7K-First Kings

1 Kings Chapter 1

1 Kings 1:1 (NIV)

¹ When King David was old and well advanced in years, he could not keep warm even when they put covers over him.

1 Kings 1:2 (NIV)

² So his servants said to him, “Let us look for a young virgin to attend the king and take care of him. She can lie beside him so that our lord the king may keep warm.”

1 Kings 1:3 (NIV)

³ Then they searched throughout Israel for a beautiful girl and found Abishag, a Shunammite, and brought her to the king.

1 Kings 1:4 (NIV)

⁴ The girl was very beautiful; she took care of the king and waited on him, but the king had no intimate relations with her.

1 Kings 1:5 (NIV)

⁵ Now Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, put himself forward and said, “I will be king.” So he got chariots and horses ready, with fifty men to run ahead of him.

1 Kings 1:6 (NIV)

⁶ (His father had never interfered with him by asking, “Why do you behave as you do?” He was also very handsome and was born next after Absalom.)

1 Kings 1:7 (NIV)

⁷ Adonijah conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest, and they gave him their support.

1 Kings 1:8 (NIV)

⁸ But Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei and Rei and David’s special guard did not join Adonijah.

1 Kings 1:9 (NIV)

⁹ Adonijah then sacrificed sheep, cattle and fattened calves at the Stone of Zoheleth near En Rogel. He invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the men of Judah who were royal officials,

1 Kings 1:10 (NIV)

¹⁰ but he did not invite Nathan the prophet or Benaiah or the special guard or his brother Solomon.

1 Kings 1:11 (NIV)

¹¹ Then Nathan asked Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, “Have you not heard that Adonijah, the son of Haggith, has become king without our lord David’s knowing it?

1 Kings 1:12 (NIV)

¹² Now then, let me advise you how you can save your own life and the life of your son Solomon.

1 Kings 1:13 (NIV)

¹³ Go in to King David and say to him, ‘My lord the king, did you not swear to me your servant: “Surely Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne”? Why then has Adonijah become king?’

1 Kings 1:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ While you are still there talking to the king, I will come in and confirm what you have said.”

1 Kings 1:15 (NIV)

¹⁵ So Bathsheba went to see the aged king in his room, where Abishag the Shunammite was attending him.

1 Kings 1:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ Bathsheba bowed low and knelt before the king. “What is it you want?” the king asked.

1 Kings 1:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ She said to him, “My lord, you yourself swore to me your servant by the LORD your God: ‘Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne.’

1 Kings 1:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ But now Adonijah has become king, and you, my lord the king, do not know about it.

1 Kings 1:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ He has sacrificed great numbers of cattle, fattened calves, and sheep, and has invited all the king’s sons, Abiathar the priest and Joab the commander of the army, but he has not invited Solomon your servant.

1 Kings 1:20 (NIV)

²⁰ My lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are on you, to learn from you who will sit on the throne of my lord the king after him.

1 Kings 1:21 (NIV)

²¹ Otherwise, as soon as my lord the king is laid to rest with his fathers, I and my son Solomon will be treated as criminals.”

1 Kings 1:22 (NIV)

²² While she was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet arrived.

1 Kings 1:23 (NIV)

²³ And they told the king, “Nathan the prophet is here.” So he went before the king and bowed with his face to the ground.

1 Kings 1:24 (NIV)

²⁴ Nathan said, “Have you, my lord the king, declared that Adonijah shall be king after you, and that he will sit on your throne?

1 Kings 1:25 (NIV)

²⁵ Today he has gone down and sacrificed great numbers of cattle, fattened calves, and sheep. He has invited all the king’s sons, the commanders of the army and Abiathar the priest. Right now they are eating and drinking with him and saying, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’

1 Kings 1:26 (NIV)

²⁶ But me your servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon he did not invite.

1 Kings 1:27 (NIV)

²⁷ Is this something my lord the king has done without letting his servants know who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?”

1 Kings 1:28 (NIV)

²⁸ Then King David said, “Call in Bathsheba.” So she came into the king’s presence and stood before him.

1 Kings 1:29 (NIV)

²⁹ The king then took an oath: “As surely as the LORD lives, who has delivered me out of every trouble,

1 Kings 1:30 (NIV)

³⁰ I will surely carry out today what I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel: Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne in my place.”

1 Kings 1:31 (NIV)

³¹ Then Bathsheba bowed low with her face to the ground and, kneeling before the king, said, “May my lord King David live forever!”

1 Kings 1:32 (NIV)

³² King David said, “Call in Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.” When they came before the king,

1 Kings 1:33 (NIV)

³³ he said to them: “Take your lord’s servants with you and set Solomon my son on my own mule and take him down to Gihon.

1 Kings 1:34 (NIV)

³⁴ There have Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him king over Israel. Blow the trumpet and shout, ‘Long live King Solomon!’

1 Kings 1:35 (NIV)

³⁵ Then you are to go up with him, and he is to come and sit on my throne and reign in my place. I have appointed him ruler over Israel and Judah.”

1 Kings 1:36 (NIV)

³⁶ Benaiah son of Jehoiada answered the king, “Amen! May the LORD, the God of my lord the king, so declare it.

1 Kings 1:37 (NIV)

³⁷ As the LORD was with my lord the king, so may he be with Solomon to make his throne even greater than the throne of my lord King David!”

1 Kings 1:38 (NIV)

³⁸ So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the Kerethites and the Pelethites went down and put Solomon on King David’s mule and escorted him to Gihon.

1 Kings 1:39 (NIV)

³⁹ Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the sacred tent and anointed Solomon. Then they sounded the trumpet and all the people shouted, “Long live King Solomon!”

1 Kings 1:40 (NIV)

⁴⁰ And all the people went up after him, playing flutes and rejoicing greatly, so that the ground shook with the sound.

1 Kings 1:41 (NIV)

⁴¹ Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they were finishing their feast. On hearing the sound of the trumpet, Joab asked, “What’s the meaning of all the noise in the city?”

1 Kings 1:42 (NIV)

⁴² Even as he was speaking, Jonathan son of Abiathar the priest arrived. Adonijah said, “Come in. A worthy man like you must be bringing good news.”

1 Kings 1:43 (NIV)

⁴³ “Not at all!” Jonathan answered. “Our lord King David has made Solomon king.

1 Kings 1:44 (NIV)

⁴⁴ The king has sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the Kerethites and the Pelethites, and they have put him on the king’s mule,

1 Kings 1:45 (NIV)

⁴⁵ and Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king at Gihon. From there they have gone up cheering, and the city resounds with it. That’s the noise you hear.

1 Kings 1:46 (NIV)

⁴⁶ Moreover, Solomon has taken his seat on the royal throne.

1 Kings 1:47 (NIV)

⁴⁷ Also, the royal officials have come to congratulate our lord King David, saying, ‘May your God make Solomon’s name more famous than yours and his throne greater than yours!’ And the king bowed in worship on his bed

1 Kings 1:48 (NIV)

⁴⁸ and said, ‘Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who has allowed my eyes to see a successor on my throne today.'”

1 Kings 1:49 (NIV)

⁴⁹ At this, all Adonijah’s guests rose in alarm and dispersed.

1 Kings 1:50 (NIV)

⁵⁰ But Adonijah, in fear of Solomon, went and took hold of the horns of the altar.

1 Kings 1:51 (NIV)

⁵¹ Then Solomon was told, “Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon and is clinging to the horns of the altar. He says, ‘Let King Solomon swear to me today that he will not put his servant to death with the sword.'”

1 Kings 1:52 (NIV)

⁵² Solomon replied, “If he shows himself to be a worthy man, not a hair of his head will fall to the ground; but if evil is found in him, he will die.”

1 Kings 1:53 (NIV)

⁵³ Then King Solomon sent men, and they brought him down from the altar. And Adonijah came and bowed down to King Solomon, and Solomon said, “Go to your home.”

1 Kings Chapter 2

1 Kings 2:1 (NIV)

¹ When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son.

1 Kings 2:2 (NIV)

² “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, show yourself a man,

1 Kings 2:3 (NIV)

³ and observe what the LORD your God requires: Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go,

1 Kings 2:4 (NIV)

⁴ and that the LORD may keep his promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’

1 Kings 2:5 (NLT)

⁵ “And there is something else. You know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me when he murdered my two army commanders, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He pretended that it was an act of war, but it was done in a time of peace, staining his belt and sandals with innocent blood.

1 Kings 2:6 (NIV)

⁶ Deal with him according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to the grave in peace.

1 Kings 2:7 (NIV)

⁷ “But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai of Gilead and let them be among those who eat at your table. They stood by me when I fled from your brother Absalom.

1 Kings 2:8 (NLT)

⁸ “And remember Shimei son of Gera, the man from Bahurim in Benjamin. He cursed me with a terrible curse as I was fleeing to Mahanaim. When he came down to meet me at the Jordan River, I swore by the LORD that I would not kill him.

1 Kings 2:9 (NLT)

⁹ But that oath does not make him innocent. You are a wise man, and you will know how to arrange a bloody death for him.”

1 Kings 2:10 (NIV)

¹⁰ Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David.

1 Kings 2:11 (NIV)

¹¹ He had reigned forty years over Israel–seven years in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem.

1 Kings 2:12 (NIV)

¹² So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was firmly established.

1 Kings 2:13 (NIV)

¹³ Now Adonijah, the son of Haggith, went to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. Bathsheba asked him, “Do you come peacefully?” He answered, “Yes, peacefully.”

1 Kings 2:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ Then he added, “I have something to say to you.” “You may say it,” she replied.

1 Kings 2:15 (NIV)

¹⁵ “As you know,” he said, “the kingdom was mine. All Israel looked to me as their king. But things changed, and the kingdom has gone to my brother; for it has come to him from the LORD.

1 Kings 2:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ Now I have one request to make of you. Do not refuse me.” “You may make it,” she said.

1 Kings 2:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ So he continued, “Please ask King Solomon–he will not refuse you–to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife.”

1 Kings 2:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ “Very well,” Bathsheba replied, “I will speak to the king for you.”

1 Kings 2:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ When Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, the king stood up to meet her, bowed down to her and sat down on his throne. He had a throne brought for the king’s mother, and she sat down at his right hand.

1 Kings 2:20 (NIV)

²⁰ “I have one small request to make of you,” she said. “Do not refuse me.” The king replied, “Make it, my mother; I will not refuse you.”

1 Kings 2:21 (NIV)

²¹ So she said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given in marriage to your brother Adonijah.”

1 Kings 2:22 (NIV)

²² King Solomon answered his mother, “Why do you request Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? You might as well request the kingdom for him–after all, he is my older brother–yes, for him and for Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah!”

1 Kings 2:23 (NIV)

²³ Then King Solomon swore by the LORD: “May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if Adonijah does not pay with his life for this request!

1 Kings 2:24 (NIV)

²⁴ And now, as surely as the LORD lives–he who has established me securely on the throne of my father David and has founded a dynasty for me as he promised–Adonijah shall be put to death today!”

1 Kings 2:25 (NIV)

²⁵ So King Solomon gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he struck down Adonijah and he died.

1 Kings 2:26 (NIV)

²⁶ To Abiathar the priest the king said, “Go back to your fields in Anathoth. You deserve to die, but I will not put you to death now, because you carried the ark of the Sovereign LORD before my father David and shared all my father’s hardships.”

1 Kings 2:27 (NLT)

²⁷ So Solomon deposed Abiathar from his position as priest of the LORD, thereby fulfilling the prophecy the LORD had given at Shiloh concerning the descendants of Eli.

1 Kings 2:28 (NIV)

²⁸ When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah though not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the LORD and took hold of the horns of the altar.

1 Kings 2:29 (NIV)

²⁹ King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the tent of the LORD and was beside the altar. Then Solomon ordered Benaiah son of Jehoiada, “Go, strike him down!”

1 Kings 2:30 (NLT)

³⁰ Benaiah went to the sacred tent of the LORD and said to Joab, “The king orders you to come out!” But Joab answered, “No, I will die here.” So Benaiah returned to the king and told him what Joab had said.

1 Kings 2:31 (NLT)

³¹ “Do as he said,” the king replied. “Kill him there beside the altar and bury him. This will remove the guilt of Joab’s senseless murders from me and from my father’s family.

1 Kings 2:32 (NLT)

³² The LORD will repay him for the murders of two men who were more righteous and better than he. For my father knew nothing about the deaths of Abner son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and of Amasa son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah.

1 Kings 2:33 (NLT)

³³ May their blood be on Joab and his descendants forever, and may the LORD grant peace forever to David, his descendants, his dynasty, and his throne.”

1 Kings 2:34 (NIV)

³⁴ So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and struck down Joab and killed him, and he was buried on his own land in the desert.

1 Kings 2:35 (NIV)

³⁵ The king put Benaiah son of Jehoiada over the army in Joab’s position and replaced Abiathar with Zadok the priest.

1 Kings 2:36 (NIV)

³⁶ Then the king sent for Shimei and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there, but do not go anywhere else.

1 Kings 2:37 (NIV)

³⁷ The day you leave and cross the Kidron Valley, you can be sure you will die; your blood will be on your own head.”

1 Kings 2:38 (NIV)

³⁸ Shimei answered the king, “What you say is good. Your servant will do as my lord the king has said.” And Shimei stayed in Jerusalem for a long time.

1 Kings 2:39 (NIV)

³⁹ But three years later, two of Shimei’s slaves ran off to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath, and Shimei was told, “Your slaves are in Gath.”

1 Kings 2:40 (NIV)

⁴⁰ At this, he saddled his donkey and went to Achish at Gath in search of his slaves. So Shimei went away and brought the slaves back from Gath.

1 Kings 2:41 (NIV)

⁴¹ When Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned,

1 Kings 2:42 (NIV)

⁴² the king summoned Shimei and said to him, “Did I not make you swear by the LORD and warn you, ‘On the day you leave to go anywhere else, you can be sure you will die’? At that time you said to me, ‘What you say is good. I will obey.’

1 Kings 2:43 (NIV)

⁴³ Why then did you not keep your oath to the LORD and obey the command I gave you?”

1 Kings 2:44 (NIV)

⁴⁴ The king also said to Shimei, “You know in your heart all the wrong you did to my father David. Now the LORD will repay you for your wrongdoing.

1 Kings 2:45 (NIV)

⁴⁵ But King Solomon will be blessed, and David’s throne will remain secure before the LORD forever.”

1 Kings 2:46 (NLT2)

⁴⁶ Then, at the king’s command, Benaiah son of Jehoiada took Shimei outside and killed him. So the kingdom was now firmly in Solomon’s grip.

1 Kings Chapter 3

1 Kings 3:1 (NIV)

¹ Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt and married his daughter. He brought her to the City of David until he finished building his palace and the temple of the LORD, and the wall around Jerusalem.

1 Kings 3:2 (NIV)

² The people, however, were still sacrificing at the high places, because a temple had not yet been built for the Name of the LORD.

1 Kings 3:3 (NIV)

³ Solomon showed his love for the LORD by walking according to the statutes of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.

1 Kings 3:4 (NIV)

⁴ The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

1 Kings 3:5 (NIV)

⁵ At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

1 Kings 3:6 (NIV)

⁶ Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

1 Kings 3:7 (NIV)

⁷ “Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.

1 Kings 3:8 (AMP)

⁸ Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people who cannot be counted for multitude.

1 Kings 3:9 (NIV)

⁹ So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”

1 Kings 3:10 (NIV)

¹⁰ The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.

1 Kings 3:11 (NIV)

¹¹ So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice,

1 Kings 3:12 (NIV)

¹² I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.

1 Kings 3:13 (NIV)

¹³ Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for–both riches and honor–so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings.

1 Kings 3:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.”

1 Kings 3:15 (NIV)

¹⁵ Then Solomon awoke–and he realized it had been a dream. He returned to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the Lord’s covenant and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then he gave a feast for all his court.

1 Kings 3:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ Now two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.

1 Kings 3:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ One of them said, “My lord, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was there with me.

1 Kings 3:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ The third day after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one in the house but the two of us.

1 Kings 3:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ “During the night this woman’s son died because she lay on him.

1 Kings 3:20 (NIV)

²⁰ So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I your servant was asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast.

1 Kings 3:21 (NIV)

²¹ The next morning, I got up to nurse my son–and he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t the son I had borne.”

1 Kings 3:22 (NIV)

²² The other woman said, “No! The living one is my son; the dead one is yours.” But the first one insisted, “No! The dead one is yours; the living one is mine.” And so they argued before the king.

1 Kings 3:23 (NIV)

²³ The king said, “This one says, ‘My son is alive and your son is dead,’ while that one says, ‘No! Your son is dead and mine is alive.'”

1 Kings 3:24 (NIV)

²⁴ Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword for the king.

1 Kings 3:25 (NIV)

²⁵ He then gave an order: “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”

1 Kings 3:26 (NIV)

²⁶ The woman whose son was alive was filled with compassion for her son and said to the king, “Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!” But the other said, “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!”

1 Kings 3:27 (NIV)

²⁷ Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother.”

1 Kings 3:28 (NIV)

²⁸ When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice.

1 Kings Chapter 4

1 Kings 4:1 (NIV)

¹ So King Solomon ruled over all Israel.

1 Kings 4:2 (NIV)

² And these were his chief officials: Azariah son of Zadok–the priest;

1 Kings 4:3 (NIV)

³ Elihoreph and Ahijah, sons of Shisha–secretaries; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud–recorder;

1 Kings 4:4 (NIV)

⁴ Benaiah son of Jehoiada–commander in chief; Zadok and Abiathar–priests;

1 Kings 4:5 (NIV)

⁵ Azariah son of Nathan–in charge of the district officers; Zabud son of Nathan–a priest and personal adviser to the king;

1 Kings 4:6 (NIV)

⁶ Ahishar–in charge of the palace; Adoniram son of Abda–in charge of forced labor.

1 Kings 4:7 (NIV)

⁷ Solomon also had twelve district governors over all Israel, who supplied provisions for the king and the royal household. Each one had to provide supplies for one month in the year.

1 Kings 4:8 (NIV)

⁸ These are their names: Ben-Hur–in the hill country of Ephraim;

1 Kings 4:9 (NIV)

⁹ Ben-Deker–in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth Shemesh and Elon Bethhanan;

1 Kings 4:10 (NIV)

¹⁰ Ben-Hesed–in Arubboth (Socoh and all the land of Hepher were his);

1 Kings 4:11 (NIV)

¹¹ Ben-Abinadab–in Naphoth Dor (he was married to Taphath daughter of Solomon);

1 Kings 4:12 (NIV)

¹² Baana son of Ahilud–in Taanach and Megiddo, and in all of Beth Shan next to Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth Shan to Abel Meholah across to Jokmeam;

1 Kings 4:13 (NIV)

¹³ Ben-Geber–in Ramoth Gilead (the settlements of Jair son of Manasseh in Gilead were his, as well as the district of Argob in Bashan and its sixty large walled cities with bronze gate bars);

1 Kings 4:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ Ahinadab son of Iddo–in Mahanaim;

1 Kings 4:15 (NIV)

¹⁵ Ahimaaz–in Naphtali (he had married Basemath daughter of Solomon);

1 Kings 4:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ Baana son of Hushai–in Asher and in Aloth;

1 Kings 4:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ Jehoshaphat son of Paruah–in Issachar;

1 Kings 4:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ Shimei son of Ela–in Benjamin;

1 Kings 4:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ Geber son of Uri–in Gilead (the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and the country of Og king of Bashan). He was the only governor over the district.

1 Kings 4:20 (NIV)

²⁰ The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore; they ate, they drank and they were happy.

1 Kings 4:21 (NIV)

²¹ And Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These countries brought tribute and were Solomon’s subjects all his life.

1 Kings 4:22 (NIV)

²² Solomon’s daily provisions were thirty cors of fine flour and sixty cors of meal,

1 Kings 4:23 (NIV)

²³ ten head of stall-fed cattle, twenty of pasture-fed cattle and a hundred sheep and goats, as well as deer, gazelles, roebucks and choice fowl.

1 Kings 4:24 (NIV)

²⁴ For he ruled over all the kingdoms west of the River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, and had peace on all sides.

1 Kings 4:25 (NIV)

²⁵ During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, lived in safety, each man under his own vine and fig tree.

1 Kings 4:26 (NIV)

²⁶ Solomon had four thousand stalls for chariot horses, and twelve thousand horses.

1 Kings 4:27 (NIV)

²⁷ The district officers, each in his month, supplied provisions for King Solomon and all who came to the king’s table. They saw to it that nothing was lacking.

1 Kings 4:28 (NIV)

²⁸ They also brought to the proper place their quotas of barley and straw for the chariot horses and the other horses.

1 Kings 4:29 (NIV)

²⁹ God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore.

1 Kings 4:30 (NIV)

³⁰ Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the men of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.

1 Kings 4:31 (NIV)

³¹ He was wiser than any other man, including Ethan the Ezrahite–wiser than Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations.

1 Kings 4:32 (NIV)

³² He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five.

1 Kings 4:33 (NIV)

³³ He described plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish.

1 Kings 4:34 (NIV)

³⁴ Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.

1 Kings Chapter 5

1 Kings 5:1 (NIV)

¹ When Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king to succeed his father David, he sent his envoys to Solomon, because he had always been on friendly terms with David.

1 Kings 5:2 (NIV)

² Solomon sent back this message to Hiram:

1 Kings 5:3 (CJB)-M

³ “You know that David my father wasn’t able to build a house for the name of the Lord his God, because of the wars that beset him from every side, until the Lord put his enemies under the soles of his feet.

1 Kings 5:4 (NIV)

⁴ But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or disaster.

1 Kings 5:5 (NIV)

⁵ I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the LORD my God, as the LORD told my father David, when he said, ‘Your son whom I will put on the throne in your place will build the temple for my Name.’

1 Kings 5:6 (NASB)

⁶ “Now therefore, command that they cut for me cedars from Lebanon, and my servants will be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants according to all that you say, for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”

1 Kings 5:7 (CJB)-M

⁷ When Hiram heard Solomon’s message, he was very happy and said, “Blessed be the Lord today, who has given David a wise son to rule this great people.”

1 Kings 5:8 (CJB)-M

⁸ Then Hiram sent Solomon this message: “I have heard the message you sent me, and I will do everything you want concerning cedar logs and cypress logs.

1 Kings 5:9 (NIV)

⁹ My men will haul them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will float them in rafts by sea to the place you specify. There I will separate them and you can take them away. And you are to grant my wish by providing food for my royal household.”

1 Kings 5:10 (NASB)

¹⁰ So Hiram gave Solomon as much as he desired of the cedar and cypress timber.

1 Kings 5:11 (HCSB)

¹¹ and Solomon provided Hiram with 100,000 bushels of wheat as food for his household and 110,000 gallons of oil from crushed olives. Solomon did this for Hiram year after year.

1 Kings 5:12 (CJB)-M

¹² The Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he had promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon — the two of them formed an alliance together.

1 Kings 5:13 (NIV)

¹³ King Solomon conscripted laborers from all Israel–thirty thousand men.

1 Kings 5:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ He sent them off to Lebanon in shifts of ten thousand a month, so that they spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.

1 Kings 5:15 (NIV)

¹⁵ Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hills,

1 Kings 5:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ as well as thirty-three hundred foremen who supervised the project and directed the workmen.

1 Kings 5:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ At the king’s command they removed from the quarry large blocks of quality stone to provide a foundation of dressed stone for the temple.

1 Kings 5:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ The craftsmen of Solomon and Hiram and the men of Gebal cut and prepared the timber and stone for the building of the temple.

1 Kings Chapter 6

1 Kings 6:1 (NIV)

¹ In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the LORD.

1 Kings 6:2 (CJB)-M

² The house which King Solomon built for the Lord was 105 feet long, thirty-five feet wide and fifty-two-and-a-half feet high.

1 Kings 6:3 (CJB)

³ The hall fronting the temple of the house was thirty-five feet long, the same as the width of the house itself, so that its seventeen-and-a-half-foot width extended frontward from the house.

1 Kings 6:4 (CJB)

⁴ The windows he made for the house were wide on the inside and narrow on the outside.

1 Kings 6:5 (CJB)

⁵ Against the wall of the house he built an annex all the way around; it went all the way around the walls of the house, including both the temple and the sanctuary.

1 Kings 6:6 (CJB)

⁶ The lowest floor of the annex was eight-and-three-quarters feet wide, the middle floor ten-and-a-half feet wide and the third floor twelve-and-a-quarter feet wide; for he had made the outer part of the wall of the house step-shaped, so that the beams of the annex would not have to be attached to the house walls.

1 Kings 6:7 (CJB)

⁷ For the house, when under construction, was built of stone prepared at the quarry; so that no hammer, chisel or iron tool of any kind was heard in the house while it was being built.

1 Kings 6:8 (NIV)

⁸ The entrance to the lowest floor was on the south side of the temple; a stairway led up to the middle level and from there to the third.

1 Kings 6:9 (CJB)

⁹ So he built the house, and after finishing it, he put its roof on — cedar planks over beams.

1 Kings 6:10 (CJB)

¹⁰ Each floor of the annex surrounding the house was eight-and-three-quarters feet high and was attached to the house with beams of cedar.

1 Kings 6:11 (NIV)

¹¹ The word of the LORD came to Solomon:

1 Kings 6:12 (NIV)

¹² “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, carry out my regulations and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father.

1 Kings 6:13 (NIV)

¹³ And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.”

1 Kings 6:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ So Solomon built the temple and completed it.

1 Kings 6:15 (NIV)

¹⁵ He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and covered the floor of the temple with planks of pine.

1 Kings 6:16 (CJB)

¹⁶ The thirty-five-foot back portion of the house he built with boards of cedar from the floor to the joists and reserved this part of the house to be a sanctuary, the Especially Holy Place;

1 Kings 6:17 (CJB)

¹⁷ while the rest of the house, that is, the temple in front, was seventy feet long.

1 Kings 6:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen.

1 Kings 6:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ He prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the LORD there.

1 Kings 6:20 (CJB)

²⁰ This sanctuary was thirty-five feet long, wide and high; and it was overlaid with pure gold. In front of it he set an altar, which he covered with cedar.

1 Kings 6:21 (NIV)

²¹ Solomon covered the inside of the temple with pure gold, and he extended gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, which was overlaid with gold.

1 Kings 6:22 (CJB)

²² The entire house he overlaid with gold until it was completely covered with it. He also overlaid with gold the entire altar that belonged to the sanctuary.

1 Kings 6:23 (CJB)-M

²³ Inside the sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive-wood, each seventeen-and-a-half feet high.

1 Kings 6:24 (CJB)-M

²⁴ Each of the two wings of one of the cherub was eight-and-three quarters feet long, so that the distance from the end of one wing to the end of the other was seventeen-and-a-half feet.

1 Kings 6:25 (CJB)-M

²⁵ Likewise the [wingspread of the] other cherub was seventeen-and-a-half feet; both cherubim were identical in shape and size.

1 Kings 6:26 (CJB)-M

²⁶ The height of the one cherub was seventeen-and-a-half feet, likewise that of the other.

1 Kings 6:27 (NIV)

²⁷ He placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple, with their wings spread out. The wing of one cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room.

1 Kings 6:28 (NIV)

²⁸ He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

1 Kings 6:29 (NIV)

²⁹ On the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers.

1 Kings 6:30 (NIV)

³⁰ He also covered the floors of both the inner and outer rooms of the temple with gold.

1 Kings 6:31 (CJB)

³¹ For the entrance to the sanctuary he made doors of olive-wood, set within a five-sided door-frame.

1 Kings 6:32 (NIV)

³² And on the two olive wood doors he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with beaten gold.

1 Kings 6:33 (CJB)

³³ For the entrance to the temple he also made doorposts of olive-wood, set within a rectangular door-frame,

1 Kings 6:34 (NIV)

³⁴ He also made two pine doors, each having two leaves that turned in sockets.

1 Kings 6:35 (NIV)

³⁵ He carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers on them and overlaid them with gold hammered evenly over the carvings.

1 Kings 6:36 (CJB)

³⁶ He built the inner courtyard with three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beams.

1 Kings 6:37 (NIV)

³⁷ The foundation of the temple of the LORD was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv.

1 Kings 6:38 (NIV)

³⁸ In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications. He had spent seven years building it.

1 Kings Chapter 7

1 Kings 7:1 (CJB)-M

¹ Solomon built a palace for himself, taking thirteen years to finish it.

1 Kings 7:2 (CJB)-M

² For he built the House of the Lebanon Forest 175 feet long, eighty-seven-and-a-half feet wide and fifty-two-and-a-half feet high, on four rows of cedar posts, with cedar beams on the posts.

1 Kings 7:3 (CJB)

³ It had a roof made of cedar and supported by beams lying on forty-five posts, fifteen in a row.

1 Kings 7:4 (CJB)

⁴ There were three rows of window openings, placed so that the windows on facing walls were opposite each other at all three levels.

1 Kings 7:5 (CJB)

⁵ All the doors and doorways were rectangular and opposite each other at all three levels.

1 Kings 7:6 (CJB)

⁶ He made the columned hall eighty-seven-and-a-half feet long and fifty-two-and-a-half feet wide, with a columned, corniced porch in front of it.

1 Kings 7:7 (NIV)

⁷ He built the throne hall, the Hall of Justice, where he was to judge, and he covered it with cedar from floor to ceiling.

1 Kings 7:8 (CJB)-M

⁸ His own living quarters, in the other courtyard, set back from the Hall, were similarly designed. He also made a house like this Hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom Solomon had taken as his wife.

1 Kings 7:9 (CJB)

⁹ All these buildings were made of expensive stone blocks, cut to measure and finished by saws on the inner surfaces as well as the outer ones. These stones were used from the foundation to the eaves and outward from the buildings all the way to the Great Courtyard.

1 Kings 7:10 (CJB)

¹⁰ The foundation was of expensive stone blocks, very large ones — stones fourteen to eighteen feet long.

1 Kings 7:11 (CJB)

¹¹ Above these were costly stones, cut to measure, and cedar-wood.

1 Kings 7:12 (CJB)

¹² The surrounding Great Courtyard had three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beams like the inner courtyard of the house of Adonai and the courtyard by the hall of the house.

1 Kings 7:13 (CJB)-M

¹³ King Solomon sent for Hiram and brought him from Tyre.

1 Kings 7:14 (HCSB)

¹⁴ He was a widow’s son from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a bronze craftsman. Hiram had great skill, understanding, and knowledge to do every kind of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and carried out all his work.

1 Kings 7:15 (CJB)

¹⁵ He made the two bronze columns, each one thirty-one-and-a-half feet high and twenty-one feet in circumference.

1 Kings 7:16 (CJB)

¹⁶ He made two capitals of melted bronze to set on the tops of the columns; each capital was eight-and-three-quarters feet high;

1 Kings 7:17 (CJB)

¹⁷ he also made checker-work nets and chained wreaths, seven for the top of each capital.

1 Kings 7:18 (CJB)

¹⁸ When he made the columns, he made two rows of pomegranates to put at the top of each column around the netting covering its capital.

1 Kings 7:19 (CJB)

¹⁹ The capitals on the columns in the hall had shapes like lilies and were seven feet high.

1 Kings 7:20 (CJB)

²⁰ As for the capitals on the two columns, there were 200 pomegranates in rows around each capital near the molding by the netting.

1 Kings 7:21 (NIV)

²¹ He erected the pillars at the portico of the temple. The pillar to the south he named Jakin and the one to the north Boaz.

1 Kings 7:22 (CJB)

²² On the tops of the columns were shapes like lilies; thus the work of the columns was finished.

1 Kings 7:23 (CJB)

²³ He made the cast metal “Sea” circular, seventeen-and-a-half feet from rim to rim, eight-and-three quarter feet high and fifty-two-and-a-half feet in circumference.

1 Kings 7:24 (CJB)

²⁴ Under its rim, three hundred gourds encircled it in two rows; they were cast when the Sea was cast.

1 Kings 7:25 (CJB)

²⁵ It rested on twelve oxen, three looking north, three looking west, three looking south and three looking east, all with their hindquarters toward the center. The Sea was set on top of them.

1 Kings 7:26 (CJB)

²⁶ It was a handbreadth thick, its rim was made like the rim of a cup, like the flower of a lily; and its capacity was 11,000 gallons.

1 Kings 7:27 (CJB)

²⁷ He made ten bronze trolleys, each one seven feet long, seven feet wide, and five-and-a-quarter feet high.

1 Kings 7:28 (CJB)

²⁸ They were designed with panels that were set between the corner-posts,

1 Kings 7:29 (CJB)-M

²⁹ and on the panels between the corner-posts were lions, oxen and cherubim. The corner-posts above were similarly designed. Below the lions and oxen were wreaths of hammered work.

1 Kings 7:30 (CJB)

³⁰ Every trolley had four bronze wheels and bronze axles, and its four legs each had cast supports which were under the basin, with wreaths next to each.

1 Kings 7:31 (CJB)

³¹ The opening of the stand into which the basin was inserted was eighteen inches high; the stand was round, resembling a pedestal, and it was two-and-a-half feet in diameter. On the stand were carvings, and the outside was square, not round.

1 Kings 7:32 (CJB)

³² The four wheels were under the panels, and the axles for the wheels were attached to the trolleys; each wheel was two-and-a-half feet in diameter.

1 Kings 7:33 (CJB)

³³ The wheels were made like chariot wheels; their axles, rims, spokes and hubs were all cast metal.

1 Kings 7:34 (CJB)

³⁴ There were four supports at the four corners of each trolley; the supports were attached to the trolley itself.

1 Kings 7:35 (CJB)

³⁵ In the top of the trolley was a circular support ten-and-a-half inches high, and the trolley’s corner-posts and panels were attached to its top.

1 Kings 7:36 (CJB)-M

³⁶ On the sides of the panels and on its corners he carved cherubim, lions and palm trees, according to the amount of space each required, with wreaths surrounding.

1 Kings 7:37 (NIV)

³⁷ This is the way he made the ten stands. They were all cast in the same molds and were identical in size and shape.

1 Kings 7:38 (CJB)

³⁸ He made ten bronze basins; each basin’s capacity was 220 gallons and had a diameter of seven feet; there was a basin for each of the ten trolleys.

1 Kings 7:39 (CJB)

³⁹ He arranged five of the trolleys on the right side of the house and five on the left side. The Sea he placed on the right side of the house, toward the southeast.

1 Kings 7:40 (CJB)-M

⁴⁰ Hiram made the ash pots, shovels and sprinkling basins. With that, Hiram completed all the work he had done for King Solomon in the house of the Lord —

1 Kings 7:41 (CJB)

⁴¹ the two columns, the two moldings of the capitals on top of the columns, the two nettings covering the two moldings of the capitals atop the columns,

1 Kings 7:42 (CJB)

⁴² the 400 pomegranates for the two nettings, two rows of pomegranates for each netting, to cover the two moldings of the capitals atop the columns,

1 Kings 7:43 (CJB)

⁴³ the ten trolleys, the ten basins on the trolleys,

1 Kings 7:44 (CJB)

⁴⁴ the one Sea, the twelve oxen under the Sea,

1 Kings 7:45 (CJB)-M

⁴⁵ the ash pots, the shovels and the sprinkling basins. All these articles that Hiram made for King Solomon in the house of the Lord were of burnished bronze.

1 Kings 7:46 (CJB)-M

⁴⁶ The king cast them in the plain of the Jordan, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan.

1 Kings 7:47 (CJB)-M

⁴⁷ Solomon did not weigh any of these objects, because there were so many of them; thus, the total weight of the bronze could not be determined.

1 Kings 7:48 (CJB)-M

⁴⁸ Solomon made all the objects that were inside the house of the Lord: the gold altar; the table of gold on which the showbread was displayed;

1 Kings 7:49 (CJB)

⁴⁹ the menorahs— five on the right and five on the left in front of the sanctuary — of pure gold; the flowers, lamps and tongs of gold;

1 Kings 7:50 (CJB)

⁵⁰ the cups, snuffers, basins, incense pans and fire pans of pure gold; and the hinges of gold, both those for the doors of the inner house, the Especially Holy Place, and those for the doors of the house, that is, of the temple.

1 Kings 7:51 (CJB)-M

⁵¹ Thus all the work that King Solomon did in the house of the Lord was finished. After this, Solomon brought in the gifts which David his father had dedicated — the silver, the gold and the utensils— and put them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.

1 Kings Chapter 8

1 Kings 8:1 (NIV)

¹ Then King Solomon summoned into his presence at Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark of the LORD’s covenant from Zion, the City of David.

1 Kings 8:2 (NIV)

² All the men of Israel came together to King Solomon at the time of the festival in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month.

1 Kings 8:3 (NIV)

³ When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark,

1 Kings 8:4 (NIV)

⁴ and they brought up the ark of the LORD and the Tent of Meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The priests and Levites carried them up,

1 Kings 8:5 (CJB)-M

⁵ King Solomon and the whole community of Israel assembled in his presence were with him in front of the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen in numbers beyond counting or recording.

1 Kings 8:6 (NKJV)

⁶ Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim.

1 Kings 8:7 (NASB)

⁷ For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim made a covering over the ark and its poles from above.

1 Kings 8:8 (NKJV)

⁸ The poles extended so that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place, in front of the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day.

1 Kings 8:9 (HCSB)

⁹ Nothing was in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had put there at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt.

1 Kings 8:10 (NASB)

¹⁰ It happened that when the priests came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the LORD,

1 Kings 8:11 (CJB)-M

¹¹ so that, because of the cloud, the priests could not stand up to perform their service; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.

1 Kings 8:12 (HCSB)

¹² Then Solomon said: The LORD said that He would dwell in thick darkness.

1 Kings 8:13 (NIV)

¹³ I have indeed built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.”

1 Kings 8:14 (NKJV)

¹⁴ Then the king turned around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing.

1 Kings 8:15 (CJB)-M

¹⁵ as he said: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke to my father David with his mouth and fulfilled his promise with his hand. He said,

1 Kings 8:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ ‘Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel to have a temple built for my Name to be there, but I have chosen David to rule my people Israel.’

1 Kings 8:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ “My father David had it in his heart to build a temple for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

1 Kings 8:18 (AMP)

¹⁸ And the Lord said to David my father, Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for My Name, you did well that it was in your heart.

1 Kings 8:19 (NASB)

¹⁹ ‘Nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son who will be born to you, he will build the house for My name.’

1 Kings 8:20 (NIV)

²⁰ “The LORD has kept the promise he made: I have succeeded David my father and now I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the LORD promised, and I have built the temple for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

1 Kings 8:21 (NIV)

²¹ I have provided a place there for the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD that he made with our fathers when he brought them out of Egypt.”

1 Kings 8:22 (NIV)

²² Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven

1 Kings 8:23 (NIV)

²³ and said: “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below–you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way.

1 Kings 8:24 (CJB)

²⁴ You have kept your promise to your servant David, my father; you spoke with your mouth and fulfilled it with your hand; so it is today.

1 Kings 8:25 (NIV)

²⁵ “Now LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, ‘You shall never fail to have a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons are careful in all they do to walk before me as you have done.’

1 Kings 8:26 (CJB)

²⁶ Now therefore, God of Israel, please let your word, which you spoke to your servant David, my father, be confirmed.

1 Kings 8:27 (NASB)

²⁷ “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!

1 Kings 8:28 (CJB)

²⁸ Even so, Adonai my God, pay attention to your servant’s prayer and plea, listen to the cry and prayer that your servant is praying before you today,

1 Kings 8:29 (NIV)

²⁹ May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place.

1 Kings 8:30 (CJB)-M

³⁰ Yes, listen to the plea of your servant, and also that of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear in heaven where you live; and when you hear, forgive!

1 Kings 8:31 (AMP)

³¹ Whenever a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and swears the oath before Your altar in this house,

1 Kings 8:32 (CJB)

³² then hear in heaven, act, and judge your servants, condemning the wicked, so that his way of life devolves on his own head, and vindicating the one who is right, giving him what his righteousness deserves.

1 Kings 8:33 (NIV)

³³ “When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and when they turn back to you and confess your name, praying and making supplication to you in this temple,

1 Kings 8:34 (NIV)

³⁴ then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to their fathers.

1 Kings 8:35 (NIV)

³⁵ “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them,

1 Kings 8:36 (NIV)

³⁶ then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance.

1 Kings 8:37 (NIV)

³⁷ “When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come,

1 Kings 8:38 (CJB)-M

³⁸ then, regardless of what prayer or plea anyone among all your people Israel makes — for each individual will know what is plaguing his own conscience — and the person spreads out his hands toward this house;

1 Kings 8:39 (CJB)

³⁹ hear in heaven where you live, and forgive, and act, and, since you know what is in each one’s heart, give each person what his conduct deserves (because you, and only you, know all human hearts),

1 Kings 8:40 (CJB)

⁴⁰ so that they will fear you throughout the time they live in the land you gave our ancestors.

1 Kings 8:41 (NIV)

⁴¹ “As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name–

1 Kings 8:42 (NIV)

⁴² for men will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm–when he comes and prays toward this temple,

1 Kings 8:43 (NIV)

⁴³ then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.

1 Kings 8:44 (NLT2)

⁴⁴ “If your people go out where you send them to fight their enemies, and if they pray to the LORD by turning toward this city you have chosen and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name,

1 Kings 8:45 (HCSB)

⁴⁵ may You hear their prayer and petition in heaven and uphold their cause.

1 Kings 8:46 (NIV)

⁴⁶ “When they sin against you–for there is no one who does not sin–and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive to his own land, far away or near;

1 Kings 8:47 (CJB)

⁴⁷ then, if they come to their senses in the land where they have been carried away captive, turn back and make their plea to you in the land of those who carried them off captive, saying, ‘We sinned, we acted wrongly, we behaved wickedly,’

1 Kings 8:48 (CJB)

⁴⁸ if, in the land of their enemies who carried them off captive, they return to you with all their heart and being and pray to you toward their own land, which you gave to their ancestors, toward the city you chose and toward the house I have built for your name;

1 Kings 8:49 (NIV)

⁴⁹ then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.

1 Kings 8:50 (CJB)

⁵⁰ and forgive your people who have sinned against you — forgive their transgressions which they have committed against you, and give them compassion in the sight of their captors, so that they will show compassion toward them;

1 Kings 8:51 (NIV)

⁵¹ for they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of that iron-smelting furnace.

1 Kings 8:52 (CJB)-M

⁵² “May your eyes be open to the plea of your servant and to the plea of your people Israel, so that you will hear them whenever they cry out to you.

1 Kings 8:53 (NASB)

⁵³ “For You have separated them from all the peoples of the earth as Your inheritance, as You spoke through Moses Your servant, when You brought our fathers forth from Egypt, O Lord GOD.”

1 Kings 8:54 (NIV)

⁵⁴ When Solomon had finished all these prayers and supplications to the LORD, he rose from before the altar of the LORD, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven.

1 Kings 8:55 (NKJV)

⁵⁵ Then he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying:

1 Kings 8:56 (NIV)

⁵⁶ “Praise be to the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses.

1 Kings 8:57 (CJB)-M

⁵⁷ May the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our ancestors. May he never leave us or abandon us.

1 Kings 8:58 (HCSB)

⁵⁸ so that He causes us to be devoted to Him, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commands, statutes, and ordinances, which He commanded our ancestors.

1 Kings 8:59 (CJB)-M

⁵⁹ May these words of mine, which I have used in my plea before the Lord, be present with the Lord our God day and night, so that he will uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel day by day.

1 Kings 8:60 (CJB)-M

⁶⁰ Then all the peoples of the earth will know that the Lord is God; there is no other.

1 Kings 8:61 (NASB)

⁶¹ “Let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the LORD our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as at this day.”

1 Kings 8:62 (CJB)-M

⁶² Then the king, together with all Israel, offered sacrifices before the Lord.

1 Kings 8:63 (HCSB)

⁶³ Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the LORD: 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. In this manner the king and all the Israelites dedicated the LORD’s temple.

1 Kings 8:64 (NIV)

⁶⁴ On that same day the king consecrated the middle part of the courtyard in front of the temple of the LORD, and there he offered burnt offerings, grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings, because the bronze altar before the LORD was too small to hold the burnt offerings, the grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings.

1 Kings 8:65 (HCSB)

⁶⁵ Solomon and all Israel with him—a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt—observed the festival at that time in the presence of the LORD our God, seven days, and seven ⌊more⌋ days—14 days.

1 Kings 8:66 (NIV)

⁶⁶ On the following day he sent the people away. They blessed the king and then went home, joyful and glad in heart for all the good things the LORD had done for his servant David and his people Israel.

1 Kings Chapter 9

1 Kings 9:1 (NIV)

¹ When Solomon had finished building the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do,

1 Kings 9:2 (NIV)

² the LORD appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

1 Kings 9:3 (NIV)

³ The LORD said to him: “I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

1 Kings 9:4 (NIV)

⁴ “As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws,

1 Kings 9:5 (NIV)

⁵ I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’

1 Kings 9:6 (NIV)

⁶ “But if you or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them,

1 Kings 9:7 (NIV)

⁷ then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples.

1 Kings 9:8 (NIV)

⁸ And though this temple is now imposing, all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’

1 Kings 9:9 (NIV)

⁹ People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God, who brought their fathers out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them–that is why the LORD brought all this disaster on them.'”

1 Kings 9:10 (AMP)

¹⁰ At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the Lord’s house and the king’s house,

1 Kings 9:11 (NLT2)

¹¹ he gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to King Hiram of Tyre. (Hiram had previously provided all the cedar and cypress timber and gold that Solomon had requested.)

1 Kings 9:12 (HCSB)

¹² So Hiram went out from Tyre to look over the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them.

1 Kings 9:13 (CJB)

¹³ He said, “What kind of cities are these which you have given me, my brother?” So they have been called the land of Kabul [good for nothing] till this day.

1 Kings 9:14 (HCSB)-M

¹⁴ Now Hiram had previously sent the king 9,000 pounds of gold.

1 Kings 9:15 (NIV)

¹⁵ Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the LORD’s temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer.

1 Kings 9:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ (Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire. He killed its Canaanite inhabitants and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.

1 Kings 9:17 (HCSB)

¹⁷ Then Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon,

1 Kings 9:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ Baalath, and Tadmor in the desert, within his land,

1 Kings 9:19 (HCSB)

¹⁹ all the storage cities that belonged to Solomon, the chariot cities, the cavalry cities, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, or anywhere else in the land of his dominion.

1 Kings 9:20 (HCSB)

²⁰ As for all the peoples who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not Israelites—

1 Kings 9:21 (NIV)

²¹ that is, their descendants remaining in the land, whom the Israelites could not exterminate–these Solomon conscripted for his slave labor force, as it is to this day.

1 Kings 9:22 (NIV)

²² But Solomon did not make slaves of any of the Israelites; they were his fighting men, his government officials, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and charioteers.

1 Kings 9:23 (NIV)

²³ They were also the chief officials in charge of Solomon’s projects–550 officials supervising the men who did the work.

1 Kings 9:24 (CJB)-M

²⁴ Pharaoh’s daughter came up from the City of David to her house, which Solomon had built for her. After that he built the Millo.

1 Kings 9:25 (NIV)

²⁵ Three times a year Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, burning incense before the LORD along with them, and so fulfilled the temple obligations.

1 Kings 9:26 (NIV)

²⁶ King Solomon also built ships at Ezion Geber, which is near Elath in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.

1 Kings 9:27 (CJB)-M

²⁷ Hiram sent some of his own servants, experienced sailors who understood the sea, to serve with Solomon’s servants.

1 Kings 9:28 (CJB)-M

²⁸ They went to Ophir and took from there gold, fourteen tons of it, which they brought back to King Solomon.

1 Kings Chapter 10

1 Kings 10:1 (NIV)

¹ When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relation to the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions.

1 Kings 10:2 (NASB)

² So she came to Jerusalem with a very large retinue, with camels carrying spices and very much gold and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart.

1 Kings 10:3 (NKJV)

³ So Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing so difficult for the king that he could not explain it to her.

1 Kings 10:4 (NIV)

⁴ When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built,

1 Kings 10:5 (CJB)

⁵ the food at his table, the manner of seating his officials, the manner in which his staff served him, how they were dressed, his personal servants and his burnt offering which he offered in the house of Adonai, it left her breathless.

1 Kings 10:6 (CJB)

⁶ She said to the king, “What I heard in my own country about your deeds and your wisdom is true,

1 Kings 10:7 (NIV)

⁷ But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard.

1 Kings 10:8 (NIV)

⁸ How happy your men must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!

1 Kings 10:9 (NIV)

⁹ Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the LORD’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king, to maintain justice and righteousness.”

1 Kings 10:10 (CJB)-M

¹⁰ Then she gave the king four tons of gold, a huge amount of spices, and precious stones; never again did there arrive such an abundance of spices as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

1 Kings 10:11 (NKJV)

¹¹ Also, the ships of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought great quantities of almug wood and precious stones from Ophir.

1 Kings 10:12 (NIV)

¹² The king used the almugwood to make supports for the temple of the LORD and for the royal palace, and to make harps and lyres for the musicians. So much almugwood has never been imported or seen since that day.)

1 Kings 10:13 (CJB)-M

¹³ King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she wanted, whatever she asked, in addition to the presents he gave her on his own initiative. After this, she returned and went back to her own country, she and her servants.

1 Kings 10:14 (CJB)-M

¹⁴ The weight of the gold Solomon received annually came to twenty-two tons of gold,

1 Kings 10:15 (NIV)

¹⁵ not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the land.

1 Kings 10:16 (CJB)-M

¹⁶ King Solomon made 200 large shields of hammered gold; fifteen pounds of gold went into one shield.

1 Kings 10:17 (CJB)-M

¹⁷ He made 300 more shields of hammered gold, with three-and-three-quarters pounds going into one shield; the king put these in the House of the Lebanon Forest.

1 Kings 10:18 (CJB)

¹⁸ The king also made a large throne of ivory and overlaid it with the finest gold.

1 Kings 10:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ The throne had six steps, and its back had a rounded top. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with a lion standing beside each of them.

1 Kings 10:20 (CJB)

²⁰ and twelve more lions standing on each side of the six steps. Nothing like it had ever been made in any kingdom.

1 Kings 10:21 (NIV)

²¹ All King Solomon’s goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Nothing was made of silver, because silver was considered of little value in Solomon’s days.

1 Kings 10:22 (NIV)

²² The king had a fleet of trading ships at sea along with the ships of Hiram. Once every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons.

1 Kings 10:23 (CJB)-M

²³ So King Solomon surpassed all the kings on earth in both wealth and wisdom.

1 Kings 10:24 (CJB)-M

²⁴ All the earth sought to have an audience with Solomon, in order to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.

1 Kings 10:25 (NIV)

²⁵ Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift–articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules.

1 Kings 10:26 (NIV)

²⁶ Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem.

1 Kings 10:27 (NIV)

²⁷ The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills.

1 Kings 10:28 (NLT2)

²⁸ Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from Cilicia; the king’s traders acquired them from Cilicia at the standard price.

1 Kings 10:29 (CJB)-M

²⁹ A chariot from Egypt cost fifteen pounds of silver shekels and a horse three-and-three quarters pounds [of shekels]; all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram purchased them at these prices through Solomon’s agents.

1 Kings Chapter 11

1 Kings 11:1 (HCSB)

¹ King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women

1 Kings 11:2 (NIV)

² They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.

1 Kings 11:3 (NIV)

³ He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.

1 Kings 11:4 (NIV)

⁴ As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.

1 Kings 11:5 (NIV)

⁵ He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites.

1 Kings 11:6 (NASB)

⁶ Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done.

1 Kings 11:7 (NIV)

⁷ On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites.

1 Kings 11:8 (CJB)

⁸ This is what he did for all his foreign wives, who then offered and sacrificed to their gods.

1 Kings 11:9 (NIV)

⁹ The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.

1 Kings 11:10 (NASB)

¹⁰ and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the LORD had commanded.

1 Kings 11:11 (NIV)

¹¹ So the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates.

1 Kings 11:12 (NIV)

¹² Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

1 Kings 11:13 (NIV)

¹³ Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”

1 Kings 11:14 (NKJV)

¹⁴ Now the LORD raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was a descendant of the king in Edom.

1 Kings 11:15 (NLT)

¹⁵ Years before, David had defeated Edom. Joab, his army commander, had stayed to bury some of the Israelite soldiers who had died in battle. While there, they killed every male in Edom.

1 Kings 11:16 (NLT2)

¹⁶ Joab and the army of Israel had stayed there for six months, killing them.

1 Kings 11:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ But Hadad, still only a boy, fled to Egypt with some Edomite officials who had served his father.

1 Kings 11:18 (NKJV)

¹⁸ Then they arose from Midian and came to Paran; and they took men with them from Paran and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave him a house, apportioned food for him, and gave him land.

1 Kings 11:19 (CJB)-M

¹⁹ Hadad became a great favorite of Pharaoh, so that he gave him his own wife’s sister in marriage, that is, the sister of Tahpenes the queen.

1 Kings 11:20 (NIV)

²⁰ The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son named Genubath, whom Tahpenes brought up in the royal palace. There Genubath lived with Pharaoh’s own children.

1 Kings 11:21 (CJB)

²¹ When Hadad in Egypt heard that David slept with his ancestors and Joab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me leave, so that I can return to my own country.”

1 Kings 11:22 (NKJV)

²² Then Pharaoh said to him, “But what have you lacked with me, that suddenly you seek to go to your own country?” So he answered, “Nothing, but do let me go anyway.”

1 Kings 11:23 (NIV)

²³ And God raised up against Solomon another adversary, Rezon son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah.

1 Kings 11:24 (NIV)

²⁴ He gathered men around him and became the leader of a band of rebels when David destroyed the forces [of Zobah]; the rebels went to Damascus, where they settled and took control.

1 Kings 11:25 (NIV)

²⁵ Rezon was Israel’s adversary as long as Solomon lived, adding to the trouble caused by Hadad. So Rezon ruled in Aram and was hostile toward Israel.

1 Kings 11:26 (NIV)

²⁶ Also, Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against the king. He was one of Solomon’s officials, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, and his mother was a widow named Zeruah.

1 Kings 11:27 (NKJV)

²⁷ And this is what caused him to rebel against the king: Solomon had built the Millo and repaired the damages to the City of David his father.

1 Kings 11:28 (NIV)

²⁸ Now Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the house of Joseph.

1 Kings 11:29 (NIV)

²⁹ About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country,

1 Kings 11:30 (NIV)

³⁰ and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces.

1 Kings 11:31 (NIV)

³¹ Then he said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes.

1 Kings 11:32 (AMP)

³² But he shall have one tribe, for My servant David’s sake and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel,

1 Kings 11:33 (NIV)

³³ I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molech the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in my ways, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my statutes and laws as David, Solomon’s father, did.

1 Kings 11:34 (HCSB)

³⁴ “‘However, I will not take the whole kingdom from his hand but will let him be ruler all the days of his life because of My servant David, whom I chose and who kept My commands and My statutes.

1 Kings 11:35 (CJB)

³⁵ However, I will take the kingdom away from his son and give ten tribes of it to you.

1 Kings 11:36 (NIV)

³⁶ I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name.

1 Kings 11:37 (NASB)

³⁷ ~’I will take you, and you shall reign over whatever you desire, and you shall be king over Israel.

1 Kings 11:38 (NIV)

³⁸ If you do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you.

1 Kings 11:39 (CJB)

³⁹ For this [offense] I will trouble David’s descendants, but not forever.”

1 Kings 11:40 (NIV)

⁴⁰ Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king, and stayed there until Solomon’s death.

1 Kings 11:41 (CJB)-M

⁴¹ Other activities of Solomon, all he accomplished and his wisdom are recorded in the Annals of Solomon.

1 Kings 11:42 (NIV)

⁴² Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.

1 Kings 11:43 (NIV)

⁴³ Then he rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king.

1 Kings Chapter 12

1 Kings 12:1 (NIV)

¹ Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all the Israelites had gone there to make him king.

1 Kings 12:2 (NIV)

² When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt.

1 Kings 12:3 (NIV)

³ So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him:

1 Kings 12:4 (NLT)

⁴ “Your father was a hard master,” they said. “Lighten the harsh labor demands and heavy taxes that your father imposed on us. Then we will be your loyal subjects.”

1 Kings 12:5 (CJB)

⁵ He said to them, “Leave me alone for three days, then come back to me.” So the people left.

1 Kings 12:6 (NIV)

⁶ Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked.

1 Kings 12:7 (CJB)

⁷ They said to him, “If you will start today being a servant to these people — if you will serve them, be responsive to them and give them favorable consideration, then they will be your servants forever.”

1 Kings 12:8 (CJB)

⁸ But he didn’t take the advice the older men gave him; instead he consulted the young men he had grown up with, who were now his attendants.

1 Kings 12:9 (CJB)

⁹ He asked them, “What advice would you give me, so that we can give an answer to these people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father laid on us’?”

1 Kings 12:10 (CJB)

¹⁰ The young men he had grown up with said to him, “These people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy; but you, make it lighter for us’ — here’s the answer you should give them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!

1 Kings 12:11 (NIV)

¹¹ My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.'”

1 Kings 12:12 (NIV)

¹² Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, “Come back to me in three days.”

1 Kings 12:13 (NIV)

¹³ The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders,

1 Kings 12:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ he followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.”

1 Kings 12:15 (NIV)

¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill the word the LORD had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.

1 Kings 12:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: “What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!” So the Israelites went home.

1 Kings 12:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.

1 Kings 12:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem.

1 Kings 12:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

1 Kings 12:20 (NIV)

²⁰ When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David.

1 Kings 12:21 (NIV)

²¹ When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin–a hundred and eighty thousand fighting men–to make war against the house of Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.

1 Kings 12:22 (NIV)

²² But this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God:

1 Kings 12:23 (NIV)

²³ “Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people,

1 Kings 12:24 (NIV)

²⁴ ‘This is what the LORD says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.'” So they obeyed the word of the LORD and went home again, as the LORD had ordered.

1 Kings 12:25 (NIV)

²⁵ Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel.

1 Kings 12:26 (NIV)

²⁶ Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David.

1 Kings 12:27 (NIV)

²⁷ If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.”

1 Kings 12:28 (NIV)

²⁸ After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

1 Kings 12:29 (AMP)

²⁹ And he set the one golden calf in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.

1 Kings 12:30 (CJB)-M

³⁰ and the affair became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one [in Bethel and] all the way to Dan [to worship the other].

1 Kings 12:31 (NIV)

³¹ Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites.

1 Kings 12:32 (NLT)-M

³² And Jeroboam instituted a religious festival in Bethel, held on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in imitation of the annual Festival of Sukkot in Judah. There at Bethel he himself offered sacrifices to the calves he had made, and he appointed priests for the pagan shrines he had made.

1 Kings 12:33 (NIV)

³³ On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings.

1 Kings Chapter 13

1 Kings 13:1 (NIV)

¹ By the word of the LORD a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering.

1 Kings 13:2 (NIV)

² He cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD: “O altar, altar! This is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who now make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.'”

1 Kings 13:3 (CJB)

³ That same day he also gave a sign: “Here is the sign which the Lord has decreed: “‘The altar will be split apart; the ashes on it will be scattered about.’”

1 Kings 13:4 (NIV)

⁴ When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back.

1 Kings 13:5 (CJB)-M

⁵ Also the altar was split apart, and the ashes scattered from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.

1 Kings 13:6 (NIV)

⁶ Then the king said to the man of God, “Intercede with the LORD your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.

1 Kings 13:7 (CJB)

⁷ The king then said to the man of God, “Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.

1 Kings 13:8 (CJB)

⁸ But the man of God replied to the king, “Even if you give me half your household, I will not accept your hospitality; nor will I eat food or drink water in this place.

1 Kings 13:9 (NIV)

⁹ For I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.'”

1 Kings 13:10 (NIV)

¹⁰ So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

1 Kings 13:11 (NIV)

¹¹ Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king.

1 Kings 13:12 (NIV)

¹² Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken.

1 Kings 13:13 (NIV)

¹³ So he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it

1 Kings 13:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ and rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “I am,” he replied.

1 Kings 13:15 (NIV)

¹⁵ So the prophet said to him, “Come home with me and eat.”

1 Kings 13:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ The man of God said, “I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.

1 Kings 13:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ I have been told by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.'”

1 Kings 13:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ The old prophet answered, “I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the LORD: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.'” (But he was lying to him.)

1 Kings 13:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.

1 Kings 13:20 (NIV)

²⁰ While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the old prophet who had brought him back.

1 Kings 13:21 (NIV)

²¹ He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You have defied the word of the LORD and have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you.

1 Kings 13:22 (NIV)

²² You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your fathers.'”

1 Kings 13:23 (NIV)

²³ When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him.

1 Kings 13:24 (CJB)

²⁴ But after he had gone, a lion encountered the man of God on the road and killed him. His corpse lay there in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing next to it.

1 Kings 13:25 (CJB)

²⁵ In time, people passed by and saw the corpse lying in the road with the lion standing next to it; and they came and told about it in the city where the old prophet lived.

1 Kings 13:26 (NIV)

²⁶ When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who defied the word of the LORD. The LORD has given him over to the lion, which has mauled him and killed him, as the word of the LORD had warned him.”

1 Kings 13:27 (NIV)

²⁷ The prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” and they did so.

1 Kings 13:28 (NIV)

²⁸ Then he went out and found the body thrown down on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey.

1 Kings 13:29 (NIV)

²⁹ So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him.

1 Kings 13:30 (NIV)

³⁰ Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, “Oh, my brother!”

1 Kings 13:31 (NIV)

³¹ After burying him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.

1 Kings 13:32 (NIV)

³² For the message he declared by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.”

1 Kings 13:33 (NIV)

³³ Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places.

1 Kings 13:34 (NIV)

³⁴ This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.

1 Kings Chapter 14

1 Kings 14:1 (NASB)

¹ At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick.

1 Kings 14:2 (NIV)

² and Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go, disguise yourself, so you won’t be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam. Then go to Shiloh. Ahijah the prophet is there–the one who told me I would be king over this people.

1 Kings 14:3 (NIV)

³ Take ten loaves of bread with you, some cakes and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”

1 Kings 14:4 (NIV)

⁴ So Jeroboam’s wife did what he said and went to Ahijah’s house in Shiloh. Now Ahijah could not see; his sight was gone because of his age.

1 Kings 14:5 (NIV)

⁵ But the LORD had told Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming to ask you about her son, for he is ill, and you are to give her such and such an answer. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else.”

1 Kings 14:6 (NIV)

⁶ So when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps at the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why this pretense? I have been sent to you with bad news.

1 Kings 14:7 (NIV)

⁷ Go, tell Jeroboam that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I raised you up from among the people and made you a leader over my people Israel.

1 Kings 14:8 (NIV)

⁸ I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, but you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes.

1 Kings 14:9 (NIV)

⁹ You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have provoked me to anger and thrust me behind your back.

1 Kings 14:10 (NIV)

¹⁰ ” ‘Because of this, I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every last male in Israel–slave or free. I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns dung, until it is all gone.

1 Kings 14:11 (NIV)

¹¹ Dogs will eat those belonging to Jeroboam who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country. The LORD has spoken!’

1 Kings 14:12 (NIV)

¹² “As for you, go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy will die.

1 Kings 14:13 (NIV)

¹³ All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the LORD, the God of Israel, has found anything good.

1 Kings 14:14 (NASB)

¹⁴ “Moreover, the LORD will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who will cut off the house of Jeroboam this day and from now on.

1 Kings 14:15 (CJB)-M

¹⁵ The Lord will strike Israel until it shakes like a reed in the water; he will uproot Israel from this good land, which he gave to their ancestors, and scatter them beyond the [Euphrates] River; because they made sacred poles for themselves, thus making the Lord angry.

1 Kings 14:16 (NASB)

¹⁶ “He will give up Israel on account of the sins of Jeroboam, which he committed and with which he made Israel to sin.”

1 Kings 14:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left and went to Tirzah. As soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy died.

1 Kings 14:18 (NASB)

¹⁸ All Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke through His servant Ahijah the prophet.

1 Kings 14:19 (NASB)

¹⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

1 Kings 14:20 (NASB)

²⁰ The time that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years; and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place.

1 Kings 14:21 (NKJV)

²¹ And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king. He reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. His mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess.

1 Kings 14:22 (NASB)

²² Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked Him to jealousy more than all that their fathers had done, with the sins which they committed.

1 Kings 14:23 (NIV)

²³ They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree.

1 Kings 14:24 (NASB)

²⁴ There were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

1 Kings 14:25 (NASB)

²⁵ Now it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, that Shishak the king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.

1 Kings 14:26 (NIV)

²⁶ He carried off the treasures of the temple of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made.

1 Kings 14:27 (NIV)

²⁷ So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace.

1 Kings 14:28 (NIV)

²⁸ Whenever the king went to the LORD’s temple, the guards bore the shields, and afterward they returned them to the guardroom.

1 Kings 14:29 (NASB)

²⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

1 Kings 14:30 (NIV)

³⁰ There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam.

1 Kings 14:31 (CJB)-M

³¹ Rehoboam slept with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David; his mother’s name was Naamah the ‘Ammonitess. Then Abijam his son became king in his place.

1 Kings Chapter 15

1 Kings 15:1 (NLT2)

¹ Abijam began to rule over Judah in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam’s reign in Israel.

1 Kings 15:2 (NIV)

² and he reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother’s name was Maacah daughter of Abishalom.

1 Kings 15:3 (NIV)

³ He committed all the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his forefather had been.

1 Kings 15:4 (CJB)-M

⁴ Nevertheless, for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp burning in Jerusalem by establishing his son after him and making Jerusalem secure.

1 Kings 15:5 (CJB)-M

⁵ For David had done what was right from the Lord’s perspective; he had not turned away from anything he had ordered him to do, as long as he lived, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

1 Kings 15:6 (NIV)

⁶ There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout [Abijah’s] lifetime.

1 Kings 15:7 (CJB)-M

⁷ Other activities of Abijah and all his accomplishments are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Judah. But there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.

1 Kings 15:8 (CJB)-M

⁸ Abijah slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in the City of David. Then Asa his son became king in his place.

1 Kings 15:9 (CJB)-M

⁹ It was in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel that Asa began his reign over Judah.

1 Kings 15:10 (NKJV)

¹⁰ And he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His grandmother’s name was Maachah the granddaughter of Abishalom.

1 Kings 15:11 (CJB)-M

¹¹ Asa did what was right from the perspective of the Lord, as David his ancestor had done.

1 Kings 15:12 (AMP)

¹² He put away the sodomites (male cult prostitutes) out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers [Solomon, Rehoboam, and Abijam] had made or promoted.

1 Kings 15:13 (NIV)

¹³ He even deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive Asherah pole. Asa cut the pole down and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

1 Kings 15:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ Although he did not remove the high places, Asa’s heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life.

1 Kings 15:15 (NASB)

¹⁵ He brought into the house of the LORD the dedicated things of his father and his own dedicated things: silver and gold and utensils.

1 Kings 15:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel throughout their reigns.

1 Kings 15:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah.

1 Kings 15:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ Asa then took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the LORD’s temple and of his own palace. He entrusted it to his officials and sent them to Ben-Hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, the king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus.

1 Kings 15:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ “Let there be a treaty between me and you,” he said, “as there was between my father and your father. See, I am sending you a gift of silver and gold. Now break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so he will withdraw from me.”

1 Kings 15:20 (NIV)

²⁰ Ben-Hadad agreed with King Asa and sent the commanders of his forces against the towns of Israel. He conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maacah and all Kinnereth in addition to Naphtali.

1 Kings 15:21 (NIV)

²¹ When Baasha heard this, he stopped building Ramah and withdrew to Tirzah.

1 Kings 15:22 (NIV)

²² Then King Asa issued an order to all Judah–no one was exempt–and they carried away from Ramah the stones and timber Baasha had been using there. With them King Asa built up Geba in Benjamin, and also Mizpah.

1 Kings 15:23 (NASB)

²³ Now the rest of all the acts of Asa and all his might and all that he did and the cities which he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet.

1 Kings 15:24 (CJB)-M

²⁴ Asa slept with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David his ancestor. Then Jehoshaphat his son became king in his place.

1 Kings 15:25 (AMP)

²⁵ Nadab son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned two years.

1 Kings 15:26 (NIV)

²⁶ He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, walking in the ways of his father and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit.

1 Kings 15:27 (NIV)

²⁷ Baasha son of Ahijah of the house of Issachar plotted against him, and he struck him down at Gibbethon, a Philistine town, while Nadab and all Israel were besieging it.

1 Kings 15:28 (NIV)

²⁸ Baasha killed Nadab in the third year of Asa king of Judah and succeeded him as king.

1 Kings 15:29 (NIV)

²⁹ As soon as he began to reign, he killed Jeroboam’s whole family. He did not leave Jeroboam anyone that breathed, but destroyed them all, according to the word of the LORD given through his servant Ahijah the Shilonite–

1 Kings 15:30 (NLT2)

³⁰ This was done because Jeroboam had provoked the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, by the sins he had committed and the sins he had led Israel to commit.

1 Kings 15:31 (CJB)-M

³¹ Other activities of Nadab and all his accomplishments are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Israel.

1 Kings 15:32 (NIV)

³² There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel throughout their reigns.

1 Kings 15:33 (NIV)

³³ In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king of all Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned twenty-four years.

1 Kings 15:34 (NIV)

³⁴ He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, walking in the ways of Jeroboam and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit.

1 Kings Chapter 16

1 Kings 16:1 (NIV)

¹ Then the word of the LORD came to Jehu son of Hanani against Baasha:

1 Kings 16:2 (NIV)

² “I lifted you up from the dust and made you leader of my people Israel, but you walked in the ways of Jeroboam and caused my people Israel to sin and to provoke me to anger by their sins.

1 Kings 16:3 (NIV)

³ So I am about to consume Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat.

1 Kings 16:4 (NIV)

⁴ Dogs will eat those belonging to Baasha who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country.”

1 Kings 16:5 (CJB)-M

⁵ Other activities of Baasha, his accomplishments and his power are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Israel.

1 Kings 16:6 (CJB)-M

⁶ Baasha slept with his ancestors, and Elah his son became king in his place.

1 Kings 16:7 (NKJV)

⁷ And also the word of the LORD came by the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha and his house, because of all the evil that he did in the sight of the LORD in provoking Him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he killed them.

1 Kings 16:8 (NIV)

⁸ In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah son of Baasha became king of Israel, and he reigned in Tirzah two years.

1 Kings 16:9 (NIV)

⁹ Zimri, one of his officials, who had command of half his chariots, plotted against him. Elah was in Tirzah at the time, getting drunk in the home of Arza, the man in charge of the palace at Tirzah.

1 Kings 16:10 (NIV)

¹⁰ Zimri came in, struck him down and killed him in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah. Then he succeeded him as king.

1 Kings 16:11 (NIV)

¹¹ As soon as he began to reign and was seated on the throne, he killed off Baasha’s whole family. He did not spare a single male, whether relative or friend.

1 Kings 16:12 (NIV)

¹² So Zimri destroyed the whole family of Baasha, in accordance with the word of the LORD spoken against Baasha through the prophet Jehu–

1 Kings 16:13 (NIV)

¹³ because of all the sins Baasha and his son Elah had committed and had caused Israel to commit, so that they provoked the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger by their worthless idols.

1 Kings 16:14 (CJB)-M

¹⁴ Other activities of Elah and all his accomplishments are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Israel.

1 Kings 16:15 (AMP)

¹⁵ In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned for seven days in Tirzah. The troops were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines,

1 Kings 16:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ When the Israelites in the camp heard that Zimri had plotted against the king and murdered him, they proclaimed Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that very day there in the camp.

1 Kings 16:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ Then Omri and all the Israelites with him withdrew from Gibbethon and laid siege to Tirzah.

1 Kings 16:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the royal palace and set the palace on fire around him. So he died,

1 Kings 16:19 (CJB)-M

¹⁹ This came about because of the sins he committed in doing what was evil from the Lord’s perspective, in living as Jeroboam had lived, and in sinning by making Israel sin.

1 Kings 16:20 (CJB)-M

²⁰ Other activities of Zimri and his conspiracy are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Israel.

1 Kings 16:21 (NIV)

²¹ Then the people of Israel were split into two factions; half supported Tibni son of Ginath for king, and the other half supported Omri.

1 Kings 16:22 (NIV)

²² But Omri’s followers proved stronger than those of Tibni son of Ginath. So Tibni died and Omri became king.

1 Kings 16:23 (NIV)

²³ In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned twelve years, six of them in Tirzah.

1 Kings 16:24 (NIV)

²⁴ He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver and built a city on the hill, calling it Samaria, after Shemer, the name of the former owner of the hill.

1 Kings 16:25 (CJB)-M

²⁵ ‘Omri did what was evil from the Lord’s perspective, outdoing all his predecessors in wickedness;

1 Kings 16:26 (CJB)-M

²⁶ for he lived entirely in the manner of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, committing the sins with which he made Israel sin, thereby angering the Lord the God of Israel with their worthless idols.

1 Kings 16:27 (CJB)-M

²⁷ Other activities of ‘Omri and the power he demonstrated are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Israel.

1 Kings 16:28 (CJB)-M

²⁸ Then ‘Omri slept with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria, and Ahab his son became king in his place.

1 Kings 16:29 (NIV)

²⁹ In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years.

1 Kings 16:30 (CJB)-M

³⁰ Ahab the son of Omri did what was evil from the Lord’s perspective, outdoing all his predecessors [in wickedness].

1 Kings 16:31 (NIV)

³¹ He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him.

1 Kings 16:32 (NIV)

³² He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria.

1 Kings 16:33 (CJB)-M

³³ Ahab also set up the Asherah; indeed, Ahab did more to anger the Lord the God of Israel, than all the kings of Israel preceding him.

1 Kings 16:34 (NIV)

³⁴ In Ahab’s time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the LORD spoken by Joshua son of Nun.

1 Kings Chapter 17

1 Kings 17:1 (CJB)

¹ Elijah from Tishbe, an inhabitant of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither rain nor dew in the years ahead unless I say so.”

1 Kings 17:2 (NIV)

² Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah:

1 Kings 17:3 (NIV)

³ “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan.

1 Kings 17:4 (NIV)

⁴ You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.”

1 Kings 17:5 (NIV)

⁵ So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there.

1 Kings 17:6 (NIV)

⁶ The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

1 Kings 17:7 (NIV)

⁷ Sometime later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.

1 Kings 17:8 (NIV)

⁸ Then the word of the LORD came to him:

1 Kings 17:9 (NIV)

⁹ “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.”

1 Kings 17:10 (NIV)

¹⁰ So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?”

1 Kings 17:11 (NIV)

¹¹ As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

1 Kings 17:12 (NIV)

¹² “As surely as the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread–only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it–and die.”

1 Kings 17:13 (NIV)

¹³ Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.

1 Kings 17:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.'”

1 Kings 17:15 (NIV)

¹⁵ She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.

1 Kings 17:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.

1 Kings 17:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ Sometime later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing.

1 Kings 17:18 (NASB)

¹⁸ So she said to Elijah, “What do I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death!”

1 Kings 17:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed.

1 Kings 17:20 (NIV)

²⁰ Then he cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?”

1 Kings 17:21 (NIV)

²¹ Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”

1 Kings 17:22 (CJB)-M

²² Adonai heard Elijah’s cry, the child’s soul came back into him, and he revived.

1 Kings 17:23 (NIV)

²³ Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”

1 Kings 17:24 (NIV)

²⁴ Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth.”

1 Kings Chapter 18

1 Kings 18:1 (NIV)

¹ After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”

1 Kings 18:2 (NIV)

² So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria,

1 Kings 18:4 (CJB)-M

⁴ for example, when Jezebel was murdering the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah took a hundred prophets, hid them in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water.

1 Kings 18:5 (CJB)-M

⁵ Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go throughout the land, and check all the springs and wadis; maybe we can find grass somewhere, so that we can keep the horses and mules alive and not lose all the animals.”

1 Kings 18:6 (NIV)

⁶ So they divided the land they were to cover, Ahab going in one direction and Obadiah in another.

1 Kings 18:7 (NIV)

⁷ As Obadiah was walking along, Elijah met him. Obadiah recognized him, bowed down to the ground, and said, “Is it really you, my lord Elijah?”

1 Kings 18:8 (NIV)

⁸ “Yes,” he replied. “Go tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.'”

1 Kings 18:9 (CJB)

⁹ Obadiah replied, “How have I sinned, that you would hand your servant over to Ahab to kill me?

1 Kings 18:10 (CJB)-M

¹⁰ As the Lord your God lives, there can’t be a single nation or kingdom where my master hasn’t sent to search you out; and in each kingdom or nation where they said, ‘He isn’t here,’ he made them take an oath that they hadn’t found you.

1 Kings 18:11 (NIV)

¹¹ But now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’

1 Kings 18:12 (CJB)-M

¹² But as soon as I leave you, the Spirit of Adonai will carry you off to I don’t know where; so that when I come and tell Ahab, and he can’t find you, he will kill me. But I your servant have revered the Lord from my youth —

1 Kings 18:13 (NIV)

¹³ Haven’t you heard, my lord, what I did while Jezebel was killing the prophets of the LORD? I hid a hundred of the LORD’s prophets in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water.

1 Kings 18:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ And now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’ He will kill me!”

1 Kings 18:15 (NIV)

¹⁵ Elijah said, “As the LORD Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today.”

1 Kings 18:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

1 Kings 18:17 (CJB)-M

¹⁷ When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it really you, you troubler of Israel?”

1 Kings 18:18 (AMP)

¹⁸ Elijah replied, I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, by forsaking the commandments of the Lord and by following the Baals.

1 Kings 18:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

1 Kings 18:20 (NIV)

²⁰ So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.

1 Kings 18:21 (NIV)

²¹ Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing.

1 Kings 18:22 (NIV)

²² Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the LORD’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets.

1 Kings 18:23 (NIV)

²³ Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it.

1 Kings 18:24 (NIV)

²⁴ Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire–he is God.” Then all the people said, “What you say is good.”

1 Kings 18:25 (NIV)

²⁵ Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.”

1 Kings 18:26 (NIV)

²⁶ So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “O Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.

1 Kings 18:27 (CJB)-M

²⁷ Around noon Elijah began ridiculing them: “Shout louder! After all, he’s a god, isn’t he? Maybe he’s daydreaming, or he’s on the potty, or he’s away on a trip. Maybe he’s asleep, and you have to wake him up.”

1 Kings 18:28 (CJB)

²⁸ So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and knives, as their custom was, until blood gushed out all over them.

1 Kings 18:29 (NIV)

²⁹ Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

1 Kings 18:30 (CJB)-M

³⁰ Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” All the people came up to him, as he set about repairing the altar of the Lord that had been broken down.

1 Kings 18:31 (NIV)

³¹ Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.”

1 Kings 18:32 (CJB)-M

³² With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. Then he dug a trench around the altar large enough for half a bushel of grain.

1 Kings 18:33 (NIV)

³³ He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.”

1 Kings 18:34 (NIV)

³⁴ “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. “Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time.

1 Kings 18:35 (NIV)

³⁵ The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.

1 Kings 18:36 (NIV)

³⁶ At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.

1 Kings 18:37 (CJB)-M

³⁷ Hear me, Lord, hear me, so that this people may know that you, the Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back to you.”

1 Kings 18:38 (NIV)

³⁸ Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.

1 Kings 18:39 (NIV)

³⁹ When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The LORD–he is God! The LORD–he is God!”

1 Kings 18:40 (NIV)

⁴⁰ Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don’t let anyone get away!” They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.

1 Kings 18:41 (NIV)

⁴¹ And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.”

1 Kings 18:42 (NIV)

⁴² So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.

1 Kings 18:43 (CJB)

⁴³ “Now,” he said to his servant, “go up, and look out toward the sea.” He went up, looked, and said, “There’s nothing there.” Seven times he said, “Go again.”

1 Kings 18:44 (CJB)-M

⁴⁴ The seventh time, the servant said, “Now there’s a cloud coming up out of the sea, no bigger than a man’s hand.” Elijah said, “Go up, and say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and get down the mountain before the rain stops you!”

1 Kings 18:45 (CJB)-M

⁴⁵ A little later, the sky grew black with clouds and wind; and heavy rain began falling; as Ahab, riding in his chariot, made for Jezreel.

1 Kings 18:46 (AMP)

⁴⁶ The hand of the Lord was on Elijah. He girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel [nearly twenty miles].

1 Kings Chapter 19

1 Kings 19:1 (AMP)

¹ Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had slain all the prophets [of Baal] with the sword.

1 Kings 19:2 (NLT)

² So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them.”

1 Kings 19:3 (NASB)

³ And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

1 Kings 19:4 (NASB)

⁴ But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.”

1 Kings 19:5 (CJB)

⁵ Then he lay down under the broom tree and went to sleep. Suddenly, an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat!”

1 Kings 19:6 (CJB)

⁶ He looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on the hot stones and a jug of water. He ate and drank, then lay down again.

1 Kings 19:7 (NIV)

⁷ The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.”

1 Kings 19:8 (NIV)

⁸ So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

1 Kings 19:9 (NIV)

⁹ There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

1 Kings 19:10 (NIV)

¹⁰ He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

1 Kings 19:11 (NIV)

¹¹ The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before 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.

1 Kings 19:12 (NIV)

¹² After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

1 Kings 19:13 (NIV)

¹³ When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

1 Kings 19:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

1 Kings 19:15 (NIV)

¹⁵ The LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram.

1 Kings 19:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet.

1 Kings 19:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu.

1 Kings 19:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel–all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.”

1 Kings 19:19 (NIV)-M

¹⁹ So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with a crew working twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him (signifying he was being called to follow Elijah as an apprentice) then Elijah continued on his way without stopping.

1 Kings 19:20 (NIV)-M

²⁰ Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother good-by,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” Elijah said, “Go back,” [and just forget the whole thing because no one after putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit to serve in the kingdom of God]. Elijah also replied. “Think about what have I done to you when I put my cloak upon you (signifying the call to the ministry)?” Did I force you to follow me? It is your choice now if you will follow or not but I will not wait for you and if you want to come you must drop everything to follow me without hesitation.

1 Kings 19:21 (NIV)-M

²¹ So Elisha counted the cost at that moment and left Elijah and went back to burn his bridges forever. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment (signifying he was done with his plowing foreman job forever) and cooked the meat and gave it to the people working on his plowing crew, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah (without returning home to say goodbye to his parents) and he became Elijah’s attendant.

1 Kings Chapter 20

1 Kings 20:1 (NIV)

¹ Now Ben-Hadad king of Aram mustered his entire army. Accompanied by thirty-two kings with their horses and chariots, he went up and besieged Samaria and attacked it.

1 Kings 20:2 (NIV)

² He sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel, saying, “This is what Ben-Hadad says:

1 Kings 20:3 (NIV)

³ ‘Your silver and gold are mine, and the best of your wives and children are mine.'”

1 Kings 20:4 (NIV)

⁴ The king of Israel answered, “Just as you say, my lord the king. I and all I have are yours.”

1 Kings 20:5 (NASB)

⁵ Then the messengers returned and said, “Thus says Ben-hadad, ‘Surely, I sent to you saying, “You shall give me your silver and your gold and your wives and your children,”

1 Kings 20:6 (CJB)

⁶ But I am going to send my servants to you tomorrow around this time; they will ransack your house and the houses of your servants; and whatever they see that they like they will seize and remove.’”

1 Kings 20:7 (NIV)

⁷ The king of Israel summoned all the elders of the land and said to them, “See how this man is looking for trouble! When he sent for my wives and my children, my silver and my gold, I did not refuse him.”

1 Kings 20:8 (NIV)

⁸ The elders and the people all answered, “Don’t listen to him or agree to his demands.”

1 Kings 20:9 (NIV)

⁹ So he replied to Ben-Hadad’s messengers, “Tell my lord the king, ‘Your servant will do all you demanded the first time, but this demand I cannot meet.'” They left and took the answer back to Ben-Hadad.

1 Kings 20:10 (NIV)

¹⁰ Then Ben-Hadad sent another message to Ahab: “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if enough dust remains in Samaria to give each of my men a handful.”

1 Kings 20:11 (NIV)

¹¹ The king of Israel answered, “Tell him: ‘One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off.'”

1 Kings 20:12 (NIV)

¹² Ben-Hadad heard this message while he and the kings were drinking in their tents, and he ordered his men: “Prepare to attack.” So they prepared to attack the city.

1 Kings 20:13 (NIV)

¹³ Meanwhile a prophet came to Ahab king of Israel and announced, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Do you see this vast army? I will give it into your hand today, and then you will know that I am the LORD.'”

1 Kings 20:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ “But who will do this?” asked Ahab. The prophet replied, “This is what the LORD says: ‘The young officers of the provincial commanders will do it.'” “And who will start the battle?” he asked. The prophet answered, “You will.”

1 Kings 20:15 (NIV)

¹⁵ So Ahab summoned the young officers of the provincial commanders, 232 men. Then he assembled the rest of the Israelites, 7,000 in all.

1 Kings 20:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ They set out at noon while Ben-Hadad and the 32 kings allied with him were in their tents getting drunk.

1 Kings 20:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ The young officers of the provincial commanders went out first. Now Ben-Hadad had dispatched scouts, who reported, “Men are advancing from Samaria.”

1 Kings 20:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ He said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; if they have come out for war, take them alive.”

1 Kings 20:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ The young officers of the provincial commanders marched out of the city with the army behind them

1 Kings 20:20 (NIV)

²⁰ and each one struck down his opponent. At that, the Arameans fled, with the Israelites in pursuit. But Ben-Hadad king of Aram escaped on horseback with some of his horsemen.

1 Kings 20:21 (NIV)

²¹ The king of Israel advanced and overpowered the horses and chariots and inflicted heavy losses on the Arameans.

1 Kings 20:22 (NIV)

²² Afterward, the prophet came to the king of Israel and said, “Strengthen your position and see what must be done, because next spring the king of Aram will attack you again.”

1 Kings 20:23 (NIV)

²³ Meanwhile, the officials of the king of Aram advised him, “Their gods are gods of the hills. That is why they were too strong for us. But if we fight them on the plains, surely we will be stronger than they.

1 Kings 20:24 (NIV)

²⁴ Do this: Remove all the kings from their commands and replace them with other officers.

1 Kings 20:25 (NIV)

²⁵ You must also raise an army like the one you lost–horse for horse and chariot for chariot–so we can fight Israel on the plains. Then surely we will be stronger than they.” He agreed with them and acted accordingly.

1 Kings 20:26 (CJB)-M

²⁶ At the same time the following year, Ben-Hadad mustered the army of Aram and went up to Aphek to attack Israel.

1 Kings 20:27 (NIV)

²⁷ When the Israelites were also mustered and given provisions, they marched out to meet them. The Israelites camped opposite them like two small flocks of goats, while the Arameans covered the countryside.

1 Kings 20:28 (NIV)

²⁸ The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because the Arameans think the LORD is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the LORD.'”

1 Kings 20:29 (NIV)

²⁹ For seven days they camped opposite each other, and on the seventh day the battle was joined. The Israelites inflicted a hundred thousand casualties on the Aramean foot soldiers in one day.

1 Kings 20:30 (CJB)-M

³⁰ The rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and the wall fell on 27,000 of the men who were left. Ben-Hadad fled into the city and took refuge in an inside room.

1 Kings 20:31 (CJB)-M

³¹ His servants said to him, “Here now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. If it’s all right with you, let’s put sackcloth around our waists and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel. Maybe he will spare your life.”

1 Kings 20:32 (CJB)

³² So they put sackcloth around their waists and ropes on their heads, went to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-Hadad says, ‘Please spare my life.’” And he answered, “He’s still alive? He is my brother.”

1 Kings 20:33 (NIV)

³³ The men took this as a good sign and were quick to pick up his word. “Yes, your brother Ben-Hadad!” they said. “Go and get him,” the king said. When Ben-Hadad came out, Ahab had him come up into his chariot.

1 Kings 20:34 (NIV)

³⁴ “I will return the cities my father took from your father,” Ben-Hadad offered. “You may set up your own market areas in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.” [Ahab said,] “On the basis of a treaty I will set you free.” So he made a treaty with him, and let him go.

1 Kings 20:35 (NIV)

³⁵ By the word of the LORD one of the sons of the prophets said to his companion, “Strike me with your weapon,” but the man refused.

1 Kings 20:36 (NIV)

³⁶ So the prophet said, “Because you have not obeyed the LORD, as soon as you leave me a lion will kill you.” And after the man went away, a lion found him and killed him.

1 Kings 20:37 (NIV)

³⁷ The prophet found another man and said, “Strike me, please.” So the man struck him and wounded him.

1 Kings 20:38 (NIV)

³⁸ Then the prophet went and stood by the road waiting for the king. He disguised himself with his headband down over his eyes.

1 Kings 20:39 (NIV)

³⁹ As the king passed by, the prophet called out to him, “Your servant went into the thick of the battle, and someone came to me with a captive and said, ‘Guard this man. If he is missing, it will be your life for his life, or you must pay a talent of silver.’

1 Kings 20:40 (NIV)

⁴⁰ While your servant was busy here and there, the man disappeared.” “That is your sentence,” the king of Israel said. “You have pronounced it yourself.”

1 Kings 20:41 (NIV)

⁴¹ Then the prophet quickly removed the headband from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets.

1 Kings 20:42 (NIV)

⁴² He said to the king, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You have set free a man I had determined should die. Therefore it is your life for his life, your people for his people.'”

1 Kings 20:43 (NIV)

⁴³ Sullen and angry, the king of Israel went to his palace in Samaria.

1 Kings Chapter 21

1 Kings 21:1 (NIV)

¹ Some time later there was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.

1 Kings 21:2 (NIV)

² Ahab said to Naboth, “Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth.”

1 Kings 21:3 (NIV)

³ But Naboth replied, “The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”

1 Kings 21:4 (NIV)

⁴ So Ahab went home, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat.

1 Kings 21:5 (NIV)

⁵ His wife Jezebel came in and asked him, “Why are you so sullen? Why won’t you eat?”

1 Kings 21:6 (NIV)

⁶ He answered her, “Because I said to Naboth the Jezreelite, ‘Sell me your vineyard; or if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard in its place.’ But he said, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.'”

1 Kings 21:7 (NIV)

⁷ Jezebel his wife said, “Is this how you act as king over Israel? Get up and eat! Cheer up. I’ll get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

1 Kings 21:8 (NKJV)

⁸ And she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who were dwelling in the city with Naboth.

1 Kings 21:9 (CJB)-M

⁹ In the letters she wrote, “Proclaim a fast, and give Naboth the seat of honor among the people.

1 Kings 21:10 (NIV)

¹⁰ But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death.”

1 Kings 21:11 (NIV)

¹¹ So the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city did as Jezebel directed in the letters she had written to them.

1 Kings 21:12 (CJB)-M

¹² They proclaimed a fast and gave Naboth the seat of honor among the people.

1 Kings 21:13 (NIV)

¹³ Then two scoundrels came and sat opposite him and brought charges against Naboth before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death.

1 Kings 21:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ Then they sent word to Jezebel: “Naboth has been stoned and is dead.”

1 Kings 21:15 (NIV)

¹⁵ As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, “Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you. He is no longer alive, but dead.”

1 Kings 21:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard.

1 Kings 21:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite:

1 Kings 21:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ “Go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He is now in Naboth’s vineyard, where he has gone to take possession of it.

1 Kings 21:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ Say to him, ‘This is what the LORD says: Have you not murdered a man and seized his property?’ Then say to him, ‘This is what the LORD says: In the place where dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, dogs will lick up your blood–yes, yours!'”

1 Kings 21:20 (NIV)

²⁰ Ahab said to Elijah, “So you have found me, my enemy!” “I have found you,” he answered, “because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD.

1 Kings 21:21 (AMP)

²¹ See [says the Lord], I will bring evil on you and utterly sweep away and cut off from Ahab every male, bond and free,

1 Kings 21:22 (CJB-M

²² I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah for provoking my anger and leading Israel into sin

1 Kings 21:23 (NIV)

²³ “And also concerning Jezebel the LORD says: ‘Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.’

1 Kings 21:24 (NIV)

²⁴ “Dogs will eat those belonging to Ahab who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country.”

1 Kings 21:25 (NIV)

²⁵ (There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife.

1 Kings 21:26 (NIV)

²⁶ He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the LORD drove out before Israel.)

1 Kings 21:27 (CJB)-M

²⁷ Ahab, on hearing these words, tore his clothes, put sackcloth on himself and fasted. He slept in the sackcloth and went about dejectedly.

1 Kings 21:28 (NIV)

²⁸ Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite:

1 Kings 21:29 (CJB)-M

²⁹ “Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Since he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring this evil during his lifetime; but during his son’s lifetime I will bring the evil on his house.”

1 Kings Chapter 22

1 Kings 22:1 (NIV)

¹ For three years there was no war between Aram and Israel.

1 Kings 22:2 (NIV)

² But in the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to see the king of Israel.

1 Kings 22:3 (NIV)

³ The king of Israel had said to his officials, “Don’t you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us and yet we are doing nothing to retake it from the king of Aram?”

1 Kings 22:4 (NIV)

⁴ So he asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth Gilead?” Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”

1 Kings 22:5 (NIV)

⁵ But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “First seek the counsel of the LORD.”

1 Kings 22:6 (NIV)

⁶ So the king of Israel brought together the prophets–about four hundred men–and asked them, “Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?” “Go,” they answered, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.”

1 Kings 22:7 (NIV)

⁷ But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there not a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?”

1 Kings 22:8 (NIV)

⁸ The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” “The king should not say that,” Jehoshaphat replied.

1 Kings 22:9 (NIV)

⁹ So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.”

1 Kings 22:10 (NIV)

¹⁰ Dressed in their royal robes, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them.

1 Kings 22:11 (NIV)

¹¹ Now Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had made iron horns and he declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.'”

1 Kings 22:12 (NIV)

¹² All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. “Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious,” they said, “for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand.”

1 Kings 22:13 (NIV)

¹³ The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, as one man the other prophets are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.”

1 Kings 22:14 (NIV)

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

1 Kings 22:15 (NLT)

¹⁵ When Micaiah arrived before the king, Ahab asked him, “Micaiah, should we go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should we hold back?” Micaiah replied sarcastically, “Yes, go up and be victorious, for the LORD will give the king victory!”

1 Kings 22:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ The king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?”

1 Kings 22:17 (NLT)

¹⁷ Then Micaiah told him, “In a vision I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep without a shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘Their master has been killed. Send them home in peace.’”

1 Kings 22:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?”

1 Kings 22:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left.

1 Kings 22:20 (NIV)

²⁰ And the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’ “One suggested this, and another that.

1 Kings 22:21 (NIV)

²¹ Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, ‘I will entice him.’

1 Kings 22:22 (NIV)

²² ” ‘By what means?’ the LORD asked. ” ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said. ” ‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’

1 Kings 22:23 (NIV)

²³ “So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you.”

1 Kings 22:24 (NIV)

²⁴ Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up and slapped Micaiah in the face. “Which way did the spirit from the LORD go when he went from me to speak to you?” he asked.

1 Kings 22:25 (NIV)

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

1 Kings 22:26 (NIV)

²⁶ The king of Israel then ordered, “Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon the ruler of the city and to Joash the king’s son

1 Kings 22:27 (NKJV)

²⁷ and say, ‘Thus says the king: “Put this fellow in prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and water of affliction, until I come in peace.” ‘ “

1 Kings 22:28 (NIV)

²⁸ Micaiah declared, “If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me.” Then he added, “Mark my words, all you people!”

1 Kings 22:29 (NIV)

²⁹ So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead.

1 Kings 22:30 (NIV)

³⁰ The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will enter the battle in disguise, but you wear your royal robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.

1 Kings 22:31 (NIV)

³¹ Now the king of Aram had ordered his thirty-two chariot commanders, “Do not fight with anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel.”

1 Kings 22:32 (NIV)

³² When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, “Surely this is the king of Israel.” So they turned to attack him, but when Jehoshaphat cried out,

1 Kings 22:33 (NIV)

³³ the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel and stopped pursuing him.

1 Kings 22:34 (NIV)

³⁴ But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armor. The king told his chariot driver, “Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I’ve been wounded.”

1 Kings 22:35 (NIV)

³⁵ All day long the battle raged, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans. The blood from his wound ran onto the floor of the chariot, and that evening he died.

1 Kings 22:36 (NIV)

³⁶ As the sun was setting, a cry spread through the army: “Every man to his town; everyone to his land!”

1 Kings 22:37 (NIV)

³⁷ So the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried him there.

1 Kings 22:38 (NIV)

³⁸ They washed the chariot at a pool in Samaria (where the prostitutes bathed), and the dogs licked up his blood, as the word of the LORD had declared.

1 Kings 22:39 (NIV)

³⁹ As for the other events of Ahab’s reign, including all he did, the palace he built and inlaid with ivory, and the cities he fortified, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

1 Kings 22:40 (NIV)

⁴⁰ Ahab rested with his fathers. And Ahaziah his son succeeded him as king.

1 Kings 22:41 (NIV)

⁴¹ Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king of Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel.

1 Kings 22:42 (NIV)

⁴² Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-five years. His mother’s name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi.

1 Kings 22:43 (NIV)

⁴³ In everything he walked in the ways of his father Asa and did not stray from them; he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. The high places, however, were not removed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.

1 Kings 22:44 (NIV)

⁴⁴ Jehoshaphat was also at peace with the king of Israel.

1 Kings 22:45 (NIV)

⁴⁵ As for the other events of Jehoshaphat’s reign, the things he achieved and his military exploits, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?

1 Kings 22:46 (NIV)

⁴⁶ He rid the land of the rest of the male shrine prostitutes who remained there even after the reign of his father Asa.

1 Kings 22:47 (NIV)

⁴⁷ There was then no king in Edom; a deputy ruled.

1 Kings 22:48 (NIV)

⁴⁸ Now Jehoshaphat built a fleet of trading ships to go to Ophir for gold, but they never set sail–they were wrecked at Ezion Geber.

1 Kings 22:49 (NIV)

⁴⁹ At that time Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my men sail with your men,” but Jehoshaphat refused.

1 Kings 22:50 (NIV)

⁵⁰ Then Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the city of David his father. And Jehoram his son succeeded him.

1 Kings 22:51 (NIV)

⁵¹ Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years.

1 Kings 22:52 (NIV)

⁵² He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, because he walked in the ways of his father and mother and in the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin.

1 Kings 22:53 (NIV)

⁵³ He served and worshiped Baal and provoked the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger, just as his father had done.

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