Now King David had become old, {advanced in years}, and they covered him with garments, but he was not warm.

Now the young woman was very beautiful; she was of use for the king, and she served him, but the king did not {have sexual relations with her}.

His father did not rebuke him {at any time} [by] saying, "Why did you do so?" Now he was also very handsome of appearance; she had borne him after Absalom.

But Zadok the priest, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and the mighty warriors were David's; they were not with Adonijah.

But he did not invite Nathan the prophet or Benaiah or the mighty warriors or Solomon his brother.

Then Nathan said to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, "Have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith has become king, but our lord David does not know?

Come, go to King David and say to him, 'Have you not, my lord the king, sworn to your servant, "Surely Solomon your son shall become king after me. And he will sit on my throne"? But why is Adonijah king?'

But now, look! Adonijah has become king! And now, my lord the king, you do not know!

He has sacrificed oxen and sheep and fattened animals {in abundance}, and he has invited all the sons of the king, Abiathar the priest, Joab the commander of the army, but Solomon your servant he did not invite.

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

If it was from my lord the king that this thing has happened, [then all is well,] but if not, you must let your servants know who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him."

Solomon was told, "Look, Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon, and he has grasped the horns of the altar, saying, 'Let King Solomon swear to me {first} that he will surely not kill his servant with the sword!'"

Solomon said, "If he is a son of noble character, not a hair of his [head] will fall to the ground, but if evil is found in him, then he will die."

You must act according to your wisdom, but you must not let his gray hair go down to Sheol in peace.

And look, Shimei the son of Gera the son of the Benjaminite from Bahurim is with you. Now he {cursed me severely} when I went to Mahanaim, but he came down to meet me at the Jordan, so I swore to him by Yahweh, 'I surely will not kill you with the sword.'

So then, do not leave him unpunished, for you [are] a wise man, and you will know what you must do to him. You must bring his grey hair down to Sheol with blood."

Now one request I am asking from you, and you must {not refuse me}." Then she said to him, "Go on."

He said, "Please speak to King Solomon, for he will not refuse you, so that he will give to me Abishag the Shunnamite as wife."

She said, "I have one small request I am asking from you. Do {not refuse me}." The king said to her, "Ask, my mother, for I will {not refuse you}."

To Abiathar the priest, the king said, "Go to Anathoth, to your field, for {you deserve to die}, but on this day I will not kill you, for you carried the ark of the Lord Yahweh before David my father, and because you endured hardship in all the hardship that my father endured."

When the message came to Joab (now Joab {had supported} Adonijah but {had not supported} Absalom), he fled to the tent of Yahweh and grasped the horns of the altar.

Yahweh will return his blood on his head, because he fell upon two men, more righteous and better than he, and he killed them with the sword, even though my father did not know it; [namely] Abner son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah.

Then the king sent and summoned Shimei, and he said to him, "Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there, but you must not go out {anywhere whatsoever} from there.

the king sent and summoned Shimei, and he said to him, "Did I not make you swear by Yahweh? I warned you, saying, 'On the day you go out and you go {anywhere whatsoever}, know for certain that {you will surely die}.' And you said to me, 'The word is good; I accept.'

Why have you not kept the oath of Yahweh and the command which I commanded you?"

But the people [were] sacrificing on the high places, for the house for the name of Yahweh had not [yet] been built in those days.

Yahweh appeared to Solomon at Gibeon in a dream at night, and God said, "Ask what I should give to you."

So then, O Yahweh, you are my God. You have made your servant king in place of David my father [though] I [am] a young boy. I do not know going out or coming in.

And God said to him, "Because you have asked this thing and you did not ask for yourself {a long life} and you did not ask riches for yourself and you did not ask for the life of your enemies, but you have asked for yourself {the ability to make wise judgments};

Too, what you have not asked I give to you: both riches and honor, [so that] no man among the kings will be like you all of your days.

It happened on the third day [after] my giving birth, this woman also gave birth, and we [were] together. There was not anyone with us in the house, only the two of us [were] in the house.

Then the son of this woman died [in the] night because she laid on him.

So she got up in the middle of the night, and she took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep, and she put him in her lap, and she put her dead son in my lap.

When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead! When I looked closely at him in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I had borne."

Then the woman whose son [was] the living one spoke to the king because her compassion was aroused for her son, and she said, "Please, my lord, give her the living child, but certainly do not kill him!" The other one [was] saying, "As for me, so for you! Divide [him]!"

Then the king answered and said, "Give the living child to her, and do not kill him; she [is] his mother."

These governors sustained King Solomon and all who came near to the table of King Solomon, each [in] his month; they did not omit anything.

"You knew David my father, that he was not able to build a house for the name of Yahweh his God, {in view of the warfare} which surrounded him, until Yahweh placed them under the soles of his feet.

The lower structure [was] five cubits in its width and the middle [was] six cubits in its width and the third [was] seven cubits in its width, for he made niches for the temple all around to the outside, [so that] beams [would] not attach to the walls of the temple.

And I will dwell {among} the {Israelites}, and I will not forsake my people Israel."

with the cedar within the inner house [having] carvings of gourds and buds of flowers. It [was] entirely of cedar; there was not a stone visible.

Its opening from [the] inside of the capital and above [was] a cubit; its pedestal [was] a round work of a cubit and a half; moreover, on its opening [were] the carvings with four-sided frames, not circular.

Solomon left all of the vessels [unweighed] because of their very great abundance, so the weight of the bronze could not be determined.

King Solomon and all the assembly of Israel who were assembling with him in the presence of the ark [were] sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted nor numbered because of abundance.

The poles [were] long, and the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place {in front of} the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen [from] the outside, and they are there until this day.

There was not [anything] in the ark {except} the two tablets of stone which Moses had placed there at Horeb, where Yahweh {made} [a covenant] with the {Israelites} after they went out from the land of Egypt.

The priests [were] not able to stand to minister {because of the presence of} the cloud, for the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh.

'From the day that I brought out my people Israel from Egypt I have not chosen a city from all the tribes of Israel to build a house where my name might be, but I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.'

However, you will not build the house, but your son who has come from your loins, he shall build the house for my name.'

For will God really dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens could not contain you! {How could} this house that I have built?

so that your eyes [will] be open to this house night and day, to the place which you said, 'My name will be there,' to hear the prayer that your servant prays toward this place.

Also for the foreigner who is not from your people Israel, and he comes from a distant land because of your name,

"If they sin against you (for there is not a person who does not sin) and you are angry with them and you give them to an enemy and they take them captive to the land of the enemy far or near,

"Blessed be Yahweh who gave a resting place to his people Israel. According to all that he promised, not one word has fallen from all of his promises [concerning] the good which he spoke through the hand of Moses his servant.

May Yahweh our God be with us as he was with our ancestors, and may he not leave us or abandon us,

Let these my words which I pleaded before Yahweh [be] near to Yahweh our God, by day and by night, to maintain the justice of his servant and the justice of his people Israel {as each day requires}

then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, 'A man will not be cut off for you from upon the throne of Israel.'

"If ever you or any of your descendants turn from [following] me and do not keep my commandments [and] my ordinances that I have set before you and you go and serve other gods and bow down to them,

So Hiram went out from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, but they were not right in his eyes.

All of the people who were remaining from the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites who [were] not of the {Israelites},

their children who remained after them in the land, whom the {Israelites} were not able to completely destroy, Solomon conscripted them for forced labor, until this very day.

But from the {Israelites} Solomon did not make a slave, but they [were] the men of war, his officers, his commanders, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and his cavalry.

{Solomon answered all of her questions}; there was not a thing hidden from the king which he could not explain to her.

I had not believed the report to be true until I came and my eyes had seen, and behold! The half had not been told to me. {Your wisdom and prosperity surpass} the report that I had heard.

Then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, abundant spices, and precious stones. Spices as these did not come again in such abundance [as that which] the queen of Sheba brought to King Solomon.

The king made a raised structure for the house of Yahweh and for the house of the king out of the almug wood, as well as lyres and harps for the singers. [This much] almug wood has not come nor been seen [again] up to this day.

All of the drinking vessels of King Solomon [were] gold, and all the vessels for the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. There was no silver; [it was] not considered as something valuable in the days of Solomon.

from the nations which Yahweh had said to the {Israelites}, "You shall not {marry them}, and they shall not {marry you}. They will certainly turn your heart after other gods." But Solomon clung to them to love.

It happened at the time of Solomon's old age that his wives guided his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully with Yahweh his God as the heart of David his father [had been].

So Solomon did evil in the eyes of Yahweh and did not fully [follow] after Yahweh as David his father.

And he had commanded him concerning this matter not to go after other gods, but he did not keep that which Yahweh commanded.

So Yahweh said to Solomon, "Because this was with you, and you did not keep my covenant and my ordinances which I have commanded you, I will certainly tear the kingdom from you, and I will give it to your servant.

However, I will not do it in your days, for the sake of David your father; from the hand of your son I will tear it [away].

Yet all of the kingdom I will not tear [away]. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen."

because he has forsaken me, and they bowed down to Ashtoreth, the god of [the] Sidonians, to Chemosh, the god of Moab, and to Molech, the god of the {Ammonites}. They did not walk in my ways to do right in my eyes, my ordinances, or my judgments, as [did] David his father.

But I will not take all of the kingdom from his hand, but I will make him a leader all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my ordinances.

I will punish the offspring of David on account of this; however, not always.'"

Now the rest of the acts of Solomon and all that he did and his wisdom; [are] they not written on the scroll of the acts of Solomon?

So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turning of events from Yahweh in order to fulfill his word which Yahweh had spoken through the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

When all of Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, "{What share do we have in David}? [There is] no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel! Now look to your house, David!" Then Israel went to their tents.

It happened that just when all of Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all of Israel. Not one [followed] after the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.

'Thus says Yahweh: "You shall not go up and you shall not fight with your brothers the {Israelites}. Return each of you to his house, for this thing was from me." '" So they heeded the word of Yahweh, and they returned to go home according to the word of Yahweh.

Then he built the houses on the high places, and he appointed priests {from all walks of life} who were not from the sons of Levi.

It happened at the moment the king heard the word of the man of God that he cried out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, "Seize him!" But his hand which he stretched out to him was paralyzed, and he was not able to draw it back to himself.

Then the man of God said to the king, "Even if you give to me half of your house I will not come with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water in this place,

for the word of Yahweh has commanded me, saying, 'You shall not eat bread nor drink water, and you shall not return on the way that you came.'"

So he went another way, and he did not return by the way on which he had come to Bethel.

Then he said, "I am not able to return with you or to go with you. I will not eat food nor will I drink water with you in this place.

For a word [came] to me by the word of Yahweh, 'You shall not eat food, nor shall you drink water there. You shall not return to go by the way that you came.'"

He proclaimed to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Because you have disobeyed the word of Yahweh and have not kept the command which Yahweh your God commanded you,

but you have returned and have eaten food and drank water in the place which he ordered you not to eat food nor to drink water, then your dead body shall not return to the tomb of your ancestors.'"

He went and found his dead body thrown in the road and a donkey with the lion standing beside it, but the lion had not eaten the corpse nor attacked the donkey.

After this event, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but he returned and [again] made priests for the high places of people from {all walks of life}. He filled his hand with all [his] desire and became [one of] the priests of the high places [himself].

Jeroboam said to his wife, "Please get up and disguise yourself so that they will not know that you [are] the wife of Jeroboam, and go [to] Shiloh. Look, Ahijah the prophet is there, and he spoke concerning me [before I became] king over this people.

The wife of Jeroboam did so. She got up, went [to] Shiloh, and came [to] the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah was not able to see, for {his eyes were fixed} because of his old age.

I tore the kingdom from the house of David and I gave it to you. But you were not like my servant David who kept my commandments, and who went after me with all his heart, to do only [what is] right in my eyes.

The remainder of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?

He walked in all the sins of his father that he had done before him, and his heart was not fully with Yahweh his God as the heart of David his father.

The remainder of the acts of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah? There was also war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

But the high places he did not remove. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was completely with Yahweh all of his days.