When king David was waxen old and stricken in years, though they covered him with clothes, yet he caught no heat.

Wherefore his servants said unto him, "Let there be sought for my lord the king a young maiden to wait upon him and to cherish him. And let her lie in his bosom, that my lord the king may get heat."

And so they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the coasts of Israel and found one Abishag, a Shunammite, and brought her to the king.

Now therefore come, that I may give thee counsel how to save thine own life and the life of thy son Solomon.

And see, while thou yet talkest there with the king, I will come in after thee and will end thy words."

And Bathsheba went in unto the king into the chamber. And the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite ministered unto him.

And now, my lord king, the eyes of all Israel wait on thee, to tell them who shall sit on the seat of my lord the king after him.

For else when my lord the king is laid to rest with his fathers, I and my son Solomon shall be sinners."

And they told the king, saying, "Here cometh Nathan the prophet." And when he was come before the king, he made obeisance unto the king upon his face unto the ground,

Is this thing done of my lord the king and yet wouldest not show me thy servant, who should sit on the seat of my lord the king after him?"

Then king David answered, and said, "Call me Bathsheba." And she came in and stood before him.

And Bathsheba bowed on her face to the earth and did obeisance unto the king, and said, "I pray God my lord king David may live ever."

Then said king David, "Call me Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada." And when they came before the king,

the king said unto them, "Take with you the servants of your lord, and set Solomon my son upon mine own mule and carry him down to Gihon.

And then come up after him, and let him come and sit upon my seat. For he shall be king in my stead. And him I have commanded to be captain over Israel and Judah."

And Adonijah and all the guests that were with him, heard it even as they had made an end of eating. And when Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, "How happeneth it there is such a noise in the city?"

And Zadok the priest and Nathan the Prophet have anointed him king in Gihon. And as they came up again they rejoiced that the city did sound again. And that is the noise that ye have heard.

And thereto Solomon sitteth on the seat of the kingdom.

And moreover, the king's servants went in to bless our lord king David saying, 'Thy God make the name of Solomon more favoured than thine, and his seat more glorious than thine.' And the king bowed himself upon the bed.

And last of all thus said the king, 'Blessed be the LORD God of Israel which hath made one to sit on my seat this day, even mine eyes seeing it.'"

And Adonijah, fearing Solomon, arose and went and caught hold on the horns of the altar.

And Solomon said, "If he will be a child of virtue, there shall not a hair of him fall to the earth. But and if wickedness shall be found in him, he shall die for it."

When the days of David were drawn nigh, and he should die; he charged Solomon his son, saying,

And see that thou keep the appointment of the LORD thy God, that thou walk in his ways and keep his commandments, ordinances, laws and testimonies, even as it is written in the law of Moses: that thou mayest understand all that thou oughtest to do, and all that thou shouldest meddle with.

That the LORD may make good his promise which he hath promised me, saying, 'If thy children shall take heed to their ways, that they walk before me in truth, with all their hearts and with all their souls; then thou shalt never be without one sitting on the seat of Israel.'

Moreover thou knowest how Joab the son of Zeruiah hath served me, and what he hath done to the two captains of the hosts of Israel - unto Abner the son of Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether - how he slew them and shed the blood of war in time of peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins and in his shoes that were on his feet.

Deal with him therefore according to thy wisdom and see that thou bring not his hoar head down to the grave in peace.

And show kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among them that eat at thine own table, because they so clave to me when I fled from Absalom thy brother.

And so David rested with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.

And the days which David reigned upon Israel were forty years: seven years in Hebron, and thirty and three years in Jerusalem.

And he said, "It betokeneth peace." Then said he, "I have a matter to show thee." And she said, "Say on."

And he said, "Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel put their eyes on me, that I should reign. Howbeit, the kingdom was turned away and given to my brother, for it was appointed him of the LORD: and now I ask a petition of thee, whereof deny me not."

And thereupon Bathsheba went unto king Solomon to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up against her and bowed himself unto her, and sat him down on his seat. And there was a seat set for the king's mother, and she sat on his right side.

Then she said, "I must desire a little petition of thee: say me not nay." And the king said unto her, "Ask on my mother: for I will not say thee nay."

Now therefore as surely as the LORD liveth which hath established me and set me on the seat of David my father, and which hath made me a house as he promised me, Adonijah shall die this day."

And unto Abiathar the priest said the king, "Get thee to Anathoth unto thine own fields, for thou art worthy of death: but I will not at this time kill thee, because thou hast borne the Ark of the Lord Jehovah before David my father, and because thou sufferest with my father in all his afflictions."

And so Solomon put away Abiathar from being priest unto the LORD: to fulfill the words of the LORD which he spake over the house of Eli in Shiloh.

Then tidings came to Joab - for Joab had turned after Adonijah, but not after Absalom - whereupon he fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD and caught handfast on the horns of the altar.

And when Benaiah was come to the tabernacle of the LORD he said unto him, "Thus sayeth the king: 'Come out.'" And he said, "Nay: But I will die even here." And Benaiah brought the king word, saying, "Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me."

And the LORD bring his blood upon his own head, for he smote two men righteouser and better than he, and slew them with the sword; my father unwitting: even Abner the son of Ner captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether captain of the host of Judah.

And their blood return upon the head of Joab and on the head of his seed forever. And prosperity be unto David, and unto his seed, and unto his house, and unto his seat, of the LORD forever."

And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and smote him and slew him and buried him in his own house in the wilderness.

And the king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his room over the host, and put Zadok the priest in the room of Abiathar.

Then the king sent and called Shimei, and said to him, "Build thee a house in Jerusalem and dwell there and see that thou go not once thence any whither.

For be thou sure of it: the day thou goest out and passest over the river of Kidron, thou shalt die for it, and thy blood shall be on thine own head."

And Shimei said unto the king, "It is well said: as my lord the king hath said, so will his servant do." And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many a day.

And it chanced, at the end of three years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away unto Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath. And one told Shimei, saying, "See, thy servants be in Gath."

And then the king said to Shimei, "Thou rememberest all the wickedness which thine heart knoweth that thou didst to David my father. The LORD therefore render again thy wickedness upon thine own head:

And the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada: which went out and smote him that he died. And so was the kingdom settled in the hand of Solomon.

Then Solomon drew 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 walls of Jerusalem round about.

Only the people sacrificed in altars made on hills, because there was no house built unto the name of the LORD until those days.

And Solomon loved the LORD and walked in the ordinances of David his father, save only that he sacrificed and offered cense upon altars in hills.

And in Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, "Ask what I shall give thee."

And Solomon said, "Thou hast showed unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy; according as he walked before thee in truth and in righteousness and plainness of heart with thee. And thou hast kept for him this great mercy, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his seat: as it is come to pass this day.

And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a people that are so many that they can not be told nor numbered for multitude.

Give therefore unto thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, and to discern between good, and bad. For who is able to judge this, thy so weighty a people?"

see, I have done according to thy petition. And behold, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart, so that there was none like thee before, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.

And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep mine ordinances and commandments as David thy father did walk, I will lengthen thy days also."

When Solomon awoke, this was his dream. And he came to Jerusalem and presented himself before the Ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.

And the one of them said, "Oh my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house. And I was delivered of a child with her in the said house.

And the third day after that I was delivered, she was delivered also: we two being together and no stranger with us in the house save we two alone.

And this woman's child died in a night, for she had overlaid it.

And then she arose at midnight and took my son from my side, while thine handmaid slept and laid it in her bosom, and put her dead child in my bosom.

And when I rose up in the morning to give my child suck: see, it was dead. But when I had looked more diligently upon it in the morning: Behold, it was not my son which I did bear."

Then said the king, "The one sayeth, 'This that is alive is my son, and the dead is thine.' And the other sayeth, 'Nay: But thy son is the dead and the live child is mine.'"

And then the king said, "Divide the living child in two, and give the one half to the one, and the other to the other."

Then spake the woman whose son lived, unto the king - for her motherly heart was kindled with pity over her son - and said, "I beseech thee, my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it." And the other said, "It shall be neither mine nor thine, but divide it."

And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged and feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.

And Solomon had twelve general receivers over all Israel which sustained the king and his household: each man his month in a year.

Whose names are these: The son of Hur in mount Ephraim;

the son of Dekar in Makaz, in Salem, in Bethshemesh, in Elon and in Bethhanan;

the son of Hesed in Arubboth, and to him pertained Socoh and all the land of Hepher;

The son of Geber had Ramoth Gilead, and his were the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh which lie in Gilead, and his were the coasts of Argob in Bashan, three score great cities with wall and bars of brass;

Geber the son of Uri had the country of Gilead and the land of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan, and was alone receiver in the land.

And Judah and Israel were many, even as the sand of the sea in number, eating, drinking, and making merry.

And Solomon's food was in one day thirty quarters of manchet flour and three score quarters of meal;

For he ruled in all the regions on the other side Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza and also over all the kings on the other side the said Euphrates. And he had peace with all his servants on every side.

And as for barley and straw for the horses and beasts they brought unto the places where the officers were, every man in his office.

And he excelled all men in wisdom, both Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol and Darda the sons of Mahol. And his name spread abroad among all nations on every side.

And he disputed of trees, even from the Cedar tree that groweth in Lebanon unto the Hyssop that springeth out of the wall. And he disputed of beasts, fowls, worms, and fishes.

And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon, for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father. And thereto Hiram was ever a lover of David's.

"Thou knowest of David my father, how he could not build a house unto the name of the LORD his God for war which he had on every side, until the LORD had put them under his foot.

But now the LORD my God hath given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor any evil plague.

Now then, command that they hew me Cedar trees in Lebanon. And let my servants be with thine, and I will give the hire of thy servants in all such things as thou shalt appoint, for thou knowest that there are not among us that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians."

When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, "Blessed be the LORD this day which hath set David a wise son over this mighty people."

which he sent to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by course, so that they were one month in Lebanon and two months at home. And Adoniram was over the tribute.

And Solomon had three score and ten thousand that bare burdens, and three score and ten thousand that hewed in the mountains

besides the lords he had to oversee the work, in number three thousand and three hundred, which ruled the people that wrought in the work.

And at the commandment of the king, they brought great stones, and that free stones, and hewed thereto, to lay in the foundation of the house.

And Solomon's masons and the masons of Hiram did hew them, with them of the borders. And so they prepared both in timber and stone to build the house.

And the nethermost gallery was five cubits broad and the middle gallery six. And the third, seven cubits broad. For he made the walls without, whereon the beams lay, ever thinner and thinner, so that they were not fastened in the walls of the house.

And the house was built of stone made perfect already before it was brought thither, so that there was neither hammer or axe either any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.

And the door of the middle gallery was in the end of the house on the right side. And men went up with winding stairs into the middle gallery, and out of the middle into the third.

"Concerning the house which thou art in building: if thou wilt walk in mine ordinances and execute my laws and keep all my commandments, to walk in them; then will I make good unto thee my promises which I promised David thy father.

And he sealed twenty cubits in the end of the temple, both floor and walls, with Cedar, and dressed it within to be the quyre and place most holy.

And the quyre was twenty cubits long, and twenty in breadth and twenty in height. And he sealed it with pure gold, and boarded the altar with Cedar.

And the whole house he overlaid with gold until he had ended it. And the altar that was in the quyre he overlaid with gold also.

and every wing five cubits long: so that from the uttermost part of one wing unto the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits.

And the other Cherub was ten cubits high also: so that both the Cherubs were of one measure and one size.

The height of the one Cherub was ten cubits, and so was it of the other.