After Baal-hanan died, Hadad succeeded him. His city was named Pai, and his wife's name was Mehetabel. She was the daughter of Matred, who was the daughter of Me-zahab.

Later on, Jabez called on the God of Israel, asking him, ""whether you would bless me again and again, enlarge my territory, keep your power with me, keep me from evil, and keep me from harm!" And God granted what he had requested.

Saul ordered his armor bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised people will come and abuse me."

Even back when Saul was ruling as king, you kept on leading the army of Israel out to battle and bringing them in again. The LORD your God told you, "You yourself will shepherd my people Israel and will be Commander-in-Chief over my people Israel.'"

David expressed a longing, "Oh, how I wish someone would get me a drink of water from the Bethlehem well that's by the city gate!"

said in response, "May God forbid me to do this! I won't drink the blood of these men, will I? After all, they risked their lives to bring it to me." That's why he wouldn't drink it. The Three Warriors did these things.

and David went out to meet them. He told them, "If you've come in peace to be of help to me, then you'll have my commitment. But if you've come to betray me to my enemies, even though I'm innocent of wrongdoing, then may the God of our ancestors watch and judge."

But David feared God that day, and asked "How am I to bring the Ark of God to me?"

So David asked God, "Am I to go out against the Philistines? Will you give me victory over them?" "Go out," the LORD replied to him, "and I'll put them right into your hand."

So David went out to Baal-perazim and defeated the Philistines there. David observed, "Like an overwhelming flood, God has overwhelmed my enemies, using me to do it." That's why that place is called Baal-perazim.

"Don't touch my chosen ones, and don't hurt my prophets!"

"Go tell David, my servant, "This is what the LORD says:

"""You won't be building a house for me to inhabit, will you? After all, I haven't lived in a house from the day I brought out Israel until today. Instead, I've lived from tent to tent and from one place to another.

Wherever I've moved within all of Israel, did I ever ask even one judge of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people, "Why haven't you built me a cedar house?'"'

"Now therefore this is what you are to tell my servant David: "This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "I took you from the pasture myself from tending sheep to become Commander-in-Chief over my people Israel.

I will establish a homeland for my people Israel, planting them in a secure location where they will never be disturbed anymore. Wicked people will not oppress them as happened in the past,

during the time I had commanded judges to administer my people Israel. I'll also grant you deliverance from all your enemies.

"""I'm also announcing to you that the LORD also will himself build a house for you. It will come about that when your life is complete and you go to join your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who is related to one of your sons, and I will fortify his kingdom.

He will build a temple dedicated to me, and I will make his throne last forever.

I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me. I will never remove my gracious love from him as I did from the one who preceded you.

I will confirm him in my Temple and in my kingdom forever, and his throne will remain secure forever."'"

"Who am I, LORD God, and what is my household, since you have brought me to this? Furthermore, this is a small thing to you, God, and yet you have spoken concerning your servant's household for a great while to come, and you have seen in me the fulfillment of man's purpose, LORD God.

May your name be made great and honored forever: The LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, is God for Israel, and may the family of David your servant stand before you forever.

"Because of you, my God, I have been bold to pray to you, as you have told your servant that you will build him a dynasty.

so David told himself, "I will be loyal to Nahash's son Hanun, since his father showed loyal, gracious love to me." So David sent a delegation to console him about his loss of his father.

He told Abishai, "If the Arameans prove too strong for me, then you are to help me. If the Ammonites prove too strong for you, then I will help you.

Be strong, be courageous on behalf of our people and for the cities of our God, and may the LORD do what he thinks is best."

David ordered Joab and the commanders of the army, "Go take a census of Israel from Beer-sheba to Dan, and bring me a report so I can be aware of the total number."

But Joab replied, "May the LORD increase the population of his people a hundredfold! Your majesty, all of them are your majesty's servants, aren't they? So why should your majesty demand this? Why should he bring guilt to Israel?"

"Go and tell David, "This is what the LORD says: "I'm holding three choices out for you: pick one of them for yourself, and I will do it to you."'"

Either three years of famine, or three months of reversals as you are swept away by your enemies while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or three days with the sword of the LORD, consisting of pestilence infecting the land, with the angel of the LORD wreaking destruction from border to border throughout all of Israel.' Decide right now what I am to answer to the one who sent me."

So David replied to Gad, "This is a very bad choice for me to make! Let me now please fall into the hand of the LORD, because his mercy is very great, but may I never fall into human hands!"

David told God, "Wasn't I the one who ordered the census of the population? Wasn't it I who sinned and acted wickedly? Now as for these sheep, what have they done? LORD God, please let your hand be against me and my ancestral household, but don't let your people be ravaged by plague!"

David told Ornan, "Give me the threshing floor as a site to build an altar to the LORD on it. Give it to me at its full price, so the plague may be averted from the people."

But Ornan replied to David, "Take it! Let your majesty the king do whatever seems like a good idea to him. Look here! I'm giving the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing machinery for the wood, and the wheat for a grain offering. I'm giving all of it."

But King David told Ornan, "No. I will buy them for the full price because I will not offer to the LORD what is yours or offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing."

David thought, "My son Solomon is young and inexperienced. The temple that will be built for the LORD is to be magnificent, well known, and internationally honored, so I will complete preparations for it." So before his death, David finished providing a great quantity of materials for it.

David addressed Solomon: "I have attempted to build a temple to the name of the LORD my God.

But this message from the LORD came to me, telling me

"You have shed a lot of blood and fought great battles. You won't be building a house for my name, since you have shed so much blood on the earth in my sight. But look! A son born to you will live comfortably, because I will give him rest from all his enemies that surround him on every side, since his name will be "Solomon" - I will give peace and quiet for Israel during his lifetime.

He will build a temple to my name. He will be a son to me, I myself will be a father to him, and I will secure his royal throne in Israel forever.'

So now, my son, may the LORD be with you, so that you are successful in constructing the Temple of the LORD your God, just as he has spoken about you.

"Only may the LORD give you discretion and understanding as he places you in charge over Israel, so you can keep the Law of the LORD your God.

gold, silver, bronze, and iron. So begin the work, and may the LORD be with you."

"Isn't the LORD your God with you? Hasn't he surrounded you with comfort? He has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my control, and the land lies subdued both in the LORD's presence and before his people.

So set your minds and hearts to seek the LORD your God, to get up, and to build the sanctuary of the LORD God, so the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD and the holy vessels of God may be stored in a temple built for the name of the LORD."

King David rose to his feet and said, "My fellow citizens, may I have your attention. I intended to build a house of rest for the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD, for a footstool of our God, so I began preparations for its construction.

But then God told me, "You will not build a temple to my name, because you are a man of war, and you have committed bloodshed.'

Nevertheless, the LORD God of Israel chose me from my entire ancestral household to be king over Israel forever, since he had chosen Judah as Commander-in-Chief. In my ancestor Judah's household, from my father's household, and from among my father's sons it pleased him to make me king over all of Israel.

"Now out of all of my sons (since the LORD has given me many of them), he has selected my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the LORD, ruling over Israel.

He told me,

"I chose your son Solomon to be the one who will construct my Temple and my courts, because I have chosen him to be a son to me, and I will be a father to him. I will establish his kingdom forever, assuming he remains strongly committed to carry out my commandments and ordinances, as he is doing today.'

Therefore, in the presence of all of Israel, the assembly of the LORD, and while our God is listening, observe and search through all of the commandments of the LORD your God, so that you may continue to possess this good land, leaving it for an inheritance forever to benefit your descendants who come after you."

"Now as for you, my son Solomon, get to know the God of your father. Serve him with a sound heart and a devoted soul, because the LORD is searching every heart, every plan and thought. He will be found by you, assuming you are seeking him, but if you abandon him, he will abandon you forever.

"All of these things the LORD made clear to me in writing at his direction the construction plans for all of the building."

David continued with these words for his son Solomon: "Be strong and courageous, and get to work. Never be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor will he abandon you right up to your completion of the work for the service of the Temple of the LORD.

Then King David addressed the entire assembly: "My son Solomon, the one whom God alone has chosen, is still young and inexperienced, and the task is great, since this structure will be a citadel to the LORD God and not for human beings.

To the extent that I have been able to do so, I have provided supplies for the Temple of my God, including gold for what is to be made of gold, silver for what is to be made of silver, bronze for what is to be made of bronze, iron for what is to be made of iron, wood for what is to be made of wood, and great quantities of onyx, precious stones, antimony, colored stones, all types of other semi-precious stones, and plenty of marble.

"In addition to everything that I have supplied for the Temple, it pleases me to provide my own treasure of gold and silver, so because of my love for the Temple of my God I hereby give to the Temple of my God the following:

But who am I, and who are my people, that we make such voluntary offerings as these? For all things come from you, and from your own hand we are giving to you.

granting to my son Solomon to keep with a devoted heart your commands, your decrees, and your statutes, carrying out all of them, and that he may build the Temple for which I have made the preparations.