The Book of Kings—Book First
1 And when King David was an old man, far gone in years, they covered him with clothes, and he was not warm. 2 And his officers said to him “Let them look up a maiden girl for your majesty, and let her stand before your majesty to be a caretaker to him, and sleep in your arms that your majesty may be warm.” 3 And they looked for the most beautiful girl in all the territory of Israel, and found it to be Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king. 4 And the girl, who was very beautiful, became caretaker to the king and waited on him, but the king did not know her.
5 And Adonijah the son of Haggith was ambitious and proposed to be king, and set up a carriage with outriders, and fifty men running before him. 6* (And his father had never since he was born crossed him by saying “How came you to do such a thing?” And he too was very fine-looking; and he was born after Absalom.) 7 And he had dealings with Joab the son of Serujah and with Priest Abiathar, and they backed Adonijah’s party; 8 but Priest Sadok, and Benajah the son of Jehojadaʽ, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei and Reʽi, and David’s champions, were not with Adonijah.
9** And Adonijah sacrificed sheep and cattle and a stall-fed calf by the Zoheleth stone alongside ʽEn-Rogel, and invited all his brothers and all the men of Judah, the king’s officers; 10 but Nathan the prophet, and Benajah and the champions, and his brother Solomon, he did not invite.
11 And Nathan said to Bath-Shebaʽ, Solomon’s mother, “You have heard, have you not, that Haggith’s son Adonijah is set up as king, without the knowledge of his majesty King David? 12 Come now, take my advice and save your life and your son Solomon’s life. 13* Go to the king’s room, and go in and say to him ‘Your majesty, did you not swear to your servant “Your son Solomon shall reign after me: he shall sit on my throne”? and how comes it that Adonijah has become king?’ 14 And while you are right there talking with the king I will come in after you and corroborate your words.” 15 And Bath-Shebaʽ went to the king in his room: the king had grown very old, and Abishag the Shunammite was waiting on the king; 16 and Bath-Shebaʽ bowed down and did reverence to the king, and the king said “What is the matter?” 17 And she said to him “Your majesty, you swore by your God Jehovah to your servant ‘Your son Solomon shall reign after me: he shall sit on my throne’; 18 and now here is Adonijah set up as king without your knowledge, your majesty, 19 and he has sacrificed a bull and a stall-fed calf and sheep in great numbers, and has invited all the princes and Priest Abiathar and General Joab, but not your servant Solomon— 20 while it is on you, your majesty, that the eyes of all Israel are fixed to tell them who shall sit on your majesty’s throne after you. 21 And when your majesty goes to rest with your fathers I and my son Solomon will be criminals.”
22 And while she was still talking with the king, Nathan the prophet came. 23 And they told the king “Here is Nathan the prophet”; and he came in before the king and prostrated himself on the ground in reverence to the king. 24 And Nathan said “Your majesty, have you said ʽAdonijah shall reign after me: he shall sit on my throne’? 25 because he has gone down today and sacrificed a bull and a stall-fed calf and sheep in great numbers, and has invited all the princes and the generals and Priest Abiathar, and they are eating and drinking before him and have been saying ‘Long live King Adonijah!’ 26 But me your servant, and Priest Sadok, and Benajah the son of Jehojadaʽ, and your servant Solomon, he did not invite. 27* Is this thing of your majesty’s doing, and have you not let your servants know who was to sit on your majesty’s throne after you?”
28 And King David answered “Call in Bath-Shebaʽ.” And she came in before the king and stood before the king. 29 And the king swore “By Jehovah, who has redeemed my soul out of every distress, 30 as I swore to you by Jehovah the God of Israel ‘Your son Solomon shall reign after me: he shall succeed me on my throne,’ so I will do this day.” 31 And Bath-Shebaʽ bowed her face to the ground and did reverence to the king, and said “May your majesty live forever.”
32* And King David said “Call in Priest Sadok and Nathan the prophet and Benajah the son of Jehojadaʽ.” And they came in before the king. 33 And the king said to them “Take with you the palace troops, and mount my son Solomon on my own mule, and take him down to Gihon; 34 and there let Priest Sadok and Nathan the prophet anoint him king over Israel. And blow the ram-horn, and say “Long live King Solomon!” 35 and come up behind him, and let him go in and take his seat on my throne; and he shall succeed me, he is the one I have appointed to be warden over Israel and over Judah.” 36* And Benajah the son of Jehojadaʽ answered the king “Amen; so may your majesty’s God Jehovah say! 37 As Jehovah has been with your majesty, so may he be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than your majesty’s!” 38 And Priest Sadok and Nathan the prophet and Benajah the son of Jehojadaʽ, and the Cretans and the Pletans, went down and mounted Solomon on King David’s mule and took him to Gihon; 39 and Priest Sadok took the horn of oil from the Tent and anointed Solomon, and they blew the ram-horn, and all the people said “Long live King Solomon!” 40 And all the people came up behind him, playing on flutes and making a great rejoicing, and the earth was splitting with their noise.
41 And Adonijah and all the guests he had with him had finished eating and heard it; and Joab heard the sound of the ram-horn and said “How comes the sound of the town in an uproar?” 42 He was still speaking when Jonathan the son of Priest Abiathar came; and Adonijah said “Come on, you are a gentleman and bring good news.” 43 And Jonathan answered Adonijah “Well, his majesty King David has made Solomon king; 44 and the king sent with him Priest Sadok and Nathan the prophet and Benajah the son of Jehojadaʽ, and the Cretans and the Pletans, and they mounted him on the king’s mule, 45 and Priest Sadok and Nathan the prophet anointed him king at Gihon, and they went up from there rejoicing, and the town was in an uproar; that was the sound you heard. 46 And Solomon has taken his seat on the royal throne. 47 And the king’s officers have gone in to take their leave of his majesty King David, saying ‘May your God make Solomon’s throne better than yours, and his throne greater than yours’; and the king did reverence on his couch. 48 And the king spoke thus: ‘Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, who has today given one to sit on my throne, with my eyes seeing it.’”
49 And all those guests of Adonijah’s were frightened, and rose to their feet, and went off in different directions; 50 and Adonijah was afraid of Solomon, and he went and took hold of the horns of the altar. 51 And Solomon was told “Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon; and he has laid hold of the horns of the altar, and says ‘Let King Solomon swear to me first not to kill his servant with the sword.’” 52 And Solomon said “If he will be an honest man not a hair of him shall fall to the ground; but if mischief is found in him he shall die.” 53 And King Solomon sent and had him brought down from the altar; and he went in and did reverence to King Solomon, and Solomon said to him “Go to your home.”
2 And the days for David’s death drew near, and he gave his son Solomon this charge: 2 “I am going the way of all the earth; be resolute, act the man, 3 and keep the charge of your God Jehovah, walking in his ways, keeping his usages, his commandments, his laws, his lessons, as written in the code of Moses, that you may do well in everything you do or undertake; 4 that Jehovah may make good his word that he spoke of me, ‘If your sons guard their ways, walking before me loyally with all their hearts and all their souls, you shall never be without a man on the throne of Israel.’
5*** “And you know yourself what Joab the son of Serujah did to me, what he did to two generals of Israel, Abner the son of Ner and ʽAmasa the son of Jether, killing them and avenging war-blood in peace, and putting innocent blood on my belt that is round my waist and my shoes that are on my feet; 6 and you will do as your wisdom bids you and not have his gray hair go down to the world of the dead in peace. 7 And you will befriend the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and have them among those who eat at your table; for so they received me when I was in flight before your brother Absalom. 8 And you will have on hand Shimei the son of Gera the Benjamite from Bahurim: he cursed me with a virulent curse on the day that I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by Jehovah ‘I will not put you to death by the sword.’ 9 Now do not let him go free: you are a wise man and will know what to do to him, and will send his gray hair down to the world of the dead in blood.”
10 And David went to rest with his fathers, and was buried in David’s City; 11 and the time that David had reigned over Israel was forty years: at Hebron he had reigned seven years, and at Jerusalem he had reigned thirty-three years. 12 And Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his kingship was thoroughly settled.
13 And Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Solomon’s mother Bath-Shebaʽ; and she said “Is all well?” and he said “Yes.” 14 And he said “I have something to speak of to you”; and she said “Speak.” 15 And he said “You know the kingship did belong to me, and all Israel were counting on me for king, but the kingship shifted and came to my brother because it was his from Jehovah; 16 now I am asking you for one thing—do not refuse me.” And she said to him “Speak.” 17 And he said “Say a word to King Solomon (for he will not refuse you) and have him give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife.” 18 And Bath-Shebaʽ said “All right, I will speak to the king for you.” 19* And Bath-Shebaʽ came to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, and the king rose at her coming and did reverence to her and sat down on his throne, and a throne was set for the king’s mother and she sat down at his right hand; 20 and she said “I want to ask one little favor of you; do not refuse me”; and the king said to her “Ask; I will not refuse you.” 21 And she said “Let your brother Adonijah be given Abishag the Shunammite for his wife.” 22 And King Solomon answered his mother “And why do you ask for Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? ask for the kingship for him, because he is my elder brother and has on his side Priest Abiathar and Joab the son of Serujah!” 23 And King Solomon swore by Jehovah “God do so to me, and more, but this word costs Adonijah his life. 24 And now, by Jehovah who established me and seated me on the throne of my father David, and who has given me a family as he promised, Adonijah shall die this day.” 25 And King Solomon sent Benajah the son of Jehojadaʽ, who cut him down; so he died.
26 And to Priest Abiathar the king said “Go to ʽAnathoth to your lands: you deserve death, but I will not put you to death today because you carried the ark of Jehovah before my father David, and because you went through all the hardships that my father went through”; 27 and Solomon ejected Abiathar from being priest to Jehovah, fulfilling Jehovah’s word that he spoke against ʽEli’s family at Shiloh.
28 And the report came to Joab—for Joab had swerved to follow Adonijah, though he had not to follow Absalom—and Joab fled to Jehovah’s tent and took hold of the horns of the altar. 29 And King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to Jehovah’s tent and was beside the altar; and Solomon sent Benajah the son of Jehojadaʽ with the order “Go and cut him down.” 30 And Benajah went into Jehovah’s tent and said to him “By order of the king, come out.” And he said “No, I will die here.” And Benajah reported to the king “So spoke Joab, and so he answered me.” 31 And the king said to him “Do as he has spoken: cut him down and bury him, and take off from me and my family innocent blood that Joab shed; 32 and Jehovah will send his blood back on his own head, because he cut down two honest men who were better than he was, and killed them with the sword without the knowledge of my father David,—Abner the son of Ner, general of the army of Israel, and ʽAmasa the son of Jether, general of the army of Judah—; 33 and their blood shall come back on Joab’s head and on the heads of his descendants forever, and David and his descendants and house and throne shall have welfare forever from Jehovah.” 34 And Benajah the son of Jehojadaʽ went up and cut him down and killed him, and he was buried at his home in the wilderness; 35 and the king put Benajah the son of Jehojadaʽ in his place over the army, and in Abiathar’s place the king put Priest Sadok.
36 And the king summoned Shimei and said to him “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there: you shall not go out from there to any place whatever, 37 and on the day when you do go out and cross Kidron Arroyo, know that you shall die; your blood will be on your own head.” 38 And Shimei said to the king “Very good: as your majesty has spoken your servant will do”; and Shimei lived in Jerusalem many days. 39 And at the end of three years two slaves of Shimei’s ran away to Akish the son of Maʽacah, the king of Gath; and people told Shimei “Your slaves are in Gath”; 40 and Shimei got up and saddled his donkey and went to Akish at Gath to look for his slaves.
And Shimei went and brought his servants from Gath, 41 and Solomon was told “Shimei has gone from Jerusalem to Gath and returned.” 42 And the king summoned Shimei and said to him “Did I not have you swear by Jehovah, and warn you ‘On the day when you go out and go to any place whatever, know that you shall die,’ and you said to me ‘Very good, I understand’? 43 and how comes it that you have not kept your oath by Jehovah and the command that I gave you?” 44 And the king said to Shimei “You know all the mischief that you are conscious of having done to my father David: Jehovah will send your mischief back on your own head, 45 and King Solomon shall be blessed and David’s throne shall be firm before Jehovah forever.” 46 And the king gave an order to Benajah the son of Jehojadaʽ, and he went out and cut him down; so he died.
3 And when the kingdom was settled in Solomon’s hands, Solomon made a matrimonial alliance with the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and took the Pharaoh’s daughter as his bride and brought her to David’s City till he should finish building his house and Jehovah’s house and the wall around Jerusalem. 2 Only the people sacrificed on the heights, because up to that date no house had been built for the name of Jehovah. 3 And Solomon loved Jehovah, going by his father David’s usages; only he sacrificed and made burnings on the heights.
4 And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, because that was the greatest of the heights: a thousand burnt-offerings Solomon offered on that altar. 5 In Gibeon Jehovah appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said “Ask for what you will have me give you.” 6* And Solomon said “You showed great tokens of friendliness to my father, your servant David, while he walked before you loyally and honestly and truly; and you kept in reserve for him this great piece of friendliness, and have given him a son sitting on his throne, as at this day. 7 Now, Jehovah my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, when I am a child and do not know how to go out and come in; 8 and your servant is surrounded by your chosen people, a great people, too great for the count to be taken or the number known: 9 give your servant a judicious mind to judge your people, to distinguish good from evil—for who is able to judge this vast people?” 10 And the words pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing: 11 and God said to him “Since you have asked this thing, and have not asked to have many days nor to have wealth nor to have the lives of your enemies, but have asked to have discernment to hear causes, 12 I do as you said: I give you a mind so wise and discerning that there has never been one like you before you, and after you none like you shall arise. 13* And I also give you what you did not ask for, both wealth and glory, such that not a man among the kings has been like you. 14 And if you walk in my ways, keeping my usages and commandments, as your father David did, I will make your days long.” 15 And Solomon awoke and found it a dream; and he went into Jerusalem and stood before the ark of Jehovah’s covenant, and offered burnt-offerings and made welfare-sacrifices, and gave a banquet to his officers.
16 Then two women living in prostitution came to the king and stood before him, 17 and one woman said “O, sir, I and this woman live in one house; and I had a baby, in the house with her, 18 and two days after I had mine this woman had one too; and we were together, there was no stranger in the house with us, but we two in the house. 19 And this woman’s son died in the night, because she overlaid it; 20 and she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me, while your servant was sound asleep, and took him to bed in her arms, and laid her dead son in mine. 21* And I got up in the morning to give my son the breast, and found him dead; but I looked him over carefully in the morning and found it was not my son that I had borne.” 22 And the other woman said “No, the life one is my son and the dead one is yours”; and they talked away before the king. 23 And the king said “This one says ‘this is my son, the live one, and the dead one is yours’; and that one says ‘no, the dead one is your son and the live one is mine’—”
24 And the king said “Get me a sword”; and they brought the sword before the king; 25 and the king said “Slice the live child in two and give half to one and half to the other.” 26 And the woman whose son the live child was said to the king (for she was in a fever of alarm for her son) “O, sir, give her the babe, don’t kill it”; but the other was saying “I don’t have it and you don’t either! Slice!” 27 And the king answered “Give her the babe, don’t kill it; she is its mother.” 28 And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had passed, and stood in fear of the king, because they saw that he had in him divine wisdom to do justice.
4 And King Solomon was king over all Israel. 2 And these are the ministers he had: ʽAzariah the son of Priest Sadok, 3 Elihoreph and Ahijah the sons of Shausha, secretaries for documents; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the private secretary; 4 and Benajah the son of Jehojadaʽ, over the army; and Sadok and Abiathar, priests; 5 and ʽAzariah the son of Nathan, over the commissioners; and Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, the king’s friend; 6 and Ahishar, steward of the palace; and Adoniram the son of ʽAbda, superintendent of the corvée.
7 And Solomon had twelve commissioners over all Israel, and they provisioned the king and his household, each being responsible for the provisioning for a month in the year. 8 And these are their names: the son of Hur in the highland of Ephraim; 9 the son of Deker in Makas and Shaʽalbim and Beth-Shemesh and Elon, to Beth-Hanan; 10 the son of Hesed in Ha-arubboth—he had Socoh and all the country of Hepher; 11 the son of Abinadab, all Naphath-Dor—Solomon’s daughter Taphath became his wife; 12 Baʽana the son of Ahilud, Taʽanac and Megiddo and all Beth-Shean, alongside Sarethan, below Jezreʽel, from Beth-Shean to Abel-Meholah, to beyond Jokmeam; 13* the son of Geber at Ramoth-Gilead—he had the Havvoth of Jair the son of Manasseh, in Gilead; he had the Pale of Argob in the Bashan, sixty large cities with walls and bronze bars; 14 Ahinadab the son of ʽIddo at Mahanaim; 15 Ahimaʽas in Naphtali—he too received Solomon’s daughter Basemath as wife; 16* Baʽana the son of Hushai in Asher and Baʽaloth; 17 Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah in Issacar; 18 Shimei the son of Ela in Benjamin; 19** Geber the son of Uri in the country of Gilead, the country of King Sihon of the Amorites and King ʽOg of the Bashan; and one chief over all the commissioners in the country. 20 Judah and Israel were numerous as the sand by the sea, eating and drinking and rejoicing. 21 And Solomon ruled all the kingdoms from the River to the country of the Philistines and to the boundary of Egypt, who presented tribute and were subject to Solomon all his life.
22* And Solomon’s provisions for one day were ten thousand quarts of farina and twenty thousand quarts of meal, 23 ten fat cattle and twenty range cattle and a hundred sheep, besides deer and gazelle and antelope and coop-fed waterfowl; 24 for he bore empire over everything across the River, from Tiphsah to Ghaza, and over all the kings across the River; and he had peace on all sides round about. 25* And Judah and Israel lived unafraid, each under his grapevine and his fig-tree, from Dan to Beer-Shebaʽ, throughout Solomon’s time; and throughout Solomon’s time nobody was hostile.
26 And Solomon had forty thousand teams of ponies for his chariots, and twelve thousand cavalry horses. 27 And these commissioners provisioned King Solomon and all who were in relations with King Solomon’s table, a month each; they let nothing be lacking. 28 And the barley and straw for the ponies and the blood-horses they brought to the place where it was to be, each as his duty was.
29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and very great intelligence, and a reach of brain like the sand on the seashore; 30 and Solomon’s wisdom exceeded that of the Eastern Beduins and all that of the Egyptians: 31 he was the wisest of all men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite or Heman and Calcol and Dardaʽ the sons of Mahol; and he was talked of among all the nations round about. 32* And he spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five. 33* And he spoke of trees and shrubs, from the cedar in the Lebanon to the marjoram that comes out on the wall; and he spoke of animals, those that walk and those that fly and those that crawl and those that swim. 34 And out of all the peoples they came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, from all the kings on earth, who had heard of his wisdom.
5 And King Hiram of Tyre sent his representatives to Solomon, because he had heard that they had anointed him king as his father’s successor; for Hiram had always been friendly to David. 2 And Solomon sent word to Hiram 3 “You know my father David was not able to build a house for the name of his God Jehovah on account of the fighting with which he was surrounded, until Jehovah put them under his feet. 4 Now my God Jehovah has given me rest on all sides: there is no antagonist and no misadventure; 5 and I am thinking of building a house to the name of my God Jehovah, as Jehovah predicted to my father David ‘Your son whom I will put on your throne as your successor, he shall build the house for my name.’ 6* Now give orders to have them cut me cedars from the Lebanon, my subjects being there with yours, and I paying you the wages of your subjects just as you shall say, because you know yourself that there is not among us a man who knows how to cut timber like the Phenicians.”
7 And when Hiram heard Solomon’s message he was much pleased, and said “Blessed be Jehovah today for having given David a wise son over this great people”; 8 and Hiram sent word to Solomon “I have listened to what you sent to me: I will do all you want in the matter of cedar timber and cypress timber; 9* my servants shall bring them down from the Lebanon to the sea, and I will make them into rafts and take them by sea to the place you send me word of, and break them up there, and you shall take them away; and you shall do what I want in the matter of furnishing food for my household.” 10 So Hiram furnished Solomon cedar timber and cypress timber, all he wanted, 11 and Solomon furnished Hiram two hundred thousand bushels of wheat as provision for his household, and two thousand gallons of beaten oil; such an amount Solomon furnished to Hiram year by year. 12 And Jehovah gave Solomon wisdom, as he had promised to him. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two made a treaty.
13 And Solomon raised a corvée from all Israel: the corvée was thirty thousand men; 14 and he sent them to the Lebanon, ten thousand a month by shifts: they were on the Lebanon a month and at home two months; and Adoniram was over the corvée. 15 And Solomon had seventy thousand porters carrying loads, and eighty thousand woodcutters cutting on the mountain, 16 besides Solomon’s chief commissioners who were over the work, thirty-three thousand of them, who were in authority over the people that were doing the work.
17 And the king ordered the quarrying of great stones, fine stones, to give the house a dressed-stone foundation; 18 and Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites shaped them and got the timber and stone ready for building the house.
6 And in the four hundred and eightieth year since the sons of Israel had come out of Egypt, in the fourth year, blossom moon (second month), of Solomon’s reign over Israel, he built the house for Jehovah. 2 And the house King Solomon built for Jehovah was ninety feet long and thirty wide, and forty-five feet high; 3 and the porch on the nave side of the house was thirty feet long in the direction of the breadth of the house, and fifteen feet wide in the direction of the length of the house. 4 And he made the house windows with closed frames; 5* and he built against the wall of the house a girdle round the walls of the house, round the nave and the shrine, and made by-rooms around it. 6 (The undermost by-room was seven and a half feet wide, and the middle one nine feet, and the third ten and a half feet; for he gave the house offsets around it on the outside, to avoid taking a hold in the walls of the house; 7 and the house, when it was built, was built of entire stone as quarried, and hammer or pick or any iron tool was never heard in the house while it was being built.) 8* The door of the undermost by-room was at the southeast corner of the house, and they went up by trapdoors to the middle one, and from the middle to the third. 9* And he built the house and finished it, and roofed the house with cedar timber, beams and boards; 10* and he built the girdle against the whole house, seven and a half feet in height, and attached it to the house with cedar girders.
11 And Jehovah’s word came to Solomon, 12 “This house which you are building—if you go by my usages and live up to my laws and keep all my commandments, going by them, I will make good with you my promise that I gave to your father David, 13 and will dwell among the sons of Israel and not leave my people Israel.”
14 And Solomon built the house and finished it, 15 and built the walls of the house on the inside with cedar planks; from the floor of the house to the girders of the ceiling he lined with wood, and he floored the house with cypress planks. 16 And he built thirty feet at the back of the house with cedar planks from floor to girders, and finished it on the inside as a shrine, holiest of the holy; 17* and sixty feet was the house (that is, the nave) in front of the shrine.— 18 And there wash cedar on the house inside, carving of gourds and open flowers, all cedar, no stone visible. 19 And he arranged a shrine inside, within the house, to put the ark of Jehovah’s covenant in. 20* The shrine was thirty feet in length and thirty feet in breadth and thirty feet in height; and he gilded it all over. 21 And he made a cedar altar in front of the shrine, and gilded it. 22 And he gilded the whole house, every bit of it, and gilded the shrine’s whole altar.
23* And in the shrine he made two cherubs of wild olive wood: the height of the first cherub was fifteen feet, and so was the second cherub, fifteen feet was its height; 24 and seven and a half feet was the cherub’s first wing and seven and a half feet the cherub’s second wing, fifteen feet from tip to tip of its wings, 25 and fifteen feet the second cherub; 26 both cherubs had the same dimensions and the same shape. 27 And he put the cherubs into the inner house; and they spread out their wings, and the wing of the one touched the wall, and the wing of the other cherub the other wall, and the wings touched each other in the middle of the house; 28 and he gilded the cherubs.
29* And he carved all the walls of the house around with intaglio carvings of cherubs and palm trees and open flowers, for the inner house and the outer. 30 And the floor of the house he gilded, for the inner house and the outer. 31* And at the entrance of the shrine he made wild-olive-wood doors, the jambs pentagonal posts; and two wild-olive-wood doors, 32* which he carved with cherubs and palm trees and open flowers, and gilded them, and rammed over the cherubs and palm trees the gold. 33 And in the same way he made for the entrance of the nave wild-olive-wood posts, square posts, 34 and two cypress doors, two folding leaves to one door and two folding leaves to the other door; 35 and he carved them with cherubs and palm trees and open flowers, and gilded them with gold trimmed to fit the design. 36 And he built the inner court in three courses of dressed stone and one of blocks of cedar.
37 In the fourth year the foundation was laid for Jehovah’s house, in the blossom moon; 38 and in the eleventh year, in the Bul moon (that is, the eighth month), the house was finished in every detail in full accordance with its plan. And he was building it seven years.
7 And Solomon built at his own house thirteen years, and finished his house entirely. 2 And he built the Forest-of-Lebanon house, a hundred and fifty feet long and seventy-five feet wide and forty-five feet high, on four rows of cedar pillars with blocks of cedar on top of the pillars, 3 roofed with cedar over the chambers on top of the pillars, forty-five of them, fifteen to the row; 4 with beams three rows, and loophole to loophole three times, 5 and all the doors and loopholes square-framed, and loophole facing loophole three times.
6* And he made the colonnade seventy-five feet long and forty-five wide, and a porch parallel to it, and parallel to them a platform with pillars; 7 and he made the throne-porch where he sat as judge, the judgment-porch, wainscoted with cedar from floor to girders. 8* And his own house, where he was to live, the other court inside the porch, was done like that; and he builds a house for the Pharaoh’s daughter whom Solomon married, like this porch.
9* All these were expensive stone, dressed to measure, saw-cut on the outside and the inside and from foundation to coping, and from the court of Jehovah’s house to the great court, 10 the foundations laid in expensive stones of great size, fifteen-foot stones and twelve-foot stones, 11 and above expensive stones, dressed to measure, and cedar.
12 And the great court, all around, was three courses of dressed stone and one of blocks of cedar, for the inner court of Jehovah’s house and for the court of the palace porch.
13 And King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram from Tyre. 14 He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a Tyrian, a bronze-worker; and he was full of talent and sense and skill for doing all kinds of work in bronze; and he came to King Solomon and did all his work. 15* And he cast the two bronze pillars, twenty-seven feet the height of one pillar and eighteen feet its girth and three inches the thickness of the metal (hollow), and so the other pillar; 16 and he made two capitals to put on the tops of the pillars, cast in bronze, seven and a half feet the height of one capital and seven and a half feet the height of the other capital; 17 and he made two nettings, network, tracery, meshwork, to cover the capitals on the tops of the pillars, a netting for the one capital and a netting for the other capital. 18* And he made the pomegranates; and there were two rows of bronze pomegranates around the one netting, and two hundred pomegranates in two rows surrounding the one capital; and so he did for the other capital. 19* And the capitals on the tops of the pillars were of lily pattern, in the porch, six feet; 20* and there were capitals on the two pillars above too, next the swelling beyond the netting. 21 And he set up the pillars with the nave porch: he set up the right-hand pillar and named it Jakin, and set up the left-hand pillar and named it Boʽaz. 22 And on the tops of the pillars was a lily pattern. So the work of the pillars was finished.
23 And he made the sea, a casting fifteen feet from lip to lip, circular in outline, seven and a half feet high and forty-five feet in girth; 24* and gourds all around it under its lip, fifteen feet; the gourds were in two rows, cast in one piece with it. 25* It stood on twelve cattle, three facing north and three facing west and three facing south and three facing east, with the sea up on top of them, and their hinder parts all inward. 26* And it was three inches thick, with its lip made like the lip of a cup, a lily-bud; and it would hold twenty thousand gallons.
27 And he made the stands, ten of them, of bronze: one stand was six feet long and six wide and four and a half high. 28* And this was the pattern of a stand: they had borders, and borders between the frames; 29** and on the borders between the frames there were lions, cattle, and cherubs, and so at the top on the frames; and under the lions and cattle spirals in a downward-sloping pattern. 30* And a stand had four bronze wheels, and bronze axles; and its four uprights had shoulder-pieces; the shoulder-pieces were cast under the laver, spirals opposite each. 31**** And its mouth was inside the shoulder-pieces and above, eighteen inches; and its mouth was round, in pedestal pattern, twenty-seven inches; and on its mouth too there were carvings; and their borders were square, not round. 32* And the four wheels were below the borders, and the spindles of the wheels went into the stand; and the height of a wheel was twenty-seven inches. 33 And the pattern of the wheels was like that of a chariot-wheel; their spindles, rims, spokes, and hubs, all were cast. 34 And there were four shoulder-pieces on the four corners of a stand: the shoulder-pieces were in one piece with the stand. 35** And at the top of the stand there was a pedestal, nine inches in height, round in contour. Its arms and borders were in one piece with it. 36* And he engraved on the plates cherubs, lions, and palm trees according to the room on each, and spirals around the edges. 37* Like this he made the ten stands; all of them had the same metal, the same dimensions, and the same shape.
38* And he made ten bronze lavers holding four hundred gallons each and measuring six feet each, the ten stands having a laver on each; 39* and he put the stands five along the right side of the front of the house and five along the left side of the front of the house, and the sea he put east of the southeast corner of the house.
40 And Hiram made the pots and the shovels and the bowls; and Hiram finished doing all the work he did for King Solomon in Jehovah’s house: 41 two pillars, and the globes of the capitals on top of the pillars, two of them; and the nettings, two of them, to cover the two globes of the capitals on top of the pillars; 42 and the pomegranates, four hundred of them, for the two nettings, two rows of pomegranates to a netting, to cover the two globes of the capitals on top of the pillars; 43 and the stands, ten of them, and the lavers, ten of them, on the stands; 44 and the one sea, and the cattle, twelve of them, under the sea; 45 and the pots and the shovels and the bowls. And all these furnishings that Hiram made for King Solomon in Jehovah’s house were polished bronze. 46* It was in the Pale of the Jordan that he cast them, in the heavy soil between Succoth and Sarethan. 47 And Solomon left all these furnishings, because of their great number, without investigation of the weight of the bronze.
48 And Solomon made all the furnishings Jehovah’s house had in it: the golden altar, and the table the showbread was on, gold, 49 and the lampstands, five on the right and five on the left in front of the shrine, solid gold, 50 and the buds and the lamps and the pincers, gold, and the basins and the snuffers and the bowls and the pans and the firepans, solid gold, and the hinges for the doors of the inner house, the holiest of the holy, and for the doors of the house, the nave, gold. 51 And all the work King Solomon did on Jehovah’s house was finished; and Solomon brought in his father David’s consecrated articles, the silver and the gold, and put the furnishings in the treasuries of Jehovah’s house.
8 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of Jehovah’s covenant from David’s City (that is, Sion) 2 in the moon of the permanent streams; 3 and the priests took up the ark, 4 and they brought up the ark and the Tent of Meeting, and all the consecrated furnishings that there were in the tent, 5 while the king and all Israel were in front of the ark sacrificing sheep and cattle too many for the count to be taken or the number known. 6 And the priests brought the ark in to its place in the shrine of the house, in the holiest of the holy, under the cherubs’ wings; 7 for the cherubs spread out two wings over the place for the ark, and over-arched the ark and its poles, 8 but the poles were long, and the heads of the poles were seen from the holy place along the front of the shrine, but were not seen outside; and they are there to this day. 9 There was nothing at all in the ark but the two stone tablets that Moses put there at Horeb, that Jehovah covenanted with the sons of Israel when they came out of Egypt.
10 And when the priests came out of the holy place the cloud filled Jehovah’s house, 11 and the priests could not stand to officiate because of the cloud, because Jehovah’s glory filled Jehovah’s house.
12 Then Solomon said
“The sun shows in the sky,
but Jehovah lists to dwell in darkling air.
13 I have builded a hall for you,
an abode for you forever.”
14 And the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel while all the assembly of Israel stood; 15 and he said “Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, who said with his mouth to my father David and has with his hands made it good, 16* ‘Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt I had not chosen a city out of any of the tribes of Israel for building a house where my name should be; but I have chosen Jerusalem where my name should be, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.’ 17 And my father David had in mind to build a house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel; 18 but Jehovah said to my father David ‘Whereas you had in mind to build a house for my name, you did well to have it in mind; 19 yet you shall not build the house, but your son, who comes out of your loins, he shall build the house for my name.’ 20 And Jehovah has been as good as his word, and I have risen in place of my father David and have taken my seat on the throne of Israel as Jehovah promised, and have build the house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel, 21 and have established there a place for the ark where Jehovah’s covenant is, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of Egypt.”
22 And Solomon stood before the altar of Jehovah in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands to the sky, 23 and said “Jehovah, God of Israel, there is not a God like you in the heavens above and on earth below, keeping covenant and friendship with your servants who walk before you with all their hearts, 24 seeing you have kept your word with my father David and spoken with your mouth and made good with your hands as this day. 25 And now, Jehovah, God of Israel, keep with your servant my father David your word You shall never be without a man before me who shall sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons guard their ways, walking before me as you did’; 26 now, Jehovah, God of Israel, let your word to your servant my father David prove true.
27* “But will God really live on earth? why, the skies and the skies of the skies cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built; 28 but turn to your servant’s prayer and petition, Jehovah my God, listening to the appeal and prayer that your servant is praying before you today, 29 that your eyes be open toward this house night and day, toward the place where you have said your name shall be, listening to the prayer that your servant prays toward this place, 30 and that you listen to the petition of your servant and of your people Israel that they pray toward this place, and that you hear up to your dwelling-place heaven, and, listening, forgive.
31 “In case a man does wrong by his neighbor, and he has raised a curse on him, cursing him out, and comes and pronounces the curse before your altar in this house, 32 and you hear it up to heaven, act and judge your servants, condemning the knave, sending retribution upon his head, and vindicating the man who stands for his rights, sending to him what he deserves.
33 “When your people Israel, sinning against you, are beaten by an enemy, but come back to you and confess your name, and pray and beseech you in this house, 34 and you hear it up to heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the soil you gave to their fathers.
35 “When the sky is barred and there is no rain, because they sin against you, and they pray toward this place and confess your name and come back from their sins, because you afflict them, 36* and you hear it up to heaven, forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, when you guide them on the good path that they are to walk in, and give rain on your country which you gave to your people as a domain.
37 “When famine there is in the country, when pestilence there is, when on the grain there is blasting or mildew, spring grasshoppers, fall grasshoppers, when their enemies beset them in any of their gates, in every calamity, in every malady, 38 whatever prayer or petition anybody may have, each feeling the blow that strikes his own heart and spreading out his hands toward this house, 39 and you hearing it up to heaven your dwelling-place, forgive and act and give to each as he deserves, as you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of all human beings), 40 that they may fear you all the time they live over the soil you gave their fathers.
41 “And as to the foreigner too, who does not belong to your people Israel, but comes from a distant country drawn by your name 42 (because they will hear of your great name and of your strong hand and outstretched arm) and comes and prays toward this house, 43 and you hear it up to heaven your dwelling-place, do as the foreigner may call on you to, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, fearing you like your people Israel and knowing that this house I have built wears your name.
44 “When your people go out to war against their enemies on a course you send them on, and pray to Jehovah toward the city you have chosen and the house I have built for your name, 45 and you hear up to heaven their prayer and petition, do justice for them. 46 When they sin against you (for there is no man who does not sin) and you are angry with them and give them to be defeated before an enemy, and their captors carry them as slaves to an enemy’s country, far or near, 47 and in the country to which they are carried off they bethink themselves and come back and beseech you in their captors’ country, saying ‘We have sinned and offended, we are guilty,’ 48 and come back to you sincerely and wholeheartedly in the country of their enemies who carried them off, and pray to you toward their country that you gave to their fathers, the city you have chosen, and the house I have built for your name, 49 and you hear their prayer and petition up to heaven your dwelling-place, do justice for them 50 and forgive their sins and crimes that they have committed against you, and make them objects of sympathy to their captors that they may be kindly treated 51 because they are your people and your estate, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of the blast-furnace;— 52 that your eyes be open to the petition of your servant and of your people Israel, to listen to them in that they call on you for, 53 because you have set them apart, as an estate for yourself, out of all the peoples of the earth, as you promised by your servant Moses when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, Lord Jehovah.”
54 And when Solomon had finished offering to Jehovah all this prayer and petition, he rose from kneeling before Jehovah’s altar, with his hands spread out to the sky, 55 and stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying 56 “Blessed be Jehovah, who has given rest to his people just as he promised; of all the good promise than he gave by his servant Moses not one point has failed. 57 Jehovah our God be with us as with our fathers, not leaving us nor abandoning us, 58 to bend our hearts to him for walking in his ways and for keeping his commandments and usages and laws that he enjoined upon our fathers; 59 and may these words of mine in which I have made my petition before Jehovah be near to Jehovah our God day and night, that he do justice for his servant and for his people Israel day by day 60 that all the peoples of the earth may know that Jehovah is God, there is none besides. 61 And let your hearts be at one with Jehovah your God for going by his usages and for keeping his commandments, as they are this day.”
62 And the king, and all Israel with him, were making sacrifice before Jehovah; 63** and Solomon sacrificed, of the welfare-sacrifice he offered to Jehovah, twenty-two thousand horned cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats; and the king and all the sons of Israel dedicated Jehovah’s house. 64* On that day the king consecrated the middle of the court in front of Jehovah’s house, because there he offered the burnt-offering and the grain-offering and the fats of the welfare-sacrifices, since the bronze altar before Jehovah was too small to hold the burnt-offering and the grain-offering and the fats of the welfare-sacrifices.
65* And at that time Solomon kept the Feast, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from Lebo-Hamath to Egypt Arroyo, before Jehovah our God for seven days. 66 And on the eighth day he dismissed the people, and they took leave of the king and went to their homes joyous and merry over all the good things Jehovah had done for his servant David and his people Israel.
9 And when Solomon had finished building Jehovah’s house and the royal palace and all Solomon’s fancies that he was pleased to make, 2 Jehovah appeared to Solomon a second time as he had at Gibeon; 3* and Jehovah said to him “I have heard your prayer and petition that you have made before me: I have done just as you prayed, I have made this house that you have built a sacred place, putting my name there forever; and my eyes and my mind shall always be there. 4 And for yourself, if you walk before me as your father David did, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, doing just as I have commanded, and keep my usages and laws, 5 I will set up the throne of your kingship over Israel forever, as I promised your father David ‘You shall never be without a man on the throne of Israel.’ 6 If you, yourselves and your sons, shall turn back from following me and not keep my commandments and usages that I have set before you, and go and worship other gods and do them reverence, 7 I will stamp out Israel from over the soil I gave them, and the house I had made a sacred place for my name I will discard, and Israel shall become a byword and a jeer among all peoples. 8 And this house shall become a ruin; everyone who passes it shall stand aghast and whistle, and they shall say ‘On what account did Jehovah do like that to this country and this house?’ 9 and they will say ‘On account of their having left their God Jehovah, who had brought their fathers out of Egypt, and taken to other gods and done reverence to them and worshiped them; it was on this account that Jehovah brought upon them all this mischief.’”
10* And at the end of the twenty years in which Solomon had been building the two houses, Jehovah’s house and the royal palace,—King 11 Hiram of Tyre had been accommodating Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he liked,—then King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the Marchland. 12 And Hiram went out from Tyre to see the cities Solomon had given him, and was not suited with them; 13 and he said “What sort of cities are these you have given me, brother?” and called them the Cabul country, a name they bear to this day. 14 And Hiram sent the king sixteen thousand pounds of gold.
15 And these were the terms of the corvée King Solomon raised for building Jehovah’s house and his own house, and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hasor and Megiddo and Gezer— 16 the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had gone up and taken Gezer and burned it down, and killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s bride, 17 and Solomon had Gezer rebuilt—and Nether Beth-Horon 18* and Baʽalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in our country, 19 and all the storage cities Solomon had, and the chariot cities and the cavalry-horse cities, and Solomon’s fancies that he took the fancy to build in Jerusalem and in the Lebanon and throughout his dominion: 20 all the people that were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivvites, and the Jebusites, who were not sons of Israel,— 21 their sons that had been left in the country after them, whom the sons of Israel had not been able to dispatch, Solomon levied as a laboring corvée, which they are to this day. 22 But of the sons of Israel Solomon enslaved none, but they were his men of war and his officials and captains and adjutants and chariot-captains and horsemen.
23* These were Solomon’s chief commissioners over the work, five hundred and fifty of them who were in authority over the people that were doing the work.
24* Only the Pharaoh’s daughter has gone up out of David’s City to her house that Solomon has built for her. Then he built the Millo.
25*** And Solomon offers burnt-offerings and welfare-sacrifices three times a year on the altar he has built to Jehovah, that stands before Jehovah, and is finishing the house.
26 And King Solomon built ships at Ghesjon-Geber near Elath on the shore of the Red Sea, in Edom; 27 and Hiram sent on the ships his subjects, shipmen familiar with the sea, with Solomon’s subjects; 28 and they reached Ophir and got gold there, fifty-five thousand pounds of it, and brought it to King Solomon.
10* And the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon in the fame of Jehovah, and came to test him with problems. 2 And she came to Jerusalem with an immense retinue, camels carrying spices and a vast quantity of gold, and precious stones; and she came to Solomon and said to him whatever she had in mind to say, 3 and Solomon told her all her points; there was not a point of which the king was ignorant and did not tell her. 4 And the queen of Sheba saw all Solomon’s wisdom, and the house he had built, 5** and the food that came to his table, and the order in which his officers sat and his attendants stood, and the attendants’ costumes, and his drinks, and his burnt-offering that he used to offer in Jehovah’s house, and she had no spirit left in her; 6 and she said to the king “It was a true word that I heard in my own country about your state and your wisdom; 7 and I did not believe the talk till I came and saw with my own eyes, and found that I had not been told half: in wisdom and prosperity you outdo the report I had heard. 8 Happy are your wives, happy these officers of yours who stand before you always, who hear your wisdom. 9 Jehovah your God be blessed, who was pleased with you for setting on the throne of Israel; it was in an eternal love of Jehovah’s for Israel that he made you king to do justice and right.” 10 And she gave the king sixteen thousand pounds of gold, and spices in great quantity, and precious stones; there never again came spices in such quantity as that stock that the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon. 11* (And Hiram’s ships too, that carried gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir almug wood in great quantity, and precious stones; 12 and the king made the almug wood into furniture for Jehovah’s house and the royal palace, and lyres and harps for the singers; almug wood never came like that, nor was seen, to this day.) 13 And King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything which pleased her that she asked for, besides what he gave her in accordance with King Solomon’s custom; and she turned back and went to her own country, she and her officers.
14 And the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was eighty-seven thousand six hundred and forty pounds, gold, 15* besides the mulcts on travelers and the profits of traders and of all the kings of the frontier tribes and the viceroys of the country. 16 And King Solomon made two hundred shields of beaten gold, three hundred ounces of gold going on one shield, 17 and three hundred beaten gold bucklers, a hundred and fifty ounces of gold going on one buckler; and the king put them in the Forest-of-Lebanon house.
18 And the king made a great ivory throne and gilded it with refined gold; 19 there were six steps to the throne, and the throne had calves’ heads at the back, and arms on each side of the seat, and two standing lions beside the arms, 20 and twelve standing lions on the six steps, one each side; nothing of the sort had been made for any kingdom. 21 And all Solomon’s drinking-vessels were gold, and all the utensils of the Forest-of-Lebanon house were solid gold; no silver, it was not thought anything of in Solomon’s days. 22* For the king had Spain-ships at sea with Hiram’s ships: once in three years the Spain-ships came in, carrying gold and silver, ivory and monkeys and peacocks. 23 And Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in wealth and wisdom; 24* and all the earth betook themselves to Solomon to listen to his wisdom which God had put into his heart, 25 and brought their presents man by man, articles of silver and of gold and garments and arms and spices, ponies and mules, a yearly supply.
26 And Solomon amassed chariots and horses, and had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he quartered in the chariot cities and at Jerusalem with the king. 27 And the king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as sycamores in the lowlands. 28** And Solomon’s sources of supply for ponies were Egypt and Kue; the king’s dealers had them from Kue on commission, 29 and a chariot used to come up out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver and a pony for a hundred and fifty; and they were similarly imported through them for all the kings of the Hittites and for the kings of Syria.
11* And King Solomon loved women, and had seven hundred queens and three hundred concubines; and he took many foreign wives, Moabite, ʽAmmonite, Edomite, Phenician, Hittite, 2 out of the nations of which Jehovah said to the sons of Israel “You shall not go among them nor have them come among you, lest they bend your hearts to follow their gods”—Solomon consorted with those in love. 3 —— 4 And at the time of Solomon’s old age his wives bent his heart to follow other gods, and his heart was not at one with his God Jehovah like his father David’s heart; 5* and Solomon went after ʽAshtart the goddess of the Phenicians and Milcom the god of the ʽAmmonites, 6 and Solomon did what displeased Jehovah, and did not altogether follow Jehovah like his father David. 7 Then Solomon built a height for Kemosh the god of Moab on the mountain in front of Jerusalem, and for Milcom the god of the Bene-ʽAmmon; 8* and so for all his foreign wives he made burning-places and altars for their gods.
9 And Jehovah was angered with Solomon because he had bent his heart away from Israel’s God Jehovah, who had appeared to him twice 10 and had given him orders about this matter, not to follow other gods, and he had not obeyed the orders Jehovah had given him. 11 And Jehovah said to Solomon “Since you have been thus minded, and have not kept my covenant and usages which I commanded you, I will tear the kingship off you and give it to your slave. 12 I will not do it in your time though, for the sake of your father David. I will take it out of your son’s hands; 13 only I will not tear away all the kingship, I will give your son one tribe, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”
14 —And Hadad the Edomite: he was of the royal blood in Edom, 15 and when David made havoc of the Edomites, when General Joab went up to bury the slain and killed every male in Edom 16 (for Joab and all Israel stayed there six months, till they had made away with every male in Edom) 17 Hadad fled away, he and certain Edomites with him, officers of his father’s, to go to Egypt, Hadad being a small boy; 18 and they left Midian and came to Paran, and took men with them out of Paran, and came into Egypt, to the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt; and he gave him a house and appointed him an allowance of bread, and gave him land. 19 And the Pharaoh showed Hadad very much favor, and he gave him a wife, his own wife’s sister, the sister of Queen Tahminas, 20 and Tahminas’s sister became the mother of his son Genubath, whom Tahminas brought up in the Pharaoh’s family; and Genubath was in the Pharaoh’s palace among the Egyptian princes. 21 And Hadad heard in Egypt that David had gone to rest with his fathers and that General Joab was dead; and Hadad said to the Pharaoh “Give me leave to go to my own country.” 22 And the Pharaoh said to him “Why, what are you stinted for with me? and here you are wanting to go to your own country.” But he said “No, do give me leave”; and Hadad went back to his own country. . . . 23* And Jehovah raised up an antagonist to Solomon, Rezon the son of Eljadaʽ, who had fled away from his sovereign King Hadadʽezer of Soba, 24** and men had gathered around him and he had become the captain of a band of raiders, when David was killing them; and he took Damascus and lived in it and became king at Damascus, 25* and was an adversary to Israel throughout Solomon’s time. This is the mischief Hadad did; and he bore Israel a grudge, and became king over Edom.
26 —And Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Sereda, a widow’s son, an officer of Solomon’s who raised his hand against the king. 27 And this was the occasion on which he raised his hand against the king: Solomon built the Millo, closed up the breach in the fortifications of his father David’s city; 28 and this Jeroboam was an energetic man, and Solomon saw that the young fellow was efficient and appointed him over all the porterage of the line of Joseph. 29 And at that time Jeroboam had gone out of Jerusalem, and the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road, he having a new cloak about him and the two being alone out in the country; 30 and Ahijah seized the new cloak he had on and tore it in twelve pieces, 31* and said to Jeroboam “Take ten pieces for yourself; for Jehovah the God of Israel says ‘I am tearing the kingship out of Solomon’s hands and giving you ten tribes 32 (but he shall have one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel), 33* since he has left me and done reverence to ʽAshtart the goddess of the Phenicians and to Kemosh the god of the Moabites and to Milcom the god of the Bene-ʽAmmon, and not walked in my ways, doing what I approve and living up to my usages and laws like his father David. 34 But I will not take all the kingship out of his hands, but install him as prince all his lifetime for the sake of my servant David whom I chose, who kept my commandments and usages; 35 but I will take the kingship out of his son’s hands and give it to you, the ten tribes, 36 and to his son I will give one tribe in order that through all time my servant David may have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen for myself, to put my name there. 37 And you I will take and you shall reign with absolute power and be king over Israel. 38 And if you listen to all that I command you, and walk in my ways and do what I approve, keeping my usages and commandments as my servant David did, I will be with you and build you a secure house, as I did for David.’” 39 —— 40* And Solomon meant to put Jeroboam to death; but Jeroboam got away to Egypt, to Shoshak the king of Egypt, and was in Egypt till Solomon’s death.
41 And as to the rest of Solomon’s history, and all that he did, and his wisdom, it is recorded in the History of Solomon. 42 And the time that Solomon was king at Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. 43* And Solomon went to rest with his fathers, and was buried in his father David’s city; and his son Rehoboam succeeded him.
12 And Rehoboam came to Shekem, because all Israel had come to Shekem to install him as king; 2 —— 3* and they told Rehoboam 4 “Your father made our yoke bear hard on us; now make the hard service to your father rather easier, and his heavy yoke that he put on us, and we will be your subjects.” 5 And he said to them “Go, and in three days more come back to me”; and they went.
6 And King Rehoboam consulted the old men who had been in the service of his father Solomon when he was alive, asking them “How do you advise me to reply to these people?” 7* and they told him “If today you will be a subject to these people and respond to them and speak them fair, they will be subjects to you permanently.” 8 But he discarded the old men’s policy which they had recommended to him, and consulted the boys who had grown up with him, whom he had in his service, 9 and said to them “What reply do you advise that we give to these people who have told me ‘Make the yoke your father put on us rather easier’?” 10* And the boys who had grown up with him told him “This is what you will say to these people who have told you ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, be easier on us’: you will tell them ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s hips. 11 Now my father imposed a heavy yoke on you, and I will add to your yoke; my father punished you with whips, and I will punish you with scorpions.’”
12 And all Israel came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had told them, “Come back to me on the third day”; 13 and the king gave them a harsh answer, and discarded the old men’s policy which they had recommended to him 14 and spoke to them in accordance with the boys’ policy, “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 did not listen to the people, because it was a crisis determined by Jehovah in order to make good his prediction which Jehovah had given by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
16* And all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them; and the people replied to the king “What share have we in David? no estate in Jesse’s son; to your homes, Israel! now look after your own house, David!” 17 and Israel went to their homes. 18 And King Rehoboam sent Adoniram, the superintendent of the corvée; and all Israel stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam put his best foot foremost in getting into his chariot to take flight to Jerusalem; 19 and Israel rebelled against the house of David, and it has lasted to this day. 20 And when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back they sent and called him to the congress, and made him king over all Israel: nobody followed the house of David but the tribe of Judah alone.
21* And Rehoboam came to Jerusalem and assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand picked warriors, to make war with the house of Israel, to restore the kingship to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. 22 And Jehovah’s word came to Shemaʽiah the man of God 23 “Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, the king of Judah, and to all the houses of Judah and Benjamin and the rest of the people, 24* ‘Says Jehovah, You shall not go up, nor make war with your brothers the sons of Israel; go back home; for this thing has come from me.’” And they listened to Jehovah’s word and went back, going by Jehovah’s word.
25 And Jeroboam fortified Shekem in the highland of Ephraim, and made it his capital; and he went out from there and fortified Penuel.
26 And Jeroboam said to himself “Now the kingship will go back to the family of David: 27 if these people go up to offer sacrifice at Jehovah’s house at Jerusalem, the people’s hearts will turn back to their sovereign King Rehoboam of Judah, and they will kill me.” 28 And the king thought up a policy, and made two golden calves and said to the people “No more going up to Jerusalem: here are your gods, Israel, that brought you up out of Egypt”; 29 and he set one in Bethel and one he put in Dan, 30 and this thing became a sin. And the people went before the one up to Dan, 31 and he made height-houses, and made priests out of the common people who were not sons of Levi; 32 and Jeroboam appointed a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast in Judah, and went up the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made and setting up at Bethel the height-priests he had made.
33 And he went up the altar he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the month he had improvised out of his own fancy; and he appointed a feast for the sons of Israel, and went up the altar to offer.
13 And a man of God came out of Judah, by Jehovah’s commission, to Bethel, while Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer; 2* and he proclaimed against the altar by Jehovah’s commission “Altar, altar, Jehovah says, a child is being born to the house of David, named Josiah; and he shall kill as sacrifices on you the height-priests that offer on you, and they shall burn human bones on you.” 3 And he gave a token that day, “This is the token that Jehovah spoke: the altar is to burst and the fat-ashes on it to run out.” 4 And when the king heard the words that the man of God proclaimed against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam put out his hand from the altar, saying “Arrest him”; and his arm that he put out against him hardened, and he could not draw it back to himself; 5 and the altar burst and the fat-ashes ran out from the altar in accordance with the token that the man of God had given by Jehovah’s commission. 6* And the king answered by saying to the man of God “Propitiate your God Jehovah so that my hand will come back”; and the man of God propitiated Jehovah, and the king’s hand came back and was as it had been at first. 7 And the king told the man of God “Come into the palace with me and have something to brace you up and let me give you a present”; 8 but the man of God said to the king “If you would give me half your palace I would not go in with you, and I will not eat food nor drink water in this place; 9 for so I was commanded by Jehovah’s commission, ‘You shall not eat food nor drink water, nor go back the way you came.’” 10 And he went away by another road, and did not go back by the road by which he had come to Bethel.
11 And a certain old prophet was living at Bethel, and his sons came in and told him all about the deed the man of God had done that day at Bethel, and the words he had spoken to the king: they told their father, 12 and their father said to them “Which way did he go?” and his sons showed him the road that the man of God who came out of Judah had gone. 13 And he said to his sons “Saddle the donkey for me”; and they saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it, 14* and went after the man of God and found him sitting under the terebinth-tree, and said to him “Are you the man of God who came out of Judah?” and he said “Yes.” 15 And he said to him “Come home with me and eat a meal”; 16* but he said “I cannot go back with you and go in with you, and I will not eat food nor drink water in this place; 17 for I was told by Jehovah’s commission ‘You shall not eat food nor drink water, nor go over again the way you went on.’” 18 But he said to him “I am a prophet the same as you are, and an angel told me by Jehovah’s commission ‘Bring him back home with you to eat a meal and drink water.’” He lied to him; 19 but he went back with him and ate a meal in his house and drank water, 20 and they were sitting at the table when Jehovah’s word came to the prophet who had brought him back, 21 and he called out to the man of God who had come out of Judah “Says Jehovah, Since you have disobeyed Jehovah, and not kept the commandment that your God Jehovah gave you, 22 and have gone back and eaten food and drunk water in the place of which he spoke to you the words ‘Do not eat food nor drink water,’ your body shall not come to the grave of your fathers.” 23 And after he had eaten a meal and had drunk, he saddled the donkey for himself and went again; 24 and a lion found him on the road and killed him, and his body lay thrown down in the road with the donkey standing by it and the lion standing by the body. 25 And there were men passing by who saw the body thrown down in the road and the lion standing by the body, and they went in and spoke of it in the city the old prophet lived in. 26* And the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it and said “It is the man of God who disobeyed Jehovah; Jehovah has given him to the lion, which has struck him down and killed him in accordance with Jehovah’s word that he had spoken to him.” 27 And he said to his sons “Saddle the donkey for me”; and they did so. 28 And he went and found his body thrown down in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing by the body; the lion had not eaten the body nor struck down the donkey; 29 and the prophet lifted the body of the man of God and laid it on his donkey and brought it back to the city to bewail and bury it. 30 And he laid the body in his own tomb, and they bewailed him with “Alas, brother!” 31* And after he had buried him he said to his sons “When I die bury me in the tomb the man of God is buried in; lay me beside his bones, so that my bones may escape with his; for the thing is to be, 32 the thing that he proclaimed by Jehovah’s commission against the altar at Bethel and against all the height-houses in the cities of Samaria.”
33* After this affair Jeroboam did not turn back from his evil course, but made height-priests again out of the common people: whoever pleased, Jeroboam would install him, and they became height-priests. 34 And this thing became the sin of Jeroboam’s family, and effacement and extirpation off the face of the earth.
14* At that time Jeroboam’s son Abijah fell sick; 2 and Jeroboam said to his wife “Up with you, and change your clothes so that they will not know you are Jeroboam’s wife, and go to Shiloh: there you will find the prophet Ahijah; it was he predicted my being king over this people. 3* And take in your hand ten cakes of bread, and seed-cakes and a bottle of honey, and go in where he is: he will tell you what is to happen to the boy.” 4 And Jeroboam’s wife did so, and rose and went to Shiloh and into Ahijah’s house.
And Ahijah could not see, because his eyes were set as a result of his old age; 5 but Jehovah had said to Ahijah “Here is Jeroboam’s wife come to make an inquiry of you as to her son, because he is sick: thus and so you shall speak to her.” And when she came in she was in disguise; 6 but when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in at the door he said “Come in, wife of Jeroboam; what are you in disguise for, when I am sent to you with a hard message? 7 Go say to Jeroboam ‘Says Jehovah the God of Israel, Whereas I elevated you from among the people and set you as warden over my people Israel, 8 and tore the kingship away from the family of David and gave it to you, and you have not been like my servant David in his keeping all my commandments and following me with all his heart, doing only what I approved, 9 but have done worse than all that there had been before you, and have gone and made yourself other gods and statues, to provoke me, and thrown me behind your back, 10 therefore I am bringing mischief to Jeroboam’s family, and will exterminate every male person that belongs to Jeroboam, barred and unbarred in Israel, and rout out Jeroboam’s family as one routs dung, till it is all out. 11 Whoever of Jeroboam’s dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and whoever dies in the country the birds of the air shall eat; for Jehovah has spoken.’ 12 And as for you, rise and go home: when your feet enter the city the child shall die; 13 and all Israel shall bewail him and bury him—for he alone out of Jeroboam’s family shall go into a grave, since he in Jeroboam’s family has something good found in him with reference to Jehovah the God of Israel. 14 And Jehovah will raise up for himself a king over Israel who shall exterminate Jeroboam’s family: this is the day, and what even now? 15 And Jehovah will strike Israel as reeds sway in the water, and will uproot Israel from the good soil he gave to their fathers and scatter them on the other side of the River, since they have been making their asherahs, provoking Jehovah; 16 and he will give Israel away on account of Jeroboam’s sins which he committed and caused Israel to commit.”
17 And Jeroboam’s wife rose and went, and came to Tirsah; as she came on the threshold of the house the boy died. 18 And they buried him, and all Israel bewailed him, in accordance with Jehovah’s prediction that he had made by his servant the prophet Ahijah.
19 And as to the rest of the history of Jeroboam, his fighting and his becoming king, it is recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 20 And the time that Jeroboam was king was twenty-two years; and he went to rest with his fathers, and his son Nadab succeeded him.
21 And Rehoboam the son of Solomon became king in Judah; Rehoboam was forty-one years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned seventeen years at Jerusalem, the city Jehovah had chosen, to put his name there, out of all the tribes of Israel; and his mother’s name was Naʽamah the ʽAmmonite. 22** And Judah did what displeased Jehovah, and stirred his jealousy beyond all that their fathers did by their sins which they committed; 23 and they too built themselves heights and obelisks and asherahs on every high hill and under every verdant tree. 24 And there was also religious prostitution in the country; they did just like the detestable ways of the nations Jehovah had dispossessed before the sons of Israel.
25 And in the year five of King Rehoboam, King Shoshak of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, 26 and took the treasures of Jehovah’s house and of the palace, took everything; and he took all the golden shields Solomon had made. 27 And King Rehoboam made bronze shields instead, and committed them to the charge of the captains of the runners who guarded the door of the palace; 28 and as often as the king came to Jehovah’s house the runners carried them, and took them back to the guard-chamber.
29 And as to the rest of the history of Rehoboam, and all that he did, it is recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Judah. 30 And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the time. 31** And Rehoboam went to rest with his fathers, and was buried in David’s City, and his son Abijam succeeded him.
15 And in the year eighteen of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah; 2* he reigned three years at Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Maʽacah the daughter of Abishalom. 3* And he walked in his father’s sins that he had done before him, and his heart was not at one with his God Jehovah like his father David’s heart— 4 for it was on David’s account that his God Jehovah had given him a lamp at Jerusalem, setting up his sons after him and keeping up Jerusalem, 5** David having done what Jehovah approved and not turned from anything that he commanded him all his life. 6 —— 7 and as to the rest of the history of Abijam, and all that he did, it is recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Judah. And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. 8 And Abijam went to rest with his fathers, and they buried him in David’s City; and his son Asa succeeded him.
9* And in the year twenty of King Jeroboam of Israel, Asa of Judah became king; 10 and he reigned forty-one years at Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Maʽacah the daughter of Abishalom. 11 And Asa did what Jehovah approved, like his father David; 12 and he dispatched the religious sodomites out of the country, and removed all the fetishes his fathers had made, 13** and his mother Maʽacah too he deposed from her queenship because she had made a horror of an asherah; and Asa cut down her horror and burned it in Kidron Arroyo. 14 But the heights were not removed; Asa’s heart, however, was at one with Jehovah all his life. 15* And he brought in his father’s consecrated articles and his own to Jehovah’s house, silver and gold and furnishings.
16 And there was war between Asa and King Baʽasha of Israel all their reigns; 17 and King Baʽasha of Israel came up against Judah and fortified Ramah, blockading King Asa of Judah. 18 And Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of Jehovah’s house and the palace treasuries and committed them to his officers, and King Asa sent them to Ben-Hadad the son of Tabrimmon the son of Hezjon, the king of Syria, who lived at Damascus, with the message 19 “There is a treaty between you and me, between your father and mine; here I have sent you a present of silver and gold: go break your treaty with King Baʽasha of Israel, so that he will withdraw from his attack on me.” 20 And Ben-Hadad listened to King Asa, and sent his generals against the cities of Israel, and ravaged ʽIjon and Dan and Abel Beth-Maʽacah and all Gennesaret, along with all the country of Naphtali; 21 and when Baʽasha heard of it he left off fortifying Ramah and went back to Tirsah, 22 and King Asa summoned all Judah, nobody being exempt, and they carried away the stone and timber of Ramah, that Baʽasha had built in, and with it King Asa fortified Gebaʽ in Benjamin and Mispah.
23 And as to all the rest of the history of Asa, and all his exploits and everything he did, and the cities he fortified, they are recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Judah. During his old age, however, he was diseased in his feet. 24 And Asa went to rest with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in his father David’s city; and his son Jehoshaphat succeeded him.
25 And Nadab the son of Jeroboam became king over Israel in the year two of King Asa of Judah, and reigned over Israel two years; 26 and he did what displeased Jehovah, and followed in his father’s path and his sin which he made Israel sin. 27* And Baʽasha the son of Ahijah, of the family of Issacar, organized a revolution against him; 28 and Baʽasha assassinated him at Gibbethon, which belongs to the Philistines, as Nadab and all Israel were besieging Gibbethon, in the year three of King Asa of Judah, and succeeded him. 29 And when he came to the throne he killed all Jeroboam’s family, not leaving a living soul of Jeroboam’s in accordance with Jehovah’s prediction which he had made by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite, 30 for Jeroboam’s sins that he committed and caused Israel to commit in the provocation he gave to Israel’s God Jehovah. 31* And as to the rest of the history of Nadab, and all that he did, it is recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 32 ——
33 In the year three of King Asa of Judah, Baʽasha the son of Ahijah became king over Israel for a reign of twenty-four years at Tirsah; 34 and he did what displeased Jehovah, and followed Jeroboam’s path and his sin that he caused Israel to commit.
16 And Jehovah’s word came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baʽasha, 2 “Since I raised you from the dust and set you as warden over my people Israel, and you have followed Jeroboam’s path and caused my people Israel to sin, provoking me by their sins, 3 I am routing out Baʽasha and his family and making your family like the family of Jeroboam the son of Nebat: 4 whoever of Baʽasha’s dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and whoever of his dies in the country the birds of the air shall eat.”
5 And as to the rest of the history of Baʽasha, and what he did, and his exploits, they are recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 6 And Baʽasha went to rest with his fathers, and was buried at Tirsah; and his son Elah succeeded him.
7* Moreover, Jehovah’s word came to Baʽasha and his family by Jehu the son of Hanani both for all that he did that displeased Jehovah, provoking him with his handiwork, becoming like the family of Jeroboam, and for his killing it off.
8 In the year twenty-six of King Asa of Judah, Elah the son of Baʽasha became king over Israel for a reign of two years at Tirsah. 9 And his officer Zimri, the captain of half the chariotry, organized a revolution against him, and as he was at Tirsah getting drunk at the house of Arsa the steward of the palace at Tirsah, 10 Zimri came in and assassinated him in the year twenty-seven of King Asa of Judah, and succeeded him. 11 And when he became king, as soon as he was seated on the throne he killed off all Baʽasha’s family, not leaving him any male person, and his kinsmen and friends: 12 Zimri rooted out all Baʽasha’s family, in accordance with Jehovah’s prediction which he made to Baʽasha by the prophet Jehu, 13 for all Baʽasha’s sins and the sins of his son Elah, which they had committed and had caused Israel to commit, provoking Israel’s God Jehovah with their superstitions. 14 And as to the rest of the history of Elah, and all that he did, it is recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
15 In the year twenty-seven of King Asa of Judah, Zimri became king for a reign of seven days at Tirsah. But the people were in camp attacking Gibbethon, which belongs to the Philistines; 16 and the people in the camp heard the word “Zimri has organized a revolution, and he has killed the king,” and all Israel made ʽOmri, a general, king of Israel that day at the camp. 17 And ʽOmri, and all Israel with him, went up from Gibbethon and besieged Tirsah; 18 and when Zimri saw that the city was taken he went into the keep of the palace and burned the palace down over his head, and so died, 19 for his sins that he had committed in doing what displeased Jehovah, following Jeroboam’s path, and his sin that he had committed, causing Israel to sin. 20 And as to the rest of the history of Zimri, and his revolution that he organized, it is recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
21 Then the people, Israel, divided into parties: half the people backed Tibni the son of Ginath to make him king, and half backed ʽOmri. 22 And the party backing ʽOmri was too strong for the party backing Tibni; and Tibni and his brother Joram died at that time, and ʽOmri became king at Tirsah.
23 In the year thirty-one of King Asa of Judah, ʽOmri became king over Israel for a reign of twelve years: he reigned at Tirsah six years, 24 and he bought the plateau of Samaria from Shemer for two hundred-weight of silver, and fortified the plateau, and named the city that he built after Shemer, the owner of the plateau, “Shamaria” or Samaria. 25 And ʽOmri did what displeased Jehovah, and did worse than all who had gone before him; 26 and he walked altogether in the path of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and in his sins that he caused Israel to commit, provoking Israel’s God Jehovah with their superstitions. 27 And as to the rest of the history of ʽOmri, and all that he did, and his exploits, they are recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 28* And ʽOmri went to rest with his fathers, and was buried at Samaria, and his son Ahab succeeded him.
29 And Ahab the son of ʽOmri became king over Israel in the year thirty-eight of King Asa of Judah; and Ahab the son of ʽOmri reigned over Israel at Samaria for twenty-two years. 30 And Ahab the son of ʽOmri did more to displease Jehovah than all who had gone before him: 31 his walking in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat was the slightest part; he married Jezebel, the daughter of King Ethbaal of the Phenicians, and went and worshiped the Baal and did reverence to him, 32 and erected an altar to the Baal in the Baal’s house that he built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made the asherah; and Ahab kept on doing things to provoke Israel’s God Jehovah more than all the kings of Israel that had gone before him.
34* In his days Ahiel the Bethelite fortified Jericho; he laid its foundation with his oldest son Abiram, and set up its gates with his youngest son Segub, in accordance with Jehovah’s prediction which he had made by Joshuaʽ the son of Nun.
17 And Elijah the Tishbite (from Tishbe in Gilead) said to Ahab “By Israel’s God Jehovah, in whose service I am, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word.” 2 And Jehovah’s word came to him 3 “Go from here and turn eastward, and conceal yourself in Kerith Arroyo, which fronts the Jordan: 4 you shall drink from the arroyo, and I have ordered the ravens to furnish you food there.” 5 And Elijah did as Jehovah said, and went and lived in Kerith Arroyo, which fronts the Jordan; 6* and the ravens brought him bread in the morning and meat in the evening, and he drank from the arroyo.
7 But after some time the arroyo dried up, because there was no rain in the country. 8 And Jehovah’s word came to him 9 “Go away to Sarephath, which belongs to Sidon: I have ordered a widow there to furnish you food.” 10 And he went away to Sarephath, and came to the entrance of the city and found there a widow gathering wood; and he called to her “Get me a little water in the dipper to drink,” 11 and she went to get it; and he called after her “Get me a bit of bread and bring it in your hand,” 12* but she said “By your God Jehovah, I haven’t a biscuit, but a handful of meal in the jar and a little oil in the jug; and here I am gathering a couple of sticks, and am going in to cook it for me and my children, and we are going to eat it and die.” 13* And Elijah said to her “Do not be afraid: go in and do as you say, only make me a little biscuit out of it first and bring it out to me, and cook for yourself and your children afterward; 14 for, says Israel’s God Jehovah, the jar of meal will not give out, nor the jug of oil run short, till the day that Jehovah sends showers over the soil.”
15 And she went and did as Elijah said, and had enough to eat, she and he and her family, for some time: 16 the jar of meal did not give out nor the jug of oil run short, in accordance with Jehovah’s promise which he had given by Elijah.
17 But after these events the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick, and it went hard with him, till he ceased to breathe. 18* And she said to Elijah “What business had you with me, man of God? you came to me to draw God’s attention to my offenses, and to kill my son!” 19 And he said to her “Give me your son,” and took him out of her arms and carried him up to the roof-chamber he was living in, and laid him on his bed, 20 and called out to Jehovah “My God Jehovah, have you even been harming the widow I am staying with, by causing the death of her son?” 21 And he stretched himself full length on the child three times, and called out to Jehovah “My God Jehovah, let this child’s soul come back into him”; 22 and Jehovah obeyed Elijah, and the child’s soul came back into him and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child and carried him down from the roof-chamber to the house and gave him to his mother, and said “See, your son is alive.” 24 And the woman said to Elijah “Now I know you are a man of God, and Jehovah’s word in’ your mouth is truth.”
18 And after a long time Jehovah’s word came to Elijah, in the third year, “Go and appear before Ahab, so that I may send rain over the soil”; 2 and Elijah went to appear before Ahab.
And the famine was pressing hard in Samaria; 3 and Ahab called ʽObadiah the steward of the palace (ʽObadiah was a great fearer of Jehovah: 4 when Jezebel exterminated Jehovah’s prophets, ʽObadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them fifty in a cave, and furnished them bread and water), 5 and Ahab said to ʽObadiah “Come, let us go through the country to all the springs and arroyos; perhaps we may find grass and save the life of pony and mule, and not be deprived of the race of cattle.” 6 And they divided the country between them to go over: Ahab went one way and ʽObadiah went by himself another way.
7 And as ʽObadiah was on his way he found Elijah coming to meet him; and he recognized him and threw himself down on his face and said “Is this your reverence, Elijah?” 8 and he said to him “Yes; go tell your master ‘here is Elijah.’” 9 And he said “What wrong have I done, that you are giving your servant into Ahab’s hands to be put to death? 10 By your God Jehovah, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent to look for you; and they would say ‘not here,’ and he would take an oath of the kingdom or nation that they did not find you. 11 And now you say ‘Go tell your master “here is Elijah”’; 12 and while I go from you Jehovah’s spirit will lift you away I do not know where, and I shall come to tell Ahab and he will not find you and will kill me; but your servant has been a fearer of Jehovah from boyhood. 13 Has your reverence not been told what I did when Jezebel was killing Jehovah’s prophets, and I hid a hundred of Jehovah’s prophets, fifty in a cave, and furnished them bread and water? 14* and now you say ‘Go tell your master “here is Elijah,”’ and he will kill me.” 15 And Elijah said “By Jehovah of Armies, in whose service I am, today I will show myself to him.”
16 And ʽObadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17 And when Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him “Is that you, you trouble-breeder of Israel?” 18 and he said “I have not bred trouble for Israel; it is you and your family that have, in leaving Jehovah and going after the Baals. 19 But now send and gather to meet me at Mount Carmel all Israel, and the four hundred and fifty prophets of the Baal and the four hundred prophets of the asherah who eat from Jezebel’s table.
20 And Ahab sent all through Israel and gathered all the prophets at Mount Carmel. 21* And Elijah came up to all the people and said “Till when will you limp along on both conceptions? if Jehovah is God follow him, and if the Baal, follow him”; and the people gave him not a word of answer. 22 And Elijah said to the people “I am the only prophet of Jehovah left, and of the Baal’s prophets there are four hundred and fifty men. 23 Then let them give us two steers, and let them choose themselves one steer and cut it up and lay it on the wood, and not put in any fire, and I will prepare one steer and not put in any fire; 24 and you shall call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of Jehovah, and the god that answers with fire is God.” And all the people answered “All right.”
25 And Elijah said to the prophets of the Baal “Choose yourselves one steer and prepare it first, because there are more of you, and call on the name of your god, but do not put in any fire.” 26*** And they took the steer and prepared it, and called on the name of the Baal from morning till noon, “Baal, answer us!” without getting a sound of answer, and hobbled along by the altar they had made. 27* And at noon Elijah derided them and said “Call loud, because he is a god—because he is occupied with his private concerns—because he is gone on an expedition—maybe he is asleep and will wake up”; 28 and they called loudly and hacked themselves with swords and lances in their fashion till blood flowed over them. 29 And through the afternoon they were under the power till time for making the offering, without getting a sound of answer or attention.
30 And Elijah said to all the people “Come here to me”; and all the people came to him; and he mended the broken-down altar of Jehovah. 31 And Elijah took twelve stones, equal in number to the tribes of the sons of Jacob to whom came Jehovah’s word “Your name shall be Israel,” 32* and built the stones into an altar in Jehovah’s name, and made a trench, taking in room for about three pecks of seed, around the altar, 33 and laid the wood and cut up the steer and laid it on the wood, and said “Fill four jars with water and pour it over the burnt-offering and the wood”; and they did so. 34 And he said “Do it again”; and they did it again. And he said “Do it the third time”; and they did it the third time, 35 and the water ran around the altar, and he filled the trench with water too. 36 And at offering-making the prophet Elijah approached it and said “Jehovah, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be recognized that you are God in Israel and I am your servant, and it was at your word I did all these things. 37 Answer me, Jehovah, answer me, and let this people know that you, Jehovah, are God, and it was you who turned their hearts backward.” 38 And Jehovah’s fire fell and consumed the burnt-offering and the wood and the stones and the soil, and licked up the water in the trench; 39 and all the people saw and threw themselves down on their faces and said “Jehovah is God, Jehovah is God.” 40 And Elijah said to them “Get hold of the prophets of the Baal; do not let a single man escape”; and they seized them, and Elijah took them down to Kishon Arroyo and cut their throats there.
41 And Elijah said to Ahab “Go up, eat and drink, because there is a roaring of rain in the air”; 42 and Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up on the top of Carmel and crouched on the ground and put his face between his knees, 43 and said to his man “Go up and look toward the west”; and he went up and looked, and said “There isn’t anything,” and he said “Go again,” seven times. 44 And at the seventh time he said “Here is a little cloud like a man’s hand coming up in the west”; and he said “Go up and tell Ahab ʽHarness and go down, so the rain will not keep you back.’” 45 And before long the sky grew dark with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain; and Ahab rode to Jezreʽel, 46 but Jehovah’s hand was on Elijah and he girded his waist and ran before Ahab clear to Jezreʽel.
19 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and all about his putting all the prophets to the sword; 2 and Jezebel sent Elijah the message “If you are Elijah and I am Jezebel, the gods do so and more but right off tomorrow I will make your life like the life of one of them.” 3 And he was afraid, and went off for his life; and he came to Beer-Shebaʽ, which belongs to Judah, and left his man there, while he went into the wilderness a day’s journey. 4* And he came and sat down under a broom-bush and begged to die, and said “It is too much: now, Jehovah, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.” 5 And he lay down and went to sleep under a broom-bush, and found someone touching him and saying “Get up and eat.” 6 And he looked, and there at his head were an ash-cake and a jug of water; and he ate and drank and lay down. 7 And the Angel of Jehovah touched him again for the second time, and said “Get up and eat, because the journey is too long for you”; 8* and he got up and ate and drank, and went, by the strength from that meal, forty days and forty nights, to Mount Horeb, and went into the cave there and spent the night there.
9* And he found Jehovah’s word coming to him, “What are you here for, Elijah?” 10 And he said “I am jealous on behalf of Jehovah the God of Armies because the sons of Israel have left you: they have demolished your altars and put your prophets to the sword; I am the only one left, and they are hunting for my life and meaning to get it.”
11 And he said “Go out and stand on the mountainside before Jehovah”; and he found Jehovah passing by, and a great hard wind tearing up mountains and breaking cliffs in pieces before Jehovah, Jehovah not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, Jehovah not in the earthquake, 12 and after the earthquake a fire, Jehovah not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of soft whispering. 13 And when Elijah heard it he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave, and found a voice addressing him, “What are you here for, Elijah?” 14 and he said “I am jealous on behalf of Jehovah the God of Armies because the sons of Israel have left you: they have demolished your altars and put your prophets to the sword; I am the only one left, and they are hunting for my life and meaning to get it.”
15 And Jehovah said to him “Go take the road again, to the wilderness of Damascus, and go in and anoint Hazael for king over Syria. 16 And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint for king over Israel, and Elishaʽ the son of Shaphat from Abel-Meholah you shall anoint for your own successor; 17 and him who escapes Hazael’s sword Jehu shall bring to his death, and him who escapes Jehu’s sword Elishaʽ shall bring to his death; 18 and I will leave in Israel seven thousand, all the knees that have never bent to the Baal and all the mouths that have never kissed him.”
19** And he went from there and found Elishaʽ the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke in front of him, himself with the twelfth; and Elijah went over to him and threw his mantle to him. 20* And he left the cattle and ran after Elijah and said “Let me kiss my father and mother and follow you”; and he said “Go on back: what have I done to you?” 21 And he went back from following him, and took the yoke of cattle and slaughtered them and boiled them with the woodwork of the team and gave the meat to the company, and they ate it; and he went off following Elijah and waiting on him.
20* And King Ben-Hadad of Syria gathered all his forces and came up and besieged Samaria, 2 and sent into the city to King Ahab of Israel and told him “Says Ben-Hadad, 3* Your silver and gold are mine, and the best of your wives and children are mine”; 4 and the king of Israel answered “As your majesty says, I and everything I have are yours.” 5 And the messengers came again and said “Says Ben-Hadad, I sent to tell you you should give me your silver and gold and wives and children; 6* but right off tomorrow I will send my officers to you and they shall search your house and the houses of your subjects, and help themselves to whatever you especially care for and take it.”
7 And the king of Israel summoned all the elders and said to them “Look and see for yourselves, the man is after mischief; for he had sent to me for my wives and children and my silver and gold, and I had not refused.” 8 And all the elders and all the people said to him “Do not consent nor obey.” 9 And he said to Ben-Hadad’s messengers “Tell his majesty ‘Everything that you sent to me about at first I will do, but this thing I cannot’”; and the messengers went and took the reply back to him. 10 And Ben-Hadad sent word to him “The gods do so to me, and more, if the dust in Samaria will suffice for handfuls for all the people at my back”; 11 and the king of Israel answered “That will do: a man fastening his belt should not brag like a man unfastening it.” 12 And when he heard these words as he was drinking, he and the kings, in the booths, he said to his officers “Invest”; and they invested the city.
13 And a prophet approached King Ahab of Israel and said “Says Jehovah, Have you seen all this great host? I am giving it into your hands today, and you shall know that I am Jehovah.” 14 And Ahab said “By whom?” and he said “Says Jehovah, by the attendants of the lieutenants of the provinces.” And he said “Who shall take the initiative?” and he said “You.” 15 And he mustered the attendants of the lieutenants of the provinces, and there were two hundred and thirty-two of them; and behind them he mustered all the people, all the sons of Israel, seven thousand of them. 16* And they went out at noon, while Ben-Hadad was getting drunk in the booths, he and the kings; 17 and the attendants of the lieutenants of the provinces went out first, and they sent and told him “Some men have come out of Samaria.” 18 And he said “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; and if they have come out for war, take them alive.” 19* And these came out of the city, the attendants of the lieutenants of the provinces and the forces that were behind them, 20* and each killed his man, and the Syrians took flight and the Israelites pursued them; and King Ben-Hadad of Syria made his escape on a pony, and some horsemen. 21 And the king of Israel went out and took the ponies and the chariots, and made great havoc among the Syrians. 22 And the prophet approached the king of Israel and said to him “Go make provisions, and have your mind made up what to do; for at the return of the year the king of Syria is coming up against you.”
23* And the officers of the king of Syria said to him “Their gods are mountain gods; that is why they were too strong for us; but let us fight them in the plain and see if we shall not be too strong for them. 24 And take this course: remove the kings from their places and appoint viceroys instead, 25 and yourself count off a force equal to the one that deserted you, with pony for pony and chariot for chariot, and let us fight them in the plain and see if we shall not be too strong for them”; and the king of Syria listened to them and did so.
26 And at the return of the year Ben-Hadad mustered the Syrians and came up to Aphek to fight Israel, 27* and the sons of Israel were mustered and provisioned and went to meet them; and the sons of Israel camped facing them, like two bunches of stray goats, while the Syrians filled the country. 28 And the man of God approached the king and said “Says Jehovah, Since the Syrians say ‘Jehovah is a god of the mountains and not of the vales,’ I will give all this great host into your hands, and you shall know that I am Jehovah.” 29 And they camped face to face for seven days; and on the seventh day battle was joined, and the sons of Israel defeated the Syrians, killing a hundred thousand infantry in one day; 30 and the survivors fled into the city of Aphek, and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand survivors.
And Ben-Hadad fled and went into a closet. 31 And his officers said to him “See here, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are kindly kings: let us put sackcloths round our waists and ropes round our heads and go out to the king of Israel; he may spare your life.” 32 And they tied sackcloths round their waists and ropes round their heads and came to the king of Israel, and said “Your servant Ben-Hadad says ‘Spare my life.’” And he said “Is he still alive? he is my brother.” 33 And the men, catching at the token, held him to him; word at once and said “Ben-Hadad is your brother!” And he said “Go in and fetch him”; 34* and Ben-Hadad came out to him, and he took him up into the chariot. And he said to him “The cities my father took from your father I will give back, and you shall establish bazars for yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria.” “And on these terms I will let you go.” And he made a treaty with him and let him go.
35 And a man who belonged to the prophets’ fellowship said to his friend, by Jehovah’s direction, “Knock me down”; but the man refused to do it, 36 and he said to him “Since you did not obey Jehovah, when you go from me a lion is going to bring you down”; and he went away from him, and a lion did find him and brought him down. 37 And he found another man and said to him “Knock me down”; and the man knocked him down, drawing blood on him. 38 And the prophet went and stood in the way of the king, and disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes; 39* and as the king passed by he cried out to the king and said “Your servant went out into the fight, and a man stepped out and brought a man to me and said ‘Guard this man; if he is missing it shall be your life for his, or you shall pay a hundred-weight of silver.’ 40 And then your servant was doing things in one place and another—and he was gone.” And the king of Israel said to him “That is your sentence; you have made the award yourself.” 41 And instantly he took the bandage off from over his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as being one of the prophets; 42 and he said to him “Says Jehovah, Since you have let out of your hands the man I claimed for death without quarter, it shall be your life and your people for his.” 43* And the king of Israel went on sullen and exasperated, and came to Samaria.
21 And it befell after these events that Naboth the Jezreʽelite had a vineyard beside the palace of King Ahab of Samaria, 2 and Ahab spoke to Naboth and said “Give me your vineyard so that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is close to my house; and I will give you a better vineyard instead; if you prefer, I will pay you the price of this one in money”; 3 and Naboth said to Ahab “Jehovah forbid the thought of my giving you my family estate.” 4 And Ahab came home sullen and exasperated over the words of Naboth the Jezreʽelite had spoken to him, “I will not give you my family estate,” and took to his bed and turned his face to the wall and ate no food.
5 And his wife Jezebel went into his room and said to him “What does it mean that your spirit has gone and you are eating no food?” 6 And he told her “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreʽelite and said ‘Give me your vineyard for money, or, if you like, I will give you a vineyard instead of it,’ and he said ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’” 7* And his wife Jezebel said to him “And it is you that are exercising the royal power over Israel now! Get up, eat food and be gay; I will give you Naboth the Jezreʽelite’s vineyard.” 8 And she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and gentry that lived where Naboth did; 9 and in the letters she wrote “Proclaim a fast, and have Naboth sit at the head of the people, 10* and have two blackguards sit down in his presence and testify against him ‘You cursed God and the king’; and take him out and stone him to death.” 11 And the men of his city, the elders and gentry who were residents in his city, did as Jezebel had sent them word to, as was written in the letters she sent them: 12 proclaimed a fast, and had Naboth sit at the head of the people, 13 and in came the two blackguards and sat down in his presence and testified against him “Naboth cursed God and the king,” and they took him outside the city and stoned him to death; 14 and they sent Jezebel word “Naboth has been stoned to death.” 15 And when Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death Jezebel said to Ahab “Get up and take possession of Naboth the Jezreʽelite’s vineyard, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, he has died.” 16 And when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab rose to go down to Naboth the Jezreʽelite’s vineyard to take possession of it.
17 And Jehovah’s word came to Elijah the Tishbite 18 “Go down to meet King Ahab of Israel, of Samaria; you will find him in Naboth’s vineyard, which he has gone down to take possession of; and tell him ‘Says Jehovah, You murdered and got possession, did you?’ 19** and tell him ‘Says Jehovah, In the place where the hogs and dogs lapped Naboth’s blood the dogs shall lap your own blood too.’” 20 And Ahab said to Elijah “Found me, have you, enemy?” and he said “Yes; since you have sold yourself to do mischief that displeases Jehovah, 21 I am bringing mischief to you, and will rout you out and will exterminate every male person that belongs to Ahab, barred and unbarred in Israel, 22 and make your family like the families of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and Baʽasha the son of Ahijah, for the affronts you gave me, and causing Israel to sin. 23 And Jehovah spoke of Jezebel too, and said ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel on Jezreʽel common.’ 24 Whoever of Ahab’s dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and whoever dies in the country the birds of the air shall eat.” 25 No one at all was like Ahab, who sold himself to do what displeased Jehovah, his wife Jezebel instigating him; 26 and he went after fetishes most abominably, just as the Amorites had done, whom Jehovah dispossessed before the sons of Israel.
27 And when Ahab heard these words he tore his clothes and put a sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and slept in the sackcloth, and walked softly; 28 and Jehovah’s word came to Elijah the Tishbite 29 “Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before me? since he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the mischief in his days: in his son’s days I will bring the mischief upon his house.”
22 And they remained three years without war between Syria and Israel; 2 but in the third year King Jehoshaphat of Judah came down to the king of Israel, 3 and the king of Israel said to his officers “Do you know that Ramoth-Gilead belongs to us? and we are lying stir instead of taking it out of the king of Syria’s hands.” 4 And he said to Jehoshaphat “Will you go with me to Ramoth-Gilead to war?” and Jehoshaphat said “I will do the same as you do, my people the same as your people, my ponies the same as your ponies.”
5 And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel “First inquire for Jehovah’s word”; 6 and the king of Israel gathered the prophets, about four hundred of them, and said to them “Shall I go against Ramoth-Gilead to war or shall I let it be?” and they said “Go up and Jehovah will give it into your majesty’s hands.”
7 And Jehoshaphat said “Is there not any other prophet of Jehovah here for us to inquire from?” 8 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat “There is one other man to inquire of Jehovah from, but I hate him because he does not prophesy good luck for me but bad—Micajah the son of Imlah.” And Jehoshaphat said “Do not say such things, your majesty.” 9 And the king of Israel called to a eunuch and said “Hurry up with Micajah the son of Imlah.” 10* And the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah were sitting each on his throne, clad in robes of state, at the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets under the power before them. 11 And Sidkijah the son of Kenaʽanah made himself iron horns, and said “Says Jehovah, With these you shall gore the Syrians till you have finished them”; 12 and all the prophets prophesied so, “Go up to Ramoth-Gilead and be successful, Jehovah will give it into your majesty’s hands.” 13 And the messenger who went to summon Micajah told him “Here the prophets have unanimously spoken good luck for the king; let your word be like the word of one of them, speak good luck”; 14 but Micajah said “By Jehovah, what Jehovah tells me, that I will speak.”
15 And he came to the king, and the king said to him “Micajah, shall I go to Ramoth-Gilead to war or shall I let it be?” and he said to him “Go up and be successful, Jehovah will give it into your majesty’s hands.” 16 And the king said to him “How many times shall I adjure you not to speak anything at all but truth to me in Jehovah’s name?” 17 And he said “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep without a shepherd, and Jehovah said ‘These have no sovereign; let them go home in peace.’”
18 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat “Did I not tell you he would not prophesy good luck for me but bad?” 19 And he said “Hear Jehovah’s word, then! I saw Jehovah sitting on his throne, and all the legions of heaven stood by at his right and left, 20 and Jehovah said ‘Who will inveigle Ahab into going up and falling at Ramoth-Gilead?’ And one said this way and another that way; 21* but the Spirit stood out before Jehovah and said ‘I will inveigle him,’ 22 and Jehovah said ‘In what ways? and it said ‘I will go out and be a spirit of falsehood in the mouths of all his prophets.’ And he said ‘You shall inveigle him and be successful in it; go out and do so.’ 23 Now here has Jehovah put a spirit of falsehood in the mouths of all these prophets of yours, but Jehovah proposes bad luck for you.” 24 And Sidkijah the son of Kenaʽanah came up and struck Micajah on the cheek and said “Where did Jehovah’s spirit pass from me to speak with you?” 25 and Micajah said “You are going to see on that day, you will be getting into a closet to hide.” 26 And the king of Israel said “Take Micajah and take him back to City Captain Amon and Prince Joash 27 and say ‘By order of the king, put this fellow in jail and feed him half rations of bread and water till I come safe here.’” 28 And Micajah said “If you do come back safe, Jehovah did not speak in me.”
29 And the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah went up to Ramoth-Gilead; 30* and the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat “I disguise myself and go into the fighting; but do you wear your robes of state”; and the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the fighting. 31 And the king of Syria had given his chariot-captains, thirty-two of them, the order “Do not attack small or great but only the king of Israel”; 32 and when the chariot-captains saw Jehoshaphat, thinking it must be the king of Israel, they turned off against him to attack him; and Jehoshaphat called out, 33 and when the chariot-captains saw that it was not the king of Israel they turned back and left off following him.
34** And a man drew his bow at haphazard and hit the king of Israel between the tassets and the hauberk; and he said to his charioteer “Turn your ponies and take me out of the army, for I am hard hit”; 35 but the fight ran high that day, and the king was kept standing in the chariot facing the Syrians till evening, and the blood ran down into the bottom of the chariot; and at evening he died. 36 And a cry went through the army at sunset “Every man to his own city, and each to his own country; 37 for the king is dead!” And they came to Samaria, and buried the king at Samaria. 38 And the chariot was washed at the reservoir of Samaria; and the dogs lapped up his blood, and the prostitutes bathed, in accordance with Jehovah’s prediction which he had made.
39 And as to the rest of the history of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house that he built, and all the cities he fortified, they are recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 40 And Ahab went to rest with his fathers, and his son Ahaziah succeeded him.
41* And Jehoshaphat the son of Asa became king over Judah in the year four of King Ahab of Israel; 42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned twenty-five years at Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. 43 And he walked altogether in the path of his father Asa, never turned from it, doing what Jehovah approved; 22:44 only the heights were not removed, the people still sacrificed and made burnings on the heights. 44 22:45 And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel. 45 22:46* And as to the rest of the history of Jehoshaphat, and the exploits he performed, they are recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Judah. 46 22:47 And Jehoshaphat routed out from the country the rest of the religious prostitutes that had been left in the days of his father Asa. 47 22:48 And there was no king in Edom; 48 22:49* and King Jehoshaphat’s commissioner made a Spain-ship to go to Ophir for gold, but did not go, because the ship was wrecked at Ghesjon-Geber. 49 22:50 Then Ahaziah the son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat “Let my officers go with yours in the ship,” but Jehoshaphat would not consent. 50 22:51 And Jehoshaphat went to rest with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in David’s City, and his son Jehoram succeeded him.
51 22:52 Ahaziah the son of Ahab became king over Israel at Samaria in the year twenty-four of King Jehoshaphat of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. 52 22:53 And he did what displeased Jehovah, and followed his father’s path and his mother’s, and the path of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, 53 22:54 and worshiped the Baal and did reverence to him, and provoked Israel’s God Jehovah just as his father had done.
MARGINAL NOTES TO FIRST KINGS
1:6 Lit. and she bore him after Absalom
1:9 It is guessed that Zoheleth means serpent or Saturn
1:9 Var. all his brothers the princes, and
1:13 Codd. to King David’s room
1:27 Var. your servant
1:32 Or Take with you the government officers
1:36 Var. your majesty’s God, do!
2:5 Var. killing them and putting war-blood into peace
2:5 Var. and putting war-blood on
2:5 Var. his belt that was round his waist and his shoes that were on his feet
2:19 Var. and kissed her
3:6 Or this greatest piece
3:13 Var. has been like you all your life
3:21 Probably the words in the morning do not belong in both places
4:13 Or the Thorps of Jair The word Havvoth means tent-villages
4:16 Var. in Asher and on the upward slopes (unc.)
4:19 Var. in the country of Gad
4:19 Codd. omit the commissioners or over all the commissioners
4:22 A kor was ten and a half bushels
4:25 Var. omits and there was no antagonist throughout Solomon’s time
4:32 Var. were five thousand
4:33 Or and of plants, from
5:6 Lit. my subjects being with yours
5:9 Lit. make them into rafts by sea to the place Var. omits by sea
6:5 Var. against the wall of the house a girdle round the nave and
6:8 Lit. was at the right shoulder of the house
6:9 Or and wainscoted the house with
6:10 Conj. fifteen cubits
6:17 Var. was the nave in front of
6:20 Codd. And before the shrine was
6:23 Codd. have verse 26 (the height . . . second cherub) after verse 25 instead of here
6:29 Var. omits and open flowers
6:31 (last words) Unc.; susp.
6:32 (rammed) Unc.
7:6 Or and a cornice with pillars
7:8 Susp.
7:9 Codd. coping, and from outside to the great court
7:15 Var. the height of one pillar and twelve cubits the girth of the other pillar; and he
7:18 Susp.
7:19 Conj. of lily pattern, all of them four cubits
7:20 Susp.
7:24 Susp.
7:25 Conj. that verse 26 belongs before verse 25
7:26 This is about twenty thousand gallons
7:28 Or strips, and strips Or panels, and panels
7:29 Or the strips between Or the panels between
7:29 Var. and so on the frames; and above and below the lions and cattle
7:30 Conj. its four corners
7:31 Codd. inside the capital
7:31 Perhaps more than one cubit (codd. do not make it clear)
7:31 Conj. its borders
7:31 Or strips Or panels
7:32 Or strips Or panels
7:35 Codd. And on top of the stand its arms and
7:35 Or strips Or panels
7:36 Codd. on the plates its arms and on its borders cherubs
7:37 Or all of them were cast at the same time and had the same dimensions and
7:38 This is about four hundred gallons
7:39 Or put southeast of
7:46 Var. that the king cast them
8:16 Var. omits I have chosen Jerusalem where my name should be, and
8:27 Var. live with man on earth
8:36 Var. servant
8:63 (first part) Susp.
8:63 Var. omits and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats
8:64 Var. omits and the grain-offering both times, and the fats of the second time
8:65 Var. seven days and seven days, fourteen days
9:3 Var. omits I have done just as you prayed
9:10 Codd.* end of twenty
9:18 Lit. in the country Conj. in the country of Judah
9:23 Var. two hundred
9:24 Or had gone up . . . had built
9:25 Or offered . . . had built . . . finished
9:25 Var. to Jehovah, and burns (or burned) incense with it, that stands
9:25 Lit. that is before Jehovah
10:1 Var. omits in the fame of Jehovah Conj. of Solomon and of the house Solomon had built for Jehovah’s name, and came
10:5 Lit. their costumes Var. his costume
10:5 (drinks) Or cupbearers
10:11 (almug) Unc.
10:15 (first words) Unc.; susp.
10:22 Conj. a Spain-ship . . . the Spain-ship
10:24 Var. Jehovah had put
10:28-29 (Egypt) Conj. Musri
10:28 (on commission) Unc.
11:1 Codd. wives, and Pharaoh’s daughter: Moabites, ‘Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, Hittites
11:5-7 (goddess, god) Codd. disgust
11:8 Codd. so he did for all his wives, the foreigners made burnings and sacrificed
11:23 Var. Hesron
11:24 Var. he had gathered men
11:24 Var. they went to Damascus and lived in it and had a kingdom at Damascus; and he was
11:25 Var. has verses 23-24 and the first part of 25 here instead of between 13 and 14
11:31 Conj. eleven pieces . . . eleven tribes
11:33 Lit. without living up to
11:40 Var. he got away
11:43 Var. David’s city; and when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was still in Egypt as he had fled away from Solomon and settled in Egypt, heard, that Solomon was dead, he went straight (conj. he went back) and came to his own city Seredah in the highland of Ephraim. And King Solomon went to rest with his fathers, and his son
12:3 Var. puts in verse 2 and the first part of 3, thus: 2 and when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (he was still in Egypt, as he had fled away from King Solomon and Jeroboam had lived in Egypt, 3 and they sent and called him) Jeroboam came, and all the assembly of Israel; Var. 2 and when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was still in Egypt where he had fled away from King Solomon, heard of it, Jeroboam came back from Egypt; 3 and they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came,
12:7 Susp. (var. omits and respond to them)
12:10 Conj.* made our yoke heavy; take something off the weight of our yoke
12:15 Lit. it was a turn from Jehovah
12:16 Or your tents . . . their tents
12:21 Var. a hundred and twenty thousand
12:24 Var. adds after this verse several verses, numbered 24 a, 24 b, etc., as follows:
24a And King Solomon went to rest with his fathers, and was buried in his father David’s city with his father (codd. fathers); and his son Rehoboam succeeded him as king at Jerusalem, being sixteen years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned twelve years at Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Naʽamah, daughter of Anah the son of King Nahash of ʽAmmon. And he did what displeased Jehovah, and did not walk in his father David’s path.
24b And there was a man out of the highland of Ephraim, an officer of Solomon’s, named Jeroboam, whose mother’s name was Sarisa, a prostitute; and Solomon made him district chief over all the porterage of the line of Joseph, and he fortified Sereda in the highland of Ephraim for Solomon, and had three hundred teams of ponies; it was he who built the Millo by the porterage of the line of Ephraim; it was he who closed up the fortifications of David’s City. And he aspired to the kingship;
24c and Solomon tried to have him put to death, and he was afraid and fled away to King Shoshak of Egypt, and was with him till Solomon’s death.
24d And Jeroboam heard in Egypt that Solomon was dead, and he said in talking with King Shoshak “Give me leave to go to my own country”; and Shoshak said to him “Ask me for any boon and I will give it to you.”
24e (Shoshak had given Ano, the elder sister of his own wife Tahminas, to Jeroboam as his wife; she had grown up among the princesses; and she had had by Jeroboam a son Abijah.)
24f And Jeroboam said to Shoshak “Do give me leave to go”; and Jeroboam came out of Egypt, and came to the Sereda country in the highland of Ephraim. And all the tribe of Ephraim came together there; and Jeroboam built a stronghold there.
24g And his child was taken very severely sick; and Jeroboam went to inquire about the child. And he said to his wife Ano “Go and inquire of God about the child, whether he will get well of his sickness.”
24h And there was a man in Shiloh whose name was Ahijah, and he was sixty years old, and had Jehovah’s word with him; and Jeroboam said to his wife “Up with you, and take in your hand bread for the man of God and seed-cakes (unc.) for his children, and a bunch of raisins and a bottle of honey”;
24i and the woman rose and took in her hand bread and a couple of seed-cakes and a bunch of raisins and a bottle of honey for Ahijah
24k (the man was old, and his eyes too dim to see), and started from Sereda and went. And as she came into the city to Ahijah the Shilonite, Ahijah said to his boy “Go out to meet Jeroboam’s wife Ano and say to her ‘Come in without stopping, because Jehovah says “I am sending a hard message about you.”’”
24l And Ano went in to the man of God, and Ahijah said “Why have you brought me bread and raisins and seed-cakes and a bottle of honey? says Jehovah, As you go from me, when you enter the gate going into Sereda your girls will come out to meet you and will tell you the child is dead;
24m for, says Jehovah, I will exterminate every male person that belongs to Jeroboam: whoever of Jeroboam’s dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and whoever dies in the country the birds of the air shall eat; but over the child they shall wail ‘O, my lord!’ because there has been found in him something good with reference to Jehovah.”
24n And the woman went away when she had heard it; and when she came into Sereda the child died and the outcry of lamentation came out to meet her. And Jeroboam went to Shechem in the highland of Ephraim, and gathered the tribes of Israel there, and Rehoboam the son of Solomon went up there.
24o And Jehovah’s word came to Shemaiah the Enlamite “Get yourself a new cloak that has not been in water, and tear it in twelve pieces; and give it to Jeroboam and say to him ‘Says Jehovah, Take yourself ten pieces to put around you.’” And Jeroboam took them; and Shemaiah said “Says Jehovah, You shall reign over the ten tribes of Israel.”
24p And the people said to Rehoboam the son of Solomon “Your father made his yoke a heavy load on us, and the food for his table a heavy load; but now you will make it lighter on us and we will be your subjects.” And Rehoboam said to the people “In three days more I will reply to you.”
24q And Rehoboam said “Bring the elders in to me, and let me consult them as to what reply I shall give the people on the third day.” And Rehoboam recited the message to them as the people had sent it to him; and the elders of the people said “The people told you right”; but Rehoboam set aside their policy, and it did not suit him.
24r And he sent and brought in those who had grown up with him, and told them the same, “The people have sent me a message like this.” And those who had grown up with him said “This is what you will say to the people: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s hips; my father flogged you with whips, but I will keep you in order with scorpions’”;
24s and the speech suited Rehoboam, and he answered the people in accordance with the advice the boys who had grown up with him had given him.
24t And all the people, as one man, said to each other, and one and all cried out, “We have no share in David, nor estate in Jesse’s son; to your homes, Israel, because this is not a man for prince or for warden”;
24u and all the people scattered away from Shechem and went to their homes. And Rehoboam put his best foot foremost to get to his chariot and get in and get to Jerusalem; and all the tribe of Judah and all the tribe of Benjamin followed him.
24x And when the new year came in Rehoboam gathered all the men of Judah and Benjamin and went up to make war with Jeroboam at Shechem.
24y And Jehovah’s word came to Shemaiah the man of God “Say to King Rehoboam of Judah and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and the rest of the people ‘Says Jehovah, You shall not go up, nor make war with your brothers the children of Israel; go back home; for this thing has come from me.’”
24z And they listened to Jehovah’s word and refrained from going, in accordance with Jehovah’s word. (There are no verses j, v, w.)
13:2 Var. he shall burn
13:6 Var. and pray for me so that
13:14 Or oak-tree
13:16 Var. omits and go in with you
13:26 Var. omits all from Jehovah has given him to the end of verse 27
13:31 Var. had bewailed him
13:33 Lit. he would
14:3 (seed-cakes) Unc.
14:22 Var. And he did
14:22 Var. his fathers
14:31 Var. with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in
14:31 Var. City; and his mother’s name was Naʽamah the Ammonite; and
15:2 Var. reigned six years
15:3 Var. in all his father’s sins
15:5 Var. adds only in the affair of Urijah the Hittite
15:5 Var. adds verse 6, And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all his lifetime.
15:9 Var. the year twenty-four
15:13 (horror) Unc.; very probably a name for some sort of symbol
15:13 Or for Asherah
15:15 Var. his father’s consecrated articles and the consecrated articles of Jehovah’s house
15:27 Var. Baʽasha the son of Ahijah, over the family of Belaan (var. Beddama) the son of Issachar
15:31 Var. adds verse 32, And there was war between Asa and King Baʽasha of Israel throughout their time.
16:7 Var. the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani
16:34 That is, these persons were put to death and buried beside the foundations as a good-luck charm in accordance with custom; probably the victims were picked out by lot
17:6 Var. bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening
17:12 Var. me and my son
17:13 Var. yourself and your son
17:18 Var. What business had you, man of God, to come
18:14 Var. to tell Ahab and he will kill me
18:21 Or be limping between the two conceptions
18:26 Var. took the steer he had given them and prepared it
18:26 Var. omits from morning till noon
18:26 Lit. a sound or an answerer
18:27 (occupied with his private concerns) Unc.; apparently a pun containing a word whose meaning is unknown but is suspected to be impolite
18:32 This means an area of about 1800 square yards
19:4 Lit. begged his life to die
19:8 Var. to God’s mountain Horeb Conj. to God’s mountain, and went,
19:9 Or a cave
19:19 Conj. Elijah went past him
19:19 Conj. threw his mantle over him
19:20 Or I will kiss
20:1 Var. gathered all his forces, and thirty-two kings with him, and ponies and chariots, and came up and besieged Samaria and attacked it
20:3 Var. and your wives and children are mine
20:6 Var. whatever they take a fancy to
20:16 Codd. he and the kings, thirty-two kings who were helping him
20:19 Conj. these came out of the city and each killed his man
20:20 Or on ponies and horses
20:23 Or Their god is a mountain god
20:27 (bunches of stray goats) Unc.
20:34 Conj. in Samaria; and on these terms you shall let me go
20:39 Or your person for his
20:43 Var. went home sullen
21:7 Lit. said to him “It is you
21:10 Codd. You blessed
21:19 Var. did you? therefore Jehovah says, In
21:19 Var. where the dogs lapped
22:10 (of state) Unc.
22:21 Lit. came out and stood before
22:30 (of state) Unc.
22:34 (at haphazard, lit. in ignorance) Unc.
22:34 Lit. Turn your hand
22:46 Var. the exploits he performed, and the fighting he did,
22:49 (King Jehoshaphat’s commissioner) Susp.