Now king David was old and advanced in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he got no heat.

Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, I will be king: and he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.

And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so? and he also was a very goodly man; and his mother bore him after Absalom.

And he conferred with Joab the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest: and they following Adonijah, helped him.

But Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, he called not.

Go, and enter in to king David, and say to him, Didst not thou, my lord, O king, swear to thy handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? why then doth Adonijah reign?

And she said to him, My lord, thou didst swear by the LORD thy God to thy handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne.

And he hath slain oxen, and fat cattle, and sheep in abundance, and hath called all the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the captain of the host: but Solomon thy servant hath he not called.

And they told the king, saying, Behold, Nathan the prophet. And when he had come in before the king, he bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.

And Nathan said, My lord, O king, hast thou said, Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne?

For he hath gone down this day, and hath slain oxen, and fat cattle, and sheep in abundance, and hath called all the king's sons, and the captains of the host, and Abiathar the priest; and behold, they eat and drink before him, and say, God save king Adonijah.

But me, even me thy servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and thy servant Solomon, hath he not called.

Even as I swore to thee by the LORD God of Israel, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead; even so will I certainly do this day.

Then ye shall come up after him, that he may come and sit upon my throne; for he shall be king in my stead: and I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah.

And Adonijah and all the guests that were with him heard it as they had made an end of eating. And when Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, Why is this noise of the city being in an uproar?

And while he yet spoke, behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came: and Adonijah said to him, Come in; for thou art a valiant man, and bringest good tidings.

And it was told Solomon, saying, Behold, Adonijah feareth king Solomon: for lo, he hath caught hold on the horns of the altar, saying, Let king Solomon swear to me to-day that he will not slay his servant with the sword.

And Solomon said, If he will show himself a worthy man, there shall not a hair of him fall to the earth: but if wickedness shall be found in him, he shall die.

So king Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the altar. And he came and bowed himself to king Solomon: and Solomon said to him, Go to thy house.

Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying,

That the LORD may continue his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel.

Moreover, thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet.

And behold, thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjaminite of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim: but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I swore to him by the LORD, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword.

And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem.

And Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bath-sheba the mother of Solomon. And she said, Comest thou peaceably? and he said, Peaceably.

He said moreover, I have somewhat to say to thee. And she said, Say on.

And he said, Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign: but the kingdom is turned about, and hath become my brother's: for it was his from the LORD.

And he said, Speak, I pray thee, to Solomon the king, (for he will not say to thee no,) that he give me Abishag the Shunamite for a wife.

And king Solomon answered and said to his mother, And why dost thou ask Abishag the Shunamite for Adonijah? ask for him the kingdom also; for he is my elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah.

Now therefore, as the LORD liveth, who hath established me, and set me on the throne of David my father, and who hath made me a house, as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day.

And king Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell upon him that he died.

So Solomon removed Abiathar from being priest to the LORD; that he might fulfill the word of the LORD, which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.

Then tidings came to Joab: for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom. And Joab fled to the tabernacle of the LORD, and caught hold on the horns of the altar.

And it was told to king Solomon that Joab had fled to the tabernacle of the LORD; and behold, he is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, fall upon him.

And Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the LORD, and said to him, Thus saith the king, Come forth. And he said, No; but I will die here. And Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.

And the king said to him, Do as he hath said, and fall upon him, and bury him; that thou mayest take away the innocent blood which Joab shed, from me, and from the house of my father.

And the LORD shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword, my father David not knowing of it, to wit, Abner the son of Ner captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah.

So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went, and fell upon him, and slew him: and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.

So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; who went out, and fell upon him, that he died. And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.

And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem on every side.

Only the people sacrificed in high places, because there was no house built to the name of the LORD, until those days.

And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.

And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt-offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar.

And Solomon said, Thou hast shown to thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.

And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.

And Solomon awoke; and behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered up burnt-offerings, and offered peace-offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.

And these were the princes which he had; Azariah the son of Zadok the priest,

Ahimaaz was in Naphtali; he also took Basmath the daughter of Solomon for a wife:

Geber the son of Uri was in the country of Gilead, in the country of Sihon king of the Amorites, and of Og king of Bashan; and he was the only officer who was in the land.

For he had dominion over all the region on this side the river, from Tiphsah even to Azzah, over all the kings on this side of the river: and he had peace on all sides around him.

For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all the surrounding nations.

And he spoke three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five.

And he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spoke also of beasts, and of fowls, and of creeping animals, and of fishes.

And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father: for Hiram was ever a lover of David.

Thou knowest how that David my father could not build a house to the name of the LORD his God, for the wars which were about him on every side, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet.

And behold, I purpose to build a house to the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD spoke to David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build a house to my name.

Now therefore command thou, that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants: and to thee will I give hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt appoint: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that is skilled in hewing timber like the Sidonians.

And it came to pass, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be the LORD this day, who hath given to David a wise son over this great people.

And the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him: and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together.

And he sent them to Lebanon ten thousand a month by courses; a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home. And Adoniram was over the levy.

And Solomon's builders, and Hiram's builders did hew them, and the stone-squarers: so they prepared timber and stones to build the house.

And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.

And for the house he made windows of narrow lights.

And against the wall of the house he built chambers round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle: and he made chambers round about:

The nethermost chamber was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad: for without in the wall of the house he made narrowed rests round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house.

So he built the house and finished it; and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.

And then he built chambers against all the house, five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.

And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar, both the floor of the house, and the walls of the ceiling: and he covered them on the inside with wood, and covered the floor of the house with planks of fir.

And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house, both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar: he even built them for it within, even for the oracle, even for the most holy place.

And the oracle he prepared in the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

And the oracle in the forepart was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the hight of it, and he overlaid it with pure gold; and so covered the altar which was of cedar.

So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold.

And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house: also the whole altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold.

And within the oracle he made two cherubim of olive tree, each ten cubits high.

And he set the cherubim within the inner house: and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubim, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house.

And he overlaid the cherubim with gold.

And he carved all the walls of the house around with carved figures of cherubim, and palm trees, and open flowers, within and without.

And the floor of the house he overlaid with gold, within and without.

And for the entrance of the oracle he made doors of olive tree: the lintel and side-posts were a fifth part of the wall.

The two doors also were of olive tree; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubim, and palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubim, and upon the palm trees.

So also he made for the door of the temple posts of olive tree a fourth part of the wall.

And he carved thereon cherubim, and palm trees, and open flowers; and covered them with gold, fitted upon the carved work.

And he built the inner court with three rows of hewn stone, and a row of cedar beams.

And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul (which is the eighth month) was the house finished throughout all its parts, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it.

But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.

He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; its length was a hundred cubits, and its breadth fifty cubits, and its hight thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.

And he made a porch of pillars; its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth thirty cubits: and the porch was before them: and the other pillars and the thick beams were before them.

Then he made a porch for the throne where he might judge, even the porch of judgment: and it was covered with cedar from one side of the floor to the other.

And his house where he dwelt had another court within the porch, which was of the like work. Solomon made also a house for Pharaoh's daughter, whom he had married, like to this porch.

He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass: and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and ingenious to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work.

For he cast two pillars of brass, each of eighteen cubits high: and a line of twelve cubits did encompass each of them.

And he made two capitals of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the hight of the one capital was five cubits, and the hight of the other capital was five cubits:

And he made the pillars, and two rows around upon the one net-work, to cover the capitals that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so he did for the other capital.

And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called its name Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and called its name Boaz.

And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was entirely round, and its hight was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits encompassed it.

And he made ten bases of brass; four cubits was the length of one base, and four cubits the breadth of it, and three cubits the hight of it.

And in the top of the base was there a round compass of half a cubit high: and on the top of the base its ledges and its borders were of the same.

For on the plates of its ledges, and on its borders, he graved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, according to the proportion of every one, and additions around.

After this manner he made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one size.

Then he made ten lavers of brass: one laver contained forty baths: and every laver was four cubits: and upon every one of the ten bases one laver.