVg, “Jehovah.”
“Their lord.” Heb., ʼadho·neh·hemʹ, pl. of ʼa·dhohnʹ, to denote excellence.
“To the people,” LXXIt; Sy, “to all Israel”; MVg, “to them.”
Lit., “your gods.” Heb., ʼelo·heyʹkha, followed by the pl. verb “brought.” Compare Ex 32:1, 4 ftns, “God.”
“By himself.” Mmargin, “in his heart.”
“A man of God.” Heb., ʼish ʼElo·himʹ, without the definite article ha. Compare vs 4 ftn.
“He,” LXXSyVg; M, “they.”
“The man of the [true] God.” Heb., ʼish-ha·ʼElo·himʹ.
“Sons,” LXXSyItVgc; MVg, “son.”
“Deposit me that my bones may be saved along with his bones,” LXX.
Or, “he would install him.”
“[One of the] priests,” M; LXXSyItVg, “a priest.”
“As to becoming king,” LXXASyVg; M, “as king.”
“Now Ahijah.” Heb., wa·ʼAchi·yaʹhu.
Or, “And let it occur.”
Lit., “other gods.” Heb., ʼelo·himʹ ʼache·rimʹ. Compare 12:28 ftn, “God.”
“Urinating against a wall.” A Heb. idiom for males.
Lit., “one restrained and one let go (abandoned) in Israel.” See De 32:36 ftn, “One.”
That is, the Euphrates.
“Male temple prostitute.” Heb., qa·dheshʹ; Lat., ef·fe·mi·naʹti, “effeminate men.”
“Abijam,” MVg; about 12 Heb. mss and the Bomberg ed. of the Hebrew Bible (1524–1525 C.E.), by Jacob Ben Hayim, “Abijah.”
Lit., “daughter.” Heb., bath. See 2Ch 13:1, 2.
“Absalom” in 2Ch 11:20, 21.
Lit., “making Jerusalem stand.” Compare Ex 9:16.
“Rehoboam,” MVg; 12 Heb. mss, “Abijam (Abijah)”; Sy, “Abija the son of Rehoboam.”
Lit., “his mother’s.” Heb., ʼim·mohʹ.
Lit., “every breath,” MLXX.
“Him,” that is, Nadab the son of Jeroboam. See 15:25-29.
“Urinates against a wall.” A Heb. idiom for males.
Or, “his goels,” M; SyVg, “his relatives.”
Lit., “their vanities.”
“Became king,” that is, became sole ruler upon the death of his rival, Tibni.
Meaning “Belonging to the Clan Shemer.” Heb., Sho·merohnʹ.
See App 8A.
Or, “lord of.” Heb., ʼadho·nehʹ, pl. of ʼa·dhohnʹ, to denote excellence.
Lit., “the Baal.” Heb., hab·Baʹʽal.
Or, “the Asherah.” Heb., ha·ʼAshe·rahʹ.
“Joshua.” Heb., Yehoh·shuʹaʽ, “Jehoshua”; LXX, “Jesus”; Syr., deYe·shuʽ.
Meaning “My God Is Jehovah.” Heb., ʼE·li·yaʹhu; LXXVg, “Elias.”
“From the inhabitants,” MSyVg; LXX and by a slight correction of M, “from Tishbeh.”
Or, “upon whom I do attend.”
Lit., “in front of.”
Or, “I have no pantry to turn to.”
Lit., “two.”
Lit., “What [is there] to me and to you?” A Heb. idiom; a repellent question. See App 7B.
“But Elijah said to the woman,” LXX.
Lit., “truth.” Heb., ʼemethʹ.
Or, “and let me give rain.”
Meaning “Servant of Jehovah.” Heb., ʽO·vadh·yaʹhu.
Or, “upon whom I do attend.”
Or, “two crutches,” KB, p. 663.
“The [true] God.” Heb., ha·ʼElo·himʹ, with the definite article ha, “the,” preceding the title ʼElo·himʹ. This is done for emphasis in contrast with the false god Baal. See App 1F.
“Your god.” Heb., ʼelo·heh·khemʹ, pl. of ʼelohʹah, referring to the false god Baal.
“The [true] God.” Heb., ha·ʼElo·himʹ, followed by the relative clause “that answers by fire.”
“The [true] God.” Heb., ha·ʼElo·himʹ, absolute, in the predicate. See App 1F.
Lit., “the Baal.” Heb., hab·Baʹʽal.
Lit., “Call with a great voice.”
A seah equaled 7.33 L (6.66 dry qt).
Lit., “Jehovah, the [true] God.” Heb., Yehwahʹ ha·ʼElo·himʹ; Gr., Kyʹri·os ho The·osʹ; Lat., Doʹmi·nus Deʹus.
“And wind.” Heb., weruʹach; Gr., pneuʹma·ti; Lat., venʹtus. Compare Ge 1:2 ftn, “Force”; Ge 8:1 ftn.
“The gods.” Heb., ʼelo·himʹ, accompanied by the pl. verb “do”; Gr., ho the·osʹ, “the god”; Lat., diʹi, “gods.”
“Became afraid,” LXXSyVg and many Heb. mss; M, “got to see.”
“His soul (life).” Heb., naph·shohʹ; Gr., psy·khenʹ.
“Voice, and Jehovah was there,” LXX.
Lit., “son.”
Meaning “God Is Salvation.” Heb., ʼEli·shaʽʹ; Gr., He·li·sai·eʹ; Lat., He·li·seʹum.
LXX transposes chapters 20 and 21; therefore in LXX chapter 21 begins here.
Lit., “that are at my feet!”
“Jehovah.” Heb., Yehwahʹ; AqBurkitt uses the Tetragrammaton in the ancient Heb. characters; Gr., Kyʹri·os. See App 1C §7.
See App 1C §7.
See App 1C §7.
“At the return of the year,” that is, next spring. See 2Ch 36:10.
Or, “Their gods are gods of mountains.” See vs 28 ftn.
“A God of.” Heb., ʼElo·hehʹ, pl. of ʼElohʹah, to denote excellence or majesty.
“Of the sons of the prophets.” Heb., mib·benehʹ han·nevi·ʼimʹ; the first occurrence of this expression.
“Striking and wounding.” In Heb. these are verbs in the infinitive absolute, indefinite as to time and impersonal.
See App 8A.
Lit., “the man, my devoted thing.”
“Good-for-nothing fellows.” Lit., “sons of belial (worthlessness).” Heb., beneh-veli·yaʹʽal.
“Cursed” was the original reading. The text was emended to read “blessed.” See App 2B.
See vs 10 ftn, “Cursed.”
“Urinating against a wall.” A Heb. idiom for males.
Lit., “and one restrained and one let go (abandoned).” See De 32:36 ftn, “One.”
Meaning “Jehovah Is Judge.” Heb., Yehoh·sha·phatʹ.
One of 134 scribal changes from YHWH to ʼAdho·naiʹ. See App 1B.
Meaning “Who Is Like Jehovah?” Heb., Mi·khaiʹhu.
Lit., “one mouth.”
Or, “lord.” Heb., ʼadho·nimʹ, pl. of ʼa·dhohnʹ, to denote excellence.
Or, “spoken by.” Compare Nu 12:8a.
“There will be a disguising and entering.” In Heb. these are verbs in the infinitive absolute, indefinite as to time and impersonal. TLXXSy, “I shall completely cover myself and enter”; Vg, “Take armor and enter.”
Or, “And the herald,” in agreement with LXX.
“He was brought,” Vg; MSy, “he came”; LXX, “they came.”
Meaning “Jehovah Has Taken Hold.” Heb., ʼAchaz·yaʹhu.
“Did not disappear,” M; LXXSyVg, “he did not remove.”