1 Kings 1-22

New Century Version

Adonijah Tries to Become King

1 At this time King David was very old, and although his servants covered him with blankets, he could not keep warm. ² They said to him, “We will look for a young woman to care for you. She will lie close to you and keep you warm.” ³ After searching everywhere in Israel for a beautiful young woman, they found a girl named Abishag from Shunam and brought her to the king. ⁴ The girl was very beautiful, and she cared for the king and served him. But the king did not have sexual relations with her.

⁵ Adonijah was the son of King David and Haggith, and he was very proud. “I will be the king,” he said. So he got chariots and horses for himself and fifty men for his personal bodyguard. ⁶ Now David had never interfered with Adonijah by questioning what he did. Born next after Absalom, Adonijah was a very handsome man.

⁷ Adonijah spoke with Joab son of Zeruiah and Abiathar the priest, and they agreed to help him. ⁸ But Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and King David’s special guard did not join Adonijah.

⁹ Then Adonijah killed some sheep, cows, and fat calves for sacrifices at the Stone of Zoheleth near the spring of Rogel. He invited all his brothers, the other sons of King David, to come, as well as all the men of Judah. ¹⁰ But Adonijah did not invite Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, his father’s special guard, or his brother Solomon.

¹¹ When Nathan heard about this, he went to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. “Have you heard that Adonijah, Haggith’s son, has made himself king?” Nathan asked. “Our real king, David, does not know it. ¹² I strongly advise you to save yourself and your sons. ¹³ Go to King David and tell him, ‘My master and king, you promised that my son Solomon would be king and would rule on your throne after you. Why then has Adonijah become king?’ ¹⁴ While you are still talking to the king, I will come in and tell him that what you have said about Adonijah is true.”

¹⁵ So Bathsheba went in to see the aged king in his bedroom, where Abishag, the girl from Shunam, was caring for him. ¹⁶ Bathsheba bowed and knelt before the king. He asked, “What do you want?”

¹⁷ She answered, “My master, you made a promise to me in the name of the Lord your God. You said, ‘Your son Solomon will become king after me, and he will rule on my throne.’ ¹⁸ But now, unknown to you, Adonijah has become king. ¹⁹ He has killed many cows, fat calves, and sheep for sacrifices. And he has invited all your sons, as well as Abiathar the priest and Joab the commander of the army, but he did not invite Solomon, who serves you. ²⁰ My master and king, all the Israelites are watching you, waiting for you to decide who will be king after you. ²¹ As soon as you die, Solomon and I will be treated as criminals.”

²² While Bathsheba was still talking with the king, Nathan the prophet arrived. ²³ The servants told the king, “Nathan the prophet is here.” So Nathan went to the king and bowed facedown on the ground before him.

²⁴ Nathan said, “My master and king, have you said that Adonijah will be the king after you and that he will rule on your throne? ²⁵ Today he has sacrificed many cows, fat calves, and sheep, and he has invited all your other sons, the commanders of the army, and Abiathar the priest. Right now they are eating and drinking with him. They are saying, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’ ²⁶ But he did not invite me, your own servant, or Zadok the priest, or Benaiah son of Jehoiada, or your son Solomon. ²⁷ Did you do this? Since we are your servants, why didn’t you tell us who should be king after you?”

David Makes Solomon King

²⁸ Then the king said, “Tell Bathsheba to come in!” So she came in and stood before the king.

²⁹ Then the king made this promise, “The Lord has saved me from all trouble. As surely as he lives, ³⁰ I will do today what I have promised you in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. I promised that your son Solomon would be king after me and rule on my throne in my place.”

³¹ Then Bathsheba bowed facedown on the ground and knelt before the king and said, “Long live my master King David!”

³² Then King David said, “Tell Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada to come in.” When they came before the king, ³³ he said to them, “Take my servants with you and put my son Solomon on my own mule. Take him down to the spring called Gihon. ³⁴ There Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet should pour olive oil on him and make him king over Israel. Blow the trumpet and shout, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ ³⁵ Then come back up here with him. He will sit on my throne and rule in my place, because he is the one I have chosen to be the ruler over Israel and Judah.”

³⁶ Benaiah son of Jehoiada answered the king, “Amen! This is what the Lord, the God of my master, has declared! ³⁷ The Lord has always helped you, our king. May he also help Solomon and make King Solomon’s throne an even greater throne than yours.”

³⁸ So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada left with the Kerethites and Pelethites.^[a] They put Solomon on King David’s mule and took him to the spring called Gihon. ³⁹ Zadok the priest took the container of olive oil from the Holy Tent and poured the oil on Solomon’s head to show he was the king. Then they blew the trumpet, and all the people shouted, “Long live King Solomon!” ⁴⁰ All the people followed Solomon into the city. Playing flutes and shouting for joy, they made so much noise the ground shook.

⁴¹ At this time Adonijah and all the guests with him were finishing their meal. When he heard the sound from the trumpet, Joab asked, “What does all that noise from the city mean?”

⁴² While Joab was speaking, Jonathan son of Abiathar the priest arrived. Adonijah said, “Come in! You are an important man, so you must be bringing good news.”

⁴³ But Jonathan answered, “No! Our master King David has made Solomon the new king. ⁴⁴ King David sent Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and all the king’s bodyguards with him, and they have put Solomon on the king’s own mule. ⁴⁵ Then Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet poured olive oil on Solomon at Gihon to make him king. After that they went into the city, shouting with joy. Now the whole city is excited, and that is the noise you hear. ⁴⁶ Solomon has now become the king. ⁴⁷ All the king’s officers have come to tell King David that he has done a good thing. They are saying, ‘May your God make Solomon even more famous than you and an even greater king than you.’” Jonathan continued, “And King David bowed down on his bed to worship God, ⁴⁸ saying, ‘Bless the Lord, the God of Israel. Today he has made one of my sons the king and allowed me to see it.’”

⁴⁹ Then all of Adonijah’s guests were afraid, and they left quickly and scattered. ⁵⁰ Adonijah was also afraid of Solomon, so he went and took hold of the corners of the altar.^{[b] 51} Then someone told Solomon, “Adonijah is afraid of you, so he is at the altar, holding on to its corners. He says, ‘Tell King Solomon to promise me today that he will not kill me.’”

⁵² So Solomon answered, “Adonijah must show that he is a man of honor. If he does that, I promise he will not lose even a single hair from his head. But if he does anything wrong, he will die.” ⁵³ Then King Solomon sent some men to get Adonijah. When he was brought from the altar, he came before King Solomon and bowed down. Solomon told him, “Go home.”

The Death of David

2 Since it was almost time for David to die, he gave his son Solomon his last commands. ² David said, “My time to die is near. Be a good and strong leader. ³ Obey the Lord your God. Follow him by obeying his demands, his commands, his laws, and his rules that are written in the teachings of Moses. If you do these things, you will be successful in all you do and wherever you go. ⁴ And if you obey the Lord, he will keep the promise he made to me. He said: ‘If your descendants live as I tell them and have complete faith in me, a man from your family will always be king over the people of Israel.’

⁵ “Also, you remember what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me. He killed the two commanders of Israel’s armies: Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He did this as if he and they were at war, although it was a time of peace. He put their blood on the belt around his waist and on his sandals on his feet. ⁶ Punish him in the way you think is wisest, but do not let him die peacefully of old age.

⁷ “Be kind to the children of Barzillai of Gilead, and allow them to eat at your table. They welcomed me when I ran away from your brother Absalom.

⁸ “And remember, Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite, is here with you. He cursed me the day I went to Mahanaim. But when he came down to meet me at the Jordan River, I promised him before the Lord, ‘Shimei, I will not kill you.’ ⁹ But you should not leave him unpunished. You are a wise man, and you will know what to do to him, but you must be sure he is killed.”

¹⁰ Then David died and was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem. ¹¹ He had ruled over Israel forty years—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

Solomon Takes Control as King

¹² Solomon became king after David, his father, and he was in firm control of his kingdom.

¹³ At this time Adonijah son of Haggith went to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. “Do you come in peace?” Bathsheba asked.

“Yes. This is a peaceful visit,” Adonijah answered. ¹⁴ “I have something to say to you.”

“You may speak,” she said.

¹⁵ “You remember that at one time the kingdom was mine,” Adonijah said. “All the people of Israel recognized me as their king, but things have changed. Now my brother is the king, because the Lord chose him. ¹⁶ Now I have one thing to ask you; please do not refuse me.”

Bathsheba answered, “What do you want?”

¹⁷ “I know King Solomon will do anything you ask him,” Adonijah continued. “Please ask him to give me Abishag the Shunammite to be my wife.”

¹⁸ “Very well,” she answered. “I will speak to the king for you.”

¹⁹ So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. When Solomon saw her, he stood up to meet her, then bowed down, and sat on the throne. He told some servants to bring another throne for his mother. Then she sat down at his right side.

²⁰ Bathsheba said, “I have one small thing to ask you. Please do not refuse me.”

“Ask, mother,” the king answered. “I will not refuse you.”

²¹ So she said, “Allow Abishag the Shunammite to marry your brother Adonijah.”

²² King Solomon answered his mother, “Why do you ask me to give him Abishag? Why don’t you also ask for him to become the king since he is my older brother? Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah would support him!”

²³ Then King Solomon swore by the name of the Lord, saying, “May God punish me terribly if this doesn’t cost Adonijah his life! ²⁴ By the Lord who has given me the throne that belonged to my father David and who has kept his promise and given the kingdom to me and my people, Adonijah will die today!” ²⁵ Then King Solomon gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went and killed Adonijah.

²⁶ King Solomon said to Abiathar the priest, “I should kill you too, but I will allow you to go back to your fields in Anathoth. I will not kill you at this time, because you helped carry the Ark of the Lord God while marching with my father David. And I know you shared in all the hard times with him.” ²⁷ Then Solomon removed Abiathar from being the Lord’s priest. This happened as the Lord had said it would, when he was speaking in Shiloh about the priest Eli and his descendants.

²⁸ When Joab heard about what had happened, he was afraid. He had supported Adonijah but not Absalom. So Joab ran to the Tent of the Lord and took hold of the corners of the altar.^{[c] 29} Someone told King Solomon that Joab had run to the Tent of the Lord and was beside the altar. Then Solomon ordered Benaiah to go and kill him.

³⁰ Benaiah went into the Tent of the Lord and said to Joab, “The king says, ‘Come out!’”

But Joab answered, “No, I will die here.”

So Benaiah went back to the king and told him what Joab had said. ³¹ Then the king ordered Benaiah, “Do as he says! Kill him there and bury him. Then my family and I will be free of the guilt of Joab, who has killed innocent people. ³² Without my father knowing it, he killed two men who were much better than he was—Abner son of Ner, the commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, the commander of Judah’s army. So the Lord will pay him back for those deaths. ³³ Joab and his family will be forever guilty for their deaths, but there will be peace from the Lord for David, his descendants, his family, and his throne forever.”

³⁴ So Benaiah son of Jehoiada killed Joab, and he was buried near his home in the desert. ³⁵ The king then made Benaiah son of Jehoiada commander of the army in Joab’s place. He also made Zadok the new high priest in Abiathar’s place.

³⁶ Next the king sent for Shimei. Solomon said to him, “Build a house for yourself in Jerusalem and live there. Don’t leave the city. ³⁷ The very day you leave and cross the Kidron Valley, someone will kill you, and it will be your own fault.”

³⁸ So Shimei answered the king, “I agree with what you say. I will do what you say, my master and king.” So Shimei lived in Jerusalem for a long time.

³⁹ But three years later two of Shimei’s slaves ran away to Achish king of Gath, who was the son of Maacah. Shimei heard that his slaves were in Gath, ⁴⁰ so he put his saddle on his donkey and went to Achish at Gath to find them. Then he brought them back from Gath.

⁴¹ Someone told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned. ⁴² So Solomon sent for Shimei and said, “I made you promise in the name of the Lord not to leave Jerusalem. I warned you if you went out anywhere you would die, and you agreed to what I said. ⁴³ Why did you break your promise to the Lord and disobey my command?” ⁴⁴ The king also said, “You know the many wrong things you did to my father David, so now the Lord will punish you for those wrongs. ⁴⁵ But the Lord will bless me and make the rule of David safe before the Lord forever.”

⁴⁶ Then the king ordered Benaiah to kill Shimei, and he did. Now Solomon was in full control of his kingdom.

Solomon Asks for Wisdom

3 Solomon made an agreement with the king of Egypt by marrying his daughter and bringing her to Jerusalem. At this time Solomon was still building his palace and the Temple of the Lord, as well as a wall around Jerusalem. ² The Temple for the worship of the Lord had not yet been finished, so people were still sacrificing at altars in many places of worship. ³ Solomon showed he loved the Lord by following the commands his father David had given him, except many other places of worship were still used to offer sacrifices and to burn incense.

⁴ King Solomon went to Gibeon to offer a sacrifice, because it was the most important place of worship. He offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. ⁵ While he was at Gibeon, the Lord appeared to him in a dream during the night. God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

⁶ Solomon answered, “You were very kind to your servant, my father David. He obeyed you, and he was honest and lived right. You showed great kindness to him when you allowed his son to be king after him. ⁷ Lord my God, now you have made me, your servant, king in my father’s place. But I am like a little child; I don’t know how to do what must be done. ⁸ I, your servant, am here among your chosen people, and there are too many of them to count. ⁹ I ask that you give me a heart that understands, so I can rule the people in the right way and will know the difference between right and wrong. Otherwise, it is impossible to rule this great people of yours.”

¹⁰ The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked this. ¹¹ So God said to him, “You did not ask for a long life, or riches for yourself, or the death of your enemies. Since you asked for wisdom to make the right decisions, ¹² I will do what you asked. I will give you wisdom and understanding that is greater than anyone has had in the past or will have in the future. ¹³ I will also give you what you did not ask for: riches and honor. During your life no other king will be as great as you. ¹⁴ If you follow me and obey my laws and commands, as your father David did, I will also give you a long life.”

¹⁵ After Solomon woke up from the dream, he went to Jerusalem. He stood before the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord, where he made burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. After that, he gave a feast for all his leaders and officers.

Solomon Makes a Wise Decision

¹⁶ One day two women who were prostitutes came to Solomon. As they stood before him, ¹⁷ one of the women said, “My master, this woman and I live in the same house. I gave birth to a baby while she was there with me. ¹⁸ Three days later this woman also gave birth to a baby. No one else was in the house with us; it was just the two of us. ¹⁹ One night this woman rolled over on her baby, and he died. ²⁰ So she took my son from my bed during the night while I was asleep, and she carried him to her bed. Then she put the dead baby in my bed. ²¹ The next morning when I got up to feed my baby, I saw that he was dead! When I looked at him more closely, I realized he was not my son.”

²² “No!” the other woman cried. “The living baby is my son, and the dead baby is yours!”

But the first woman said, “No! The dead baby is yours, and the living one is mine!” So the two women argued before the king.

²³ Then King Solomon said, “One of you says, ‘My son is alive and your son is dead.’ Then the other one says, ‘No! Your son is dead and my son is alive.’”

²⁴ The king sent his servants to get a sword. When they brought it to him, ²⁵ he said, “Cut the living baby into two pieces, and give each woman half.”

²⁶ The real mother of the living child was full of love for her son. So she said to the king, “Please, my master, don’t kill him! Give the baby to her!”

But the other woman said, “Neither of us will have him. Cut him into two pieces!”

²⁷ Then King Solomon said, “Don’t kill him. Give the baby to the first woman, because she is the real mother.”

²⁸ When the people of Israel heard about King Solomon’s decision, they respected him very much. They saw he had wisdom from God to make the right decisions.

Solomon’s Officers

4 King Solomon ruled over all Israel. ² These are the names of his leading officers:

Azariah son of Zadok was the priest;

³ Elihoreph and Ahijah, sons of Shisha, recorded what happened in the courts;

Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud recorded the history of the people;

⁴ Benaiah son of Jehoiada was commander of the army;

Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

⁵ Azariah son of Nathan was in charge of the district governors;

Zabud son of Nathan was a priest and adviser to the king;

⁶ Ahishar was responsible for everything in the palace;

Adoniram son of Abda was in charge of the labor force.

⁷ Solomon placed twelve governors over the districts of Israel, who gathered food from their districts for the king and his family. Each governor was responsible for bringing food to the king one month of each year. ⁸ These are the names of the twelve governors:

Ben-Hur was governor of the mountain country of Ephraim.

⁹ Ben-Deker was governor of Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth Shemesh, and Elon Bethhanan.

¹⁰ Ben-Hesed was governor of Arubboth, Socoh, and all the land of Hepher.

¹¹ Ben-Abinadab was governor of Naphoth Dor. (He was married to Taphath, Solomon’s daughter.)

¹² Baana son of Ahilud was governor of Taanach, Megiddo, and all of Beth Shan next to Zarethan. This was below Jezreel from Beth Shan to Abel Meholah across from Jokmeam.

¹³ Ben-Geber was governor of Ramoth in Gilead. (He was governor of all the towns of Jair in Gilead. Jair was the son of Manasseh. Ben-Geber was also over the district of Argob in Bashan, which had sixty large, walled cities with bronze bars on their gates.)

¹⁴ Ahinadab son of Iddo was governor of Mahanaim.

¹⁵ Ahimaaz was governor of Naphtali. (He was married to Basemath, Solomon’s daughter.)

¹⁶ Baana son of Hushai was governor of Asher and Aloth.

¹⁷ Jehoshaphat son of Paruah was governor of Issachar.

¹⁸ Shimei son of Ela was governor of Benjamin.

¹⁹ Geber son of Uri was governor of Gilead. Gilead had been the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan. But Geber was the only governor over this district.

Solomon’s Kingdom

²⁰ There were as many people in Judah and Israel as grains of sand on the seashore. The people ate, drank, and were happy. ²¹ Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These countries brought Solomon the payments he demanded, and they were under his control all his life.

²² Solomon needed much food each day to feed himself and all the people who ate at his table: one hundred ninety-five bushels of fine flour, three hundred ninety bushels of grain, ²³ ten cows that were fed on good grain, twenty cows that were raised in the fields, one hundred sheep, three kinds of deer, and fattened birds.

²⁴ Solomon controlled all the countries west of the Euphrates River—the land from Tiphsah to Gaza. And he had peace on all sides of his kingdom. ²⁵ During Solomon’s life Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba,^[d] also lived in peace; all of his people were able to sit under their own fig trees and grapevines.

²⁶ Solomon had four thousand stalls for his chariot horses and twelve thousand horses. ²⁷ Each month one of the district governors gave King Solomon all the food he needed—enough for every person who ate at the king’s table. The governors made sure he had everything he needed. ²⁸ They also brought enough barley and straw for Solomon’s chariot and work horses; each person brought this grain to the right place.

Solomon’s Wisdom

²⁹ God gave Solomon great wisdom so he could understand many things. His wisdom was as hard to measure as the grains of sand on the seashore. ³⁰ His wisdom was greater than any wisdom of the East, or any wisdom in Egypt. ³¹ He was wiser than anyone on earth. He was even wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, as well as Heman, Calcol, and Darda—the three sons of Mahol. King Solomon became famous in all the surrounding countries. ³² During his life he spoke three thousand wise sayings and also wrote one thousand five songs. ³³ He taught about many kinds of plants—everything from the great cedar trees of Lebanon to the weeds that grow out of the walls. He also taught about animals, birds, crawling things, and fish. ³⁴ People from all nations came to listen to King Solomon’s wisdom. The kings of all nations sent them to him, because they had heard of Solomon’s wisdom.

Preparing to Build the Temple

5 Hiram, the king of Tyre, had always been David’s friend. When Hiram heard that Solomon had been made king in David’s place, he sent his messengers to Solomon. ² Solomon sent this message back to King Hiram: ³ “You remember my father David had to fight many wars with the countries around him, so he was never able to build a temple for worshiping the Lord his God. David was waiting until the Lord allowed him to defeat all his enemies. ⁴ But now the Lord my God has given me peace on all sides of my country. I have no enemies now, and no danger threatens my people.

⁵ “The Lord promised my father David, ‘I will make your son king after you, and he will build a temple for worshiping me.’ Now, I plan to build that temple for worshiping the Lord my God. ⁶ So send your men to cut down cedar trees for me from Lebanon. My servants will work with yours, and I will pay them whatever wages you decide. We don’t have anyone who can cut down trees as well as the people of Sidon.”

⁷ When Hiram heard what Solomon asked, he was very happy. He said, “Praise the Lord today! He has given David a wise son to rule over this great nation!” ⁸ Then Hiram sent back this message to Solomon: “I received the message you sent, and I will give you all the cedar and pine trees you want. ⁹ My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea. There I will tie them together and float them along the shore to the place you choose. Then I will separate the logs there, and you can take them away. In return it is my wish that you give food to all those who live with me.” ¹⁰ So Hiram gave Solomon as much cedar and pine as he wanted. ¹¹ And Solomon gave Hiram about one hundred twenty-five thousand bushels of wheat each year to feed the people who lived with him. Solomon also gave him about one hundred fifteen thousand gallons of pure olive oil every year.

¹² The Lord gave Solomon wisdom as he had promised. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; these two kings made a treaty between themselves.

¹³ King Solomon forced thirty thousand men of Israel to help in this work. ¹⁴ He sent a group of ten thousand men each month to Lebanon. Each group worked in Lebanon one month, then went home for two months. A man named Adoniram was in charge. ¹⁵ Solomon forced eighty thousand men to work in the hill country, cutting stone, and he had seventy thousand men to carry the stones. ¹⁶ There were also thirty-three hundred men who directed the workers. ¹⁷ King Solomon commanded them to cut large blocks of fine stone to be used for the foundation of the Temple. ¹⁸ Solomon’s and Hiram’s builders and the men from Byblos carved the stones and prepared the stones and the logs for building the Temple.

Solomon Builds the Temple

6 Solomon began to build the Temple four hundred eighty years after the people of Israel had left Egypt. This was during the fourth year of King Solomon’s rule over Israel. It was the second month, the month of Ziv.

² The Temple was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty-five feet high. ³ The porch in front of the main room of the Temple was fifteen feet deep and thirty feet wide. This room ran along the front of the Temple itself. Its width was equal to that of the Temple. ⁴ The Temple also had windows that opened and closed. ⁵ Solomon also built some side rooms against the walls of the main room and the inner room of the Temple. He built rooms all around. ⁶ The rooms on the bottom floor were seven and one-half feet wide. Those on the middle floor were nine feet wide, and the rooms above them were ten and one-half feet wide. The Temple wall that formed the side of each room was thinner than the wall in the room below. These rooms were pushed against the Temple wall, but they did not have their main beams built into this wall.

⁷ The stones were prepared at the same place where they were cut from the ground. Since these stones were the only ones used to build the Temple, there was no noise of hammers, axes, or any other iron tools at the Temple.

⁸ The entrance to the lower rooms beside the Temple was on the south side. From there, stairs went up to the second-floor rooms. And from there, stairs went on to the third-floor rooms. ⁹ Solomon put a roof made from beams and cedar boards on the Temple. So he finished building the Temple ¹⁰ as well as the bottom floor that was beside the Temple. This bottom floor was seven and one-half feet high and was attached to the Temple by cedar beams.

¹¹ The Lord said to Solomon: ¹² “If you obey all my laws and commands, I will do for you what I promised your father David. ¹³ I will live among the Israelites in this Temple, and I will never leave my people Israel.”

¹⁴ So Solomon finished building the Temple. ¹⁵ The inside walls were covered from floor to ceiling with cedar boards. The floor was made from pine boards. ¹⁶ A room thirty feet long was built in the back part of the Temple. This room, called the Most Holy Place, was separated from the rest of the Temple by cedar boards which reached from floor to ceiling. ¹⁷ The main room, the one in front of the Most Holy Place, was sixty feet long. ¹⁸ Everything inside the Temple was covered with cedar, which was carved with pictures of flowers and plants. A person could not see the stones of the wall, only the cedar.

¹⁹ Solomon prepared the inner room at the back of the Temple to keep the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord. ²⁰ This inner room was thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and thirty feet high. He covered this room with pure gold, and he also covered the altar of cedar. ²¹ He covered the inside of the Temple with pure gold, placing gold chains across the front of the inner room, which was also covered with gold. ²² So all the inside of the Temple, as well as the altar of the Most Holy Place, was covered with gold.

²³ Solomon made two creatures from olive wood and placed them in the Most Holy Place. Each creature was fifteen feet tall ²⁴ and had two wings. Each wing was seven and one-half feet long, so it was fifteen feet from the end of one wing to the end of the other. ²⁵ The creatures were the same size and shape; ²⁶ each was fifteen feet tall. ²⁷ These creatures were put beside each other in the Most Holy Place with their wings spread out. One creature’s wing touched one wall, and the other creature’s wing touched the other wall with their wings touching each other in the middle of the room. ²⁸ These two creatures were covered with gold.

²⁹ All the walls around the Temple were carved with pictures of creatures with wings, as well as palm trees and flowers. This was true for both the main room and the inner room. ³⁰ The floors of both rooms were covered with gold.

³¹ Doors made from olive wood were placed at the entrance to the Most Holy Place. These doors had five-sided frames. ³² Creatures with wings, as well as palm trees and flowers, were also carved on the two olive wood doors that were covered with gold. The creatures and the palm trees on the doors were covered with gold as well. ³³ At the entrance to the main room there was a square door frame made of olive wood. ³⁴ Two doors were made from pine. Each door had two parts so the doors folded. ³⁵ The doors were covered with pictures of creatures with wings, as well as palm trees and flowers. All of the carvings were covered with gold, which was evenly spread over them.

³⁶ The inner courtyard was enclosed by walls, which were made of three rows of cut stones and one row of cedar boards.

³⁷ Work began on the Temple in Ziv, the second month, during the fourth year Solomon was king over Israel. ³⁸ The Temple was finished during the eleventh year he was king, in the eighth month, the month of Bul. It was built exactly as it was planned. Solomon had spent seven years building it.

Solomon’s Palace

7 King Solomon also built a palace for himself; it took him thirteen years to finish it. ² Built of cedars from the Forest of Lebanon, it was one hundred fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. It had four rows of cedar columns which supported the cedar beams. ³ There were forty-five beams on the roof, with fifteen beams in each row, and the ceiling was covered with cedar above the beams. ⁴ Windows were placed in three rows facing each other. ⁵ All the doors were square, and the three doors at each end faced each other.

⁶ Solomon also built the porch that had pillars. This porch was seventy-five feet long and forty-five feet wide. Along the front of the porch was a roof supported by pillars.

⁷ Solomon also built a throne room where he judged people, called the Hall of Justice. This room was covered with cedar from the floor to the ceiling. ⁸ The palace where Solomon lived was built like the Hall of Justice, and it was behind this hall. Solomon also built the same kind of palace for his wife, who was the daughter of the king of Egypt.

⁹ All these buildings were made with blocks of fine stone. First they were carefully cut. Then they were trimmed with a saw in the front and back. These fine stones went from the foundations of the buildings to the top of the walls. Even the courtyard was made with blocks of stone. ¹⁰ The foundations were made with large blocks of fine stone, some as long as fifteen feet. Others were twelve feet long. ¹¹ On top of these foundation stones were other blocks of fine stone and cedar beams. ¹² The palace courtyard, the courtyard inside the Temple, and the porch of the Temple were surrounded by walls. All of these walls had three rows of stone blocks and one row of cedar beams.

The Temple Is Completed Inside

¹³ King Solomon sent to Tyre and had Huram brought to him. ¹⁴ Huram’s mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali. His father was from Tyre and had been skilled in making things from bronze. Huram was also very skilled and experienced in bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and did all the bronze work.

¹⁵ He made two bronze pillars, each one twenty-seven feet tall and eighteen feet around. ¹⁶ He also made two bronze capitals that were seven and one-half feet tall, and he put them on top of the pillars. ¹⁷ Then he made a net of seven chains for each capital, which covered the capitals on top of the two pillars. ¹⁸ He made two rows of bronze pomegranates to go on the nets. These covered the capitals at the top of the pillars. ¹⁹ The capitals on top of the pillars in the porch were shaped like lilies, and they were six feet tall. ²⁰ The capitals were on top of both pillars, above the bowl-shaped section and next to the nets. At that place there were two hundred pomegranates in rows all around the capitals. ²¹ Huram put these two bronze pillars at the porch of the Temple. He named the south pillar He Establishes and the north pillar In Him Is Strength. ²² The capitals on top of the pillars were shaped like lilies. So the work on the pillars was finished.

²³ Then Huram made from bronze a large round bowl, which was called the Sea. It was forty-five feet around, fifteen feet across, and seven and one-half feet deep. ²⁴ Around the outer edge of the bowl was a rim. Under this rim were two rows of bronze plants which surrounded the bowl. There were ten plants every eighteen inches, and these plants were made in one piece with the bowl. ²⁵ The bowl rested on the backs of twelve bronze bulls that faced outward from the center of the bowl. Three bulls faced north, three faced west, three faced south, and three faced east. ²⁶ The sides of the bowl were four inches thick, and it held about eleven thousand gallons. The rim of the bowl was like the rim of a cup or like a lily blossom.

²⁷ Then Huram made ten bronze stands, each one six feet long, six feet wide, and four and one-half feet high. ²⁸ The stands were made from square sides, which were put on frames. ²⁹ On the sides were bronze lions, bulls, and creatures with wings. On the frames above and below the lions and bulls were designs of flowers hammered into the bronze. ³⁰ Each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles. At the corners there were bronze supports for a large bowl, and the supports had designs of flowers. ³¹ There was a frame on top of the bowls, eighteen inches high above the bowls. The opening of the bowl was round, twenty-seven inches deep. Designs were carved into the bronze on the frame, which was square, not round. ³² The four wheels, placed under the frame, were twenty-seven inches high. The axles between the wheels were made as one piece with the stand. ³³ The wheels were like a chariot’s wheels. Everything on the wheels—the axles, rims, spokes, and hubs—were made of bronze.

³⁴ The four supports were on the four corners of each stand. They were made as one piece with the stand. ³⁵ A strip of bronze around the top of each stand was nine inches deep. It was also made as one piece with the stand. ³⁶ The sides of the stand and the frames were covered with carvings of creatures with wings, as well as lions, palm trees, and flowers. ³⁷ This is the way Huram made the ten stands. The bronze for each stand was melted and poured into a mold, so all the stands were the same size and shape.

³⁸ Huram also made ten bronze bowls, one bowl for each of the ten stands. Each bowl was six feet across and could hold about two hundred thirty gallons. ³⁹ Huram put five stands on the south side of the Temple and five on the north side. He put the large bowl in the southeast corner of the Temple. ⁴⁰ Huram also made bowls, shovels, and small bowls.

So Huram finished all his work for King Solomon on the Temple of the Lord:

Huram made everything King Solomon wanted from polished bronze. ⁴⁶ The king had these things poured into clay molds that were made in the plain of the Jordan River between Succoth and Zarethan. ⁴⁷ Solomon never weighed the bronze used to make these things, because there was too much to weigh. So the total weight of all the bronze was never known.

⁴⁸ Solomon also made all the items for the Temple of the Lord:

⁵¹ Finally the work King Solomon did for the Temple of the Lord was finished. Solomon brought in everything his father David had set apart for the Temple—silver, gold, and other articles. He put everything in the treasuries of the Temple of the Lord.

The Ark Is Brought into the Temple

8 King Solomon called for the elders of Israel, the heads of the tribes, and the leaders of the families to come to him in Jerusalem. He wanted them to bring the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord from the older part of the city. ² So all the Israelites came together with King Solomon during the festival in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month.

³ When all the elders of Israel arrived, the priests lifted up the Ark. ⁴ They carried the Ark of the Lord, the Meeting Tent, and the holy utensils; the priests and the Levites brought them up. ⁵ King Solomon and all the Israelites gathered before the Ark and sacrificed so many sheep and cattle no one could count them all. ⁶ Then the priests put the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord in its place inside the Most Holy Place in the Temple, under the wings of the golden creatures. ⁷ The wings of these creatures were spread out over the place for the Ark, covering it and its carrying poles. ⁸ The carrying poles were so long that anyone standing in the Holy Place in front of the Most Holy Place could see the ends of the poles, but no one could see them from outside the Holy Place. The poles are still there today. ⁹ The only things inside the Ark were two stone tablets^[e] that Moses had put in the Ark at Mount Sinai. That was where the Lord made his agreement with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.

¹⁰ When the priests left the Holy Place, a cloud filled the Temple of the Lord. ¹¹ The priests could not continue their work, because the Temple was filled with the glory of the Lord.

Solomon Speaks to the People

¹² Then Solomon said, “The Lord said he would live in a dark cloud. ¹³ Lord, I have truly built a wonderful Temple for you—a place for you to live forever.”

¹⁴ While all the Israelites were standing there, King Solomon turned to them and blessed them.

¹⁵ Then he said, “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel. He has done what he promised to my father David. The Lord said, ¹⁶ ‘Since the time I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel where a temple will be built for me. But I have chosen David to lead my people Israel.’

¹⁷ “My father David wanted to build a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁸ But the Lord said to my father David, ‘It was good that you wanted to build a temple for me. ¹⁹ But you are not the one to build it. Your son, who comes from your own body, is the one who will build my temple.’

²⁰ “Now the Lord has kept his promise. I am the king now in place of David my father. Now I rule Israel as the Lord promised, and I have built the Temple for the Lord, the God of Israel. ²¹ I have made a place there for the Ark, in which is the Agreement the Lord made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt.”

Solomon’s Prayer

²² Then Solomon stood facing the Lord’s altar, and all the Israelites were standing behind him. He spread out his hands toward the sky ²³ and said:

“Lord, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or on earth below. You keep your agreement of love with your servants who truly follow you. ²⁴ You have kept the promise you made to your servant David, my father. You spoke it with your own mouth and finished it with your hands today. ²⁵ Now Lord, God of Israel, keep the promise you made to your servant David, my father. You said, ‘If your sons are careful to obey me as you have obeyed me, there will always be someone from your family ruling Israel.’ ²⁶ Now, God of Israel, please continue to keep that promise you made to your servant David, my father.

²⁷ “But, God, can you really live here on the earth? The sky and the highest place in heaven cannot contain you. Surely this house which I have built cannot contain you. ²⁸ But please listen to my prayer and my request, because I am your servant. Lord my God, hear this prayer your servant prays to you today. ²⁹ Night and day please watch over this Temple where you have said, ‘I will be worshiped there.’ Hear the prayer I pray facing this Temple. ³⁰ Hear my prayers and the prayers of your people Israel when we pray facing this place. Hear from your home in heaven, and when you hear, forgive us.

³¹ “If someone wrongs another person, he will be brought to the altar in this Temple. If he swears an oath that he is not guilty, ³² then hear in heaven. Judge the case, punish the guilty, but declare that the innocent person is not guilty.

³³ “When your people, the Israelites, sin against you, their enemies will defeat them. But if they come back to you and praise you and pray to you in this Temple, ³⁴ then hear them in heaven. Forgive the sins of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave to their ancestors.

³⁵ “When they sin against you, you will stop the rain from falling on their land. Then they will pray, facing this place and praising you; they will stop sinning when you make them suffer. ³⁶ When this happens, please hear their prayer in heaven, and forgive the sins of your servants, the Israelites. Teach them to do what is right. Then please send rain to this land you have given particularly to them.

³⁷ “At times the land will become so dry that no food will grow, or a great sickness will spread among the people. Sometimes all the crops will be destroyed by locusts or grasshoppers. Your people will be attacked in their cities by their enemy or will become sick. ³⁸ When any of these things happen, the people will become truly sorry. If your people spread their hands in prayer toward this Temple, ³⁹ then hear their prayers from your home in heaven. Forgive and treat each person as he should be treated because you know what is in a person’s heart. Only you know what is in everyone’s heart. ⁴⁰ Then your people will respect you as long as they live in this land you gave to our ancestors.

^41-42 “People who are not Israelites, foreigners from other lands, will hear about your greatness and power. They will come from far away to pray at this Temple. ⁴³ Then hear from your home in heaven, and do whatever they ask you. Then people everywhere will know you and respect you, just as your people in Israel do. Then everyone will know I built this Temple as a place to worship you.

⁴⁴ “When your people go out to fight their enemies along some road on which you send them, your people will pray to you, facing the city which you have chosen and the Temple I have built for you. ⁴⁵ Then hear in heaven their prayers, and do what is right.

⁴⁶ “Everyone sins, so your people will also sin against you. You will become angry with them and hand them over to their enemies. Their enemies will capture them and take them away to their countries far or near. ⁴⁷ Your people will be sorry for their sins when they are held as prisoners in another country. They will be sorry and pray to you in the land where they are held as prisoners, saying, ‘We have sinned. We have done wrong and acted wickedly.’ ⁴⁸ They will truly turn back to you in the land of their enemies. They will pray to you, facing this land you gave their ancestors, this city you have chosen, and the Temple I have built for you. ⁴⁹ Then hear their prayers from your home in heaven, and do what is right. ⁵⁰ Forgive your people of all their sins and for turning against you. Make those who have captured them show them mercy. ⁵¹ Remember, they are your special people. You brought them out of Egypt, as if you were pulling them out of a blazing furnace.

⁵² “Give your attention to my prayers and the prayers of your people Israel. Listen to them anytime they ask you for help. ⁵³ You chose them from all the nations on earth to be your very own people. This is what you promised through Moses your servant when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, Lord God.”

⁵⁴ Solomon prayed this prayer to the Lord, kneeling in front of the altar with his arms raised toward heaven. When he finished praying, he got up. ⁵⁵ Then, in a loud voice, he stood and blessed all the people of Israel, saying: ⁵⁶ “Praise the Lord! He promised he would give rest to his people Israel, and he has given us rest. The Lord has kept all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses. ⁵⁷ May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors. May he never leave us, ⁵⁸ and may he turn us to himself so we will follow him. Let us obey all the laws and commands he gave our ancestors. ⁵⁹ May the Lord our God remember this prayer day and night and do what is right for his servant and his people Israel day by day. ⁶⁰ Then all the people of the world will know the Lord is the only true God. ⁶¹ You must fully obey the Lord our God and follow all his laws and commands. Continue to obey in the future as you do now.”

Sacrifices Are Offered

⁶² Then King Solomon and all Israel with him offered sacrifices to the Lord. ⁶³ Solomon killed twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep as fellowship offerings. So the king and all the people gave the Temple to the Lord.

⁶⁴ On that day King Solomon made holy the middle part of the courtyard which is in front of the Temple of the Lord. There he offered whole burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of the fellowship offerings. He offered them in the courtyard, because the bronze altar before the Lord was too small to hold all the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the fellowship offerings.

⁶⁵ Solomon and all the Israelites celebrated the other festival that came at that time. People came from as far away as Lebo Hamath and the brook of Egypt. A great many people celebrated before the Lord for seven days, then seven more days, for a total of fourteen days. ⁶⁶ On the following day Solomon sent the people home. They blessed the king as they went, happy because of all the good things the Lord had done for his servant David and his people Israel.

The Lord Appears to Solomon Again

9 Solomon finished building the Temple of the Lord and his royal palace and everything he wanted to build. ² Then the Lord appeared to him again just as he had done before, in Gibeon. ³ The Lord said to him: “I have heard your prayer and what you have asked me to do. You built this Temple, and I have made it a holy place. I will be worshiped there forever and will watch over it and protect it always.

⁴ “But you must serve me as your father David did; he was fair and sincere. You must obey all I have commanded and keep my laws and rules. ⁵ If you do, I will make your kingdom strong. This is the promise I made to your father David—that someone from his family would always rule Israel.

⁶ “But you and your children must follow me and obey the laws and commands I have given you. You must not serve or worship other gods. ⁷ If you do, I will force Israel to leave the land I have given them, and I will leave this Temple that I have made holy. All the nations will make fun of Israel and speak evil about them. ⁸ If the Temple is destroyed, everyone who passes by will be shocked. They will make fun of you and ask, ‘Why did the Lord do this terrible thing to this land and this Temple?’ ⁹ People will answer, ‘This happened because they left the Lord their God. This was the God who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, but they decided to follow other gods. They worshiped and served those gods, so the Lord brought all this disaster on them.’”

Solomon’s Other Achievements

¹⁰ By the end of twenty years, King Solomon had built two buildings—the Temple of the Lord and the royal palace. ¹¹ At that time King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had helped with the buildings. Hiram had given Solomon all the cedar, pine, and gold he wanted. ¹² So Hiram traveled from Tyre to see the towns Solomon had given him, but when he saw them, he was not pleased. ¹³ He asked, “What good are these towns you have given me, my brother?” So he named them the Land of Cabul,^[f] and they are still called that today. ¹⁴ Hiram had sent Solomon about nine thousand pounds of gold.

¹⁵ This is the account of the forced labor Solomon used to build the Temple and the palace. He had them fill in the land and build the wall around Jerusalem. He also had them rebuild the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. ¹⁶ (In the past the king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. After burning it, he killed the Canaanites who lived there. Then he gave it as a wedding present to his daughter, who married Solomon. ¹⁷ So Solomon rebuilt it.) He also built the cities of Lower Beth Horon ¹⁸ and Baalath, as well as Tadmor, which is in the desert. ¹⁹ King Solomon also built cities for storing grain and supplies and cities for his chariots and horses. He built whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and everywhere he ruled.

²⁰ There were other people in the land who were not Israelites—Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ²¹ They were descendants of people that the Israelites had not destroyed. Solomon forced them to work for him as slaves, as is still true today. ²² But Solomon did not make slaves of the Israelites. They were his soldiers, government leaders, officers, captains, chariot commanders, and drivers.

²³ These were his most important officers over the work. There were five hundred fifty supervisors over the people who did the work on Solomon’s projects.

²⁴ The daughter of the king of Egypt moved from the old part of Jerusalem to the palace that Solomon had built for her. Then Solomon filled in the surrounding land.

²⁵ Three times each year Solomon offered whole burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord. He also burned incense before the Lord. So he finished the work on the Temple.

²⁶ King Solomon also built ships at Ezion Geber, a town near Elath on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. ²⁷ Hiram had skilled sailors, so he sent them to serve in these ships with Solomon’s men. ²⁸ The ships sailed to Ophir and brought back about thirty-two thousand pounds of gold to King Solomon.

The Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon

10 When the queen of Sheba heard about Solomon, she came to test him with hard questions. ² She traveled to Jerusalem with a large group of servants and camels carrying spices, jewels, and much gold. When she came to Solomon, she talked with him about all she had in mind, ³ and Solomon answered all her questions. Nothing was too hard for him to explain to her. ⁴ The queen of Sheba learned that Solomon was very wise. She saw the palace he had built, ⁵ the food on his table, his many officers, the palace servants, and their good clothes. She saw the servants who served him at feasts and the whole burnt offerings he made in the Temple of the Lord. All these things amazed her.

⁶ So she said to King Solomon, “What I heard in my own country about your achievements and wisdom is true. ⁷ I could not believe it then, but now I have come and seen it with my own eyes. I was not told even half of it! Your wisdom and wealth are much greater than I had heard. ⁸ Your men and officers are very lucky, because in always serving you, they are able to hear your wisdom. ⁹ Praise the Lord your God, who was pleased to make you king of Israel. The Lord has constant love for Israel, so he made you king to keep justice and to rule fairly.”

¹⁰ Then she gave the king about nine thousand pounds of gold and many spices and jewels. No one since that time has brought more spices than the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹¹ (Hiram’s ships brought gold from Ophir, as well as much juniper wood and jewels. ¹² Solomon used the juniper wood to build supports for the Temple of the Lord and the palace, and to make harps and lyres for the musicians. Such fine juniper wood has not been brought in or been seen since that time.)

¹³ King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she wanted and asked for, in addition to what he had already given her of his wealth. Then she and her servants returned to her own country.

Solomon’s Wealth

¹⁴ Every year King Solomon received about fifty thousand pounds of gold. ¹⁵ Besides that, he also received gold from the traders and merchants, as well as from the kings of Arabia and governors of the land.

¹⁶ King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold, each of which contained about seven and one-half pounds of gold. ¹⁷ He also made three hundred smaller shields of hammered gold, each of which contained about four pounds of gold. The king put them in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁸ The king built a large throne of ivory and covered it with fine gold. ¹⁹ The throne had six steps on it, and its back was round at the top. There were armrests on both sides of the chair, and each armrest had a lion beside it. ²⁰ Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one lion at each end of each step. Nothing like this had ever been made for any other kingdom. ²¹ All of Solomon’s drinking cups, as well as the dishes in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon, were made of pure gold. Nothing was made from silver, because silver was not valuable in Solomon’s time.

²² King Solomon also had many trading ships at sea, along with Hiram’s ships. Every three years the ships returned, bringing back gold, silver, ivory, apes, and baboons.

²³ So Solomon had more riches and wisdom than all the other kings on earth. ²⁴ People everywhere wanted to see King Solomon and listen to the wisdom God had given him. ²⁵ Every year those who came brought gifts of silver and gold, clothes, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.

²⁶ Solomon had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses. He kept some in special cities for the chariots, and others he kept with him in Jerusalem. ²⁷ In Jerusalem Solomon made silver as common as stones and cedar trees as common as the fig trees on the western hills. ²⁸ He imported horses from Egypt and Kue. His traders bought them in Kue. ²⁹ A chariot from Egypt cost about fifteen pounds of silver, and a horse cost nearly four pounds of silver. Solomon’s traders also sold horses and chariots to all the kings of the Hittites and the Arameans.

Solomon’s Many Wives

11 King Solomon loved many women who were not from Israel. He loved the daughter of the king of Egypt, as well as women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites. ² The Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not marry people of other nations. If you do, they will cause you to follow their gods.” But Solomon fell in love with these women. ³ He had seven hundred wives who were from royal families and three hundred slave women who gave birth to his children. His wives caused him to turn away from God. ⁴ As Solomon grew old, his wives caused him to follow other gods. He did not follow the Lord completely as his father David had done. ⁵ Solomon worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the people of Sidon, and Molech, the hated god of the Ammonites. ⁶ So Solomon did what the Lord said was wrong and did not follow the Lord completely as his father David had done.

⁷ On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built two places for worship. One was a place to worship Chemosh, the hated god of the Moabites, and the other was a place to worship Molech, the hated god of the Ammonites. ⁸ Solomon did the same thing for all his foreign wives so they could burn incense and offer sacrifices to their gods.

⁹ The Lord had appeared to Solomon twice, but the king turned away from following the Lord, the God of Israel. The Lord was angry with Solomon, ¹⁰ because he had commanded Solomon not to follow other gods. But Solomon did not obey the Lord’s command. ¹¹ So the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have chosen to break your agreement with me and have not obeyed my commands, I will tear your kingdom away from you and give it to one of your officers. ¹² But I will not take it away while you are alive because of my love for your father David. I will tear it away from your son when he becomes king. ¹³ I will not tear away all the kingdom from him, but I will leave him one tribe to rule. I will do this because of David, my servant, and because of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen.”

Solomon’s Enemies

¹⁴ The Lord caused Hadad the Edomite, a member of the family of the king of Edom, to become Solomon’s enemy. ¹⁵ Earlier, David had defeated Edom. When Joab, the commander of David’s army, went into Edom to bury the dead, he killed all the males. ¹⁶ Joab and all the Israelites stayed in Edom for six months and killed every male in Edom. ¹⁷ At that time Hadad was only a young boy, so he ran away to Egypt with some of his father’s officers. ¹⁸ They left Midian and went to Paran, where they were joined by other men. Then they all went to Egypt to see the king, who gave Hadad a house, some food, and some land.

¹⁹ The king liked Hadad so much he gave Hadad a wife—the sister of Tahpenes, the king’s wife. ²⁰ They had a son named Genubath. Queen Tahpenes brought him up in the royal palace with the king’s own children.

²¹ While he was in Egypt, Hadad heard that David had died and that Joab, the commander of the army, was dead also. So Hadad said to the king, “Let me go; I will return to my own country.”

²² “Why do you want to go back to your own country?” the king asked. “What haven’t I given you here?”

“Nothing,” Hadad answered, “but please, let me go.”

²³ God also caused another man to be Solomon’s enemy—Rezon son of Eliada. Rezon had run away from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah. ²⁴ After David defeated the army of Zobah, Rezon gathered some men and became the leader of a small army. They went to Damascus and settled there, and Rezon became king of Damascus. ²⁵ Rezon ruled Aram, and he hated Israel. So he was an enemy of Israel all the time Solomon was alive. Both Rezon and Hadad made trouble for Israel.

²⁶ Jeroboam son of Nebat was one of Solomon’s officers. He was an Ephraimite from the town of Zeredah, and he was the son of a widow named Zeruah. Jeroboam turned against the king.

²⁷ This is the story of how Jeroboam turned against the king. Solomon was filling in the land and repairing the wall of Jerusalem, the city of David, his father. ²⁸ Jeroboam was a capable man, and Solomon saw that this young man was a good worker. So Solomon put him over all the workers from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.

²⁹ One day as Jeroboam was leaving Jerusalem, Ahijah, the prophet from Shiloh, who was wearing a new coat, met him on the road. The two men were alone out in the country. ³⁰ Ahijah took his new coat and tore it into twelve pieces. ³¹ Then he said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces of this coat for yourself. The Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will tear the kingdom away from Solomon and give you ten tribes. ³² But I will allow him to control one tribe. I will do this for the sake of my servant David and for Jerusalem, the city I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel. ³³ I will do this because Solomon has stopped following me and has worshiped the Sidonian god Ashtoreth, the Moabite god Chemosh, and the Ammonite god Molech. Solomon has not obeyed me by doing what I said is right and obeying my laws and commands, as his father David did.

³⁴ “‘But I will not take all the kingdom away from Solomon. I will let him rule all his life because of my servant David, whom I chose, who obeyed all my commands and laws. ³⁵ But I will take the kingdom away from his son, and I will allow you to rule over the ten tribes. ³⁶ I will allow Solomon’s son to continue to rule over one tribe so that there will always be a descendant of David, my servant, in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to be worshiped. ³⁷ But I will make you rule over everything you want. You will rule over all of Israel, ³⁸ and I will always be with you if you do what I say is right. You must obey all my commands. If you obey my laws and commands as David did, I will be with you. I will make your family a lasting family of kings, as I did for David, and give Israel to you. ³⁹ I will punish David’s children because of this, but I will not punish them forever.’”

Solomon’s Death

⁴⁰ Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but he ran away to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, where he stayed until Solomon died.

⁴¹ Everything else King Solomon did, and the wisdom he showed, is written in the book of the history of Solomon. ⁴² Solomon ruled in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years. ⁴³ Then he died and was buried in Jerusalem, the city of David, his father. And his son Rehoboam became king in his place.

Israel Turns Against Rehoboam

12 Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all the Israelites had gone to make him king. ² Jeroboam son of Nebat was still in Egypt, where he had gone to escape from Solomon. When Jeroboam heard about Rehoboam being made king, he was living in Egypt. ³ After the people sent for him, he and the people went to Rehoboam and said to him, ⁴ “Your father forced us to work very hard. Now, make it easier for us, and don’t make us work as hard as he did. Then we will serve you.”

⁵ Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days, and then come back to me.” So the people left.

⁶ King Rehoboam asked the elders who had advised Solomon during his lifetime, “How do you think I should answer these people?”

⁷ They said, “You should be like a servant to them today. If you serve them and give them a kind answer, they will serve you always.”

⁸ But Rehoboam rejected this advice. Instead, he asked the young men who had grown up with him and who served as his advisers. ⁹ Rehoboam asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who said, ‘Don’t make us work as hard as your father did’?”

¹⁰ The young men who had grown up with him answered, “Those people said to you, ‘Your father forced us to work very hard. Now make our work easier.’ You should tell them, ‘My little finger is bigger than my father’s legs. ¹¹ He forced you to work hard, but I will make you work even harder. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with whips that have sharp points.’”

¹² Rehoboam had told the people, “Come back to me in three days.” So after three days Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam. ¹³ King Rehoboam spoke cruel words to them, because he had rejected the advice the elders had given him. ¹⁴ He followed the advice of the young men and said to the people, “My father forced you to work hard, but I will make you work even harder. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with whips that have sharp points.” ¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people. The Lord caused this to happen to keep the promise he had made to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah, a prophet from Shiloh.

¹⁶ When all the Israelites saw that the new king refused to listen to them, they said to the king,

So the Israelites went home. ¹⁷ But Rehoboam still ruled over the Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah.

¹⁸ Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor. When Rehoboam sent him to the people of Israel, they threw stones at him until he died. But King Rehoboam ran to his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Since then, Israel has been against the family of David.

²⁰ When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they called him to a meeting and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah continued to follow the family of David.

²¹ When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he gathered one hundred eighty thousand of the best soldiers from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. As son of Solomon, Rehoboam wanted to fight the people of Israel to take back his kingdom.

²² But God spoke his word to Shemaiah, a man of God, saying, ²³ “Speak to Solomon’s son Rehoboam, the king of Judah, and to all the people of Judah and Benjamin and the rest of the people. Say to them, ²⁴ ‘The Lord says you must not go to war against your brothers, the Israelites. Every one of you should go home, because I made all these things happen.’” So they obeyed the Lord’s command and went home as the Lord had commanded.

²⁵ Then Jeroboam made Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim a very strong city, and he lived there. He also went to the city of Peniel and made it stronger.

Jeroboam Builds Golden Calves

²⁶ Jeroboam said to himself, “The kingdom will probably go back to David’s family. ²⁷ If the people continue going to the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, they will want to be ruled again by Rehoboam. Then they will kill me and follow Rehoboam king of Judah.”

²⁸ King Jeroboam asked for advice. Then he made two golden calves. “It is too long a journey for you to go to Jerusalem to worship,” he said to the people. “Israel, here are your gods who brought you out of Egypt.” ²⁹ Jeroboam put one golden calf in the city of Bethel and the other in the city of Dan. ³⁰ This became a very great sin, because the people traveled as far as Dan to worship the calf there.

³¹ Jeroboam built temples on the places of worship. He also chose priests from all the people, not just from the tribe of Levi. ³² And he started a new festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, just like the festival in Judah. During that time the king offered sacrifices on the altar, along with sacrifices to the calves in Bethel he had made. He also chose priests in Bethel to serve at the places of worship he had made. ³³ So Jeroboam chose his own time for a festival for the Israelites—the fifteenth day of the eighth month. During that time he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built in Bethel. He set up a festival for the Israelites and offered sacrifices on the altar.

The Man of God Speaks Against Bethel

13 The Lord commanded a man of God from Judah to go to Bethel. When he arrived, Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer a sacrifice. ² The Lord had commanded the man of God to speak against the altar. The man said, “Altar, altar, the Lord says to you: ‘David’s family will have a son named Josiah. The priests for the places of worship now make their sacrifices on you, but Josiah will sacrifice those priests on you. Human bones will be burned on you.’” ³ That same day the man of God gave proof that these things would happen. “This is the Lord’s sign that this will happen,” he said. “This altar will break apart, and the ashes on it will fall to the ground.”

⁴ When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God said about the altar in Bethel, the king raised his hand from the altar and pointed at the man. “Take him!” he said. But when the king said this, his arm was paralyzed, and he could not move it. ⁵ The altar also broke into pieces, and its ashes fell to the ground. This was the sign the Lord had told the man of God to give.

⁶ Then the king said to the man of God, “Please pray to the Lord your God for me, and ask him to heal my arm.”

So the man of God prayed to the Lord, and the king’s arm was healed, becoming as it was before.

⁷ Then the king said to the man of God, “Please come home and eat with me, and I will give you a gift.”

⁸ But the man of God answered the king, “Even if you gave me half of your kingdom, I would not go with you. I will not eat or drink anything in this place. ⁹ The Lord commanded me not to eat or drink anything nor to return on the same road by which I came.” ¹⁰ So he took a different road and did not return on the same road by which he had come to Bethel.

¹¹ Now an old prophet was living in Bethel. His sons came and told him what the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to King Jeroboam. ¹² The father asked, “Which road did he use when he left?” So his sons showed him the road the man of God from Judah had taken. ¹³ Then the prophet told his sons to put a saddle on his donkey. So they saddled the donkey, and he left.

¹⁴ He went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. The prophet asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

The man answered, “Yes, I am.”

¹⁵ The prophet said, “Please come home and eat with me.”

¹⁶ “I can’t go home with you,” the man of God answered. “I can’t eat or drink with you in this place. ¹⁷ The Lord said to me, ‘Don’t eat or drink anything there or return on the same road by which you came.’”

¹⁸ Then the old prophet said, “But I also am a prophet like you.” Then he told a lie. He said, “An angel from the Lord came to me and told me to bring you to my home. He said you should eat and drink with me.” ¹⁹ So the man of God went to the old prophet’s house, and he ate and drank with him there.

²⁰ While they were sitting at the table, the Lord spoke his word to the old prophet. ²¹ The old prophet cried out to the man of God from Judah, “The Lord said you did not obey him! He said you did not do what the Lord your God commanded you. ²² The Lord commanded you not to eat or drink anything in this place, but you came back and ate and drank. So your body will not be buried in your family grave.”

²³ After the man of God finished eating and drinking, the prophet put a saddle on his donkey for him, and the man left. ²⁴ As he was traveling home, a lion attacked and killed him. His body lay on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing nearby. ²⁵ Some men who were traveling on that road saw the body and the lion standing nearby. So they went to the city where the old prophet lived and told what they had seen.

²⁶ The old prophet who had brought back the man of God heard what had happened. “It is the man of God who did not obey the Lord’s command,” he said. “So the Lord sent a lion to kill him, just as he said he would.”

²⁷ Then the prophet said to his sons, “Put a saddle on my donkey,” which they did. ²⁸ The old prophet went out and found the body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion still standing nearby. The lion had not eaten the body or hurt the donkey. ²⁹ The prophet put the body on his donkey and carried it back to the city to have a time of sadness for him and to bury him. ³⁰ The prophet buried the body in his own family grave, and they were sad for the man of God and said, “Oh, my brother.”

³¹ After the prophet buried the body, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in this same grave. Put my bones next to his. ³² Through him the Lord spoke against the altar at Bethel and against the places of worship in the towns of Samaria. What the Lord spoke through him will certainly come true.”

³³ After this incident King Jeroboam did not stop doing evil. He continued to choose priests for the places of worship from among all the people. Anyone who wanted to be a priest for the places of worship was allowed to be one. ³⁴ In this way the family of Jeroboam sinned, and this sin caused its ruin and destruction from the earth.

Jeroboam’s Son Dies

14 At that time Jeroboam’s son Abijah became very sick. ² So Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go to Shiloh to see the prophet Ahijah. He is the one who said I would become king of Israel. But dress yourself so people won’t know you are my wife. ³ Take the prophet ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey. Then ask him what will happen to our son, and he will tell you.” ⁴ So the king’s wife did as he said and went to Ahijah’s home in Shiloh.

Now Ahijah was very old and blind. ⁵ The Lord said to him, “Jeroboam’s son is sick, and Jeroboam’s wife is coming to ask you about him. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else.” Then the Lord told Ahijah what to say.

⁶ When Ahijah heard her walking to the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why are you pretending to be someone else? I have bad news for you. ⁷ Go back and tell Jeroboam that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Jeroboam, I chose you from among all the people and made you the leader of my people Israel. ⁸ I tore the kingdom away from David’s family, and I gave it to you. But you are not like my servant David, who always obeyed my commands and followed me with all his heart. He did only what I said was right. ⁹ But you have done more evil than anyone who ruled before you. You have quit following me and have made other gods and idols of metal. This has made me very angry, ¹⁰ so I will soon bring disaster to your family. I will kill all the men in your family, both slaves and free men. I will destroy your family as completely as fire burns up manure. ¹¹ Anyone from your family who dies in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the fields will be eaten by the birds. The Lord has spoken.’”

¹² Then Ahijah said to Jeroboam’s wife, “Go home now. As soon as you enter your city, your son will die, ¹³ and all Israel will be sad for him and bury him. He is the only one of Jeroboam’s family who will be buried, because he is the only one in the king’s family who pleased the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹⁴ “The Lord will put a new king over Israel, who will destroy Jeroboam’s family, and this will happen soon. ¹⁵ Then the Lord will punish Israel, which will be like reeds swaying in the water. The Lord will pull up Israel from this good land, the land he gave their ancestors. He will scatter Israel beyond the Euphrates River, because he is angry with the people. They made the Lord angry when they set up idols to worship Asherah. ¹⁶ Jeroboam sinned, and then he made the people of Israel sin. So the Lord will let the people of Israel be defeated.”

¹⁷ Then Jeroboam’s wife left and returned to Tirzah. As soon as she entered her home, the boy died. ¹⁸ After they buried him, all Israel had a time of sadness for him, just as the Lord had said through his servant, the prophet Ahijah.

¹⁹ Everything else Jeroboam did is written in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. He fought wars and continued to rule the people, ²⁰ serving as king for twenty-two years. Then he died, and his son Nadab became king in his place.

The Death of Rehoboam

²¹ Solomon’s son Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king of Judah. His mother was Naamah from Ammon. Rehoboam ruled in Jerusalem for seventeen years. (The Lord had chosen that city from all the land of Israel as the place where he would be worshiped.)

²² The people of Judah did what the Lord said was wrong. Their sins made the Lord very angry, even more angry than he had been at their ancestors. ²³ The people built stone pillars and places to worship gods and Asherah idols on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴ There were even male prostitutes in the land. They acted like the people who had lived in the land before the Israelites. They had done many evil things, and God had taken the land away from them.

²⁵ During the fifth year Rehoboam was king, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. ²⁶ He took the treasures from the Temple of the Lord and the king’s palace. He took everything, even the gold shields Solomon had made. ²⁷ So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to put in their place and gave them to the commanders of the guards for the palace gates. ²⁸ Whenever the king went to the Temple of the Lord, the guards carried the shields. Later, they would put them back in the guardroom.

²⁹ Everything else King Rehoboam did is written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah. ³⁰ There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam the whole time. ³¹ Rehoboam, son of Naamah from Ammon, died and was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem, and his son Abijam^[g] became king in his place.

Abijam King of Judah

15 Abijam became king of Judah during the eighteenth year Jeroboam son of Nebat was king of Israel. ² Abijam ruled in Jerusalem for three years. His mother was Maacah daughter of Abishalom. ³ He did all the same sins his father before him had done. Abijam was not faithful to the Lord his God as David, his great-grandfather, had been. ⁴ Because the Lord loved David, the Lord gave him a kingdom in Jerusalem and allowed him to have a son to be king after him. The Lord also kept Jerusalem safe. ⁵ David always did what the Lord said was right and obeyed his commands all his life, except the one time when David sinned against Uriah the Hittite.

⁶ There was war between Abijam and Jeroboam during Abijam’s lifetime. ⁷ Everything else Abijam did is written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah. During the time Abijam ruled, there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. ⁸ Abijam died and was buried in Jerusalem, and his son Asa became king in his place.

Asa King of Judah

⁹ During the twentieth year Jeroboam was king of Israel, Asa became king of Judah. ¹⁰ His grandmother’s name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom. Asa ruled in Jerusalem for forty-one years.

¹¹ Asa did what the Lord said was right, as his ancestor David had done. ¹² He forced the male prostitutes at the worship places to leave the country. He also took away the idols that his ancestors had made. ¹³ His grandmother Maacah had made a terrible Asherah idol, so Asa removed her from being queen mother. He cut down that idol and burned it in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁴ The places of worship to gods were not removed. Even so, Asa was faithful to the Lord all his life. ¹⁵ Asa brought into the Temple of the Lord the gifts he and his father had given: gold, silver, and utensils.

¹⁶ There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all the time they were kings. ¹⁷ Baasha attacked Judah, and he made the town of Ramah strong so he could keep people from leaving or entering Judah, Asa’s country.

¹⁸ Asa took the rest of the silver and gold from the treasuries of the Temple of the Lord and his own palace and gave it to his officers. Then he sent them to Ben-Hadad son of Tabrimmon, who was the son of Hezion. Ben-Hadad was the king of Aram and ruled in the city of Damascus. Asa said, ¹⁹ “Let there be a treaty between you and me as there was between my father and your father. I am sending you a gift of silver and gold. Break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so he will leave my land.”

²⁰ Ben-Hadad agreed with King Asa, so he sent the commanders of his armies to attack the towns of Israel. They defeated the towns of Ijon, Dan, and Abel Beth Maacah, as well as all Galilee and the area of Naphtali. ²¹ When Baasha heard about these attacks, he stopped building up Ramah and returned to Tirzah. ²² Then King Asa gave an order to all the people of Judah; everyone had to help. They carried away all the stones and wood Baasha had been using in Ramah, and they used them to build up Geba and Mizpah in the land of Benjamin.

²³ Everything else Asa did—his victories and the cities he built—is written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah. When he became old, he got a disease in his feet. ²⁴ After Asa died, he was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem, the city of David, his ancestor. Then Jehoshaphat, Asa’s son, became king in his place.

Nadab King of Israel

²⁵ Nadab son of Jeroboam became king of Israel during the second year Asa was king of Judah. Nadab was king of Israel for two years, ²⁶ and he did what the Lord said was wrong. Jeroboam had led the people of Israel to sin, and Nadab sinned in the same way as his father Jeroboam.

²⁷ Baasha son of Ahijah, from the tribe of Issachar, made plans to kill Nadab. Nadab and all Israel were attacking the Philistine town of Gibbethon, so Baasha killed Nadab there. ²⁸ This happened during Asa’s third year as king of Judah, and Baasha became the next king of Israel.

Baasha King of Israel

²⁹ As soon as Baasha became king, he killed all of Jeroboam’s family, leaving no one in Jeroboam’s family alive. He destroyed them all as the Lord had said would happen through his servant Ahijah from Shiloh. ³⁰ King Jeroboam had sinned very much and had led the people of Israel to sin, so he made the Lord, the God of Israel, very angry.

³¹ Everything else Nadab did is written in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. ³² There was war between Asa king of Judah and Baasha king of Israel all the time they ruled.

³³ Baasha son of Ahijah became king of Israel during Asa’s third year as king of Judah. Baasha ruled in Tirzah for twenty-four years, ³⁴ and he did what the Lord said was wrong. Jeroboam had led the people of Israel to sin, and Baasha sinned in the same way as Jeroboam.

16 Jehu son of Hanani spoke the word of the Lord against King Baasha. ² The Lord said, “You were nothing, but I took you and made you a leader over my people Israel. But you have followed the ways of Jeroboam and have led my people Israel to sin. Their sins have made me angry, ³ so, Baasha, I will soon destroy you and your family. I will do to you what I did to the family of Jeroboam son of Nebat. ⁴ Anyone from your family who dies in the city will be eaten by dogs, and anyone from your family who dies in the fields will be eaten by birds.”

⁵ Everything else Baasha did and all his victories are written down in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. ⁶ So Baasha died and was buried in Tirzah, and his son Elah became king in his place.

⁷ The Lord spoke his word against Baasha and his family through the prophet Jehu son of Hanani. Baasha had done many things the Lord said were wrong, which made the Lord very angry. He did the same evil deeds that Jeroboam’s family had done before him. The Lord also spoke against Baasha because he killed all of Jeroboam’s family.

Elah King of Israel

⁸ Elah son of Baasha became king of Israel during Asa’s twenty-sixth year as king of Judah, and Elah ruled in Tirzah for two years.

⁹ Zimri, one of Elah’s officers, commanded half of Elah’s chariots. Zimri made plans against Elah while the king was in Tirzah, getting drunk at Arza’s home. (Arza was in charge of the palace at Tirzah.) ¹⁰ Zimri went into Arza’s house and killed Elah during Asa’s twenty-seventh year as king of Judah. Then Zimri became king of Israel in Elah’s place.

Zimri King of Israel

¹¹ As soon as Zimri became king, he killed all of Baasha’s family, not allowing any of Baasha’s family or friends to live. ¹² So Zimri destroyed all of Baasha’s family just as the Lord had said it would happen through the prophet Jehu. ¹³ Baasha and his son Elah sinned and led the people of Israel to sin, and they made the Lord, the God of Israel, angry because of their worthless idols.

¹⁴ Everything else Elah did is written in the book of the history of the kings of Israel.

¹⁵ So during Asa’s twenty-seventh year as king of Judah, Zimri became king of Israel and ruled in Tirzah seven days.

The army of Israel was camped near Gibbethon, a Philistine town. ¹⁶ The men in the camp heard that Zimri had made secret plans against King Elah and had killed him. So that day in the camp they made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel. ¹⁷ So Omri and all the Israelite army left Gibbethon and attacked Tirzah. ¹⁸ When Zimri saw that the city had been captured, he went into the palace and set it on fire, burning the palace and himself with it. ¹⁹ So Zimri died because he had sinned by doing what the Lord said was wrong. Jeroboam had led the people of Israel to sin, and Zimri sinned in the same way as Jeroboam.

²⁰ Everything else Zimri did and the story of how he turned against King Elah are written down in the book of the history of the kings of Israel.

Omri King of Israel

²¹ The people of Israel were divided into two groups. Half of the people wanted Tibni son of Ginath to be king, while the other half wanted Omri. ²² Omri’s followers were stronger than the followers of Tibni son of Ginath, so Tibni died, and Omri became king.

²³ Omri became king of Israel during the thirty-first year Asa was king of Judah. Omri ruled Israel for twelve years, six of those years in the city of Tirzah. ²⁴ He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for about one hundred fifty pounds of silver. Omri built a city on that hill and called it Samaria after the name of its earlier owner, Shemer.

²⁵ But Omri did what the Lord said was wrong; he did more evil than all the kings who came before him. ²⁶ Jeroboam son of Nebat had led the people of Israel to sin, and Omri sinned in the same way as Jeroboam. The Israelites made the Lord, the God of Israel, very angry because they worshiped worthless idols.

²⁷ Everything else Omri did and all his successes are written in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. ²⁸ So Omri died and was buried in Samaria, and his son Ahab became king in his place.

Ahab King of Israel

²⁹ Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel during Asa’s thirty-eighth year as king of Judah, and Ahab ruled Israel in the city of Samaria for twenty-two years. ³⁰ More than any king before him, Ahab son of Omri did many things the Lord said were wrong. ³¹ He sinned in the same ways as Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he did even worse things. He married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal, the king of Sidon. Then Ahab began to serve Baal and worship him. ³² He built a temple in Samaria for worshiping Baal and put an altar there for Baal. ³³ Ahab also made an idol for worshiping Asherah. He did more things to make the Lord, the God of Israel, angry than all the other kings before him.

³⁴ During the time of Ahab, Hiel from Bethel rebuilt the city of Jericho. It cost Hiel the life of Abiram, his oldest son, to begin work on the city, and it cost the life of Segub, his youngest son, to build the city gates. This happened just as the Lord, speaking through Joshua son of Nun, said it would happen.^[h]

Elijah Stops the Rain

17 Now Elijah the Tishbite was a prophet from the settlers in Gilead. “I serve the Lord, the God of Israel,” Elijah said to Ahab. “As surely as the Lord lives, no rain or dew will fall during the next few years unless I command it.”

² Then the Lord spoke his word to Elijah: ³ “Leave this place and go east and hide near Kerith Ravine east of the Jordan River. ⁴ You may drink from the stream, and I have commanded ravens to bring you food there.” ⁵ So Elijah did what the Lord said; he went to Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and lived there. ⁶ The birds brought Elijah bread and meat every morning and evening, and he drank water from the stream.

⁷ After a while the stream dried up because there was no rain. ⁸ Then the Lord spoke his word to Elijah, ⁹ “Go to Zarephath in Sidon and live there. I have commanded a widow there to take care of you.”

¹⁰ So Elijah went to Zarephath. When he reached the town gate, he saw a widow gathering wood for a fire. Elijah asked her, “Would you bring me a little water in a cup so I may have a drink?” ¹¹ As she was going to get his water, Elijah said, “Please bring me a piece of bread, too.”

¹² The woman answered, “As surely as the Lord your God lives, I have no bread. I have only a handful of flour in a jar and only a little olive oil in a jug. I came here to gather some wood so I could go home and cook our last meal. My son and I will eat it and then die from hunger.”

¹³ “Don’t worry,” Elijah said to her. “Go home and cook your food as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread from the flour you have, and bring it to me. Then cook something for yourself and your son. ¹⁴ The Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘That jar of flour will never be empty, and the jug will always have oil in it, until the day the Lord sends rain to the land.’”

¹⁵ So the woman went home and did what Elijah told her to do. And the woman and her son and Elijah had enough food every day. ¹⁶ The jar of flour and the jug of oil were never empty, just as the Lord, through Elijah, had promised.

Elijah Brings a Boy Back to Life

¹⁷ Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became sick. He grew worse and worse and finally stopped breathing. ¹⁸ The woman said to Elijah, “Man of God, what have you done to me? Did you come here to remind me of my sin and to kill my son?”

¹⁹ Elijah said to her, “Give me your son.” Elijah took the boy from her, carried him upstairs, and laid him on the bed in the room where he was staying. ²⁰ Then he prayed to the Lord: “Lord my God, this widow is letting me stay in her house. Why have you done this terrible thing to her and caused her son to die?” ²¹ Then Elijah lay on top of the boy three times. He prayed to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy live again!”

²² The Lord answered Elijah’s prayer; the boy began breathing again and was alive. ²³ Elijah carried the boy downstairs and gave him to his mother and said, “See! Your son is alive!”

²⁴ “Now I know you really are a man from God,” the woman said to Elijah. “I know that the Lord truly speaks through you!”

Elijah Kills the Prophets of Baal

18 During the third year without rain, the Lord spoke his word to Elijah: “Go and meet King Ahab, and I will soon send rain.” ² So Elijah went to meet Ahab.

By this time there was no food in Samaria. ³ King Ahab sent for Obadiah, who was in charge of the king’s palace. (Obadiah was a true follower of the Lord. ⁴ When Jezebel was killing all the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah hid a hundred of them in two caves, fifty in one cave and fifty in another. He also brought them food and water.) ⁵ Ahab said to Obadiah, “Let’s check every spring and valley in the land. Maybe we can find enough grass to keep our horses and mules alive and not have to kill our animals.” ⁶ So each one chose a part of the country to search; Ahab went in one direction and Obadiah in another.

⁷ While Obadiah was on his way, Elijah met him. Obadiah recognized Elijah, so he bowed down to the ground and said, “Elijah? Is it really you, master?”

⁸ “Yes,” Elijah answered. “Go tell your master that I am here.”

⁹ Then Obadiah said, “What wrong have I done for you to hand me over to Ahab like this? He will put me to death. ¹⁰ As surely as the Lord your God lives, the king has sent people to every country to search for you. If the ruler said you were not there, Ahab forced the ruler to swear you could not be found in his country. ¹¹ Now you want me to go to my master and tell him, ‘Elijah is here’? ¹² The Spirit of the Lord may carry you to some other place after I leave. If I go tell King Ahab you are here, and he comes and doesn’t find you, he will kill me! I have followed the Lord since I was a boy. ¹³ Haven’t you been told what I did? When Jezebel was killing the Lord’s prophets, I hid a hundred of them, fifty in one cave and fifty in another. I brought them food and water. ¹⁴ Now you want me to go and tell my master you are here? He will kill me!”

¹⁵ Elijah answered, “As surely as the Lord All-Powerful lives, whom I serve, I will be seen by Ahab today.”

¹⁶ So Obadiah went to Ahab and told him where Elijah was. Then Ahab went to meet Elijah.

¹⁷ When he saw Elijah, he asked, “Is it you—the biggest troublemaker in Israel?”

¹⁸ Elijah answered, “I have not made trouble in Israel. You and your father’s family have made all this trouble by not obeying the Lord’s commands. You have gone after the Baals. ¹⁹ Now tell all Israel to meet me at Mount Carmel. Also bring the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

²⁰ So Ahab called all the Israelites and those prophets to Mount Carmel. ²¹ Elijah approached the people and said, “How long will you not decide between two choices? If the Lord is the true God, follow him, but if Baal is the true God, follow him!” But the people said nothing.

²² Elijah said, “I am the only prophet of the Lord here, but there are four hundred fifty prophets of Baal. ²³ Bring two bulls. Let the prophets of Baal choose one bull and kill it and cut it into pieces. Then let them put the meat on the wood, but they are not to set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull, putting the meat on the wood but not setting fire to it. ²⁴ You prophets of Baal, pray to your god, and I will pray to the Lord. The god who answers by setting fire to his wood is the true God.”

All the people agreed that this was a good idea.

²⁵ Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “There are many of you, so you go first. Choose a bull and prepare it. Pray to your god, but don’t start the fire.”

²⁶ So they took the bull that was given to them and prepared it. They prayed to Baal from morning until noon, shouting “Baal, answer us!” But there was no sound, and no one answered. They danced around the altar they had built.

²⁷ At noon Elijah began to make fun of them. “Pray louder!” he said. “If Baal really is a god, maybe he is thinking, or busy, or traveling! Maybe he is sleeping so you will have to wake him!” ²⁸ The prophets prayed louder, cutting themselves with swords and spears until their blood flowed, which was the way they worshiped. ²⁹ The afternoon passed, and the prophets continued to act like this until it was time for the evening sacrifice. But no voice was heard; Baal did not answer, and no one paid attention.

³⁰ Then Elijah said to all the people, “Now come to me.” So they gathered around him, and Elijah rebuilt the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. ³¹ He took twelve stones, one stone for each of the twelve tribes, the number of Jacob’s sons. (The Lord changed Jacob’s name to Israel.) ³² Elijah used these stones to rebuild the altar in honor of the Lord. Then he dug a ditch around the altar that was big enough to hold about thirteen quarts of seed. ³³ Elijah put the wood on the altar, cut the bull into pieces, and laid the pieces on the wood. ³⁴ Then he said, “Fill four jars with water, and pour it on the meat and on the wood.” Then Elijah said, “Do it again,” and they did it again. Then he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it the third time. ³⁵ So the water ran off the altar and filled the ditch.

³⁶ At the time for the evening sacrifice, the prophet Elijah went near the altar. “Lord, you are the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,” he prayed. “Prove that you are the God of Israel and that I am your servant. Show these people that you commanded me to do all these things. ³⁷ Lord, answer my prayer so these people will know that you, Lord, are God and that you will change their minds.”

³⁸ Then fire from the Lord came down and burned the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the ground around the altar. It also dried up the water in the ditch. ³⁹ When all the people saw this, they fell down to the ground, crying, “The Lord is God! The Lord is God!”

⁴⁰ Then Elijah said, “Capture the prophets of Baal! Don’t let any of them run away!” The people captured all the prophets. Then Elijah led them down to the Kishon Valley, where he killed them.

The Rain Comes Again

⁴¹ Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Now, go, eat, and drink, because a heavy rain is coming.” ⁴² So King Ahab went to eat and drink. At the same time Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel, where he bent down to the ground with his head between his knees.

⁴³ Then Elijah said to his servant, “Go and look toward the sea.”

The servant went and looked. “I see nothing,” he said.

Elijah told him to go and look again. This happened seven times. ⁴⁴ The seventh time, the servant said, “I see a small cloud, the size of a human fist, coming from the sea.”

Elijah told the servant, “Go to Ahab and tell him to get his chariot ready and go home now. Otherwise, the rain will stop him.”

⁴⁵ After a short time the sky was covered with dark clouds. The wind began to blow, and soon a heavy rain began to fall. Ahab got in his chariot and started back to Jezreel. ⁴⁶ The Lord gave his power to Elijah, who tightened his clothes around him and ran ahead of King Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

Elijah Runs Away

19 King Ahab told Jezebel every thing Elijah had done and how Elijah had killed all the prophets with a sword. ² So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods punish me terribly if by this time tomorrow I don’t kill you just as you killed those prophets.”

³ When Elijah heard this, he was afraid and ran for his life, taking his servant with him. When they came to Beersheba in Judah, Elijah left his servant there. ⁴ Then Elijah walked for a whole day into the desert. He sat down under a bush and asked to die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he prayed. “Let me die. I am no better than my ancestors.” ⁵ Then he lay down under the tree and slept.

Suddenly an angel came to him and touched him. “Get up and eat,” the angel said. ⁶ Elijah saw near his head a loaf baked over coals and a jar of water, so he ate and drank. Then he went back to sleep.

⁷ Later the Lord’s angel came to him a second time. The angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat. If you don’t, the journey will be too hard for you.” ⁸ So Elijah got up and ate and drank. The food made him strong enough to walk for forty days and nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God. ⁹ There Elijah went into a cave and stayed all night.

Then the Lord spoke his word to him: “Elijah! Why are you here?”

¹⁰ He answered, “Lord God All-Powerful, I have always served you as well as I could. But the people of Israel have broken their agreement with you, destroyed your altars, and killed your prophets with swords. I am the only prophet left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”

¹¹ The Lord said to Elijah, “Go, stand in front of me on the mountain, and I will pass by you.” Then a very strong wind blew until it caused the mountains to fall apart and large rocks to break in front of the Lord . But the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. ¹² After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a quiet, gentle sound. ¹³ When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his coat and went out and stood at the entrance to the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “Elijah! Why are you here?”

¹⁴ He answered, “Lord God All-Powerful, I have always served you as well as I could. But the people of Israel have broken their agreement with you, destroyed your altars, and killed your prophets with swords. I am the only prophet left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”

¹⁵ The Lord said to him, “Go back on the road that leads to the desert around Damascus. Enter that city, and pour olive oil on Hazael to make him king over Aram. ¹⁶ Then pour oil on Jehu son of Nimshi to make him king over Israel. Next, pour oil on Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to make him a prophet in your place. ¹⁷ Jehu will kill anyone who escapes from Hazael’s sword, and Elisha will kill anyone who escapes from Jehu’s sword. ¹⁸ I have seven thousand people left in Israel who have never bowed down before Baal and whose mouths have never kissed his idol.”

Elisha Becomes a Prophet

¹⁹ So Elijah left that place and found Elisha son of Shaphat plowing a field with a team of oxen. He owned twelve teams of oxen and was plowing with the twelfth team. Elijah came up to Elisha, took off his coat, and put it on Elisha. ²⁰ Then Elisha left his oxen and ran to follow Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and my mother good-bye,” Elisha said. “Then I will go with you.”

Elijah answered, “Go back. It does not matter to me.”

²¹ So Elisha went back and took his pair of oxen and killed them. He used their wooden yoke for a fire. Then he cooked the meat and gave it to the people. After they ate it, Elisha left and followed Elijah and became his helper.

Ben-Hadad and Ahab Go to War

20 Ben-Hadad king of Aram gathered together all his army. There were thirty-two kings with their horses and chariots who went with him and surrounded Samaria and attacked it. ² The king sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel.

This was his message: “Ben-Hadad says, ³ ‘Your silver and gold belong to me, as well as the best of your wives and children.’”

⁴ Ahab king of Israel answered, “My master and king, I agree to what you say. I and everything I have belong to you.”

⁵ Then the messengers came to Ahab again. They said, “Ben-Hadad says, ‘I told you before that you must give me your silver and gold, your wives and your children. ⁶ About this time tomorrow I will send my men, who will search everywhere in your palace and in the homes of your officers. Whatever they want they will take and carry off.’”

⁷ Then Ahab called a meeting of all the elders of his country. He said, “Ben-Hadad is looking for trouble. First he said I had to give him my wives, my children, my silver, and my gold, and I have not refused him.”

⁸ The elders and all the people said, “Don’t listen to him or agree to this.”

⁹ So Ahab said to Ben-Hadad’s messengers, “Tell my master the king: ‘I will do what you said at first, but I cannot allow this second command.’” And King Ben-Hadad’s men carried the message back to him.

¹⁰ Then Ben-Hadad sent another message to Ahab: “May the gods punish me terribly if I don’t completely destroy Samaria. There won’t be enough left for each of my men to get a handful of dust!”

¹¹ Ahab answered, “Tell Ben-Hadad, ‘The man who puts on his armor should not brag. It’s the man who lives to take it off who has the right to brag.’”

¹² Ben-Hadad was drinking in his tent with the other rulers when the message came from Ahab. Ben-Hadad commanded his men to prepare to attack the city, and they moved into place for battle.

¹³ At the same time a prophet came to Ahab king of Israel. The prophet said, “Ahab, the Lord says to you, ‘Do you see that big army? I will hand it over to you today so you will know I am the Lord.’”

¹⁴ Ahab asked, “Who will you use to defeat them?”

The prophet answered, “The Lord says, ‘The young officers of the district governors will defeat them.’”

Then the king asked, “Who will command the main army?”

The prophet answered, “You will.”

¹⁵ So Ahab gathered the young officers of the district governors, two hundred thirty-two of them. Then he called together the army of Israel, about seven thousand people in all.

¹⁶ They marched out at noon, while Ben-Hadad and the thirty-two rulers helping him were getting drunk in their tents. ¹⁷ The young officers of the district governors attacked first. Ben-Hadad sent out scouts who told him that soldiers were coming from Samaria. ¹⁸ Ben-Hadad said, “They may be coming to fight, or they may be coming to ask for peace. In either case capture them alive.”

¹⁹ The young officers of the district governors led the attack, followed by the army of Israel. ²⁰ Each officer of Israel killed the man who came against him. The men from Aram ran away as Israel chased them, but Ben-Hadad king of Aram escaped on a horse with some of his horsemen. ²¹ Ahab king of Israel led the army and destroyed the Arameans’ horses and chariots. King Ahab thoroughly defeated the Aramean army.

²² Then the prophet went to Ahab king of Israel and said, “The king of Aram will attack you again next spring. So go home now and strengthen your army and see what you need to do.”

²³ Meanwhile the officers of Ben-Hadad king of Aram said to him, “The gods of Israel are mountain gods. Since we fought in a mountain area, Israel won. Let’s fight them on the flat land, and then we will win. ²⁴ This is what you should do. Don’t allow the thirty-two rulers to command the armies, but put other commanders in their places. ²⁵ Gather an army like the one that was destroyed and as many horses and chariots as before. We will fight the Israelites on flat land, and then we will win.” Ben-Hadad agreed with their advice and did what they said.

²⁶ The next spring Ben-Hadad gathered the army of Aram and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel.

²⁷ The Israelites also had prepared for war. They marched out to meet the Arameans and camped opposite them. The Israelites looked like two small flocks of goats, but the Arameans covered the area.

²⁸ A man of God came to the king of Israel with this message: “The Lord says, ‘The people of Aram say that I, the Lord, am a god of the mountains, not a god of the valleys. So I will allow you to defeat this huge army, and then you will know I am the Lord.’”

²⁹ The armies were camped across from each other for seven days. On the seventh day the battle began. The Israelites killed one hundred thousand Aramean soldiers in one day. ³⁰ The rest of them ran away to the city of Aphek, where a city wall fell on twenty-seven thousand of them. Ben-Hadad also ran away to the city and hid in a room.

³¹ His officers said to him, “We have heard that the kings of Israel are trustworthy. Let’s dress in rough cloth to show our sadness, and wear ropes on our heads. Then we will go to the king of Israel, and perhaps he will let you live.”

³² So they dressed in rough cloth and wore ropes on their heads and went to the king of Israel. They said, “Your servant Ben-Hadad says, ‘Please let me live.’”

Ahab answered, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”

³³ Ben-Hadad’s men had wanted a sign from Ahab. So when Ahab called Ben-Hadad his brother, they quickly said, “Yes! Ben-Hadad is your brother.”

Ahab said, “Bring him to me.” When Ben-Hadad came, Ahab asked him to join him in the chariot.

³⁴ Ben-Hadad said to him, “Ahab, I will give you back the cities my father took from your father. And you may put shops in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.”

Ahab said, “If you agree to this, I will allow you to go free.” So the two kings made a peace agreement. Then Ahab let Ben-Hadad go free.

A Prophet Speaks Against Ahab

³⁵ One prophet from one of the groups of prophets told another, “Hit me!” He said this because the Lord had commanded it, but the other man refused. ³⁶ The prophet said, “You did not obey the Lord’s command, so a lion will kill you as soon as you leave me.” When the man left, a lion found him and killed him.

³⁷ The prophet went to another man and said, “Hit me, please!” So the man hit him and hurt him. ³⁸ The prophet wrapped his face in a cloth so no one could tell who he was. Then he went and waited by the road for the king. ³⁹ As Ahab king of Israel passed by, the prophet called out to him. “I went to fight in the battle,” the prophet said. “One of our men brought an enemy soldier to me. Our man said, ‘Guard this man. If he runs away, you will have to give your life in his place. Or, you will have to pay a fine of seventy-five pounds of silver.’ ⁴⁰ But I was busy doing other things, so the man ran away.”

The king of Israel answered, “You have already said what the punishment is. You must do what the man said.”

⁴¹ Then the prophet quickly took the cloth from his face. When the king of Israel saw him, he knew he was one of the prophets. ⁴² The prophet said to the king, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You freed the man I said should die, so your life will be taken instead of his. The lives of your people will also be taken instead of the lives of his people.’”

⁴³ Then King Ahab went back to his palace in Samaria, angry and upset.

Ahab Takes Naboth’s Vineyard

21 After these things had happened, this is what followed. A man named Naboth owned a vineyard in Jezreel, near the palace of Ahab king of Israel. ² One day Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard. It is near my palace, and I want to make it into a vegetable garden. I will give you a better vineyard in its place, or, if you prefer, I will pay you what it is worth.”

³ Naboth answered, “May the Lord keep me from ever giving my land to you. It belongs to my family.”

⁴ Ahab went home angry and upset, because he did not like what Naboth from Jezreel had said. (Naboth had said, “I will not give you my family’s land.”) Ahab lay down on his bed, turned his face to the wall, and refused to eat.

⁵ His wife, Jezebel, came in and asked him, “Why are you so upset that you refuse to eat?”

⁶ Ahab answered, “I talked to Naboth, the man from Jezreel. I said, ‘Sell me your vineyard, or, if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard for it.’ But Naboth refused.”

⁷ Jezebel answered, “Is this how you rule as king over Israel? Get up, eat something, and cheer up. I will get Naboth’s vineyard for you.”

⁸ So Jezebel wrote some letters, signed Ahab’s name to them, and used his own seal to seal them. Then she sent them to the elders and important men who lived in Naboth’s town. ⁹ The letter she wrote said: “Declare a day during which the people are to fast. Call the people together, and give Naboth a place of honor among them. ¹⁰ Seat two troublemakers across from him, and have them say they heard Naboth speak against God and the king. Then take Naboth out of the city and kill him with stones.”

¹¹ The elders and important men of Jezreel obeyed Jezebel’s command, just as she wrote in the letters. ¹² They declared a special day on which the people were to fast. And they put Naboth in a place of honor before the people. ¹³ Two troublemakers sat across from Naboth and said in front of everybody that they had heard him speak against God and the king. So the people carried Naboth out of the city and killed him with stones. ¹⁴ Then the leaders sent a message to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been killed.”

¹⁵ When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been killed, she told Ahab, “Naboth of Jezreel is dead. Now you may go and take for yourself the vineyard he would not sell to you.” ¹⁶ When Ahab heard that Naboth of Jezreel was dead, he got up and went to the vineyard to take it for his own.

¹⁷ At this time the Lord spoke his word to the prophet Elijah the Tishbite. The Lord said, ¹⁸ “Go to Ahab king of Israel in Samaria. He is at Naboth’s vineyard, where he has gone to take it as his own. ¹⁹ Tell Ahab that I, the Lord, say to him, ‘You have murdered Naboth and taken his land. So I tell you this: In the same place the dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, they will also lick up your blood!’”

²⁰ When Ahab saw Elijah, he said, “So you have found me, my enemy!”

Elijah answered, “Yes, I have found you. You have always chosen to do what the Lord says is wrong. ²¹ So the Lord says to you, ‘I will soon destroy you. I will kill you and every male in your family, both slave and free. ²² Your family will be like the family of King Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the family of King Baasha son of Ahijah. I will destroy you, because you have made me angry and have led the people of Israel to sin.’

²³ “And the Lord also says, ‘Dogs will eat the body of Jezebel in the city of Jezreel.’

²⁴ “Anyone in your family who dies in the city will be eaten by dogs, and anyone who dies in the fields will be eaten by birds.”

²⁵ There was no one like Ahab who had chosen so often to do what the Lord said was wrong, because his wife Jezebel influenced him to do evil. ²⁶ Ahab sinned terribly by worshiping idols, just as the Amorite people did. And the Lord had taken away their land and given it to the people of Israel.

²⁷ After Elijah finished speaking, Ahab tore his clothes. He put on rough cloth, fasted, and even slept in the rough cloth to show how sad and upset he was.

²⁸ The Lord spoke his word to Elijah the Tishbite: ²⁹ “I see that Ahab is now sorry for what he has done. So I will not cause the trouble to come to him during his life, but I will wait until his son is king. Then I will bring this trouble to Ahab’s family.”

The Death of Ahab

22 For three years there was peace between Israel and Aram. ² During the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah went to visit Ahab king of Israel.

³ At that time Ahab asked his officers, “Do you remember that the king of Aram took Ramoth in Gilead from us? Why have we done nothing to get it back?” ⁴ So Ahab asked King Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight at Ramoth in Gilead?”

“I will go with you,” Jehoshaphat answered. “My soldiers are yours, and my horses are yours.” ⁵ Jehoshaphat also said to Ahab, “But first we should ask if this is the Lord’s will.”

⁶ Ahab called about four hundred prophets together and asked them, “Should I go to war against Ramoth in Gilead or not?”

They answered, “Go, because the Lord will hand them over to you.”

⁷ But Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn’t there a prophet of the Lord here? Let’s ask him what we should do.”

⁸ Then King Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “There is one other prophet. We could ask the Lord through him, but I hate him. He never prophesies anything good about me, but something bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.”

Jehoshaphat said, “King Ahab, you shouldn’t say that!”

⁹ So Ahab king of Israel told one of his officers to bring Micaiah to him at once.

¹⁰ Ahab king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah had on their royal robes and were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor, near the entrance to the gate of Samaria. All the prophets were standing before them, speaking their messages. ¹¹ Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had made some iron horns. He said to Ahab, “This is what the Lord says, ‘You will use these horns to fight the Arameans until they are destroyed.’”

¹² All the other prophets said the same thing. “Attack Ramoth in Gilead and win, because the Lord will hand the Arameans over to you.”

¹³ The messenger who had gone to get Micaiah said to him, “All the other prophets are saying King Ahab will succeed. You should agree with them and give the king a good answer.”

¹⁴ But Micaiah answered, “As surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what the Lord tells me.”

¹⁵ When Micaiah came to Ahab, the king asked him, “Micaiah, should we attack Ramoth in Gilead or not?”

Micaiah answered, “Attack and win! The Lord will hand them over to you.”

¹⁶ But Ahab said to Micaiah, “How many times do I have to tell you to speak only the truth to me in the name of the Lord?”

¹⁷ So Micaiah answered, “I saw the army of Israel scattered over the hills like sheep without a shepherd. The Lord said, ‘They have no leaders. They should go home and not fight.’”

¹⁸ Then Ahab king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I told you! He never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad.”

¹⁹ But Micaiah said, “Hear the message from the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with his heavenly army standing near him on his right and on his left. ²⁰ The Lord said, ‘Who will trick Ahab into attacking Ramoth in Gilead where he will be killed?’

“Some said one thing; some said another. ²¹ Then one spirit came and stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will trick him.’

²² “The Lord asked, ‘How will you do it?’

“The spirit answered, ‘I will go to Ahab’s prophets and make them tell lies.’

“So the Lord said, ‘You will succeed in tricking him. Go and do it.’”

²³ Micaiah said, “Ahab, the Lord has made your prophets lie to you, and the Lord has decided that disaster should come to you.”

²⁴ Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up to Micaiah and slapped him in the face. Zedekiah said, “Has the Lord’s spirit left me to speak through you?”

²⁵ Micaiah answered, “You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inside room.”

²⁶ Then Ahab king of Israel ordered, “Take Micaiah and send him to Amon, the governor of the city, and to Joash, the king’s son. ²⁷ Tell them I said to put this man in prison and give him only bread and water until I return safely from the battle.”

²⁸ Micaiah said, “Ahab, if you come back safely from battle, the Lord has not spoken through me. Remember my words, all you people!”

²⁹ So Ahab king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went to Ramoth in Gilead. ³⁰ King Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “I will go into battle, but I will wear other clothes so no one will recognize me. But you wear your royal clothes.” So Ahab wore other clothes and went into battle.

³¹ The king of Aram had ordered his thirty-two chariot commanders, “Don’t fight with anyone—important or unimportant—except the king of Israel.” ³² When these commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought he was certainly the king of Israel, so they turned to attack him. But Jehoshaphat began shouting. ³³ When they saw he was not King Ahab, they stopped chasing him.

³⁴ By chance, a soldier shot an arrow, but he hit Ahab king of Israel between the pieces of his armor. King Ahab said to his chariot driver, “Turn around and get me out of the battle, because I am hurt!” ³⁵ The battle continued all day. King Ahab was held up in his chariot and faced the Arameans. His blood flowed down to the bottom of the chariot. That evening he died. ³⁶ Near sunset a cry went out through the army of Israel: “Each man go back to his own city and land.”

³⁷ In that way King Ahab died. His body was carried to Samaria and buried there. ³⁸ The men cleaned Ahab’s chariot at a pool in Samaria where prostitutes bathed, and the dogs licked his blood from the chariot. These things happened as the Lord had said they would.

³⁹ Everything else Ahab did is written in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. It tells about the palace Ahab built and decorated with ivory and the cities he built. ⁴⁰ So Ahab died, and his son Ahaziah became king in his place.

Jehoshaphat King of Judah

⁴¹ Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king of Judah during Ahab’s fourth year as king of Israel. ⁴² Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for twenty-five years. His mother’s name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi. ⁴³ Jehoshaphat was good, like his father Asa, and he did what the Lord said was right. But Jehoshaphat did not destroy the places where gods were worshiped, so the people continued offering sacrifices and burning incense there. ⁴⁴ Jehoshaphat was at peace with the king of Israel. ⁴⁵ Jehoshaphat fought many wars, and these wars and his successes are written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah. ⁴⁶ There were male prostitutes still in the places of worship from the days of his father, Asa. So Jehoshaphat forced them to leave.

⁴⁷ During this time the land of Edom had no king; it was ruled by a governor.

⁴⁸ King Jehoshaphat built trading ships to sail to Ophir for gold. But the ships were wrecked at Ezion Geber, so they never set sail. ⁴⁹ Ahaziah son of Ahab went to help Jehoshaphat, offering to give Jehoshaphat some men to sail with his men, but Jehoshaphat refused.

⁵⁰ Jehoshaphat died and was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem, the city of David, his ancestor. Then his son Jehoram became king in his place.

Ahaziah King of Israel

⁵¹ Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria during Jehoshaphat’s seventeenth year as king over Judah. Ahaziah ruled Israel for two years, ⁵² and he did what the Lord said was wrong. He did the same evil his father Ahab, his mother Jezebel, and Jeroboam son of Nebat had done. All these rulers led the people of Israel into more sin. ⁵³ Ahaziah worshiped and served the god Baal, and this made the Lord, the God of Israel, very angry. In these ways Ahaziah did what his father had done.