Bible in 90 Days

³⁸ He then made ten bronze basins. Each basin held forty baths and was four cubits across. There was one basin for each of the ten carts.

³⁹ He placed five of the stands at the right side of the temple, and five of the stands on the left side of the temple. He placed the sea on the right side of the temple, toward the southeast.

⁴⁰ Hiram also made basins, and shovels, and bowls. Thus Hiram completed all of the work that he was doing for King Solomon for the temple of the Lord: ⁴¹ the two pillars, the two bowl-shaped capitals that were on the top of the two pillars, the two networks that covered the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the two pillars, ⁴² the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each of the networks that covered the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars,^{[a] 43} the ten carts, and the ten basins upon the carts, ⁴⁴ one sea, and the twelve oxen under the sea, ⁴⁵ the pots, the shovels, and the basins.

All of the utensils that Hiram made for King Solomon for the temple of the Lord were made from bright bronze. ⁴⁶ The king cast them in the plain of the Jordan, in the clay ground that lie between Succoth and Zarethan. ⁴⁷ Solomon did not weigh any of these utensils because there were too many of them; the weight of the bronze used in them was not determined.

⁴⁸ Solomon also made all of the furnishings that were in the temple of the Lord: the golden altar; the golden table upon which they laid the shewbread; ⁴⁹ the lampstands made of pure gold, five on the right side and five on the left side; the flower work, the lamps, and the tongs, all made of gold; ⁵⁰ the bowls, the snuffers, the sprinkling bowls, the spoons, and the censors, all made from pure gold; and the golden hinges for the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, and for the doors of the main part of the temple.

⁵¹ When King Solomon had completed all of the work on the temple of the Lord, Solomon brought in the things that David, his father, had dedicated: the silver, the gold, and the furnishings. He placed them in the treasury of the temple of the Lord.

Chapter 8

Solomon Dedicates the Temple. ¹ Solomon then assembled all of the elders of Israel, all of the heads of the tribes and the leaders of the ancestral clans of the Israelites. They came to King Solomon in Jerusalem in order to bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out of the City of David, that is, Zion.

² All of the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon at the festival during the month of Ethanim,^[b] the seventh month. ³ When all of the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took the Ark ⁴ and they brought the Ark of the Lord and the tent of meeting and all of the sacred furnishings that were in the tabernacle. The priests, and the Levites, ⁵ and King Solomon, and the entire assembly of Israel gathered with him in front of the Ark. They sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could not even be counted or numbered.

⁶ The priests then brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. ⁷ The wings of the cherubim were spread out covering the place where the Ark was. The cherubim covered the Ark and its poles. ⁸ The poles stretched out so that one could see the ends of the poles in the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but one could not see them outside. They are still there up to the present. ⁹ There was nothing in the Ark except for the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb when the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁰ When the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the temple of the Lord. ¹¹ The priests could not stand there to minister on account of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the temple of the Lord.

¹² Then Solomon said, “The Lord said that he would live in thick darkness, ¹³ but now I have built you a temple to dwell in, a place where you can abide forever.”

¹⁴ The king then turned around to face the entire assembly of Israel, and he blessed the entire assembly of Israel who stood before him. ¹⁵ He said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled what he promised to my father, David, for he said, ¹⁶ ‘From the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I had not chosen a city from all of the tribes of Israel in which a temple for my name could be built, but I chose David to be the leader of my people Israel.’

¹⁷ “My father David desired to build a temple for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, ¹⁸ but the Lord said to my father David, ‘You desired to build a temple for my name, and this desire of yours was good, ¹⁹ but you are not the one who will build the temple. Your son who comes forth from your body will build the temple for my name.’ ²⁰ The Lord has kept the promise that he made. I have been raised up in my father’s stead to reign upon the throne of Israel, just as the Lord promised, and I have built a temple for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. ²¹ I have provided a place for the Ark in which one finds the covenant of the Lord that he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

²² Solomon’s Prayer.^[c] Solomon then stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the entire assembly of Israel, and he extended his hands to the heavens. ²³ He said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in the heavens above or on the earth below, who keeps a covenant of mercy with your servants who walk before you with all their heart. ²⁴ You have kept your promise to your servant, David, my father. You spoke it with your own mouth, and with your own hand, you have fulfilled it today.

²⁵ “And so now, O Lord, God of Israel, take heed of what you said to your servant, David, my father, when you said, ‘You will not fail to have one who will sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your children walk before me as you have walked before me.’ ²⁶ Now, O God of Israel, let what you have said to your servant David, my father, come true. ²⁷ But will God truly dwell upon the earth? Behold, the heavens and the highest heavens could not contain you, how much less this temple that I have built?

²⁸ “Give heed to the prayer of your servant and his supplication, O Lord, my God. Listen to the cry and the prayer that your servant makes before you today. ²⁹ May your eyes be wide open upon this temple night and day, the place of which you said, ‘My name will be there.’ Heed the prayer that your servant makes for this place. ³⁰ Hear the supplication of your servant and your people Israel when they pray for this place. Hear from your dwelling place in heaven, and when you hear, forgive.

³¹ “When a man wrongs his neighbor and he is required to swear an oath, and he comes to make the oath before your altar in this temple, ³² then listen from heaven and act. Judge between your servants, condemning the evil one and bring down upon his head his deeds. Prove innocent the righteous one, giving him what his righteousness deserves.

³³ “When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and they return to you and confess your name, and they pray and make supplication to you in this temple, ³⁴ then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land that you gave to their fathers.

³⁵ “When the heavens have been closed up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, and they pray in this place and they confess your name, and they turn from their sin because you have punished them, ³⁶ then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, so that you might teach them the right path in which they should walk, and send rain upon your land which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

³⁷ “When there is famine in the land, or pestilence, blight, mildew, locusts, or grasshoppers, or if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or sickness might occur, ³⁸ and whatever prayer or supplication is made by anyone, or by all of your people Israel, because each person knows the plague of his own heart, and he lifts up his hands toward this temple, ³⁹ then listen from your heavenly dwelling place. Forgive, and act, and give each person what his ways deserve, for you know his heart, for you alone know all human hearts, ⁴⁰ so that they might fear you all the days that they live in the land that you gave our fathers.

⁴¹ “And as to the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel, but comes from a distant land for your name’s sake, ⁴² for they have heard about your great name and your strong hand and your outstretched arm, and he comes to this temple to pray, ⁴³ listen from your heavenly dwelling place, and do everything for which the foreigner calls out to you. Then all of the people upon the earth will know your name and fear you just as your people Israel does, and that they might know that the temple that I have built is called by your name.

⁴⁴ “When your people go out to battle against their enemy wherever you send them, and they pray to the Lord toward the city that you have chosen and toward the temple that I have built for your name, ⁴⁵ then listen to their prayer and supplication from heaven and maintain their cause.

⁴⁶ “If they sin against you, for there is no one who is sinless, and you are angry with them so that they are delivered over to the enemy and carried off as captives into the land of their enemy, whether it be far or near, ⁴⁷ and they have a change of heart in the land where they have been carried off into captivity, and they repent and they make supplication to you in the land where they have been carried off as captives, and they say, ‘We have sinned, we have done what is wrong, and we have acted wickedly,’ ⁴⁸ and if they turn back to you with all their heart and all their soul in the land to which their enemies took them as captives, and they pray to you in the direction of the land that you gave their fathers, and the city that you have chosen, and the temple that I have built, ⁴⁹ then listen to their prayer and their supplication from your heavenly dwelling place and maintain their cause. ⁵⁰ Forgive your people who have sinned against you, all of the offenses that they have committed against you, and cause those who carried them off into captivity to be filled with compassion.

⁵¹ “They are your people and your inheritance whom you brought forth from Egypt, from the midst of an iron-smelting furnace. ⁵² May your eyes be open to see the supplication of your servant and the supplication of your people Israel. Listen to them whenever they call out to you, ⁵³ for you separated your inheritance from all the other people upon the earth, as you declared through Moses your servant, when you O Lord, my Lord, brought our fathers out of Egypt.”

⁵⁴ When Solomon had finished saying all of these prayers and supplications to the Lord, he rose up from before the altar of the Lord where he had been kneeling with his hands lifted up to the heavens. ⁵⁵ He stood, and he blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying, ⁵⁶ “Praise be to the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. He has not failed to fulfill a single word of all the good promises that he made through Moses his servant.

⁵⁷ “May the Lord, our God, be with us, just as he was with our fathers; may he not leave us or abandon us. ⁵⁸ May he turn our hearts to him to walk in all of his ways and to observe all of his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances which he commanded our fathers.

⁵⁹ “May these words that I have prayed before the Lord draw near to the Lord, our God, both day and night. May he uphold the cause of his servants and the cause of his people Israel, responding to each day’s needs, ⁶⁰ so that all the people upon the earth might know that the Lord is God, there is no other.

⁶¹ “Let your heart, therefore, be at peace with the Lord, our God, by walking in his statutes and observing his commandments, as is true today.”

⁶² Then the king and all of Israel with him offered sacrifices before the Lord. ⁶³ Solomon offered up a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord of twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty-two thousand sheep. This is how the king and all of the people of Israel dedicated the temple of the Lord.

⁶⁴ That day the king consecrated the court in front of the temple for burnt offerings, grain offerings, and for the fat of peace offerings because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small for burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of peace offerings.

⁶⁵ At that time Solomon celebrated before the Lord, our God, with all of Israel, a great assembly, people who came from the entrance of Hamath down to the Wadi of Egypt. It lasted seven days, and then another seven days, fourteen days in all.^{[d] 66} The next day he sent the people away. They blessed the king and they went home, filled with joy and glad of heart for all of the good things that the Lord had done for David, his servant, and Israel, his people.

Chapter 9

The Lord’s Promise to Solomon.¹ When Solomon had completed the construction of the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, Solomon had accomplished all that he desired to do.

² The Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. ³ The Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you made before me, and I have consecrated the temple that you built by establishing my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. ⁴ And as for you, if you walk before me as David, your father, walked, in integrity of heart and righteousness, and you do all that I command you, and you observe my statutes and my ordinances, ⁵ then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever just as I promised David, your father, when I said, ‘You will not fail to have one who will reign upon the throne of Israel.’

⁶ “But if your children turn away from me, and they do not follow me nor do they observe my commandments or my statutes that I have set before you, and they go off to serve other gods, and they worship them, ⁷ then I will cut Israel off from the land that I have given them, and I will reject from my sight this temple that I have consecrated for my name. Israel will become a byword and a laughingstock among all the nations. ⁸ Although this temple is now exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss at it, and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done this to this land and to this temple?’ ⁹ Then they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, their God, who brought their fathers forth from the land of Egypt. They have embraced other gods, and they have worshiped them and served them. This is why the Lord has brought all of these disasters upon them.’ ”

¹⁰ Taking Account. At the end of twenty years during which Solomon built two buildings, the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, ¹¹ King Solomon gave twenty towns that were in the land of Galilee to King Hiram, the king of Tyre, who had provided Solomon with all the cedar wood, fir, and gold that he desired. ¹² When King Hiram traveled out from Tyre to inspect the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. ¹³ He said, “What kind of cities have you given me, my brother?” He has called the land Cabul up to the present day. ¹⁴ Now Hiram had sent the king one hundred twenty talents of gold.^[e]

¹⁵ This is an account of the forced labor that King Solomon raised in order to build the temple of the Lord, his own palace, Millo, the walls of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. ¹⁶ (Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had gone up and captured Gezer. He burned it down and killed the Canaanites who were living there. He gave it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. ¹⁷ Solomon then rebuilt Gezer.) He also built lower Beth-horon, ¹⁸ Baalath, and Tadmor in the desert, all of which were within his land. ¹⁹ Solomon also had storage cities for provisions, cities for his chariots, and cities for his horses. Solomon built whatever he desired in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and all the land that he ruled.

²⁰ All of the people who survived from among the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites (for these people were not Israelites), ²¹ that is, their descendants who remained in the land (for the Israelites had not been able to wipe them out) were conscripted by Solomon to serve as slave labor, as is still true today.

²² Solomon did not reduce the Israelites to slavery. They were his fighting men, his officials, his princes, his captains, the commanders of his chariots, and his charioteers. ²³ They were also the chief officials who were in charge of Solomon’s work projects. There were five hundred and fifty of them, and they supervised the men who did the work. ²⁴ After Pharaoh’s daughter came up to the City of David, to the palace that he had built for her, he then built Millo.

²⁵ Three times a year^[f] Solomon offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar that he had built for the Lord. He also burnt incense on the altar before the Lord, and so he fulfilled his temple duties. ²⁶ King Solomon built ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Elath on the Red Sea in the land of Edom. ²⁷ Hiram sent some of his men who were sailors, seafaring men who knew the sea, to sail with Solomon’s men. ²⁸ They sailed to Ophir^[g] and brought back and delivered to King Solomon four hundred and twenty talents of gold.

Chapter 10

The Queen of Sheba’s Visit.^{[h] 1} When the Queen of Sheba heard about Solomon’s reputation, she came to test him with difficult questions.^{[i] 2} She came to Jerusalem with a very large caravan, with camels carrying spices and large quantities of gold and precious stones. When she arrived upon her visit to Solomon, she told him everything that was on her mind. ³ Solomon answered all of her questions. There were no hidden things that Solomon could not tell her.

⁴ When the Queen of Sheba saw all of Solomon’s wisdom, the palace that he had built, ⁵ the food on his table, the assembly of his servants, the attendance of his ministers in their robes and their cupbearers, and the way that he went up into the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed. ⁶ She said to the king, “The report that I heard in my own land concerning your actions and your wisdom are true. ⁷ However, I could not believe the report until I had come and seen it with my own eyes. They did not tell me the half of it. Your wisdom and your wealth exceed the report that I heard. ⁸ Happy are your men and happy are these, your servants, who always stand before you and hear your wisdom. ⁹ Blessed be the Lord, your God, who delights in you, placing you upon the throne of Israel. The Lord of Israel has established you as king to exercise justice and righteousness because he has loved you forever.”

¹⁰ She then gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, great quantities of spices, and precious stones. A more abundant quantity of spices never arrived than that which the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹¹ Furthermore, the ships of Hiram that had brought the gold from Ophir also brought large quantities of almug wood and precious stones from Ophir. ¹² The king made steps of almug wood for the temple of the Lord and for the king’s palace as well as harps and stringed instruments for accompanying singers. Almug wood such as this has not arrived or been seen up to the present day.

¹³ King Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba whatever she desired. He gave her whatever she asked for in addition to what King Solomon had already given her. She then returned, going to her own country along with her servants.

¹⁴ Solomon’s Wealth.^[j]The weight of the gold that Solomon would receive in a year was six hundred, sixty-six talents ¹⁵ in addition to what he received from merchants and the profits from trade, as well as from the Arabian kings and the governors of the land.

¹⁶ King Solomon made two hundred shields from beaten gold. Each of the shields contained six hundred shekels of gold. ¹⁷ He also made three hundred shields from beaten gold. Three minas of gold went into each shield. The king placed them in the palace built with the wood of Lebanon. ¹⁸ The king also made an ivory throne and had it overlaid with fine gold. ¹⁹ The throne had six steps, and the back of the throne had a rounded top. On either side of the seat there were armrests, and there was a lion standing alongside each of the armrests. ²⁰ There were twelve lions standing upon the six steps, with one on each side of the step. Nothing like this had ever been made in any other kingdom.

²¹ All of King Solomon’s goblets were made of gold, and all of the other utensils in the palace made from Lebanon wood were also made from the finest gold. Nothing was made from silver, for it was not considered to be worth anything in Solomon’s time.

²² The king also had ships of Tarshish at sea along with Hiram’s ships. Once every three years the ships of Tarshish would return, bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and baboons with them. ²³ King Solomon was greater in wealth and wisdom than all of the other kings on the earth.

²⁴ Solomon’s Acclaim. Everyone on the earth sought to visit Solomon to listen to his wisdom which God had placed in his heart. ²⁵ Year after year, everyone brought him presents of things made from silver, things made from gold, garments, armor, spices, horses, and donkeys.

²⁶ Solomon’s Chariots and Horses. Solomon collected chariots and horsemen. He had one thousand, four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen. He stationed them in cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

²⁷ The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem. Cedar became as common as the sycamore that abounds in the Shephelah.^{[k] 28} Solomon brought horses from Egypt and Cilicia. The king’s merchants bought them in Cilicia. ²⁹ They imported chariots from Egypt that cost six hundred silver shekels and horses that cost one hundred and fifty. They also exported them to all of the Hittite and Aramean kings.

Chapter 11

Solomon’s Wives and Idolatry.^{[l] 1} But King Solomon loved many foreign wives. In addition to Pharaoh’s daughter, there were Moabite women, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites. ² These were from the nations about which the Lord had said to the Israelites, “You are not to go to them, nor are they to come to you, for they will surely turn your heart away to follow their gods.” Solomon clung to them in love. ³ He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, and his wives perverted his heart.

⁴ When Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart to serve other gods. His heart did not rest in peace with the Lord, his God, as the heart of David, his father, had. ⁵ He followed Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Moloch, the abomination of the Ammonites. ⁶ Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not follow after the Lord completely as his father David had. ⁷ Solomon built a high place to Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites, and to Moloch, the abomination of the Ammonites, on a hillside that lies to the east of Jerusalem. ⁸ He did the same thing for all of his foreign wives. He burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

^9 [m]The Lord therefore became angry with Solomon for he had turned his heart away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, ¹⁰ and who had given him a command concerning this very thing, that he not follow after other gods, but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded. ¹¹ Therefore, the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this and you have not observed my covenant and my statutes that I had given to you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.

¹² “Nevertheless, I will not do this during your days, for the sake of David, your father. I will tear it out of the hands of your son. ¹³ I will not tear the entire kingdom away. I will give your son one tribe for the sake of David, my servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”

¹⁴ Solomon’s Adversaries. The Lord raised up an adversary to Solomon: Hadad, the Edomite, who was a descendant of the kings in Edom. ¹⁵ When David had been in Edom, and Joab, the commander of the army, had gone up to bury those who had been killed, for every male had been killed in Edom ¹⁶ (for Joab and all of Israel had remained there for six months until they had killed every male in Edom), ¹⁷ Hadad had fled into Egypt along with certain Edomites who had been his father’s servants. Hadad was only a little child. ¹⁸ They came up out of Midian to Paran, and they took men with them from Paran and went to Egypt, to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who gave him a house and provided him with provisions and gave him some land.

¹⁹ Pharaoh liked Hadad so much that he gave him the sister of his own wife to marry, the sister of Queen Tahpenes. ²⁰ The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son named Genubath. Tahpenes raised him in Pharaoh’s household. Genubath belonged to Pharaoh’s household, as if he were one of Pharaoh’s sons.

²¹ While he was in Egypt, he heard that David was now sleeping with his fathers and that Joab, the commander of the army, was dead. Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me leave so that I might return to my own land.” ²² Pharaoh said to him, “What have you ever been without that you seek to return to your own land?” He answered, “Nothing, but let me go anyway.”

²³ God also stirred up another adversary against him, Rezon, the son of Eliada. He had fled from his lord, Hadadezer, the king of Zobah. ²⁴ He gathered some men to himself and became the leader of a band of them when David conquered the forces of Zobah. They traveled to Damascus and dwelt there, reigning in Damascus. ²⁵ He was an adversary of Israel all through Solomon’s time, adding to the difficulties caused by Hadad. He ruled in Aram and despised Israel.

²⁶ Jeroboam’s Kingship Predicted. There was a certain Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who was an Ephraimite from Zeredah. His mother was a widow whose name was Zeruah. He rebelled against the king. ²⁷ This is how he rebelled against the king: Solomon built Millo and repaired the breaches in the wall of the City of David, his father. ²⁸ Jeroboam was an impressive man, and when Solomon saw that the young man was capable, he placed him in charge of the whole component of forced labor of the house of Joseph.

^29 [n]When Jeroboam went out from Jerusalem, he was met along the way by Ahijah, the Shilonite, who was a prophet. He was wearing a new garment, and the two of them were alone in the field. ³⁰ Ahijah grabbed the new garment that he was wearing and he tore it into twelve pieces. ³¹ He then said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hands of Solomon and I will give you ten tribes. ³² One tribe will remain for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen from out of the tribes of Israel.

³³ “ ‘This is because he has abandoned me and he has worshiped Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, and Moloch, the god of the Ammonites. He has not walked in my paths, doing what was right in my sight by observing my statutes and ordinances as David, his father, did. ³⁴ But I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hands. I will keep him as ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David, my servant, whom I chose, for he observed my commandments and my statutes, ³⁵ but I will take it out of his son’s hands. I will then give you ten of the tribes. ³⁶ I will give one tribe to his son so that David, my servant, might have a light before me always in Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen for my name.

³⁷ “ ‘I will take you, and you will reign over all that your heart desires. You will be the king over Israel. ³⁸ If you listen to all that I have commanded you and you walk in my ways and you do what is right in my sight, observing my statutes and my commandments, as David, my servant, did, then I will be with you and I will build a secure dynasty for you just as I built one for David. I will give you Israel. ³⁹ I will humble the descendants of David because of this, but not forever.’ ”

⁴⁰ Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, so Jeroboam rose and fled into Egypt, to Shishak, the king of Egypt. He stayed in Egypt until Solomon had died.

⁴¹ Solomon’s Death. As for the rest of Solomon’s deeds and the wisdom that he demonstrated, are they not written in the Book of the Acts of Solomon? ⁴² Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all of Israel for forty years. ⁴³ Solomon then slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the City of David, his father. Rehoboam, his son, then ruled in his stead.

The Reign of Jeroboam^[o][p]

Chapter 12

Revolt against Rehoboam. ¹ Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all of Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king. ² When Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, heard about this in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon, he returned from Egypt.

³ They sent for Jeroboam, and when he arrived, he and the whole assembly of Israel spoke to Rehoboam, saying, ⁴ “Your father made our yoke heavy. If you make our service and our heavy yoke lighter than the heavy load your father laid on us, then we will serve you.” ⁵ Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days, and then come back to me.” So the people departed.

⁶ King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had stood before Solomon, his father, during his lifetime. He said, “How do you advise me to answer this people, so that I can give them an answer?” ⁷ They answered him, “If you become a servant to this people today and you serve them and you give them a favorable answer, then they will be your servants forever.”

⁸ But he ignored the advice that the elders had given him, and instead, he consulted with the young men who had grown up with him and who stood before him. ⁹ He asked them, “What advice do you give me so that we can give an answer to this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Make the yoke lighter than that which your father laid upon us?’ ”

¹⁰ The young men who had grown up with him answered, “Say the following to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy; will you lighten it for us?’ Say this to them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist! ¹¹ My father laid a heavy yoke on you, but I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.’ ”

¹² Three days later Jeroboam and all of the people returned to Rehoboam as the king had decreed when he said, “Come back to me in three days.” ¹³ The king responded harshly to the people. He ignored the counsel that the elders had given him. ¹⁴ He said to them what the young men had advised him saying, “My father laid a heavy yoke on you, but I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.”

¹⁵ Thus the king would not listen to the people, for the Lord had brought this about to fulfill what he said when the Lord spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. ¹⁶ When all of Israel realized that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king, “What share do we have in David? What inheritance do we have in the son of Jesse? To your own tents, O Israel. Look after your own house, O David.” So the people of Israel returned to their homes.^[q]

¹⁷ Rehoboam still ruled over those Israelites who were living in the cities of Judah. ¹⁸ King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram who was in charge of the forced labor, but all of Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, mounted his chariot and fled to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David up to the present day.

²⁰ When all of Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they sent for him and summoned him to an assembly. They made him king over all of Israel. No one followed the house of David except for the tribe of Judah.

²¹ When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he assembled the entire house of Judah along with the tribe of Benjamin, one hundred and eighty thousand fighting men to battle against the house of Israel and to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. ²² But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying, ²³ “Speak to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, the king of Judah, and to all of the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying, ²⁴ ‘Thus says the Lord, You are not to go up or fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Let each man return home, for this thing is from me.’ ” They obeyed the word of the Lord, and they turned around and left, as the Lord had instructed.

²⁵ Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and he dwelt there. He went out from there and built Penuel.

²⁶ Jeroboam’s Idolatry. Jeroboam said to himself, “The kingdom is going to return to the house of David. ²⁷ If this people goes up to sacrifice in the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, the heart of this people will return to their lord, to Rehoboam, the king of Judah. They will kill me and they will return to Rehoboam, the king of Judah.”

²⁸ The king sought counsel, and so he made two golden calves.^[r] He said to them, “It is too difficult for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold, your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” ²⁹ He placed one in Bethel, and he placed the other in Dan.^{[s] 30} This thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before one of them, even to Dan.

³¹ He built shrines upon the high places, and he appointed priests from the lowliest of people who were not Levites.

³² He established a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the one that was celebrated in Judah, and he offered sacrifices upon the altar. He did this in Bethel, offering sacrifices to the calves that he had made. In Bethel he also appointed priests for the high places that he had made.

³³ And so he established a festival for the Israelites on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a date of his own choosing, and he offered up a sacrifice on the altar he had built in Bethel. He offered up a sacrifice and burned incense on the altar.

Chapter 13

Prophetic Disobedience. ¹ A man of God came from Judah and went to Bethel, led by the word of the Lord, and Jeroboam was standing by the altar offering incense. ² He cried out the word of the Lord against the altar saying, “O altar, O altar, thus says the Lord, ‘A son will be born to the house of David by the name of Josiah. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who now burn incense upon you. Human bones will be burnt upon you.’ ”^[t]

³ That same day he gave a sign saying, “This is a sign of what the Lord has proclaimed: The altar will be split in two and the ashes on it will be poured out.”

⁴ When the king heard the man of God speaking against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar proclaiming, “Seize him!” The hand that he stretched out toward him shriveled up, and he could not pull it back again. ⁵ The altar split apart and its ashes spilt out from the altar, fulfilling the sign that the man of God had proclaimed through the word of the Lord.

⁶ The king said to the man of God, “Intercede now to the Lord, your God, and pray for me so that my hand might be made well.” The man of God interceded with the Lord, and the king’s hand was made well, just like it was before.

⁷ The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and have something to eat, and I will give you a gift.” ⁸ But the man of God said to the king, “Even if you were to give me half of what belongs to you, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place.” ⁹ I received a command by the word of the Lord, “Do not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.” ¹⁰ He returned by another way, and did not go back by the way that he had come to Bethel.

¹¹ Fate of a Disobedient Prophet.^[u] Now there was an old prophet who lived in Bethel whose sons came and told him all about the things that the man of God had done in Bethel that day. ¹² They also told their father what he had said to the king. Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” His sons showed him the way on which the man of God from Judah had gone. ¹³ He said to his sons, “Saddle up the donkey for me.” They saddled up the donkey, and he rode on it.

¹⁴ He rode after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree and said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” He answered, “I am.” ¹⁵ So he said to him, “Come home and eat with me.” ¹⁶ He answered, “I cannot return nor can I go with you. I cannot eat bread with you nor drink water with you in that place. ¹⁷ The word of the Lord told me, ‘Do not eat bread nor drink water there. Do not return by the way which you came.’ ”

¹⁸ He said, “I am also a prophet like you. An angel spoke the word of the Lord to me, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house so that he can eat bread and drink water.’ ” But he was lying.

¹⁹ The man of God returned with him and he ate bread and drank water in his house. ²⁰ While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who brought him back. ²¹ He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you defied the mouth of the Lord and have not observed the command that the Lord, your God, commanded you, ²² but you came back and ate bread and drank water in the place that I told you not to eat bread nor drink water, therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your fathers.’ ”

²³ When he had finished eating bread and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey up for him. ²⁴ On the way, a lion came upon him and killed him, and his body was thrown down upon the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing alongside of him.

²⁵ Some of those who were passing by on the road saw his body tossed down there, and there was a lion standing by the body. They came and reported it in the city where the old prophet was living. ²⁶ When the prophet who had brought him back while he was on his way heard about it, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord. The Lord has delivered him over to the lion who tore him to pieces and killed him, just as the word of the Lord had declared to him.”

²⁷ The prophet said to his sons, “Saddle up the donkey for me,” and they saddled it up. ²⁸ They went out and found the body that had been thrown down along the way, and the donkey and the lion were standing alongside of it. The lion had not eaten the body nor had it attacked the donkey. ²⁹ The prophet picked up the body of the man of God and put it upon the donkey. He brought it back to the old prophet’s city to mourn for him and bury him. ³⁰ Then he laid the body in his own grave. They mourned over him saying, “Oh, my brother!”

³¹ After he buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried. Lay my bones alongside of his. ³² The thing that he proclaimed by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all of the shrines on the high places throughout the cities of Samaria will certainly be fulfilled.”

³³ Even after this, though, Jeroboam did not turn away from his evil ways. Once again he appointed priests for the high places from the lowliest of people. He consecrated as priests for the high places anyone who wanted to be consecrated. ³⁴ This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam^[v] that caused it to be cut off and wiped out from the face of the earth.

Chapter 14

The Lord Condemns Jeroboam.^[w]1 It was at that time that Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, fell ill. ² Jeroboam said to his wife, “Get up and disguise yourself so that they cannot tell that you are Jeroboam’s wife, and then go to Shiloh. Ahijah, the prophet, is there, the one who told me that I would be king over this people. ³ Take ten loaves of bread with you along with some cakes and a jar of honey and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the child.”

⁴ Jeroboam’s wife did this. She got up and went to Shiloh and entered the house of Ahijah. Ahijah could no longer see, for his eyes had grown dim because of his age. ⁵ But the Lord said to Ahijah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to ask something from you concerning her son who is sick. This is what you are to say to her.”

When she arrived, she pretended she was someone else. ⁶ When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came through the door, he said, “Enter, O wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be someone else? I have been sent to you with heavy tidings. ⁷ Go tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I have exalted you from among the people, and I have made you the leader over my people Israel. ⁸ I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. Yet, you have not been like my servant David who observed my commandments and who followed me with all of his heart, doing what is right in my sight. ⁹ You have done more evil than those who preceded you. You have gone after and made other gods, molten images, enraging me and casting me behind your back. ¹⁰ Behold, I will bring evil down upon the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who pees against the wall, every bondsman and everyone who is free in Israel. I will wipe out the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as one burns up dung until it is completely consumed. ¹¹ Those who belong to Jeroboam and who die in the city will be eaten by the dogs; those who die in the fields will be eaten by the birds of the air. The Lord has spoken.’

¹² “As for you, get up and go home. The moment that your feet enter the city, your child will die. ¹³ All of Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one who comes from Jeroboam who will be placed in a grave because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the Lord, the God of Israel, has found anything good.

¹⁴ “The Lord will raise up a king over Israel for himself who on that day will cut off the house of Jeroboam. What? Even now! ¹⁵ The Lord will strike down Israel, just as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from out of this good land that he gave to their fathers. He will scatter them beyond the river because they have made their wooden images, provoking the Lord to anger. ¹⁶ He will give up Israel because of the sins of Jeroboam, for he sinned and he caused Israel to sin.”

¹⁷ Jeroboam’s wife then got up and left and came to Tirzah. When she arrived at the threshold of the house, the child died. ¹⁸ They buried him, and all of Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord that he had spoken through Ahijah the prophet, his servant.

¹⁹ The rest of the deeds of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he reigned, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. ²⁰ Jeroboam reigned for twenty-two years, and then he slept with his fathers, and his son Nadab reigned in his stead.

Kings of Israel and Judah

²¹ Rehoboam’s Reign. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen from out of all of the tribes of Israel to place his name. His mother’s name was Naamah, and she was an Ammonite.

²² Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.^[x] With the sins that they committed which were worse than what their fathers had done, they provoked the Lord to jealousy. ²³ They also set up high places for themselves as well as sacred pillars and Asherah everywhere and under every green tree. ²⁴ There were even male prostitutes in the land. They did every abomination that the nations had done which the Lord had cast out before the Israelites.

²⁵ In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, the king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem. ²⁶ He took away the treasures from the temple of the Lord and the treasures out of the royal palace. He took everything away, including the gold shields that Solomon had made.

²⁷ King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them. He entrusted them into the hands of the commanders of the guard who watched over the entrance to the king’s palace. ²⁸ The guards would carry them whenever the king went into the temple of the Lord. Afterwards, they would return them to the guardroom.

²⁹ As for the rest of the deeds of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?^{[y] 30} There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam during their entire reigns. ³¹ Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah, and she was an Ammonite. Abijah, his son, then reigned in his stead.

Chapter 15

Abijam’s Reign. ¹ In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abijam became the king of Judah. ² He reigned in Jerusalem for three years. His mother’s name was Maacah, and she was the daughter of Abishalom.

³ He committed all of the sins that his father had committed before him. His heart was not at peace with the Lord, his God, as the heart of David, his father, had been. ⁴ In spite of this, the Lord, his God, gave him a lamp in Jerusalem for the sake of David, raising up his son to succeed him and making Jerusalem strong.^{[z] 5} He did this because of David who had done what was right in the sight of the Lord, and he had not turned away from anything that he had been commanded throughout his entire life with the exception of what happened with Uriah the Hittite. ⁶ There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam during their entire reign.

⁷ The rest of the deeds of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? There was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

⁸ Abijam slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David, and Asa, his son then reigned in his stead.

Asa’s Reign. ⁹ In the twentieth year of the reign of Jeroboam as the king of Israel, Asa became the king of Judah. ¹⁰ He reigned for forty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.

¹¹ Asa did what was right in the sight of the Lord, as his father David had. ¹² He expelled the male prostitutes from the land, and he removed all of the idols that his father had made. ¹³ He also deposed his mother Maacah as queen mother because she had made an image of an Asherah. Asa cut down her idol and burned it in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁴ But he did not do away with the high places. Nevertheless, Asa’s heart was at peace with the Lord all of his life. ¹⁵ He brought those things that his father had dedicated and those things that he had dedicated, silver, and gold, and vessels, into the temple of the Lord.

¹⁶ There was war between Asa and Baasha, the king of Israel, during their entire reigns. ¹⁷ Baasha, the king of Israel, attacked Judah, and he fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to the king of Judah.

¹⁸ Asa took all of the silver and all of the gold that remained in the treasury of the Lord’s temple and the treasury of the royal palace. He gave them to his servants and King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad, the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, the king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, saying, ¹⁹ “Let there be a covenant between me and you, between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha, the king of Israel, so that he might pull back from attacking me.”

²⁰ Ben-hadad agreed with King Asa, and he sent the commanders of his army to attack the cities of Israel. He conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, as well as all of the Chinnereth and the land of Naphtali. ²¹ When Baasha heard about this, he stopped building Ramah and he dwelt in Tirzah.

²² King Asa then issued a proclamation to all of Judah from which no one was exempt that they should carry away the stones and the timber that Baasha was using for the construction of Ramah. King Asa used them to build up Geba in Benjamin and Mizpah.

²³ As for the rest of the deeds of Asa, all of his achievements, and all that he did, and the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? In his old age, he suffered from difficulties with his feet.

²⁴ King Asa slept with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the City of David, his father, and his son Jehoshaphat reigned in his stead.

²⁵ Nadab’s Reign. Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, became the king of Israel in the second year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel for two years. ²⁶ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and he walked in the way of his father, in his sin, which he also caused Israel to commit.

²⁷ Baasha, the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, plotted against him, and Baasha struck him down at Gibbethon, a Philistine city, while Nadab and all of Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon. ²⁸ Baasha killed him in the third year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, and he reigned in his stead.

²⁹ As soon as he began to reign, he struck down all of Jeroboam’s household. He did not leave Jeroboam a single person who was still breathing; he wiped them out. This fulfilled what the Lord had said when he spoke through Ahijah, the Shilonite ³⁰ because of the sins that Jeroboam committed and because he caused Israel to sin, provoking the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel.^[aa]

³¹ As for the other deeds of Nadab and all the other things that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

³² There was war between Asa and Baasha, the king of Israel, during their entire reigns.^[ab]

³³ Baasha’s Reign. In the third year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, Baasha, the son of Ahijah, became the king over all of Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned for twenty-four years. ³⁴ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, walking in the ways of Jeroboam, in his sin, which he also caused Israel to commit.

Chapter 16

¹ The word of the Lord then came to Jehu, the son of Hanani, condemning Baasha: ² “I lifted you up out of the dust and appointed you as ruler over my people Israel, but you have walked in the ways of Jeroboam and you have caused my people Israel to sin, provoking my anger at their sins. ³ Therefore, I will wipe out Baasha and the descendants of his house. I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. ⁴ Those who belong to Baasha who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who belong to him who die in the field will be eaten by the birds of the air.”

⁵ As for the other deeds of Baasha, what he did, and his achievements, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

⁶ Baasha slept with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah. Elah, his son, reigned in his stead.

Elah’s Reign. ⁷ The word of the Lord came through Jehu the prophet, the son of Hanani, to condemn Baasha and his house for all the evil he had done in the sight of the Lord. He provoked him to anger through the deeds of his hands, for he did the same things as the house of Jeroboam and because he wiped it out.

⁸ Elah, the son of Baasha, began to reign over Israel in Tirzah during the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, and he reigned for two years.

⁹ Then Zimri, his servant and the commander of half of his chariots, plotted against him. He was in Tirzah, and he got drunk in the house of Arza, the major-domo of the palace in Tirzah. ¹⁰ Zimri entered and struck him and killed him during the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, and he reigned in his stead. ¹¹ As soon as he began to reign, he struck down all of Baasha’s household. He did not leave a single person who pees against the wall, whether he be one of his relatives or one of his friends. ¹² Zimri wiped out the entire house of Baasha, in accordance with the word of the Lord which condemned Baasha through Jehu, the prophet. ¹³ This was because of the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah, his son, and because they caused Israel to sin, provoking the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger over their worthless idols.

¹⁴ As to the other deeds of Elah and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

¹⁵ Zimri’s Reign. Zimri reigned in Tirzah for seven days during the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah.

The people were camped near Gibbethon, a Philistine city. ¹⁶ When the people camped there heard, “Zimri had plotted against and killed the king,” they made Omri, the commander of the army, king over all of Israel that very day in the camp. ¹⁷ Omri and all of Israel departed from Gibbethon and they besieged Tirzah. ¹⁸ When Zimri saw that the city had been captured, he went up into the citadel of the king’s palace and he set the palace on fire around himself and he died. ¹⁹ This was because of the sins that he had committed, doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord and walking in the ways of Jeroboam, in his sin, and causing Israel to sin.

²⁰ As for the other deeds of Zimri, and the conspiracy that he plotted, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?