And David said to Uriah, Go down to your house, and wash your feet. And Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a present from the king.

And when they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto Uriah, Came you not from your journey? why then did you not go down unto your house?

And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire from him, that he may be struck down, and die.

And if so be that the king's anger arises, and he says unto you, Why approached you so near unto the city when you did fight? knew you not that they would shoot from the wall?

Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? why went you near the wall? then say, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.

And the shooters shot from off the wall upon your servants; and some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.

Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house; because you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.

And the elders of his house arose, and went to him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them.

Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the LORD, and worshiped: then he came to his own house; and when he asked, they set food before him, and he did eat.

And he took their king's crown from off his head, the weight of which was a talent of gold with the precious stones: and it was set on David's head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance.

And he said unto him, Why are you, being the king's son, so haggard from day to day? will you not tell me? And Amnon said unto him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister.

And Jonadab said unto him, Lay you down on your bed, and pretend to be sick: and when your father comes to see you, say unto him, I pray you, let my sister Tamar come, and give me food, and prepare the food in my sight, that I may see it, and eat it from her hand.

So Amnon lay down, and pretended to be sick: and when the king had come to see him, Amnon said unto the king, I pray you, let Tamar my sister come, and make me a couple of cakes in my sight, that I may eat from her hand.

And she took a pan, and poured them out before him; but he refused to eat. And Amnon said, Send out all men from me. And they went out every man from him.

And I, where shall I cause my shame to go? and as for you, you shall be as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, I pray you, speak unto the king; for he will not withhold me from you.

Then he called his servant that ministered unto him, and said, Put now this woman out from me, and bolt the door after her.

And Jonadab, the son of Shimeah David's brother, answered and said, Let not my lord suppose that they have slain all the young men the king's sons; for Amnon only is dead: for by the command of Absalom this has been determined from the day that he forced his sister Tamar.

And Joab sent to Tekoah, and brought from there a wise woman, and said unto her, I pray you, pretend to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not yourself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead:

For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither does God respect any person: yet does he devise means, that his banished one be not expelled from him.

Then the king answered and said unto the woman, Hide not from me, I pray you, the thing that I shall ask you. And the woman said, Let my lord the king now speak.

And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with you in all this? And the woman answered and said, As your soul lives, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken: for your servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your handmaid:

But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.

And Absalom answered Joab, Behold, I sent unto you, saying, Come here, that I may send you to the king, to say, Why am I come from Geshur? it had been good for me to have been there still: now therefore let me see the king's face; and if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me.

And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom.

And David said unto all his servants that were with him at Jerusalem, Arise, and let us flee; for we shall not else escape from Absalom: make speed to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly, and bring evil upon us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword.

And all his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who came after him from Gath, passed on before the king.

See, I will tarry in the plain of the wilderness, until there come word from you to inform me.

Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered unto you, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that you go to battle in your own person.

But the people answered, You shall not go forth: for if we flee away, they will not care for us; neither if half of us die, will they care for us: but now you are worth ten thousand of us: therefore now it is better that you support us from out of the city.

Otherwise I should have dealt falsely against my own life: for there is no matter hid from the king, and you yourself would have set yourself against me.

And Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing after Israel: for Joab held back the people.

Now therefore arise, go forth, and speak kindly unto your servants: for I swear by the LORD, if you go not forth, there will not tarry one with you this night: and that will be worse unto you than all the evil that befell you from your youth until now.

And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king, and had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came again in peace.

And Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim, and went over Jordan with the king, to conduct him over Jordan.

So every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah remained loyal to their king, from Jordan even to Jerusalem.

And Joab answered and said, Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy.

The matter is not so: but a man of mount Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand against the king, even against David: deliver him only, and I will depart from the city. And the woman said unto Joab, Behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall.

Then the woman went unto all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and cast it out to Joab. And he blew a trumpet, and they retired from the city, every man to his tent. And Joab returned to Jerusalem unto the king.

And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the territory of Israel,

And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and allowed neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.

And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa:

And he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.

The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence.

I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from my enemies.

The LORD thundered from heaven, and the most High uttered his voice.

He sent from above, he took me; he drew me out of many waters;

He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me.

For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.

For all his judgments were before me: and as for his statutes, I did not depart from them.

I was also upright before him, and have kept myself from my iniquity.

You also have delivered me from the strivings of my people, you have kept me to be head of the nations: a people whom I knew not shall serve me.

And that brings me forth from my enemies: you also have lifted me up on high above them that rose up against me: you have delivered me from the violent man.

And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where was a piece of ground full of lentils: and the people fled from the Philistines.

And he said, Be it far from me, O LORD, that I should do this: is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men.

For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, who was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, and number you the people, that I may know the number of the people.

Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the army. And Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.

So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men.

And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD turned from the destruction, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now your hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

And Araunah said, Why has my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people.

And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it from you at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which does cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD heeded supplications for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.

And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon: and they have come up from there rejoicing, so that the city resounds with it. This is the noise that you have heard.

So king Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the altar. And he came and bowed himself to king Solomon: and Solomon said unto him, Go to your house.

And he said, You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign: however the kingdom has turned about, and has become my brother's: for it was his from the LORD.

So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the LORD; that he might fulfill the word of the LORD, which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.

And the king said unto him, Do as he has said, and strike him down, and bury him; that you may take away the innocent blood, which Joab shed, from me, and from the house of my father.

Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his descendants forever: but upon David, and upon his descendants, and upon his house, and upon his throne, shall there be peace forever from the LORD.

And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Build you a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and go not forth from there anywhere.

And Shimei arose, and saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to Achish to seek his servants: and Shimei went, and brought his servants from Gath.

And it was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and had come again.

And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.

Baana the son of Ahilud; in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean, which is by Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, even unto the place that is beyond Jokmeam:

And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt: they brought tribute, and served Solomon all the days of his life.

For he had dominion over all the region on this side of the river, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings on this side of the river: and he had peace on all sides round about him.

And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon.

And he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springs out of the wall: he spoke also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.

And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.

My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea: and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place that you shall appoint me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and you shall receive them: and you shall accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household.

And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the tip of the one wing unto the tip of the other were ten cubits.

Then he made a porch for the throne where he might judge, even the porch of judgment: and it was covered with cedar from one side of the floor to the other.

All these were of costly stones, according to the measures of cut stones, sawed with saws, inside and out, even from the foundation unto the eaves, and also on the outside toward the great court.

And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and its height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference.

When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you; if they pray toward this place, and confess your name, and turn from their sin, when you afflict them:

For they are your people, and your inheritance, which you brought forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:

For you did separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be your inheritance, as you spoke by the hand of Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.

And it was so, that when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication unto the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven.

And at that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath unto the river of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days.

But if you shall at all turn from following me, you or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:

And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not.

And they came to Ophir, and brought from there gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.

And Solomon answered her all her questions: there was not anything hid from the king, which he told her not.

And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great quantities of almug wood, and precious stones.

And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and Kue: the king's merchants received them from Kue at a price.

And a chariot was imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty: and so to all the kings of the Hittites, and to the kings of Syria, did they export them by their merchants.

And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, who had appeared unto him twice,

Therefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Since this is done by you, and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.

And God stirred him up another adversary, Rezon the son of Eliada, who fled from his lord Hadadezer king of Zobah:

And it came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt, heard of it, (for he had fled from the presence of king Solomon, and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt;)

Therefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for the turn of affairs was from the LORD, that he might perform his saying, which the LORD spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

Thus says the LORD, You shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is from me. They hearkened therefore to the word of the LORD, and returned back according to the word of the LORD.