Let your eyes always look toward this Temple day and night, toward the location where you have said you would place your name. Listen to the prayer that your servant prays in this direction.

"And now, my God, please let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers that are uttered in this place.

"And now may the LORD God arise, to your place of rest, you, and the ark of your power! Let your priests, LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and cause your godly ones to find their joy in what is good.

Following proscriptions laid down by his father David, Solomon appointed divisions of priests for their service as well as descendants of Levi for duties of praise and ministry before the priests consistent with the daily rules. Furthermore, because David, the man of God, had commanded it, Solomon also appointed gatekeepers to serve by divisions at every gate of the Temple.

And so Solomon completed all of the work, from the day that the foundation stone of the LORD's Temple was laid until the LORD's Temple was completely finished.

Six steps led up to the throne. A golden footstool was attached to the throne, which had armrests on each side of the seat and two lions standing on either side of each armrest.

All of Israel since the king wasn't going to listen to them the people responded to the king, "What's the point in following David? We have no inheritance in the descendants of Jesse. Let's go home, Israel! David, take care of your own household!" So all of Israel left for home.

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!"

He had told Judah, "Let's build up these cities, surrounding them with walls, towers, gates, and bars. The land still belongs to us, because we have kept on seeking the LORD our God. We have sought him out, and he has given us rest all around us." So the people built and prospered.

Asa cried out to the LORD his God, telling him, "LORD, there is no one except for you to help between the powerful and the weak. So help us, LORD God, because we're depending on you and have come against this vast group in your name. LORD, you are our God. Let no mere mortal man defeat you!"

Asa and his army pursued the Ethiopians as far as Gerar. So many Ethiopians died that their army could not recover, because it had been shattered in the LORD's presence and in the presence of his army. The Israelis carried off a lot of plunder, too.

They attacked all the cities that surrounded Gerar, because fear of the LORD had overwhelmed them. The Israelis spoiled all the cities, because there was a lot to plunder in them.

but they turned to the LORD God of Israel in their distress. When they sought him, he let them become reacquainted with him.

They also made a vow to the LORD with loud voices, shouting, trumpets, and horns.

"Let's make a treaty between you and me," he said, "just like the one between my father and your father. Notice that I've sent you silver and gold to break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel, so he'll retreat from his attack on me."

and he was buried in his own tomb that he had prepared for himself in the City of David. He was laid out on a bier that had been filled with various spices prepared by morticians, and the mourners built a massive bonfire to honor his memory.

And so Micaiah replied: "I saw all of Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep without a shepherd. And the LORD told me, "These have no master, so let them each return to his own home in peace.'"

So let the fear of the LORD rest upon you, be on your guard, and act carefully, because with the LORD our God there is neither injustice, nor partiality, nor bribery."

Descendants of Levi from the descendants of Kohath and from the descendants of Korah stood up to praise the LORD God of Israel in a very loud voice that ascended to heaven.

In addition to all of this, he built high places in the mountains of Judah, led the inhabitants of Jerusalem into cultic sexual immorality, and made Judah go astray.

In due course, as time passed, two years later his bowels came out because of his sickness and he died in agony. His people lit no memorial bonfire for him as they had done for his ancestors.

She looked around, and there was the king, standing by his pillar at the gate, accompanied by officers and trumpeters who stood beside the king, along with all the people of the land rejoicing and sounding trumpets while singers lead the celebration with their musical instruments. Athaliah tore her robes and yelled "Treason! Treason!"

A man came from God and warned him, "Your majesty, don't let the army of Israel accompany you into battle, because the LORD isn't with any of the descendants of Ephraim.

The man of God answered, "The LORD has a lot more than that to give you!" So Amaziah sent the troops home who had arrived from Ephraim. They flew into a rage against Judah but left for home very angry.

But Amaziah encouraged himself and led his army out to the Salt Valley to kill 10,000 soldiers from Seir.

After this, King Amaziah of Judah sought some advice and then challenged Jehoahaz' son King Joash of Israel, the grandson of Jehu, telling him, "Come out and let's fight each other!"

He rebuilt Eloth and restored it to Judah after King Amaziah had been laid to rest with his ancestors.

They brought the male goats for the sin offering to the king within the assembled gathering, laid their hands on them,

As these gifts were given, they were laid in piles. They began to make these piles of gifts during the third month, and it took them until the seventh month to finish.

After all of these acts of faithfulness occurred, King Sennacherib of Assyria came, invaded Judah, and laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for himself.

Now therefore, don't let Hezekiah lie to you or mislead you like this. Don't believe him, because no god of any nation has been able to deliver his people from my control or from the control of my predecessors. So how much less will your God deliver you from me?'"

His spokesmen shouted these things out with loud voices in the language of Judah to frighten and terrify the people of Jerusalem who were stationed on the city walls, to make it easier to conquer the city.

He burned his sons as an offering in the Ben-hinnom Valley, practiced fortune-telling, witchcraft, sorcery, and communicated with mediums and separatists. He did a lot of things that the LORD considered to be evil, thus provoking him.

and "I won't let Israel's foothold slip on the land that I've given to your ancestors, if only they will be careful to keep everything that I commanded them in the Law, in the statutes, and in the ordinance through Moses."

They, in turn, paid the carpenters and builders to purchase quarried stone and timber for binders and beams for the buildings that previous kings of Judah had let deteriorate.

Then the king went up to the LORD's Temple, accompanied by the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and descendants of Levi, and everyone else from the most important to the least important, and he read out loud all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the LORD's Temple.