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}.

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?'

Nathan said, "My lord the king, have you said, 'Adonijah shall be king after me and he shall sit on my throne'?

"For he went down today and sacrificed oxen, sheep, and fattened animals {in abundance}. He invited all the sons of the king, the commanders of the army, and Abiathar the priest, and look, they are eating and drinking before him. They have also said, "Long live King Adonijah!

Then you shall go up after him, and let him come and sit on my throne; he shall be king in my place. I have appointed him to be leader over Israel and Judah."

Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed him as king at Gihon, and they have gone up from there rejoicing. The city has gone wild; this [is] the sound which you heard.

Then he said, "{May I have a word with you}?" Then she said, "Go on."

He said, "You know that the kingship was mine and that all Israel had set their face toward me as king, but the kingship turned around and became my brother's, for it was from Yahweh for him [to have it].

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}."

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

Then Solomon said, "You have shown great loyal love with your servant David my father, as he walked before you in faithfulness and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart with you. You have shown for him this great loyal love, and you have given a son to him who is sitting on his throne as [it is] this day.

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.

Your servant [is] in the middle of your people whom you have chosen; a great people who cannot be counted or numbered because of abundance.

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.

Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, "I have heard what you have sent to me; I will do all of your desire concerning the timber of cedars and concerning the timber of cypresses.

I have certainly built a lofty house for you, a place for you to live forever."

'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.'

Yahweh has carried out his promise which he had made; I have risen in place of David my father, and I sit on the throne of Israel as Yahweh promised, and I have built the house for the name of Yahweh the God of Israel.

I have provided a place there for the ark, in which is the covenant which Yahweh made with our ancestors when He brought them out of the land of Egypt."

You have kept for your servant David my father what you promised to him, and you have spoken with your mouth, and with your hand you have fulfilled [it] this very day.

So then, O Yahweh, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you promised to him, saying, 'For you, no man will be cut off from before me who [will be] sitting on the throne of Israel, if only your sons keep their ways to walk before me just as you have walked before me.'

So then, O God of Israel, please let your word be confirmed which you have promised to your servant David my father.

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?

When you shut up the heavens so there is no rain because they have sinned against you, then they pray to this place and they confess your name and they return from their sin because you punished them,

then you shall hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, for you will teach them the good way in which they should go, and you will give rain upon your land which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

you shall hear in heaven, the place of your dwelling, and act according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you as your people Israel, and to know that your name has been invoked over this house that I have built.

If your people go out to battle against his enemy in the way that you shall send them and they pray to Yahweh, toward the city which you have chosen and the house which I have built for your name,

and then they return their heart in the land where they have been taken captive and they return and plead to you in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned and we did wrong. We acted wickedly,'

if they return to you with all of their heart and with all of their soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive and they pray to you toward their land which you gave to their ancestors, the city that you have chosen and the house that you built for your name,

You shall forgive your people who sinned against you, [even] for all their transgressions which they committed against you. You shall give them compassion before their captors so that they may have compassion on them,

For you have separated them for yourself as an inheritance from all the peoples of the earth, as you promised through the hand of Moses your servant when you brought out our ancestors from Egypt, my Lord Yahweh!"

Yahweh said to him, "I have heard your prayer and your plea which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house which you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

As for you, if you walk before me as David your father walked, with {integrity of heart} and with uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, [and if] you keep my ordinances and my judgments,

"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,

then I will cut Israel off from the face of the land that I have given to them, [even] the house which I have consecrated for my name I will cast away from my face; and Israel shall become a proverb and an object of taunting among all the peoples.

And they will say, 'Because they have forsaken Yahweh their God who brought their ancestors out from the land of Egypt and they embraced other gods and bowed down to them and served them. Therefore, Yahweh brought on them all of this disaster.'"

So he said, "What [are] these cities that you have given to me, my brother?" {So they are called the land of Cabul until this day}.

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.

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."

but one tribe shall be for him, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel;

To his son I will give one tribe in order to be a lamp for my servant David, always before my face, in Jerusalem the city in which I have chosen to place my name.

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.

And the king had decided, so he made two golden calves and he said to them, "{You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough}; here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."

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.'"

It happened at the moment Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps coming through the doorway, he said, "Come [in], wife of Jeroboam. Why [are] you making yourself unrecognizable? I have been sent a hard [message] for you:

But you did more evil than all who were before you. You have gone and made for yourself other gods and molten idols to provoke me, but me you have {completely disregarded}.

Yahweh will strike Israel as one shakes the reed plant in the water, and he will root Israel up from this good land that he gave to their ancestors. He will scatter them beyond the River because they have made their sacred poles [which are] provoking Yahweh.

"[Let there be] a covenant between me and you, between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel that he may go up [away] from me."

"Because I exalted you from the dust and I made you a leader over my people Israel, but you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and you caused my people Israel to sin, to provoke me with their sins,

It shall be that you shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the crows to sustain you there."

"Get up and go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon and stay there. Look, I have commanded a woman there, a widow, to sustain you."

She said, "{As Yahweh your God lives}, surely I do not have a cake, {but only a handful of flour} in the jar and a little olive oil in the jug. Here I [am] gathering a few pieces of wood, and I will go and prepare it for me and my son, that we might eat it and die."

She said to Elijah, "{What do you have against me}, O man of God, [that] you have come to me to make known my guilt and to cause my son to die?"

He said, "How have I sinned that you [are] giving your servant into the hand of Ahab to kill me?

He said, "I did not throw Israel into confusion; rather you and the house of your father [have] by forsaking the commands of Yahweh when you went after the Baals!

With them, he built an altar in the name of Yahweh, and he made a trench {which would have held} about two seahs of seed, all around the altar.

It happened at the offering of the [evening] oblation, Elijah the prophet went near, and he said, "O Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel; let it be known today that you [are] God in Israel and [that] I [am] your servant and [that] I have done all of these things by your words.

Answer me, O Yahweh, answer me; that this people may know that you, O Yahweh, [are] God and that you have turned their hearts back again."

Then he said, "I have been very zealous for Yahweh the God of hosts, for the {Israelites} have forsaken your covenant. They have demolished your altars, and they have killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left over, and they seek to take my life.

He said, "I have been very zealous for Yahweh the God of Hosts, for the {Israelites} have forsaken your covenant, demolished your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword; I alone am left, and they seek to take my life!"

I will leave in Israel seven thousand, all of the knees that have not bowed down to Baal and all of the mouths that have not kissed him."

Then he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, "Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will go after you." Then he said, "Go, return, for what I have done to you?"

Suddenly a certain prophet approached Ahab king of Israel and said, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Have you seen all this great crowd? Behold, I [am] giving it into your hand today, that you may know that I [am] Yahweh.'"

Then the servants of the commanders of the provinces went out first, and Ben-Hadad sent, and they reported to him, saying, "Men have come out from Samaria."

Then he said, "If they have come out for peace, seize them alive; and if they have come out for war, seize them alive."

You must muster an army for yourself as the army {you have lost}, and horses and chariots as the horses and chariots [you lost], then we will fight them in the plain. Surely we will be stronger than they." So he listened to their voice and did so.

Then his servants said to him, "Please now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are kings of mercy. Let us now put sackcloth on around our waists and ropes on our heads. Then let us go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps {he will let you live}."

He said to him, "Because you have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh, look, as you now are going from me, a lion will kill you." When he went from beside him, the lion found him and killed him.

He said to him, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Because you have let the man I devoted for destruction go from [your] hand, your life shall be in place of his life and your people in place of his people.'"

You shall say to him, 'Thus says Yahweh: "Have you committed murder and also taken possession?" ' You shall also say to him, 'Thus says Yahweh: "In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs will also lick your blood." '"

Then Ahab said to Elijah, "Have you found me, my enemy?" He said, "I have found you because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of Yahweh.

I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, {because you made me angry} and have caused Israel to sin.'

"Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring disaster in his days. I will bring the disaster on his house in the days of his son."