so his servants suggested to him, "Let's look for a young virgin woman to take care of you, your majesty. She will be of use to you if you have her lie down near you so that your majesty may keep warm."

Meanwhile, about this time Haggith's son Adonijah began to seek a reputation for himself and decided, "I'm going to be king!" So he prepared chariots, cavalry, and 50 soldiers to serve as a security detail to guard him.

Now look, Adonijah has become king, and your majesty is not aware of it.

And as for you, your majesty, everyone in Israel is looking to you to tell them who will sit on your majesty's throne after you.

Otherwise, as soon as your majesty is laid to rest with his ancestors, my son Solomon and I will be branded as traitors."

They informed the king, "Nathan the prophet is here."

"As the LORD lives," the king said with an oath, "who has redeemed me from all sorts of troubles,

"King David," Bathsheba said as she bowed low in front of the king with her face to the ground, "your majesty, may you live forever."

Have Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there as king over Israel. Then sound a trumpet and declare "Long live King Solomon!'

After this, you are to follow him back here, and he is to come and sit on my throne and take my place as king, because I've appointed him to be Commander-in-Chief over Israel and Judah."

As the LORD has been with your majesty the king, so may he be with Solomon. May he make his throne greater than the throne of your majesty, King David."

Right about then, Adonijah and all of his guests were just finishing their meal when they heard all the noise. "Why is the city in such an uproar?" Joab asked as he heard the trumpet sounds.

While he was still asking that question, Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the priest arrived, so Adonijah told him, "Come on in, since you're a worthy man and are bringing us good news!"

"No," Jonathan answered. "Our lord King David has installed Solomon as king.

The king has sent Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Jehoiada's son Benaiah, the special forces and mercenaries, along with Solomon, who is riding the king's personal mule.

Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him in Gihon, and they just left from there rejoicing, and that's why the city is all in an uproar. That's the noise that you've been hearing!

"Hey look!" somebody informed Solomon. "Adonijah is terrified of King Solomon! He's gone out, grabbed hold of the horns of the altar, and now he's begging King Solomon, "Swear to me that you won't put your servant to death with a sword!'"

As David's time to die approached, he addressed his son Solomon with these words:

by keeping the charge that the LORD your God entrusted to you. Live life his way, keep his statutes, his commands, his ordinances, and his testimonies, just as they're written down in the Law of Moses, so that you may succeed in everything you do and wherever you go,

So act consistently with your wisdom, and don't let him die as a peaceful old man.

But don't let him off unpunished, since you're a wise man and you'll know what you need to do to him. Find a way that he dies in his old age by shedding his blood."

After this, David died, as had his ancestors, and he was buried in the City of David.

So he replied, "You know that the kingdom should have come to me, and that everyone in Israel intended to place me as the next king. However, the kingdom has turned around and now belongs to my brother, because it went to him from the LORD.

Then he asked her, "Please talk to King Solomon for me, since he won't refuse you. Ask him to give me Abishag the Shunammite as a wife."

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 she asked him, "Give Abishag the Shunammite to your brother Adonijah as a wife."

Now therefore, as the LORD lives, who has established me and set me on the throne of my father David, and who has established a dynasty, just like he promised, Adonijah will surely be executed today."

So Solomon fired Abiathar as the LORD's priest, thus fulfilling the promise that the LORD had spoken in Shiloh concerning Eli's household.

So Benaiah went into the LORD's tent and told Joab, "The king orders you to come out!" "No," Joab said, "I'd rather die here!" So Benaiah went and informed the king, "This is how Joab answered me."

Shimei replied to the king, "What your majesty has decreed is acceptable to me. I'll do what you've said." So Shimei lived in Jerusalem for quite some time.

so the king sent for Shimei and asked him, "Didn't I make a promise to the LORD and warn you, "The day you leave and go anywhere else, you can be sure you'll die'? And you told me, "What your majesty has decreed is acceptable to me.'

The king also reminded Shimei, "You know all the evil things that you admit you did to my father David. Therefore the LORD is going to repay you for all of your evil.

So the king gave orders to Jehoiada's son Benaiah to go out, attack Shimei, and kill him. That is how the kingdom was established under Solomon's control.

"You have demonstrated abundant gracious love to your servant David, my father, as he lived in your presence truthfully, righteously, and uprightly in his heart. In addition, you have kept on showing this abundant gracious love by giving him a son to sit on his throne today. Now, LORD my God, you have set me as king to replace my father David, but I'm still young. I don't have any leadership skills.

Your servant lives in the midst of your people that you have chosen, a great people that is too numerous to be counted.

"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.

Three days later, this woman also gave birth. We lived alone there. There was nobody else with us in the house. It was just the two of us.

"Not so," claimed the other woman. "The living child is my son, and the dead one is yours." But the first woman said, "Not so! The dead child is your son and the living one is my son." This is what they testified before the king.

The king said, "One of them claims, "This living son is mine, and your son is the dead one' and the other claims "No. Your son is the dead one and my son is the living one.'

The woman whose child was still alive cried out to the king, because her heart yearned for her son. "Oh no, your majesty!" she said. "Give her the living child. Please don't kill him." But the other woman said, "Cut him in half! That way, he'll belong to neither one of us."

The king announced his decision: "Give the living child to the first woman. Don't kill him. She is his mother."

Jehoiada's son Benaiah commanded the army, Zadok and Abiathar served as priests,

Ahilud's son Baana served Taanach, Megiddo, and all of Beth-shean near Zarethan below Jezreel, including from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah as far as the other side of Jokmeam;

Judah and Israel became as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They enjoyed abundance, and ate, drank, and rejoiced regularly.

ten fattened oxen, 20 pasture-fed cattle, 100 sheep, as well as deer, gazelles, roebucks, and domestic poultry.

God gave Solomon wisdom and great discernment. His insights were as numerous as sand on the seashore.

So now I'm planning to build a temple dedicated to the LORD my God, just as the LORD told my father when he said, "Your son, whom I will set on your throne to replace you, will build the Temple dedicated to me.'

Now therefore please order that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me. My servants will work with your servants, and I will pay your servants whatever wages you set, because you know there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians do."

As soon as Hiram received the message from Solomon, he became so ecstatic that he exclaimed, "Blessed be the LORD today, who has given David a wise son to rule this great people!" Then he sent this message to Solomon:

That's how Hiram came to provide Solomon as much cedar and cypress timber as he needed.

In return, Solomon paid Hiram 20,000 kors of wheat as food for his household, and 20 kors of beaten oil. Solomon provided this amount every year during the construction.

The LORD continued giving Solomon wisdom, just as he had promised, and Hiram and Solomon entered into a peace treaty between themselves.

As a result, Solomon's builders worked with Hiram's builders, accompanied by the Gebalites, to quarry the stone and to prepare the timber and other stone for the Temple's construction.

He lined 20 cubits of the rear part of the Temple from floor to ceiling with cedar boards specially constructed for the inside to serve as the Most Holy Place.

the height of one cherub being ten cubits, as was the height of the other.

along with two doors of cypress wood, one door of which had two leaves that turned on hinges, as did the other door, which also had two leaves that turned on hinges.

and the Temple was completely finished according to its plans and specifications in the eighth month of the eleventh year of Solomon's reign, that is, during the month of Bul. It took about seven years to build.

the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, whose father was from Tyre. A bronze worker, he was wise, knowledgeable, and was skilled in all sorts of bronze working. He went to King Solomon and did all of his work.

Under the brim, completely encircling it, were two rows of gourds inlaid as part of the original casting, ten to a cubit.

plus the 400 pomegranates for the two lattices (that is, the two rows of pomegranates for each lattice to cover the two bowls of the capitals that stood on top of the pillars),

along with the lamp stands (five on the right side and five on the left in front of the inner sanctuary), all made of pure gold, as well as the flower blossoms, lamps, and tongs of gold,

Now I have been constructing a magnificent Temple dedicated to you that will serve as a place for you to inhabit forever."

Then Solomon prayed: "Blessed is the LORD God of Israel, who made a commitment to my father David and then personally fulfilled what he had promised when he said:

"Therefore, since you determined to build a temple for my name, you acted well, because it was your choice to do so. Nevertheless, you are not to build the Temple, but your son who will be born to you is to build a temple for my name.'

"The LORD has brought to fulfillment what he promised, and now here I stand, having succeeded my father David to sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the Temple for the name of the LORD God of Israel.

I have placed there the ark in which the covenant is stored that the LORD made with our ancestors when he brought them out of the land of Egypt."

"LORD God of Israel, there is no one like you, God in heaven above or on the earth below, who watches over his covenant, showing gracious love to your servants who live their lives in your presence with all their hearts. It is you, LORD God, who have kept your promise to my father, your servant David, that you made to him. Indeed, you made a commitment to my father David and then personally fulfilled what you had promised today.

"Now therefore, LORD God of Israel, keep your promise that you made to my father, your servant David, when you said, "You will not lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants will watch their lives, to live in my presence just as you have lived in my presence.'

Pay attention to the prayer of your servant and to his request, LORD my God, and listen to the cry and prayer that your servant is praying in your presence today.

Listen to the requests from your servant and from your people Israel as they pray in this direction, listen from the place where you reside in heaven, then hear and forgive.

"If a man should sin against his neighbor and he is required to take an oath, and he then comes to take an oath in front of your altar in this Temple,

"When heaven remains closed, and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, and they pray in the direction of this place, confessing your name and turning from their sin when you afflict them,

then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and of your people Israel. Indeed, teach them the best way to live and send rain on your land that you have given to your people as an inheritance.

"If a famine comes to the land, or if plant diseases, mildew, locust, or grasshoppers appear, or if their enemies attack them in their settlements of the land, no matter what the epidemic or illness is,

whatever prayer or request is made, no matter whether it's made by a single man or by all of your people Israel, each praying out of his own hurting heart and anguish and stretching out his hands toward this Temple,

"Now concerning the foreigner who is not from your people Israel, when he comes from a land far away for the sake of your name

then hear in heaven where you reside, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the people of the earth may know your name, fear you as do your people Israel, and so they may know that this Temple that I have built is called by your name.

if they return to you with all of their heart and with all of their soul in the land of their enemies who have taken them captive, as they pray to you in the direction of their land that you have given to their ancestors and to the city that you have chosen, and to the Temple that I have built for your name,

because you have separated them to yourself as your heritage from all the people of the earth, as you spoke through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, Lord GOD.

"Blessed is the LORD, who has given security to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not one of his promises has failed to come about that he gave through his servant Moses.

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

And may what I've had to say to the LORD remain with the LORD our God both day and night, so that he may defend the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as the need of the day may require it,

so that, in turn, all the people of the earth may know that the LORD is God there is no one else.

Now let your heart be completely devoted to the LORD our God, to live according to his statutes and to keep his commands, as we are doing today."

So Solomon observed the Festival of Tents at that time, as did all of Israel with him. A large assembly came up from as far away as Lebo-hamath and the Wadi of Egypt to appear in the presence of the LORD our God, not just for seven days, but for seven days after that, a total of fourteen days.

The following day, Solomon sent the people away as they blessed the king. Then they went back to their tents, rejoicing and glad for all the good things that the LORD had done for his servant David and to his people Israel.

the LORD appeared to Solomon for a second time, just as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

"Now as for you, if you commune with me like your father did, with an upright heart of integrity and doing everything that I've commanded you and keeping my statutes and ordinances,

then I'll make your royal throne secure forever, just as I agreed to do so for your father David when I said, "You are to not lack a man on the throne of Israel.'

after which King Solomon gave Hiram 20 cities in the land of Galilee, because King Hiram of Tyre had provided Solomon with as much cedar, cypress timber, and gold that he wanted.

Here is a summary of the conscripted labor that King Solomon required to build the LORD's Temple, his royal palace, the terrace ramparts in the City of David, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer, burned it down, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and then gave it as a dowry for his daughter, Solomon's wife.

and whose descendants had survived them and continued to live in the land because the Israelis were unable to completely eliminate them, Solomon placed under conscripted labor, a situation that remains in effect to this day.

However, Solomon did not force Israelis into conscripted labor, but they did serve as his soldiers, servants, princes, captains, chariot commanders, and cavalry.

As soon as Pharaoh's daughter arrived from the City of David to live in her house that Solomon had built for her, then he fortified the terrace ramparts in the City of David.

King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Reed Sea in the land of Edom.

They sailed as far as Ophir and brought back 420 talents of gold for Solomon.

"Everything I heard about your wisdom and what you have to say is true!" she gasped,

And blessed be the LORD your God, who is delighted with you! He set you in place on the throne of Israel because the LORD loved Israel forever. That's why he made you to be king, so you could carry out justice and implement righteousness."

The king used the algum wood to have supports made for the LORD's Temple and for the royal palace, as well as lyres and harps for the choir, and nothing like that wood has ever come again or even been seen since right to this day.