Now, give to me wisdom and knowledge that I may go out and come in before this people, for who can judge this, your great people?"

Then God said to Solomon, "Because this was with your heart and you did not ask for wealth, possessions, honor, and the lives of your enemies, and also did not ask for {long life}, but have asked for wisdom and knowledge that you might judge my people over whom I have made you king,

But the poles were [so] long that the ends of the poles from the ark were seen from before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from the outside. And they are there until this day.

that you have kept for your servant David my father what you spoke to him. You spoke with your mouth, and by your hand you have fulfilled [it] on this day.

"But will God indeed dwell with humankind upon the earth? Look, the heavens and {the highest heavens} cannot contain you! Surely then this house that I have built [will not contain you!]

that your eyes may be open day and night to this house, to the place that you have promised to place your name there, that you may hear the prayer that your servant has prayed to this place.

And listen to the pleas of your servant and your people Israel when they pray toward this place, that you yourself might hear from the place of your dwelling, from the heavens, that you might hear and forgive.

"If a man sins against his neighbor and {makes him swear an oath} and comes [with] an oath before your altar in this house,

"And if your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against you and they repent and confess your name and pray and plead before you in this house,

"When the heavens are stopped up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you and they pray to this place and confess your name and turn back from their sin when you humble them,

[then] any prayer, any plea that is [made] by any person and by all your people Israel, each one who knows his own affliction and his own anguish and [who] spreads out his hands to this house,

"And also, with respect to the foreigner, he who [is] not of your people Israel, but comes from a distant land, for the sake of your great name and your powerful hand and outstretched arm, when he comes and prays to this house,

then may you yourself hear from the heavens, from your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner asks of you, so that all peoples of earth will know of your name and fear you, as [do] your people Israel, and that they may know that your name {possesses} this house that I have built.

"When your people go out to battle against their enemy according to the way that you have sent them, and they pray to you toward this city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name,

Now, O my God, please let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place!

Then Yahweh appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.

Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer of this place.

And now I have chosen and consecrated this house for my name to be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there {for all time}.

then I will uproot them from upon my land that I have given to them, and this house that I have consecrated for my name I will send away from before my face, and I will make it a proverb and a taunt among all the nations.

And [as for] this house, which was exalted, all who pass by it will be appalled and will say, 'Why has Yahweh done thus to this land and to this house?'

Then they will say, 'Because they forsook Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out from the land of Egypt, and [they] laid hold of other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has brought upon them all this evil.'"

from the descendants who were left over after them in the land, whom the Israelites had not destroyed, Solomon conscripted them as forced labor until this day.

Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the elders who had been {serving} before Solomon his father when he was alive, saying, "What word do you advise to answer this people?"

And they said to him, "If you will be good to this people and please them, then speak good words to them. Then they will be your servants {forever}."

And he said to them, "What do you advise that we should say in return to this people, who said to me, 'Lighten the yoke that your father has put upon us'?"

Then the young men who had grown up with him said to him, "Thus you should say to this people who have said to you, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, so you yourself should lighten [it] for us.' Thus you should say to them, 'My little finger [is] thicker than the loins of my father.

So Israel has rebelled against the house of David until this day.

'Thus says Yahweh: "Do not go up, and do not fight against your brothers. Return, each man to his house, for this matter has come from me." '" So they obeyed the words of Yahweh and turned back from going against Jeroboam.

Then Asa cried out to Yahweh his God. And he said, "O Yahweh, there is none with you to help between the great and the powerless. Help us, O Yahweh our God, for we rely upon you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O Yahweh, you [are] our God! Let no man prevail against you!"

And it happened [that] when Baasha heard [this], he stopped building Ramah and ceased his work.

For the eyes of Yahweh roam throughout all the earth to strengthen those whose heart is fully devoted to him. You have been foolish in this, for from now on you will have wars."

Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in {the prison}, for he was enraged with him concerning this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time.

And Yahweh said, 'Who will entice Ahab the king of Israel that he would go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead?' And one said this, and another said that.

and say, 'Thus says the king: "Put this one into the prison house, and let him eat {a meager ration of bread and water} until I return in peace." '"

And Jehu son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him. And he said to King Jehoshaphat, "Should you [be] a help to the wicked and love those who hate Yahweh? On account of this, wrath [has come] against you from Yahweh.

O, our God, did you yourself not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham your friend forever?

'If disaster, a sword, punishment, disease, or famine come upon us, we shall stand before this house and before you--for your name [is] in this house--and cry out to you out of our trouble, then you will hear and save [us].'

O our God, will you not judge them, for there is no power in us before this great multitude that is coming against us. Now we do not know what we shall do, for our eyes [are] upon you."

And he said, "Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat, thus says Yahweh to you: 'Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed before this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's.

[There will be] no [need] for you to fight in this [battle]. Take your stand! Stand and see the deliverance of Yahweh among you, O Judah and Jerusalem! Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out before them and Yahweh [will be] with you.'"

And on the fourth day, they assembled in the Valley of Berakah, for there they blessed Yahweh. Therefore the name of that place is called the Valley of Berakah up to this day.

So Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah until this day. Then Libnah [also] revolted at that time from under his hand, because he had forsaken Yahweh, the God of his ancestors.

And after all this Yahweh afflicted him in his bowels with an illness for [which there was] no cure.

This is the thing that you must do: one third of you priests and Levites {coming off duty on the Sabbath} [shall be] gatekeepers at the entrances

And they forsook the house of Yahweh, the God of their ancestors and served the Asherahs and the idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem on account of this guilt.

And Amaziah said to the man of God, "Now what [should I] do with the one hundred talents that I have given to the troops of Israel?" And the man of God said, "{Yahweh is able to give} to you more than this."

And it happened [that] while he was speaking to him, he said to him, "Have we appointed you as a counselor to the king? Stop--{why should you be killed}?" So the prophet stopped and said, "I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my advice."

Now he fought with the king of the {Ammonites} and prevailed against them. And the {Ammonites} gave to him in that year one hundred talents of silver and ten thousand measures of wheat and ten thousand [measures of] barley. This [is what] the {Ammonites} rendered to him, as well as in the second and third year.

Now behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives [are] in captivity on account of this.

For when you return to Yahweh, your brothers and your children [will find] compassion before their captors and return to this land, for Yahweh your God [is] gracious and compassionate, and he will not turn away his face from you if you return to him."

And there was great joy in Jerusalem, for from the days of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, there was nothing such as this in Jerusalem.

And when all this was finished, all Israel who were found in the cities of Judah went out and shattered the stone pillars, cut down the Asherahs, and destroyed the high places and the altars from all Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh {to the very last one}. Then all the Israelites returned, each to his own property [and] to their cities.

And Azariah the chief priest of the house of Zadok answered him, saying, "Since the offerings began to be brought to the house of Yahweh, [we have] eaten and been satisfied, and have much to spare, for Yahweh has blessed his people. Now [see] this abundant remainder!"

And Hezekiah did according to this throughout all Judah. And he did what [is] good and what [is] right and what [is] faithful before Yahweh his God.

After this Sennacherib the king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem (now he and all his armies with him [were] against Lachish) to Hezekiah king of Judah and to all of Judah that [was] in Jerusalem, saying,

So now, do not let Hezekiah deceive you. Do not let him urge you according to this. Do not put trust in him, for no god of any nation and kingdom has been able to save his people from my hand and from the hand of my ancestors. Surely then your God will not save you from my hand!'"

Then King Hezekiah and Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, prayed concerning this. And they cried to the heavens.

And this same Hezekiah blocked off the flow of the waters of the upper Gihon, and directed them down the west [side] of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.

And he placed the carved image of the idol that he had made in the house of God, [of] which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.

"Go! Seek Yahweh on my behalf and on behalf of those remaining in Israel and Judah concerning the words of the scroll that was found, for the anger of Yahweh that [was] poured out on us [is] great, because our ancestors have not kept the word of Yahweh, to do all that is written in this scroll."

Then Hilkiah and those whom the king [had sent] went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, son of Tikvath, son of Hasrah, keeper of the garments. (Now she was living in Jerusalem in the second district.) And they spoke to her concerning this.

"Thus says Yahweh: 'Behold, I am bringing disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants--all the curses written in the scroll that were read before the king of Judah--

because they have abandoned me and burned incense to other gods so as to provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands. And my wrath will be poured out on this place and it will not be quenched.'

because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and against its inhabitants and you humbled yourself before me and tore your garments and wept before me, now I also have heard,' {declares} Yahweh.

'Behold, I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see any of the disaster that I am bringing upon this place.'" '"

And the king stood at his position. And he made the covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh and to keep his commands and statutes and regulations with all his heart and with all his soul, to do the words of the covenant that [were] written on this scroll.

In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this Passover was kept.

After all of this that Josiah had prepared [for] the temple, Neco the king of Egypt went up to make war at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went up to meet him.

And he sent messengers to him, saying, "{What is there between us}, O king of Judah? [I am] not against you yourself this day, but against the house making war against me. And God has commanded me to make haste. Stop [opposing] God, who [is] with me that he will not destroy you."

And Jeremiah uttered a lament for Josiah, and all the male and female singers have spoken in their laments about Josiah to this day. And they made them a requirement in Israel, and behold, they are written in the laments.