But Zadok the priest, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and David’s most formidable warriors did not side with Adonijah [in his desire to become king].

But he did not invite Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, the most formidable warriors, or his brother Solomon.

Go at once to King David and say to him, ‘Did you not, my lord, O king, swear to your maidservant, saying, “Solomon your son shall certainly be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne”? Why then has Adonijah become king?’

So Bathsheba bowed down and paid respect to the king. And the king said, “What do you wish?”

He has sacrificed oxen and fattened steers and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the king’s sons and Abiathar the priest and Joab the commander of the army [to a feast], but he did not invite your servant Solomon.

Bathsheba bowed down with her face to the ground, and laid herself face down before the king and said, “May my lord King David live forever!”

Now you also know what Joab the son of Zeruiah [my sister] did to me, and what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner and to Amasa the son of Jether, [both of] whom he murdered; avenging the blood of war in [a time of] peace. And he put the [innocent] blood of war [of Abner and Amasa] on his belt that was around his waist, and on his sandals on his feet.

So act in accordance with your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to Sheol (the place of the dead) in peace.

So the king sent word and called for Shimei and said to him, “Did I not make you swear by the Lord and solemnly warn you, saying, ‘Know for certain that on the day you leave [Jerusalem] and go anywhere, you shall surely die’? And you said to me, ‘The word (ruling) I have heard is good.’

The king also said to Shimei, “You are aware in your own heart of all the evil you did to my father David; so the Lord shall return your evil on your own head.

But [in the meantime] the people were still sacrificing [to God] on the high places (hilltops) [as the pagans did to their idols], for there was no [permanent] house yet built for the Name of the Lord.

If you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and My commandments, as your father David did, then I will lengthen your days.”

So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from [his place] beside me while your maidservant was asleep, and laid him on her bosom, and laid her dead son on my bosom.

When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead. But when I examined him carefully in the morning, behold, it was not my son, the one whom I had borne.”

Then the other woman said, “No! For my son is the one who is living, and your son is the dead one.” But the first woman said, “No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.” [This is how] they were speaking before the king.

Then the king said, “This woman says, ‘This is my son, the one who is alive, and your son is the dead one’; and the other woman says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the one who is alive.’”

So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the men of Gebal cut and chiseled the stones, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house (temple).

He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a craftsman in bronze. Hiram was filled with wisdom, understanding, and skill for doing any [kind of] work in bronze. So he came to King Solomon and did all his [bronze] work.

Now Hiram made the basins and the shovels and the bowls. So Hiram finished all the work which he did for King Solomon on the house of the Lord:

So all the work that King Solomon did on the house of the Lord was completed. Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and the utensils—and he put them in the treasuries of the Lord’s house.

But the Lord said to my father David, ‘Because it was in your heart to build a house for My Name, you did well, in that it was in your heart.

Yet graciously consider the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, to listen to the [loud] cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You today;

Therefore, your hearts are to be wholly devoted to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as [you are doing] today.”

So Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, and they did not please him.

These were the chief officers who were over Solomon’s work, five hundred and fifty, who ruled over the people doing the work.

I did not believe the report until I came and saw it with my own eyes. Behold, the half of it was not told to me. You exceed in wisdom and prosperity the report which I heard.

Solomon did evil [things] in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as his father David had done.

And he did the same for all of his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not follow other gods; but he did not observe (remember, obey) what the Lord had commanded.

But when Hadad heard in Egypt that David had died and that Joab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me leave, so that I may go to my own country.”

So Rezon was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, along with the evil that Hadad inflicted. Rezon hated Israel and reigned over Aram (Syria).

because they have abandoned Me and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the sons of Ammon; and they have not walked in My ways and followed My commandments, doing what is right in My sight and keeping My statutes and My ordinances as did his father David.

Then it shall be, that if you listen to all that I command you and walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight, keeping and observing My statutes and My commandments, as My servant David did, then I will be with you and build you an enduring house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you.

The rest of the acts of Solomon—and all that he did, and his wisdom—are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?

They spoke to him, saying, “If you will be a servant to this people today, and will serve them and grant their request, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.”

So the king did not listen to the people; for the situation was from the Lord, so that He might fulfill His word which He spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

So when all [the ten northern tribes of] Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people replied to the king, saying,“What portion do we have in David?
We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse;
To your tents, O Israel!
Look now after your own house, David!” Then Israel went back to their tents.

Jeroboam held a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast which is kept in Judah, and he went up to the altar; he did this in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves which he had made. And he stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.

So he went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart [in defiance of God’s commandments]; and he held a feast for the Israelites and he went up to the altar to burn incense [in defiance of God’s law.]

So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.

Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” For his sons had seen which way the man of God who came from Judah had gone.

Then after he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I am dead, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.

Jeroboam’s wife did so. She got up and went [twenty miles] to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see, because his eyes were dim from old age.

And [the people of] Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord. They provoked Him to jealousy more than all that their fathers had done, with their sins which they had committed.

There were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They committed all the repulsive acts of the nations which the Lord dispossessed before the Israelites.

Now as for the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and everything that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of [the betrayal of] Uriah the Hittite.

Now as for the rest of the acts of Abijam and everything that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did his father (forefather) David.

Now as for the rest of all the acts of Asa, all his might, everything that he did, and the cities which he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But during the time of his old age he had a foot disease.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father [Jeroboam] and in his sin [of idolatry], with which he made Israel sin.

Now as for the rest of Nadab’s acts and everything that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

He did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin [of idolatry] with which he made Israel sin.

Now as for the rest of the acts of Baasha, what he did and his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

Moreover, the word of the Lord came against Baasha and his household through the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani, both for all the evil that Baasha did in the sight of the Lord in provoking Him to anger with the work of his hands (idolatry), in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he [willingly] destroyed it (the family of Jeroboam).

Now as for the rest of the acts of Elah and everything that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

But Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, and acted more wickedly than all who came before him.

Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all [the kings] who were before him.

Ahab also made the Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

So he went and did in accordance with the word of the Lord; he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.

She went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days.

The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, in accordance with the word of the Lord which He spoke through Elijah.

Has it not been told to my lord [Elijah] what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets by fifties in a cave, and provided them with bread and water?

Elijah said, “As the Lord of hosts (armies) lives, before whom I stand, I will certainly show myself to Ahab today.”

Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people [of Israel] did not answer him [so much as] a word.

And he said, “Fill four pitchers with water and pour it on the burnt offering and the wood.” And he said, “Do it the second time.” And they did it the second time. And he said, “Do it the third time.” And they did it a third time.

Then the king of Israel summoned all the elders of the land and said, “Please observe and see how this man is seeking our destruction. For he sent messengers to me for my wives, my children, my silver, and my gold, and I did not refuse him.”

Then a prophet approached Ahab king of Israel and said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Have you seen all this great army? Behold, I will hand them over to you, and you shall know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.’”

and assemble an army like the army that you have lost in battle, horse for horse and chariot for chariot. Then we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they.” And he listened to their words and did so.

Ben-hadad [tempting him] said to him, “I will restore the cities which my father took from your father; and you may set up bazaars (shops) of your own in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.” Then, Ahab replied, “I will let you go with this covenant (treaty).” So he made a covenant with him and let him go.

So the men of his city, the elders and the nobles who lived there, did as Jezebel had sent word to them, just as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them.

Then they sent word to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned to death.”

When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, she said to Ahab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite which he refused to sell you, because Naboth is no longer alive, but dead.”

There certainly was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife incited him.

He acted very repulsively in following idols, in accordance with everything the Amorites had done, whom the Lord expelled [from the land] before the sons of Israel.

But Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire first for the word of the Lord.”

Then the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?”

So the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria.

Now the rest of Ahab’s acts, and everything that he did, the ivory palace which he built and all the cities which he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

Jehoshaphat had [large cargo] ships of Tarshish constructed to go to Ophir for gold, but they did not go, because the ships were wrecked at Ezion-geber.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the [idolatrous] way of his father [Ahab] and of his mother [Jezebel], and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin.