Translation:1 Kings

For other English-language translations of this work, see 1 Kings (Bible).

Chapter 1

¹And king David was old [and] advanced in days, and they covered him with clothes, but he was not warmed. ²And his servants said to him, "Let them seek for my lord the king a young virgin, and she shall wait on the king, and cherish him, and lie in your^[1] lap, and my lord the king shall be warmed." ³So they sought for a fair maiden out of all the coasts of Israel, and they found Abishag the Shunammite, and they brought her to the king. ⁴ And the young woman was very beautiful, and she became the king's attendant and took care of him, but the king did not have relations with her.

⁵ Then Adonijah son of Haggith became ambitious and said, "I will be king." He prepared chariots and riders for himself, and fifty men to run in front of him.

⁶ And his father never confronted him at any time, to say, "Why are you doing this?" In addition, he had a striking figure. He was born after Absalom. ⁷ He conferred with Joab ben Zeruiah, and Abiathar the priest, and they provided support to Adonijah. ⁸ But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah ben Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rei, and David's warriors were not with Adonijah.

⁹ Now Adonijah sacrificed sheep^[2] and oxen and fattened cattle by the Stone of Zoheleth, which is near En Rogel, and summoned all his brothers, the king's sons, and all the men of Judah, the king's servants. ¹⁰ But he did not call Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, the warriors, or his brother Solomon. ¹¹ Then Nathan spoke to Bath Sheba the mother of Solomon, saying, "Haven't you heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith has become king, and our lord David is unaware? ¹² Please come and I will give you counsel, to save your life and the life of your son Solomon. ¹³ Go and see King David, and say to him, 'Did you not, my lord the king, swear to your servant, "Solomon your son will be king after me, and he will sit on my throne?" Then why has Adonijah become king?' ¹⁴ Then, while you are still there speaking with the king, I will come in after you and confirm what you have said."

¹⁵ So Bathsheba went in to the king, to his room. Now the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunnamite served him. ¹⁶ Bathsheba bowed in homage to the king. The king said, "What do you want?"

¹⁷ She said to him, "My lord, you swore by Yahweh your god to your servant, 'Solomon your son would be king after me, and he will sit on my throne.' ¹⁸ And yet now Adonijah has become king without your knowledge, my lord the king. ¹⁹ He has sacrificed oxen, and fattened cattle, and sheep^[2] in great numbers, and has summoned all the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the army commander, but he has not summoned Solomon your servant. ²⁰ My lord the king, all Israel looks to you now, to tell them who is to sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. ²¹ Or else, when my lord the king rests with his ancestors, it will happen that I and my son Solomon will be [considered] criminals."

²² Then, as she was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet came in. ²³ They announced to the king, "Nathan the prophet is here." He came into the king's presence and did homage to the king with his face to the ground.

²⁴ Nathan said, "My lord the king, have you said, 'Adonijah will be king after me, and sit on my throne?' ²⁵ He has gone down today and sacrificed oxen and fattened cattle, and sheep^[2] in great numbers. He has summoned all the king's sons, and army commanders, and Abiathar the priest, and now they are eating and drinking in front of him. They are saying, 'Long live king Adonijah!' ²⁶ But as for me, your servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah ben Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon, he has not summoned us. ²⁷ Is this thing being done with the permission of my lord the king, without you telling your servant who is to sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?"

²⁸ King David replied, "Call me Bathsheba." So she came in before the king and stood before the king. ²⁹ The king swore, "By the life of Yahweh, who has rescued my life from distress, ³⁰ just as I swore to you by Yahweh the god of Israel, that Solomon my son would be king after me, and that he would sit on my throne in my place, just so I will certainly do it today."

³¹ Bathseba bowed her face to the ground, and did homage to the king, and said, "May my lord King David live forever!"

³² King David said, "Call me Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah ben Jehoiada." And they came before the king. ³³ The king said to them, "Take your lord's servants with you, and have my son Solomon ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon." ³⁴ And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there as king over Israel, and blow on the shofar, and say, 'Long live king Solomon!' ³⁵ Then you are to go up following him, and he will sit upon my throne, and he will be king in my place. I have commanded that he is to be ruler over Israel and over Judah."

³⁶ Benaiah ben Jehoiada replied to the king, "So be it, and may Yahweh the god of my lord the king say so. ³⁷ Just as Yahweh has been with my lord the king, so may he be with Solomon, and may he make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David."

³⁸ So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah ben Jehoiada, and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David's mule, and brought him to Gihon. ³⁹ Zadok the priest took a horn of oil from the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. They blew on the shofar, and all the people said, "Long live King Solomon!" ⁴⁰ All the people came up after him, and the people played flutes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth tore with their sound.

⁴¹ Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they were finishing their meal. Joab heard the sound of the shofar, and said, "Why does it sound as if the city is in an uproar?" ⁴² As he was still speaking, Jonathan son of Abiathar came in, and Adonijah said to him, "Come in, because you are a brave man bringing good news!"

⁴³ Jonathan replied, "No, our lord King David has made Solomon king. ⁴⁴ The king has sent him with Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah ben Jehoiada, the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and they have him riding upon the king's mule. ⁴⁵ Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anoined him king in Gihon, and they have come up from there celebrating, and the city is noisy. That is the sound which you heard. ⁴⁶ Now Solomon sits on the royal throne. ⁴⁷ Also, the king's servants came to bless our lord King David, saying, 'May your god make the name of Solomon greater than your name, and his throne larger than your throne.' And the king did homage on his bed. ⁴⁸ The king also said, 'Blessed be Yahweh the god of Israel, who has today placed someone on my throne today, and my eyes have seen it.'"

⁴⁹ All the guests who were with Adonijah were afraid, and got up, and each one went his way. ⁵⁰ And Adonijah was afraid of Solomon, and he went and seized the horns of the altar. ⁵¹ It was reported to Solomon, "Now Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon, and he has even grabbed hold of the horns of the altar, and says, 'Let King Solomon swear to me today that he will not kill his servant by the sword.'"

⁵² Solomon said, "If he will be a worthy man, not one of his hairs will fall to the earth, but if he is found to be wicked, he will die." ⁵³ King Solomon sent word, and they brought him down from the altar. He came and did homage to King Solomon, and Solomon said to him, "Go to your house."

Chapter 2

¹ As the days approached when David would die, he commanded his son Solomon: ² "I am about to go the way of all the earth.^[3] Be strong, and become a man. ³ Pay attention to the instruction of Yahweh your god, to walk in his paths, to keep his ordinances, his commands, his regulations, and his rules, as is written in the Torah of Moses, so that you will succeed in everything you do, and wherever you turn, ⁴ so that Yahweh will confirm the message he delivered about me, 'If your descendants take care in their lives, to walk before me faithfully, wholeheartedly and single-mindedly, you will not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.' ⁵ In addition, you know what Joab the son of Zeruiah^[4] did to me, what he did to the two leaders of the army of Israel, to Abner son of Ner^[5] and to Amasa son of Jether, how he killed them and shed the blood [only appropriate] to warfare in peacetime, and put the blood of warfare upon his girdle around his waist, and upon his sandals on his feet. ⁶ Act wisely: do not let him die a natural death of old age.^{[6] 7} Act loyally toward the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them eat at your table, because in the same way they approached me when I was fleeing from your brother Absalom. ⁸ Now, Shimei son of Gera the Benjamite from Bahurim is still alive,^[7] and he cursed me bitterly on the day I went to Mahanaim. When he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by Yahweh, ‘I will not put you to death.’^{[8] 9} So do not let him go unpunished, because you are wise, and you know what you should do with him. Kill the old man violently.^{[9] 10} Then David passed away to be with his ancestors,^[10] and he was buried in the city of David.

¹¹ David’s time as king^[11] over Israel was forty years: he reigned seven years in Hebron, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years. ¹² Then Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was securely established.

¹³ Then Adonijah son of Haggith came to Bath-sheba the mother of Solomon. She said, "Do you come in peace?"

And he said, "[I come in] peace."

¹⁴ And he said, "I have something to say to you."

And she said, "Say it."

¹⁵ And he said, "You know that the kingdom was going to be mine, and that all Israel had chosen me to be king. But the kingdom has been taken away, and now belongs to my brother, because it was given to him by Yahweh. ¹⁶ So now I am asking you for one thing; do not withhold it from me."

And she said to him, "Say it."

¹⁷ And he said, "Please tell Solomon the king, because he will not withhold it from you, to give me Abishag the Shunnamite as my wife."

¹⁸ And Bath-sheba said, "Very well. I will speak for you to the king."

¹⁹ So Bath-sheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose to meet her, and bowed down to her, and sat down on his throne, and had a throne set down for the mother of the king, and she sat to his right. ²⁰ And she said, "One small favor I ask of you; do refuse it to me."

And the king said to her, "Ask me, my mother, because I will not refuse your request."

²¹ And she said, "Let Abishag the Shunnamite be given to Adonijah your brother as his wife."

²² King Solomon replied to his mother, "Why would you request Abishag the Shunnamite for Adonijah? You may as well request the whole kingdom for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab son of Zeruiah!"

²³ Then King Solomon swore by Yahweh, "May God punish me ever so severely^[12] if Adonijah does not die for what he has said!^{[13] 24} Therefore, by Yahweh's life, who has established me and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has strengthened my kingdom^[14] just as he promised, I swear that Adonijah will be killed today!" ²⁵ King Solomon sent out^[15] Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he killed him.

²⁶ And the king said to Abiathar the priest, "Go to Anathoth, to your own fields, because you deserve to die.^[16] But today I will not kill you, because you carried the ark of Lord Yahweh in front of David my father, and because you shared completely in my father's sufferings."

²⁷ So Solomon expelled Abiathar from the priesthood of Yahweh, to fulfill what Yahweh had said about the household of Eli in Shiloh.^[17]

²⁸ The news of this reached Joab, because Joab had supported Adonijah, although he had not supported Absalom. So Joab fled to the Tabernacle^[18] of Yahweh, and seized the horns of the altar. ²⁹ It was reported to King Solomon that Joab had fled to the Tabernacle^[18] of Yahweh and was there by the altar. So Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and said, "Go kill him."

³⁰ Benaiah came to the Tabernacle^[18] of Yahweh, and said to him, "The king says, 'Come out!'"

He said, "No. I will die here."

Benaiah returned a message to the king: "This is how Joab replied to me."

³¹ The king said to him, "Do just as he said. Kill him and bury him, to turn away^[19] the innocent blood which Joab shed from me and from my father's house. ³² Yahweh will return his bloodshed back onto his own head, because he attacked two men better and more decent than himself, and stabbed them to death, without the knowledge of my father David: Abner son of Ner,^[5] leader of the army of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, leader of the army of Judah. ³³ Their blood will return on the head of Joab, and on the head of his descendants forever. But for David, and for his descendants, and for his household, and for his throne, there will be peace forever from Yahweh.

³⁴ So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and attacked him, and killed him. He was buried in his own house, in the wilderness. ³⁵ Then the king gave his position overseeing the army to Benaiah. And the king replaced Abiathar with Zadok the priest.

³⁶ Then the king summoned Shimei, and said to him, "Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and stay there, and do not leave there to go anywhere else. ³⁷ If you do, on the day that you leave and cross the wady Kidron, know for certain that you will die. Your death will be your own fault."^[20]

³⁸ Shimei said to the king, "That is fair. Therefore your servant will do just as my lord the king has commanded." So Shimei stayed in Jerusalem many days.

³⁹ Three years later, two of Shimei's slaves ran away to Achish son of Maachah, king of Gath, and it was reported to Shimei: "Your slaves are in Gath." ⁴⁰ Shimei got up and saddled his donkey, and went to Gath, to Achish, to look for his slaves. Shimei went, and brought his slaves from Gath. ⁴¹ It was reported to Solomon that Shimei gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and had returned.

⁴² The king sent a messenger and summoned Shimei. He said to him, "Did I not make you swear by Yahweh, and warn you, 'On the day that you leave for anywhere else, know for certain you will die'? And you said to me, 'The sentence I have heard is fair.' ⁴³ So why have you not kept your oath by Yahweh, and the command that I gave you?"

⁴⁴ And the king said to Shimei, "You know all the evil, that you are aware of, that you did to David my father. Now Yahweh will return your evil on your own head. ⁴⁵ But King Solomon will be blessed, and the throne of David will be secure before Yahweh forever." ⁴⁶ So the king gave the order to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went out and attacked him, and he died.

And the kingdom was secure in Solomon's hand.

Chapter 3

¹ Solomon married into the family of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, by taking the daughter of Pharaoh. He brought her to the city of David, until he had finished building his own house and the house of Yahweh, and the wall surrounding Jerusalem. ² In that time, the people made sacrifices at the shrines,^[21] as long as there was no house yet built for the name of Yahweh. ³ Solomon loved Yahweh, following the instructions of David his father. However, he sacrificed and burnt incense at the shrines.^{[21] 4} The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, because it was a major shrine.^[21] Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings^[22] on that altar. ⁵ At Gibeon Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a night dream, and God said, "Ask. What should I give you?"

⁶ Solomon said, "You have acted with great loyalty toward your servant David, my father, just as he walked before you with faithfulness, with righteousness, with a sincere mind toward you. You have maintained this great loyalty for him by giving him a son to sit on the throne, as it is today. ⁷ And now, Yahweh my god, you have made your servant king after David his father. Yet I am a little child: I do not know what I am doing.^{[23] 8} Your servant is among a people whom you have chosen, a numerous people, too numerous to be measured or counted. ⁹ So give your servant an understanding mind to rule your people, to know right from wrong, because who has the ability to rule over your massive people?" ¹⁰ And what he said pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked for this thing.

¹¹ So God said to him, "Because you asked for this thing, and did not request a long life for yourself, and did not ask for wealth, and did not ask for the death of your enemies, but instead asked for discernment, to understand justice; ¹² therefore I will give you what you proposed. Indeed, I will give you a wise and discerning mind, so that there will have been no one like you before, and afterwards no one like you will arise. ¹³ In addition, I will give you what you did not request: wealth and honor, so that not a single king will equal you all your days. ¹⁴ If you walk in my paths, to keep my regulations and my commandments, as your father David walked, I will lengthen your life."

¹⁵ Solomon awakened and realized it had been a dream. Then he went to Jerusalem, and stood in front of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and sent up burnt offerings^[22], and made peace-offerings,^[24] and held a feast for all his servants.

¹⁶ Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. ¹⁷ And the one woman said, "If it please my lord, I and this woman live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child with her in the house. ¹⁸ On the third day after I gave birth, she also gave birth. We were together, and there was no stranger with us in the house. Just the two of us were in the house. ¹⁹ This woman's son died at night when she slept on it. ²⁰ Then she woke up in the middle of the night, and took my child from beside me, as your servant was sleeping, and laid it next to her, and laid her dead child next to me. ²¹ I rose in the morning to nurse my child, and saw that it was dead, but when I had thought about it in the morning I saw that it was not my child which I had given birth to."

²² And the other woman said, "No! The living one is my son, and your son is the dead one!"

And the first one said, "No! Your son is dead and my son is alive!" So they spoke before the king.

²³ The king said, "This one says, 'This is my living son, and your son is dead.' And that one says, 'No, your son is dead and mine is alive.'"

²⁴ Then the king said, "Bring me a knife." And they brought a knife before the king. ²⁵ And the king said, "Cut the living child in two, and give one half to each."

²⁶ Then the mother of the living child said to the king — because she felt strongly about the child — she said, "If it please my lord, give her the living child, and do not kill it!"

But the other one said, "Let it belong to neither of us. Divide it."

²⁷ The king replied, "Give her the living child, and do not kill it. She is its mother."

²⁸ And all Israel heard about the judgment which the king had made, and they feared the king, because they saw that the wisdom of God was within him for rendering judgment.

Chapter 4

¹ Now King Solomon was king over all Israel. ² And these were his commanders: Azariah son of Zadok the priest; ³ Elihoreph and Ahijah, sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud, the recorder; ⁴ and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, in charge of the army; and Zadok and Abiathar, priests; ⁵ and Azariah son of Nathan, in charge of the officers; and Zabud son of Nathan, a priest, friend of the king; ⁶ and Ahishar, in charge of the [royal] household; and Adoniram son of Abda, in charge of the forced labor.

⁷ And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household. For a month each year each one would provide. ⁸ And these are their names: Ben-Hur, in the hill-country of Ephraim; ⁹ Ben-Deker, in Makaz, and in Shaalbim, and in Beth Shemesh and Elon Beth Hanan; ¹⁰ Ben-Hesed, in Aruboth (Sochoh and all the land of Hepher were [assigned] to him); ¹¹ Ben-Abinadab, all of Naphath Dor (Taphath daughter of Solomon was his wife); ¹² Baana son of Ahilud, Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth Shean, which is by Zarthanah beneath Jezreel, from Beth Shean, to Abel Meholah, to the other side of Jokmeam; ¹³ Ben-Geber, in Ramoth Gilead (his were the towns of Jair son of Manasseh which were in Gilead, his was the territory of Argob which was in the Bashan, sixty large cities with walls and bolts of brass); ¹⁴ Ahinadab son of Iddo, Mahanaim; ¹⁵ Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also took Basemath daughter of Solomon as his wife); ¹⁶ Baana son of Hushai, in Asher and in Aloth; ¹⁷ Jehoshaphat son of Paruah, in Issachar; ¹⁸ Shimei son of Ela, in Benjamin; ¹⁹ Geber son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of the Bashan; there was one officer in the land.

²¹ Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the river Euphrates, to the Philistine land, and as far as the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life. ²² Solomon's provision for one day was thirty kor^[25] of fine flour and thirty kor of meal; ²³ ten fattened oxen, twenty pastured oxen, and one hundred sheep;^[2] besides stags, gazelles, fallow deer, and fattened geese; ²⁴ because he had control of everything west of the Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza, and over all the kings west of the Euphrates. He had peace on every side. ²⁵ Judah and Israel lived in safety, each man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan to Beer Sheba, all the days of Solomon.

²⁶ Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand riders. ²⁷ These officers provided food for Solomon, and for everyone who came to King Solomon's table. Each one had his month; they had no shortage of anything. ²⁸ And they brought barley and straw for the horses and thoroughbreds to the place where he was, each in his appointed order. ²⁹ God gave wisdom to Solomon, and exceedingly great discernment, and broad understanding, like the sand which is on the seashore. ³⁰ The wisdom of Solomon was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, and all the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹ He was wiser than any human being, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and wiser than Heman, Kalkol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. He was famous in all the surrounding nations. ³² He spoke three thousand proverbs, and [authored] one thousand and five songs. ³³ He spoke about trees, from the cedar which is in Lebanon to the hyssop growing from a wall. He spoke of livestock, and birds, and crawling animals, and fishes. ³⁴ People of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

Chapter 5

¹ And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, because he heard that they had anointed him as king in place of his father, because Hiram was always a friend of David. ² And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, ³ You know that David my father could not build a house to the name of Yahweh his god because of the wars which surrounded him, until Yahweh placed them under the soles of his feet. ⁴ And now Yahweh has given me rest all around. There is no adversary or misfortune. ⁵ And now I have decided to build a house to the name of Yahweh my god, as Yahweh spoke to David my father, saying, Your son whom I will place on your throne after you, he will build a house for my name. ⁶ Now then, command that cedar be cut down from the Lebanon, and your servants will be with my servants, and I will pay your servants, whomever you choose, because you know that none of us knows how to cut wood like the Sidonians.

⁷ Then, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be Yahweh today, who has given David a wise son over this great people. ⁸ And Hiram sent word to Solomon: I have heard your message. I will do all you ask concerning cedar and cypress wood. ⁹ My servants will bring them down from the Lebanon by sea, and I will send them in rafts on the sea to the place that you point out to me, and I will have them broken up there, and you can take them. And you will do me the favor of providing food for my house.

¹⁰ And Solomon gave Solomon all the ceder and cypress trees he wanted. ¹¹ And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand kors^[26] of wheat as food for his household, and twenty kors of beaten oil, which Solomon gave to Hiram each year.

¹² And Yahweh gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him, and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a covenant.

¹³ And king Solomon raised forced labor from all Israel, and the labor force was thirty thousand men. ¹⁴ And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month in shifts. They were one month in the Lebanon, and two months at home. And Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor. ¹⁵ And Solomon had seventy thousand porters and eighty thousand hewers in the mountains, ¹⁶ besides the leaders of Solomon's officers who were over the work, three thousand three hundred, who supervised the people who did the work. ¹⁷ And the king commanded, and they quarried great stones, valuable stones, to lay the foundation of the house, hewed stones. ¹⁸ And Solomon's cutters and Hiram's cutters hewed them, and the Giblites prepared timber and stones to build the house.

Chapter 6

¹ Now, four hundred eighty years after the Israelites came out from the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of the reign of Solomon over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, Solomon began constructed on a house for Yahweh. ² And the house which Solomon build for Yahweh was sixty cubits long, and twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits in height.^{[27] 3} And the portico in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, along the width of the house, and ten cubits was its width in front of the house. ⁴ And for the house he made windows recessed in the walls.^[28]

⁵ And along the wall he built a structure, surrounding the walls of the house, surrounding the nave and the back room, and he made side chambers around it. ⁶ The bottom structure was five cubits wide, and the middle one six cubits wide, and the third story seven cubits wide, because he set ledges around the outside of the house, so the beams would not be stuck in the walls of the house. ⁷ And when it was being built, it was built of stones finished at the quarry, and no hammer, or pickaxe, or any iron tool was heard in the house while it was in the building. ⁸ The entrance to the middle chamber was on the south side of the house, and they went up a staircase into the middle chamber, and from the middle chamber to the third story.

⁹ And he built the house, and finished it, and covered the house with beams and planks of cedar. ¹⁰ And he built the outer structure around all the house, five cubits tall, and it was fastened to the house with cedar wood.

¹¹ And a message from Yahweh came to Solomon, saying, ¹² This house that you are building -- if you will walk in my ordinances, and my execute my judgments, and keep all my commands by walking in them, then I will uphold my words that I said to David your father. ¹³ And I will dwell among the Israelites, and I will not forsake my people Israel.

¹⁴ And Solomon built the house, and finished it. ¹⁵ And he built the walls of the house inside with boards of cedar, from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling. He overlaid them inside with wood, and covered the floor of the house with planks of cypress. ¹⁶ And he built twenty cubits from the edges of the house with cedar boards, from the floor to the walls, which he built for it from within, for the back room, for the holy of holies. ¹⁷ And the house, that is, the nave in front of it, was forty cubits. ¹⁸ And the cedar of the house along the back wall was engraved with gourds and blooming flowers, all cedar. No stone was visible.

¹⁹ And the back room he prepared inside the house opposite the entrance, to put the ark of the covenant of Yahweh there. ²⁰ And the front wall of the back room was twenty cubits long, and twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits tall, and he overlaid it with pure gold, and overlaid the altar of cedar. ²¹ And Solomon overlaid the house's interior with pure gold, and he laid gold chains across the front of the back room, and he overlaid it with gold. ²² And he overlaid the whole house with gold, until he finished all the house, and the whole of the altar which belonged to the back room.

²³ And in the back room he made two cherubim of olive wood, ten cubits tall. ²⁴ And give cubits was one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub. From wingtip to wingtip was ten cubits. ²⁵ And the other cherub was ten cubits; the two cherubs were the same in measure and form. ²⁶ The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and the same for the other cherub. ²⁷ And he set the cherubim inside inner house, and the wings of the cherubim were extended so that the wing of one touched one wall, and the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched one another in the middle of the house. ²⁸ And he overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹ And he carved all the walls of the house all around with engraved figures of cherubim, and palm trees, and blooming flowers, inside and outside. ³⁰ And he overlaid the floor of the house with gold, inside and outside.

³¹ And for the entrance of the back room he made doors of olive wood. The pillar and the door-posts were five-sided.^{[29] 32} And the two doors were of olive wood, and he carved on them engravings of cherubim and palm trees and blooming flowers, overlaid with gold, and beat gold onto the cherubim and the palm trees. ³³ In the same way he made for the door of the nave posts of olive wood, with four sides. ³⁴ And the two doors were of cypress wood, and both of the doors were of two folding panels. ³⁵ And he carved cherubim and palm trees and blooming flowers, and overlaid them with gold fitted to the engravings.

³⁶ And he built inner court with three rows of hewed stones, and a row of hewed cedar beams.

³⁷ In the fourth year the foundation was laid of the house of Yahweh, in the month of Ziph. ³⁸ And the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all manners, and according to its whole plan. And he built it for seven years.

Chapter 7

¹ And Solomon spent thirteen years building his own house, and he finished all his house.

² And he built the house of the Lebanon forest. Its length was one hundred cubits, and its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars. ³ And it was covered with cedar above the beams, which were atop forty-five pillars, fifteen to a row. ⁴ And there were high windows in three rows, window facing window in three sets. ⁵ And all the entrances and posts had rectangular frames, opening facing opening in three sets.

⁶ And he made a portico of pillars, and its length was fifty cubits, and its width thirty cubits, and the porch was in front of them, and pillars and a threshold^[30] in front of them.

⁷ And he made a portico for the throne where he would judge, the portico of judgment, and it was covered with cedar from floor to floor.

⁸ And his house where he lived had another courtyard inside the porch, of similar workmanship. And Solomon made a house for the daughter of Pharaoh, whom he took as wife, like this porch.

⁹ All these were of valuable stones, measured hewed stones, cut with saws, inside and outside, and from foundation to coping, and outside as far as the large court. ¹⁰ And the foundation was of valuable stones, large stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits. ¹¹ And above were valuable stones, measured hewed stones, and cedar. ¹² And the large court was surrounded with three rows of hewed stone, and a row of cedar beams, both for the inner court of the house of Yahweh, and for the portico of the house.

¹³ And king Solomon sent for Hiram from Tyre. ¹⁴ He was the son of a widowed woman from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a Tyrian who worked with brass, and he was filled with wisdom, and discernment, and knowledge to do work with bronze. And he came to king Solomon, and did all his workmanship.

¹⁵ And he fashioned two pillars of bronze, eighteen cubits tall, and a line of twelve cubits was the circumference of each. ¹⁶ And he made two capitals to set on top of the pillars, of cast bronze. The height of one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits. ¹⁷ [There were] lattices of lattice-work, a network of chains for the capitals which were upon the top of the pillars, seven for the one capital, and seven for the other. ¹⁸ And he made the pillars, and two rows of pomegranates around the one lattice, to cover the capitals which were on top, and he did the same for the other capital.

¹⁹ And the capitals which were atop the pillars were built like lilies on the porch, four cubits. ²⁰ And the capitals were atop the two pillars, as well as above, over against the rounded projection which was by the lattice, and there were two hundred pomegranates in rows all around the other capital.

²¹ And he set up the pillars for the portico of the temple. And he set up the right pillar and named it Jachin, and he set up the left pillar and called it Boaz. ²² And on top of the pillars was lily-work, and the work with the pillars was complete.

²³ And he made a cast sea, ten cubits from brim to brim, round all about. And five cubits was its height, and its circumference was thirty cubits.^[31]

²⁴ And there were gourds under its brim all around surrounding it, ten for each cubit, encircling around the sea. The gourds were cast in two rows when it was cast. ²⁵ It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, and three facing west, and three facing south, and three facing east. And the sea was up on top of them, their hindquarters facing inward. ²⁶ And it was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, with lily flowers. It could hold two thousand demijohns.^[32]

²⁷ And he made ten movable stands of bronze. Four cubits was the length of each movable stand, and four cubits its width, and three cubits its height. ²⁸ And this was how the stands were made. They had side panels, and the panels were within frames. ²⁹ And on the panels within the frames were lions, and oxen, and cherubim, and likewise upon the frames. Above and below the lions and oxen were hanging decorations.^{[33] 30} There were four bronze wheels for each movable stand, and bronze seranim.^[34] And its four corners had supports for them. Under the basin were cast supports, across from each decoration.^{[35] 31} And its mouth was within a crown which went upward a cubit, and its mouth was rounded, made as a pedestal of a cubit and a half. And also, on its mouth were engravings. And their side panels were rectangular, not rounded. ³² And there were four wheels under the side panels, and the axles of the wheels went into the movable stands. And the height of a wheel was one cubit and a half. ³³ And the workmanship of the wheels was like the workmanship of a chariot wheel. Their axles, and their rims, and their spokes, and their hubs were all cast metal. ³⁴ And there were four supports, for the four corners of each stand, built into the stand. ³⁵ And at the top of each stand was a rim half a cubit high, and atop the stand its braces and its side panels were built into it. ³⁶ And on its plates, braces, and side panels were engraved cherubim, and lions, and palm trees, on the exposed surfaces of each, and decorations^[36] all around. ³⁷ Thus he made the ten movable stands, all the same in casting, in dimensions, and in shape.

³⁸ And he made ten bronze basins. Each basin could hold forty demijons.^[32] Each basin was of four cubits, and there was one basin on top of each of the ten movable stands. ³⁹ And he put five movable stands on the south side, and five on the north side of the house, and he put the sea on the south side of the house, along the eastern portion of the south side.^[37]

⁴⁰ And Hirom^[38] made the basins, and the ash-shovels, and the bowls. And Hiram finished doing all the work which he did for King Solomon at the house of Yahweh. ⁴¹ The two pillars, and bowl-shaped capitals atop the two pillars, and the two lattices to cover the bowl-shaped capitals atop the pillars, ⁴² and the four hundred pomegranates for the two lattices, two rows of pomegranates per lattice, to cover the two bowl-shaped capitals upon the pillars, ⁴³ and the ten movable stands, and the ten basins upon the stands, ⁴⁴ and the one sea, and the twelve oxen under the sea, ⁴⁵ and the pots, and the ash-shovels, and the bowls, and all these objects,^{[39] 46} In the Jordan Oval the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarthan. ⁴⁷ And Solomon left all the objects [unweighed], because there were so many of them that the weight of the bronze could not be ascertained. ⁴⁸ And Solomon made all the objects for the house of Yahweh: the gold altar, and the gold table where the bread of presence was, ⁴⁹ and the five lampstands on the right, and five on the left, in front of the back room, of pure gold, and the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs of gold, ⁵⁰ and the cups,^[40] and the snuffers, and the basins, and the firepans, of pure gold; for the doors of the inner house, for the holy of holies, for the doors of the house, of the temple, of gold.

⁵¹ And all the work that King Solomon did for the house of Yahweh was complete. And Solomon brought the holy things of David, the silver and the gold, and the objects. He put them among the treasures of the house of Yahweh.

Chapter 8

¹ Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes, clan leaders of all the Israelites, to King Solomon at Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh from the city of David, which is Zion. ² And all the men of Israel assembled themselves to King Solomon in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month. ³ And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests carried the ark. ⁴ And they brought up the ark of Yahweh, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy objects which were in the tabernacle; the priests and the Levites brought them up. ⁵ And King Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel assembled with him, were with him in front of the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, which were too numerous to count or reckon. ⁶ And the priests brought the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place, into the inner room of the house, to the holy of holies, under the wings of the cherubim, ⁷ because the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles from above. ⁸ And they arranged the poles such that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place in front of the inner room, but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to the present day. ⁹ There was nothing in the ark but the two tables of stones which Moses set there at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out from the land of Egypt.

¹⁰ Now, when the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the house of Yahweh. ¹¹ And the priests were unable to stand to minister because of the cloud, because the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh.

¹² Then Solomon said, Yahweh said he would dwell in thick darkness. ¹³ Now I have built you a house to dwell in, a habitation to stay in forever.

¹⁴ And the king turned his face, and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, as all the assembly of Israel stood. ¹⁵ And he said, Blessed be Yahweh, the god of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David my father, and with his hand has fulfilled it, saying, ¹⁶ From the day that I brought out my people Israel from the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from all the tribes of Israel to built a house, for my name to be there, and I chose David to be over my people Israel. ¹⁷ And it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the god of Israel. ¹⁸ And Yahweh said to David my father, Because it was in your heard to build a house for my name, you did right to have such an intention. ¹⁹ However, you will not build the house, but your son who will come out from your loins, he will build the house for my name. ²⁰ And Yahweh has established his message that he spoke, and I have risen in the place of David my father, and I sit on the throne of Israel, just as Yahweh promised, and I have built the house for the name of Yahweh, the god of Israel. ²¹ And I have set there a place for the ark which holds the covenant of Yahweh, with he made with our fathers when he brought them out from the land of Egypt.

²² And Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh, facing all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his palms toward the sky. ²³ And he said, Yahweh, god of Israel, there is no god like you in the sky above, or on the earth beneath, keeping covenant and faithfulness toward your servants who walk before you with all their heart, ²⁴ who kept for your servant David, my father, what you promised him. You spoke with your mouth and fulfilled it with your hand, as it is today. ²⁵ And so, Yahweh, god of Israel, keep for your servant David, my father, what you promised him, saying, You will not fail to have a man before me sitting on the throne of Israel, if only your sons will take care of their path, to walk before me as you walked before me. ²⁶ And so, god of Israel, please be true to what you spoke to your servant David, my father.

²⁷ But will God really live on the earth? Behold, the sky, the very highest sky, cannot contain you. Then how much less this house that I have made? ²⁸ But turn toward the prayer of your servant, and toward his entreaty, Yahweh my god, to hear the shout and the prayer which your servant prays before you today, ²⁹ so that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you said, My name will be there; to hear the prayer which your servant prayers toward this place. ³⁰ And listen to the entreaty of your servant, and your people Israel, when they pray toward this place, and hear it in your dwelling-place in the sky; hear and forgive.

³¹ When a man sins against his comrade, and he is placed under oath to swear, and the oath comes before your altar in this house, ³² then hear in the sky, and act, and judge your servants, condemning the wicked, to return his actions on his own head; and vindicating the righteous according to his righteousness.

³³ When your people Israel are struck before an enemy, because they have sinned against you, and they turn back to you, and praise your name, and pray, and make entreaties to you in this house; ³⁴ then hear in the sky, and pardon the sin of your people Israel, and return them to the land which you gave to their fathers.

³⁵ When the sky is shut off, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you, and they pray toward this place, and praise your name, and turn from their sin, because you have humbled them; ³⁶ then hear in the sky, and pardon the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, to teach them good way that they should walk, and give rain on your land, which you gave to your people as an inheritance.

³⁷ When famine stalks the land, when there is pestilence, blight, mildew, locust, grasshopper -- when their enemy besieges them within their gates, whatever plague, whatever sickness -- ³⁸ whatever prayer, whatever entreaty there is by any person, of all your people Israel, each man of whom knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads his hand toward this house -- ³⁹ then hear in your dwelling in the sky, and pardon, and act, and give every man according to his ways, whose heart you know, because you know, you alone, the heart of all the sons of men, ⁴⁰ so that they may fear you all the days that they live on this ground which you gave to our fathers.

⁴¹ And also, for the foreigner, who is not from your people Israel, and comes from a far-off land for the sake of your name -- ⁴² because they will hear of your great name, and your strong hand, and your outstretched arm -- and comes and pray for this house; ⁴³ then hear in your dwelling-place in the sky, and do as the foreigner requests of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you, as your people Israel, and in order to know that this house which I built is called by your name.

⁴⁴ When your people go out to war against their enemy, where you send them, and pray to Yahweh in the direction of this city which you chose, and the house which I built for your name; ⁴⁵ then, from the sky, hear their prayer and their entreaty, and vindicate them.

⁴⁶ If they sin against you -- because there is no one who does not sin -- and you are angry with them, and give them over to an enemy, and they carry them captive to the enemy land, far or near; ⁴⁷ and they turn back their heart in the land where they are captive, and turn back, and entreat to you in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, and done wrong, and been wicked; ⁴⁸ and they return to you with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies who captured them, and pray to you in the direction of their land which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I built for your name; ⁴⁹ then hear, in your dwelling-place in the sky, and give them justice, ⁵⁰ and pardon your people who have sinned against you, and all the wrongs they have done wrongly against you, and give them compassion in the sight of their captors, so that they show them compassion; ⁵¹ because they are your people, and your inheritance, whom you brought from Egypt, out of the iron furnace; ⁵² to open your eyes to the entreaty of your people Israel, to hear them in all they call out for to you; ⁵³ because you separated them from all the peoples of the earth as an inheritance for yourself, as you said by the hand of Moses your servant, when you brought out our fathers from Egypt, Lord Yahweh.

⁵⁴ And then, when Solomon finished praying to Yahweh all this prayer and entreaty, he rose from before the altar of Yahweh, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread toward the sky ⁵⁵ And he stood and blessed the whole Israelite assembly with a loud voice, saying, ⁵⁶ Blessed be Yahweh, who has given rest to his people Israel, exactly as he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good word which he said by the hand of Moses his servant. ⁵⁷ May Yahweh our god be with us, as he was with our fathers. Let him not abandon or forsake us, ⁵⁸ so we may incline our heart toward him, to walk in all his ways, and to observe his commands, and regulations, and decrees which he commanded our fathers. ⁵⁹ And let these words with which I have entreated before Yahweh stay near to Yahweh our god day and night, to vindicate his servant, and the cause of his people Israel, as circumstances require, ⁶⁰ in order for all the peoples of the earth to know that Yahweh is God, and no other. ⁶¹ So let your hearts be right with Yahweh our god, to walk in his statutes, and to observe his commandments, as at this day.

⁶² And the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifices before Yahweh. ⁶³ And Solomon sacrifices a sacrifice of peace-offerings which he sacrificed to Yahweh, twenty-two thousand oxen, and a hundred twenty thousand sheep. And the king and all the Israelites dedicated the house of Yahweh. ⁶⁴ On that day the king consecrated the inside of the courtyard which was in front of the house of Yahweh, when he offered burnt offerings and meal-offerings and the fat of peace-offerings, because the bronze altar which before Yahweh was too small to contain the burnt offerings, and the meal-offerings, and the fat of the peace-offerings. ⁶⁵ And at that time Solomon held a festival, and all Israel with him, a great assembly from Lebo Hamath to the river of Egypt, before Yahweh our god, seven days and seven days, fourteen days. ⁶⁶ On the eighth day he dismissed the people, and they blessed the king, and they went to their tents joyful and glad-hearted on account of all the good that Yahweh had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.

Chapter 9

¹ And then, when Solomon had finished building the house of Yahweh, and the king's house, and all the desire of Solomon that he was pleased to carry out, ² and Yahweh appeared to Solomon a second time, just as he appeared to him at Gibeon. ³ And Yahweh said to him, I have heard your prayer and your entreaty that you have made before me. I have consecrated this house, which you built, to place my name there forever, and my eyes and my heart will be there for all days. ⁴ And as for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, in integrity of heart, and uprightness, to carry out all that I commanded you, keeping my statutes and my decrees; ⁵ then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I said to David your father, to wit, You will not fail to have a man of yours upon the throne of Israel. ⁶ If you should turn yourself away from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commands, my statutes, which I have placed before you, and go and serve other gods, and bow before them; ⁷ then I will cut off Israel from upon the face of this ground which I gave them, and this house which I have consecrated for my name. I will cast him from my presence, and Israel will become a byword and a taunt among all the peoples. ⁸ And this house, so exalted -- everyone who passes by it will be appalled, and scoff, and they will say, Why has Yahweh done this to this land, and to this house. ⁹ And they will answer, Because they abandoned Yahweh your god, who brought out their fathers from the land of Egypt, and have taken hold of other gods, and bowed down to them, and served them. That is why Yahweh brought upon them all this catastrophe.

¹⁰ And then at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of Yahweh and the house of the king ¹¹ (Hiram king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar wood and cypress wood, and with gold, whatever he desired.), then King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the land of the Galil. ¹² And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the towns which Solomon gave him, and he was not satisfied with them. ¹³ And he said, What are these towns which you have given me, my brother? And he called them the Land of Kabul until this day. ¹⁴ And Hiram sent to the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold.

¹⁵ And this is the reason for the forced labor which Solomon raised, to build the house of Yahweh, and his own house, and the Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer: ¹⁶ Pharaoh king of Egypt went up, and seized Gezer, and burned it with fire, and killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and gave it as marriage presents for his daughter, Solomon's wife. ¹⁷ And Solomon built Gezer, and Lower Beth Horon, ¹⁸ and Baalath, and Tadmor^[41] in the wilderness, in the land, ¹⁹ and all the store-towns that Solomon had, and chariot-towns, and towns for his horsemen, and the project which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in the Lebanon, and in all the land he ruled.

²⁰ All the remaining people of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the jebusites, those who were not among the sons of Israel, ²¹ their sons who were remaining after them in the land, whom the sons of Israel were not able to exterminate -- Solomon raised a tribute of slave labor to this day. ²² And from the sons of Israel Solomon took no slaves, but they were his soldiers, and his servants, and his captains, and his officials, and his chariot captain, and his horsemen.

²³ These were the captains of the officers who were over Solomon's affairs, five hundred and fifty, supervising the people who carried out the affairs.

²⁴ But Pharaoh's daughter came up from the city of David to her house which he had built for her. Then he built the Millo.

²⁵ And three times a year Solomon would offer burnt offerings and peace-offerings on the altar which he built for Yahweh, and he burned incense with it, which was before Yahweh. And he completed the house.

²⁶ And King Solomon made a fleet of ships at Ezion Geber, which is by Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. ²⁷ And Hiram sent with the navy his servants, sailors who knew the sea, with the servants of Solomon. ²⁸ And they went to Ophir, and brought gold from there, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon.

Chapter 10

¹ When the Queen of Sheba^[42] heard the reputation of Solomon concerning the name of Yahweh, she came to him to try him with difficult questions. ² And she came to Jerusalem with a massive retinue, camels bearing spices, and a great amount of gold and precious stones. And she came to Solomon, and she spoke to him of all that was in her heart. ³ And Solomon answered all of her questions. There was nothing hidden from him, that he could not answer her. ⁴ And the Queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house which he had built, ⁵ and the food of his table, as his officials sat and those who waited on them stood, and their clothing, and cupbearers, and the ascent by which he went up to the house of Yahweh, there was no breath left in her.

⁶ And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in my own land about your deeds and your wisdom. ⁷ But I did not believe these things until I came, and my eyes have seen it, and yet I had not heard the half of it. Your wisdom and wealth exceeds the report that I heard. ⁸ How fortunate are your men! How fortunate are these servants of yours, who stand before you continually, hearing your wisdom. ⁹ Blessed be Yahweh your god, who has delighted in you, to place you on the throne of Israel because Yahweh's love for Israel forever. So he made you king, to carry out justice and righteousness.

¹⁰ And she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again did there come such an abundance as what the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. ¹¹ In addition, Hiram's fleet, which brought gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a great deal of almug^[43] wood and precious stones. ¹² And the king made the almug timber into supports^[44] for the house of Yahweh, and for the king's house, and harps and lyres for singers. There has not come such almug wood, nor has it been seen, to this day.

¹³ And King Solomon gave to the Queen of Sheba whatever she desired, whatever she requested, besides what Solomon gave her from the hand of the king. And she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.

¹⁴ Now the weight of the gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty-six talents of gold, ¹⁵ besides that which was from the men of the traders,^[45] and the merchandise^[46] of the merchants, and all of the kings of Arabia, and the governors of the land.

¹⁶ And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold, six hundred [shekels]^[47] of gold in each shield, ¹⁷ and three hundred shields of beaten gold (three minas of gold went up on each shield) and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

¹⁸ And the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with fine^[48] gold. ¹⁹ The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind, and there were supports on each side of the place for the seat, and two lions stood beside the seats. ²⁰ And twelve lions stood there on either side of the six steps. Nothing like it was made in any kingdom.

²¹ And all the drinking-vessels of King Solomon were gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were solid gold. None were silver. Silver was treated as worthless in the days of Solomon, ²² because the king had a fleet of Tarshish with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of Tarshish came, bearing gold, and silver, ivory, and monkeys, and peacocks. ²³ And King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in wealth and wisdom.

²⁴ And all the earth inquired of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God placed in his heart. ²⁵ And each of them brought his present: objects of silver, and objects of gold, and garments, and weaponry, and spices, horses and mules, an annual amounts.

²⁶ And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen, and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, and he placed them in chariot cities, and with the king in Jerusalem. ²⁷ And the king made silver in Jerusalem like stones, and cedars he made as abundant as sycamores in the Shephelah.

²⁸ And Solomon's import of horses was from Egypt and from Kue,^[49] and from Kue the king's merchants bought them from Kue at cost. ²⁹ And a chariot would be brought up from Egypt at six hundred [shekels of] silver per chariot, and a horse for one hundred fifty, and likewise for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Aram, from whom they imported them.

Chapter 11

¹ And King Solomon loved many foreign women, and the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite women, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, Hitties -- ² of the nations of which Yahweh said to the Israelites, You are not to go to bed with them, nor they to you. Surely they would turn away your heart to follow their gods. Solomon joined himself to these women in love. ³ And he had seven hundred noblewomen as wives, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. ⁴ And it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart to follow other gods, and his heart was not wholly with Yahweh his god, like the heart of David his father. ⁵ And Solomon went after Ashtoreth the Sidonian deity, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. ⁶ And Solomon did what was evil in the heart of Yahweh, and did not follow Yahweh alone, like David his father. ⁷ Then Solomon built a shrine to Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, on the hill in front of Jerusalem, and to Molech, the abomination of the Ammonites. ⁸ And so he did for all his foreign wives, who burnt incense and made sacrifices to their gods.

⁹ And Yahweh was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from Yahweh, the god of Israel, who appeared to him twice, ¹⁰ and commanded him about this very thing, not to go after other gods. Yet he did not observe what Yahweh commanded. ¹¹ And Yahweh said to Solomon, Because you have done this, and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. ¹² But I will not do it in your days, for the sake of David your father. I will tear it from the hand of your son. ¹³ Yet I will not tear away the entire kingdom. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of David my servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.

¹⁴ And Yahweh raised up an adversary for Solomon: Hadad the Edomite, of the royal lineage in Edom. ¹⁵ Now it had happened when David was in Edom, when Joab the captain of the army had gone up to bury the dead, and he killed every male in Edom -- ¹⁶ because Joab had stayed there six months with all Israel, until he had cut off every male in Edom -- ¹⁷ that Adad fled, he and some Edomite men among his father's servants, to go to Egypt, when Hadad was a little child. ¹⁸ And they arose from Midian and came to Paran, and took men with them from Paran, and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt. And he gave him a house, and gave him provisions, and gave him land. ¹⁹ And Hadad found great favor in the eyes of Pharaoh, and he gave his wife's sister as wife, the sister of Tahpenes, the queen. ²⁰ And the sister of Tahpenes bore him his son Genubath, and Tahpenes weaned him in Pharaoh's house, and Genubath was in Pharaoh's house among the sons of Pharaoh.

²¹ And Hadad heard in Egypt that David rested with his fathers, and that Joab the captain of the army was dead. And Hadad said to Pharaoh, Send me off, and I will go to my own land.

²² And Pharaoh said to him, But what have you lacked with me, that now you want to go to your own country?

And he said, Nothing. But let me go anyhow.

²³ And God raised up for him an adversary, Rezon the son of Eliada, who fled from Hadadezer king of Zobah, his lord. ²⁴ And he gathered men around himself, and became the leader of a troop, when David killed them. And they went to Damascus, and stayed there. And he was king in Damascus. ²⁵ And he was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, in addition to all the trouble with Hadad. And he abhorred Israel, and reigned over Aram.

²⁶ And Jeroboam son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from the Zeredah, whose mother's name was Zeruah, a widowed woman, a servant of Solomon, lifted up his hand against the king.

²⁷ And this is why he lifted a hand against the king: Solomon fortified the Millo. He closed the breaches of the city of David his father. ²⁸ And this man Jeroboam was a capable warrior. And Solomon saw that the young man was talented. And made him the supervisor of all matters pertaining to the house of Joseph.

²⁹ And it happened at that time, as Jeroboam went out from Jerusalem, that Ahijah the Shilonite, the prophet, found him along the road. And he had put on a new tunic, and the two were alone in the open. ³⁰ And Ahijah grabbed the new tunic he was wearing, and tore it in twelve pieces. ³¹ And he said to Jeroboam, Take ten pieces for yourself, because this is what Yahweh, the god of Israel, says: Surely I will tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and give to you ten of the tribes; ³² and he will have one tribe, for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel; ³³ because they have abandoned me, and bowed down to Ashtoreth the Sidonian deity, to Chemosh the Moabite deity, and to Milcolm, the deity of the Ammonites. And they have not walked in my ways, to do what is right in my eyes, and my decrees, and my judgments, like David his father. ³⁴ But I will not take the whole kingdom from his hand, because I have appointed him as ruler all the days of his life, for the sake of David his father, whom I chose, who kept my commandments and decrees. ³⁵ And I will take the kingdom from the hand his son, and I will give it to you, ten of the tribes. ³⁶ And to his son I will give one tribe, so that David my servant may have a light before me always in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for myself, to put my name there. ³⁷ And I will take you, and you will reign over all your heart desires, and you will be king over Israel. ³⁸ And then, if you listen to all I command, and walk in my ways, and do what is right in my eyes, keeping my decrees and commandments, just as David my servant did, then I will be with you, and built you a secure house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you. ³⁹ And I will humiliate the offspring of David for this, but not forever.

⁴⁰ And Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam. And Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt, to Shishak,^[50] king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

⁴¹ And the rest of the deeds of Solomon, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the deeds of Solomon? ⁴² And the time that Solomon reigned over Jerusalem, over all Israel, was forty years. ⁴³ And Solomon rested with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father, and Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.

Chapter 12

¹ And Rehoboam went to Shechem, because all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. ² Now, when Jeroboam son of Nebat heard, when he was still in Egypt after he fled from the presence of King Solomon, and Jeroboam stayed in Egypt, ³ they sent and called for him. And Jeroboam and all the Israelite assembly came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, ⁴ Your father placed a hard yoke on us. So lighten the harsh workload of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.

⁵ And he said to them, Leave for three days, and come back to me. And the people left.

⁶ And King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had stood before his father Solomon when he was alive, saying, How do you advise that I reply to this people?

⁷ And one said to him, If you will become a servant to this people today, and serve them, and answer them, speaking kind words to them, then they will be your servants forever.

⁸ And he ignored the advice of the elders, that they had given him, and consulted with the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. ⁹ And he said to them, What do you advise me to reply to this people, who has spoken to me, saying, Lighten the yoke which your father put on us?

¹⁰ And the young men who had grown up with him spoke with him, saying, This is what you should say to this people, who spoke to you, saying, Your father made our yoke heavy, but you should lighten it for us. This is what you should tell them. My little [finger] will be thicker than my father's waist.^{[51] 11} So then, my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, and I will add to your yoke. My favor punished you with whips, and I will punish you with scorpions.

¹² And Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, and the king told them, saying, Come back to me on the third day. ¹³ And the king answered the people harshly, and ignored advice that the elders gave him. ¹⁴ And he spoke to them as the young men advised, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke. My father punished you with whips, and I will punish you with scorpions. ¹⁵ And the king would not listen to the people, because the course of events was from Yahweh, in order to uphold his message that Yahweh spoke by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

¹⁶ And all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, and the people answered the king, saying, What part do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel. So see to your own house, David. And Israel went to its tents. ¹⁷ And as for the Israelites who were living in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

¹⁸ And King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him with stones, and he died. And King Rehoboam proceeded to get up in his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ And Israel has rebelled against the house of David to this day.

²⁰ And then, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel. And there were none who followed the house of David, except for the tribe of Judah alone.

²¹ And Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, and he assembled all the house of Judah, and the tribe of Benjamin, one hundred eighty thousand choice soldiers, to do battle with the house of Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon. ²² And a message from God came to Shemaiah, a man of God, saying, ²³ Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying, ²⁴ This is what Yahweh says. Do not go up, and do not fight with your brothers the Israelites. Let each man return to his house, because this event is from me. And they listened to the message from Yahweh, and turned back to go, following Yahweh's message.

²⁵ And Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim, and settled there, and went out from there and built Penuel. ²⁶ And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom will return to the house of David. ²⁷ If this people goes up to carry out sacrifices in the house of Yahweh at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.

²⁸ And the king took advice, and made two calves of gold, and said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt^[52]. ²⁹ And he put the one in Bethel, and the other he set in Dan. ³⁰ And this thing became a sin, and the people went before the one, to Dan. ³¹ And he made a house of shrines, and made priests from the common people, who were not from among the sons of Levi.

³² And Jeroboam made a festival in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast which is in Judah, and he offered [burnt offerings] on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves which he made, and he set up in Bethel the priests of the shrines which he made. ³³ And he offered [burnt offerings] on the altar which he made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had contrived on his own,^[53] and made a festival for the Israelites. And he offered [burnt offerings] on the altar, and burned incense.

Chapter 13

¹ And now, there came a man of God from Judah to Bethel with a message from Yahweh, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar offering incense. ² And he called out against the altar with a message from Yahweh, and said, O altar, altar! Thus says Yahweh. There will be born a son to the family of David, Josiah his name, and he will sacrifice upon you the priests of the shrines who burn incense on you, and human bones will burn upon you. ³ And he gave a sign on that day, saying, This is the sign that Yahweh has spoken. Look -- the altar will be torn, and the ashes upon it poured out.

⁴ And it happened, as Jeroboam heard the message of the man of God, who called out against the altar in Bethel. And Jeroboam extended his hand from the altar, saying, Seize him! And his hand which he extended against him locked up, so that he could not pull it back to himself. ⁵ And the altar was torn, and the ash poured out from the altar, following the sign which the man of God had given with the message from Yahweh. ⁶ And the king replied by saying to the man of God, Please intercede with Yahweh your god, and pray for me, to restore my hand to me again. And the man of God interceded before Yahweh, and he returned the hand of the king to him, and it became like before. ⁷ And the king said to the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a gift.

⁸ And the man of God said to the king, Even if you give me half your house, I will not go with you. And I will not eat bread or drink water at this place. ⁹ For thus it was commanded to me by the message from Yahweh, saying, You must not eat bread, and you must not drink water, and you must not return by the way you came. ¹⁰ And he went another way, and did not return by the way which he came to Bethel.

¹¹ Now there lived a certain old prophet in Bethel, and his sons came and related to him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel, the words which he had said to the king. And they related them to their father. ¹² And their father said to them, Which way did he go? And his sons had seen which way the man of God went, who came from Judah. ¹³ And he said to his sons, Saddle the donkey for me. And they saddled the donkey for him, and he rode on it. ¹⁴ And he went after the man of God, and found him sitting under the oak. And he said to him, Are you the man of God who came from Judah?

And he said, I am.

¹⁵ And he said to him, Come home with me, and have a meal.

¹⁶ And he said, I cannot return with you or go with you, and I must not eat bread or drink water with you in this place; ¹⁷ because it was said to me in a message from Yahweh, You must not eat bread or drink water there. You must not leave by the way you came.

¹⁸ And he said to him, I also am a prophet like yourself, and an angel spoke to me with a message from Yahweh, saying, Bring him back with you to your house to eat bread and drink water. He lied to him.

¹⁹ And he went back with him, and ate bread and drank water.

²⁰ Then, as they sat at the table, there came a message from Yahweh to the prophet who brought him back. ²¹ And he called out to the men of God who came from Judah, saying, Thus says Yahweh: Because you have rebelled against the mouth of Yahweh, and have not observed the commandment which Yahweh your god commanded you, ²² and you came back, and ate bread and drank water in the place of which it was said to you, Do not eat bread, and do not drink water; your dead body will not be brought to the tomb of your fathers.

²³ And then, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, he saddled the donkey for him, for the prophet whom he had brought back. ²⁴ And he left, and a lion came upon him on the way, and killed him, and his corpse lay along the road, and the donkey stood facing it, and the lion stood near the corpse. ²⁵ Now, men passed by, and saw the corpse cast aside on the road, and the lion standing near the corpse, and they came and told about it in the city where the old prophet lived.

²⁶ And the prophet who brought him back from the way heard, and he said, It is the man of God who rebelled against the word of Yahweh. And Yahweh has delivered him to the lion, and it has torn him, and killed him, according to the message from Yahweh that he delivered to him.

²⁷ And he spoke to his sons, saying, Saddle the donkey for me. And they saddled it. ²⁸ And he went and found his corpse cast aside in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing near the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse, or torn the donkey. ²⁹ And the prophet took up the corpse of the man of God, and set it on the donkey, and brought it back. And the old prophet came to the city, to mourn and bury him.

³⁰ And he placed the corpse in his own tomb, and they mourned for him, Oh, my brother!

³¹ And then, after he buried him, he spoke to his sons, saying, When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried. Set my bones next to his bones, ³² because the message which he called out by the word of Yahweh against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the shrines which are in the city of Samaria, will come to pass.

³³ After this event, Jeroboam did not return from his evil way. And he continued to appoint priests of the high place from among the lower orders of people. Whoever desired to, he appointed, and they became priests of the shrine.

³⁴ And this thing became a sin of the house of Jeroboam, to annihilate it and destroy it from upon the face of the earth.

Chapter 14

¹ At that time Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, became sick. ² And Jeroboam said to his wife, Please, go and disguise yourself, so that it is not known that you are the wife of Jeroboam, and get to Shiloh, where Ahijah the prophet is, who told me I would be king over this people. ³ And take with you ten loaves of bread, and dried biscuits, and a bottle of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will become of the lad. ⁴ And Jeroboam's wife did so, and rose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. And Ahijah could not see, because his eyes were dim with age.

⁵ And Yahweh said to Ahijah, Here comes the wife of Jeroboam to ask you something about her son, because he is sick. Say such and such to her when she comes in. She will be pretending to be someone else.

⁶ And so it was, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in the door, that he said, Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you disguise yourself. I have hard news for you. ⁷ Go tell Jeroboam, Thus says Yahweh, Because I exalted you, from among the people, and made you ruler over my people Israel, ⁸ and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you, and you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes, ⁹ but have done evil more than all who were before you, and have gone and made yourself other gods, and cast images, to provoke me to anger, and have turned your back on me; ¹⁰ therefore, know that I will bring catastrophe on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam all who urinate against the wall, bound and abandoned in Israel, and I will burn away the house of Jeroboam, like a man burns dung, until it is gone. ¹¹ Whoever of Jeroboam dies in the city will be eaten by dogs, and whoever dies in the field will be eaten by birds of the sky, because Yahweh has spoken. ¹² So get up. Go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the child will die. ¹³ And all Israel will mourn him, and bury him, because only he of Jeroboam will come to a grave, because Yahweh, the god of Israel, saw something good in him, among [all] the house of Jeroboam.

¹⁴ And Yahweh will establish a king for himself over Israel, who will cut off the house of Jeroboam that day. Yes, even now. ¹⁵ And Yahweh will smite Israel, like a reed wobbling in the water, and he will uproot Israel from this good land which he gate to your fathers, and scatter them beyond the [Euphrates] River, because they have made their Asherahs, angering Yahweh. ¹⁶ And he will let go of Israel because of the sins of Jeroboam, who sinned and made Israel sin.

¹⁷ And Jeroboam's wife rose, and went, and came to Tirzah. When she came to the threshold of the house, the lad died. ¹⁸ And they buried him, and all Israel mourned him, just as Yahweh said, when he spoke by the hand of his servant Ahijah the prophet.

¹⁹ And the rest of the deeds of Jeroboam: how he made war, and how he reigned, are they not recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? ²⁰ And the days that Jeroboam reigned were twenty-two years, and he rested with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place.

²¹ And Rehoboam son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which Yahweh chose, in which to set his name, out of all the tribes of Israel. And the name of his mother was Naamah the Ammonitess. ²² And Judah did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and they provoked Yahweh more than all that their fathers had done, with their sins which they committed. ²³ And they also built for themselves shrines, and pillars, and Asherahs, on every high hill, and under every green tree. ²⁴ And there were male cult prostitutes^[54] in the land. They followed all the abominations of the nations which Yahweh dispossessed before the people of Israel.

²⁵ Then, in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak^[55] king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. ²⁶ And he took the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and all the treasures of the king's house, and he took them all. And he took all the shields of gold which Solomon had made. ²⁷ And King Rehoboam made in their place shields of bronze, and committed them to the oversight of the commanders of the guard, who watched the door of the king's house. ²⁸ And so, when the king would go into the house of Yahweh, the guards would bring them up, and bring them back to guards' chamber.

²⁹ And the rest of the deeds of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the record of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ³⁰ And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam at all times. ³¹ And Rehoboam rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And the name of his mother was Naamah the Ammonitess. And his son Abijam reigned in his place.

Chapter 15

¹ And in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah. ² Three years he reigned in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Maachah daughter of Abishalom^[56]. ³ And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him, and his heart was not wholly with Yahweh his god, as the heart of David his father. ⁴ Yet, for the sake of David, God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem, ⁵ because David did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and did not turn away from anything that he commanded all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. ⁶ And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. ⁷ And the rest of the deeds of Abijam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

⁸ And Abijam rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David, and Asa his son reigned in his place.

⁹ And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king of Judah. ¹⁰ And he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Maachah daughter of Abishalom. ¹¹ And Asa did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh, as David his father. ¹² And he removed the male cult prostitutes^[54] from the land, and took away all the idols that his fathers had made. ¹³ And also, he removed Maachah his mother from her position as queen, because she had made an obscenity for Asherah. And Asa cut down her obscenity and burnt it at the brook Kidron. ¹⁴ But the shrines were not removed. However, Asa's heart was completely with Yahweh all his days. ¹⁵ And he brought the holy things of his father, and his own holy things, to the house of Yahweh, silver, and gold, and implements.

¹⁶ And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. ¹⁷ And Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and fortified the Ramah, so as not to let anyone go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. ¹⁸ And Asa took all the silver and the gold which were left in the treasuries of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the royal house, and gave them to his servants, and King Asa sent them to Ben-Hadad son of Tabrimmon son of Hezion, king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, saying, ¹⁹ There is a covenant between me and you, and between my father and your father. Now I have sent you a present of silver and gold. Come and break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will leave me alone.

²⁰ And Ben-Hadad listened to King Asa, and sent the captains of his armies which he had against the cities of Israel, and struck Ijon, and Dan, and Abel Beth-Maachah, and all Kinneroth, on all the land of Naphtali. ²¹ Now, when Baasha heard, he stopped fortifying Ramah, and lived in Tirzah.

²² And King Asa sent word throughout Judah; no one was exempted. And they took the stones of the Ramah, and its timber, with which Baasha had made fortifications, and Asa used them to build up Geba of Benjamin, and the Mizpah.

²³ And the rest of all the deeds of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he fortified: are they not written in the record of the deeds of the kings of Judah? Yet in his old age he was diseased in his feet. ²⁴ And Asa rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place.

²⁵ And Nadab son of Jeroboam became king over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. ²⁶ And he did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked in the path of his father, and in his sin which he made Israel commit.

²⁷ And Baasha son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him, and Baasha struck him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines. And Nadab and all Israel besieged Gibbethon. ²⁸ And he killed him in the third year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place. ²⁹ And when he became king, he struck down all the house of Jeroboam. He left no one breathing of Jeroboam, until he had wiped him out, just as Yahweh had said by the hand of his servant Ahijah the Shilonite; ³⁰ because of the sins of Jeroboam which he committed, and which he caused Israel to commit, by his provocation when he provoked Yahweh the god of Israel.

³¹ And the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did: are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? ³² And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.

³³ In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king over all Israel in Tirzah, twenty-four years. ³⁴ And he did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked in the path of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he made Israel commit.

Chapter 16

¹ Then a message from Yahweh came to Jehu son of Hanani against Baasha, saying, ² Because I lifted you up from the dust, and made you ruler over my people Israel, and you have walked in the path of Jeroboam, and have caused my people Israel to sin, to provoke me with their sins; ³ indeed, I will take sweep away the posterity of Baasha, and the posterity of his house, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat. ⁴ He who dies of Baasha in the city will be eaten by the dogs, and he who dies of his in the field will be eaten by birds of the sky.

⁵ And the rest of the deeds of Baasha, and what he did, and his might: are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? ⁶ And Baasha rested with his fathers, and was buried in Tirzah, and Elah his son reigned in his place.

⁷ In addition, by the hand of Jehu son of Hanani, the prophet, a message from Yahweh came to Baasha, and to his house, which concerned all the evil which he had done in the eyes of Yahweh, provoking him with the work of his hands, being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he killed him.

⁸ In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Ela son of Baasha became king over Israel in Tirzah, two years. ⁹ And his servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him, when he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, the manager of his house in Tirzah. ¹⁰ And Zimri went in and struck him, and killed him, in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place.

¹¹ Now, when he became king, when he sat on his throne, he killed all the house of Baasha. He left him not one who urinates against a wall, neither of his kin or companions. ¹² And Zimri destroyed all the house of Baasha, according to the message of Yahweh, which he spoke concerning Baasha by the hand of Jehu the prophet, ¹³ for all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, which they committed, and which they made Israel commit, provoking Yahweh, the god of Israel, with their vanities.

¹⁴ And the rest of the deeds of Elah, and all that he did: are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

¹⁵ And in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri was king for seven days in Tirzah. And the people encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines. ¹⁶ And the people, encamped, heard it said that Zimri had conspired, and also killed the king. And all Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp. ¹⁷ And Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah. ¹⁸ And then when Zimri saw that the city was seized, he went into the citadel of the king's house, and burnt the king's house over himself with fire, and he died ¹⁹ for his sins which he committed, doing evil in the eyes of Yahweh, walking in the path of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, making Israel sin.

²⁰ And the rest of the deeds of Zimri, and the conspiracy that he made: are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

²¹ Then the people of Israel were split into two parts: half the people follow Tibni son of Ginath, to make him king, and half followed Omri. ²² And the poeple who followed Omri prevailed against the people who followed Tibni son of Ginath. And Tibni died, and Omri was king. ²³ In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king over all Israel, twelve years. Six years he reigned in Tirzah. ²⁴ And he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and named the city which he had built Samaria, after Shemer, the owner of the hill.^{[57] 25} And Omri did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and did worse than all those before him. ²⁶ And he walked all along the path of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and in his sins which he made Israel commit, provoking Yahweh, the god of Israel, with their vanities.

²⁷ And the rest of the deeds of Omri which he did, and his might which he did: are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

²⁸ And Omri rested with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria, and Ahab his son reigned in his place.

²⁹ And Ahab son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, and Ahab son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. ³⁰ And Ahab son of Omri did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, more than all those before him. ³¹ He even, as though it where a minor thing to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, took as wife Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served the Baal, and worshipped him. ³² And he set up an altar to the Baal in the house of the Baal which he built in Samaria. ³³ And Ahab made an Asherah, and Ahab did more to provoke Yahweh, the god of Israel, than all the kings of Israel who were before him. ³⁴ And in his days Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho. With Abiram his firstborn he laid the foundation, and with Segub his youngest he erected the gates^[58], according to the message from Yahweh which he spoke by the hand of Joshua bin Nun^[59].

Chapter 17

¹ And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, As Yahweh, the god of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be in these years no dew or rain, except when I say so.

² And a message from Yahweh came to him, saying, ³ Get away from here and turn yourself east, and hide by the brook Cherith,^[60] which is east of the Jordan. ⁴ And then you will drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.

⁵ And he went and did as Yahweh said, and he went and stayed at the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. ⁶ And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. ⁷ But after some days, the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

⁸ And a message from Yahweh came to him, saying, ⁹ Get up and go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. There I have commanded a widow to provide for you. ¹⁰ And he got up and went to Zarephath.

And when he came to the entrance of the city, there she was: a widowed woman gathering sticks. And he called to her, and said, Please put a little water in the jug for me, so I can drink. ¹¹ And as she went to get it, he called to her, and said, Please, bring me a piece of bread in your hand.

¹² And she said, By the life of Yahweh your god, I have no loaves, except for a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a container. And now I am gathering two sticks, and I will go and prepare it for me and my son. We will eat it, and then we will die.

¹³ And Elijah said to her, Do not be afraid. Go do as you have said, but first make me a little cake, and bring it to me. And make some for yourself and your son first, ¹⁴ because this is what Yahweh, the god of Israel, says. The jar of flour will not run out, and the container of oil will not go empty, until the day that Yahweh grants rain upon this land.

¹⁵ And she went and did as Elijah said, and he, and she,^[61] and her house ate, for days. ¹⁶ The jar of flour did not run out, and the container of oil did not go empty, according to the message of Yahweh, which he spoke by the hand of Elijah.

¹⁷ Now, after these things, the son of the woman who owned the house fell sick, and his sickness was severe, until there was no breath left in him. ¹⁸ And she said to Elijah, What has happened between us, man of God? Have you come to me to punish me for something, and to kill my son?

¹⁹ And he said to her, Give me your son. And he took him from her arms, and took him up to the upper room, where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. ²⁰ And he called out to Yahweh, and said, Yahweh, my god, is it you who brought this disaster on the widow whom I am staying with, killing her son? ²¹ And he stretched himself out on top of the boy three times, and called out to Yahweh, and said, Please, Yahweh my god, return this boy's life into him! ²² And Yahweh listened to the voice of Elijah, and the boy's life came back into him, and he was alive.

²³ And Elijah took the boy, and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother, and Elijah said, Look. Your son is alive.

²⁴ And the woman said to Elijah, Now because of this I know that you are a man of God, and the word of Yahweh in your mouth is true.

Chapter 18

¹ Many days later, a message from Yahweh came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go present yourself to Ahab, and I will grant rain upon the ground.

² And Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. And the famine was strong in Samaria. ³ And Ahab called to Obadiah, who was steward of his house. Now Obadiah feared Yahweh greatly. ⁴ For when Jezebel had cut off the prophets of Yahweh, Obadiah took one hundred prophets, and hid them, fifty to a cave, and provided them bread and water. ⁵ And Ahab said to Obadiah, Go into the land, to all the springs, and to all the brooks. Perhaps we may find grass, and save the horses and mules, and we will not lose all the livestock. ⁶ And they divided between them the land, to pass through it. Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.

⁷ And as Obadiah was on the way, there Elijah met him, and recognized him. And he fell on his face, and said, Are you my lord Elijah?

⁸ And he said to him, I am. Go tell your lord that Elijah is out here.

⁹ And he said, What have I done wrong, that you would hand your servant over to Ahab, to kill me. ¹⁰ By the life of Yahweh your god, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent people to search for you. And when they would say, He is not there, he made that kingdom or nation swear that they had not found you. ¹¹ And now you say, Go tell your lord, Here is Elijah. ¹² And then, when I go away from you, the spirit of Yahweh will whisk you off I know not where, and I will go to tell Ahab, and he will not find you. He will kill me, although your servant has feared Yahweh from his youth. ¹³ Was it not reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of Yahweh, and I hid one hundred men of Yahweh's prophets, fifty by fifty per cave, and fed them bread and water. ¹⁴ And now you say, Go tell your lord that Elijah is here, and he will kill me.

¹⁵ And Elijah said, By the life of Yahweh of Armies, before whom I stand, and I present myself to him today.

¹⁶ And Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. ¹⁷ And then, when Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, Are you the one who is troubling Israel?

¹⁸ And he said, I have not troubled Israel. It is you, and your father's house, when they abandoned the commandments of Yahweh, and followed the Baalim. ¹⁹ So send messengers and call all Israel to Mount Carmel, and the four hundred fifty prophets of the Baal, and the four hundred prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table.

²⁰ And Ahab sent messengers to all the Israelites, and summoned the prophets to Mount Carmel. ²¹ And Elijah came to all the people, and said, How long will you do this dance between the two sides? If Yahweh is God, follow him, and if the Baal is, follow him. And the people replied to him not a word.

²² And Elijah said to the people, I am the only prophet of Yahweh who remains, and the prophets of the Baal are four hundred fifty men. ²³ Let them give us two bulls, and let them choose one bull for themselves, and cut them in pieces, and set it on the wood, and put no fire beneath. And I will prepare the other bull, and place it on the wood, and set no fire. ²⁴ And call on the name of your god,^[62] and I will call on the name of Yahweh. And then, the god who answers by fire, he is God.

And all the people replied and said, You have spoken well.

²⁵ And Elijah said to the prophets of the Baal, Choose yourself one bull, and prepare it first, because there are many of you. And call on the name of your god, and set no fire.

²⁶ And they took the bull which was given to them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of the Baal from the morning until the evening, and until noon, saying, O Baal, reply to us.

And there was no sound, and no one answered. And they danced upon the altar which they made.

²⁷ And then at noon, Elijah mocked them, and said, Call louder, because he is a god! Either he is having a conversation, or he is taking a walk, or he is out on the road. Maybe he is sleeping, and he will wake up. ²⁸ And they called out loudly, and they cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood poured over them. ²⁹ And when noon had passed, and they carried out their ecstatic rituals until the time to burn up the offering, there was still no voice, and no one answered, and no one was paying attention.

³⁰ And Elijah said to all the people, Approach me. And all the people approached him. And he repaired the broken-down altar of Yahweh. ³¹ And Elijah took twelve stones, as many as the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom Yahweh's message came, saying, Israel will be your name. ³² And with the stones he built an altar in the name of Yahweh. And he made a trench such as would hold two seahs of grain around the altar. ³³ And he set the wood in order, and cut up the bull, and set it on the wood. ³⁴ And he said, Fill four barrels of water, and pour it on the burnt offering, and on the wood. And he said, Do it again. And they did it again. And he said, Do it a third time. And they did it a third time. ³⁵ And the water went around the altar, and he also filled the trench with water.

³⁶ And then, when it was time to burn the offering, Elijah the prophet approached and said, Yahweh, god of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel, and I am your servant, and by your command I have done all these things. ³⁷ Answer me, Yahweh! Answer me, and this people will know that you are Yahweh, the God, and you have turned their heart back again.

³⁸ Then fell fire from Yahweh, and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. ³⁹ And all the people saw, and they fell on their faces, and they said, Yahweh is God! Yahweh is God!

⁴⁰ And Elijah said to them, Seize the prophets of the Baal. Let not a man of them escape. And they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slaughtered them there.

⁴¹ And Elijah said to Ahab, Get up. Eat and drink, because it sounds like it is going to pour down rain. ⁴² And Ahab went up to eat and drink.

And Elijah went up to the top of the Carmel, and bent down to the ground, and put his face between his knees. ⁴³ And he said to his servant, Go up, please. Look toward the sea.

And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing.

And he said, Go seven more times.

⁴⁴ Then, on the seventh time, he said, There is a little cloud, like a man's hand, coming up from the sea.

And he said, Go say to Ahab, Ready your chariot, and go down, so that the rain does not tie you up.

⁴⁵ And it happened then that the sky grew dark with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. And Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel. ⁴⁶ And the hand of Yahweh came upon Elijah, and he girded his waist, and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

Chapter 19

¹ And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and all about how he killed all the prophets with the sword. ² And Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, May God do so to me, and more also, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like the life of one of them.

³ And when he learned about it, he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beersheba, which is of Judah, and left his servant there. ⁴ But he went into the wilderness, a day's journey, and came and sat under a lonely broom tree. And he asked for death, and said, It is too much now, Yahweh. Take my life, because I am no better than my fathers.

⁵ And as he was laying down and sleeping under that broom tree, an angel touched him, and said to him, Get up. Eat. ⁶ And he looked and saw near his head a cake cooked on stones, and a jug of water. And he ate, and drank, and laid down again. ⁷ And the angel of Yahweh came to him again, and touched him, and said, Get up. Eat, because the journey will be hard for you. ⁸ And he got up, and ate, and drank, and went on the strength of that meal for forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

⁹ And he came there to the cave, and stayed the night there, and there a message from Yahweh came to him, and he said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah?

¹⁰ And he said, I have been greatly zealous for Yahweh, the god of armies, because the people of Israel have abandoned your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left. And they seek to take my life.

¹¹ And he said, Go out, and stand on the mountain before Yahweh. And there Yahweh will passed by, and a great^[63] and strong wind will tear through the mountains, tearing up rocks before Yahweh. Yahweh won't be in the wind. And after the wind [will be] an earthquake. Yahweh won't be in the earthquake. ¹² And after the earthquake [will be] a fire. Yahweh won't be in the fire. And after the fire [will be] a gentle, whispering voice.

¹³ And then, when Elijah heard, he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood at the entrance of the cave. And then came a voice to him, and said, What are you doing here, Elijah?

¹⁴ And he said, I have been greatly zealous for Yahweh, the god of armies, because the people of Israel have abandoned your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left. And they seek to take my life.

¹⁵ And Yahweh said to him, Go back along your path to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you come, anoint Hazael as king over Aram. ¹⁶ And anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to be your successor as prophet. ¹⁷ And then, whoever escaped from the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill. And whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. ¹⁸ And I have a remnant of seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to the Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him.

¹⁹ And he went from there, and found Elisha son of Shaphat, as he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth. And Elijah passed by him, and throw his mantle onto him. ²⁰ And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Please, let me kiss my father and my mother, and I will follow you.

And he said to him, Go back, because what have I ever done for you?

²¹ And he returned from following him, and took a pair of the oxen, and sacrificed them, and boiled them with their equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate.

And he rose and followed Elijah, and waited on him.

Chapter 20

¹ And Ben-Hadad king of Aram gathered all his forces, and thirty-two kings were with him, and horses, and chariots, and he went up and besieged Samaria, and made war against it. ² And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel, to the city, ³ and said to him, Thus says Ben-Hadad. Your silver and your gold are mine, and the best of your wives and children are mine.

⁴ And the king of Israel answered and said, As you say, my lord the king. I am yours, and everything I have. ⁵ And the messengers came again, and said, Thus says Ben-Hadad, saying, Because I sent word to you, saying, Give me your silver, and your gold, and your wives, and your children; ⁶ therefore I will send my servants to you this time tomorrow, and they will search your house, and the houses of your servants, and then, whatever they like, they will take in their hands, and leave with it.

⁷ And the king of Israel called for all the elders of the land, and said, Take note, now, and see how this man is looking for trouble, how he sent to me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold, and I withheld nothing from him.

⁸ And all the elders and all the people said to him, Do not listen to him, and refuse.

⁹ And he said to the mesengers of Ben-Hadad, Tell my lord the king, All that you sent for to your servant at first I will do, but this thing I cannot do.

And the messengers left, and brought back word.

¹⁰ And Ben-Hadad sent word to him, and said, May the gods so do to me, and more also, if there is enough dust left in Samaria for a handful for each of the people who follow me.^[64]

¹¹ And the king of Israel answered and said, Don't count your chickens before they hatch.

¹² Now, when he heard this thing, as he was drinking, himself and the kings in their tents, he said to his servants, Take your positions! And they took their positions against the city.

¹³ And then there came a prophet to Ahab king of Israel, saying, Thus says Yahweh. Have you seen all this great multitude? Know that I will deliver him into your hand today, and you will know that I am Yahweh.

¹⁴ And he said, By whom?

And he said, Thus says Yahweh: by the young men of the commanders of the provinces.

And he said, Who will command in the battle?

And he said, You.

¹⁵ And he took count of the young men of the commanders of the provinces, and they were two hundred thirty-two. And after them he counted all the people, all the Israelites, seven thousand.

¹⁶ And they went out at noon, as Ben-Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the tents, he and the kings, the thirty-two kings who helped him. ¹⁷ And the young men of the commanders of the provinces went out first, and Ben-Hadad sent out, and they told him, saying, Men have come from Samaria.

¹⁸ And he said, If they have come out for peace, capture them alive, and if they have come out for war, capture them alive.

¹⁹ And these young men of the commanders of the provinces went out from the city, and the army which followed them. ²⁰ And they each struck down his man, and Aram fled, and Israel pursued them, and Ben-Hadad king of Aram escaped on a horse with his horsemen. ²¹ And the king of Israel went out, and struck the horses and the chariots, and struck the Arameans with great slaughter.

²² And the prophet came to the king of Israel, and said to him, Go strengthen yourself, and take care about what you do, because when the next year comes round the king of Aram will go up against you.

²³ And the servants of the king of Aram said to him, Their god is a highland god. That is why they were stronger than us. But let us fight with them in the plain, and surely we will overpower them.^{[65] 24} And this is what you should do. Remove each of the kings from his place, and set captains in their place. ²⁵ And number yourself an army like the army that you lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot, and we will fight against them in the plain. Surely we will overpower them. And he listened to their voice, and did so.

²⁶ And then, when the next year came around, Ben-Hadad took a count of Aram, and went up to Aphek to fight with Israel. ²⁷ And a count was taken of the people of Israel, and they were all accounted for. And they went up against them, and the people of Israel camped in front of them like two little flocks of young goats. And Aram filled the land.

²⁸ And a man of God came, and spoke ot the king of Israel, and said, Thus says Yahweh. Because Aram have said that Yahweh is a highland god, but not a valley god, I will hand over all this great horde to you, and you will know that I am Yahweh. ²⁹ And they were encamped facing each other seven days. And it was on the seventh day that they met in battle, and the Israelites struck down Aram: one hundred thousand foot soldiers in one day. ³⁰ And the remainder fled to Aphek, into the city, and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand of the remaining men. And Ben-Hadad fled, and came into the city, chamber by chamber.

³¹ And his servants said to him, See now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please, let us put sackcloth on our loins and ropes on our heads, and let us go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will spare your life. ³² And they girded sackcloth on their loins, and ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, Your servant Ben-Hadad says, Please, let me live.

And he said, Is he still alive? He is my brother.

³³ And the men had been looking for a sign, and they quickly took it as confirmation, and said, Your brother Ben-Hadad.

And he said, Go bring him. And Ben-Hadad went out to him, and he had him come up on his chariot.

³⁴ And he said to him, The cities which my father took from your father I will return, and you may set up markets in Damascus, just as my father did in Samaria.

[And Ahab said], I will release you with this agreement.

And he made an agreement with him, and sent him away.^[66]

³⁵ And a certain man among the sons of the prophets spoke to his companion with a message from Yahweh, Please, strike me.

And the man refused to strike him.

³⁶ And he said to him, Because you have not listened to the voice of Yahweh, therefore as soon as you leave me, a lion will attack you. And he left him, and a lion found him and attacked him.

³⁷ And he found another man, and said, Please, strike me. And the man struck him. He struck and wounded him.

³⁸ And the prophet went, and waited for the king along the road, and disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes. ³⁹ And when the king was passing by, then he called out to the king, and he said, Your servant went out in the midst of the battle, and then a man turned aside, and brought a man to me, and said, Guard this man. If he should go missing, then it will be your life for his life, or else you must pay a talent of silver. ⁴⁰ And as your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.

And the king of Israel said, That is your judgment. You have decided it.

⁴¹ And he hurried and took off the bandage from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized that he was one of the prophets. ⁴¹ And he said to him, Thus says Yahweh. Because you let away a man I had chosen for extermination, therefore your life will be taken for his life, and your people for his people.

⁴³ And the king of Israel went to his house sullen and angry, and came to Samaria.

Chapter 21

¹ Now, after these things, Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. ² And Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, Give me your vineyard, and I will have it as an herb garden, because it is near my house, and I will give you a better vineyard for it. If you prefer, I will give you its value in silver.

³ And Naboth said to Ahab, May Yahweh forbid that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you.

⁴ And Ahab came to his house sullen and angry because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him, when he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid down on his bed, and turned his face away, and would not eat anything.

⁵ And Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, Why is your spirit upset? You are not eating anything.

⁶ And he said to her, Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, Give me your vineyard for money, or else, if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard for it. And he said, I will not give you my vineyard.

⁷ And Jezebel his wife said to him, Aren't you in charge of the kingdom of Israel? Get up. Eat some bread, and let your heart be glad. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.

⁸ And she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and to the nobles who were in his city, living with Naboth. ⁹ And she wrote in the letters, saying, Call a fast, and Naboth in front of the people. ¹⁰ And set two men, worthless men, opposite him, saying, You cursed^[67] God and the king. And carry him out, and stone him, and kill him.

¹¹ And the men of his city, the elders and the nobles who were the inhabitants in his city, did just as Jezebel sent for them to do, as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them. ¹² They called a fast, and set Naboth in front of the people. ¹³ And two morally worthless men came in and sat opposite him, and the worthless men testified against Naboth before the people, saying, Naboth cursed^[67] God and the king.

And they carried him outside the city, and stoned him to death with rocks. ¹⁴ And they sent word to Jezebel that Naboth had been stoned to death.

¹⁵ And then, when Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, Jezebel said to Ahab, Get up. Seize the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money, because Naboth is not alive, but dead. ¹⁶ And then, when Ahab heard that Naboth had died, Ahab rose to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to seize it.

¹⁷ And a message from Yahweh came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ¹⁸ Go on down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria. He is now in the vineyard of Naboth, which he has gone down to seize. ¹⁹ And speak to him, saying, Thus says Yahweh, Have you killed, and also seized? And speak to him, saying, Thus says Yahweh, In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs will lick your blood. Yes, yours.

²⁰ And Ahab said to Elijah, Have you found me, my enemy?

And he said, because you have sold yourself by doing what is wrong in the eyes of Yahweh. ²¹ Therefore I am going to bring disaster upon you, and consume your offspring, and cut off from Ahab he who urinates against the wall, and is bound and abandoned in Israel. ²² And I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah for the provocation by which they angered me and made Israel sin. ²³ And Yahweh also spoke about Jezebel, saying, The dogs will eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. ²⁴ Ahab's dead in the city will be eaten by dogs, and the dead in the field will be eaten by birds of the sky.

²⁵ There was no one like Ahab, who sold himself by doing evil in the eyes of Yahweh, which Jezebel his wife instigated. ²⁶ He committed great abomination in following the idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom Yahweh dispossessed before the Israelites.

²⁷ And when Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and slept in sackcloth, and walked about subdued.

²⁸ And a message from Yahweh came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ²⁹ See how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days. In his son's days I will bring the disaster on his house.

Chapter 22

¹ Three years passed without war between Aram and Israel. ² But in the third year, Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to the king of Israel.

³ And the king of Israel said to his servants, Do you know that Ramoth Gilead is ours? But we have refrained from taking it from the hand of the king of Aram.

⁴ And he said to Jehoshaphat, Will you go with me to Ramoth Gilead?

And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.

⁵ And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Please inquire today with the word of Yahweh?

⁶ And the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, Should I go against Ramoth Gilead for battle, or should I refrain?

And they said, Go up, and My Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.

⁷ And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not a prophet of Yahweh here still, that we could inquire of him?

⁸ And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still one man for inquiring of Yahweh, and I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil: Micaiah son of Imlah.

And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.

⁹ And the king of Israel called one of the officers, and said, Hurry [and bring me] Micaiah son of Imlah.

¹⁰ And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Israel sat, each on his throne, wearing their robes, at the threshing-floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying in front of them. ¹¹ And Zedekiah son of Chenaanah made himself horns of iron, and said, Thus says Yahweh: With these you will gore Aram until you have consumed them.

¹² And all the prophets prophesied similarly, saying, Go up to Ramoth Gilead, and you will succeed, and Yahweh will hand it over to you.

¹³ And the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, See now, the words of the prophets with a single voice are favorable to the king. Please, let your message be like the message of one of them, and speak favorably.

¹⁴ And Micaiah said, By the life of Yahweh, whatever Yahweh says to him, I will say.

¹⁵ And he came to the king, and the king said to him, Micaiah, should we go to Ramoth Gilead for battle, or should we refrain?

And he said to him, Go and prosper, and Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the king.

¹⁶ And the king said to him, How many times must I put you under oath not to tell me anything but truth in the name of Yahweh.

¹⁷ And he said, I saw all Israel, scattered to the hills, like sheep without a shepherd. And Yahweh said, They have no master. Let each return to his house in peace.

¹⁸ And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy anything good about me, but only evil?

¹⁹ And he said, Therefore hear the message of Yahweh. I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, and all the army of the sky standing around him, to his right and left. ²⁰ And Yahweh said, Who will deceive Ahab into going up and falling at Ramoth Gilead? And one spoke this way, and another spoke that way. ²¹ And a spirit came out, and stood before Yahweh, and said, I will deceive him. And Yahweh said to him, How? ²² And he said, I will go out and be the lying breath in the mouth of all the prophets. And he said, You will deceive him successfully. Go out and do it. ²³ And now, indeed, Yahweh has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets, and Yahweh has decreed disaster for you.

²⁴ And Zedekiah son of Chenaanah approached, and struck Micaiah on his cheek, and said, Which way did the spirit from Yahweh go from me to speak to you?

²⁵ And Micaiah said, You will see it yourself, on the day when you go hide yourself in inner rooms.

²⁶ And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him to Amon the city governor, and to Joash the king's son, ²⁷ and say, Thus says the king. Put this man in prison, and feed him prison rations of bread and water until I return in peace.

²⁸ And Micaiah said, If you should return in peace, Yahweh has not spoken through me.

And he said, Listen, all you peoples!

²⁹ And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead. ³⁰ And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and go into battle, but you put on your robes. And the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle.

³¹ And the king of Aram commanded his thirty-two chariot commanders, saying, Do not fight with anyone, small or great, except only the king of Israel. ³² And then, when the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they said, This must be the king of Israel. And they turned to fight against him, and Jehoshaphat called out. ³³ And then, when the chariot commanders saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him. ³⁴ And a man drew a bow and unwittingly struck the king of Israel between the plates of his armor. And he said to his charioteer, Steer away and bring me out from the battle, because I am wounded.

³⁵ And the battle intensified that day, and the king was propped up in the chariot facing the Arameans, and he died at sundown, and the blood poured from the wound into the base of the chariot. ³⁶ And a shout passed through the camp as the sun went down, saying, Every man to his own city, and every man to his land.

³⁷ And the king died, and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. ³⁸ And the chariot was washed in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked his blood, and the prostitutes bathed [there],^[68] according to the message from Yahweh which he spoke.

³⁹ And the rest of the deeds of Ahab, and all that he died, and the ivory house which he built, and all the cities which he built, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? ⁴⁰ And Ahab rested with his fathers, and Ahaziah his son was king in his place.

⁴¹ And Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. ⁴² Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-five years. And his mother's name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi. ⁴³ And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father. He did not turn aside from doing what was right in the eyes of Yahweh. However, the shrines were not removed. The people still made sacrificed and offered incense at the shrines. ⁴⁴ And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.

⁴⁵ And the rest of the deeds of Jehoshaphat, and his might which he displayed, and how he made war, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? ⁴⁶ And the remaining male cult prostitutes,^[54] who remained in the days of Asa his father, he exterminated from the land. ⁴⁷ And there was no king in Edom; a deputy was king.

⁴⁸ Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they did not go, because the ships wrecked at Ezion Geber. ⁴⁹ Then Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with your servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat refused.

⁵⁰ And Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father, and Jehoram his son reigned in his place.

⁵¹ Ahaziah son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned for two years over Israel. ⁵² And he did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel sin. ⁵³ And he served the Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked Yahweh the god of Israel, just as his father had done.

Notes

1. The Masoretic Text switches back and forth from the third person (him) to the second person (your).
2. The Hebrew word translated here as "sheep" is tson, which can refer to both sheep and goats.
3. An idiomatic way of speaking about his upcoming death.
4. Zeruiah was David's sister. It's extremely rare for people in the bible to be referred to by their mother's name as opposed to their father's. The primary exceptions are theye children of established bigamist fathers (e.g Adonijah son of Haggith, whose father was King David) and the sons of Zeruiah.
5. Abner son of Ner - the leader of the army under King Saul. After Saul's death, Abner crowned Saul's son, and started a war against David's supporters. Joab's brother Assael chased Abner with intent to kill him, and Abner killed Assael in self defense. Eventually, Abner changed sides and joined David, but Joab and his other brother Abishai killed him.
6. Literally, the verse reads, Do according to your wisdom, and do not let his grey hair go down to the netherworld in peace.
7. still alive: literally, is with you
8. put you to death: literally, kill you by sword
9. Kill the old man violently: literally, Bring down his grey hair with blood to the netherworld."
10. passed away to be with his ancestors: literally, slept with his fathers.
11. David’s time as king: literally, And the days which David reigned
12. punish me ever so severely: literally, do so to me, and so may he do more
13. if Adonijah does not die for what he has said: literally, that Adonijah has spoken this thing against his own life.
14. strengthened my kingdom: literally, made for me a house
15. sent out: literally, sent by the hand of
16. you deserve to die: literally, you are a dead man
17. Abiathar was a descent of Phinehas son of Eli, see 1 Samuel 14:3 and 22:20.
18. Tabernacle: literally, tent.
19. In biblical terms, the shedding of innocent blood was thought to create a dangerous condition of impurity in the land, which could bring down divine judgment. Punishing the guilty removed this impurity. The king is instructing Benaiah to "turn away" the innocent blood through revenge against, so that the Davidic kingdom would no longer hold responsibility for the murder Joab had carried out when he was a general under David.
20. Your death will be your own fault. Literally, Your blood will be on your head.
21. shrines: these are the cultic locations often translated as "high places." "Shrines" more accurately captures the meaning of the Hebrew bamot
22. The Hebrew word olot, generally translated as "burnt offerings," refers to a specific kind of animal sacrifice in which the animal was burned completely, and no parts were to be eaten by the supplicants. Literally speaking, an olah (the singular form) is a "going-up" offering, in reference to the idea that the entire animal "goes up" in smoke. Thus, one "sends up" the food in the form of a delicious odor to God.
23. I do not know what I am doing. Literally, I do not know going out or coming in.
24. "Peace offerings," sometimes translated "fellowship offerings" (Hebrew shelamim) are a particular form of sacrifice described in detail in Leviticus 3
25. The kor was an ancient unit of measure by volume. According to the 1915 International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, it was equivalent to about 90 gallons.
26. (5:11) kors. A kor was a unit of volume.
27. (6:2) cubits. A cubit was a measure about eighteen inches long, although a longer cubit of about twenty-one inches may have been used for building.
28. (6:4) recessed in the walls. The Hebrew expression is obscure, and is used only to describe the windows in the temple, so its precise meaning is uncertain.
29. (6:31) The lintel and the door-posts were five-sided. The Hebrew expression is obscure and of uncertain meaning.
30. (7:6) threshold. This Hebrew term appears in three verses, and its meaning is uncertain.
31. (7:23) This verse gives a ratio of circumference/diameter of 3. We now know that the actual ratio is pi, approximately 3.14159.
32. "demijohns": the Hebrew measurement is "baths", but not related to the English word "bath". A "demijohn" is about the same size (about 6 gallons)
33. (7:29) hanging decorations. The meaning of this Hebrew phrase is uncertain.
34. (7:30) seranim. This Hebrew term appears only here, and is of uncertain meaning.
35. (7:30) decoration. As in verse 29.
36. (7:36) decorations. The meaning of this Hebrew term, also used in verse 29, is uncertain.
37. (7:39) In this verse, "south" is literally "right," (except for the last use of the term, where the alternate term ngb is used for "south") and "north" is literally "left." In the English-speaking world today, a map is by default oriented toward the north, making the east "to the right" and the west "to the left." However, in biblical Hebrew thought, the "default directional orientation," if you will, is to face eastward, with the south being "the right" and the north being "the left."
38. (7:40) Hirom. Following the spelling of his name in the Hebrew. The more usual spelling Hiram appears elsewhere, including later in this verse.
39. (7:45) all these objects. Following the Qere. The Kethib reads, all the objects of the tent. The term tent is generally applied to what is more commonly known today as the "tabernacle," the movable shrine used prior to the erection of the permanent stationary temple, which is more commonly referred to as the house in the Bible.
40. (7:50) cups. This Hebrew term is rare, and is sometimes translated in other ways.
41. (1 Kings 9:18) Tadmor. Following the Qere. The Kethib, depending on what vowels one reads, has something like Tamor.
42. (10:1) Sheba. A South Arabian kingdom. See Wikipedia's article on it.
43. (10:11) "Almug" is the Hebrew term. The exact species referred to is not known, though red sandalwood has been suggested.
44. (10:12) supports. The Hebrew word appears only here, and its meaning is uncertain.
45. (10:15) traders. The exact meaning of this word is not certain.
46. (10:15) merchandise. This Hebrew word appears only here, and the meaning is not certain.
47. (10:16) shekels. A shekel was a unit of approximately 11 grams, bringing each shield's gold to a weight of 6.6 kilograms.
48. (10:18) fine. The Hebrew word, muphaz, occurs only here. Its precise meaning is uncertain.
49. (10:29) from Kue. Reading the Hebrew mqwh as miqquweh, instead of the Masoretic reading miqweh, the meaning of which would be difficult to understand.
50. (11:40) Shishak. Following the Masoretic Text. The Septuagint reads, Sousakim.
51. (12:10) The suggestion has been made that Rehoboam's little thing mentioned here is not his finger, and that Solomon's motne is not, as translated here, Solomon's waist.
52. (28:12) Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt - a similar statement to Exodus 32:4 about the Golden Calf.
53. (12:33) On his own. Following the Kethib. The Qere reads, in his heart.
54. (14:24, 15:12, 22:46) male cult prostitutes: the meaning of the Hebrew term, qadesh, which is here translated this way, is disputed.
55. (14:25) Shishak. Following the Qere. The Kethib, depending on what vowels one supplies, reads something like Shushak. Historians generally believe the king in question to be Shoshenq I.
56. (15:2) Maachah daughter of Abishalom - as the same name is given for the mother of his son, Asa, one is probably a mistake. The text in Chronicles gives Abijam's mother's name as Michayahu daughter of Uriel from Giv'a.
57. (16:24) Samaria. Hebrew, Shomron, which appears more closely related to Shemer than its English name. In Hebrew written in the traditional manner, without vowels, the relationship is even closer: sh-m-r and sh-m-r-w-n.
58. (16:34) With Abiram his firstborn he laid the foundation, and with Segub his youngest he erected the gates - that is, his firstborn died when he started, and as he continued the rest of them died, until his youngest son died when he finished.
59. (26:34) the message from Yahweh which he spoke by the hand of Joshua bin Nun - the actual statement, a curse uttered by Joshua, is in Joshua 6:26. As to his name, in Hebrew names, ben means son of; for reasons that are not known, it is spelled bin when it appears in the name of Joshua son of Nun.
60. (17:3) Cherith. Following the Masoretic Text; the Septuagint reads Chorath.
61. (17:15) he, and she. Following the Kethib. The Qere reads, she, and he.
62. (18:24) your god. Or, your gods.
63. (19:11) great - the word for wind (רוח) can be either masculine or feminine. In this verse, the word for "great" (גדולה) has feminine agreement, while the rest of the verse has masculine agreement.
64. (20:10) The expression concerning dust and handfuls is difficult, and there are multiple opinions as to what it could mean.
65. (20:23) This is based on the belief that each nation has its own chief god, and that a war between nations is a war between their gods. The claim is that the Israelites' god can only win in the highlands.
66. The bible gives no explanation as to why Ahab suddenly decided to have mercy on Ben-Hadad. However, historical sources point to a battle against a much stronger enemy - Battle of Qarqar, in which these 2 kings, along with 9 others, stopped Shalmaneser III from expanding his empire. The success of this alience delayed Assyria from taking over Aram and Israel by about 100 years.
67. (21:10, 20:13) cursed. Literally, blessed. The term is used euphemistically, as if the author cannot bear to even mention the idea of someone cursing God. Compare the Book of Job, in which Job's wife urges him to "bless" God.
68. And the prostitutes bathed. Another interpretation, taking the term translated here as prostitutes as a rare term for armor, reads, And they washed his armor.