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."

The young woman was absolutely beautiful. She served the king and was very useful to him. The king was not sexually involved with her.

"Your majesty," she replied, "you promised your servant in the name of the LORD your God, "Your son Solomon will certainly become king after me and will sit on my throne.'

While she was still talking to the king, Nathan the prophet arrived.

"Call Bathsheba for me," King David replied. So she came in and stood in front of the king.

"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."

"Furthermore, you're aware of what Zeruiah's son Joab did to me and to those two commanders of the armies of Israel, Ner's son Abner and Jether's son Amasa, whom he killed, and how he shed the blood of wartime during times of peace, staining the very belt he wears around his waist and the sandals he wears on his feet.

Later, Haggith's son Adonijah approached Solomon's mother. "Are you here on a peaceful mission?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied. "I have something to ask you about." "Talk," she told him.

So now I'm asking one thing from you. Don't refuse me." "Talk," she told him.

So Bathsheba went to talk to King Solomon for Adonijah. The king rose to meet her, bowed to her, and sat down on his throne. He ordered a throne be set in place for his mother. She sat on a throne to his right

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

The king replied to him, "Do just what he asked. Kill him and bury him so that you may remove from me and from my father's household the guilt that Joab shed needlessly.

One woman said, "Your majesty, this woman and I live in the same house. I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.

This woman's son died overnight because she laid on top of him.

She got up in the middle of the night, took my son from me while your servant was asleep, and laid him to her breast after laying her dead son next to me.

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."

When the queen of Sheba heard about Solomon's reputation with the LORD, she came to test him with difficult questions.

She brought along a large retinue, camels laden with spices, and lots of gold and precious stones. Upon her arrival, she spoke with Solomon about everything that was on her mind.

the food set at his table, his servants who sat with him, his ministers in attendance and how they were dressed, his personal staff and how they were dressed, and even his personal stairway by which he went up to the LORD's Temple, she was breathless!

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

Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, a vast quantity of spices, and precious stones. No spices ever came again that were comparable to those that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

In return, King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she wanted and had requested in addition to what he had given her consistent with his generosity. Afterward, she returned to her own land with her servants.

So that's what Jeroboam's wife did. She got up, went to Shiloh, and found Ahijah's home. Ahijah was blind, because his eyes could not focus due to his age.

Meanwhile, the LORD had spoken to Ahijah, "Be on your guard! Jeroboam's wife is coming to ask you about her son, because he is ill. You're to say such and such to her. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else!"

When she arrived, Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came through the doorway. He said this to her:

Then Jeroboam's wife got up and left for Tirzah. As soon as she set foot over the threshold of the house, the child died.

He removed his mother Maacah from her position as Queen Mother because she had made a detestable image dedicated to Asherah. Asa cut down his mother's idol, crushed it, and burned it at the Kidron Brook.

While she was on her way to get the water, he called out to her, "Would you please also bring me a piece of bread while you're at it?"

"As the LORD your God lives," she replied, "I don't have so much as a muffin, just a handful of flour in a bowl and some oil left in a bottle. Now I'm going to find some sticks so I can cook a last meal for my son and for me. Then we're going to eat it and die."

So she went out and did precisely what Elijah told her to do. As a result, Elijah, the widow, and her son were fed for days.

"What do we have in common, you man of God?" she accused Elijah. "You came to me so you could uncover my guilt! And you're responsible for the death of my son!"

So she wrote some memos in Ahab's name, set his personal seal to them, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived with Naboth in his city.

In the memos, she wrote the following directives: "Proclaim a public fast and seat Naboth in the front row.

So the leading men of the city, along with the elders and nobles who lived there, did precisely what Jezebel had directed them to do. They followed the instructions that she had set forth in the memos:

When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she told Ahab, "Get up and confiscate Naboth's vineyard that he refused to sell you for cash. Naboth the Jezreelite isn't alive anymore. He's dead!"

Jehoshaphat was 35 years old when he became king. He reigned 25 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azubah. She was the daughter of Shilhi.