As surely as the LORD your God lives, there isn't a nation or kingdom where my master hasn't tried to find you. Whenever they would say "He isn't here,' he forced that kingdom or nation to swear that they hadn't seen you.

"Haven't you heard?" Nathan asked Solomon's mother Bathsheba. "Haggith's son Adonijah has become king and David, our true king, isn't aware of it.

and told him, "I would like to make a minor request of you. Please don't refuse me." "What is your request, mother?" the king asked her. "I won't turn you down."

So why haven't you kept the oath you made to the LORD, and why didn't you obey my personal order to you?"

"Because you asked for this, and you didn't ask for a long life for yourself, and you didn't ask for the lives of your enemies, but instead you've asked for discernment so you can understand how to govern, look how I'm going to do precisely what you asked. I'm giving you a wise and discerning mind, so that there will have been no one like you before you and no one will arise after you like you.

"When they sin against you because there isn't a single human being who doesn't sin and you become angry with them and deliver them over to their enemy, who takes them away captive to the land that belongs to their enemy, whether near or far away,

"but I didn't believe it at first! But then I came here and I've seen it for myself! It's amazing! I wasn't told half of what's really great about your wisdom. You're far better in person than what the reports have said about you!

As soon as I've left you, the Spirit of the LORD will carry you off to I don't know where! Then when I go tell Ahab and he can't find you, he'll kill me, even though I have been your servant and have feared the LORD since I was young!

So let them provide two oxen. They can choose one ox for themselves. Cut it up, lay it on top of some wood, but don't set fire to it. I will prepare the other ox and lay it on top of some wood, and I won't set fire to it.

"Don't listen to him," all the elders and the people replied. "And don't agree to his terms."

Then the king of Israel told Jehoshaphat, "Didn't I tell you that he wouldn't prophesy anything good about me, but only evil?"