"So then, may my lord send to his servants the wheat, barley, oil, and wine about which he has spoken.

When the queen of Sheba heard about Solomon's reputation, she traveled to Jerusalem and tested 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.

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

"but I didn't believe it at first! But then I came here and I've seen it for myself! It's amazing! I wasn't told half of what's really great about your wisdom. You're far better in person than what the reports have said about you!

Solomon received in any given year about 666 talents of gold,

Nebat's son Jeroboam heard about it in Egypt, where he had fled to get away from Solomon the king. Jeroboam returned from Egypt

Now listen! God is with us to lead us, and his priests are about to sound their battle trumpets against you. Descendants of Israel, don't fight against the LORD God of your ancestors, because you won't succeed!"

Right about then, Hanani the seer came to King Asa of Judah and rebuked him. "Because you have put your trust in the king of Aram and have not relied on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your control.

"There is still one man left by whom we could ask the LORD what to do," the king of Israel replied to Jehoshaphat, "but I hate him because he won't prophesy anything good about me. Instead, he always prophesies evil. He is Imla's son Micaiah." But Jehoshaphat rebuked Ahab, "Kings should never talk like that."

Then the king of Israel told Jehoshaphat, "Didn't I tell you that he wouldn't prophesy anything good about me, but only evil?"

However, the king's daughter Jehoshabeath took Ahaziah's son Joash away from the king's children who were about to be assassinated and hid him and his nurse in a bedroom. That's how King Jehoram's daughter Jehoshabeath, who was also the priest Jehoiada's wife and Ahaziah's sister, hid him from Athaliah. As a result, she was not able to kill him.

Amaziah asked the man of God, "What are we to do about the 100 talents that I have paid to the army of Israel?"

But King Joash of Israel replied to King Amaziah of Judah, "There once was a thorn bush in Lebanon that sent an invitation to the cedar of Lebanon that read "Give your daughter to my son in marriage.' Right about then, a wild animal in Lebanon passed by and trampled the thorn bush.

Right about then, King Ahaz sent for help from the kings of Assyria

because the LORD was humiliating Judah because of King Ahaz of Israel, since Ahaz had brought about a lack of restraint within Judah and had remained unfaithful to the LORD.

He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him, reasoning, "The gods of the kings of Aram helped them, so I'll sacrifice to them so they will help me!" But those gods brought about his downfall, and the downfall of all of Israel, too.

Hezekiah and all of the people were ecstatic with joy because of what God had done for the people, since everything had come about so suddenly.

and Hezekiah quizzed the priests and the descendants of Levi about the piles of gifts.

In doing so, they spoke about the God of Jerusalem as if he were like the gods of the nations of the earth that are made by the hands of human beings.

Meanwhile, King Hezekiah and Amoz's son Isaiah the prophet were praying about this and crying out to heaven.

Later on, envoys came from the princes of Babylon to inquire about the miracle that had happened in the land. God left Hezekiah to himself, so that he might make known what was really in Hezekiah's heart.

He also built altars in the LORD's Temple, about which the LORD had spoken "My name will reside in Jerusalem forever."

He also placed an image that he had carved in God's Temple, the place about which God had told to David and to his son Solomon, "I will place my name in this Temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel,"

"Go ask the LORD for me and for those who survive in Israel and in Judah about the words that we've read in this book that we found, because the wrath of the LORD that we deserve to have poured out on us is very great, since our ancestors haven't obeyed the command from the LORD that required us to do everything that is written in this book."

So Hilkiah and the others who had received orders from the king went to visit Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Tokhath's son Shallum, grandson of Hasrah. She was the king's wardrobe supervisor, and she lived in Jerusalem's Second Quarter. They asked her about what had happened.

Because they abandoned me and have burned incense to other gods, provoking me to become angry at everything they're doing, therefore my wrath is about to be poured out on this place, and it won't be quenched.'"'

"Now tell the king of Judah who sent you to ask the LORD about this: "This is what the LORD God of Israel says about what you've heard:

"Because your heart was sensitive, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he had to say about this place and its inhabitants indeed, because you humbled yourself before me, tore your clothes, and cried out to me, I have heard you," declares the LORD.

"Put the holy ark in the Temple that Solomon, the son of Israel's King David, built. It will no longer be a burden on their shoulders. Now go serve the LORD your God and his people Israel. Prepare yourselves by divisions according to your ancestral households, keeping to what King David of Israel and his son Solomon wrote about this.

Jeremiah sang a lament for Josiah, and all the male and female singers recite that lamentation about Josiah to this day. In fact, they made singing it an ordinance in Israel, and they are recorded in the Lamentations.