From the tribe of Benjamin they were given Geba and its pasturelands, Alemeth and its pasturelands, and Anathoth and its pasturelands. They had 13 towns in all among their families.

Along with them, they had 36,000 troops for battle according to the genealogical records of their ancestral houses, for they had many wives and children.

Machir took wives from Huppim and Shuppim. The name of his sister was Maacah. Another descendant was named Zelophehad, but he had only daughters.

He slept with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. So he named him Beriah, because there had been misfortune in his home.

Shaharaim had sons in the country of Moab after he had divorced his wives Hushim and Baara.

He also had sons by Hushim: Abitub and Elpaal.

Azel had six sons, and these were their names: Azrikam, Bocheru, Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah, and Hanan. All these were Azel’s sons.

Ulam’s sons were warriors and archers. They had many sons and grandsons—150 of them.
All these were among Benjamin’s sons.

Shallum son of Kore, son of Ebiasaph, son of Korah and his relatives from his ancestral household, the Korahites, were assigned to guard the thresholds of the tent. Their ancestors had been assigned to the Lord’s camp as guardians of the entrance.

In earlier times Phinehas son of Eleazar had been their leader, and the Lord was with him.

The total number of those chosen to be gatekeepers at the thresholds was 212. They were registered by genealogy in their villages. David and Samuel the seer had appointed them to their trusted positions.

They spent the night in the vicinity of God’s temple, because they had guard duty and were in charge of opening it every morning.

Azel had six sons, and these were their names: Azrikam, Bocheru, Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah, and Hanan. These were Azel’s sons.

When all the men of Israel in the valley saw that the army had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled. So the Philistines came and settled in them.

When all Jabesh-gilead heard of everything the Philistines had done to Saul,

He was with David at Pas-dammim when the Philistines had gathered there for battle. There was a portion of a field full of barley, where the troops had fled from the Philistines.

He also killed an Egyptian who was seven and a half feet tall. Even though the Egyptian had a spear in his hand like a weaver’s beam, Benaiah went down to him with a club, snatched the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand, and then killed him with his own spear.

These were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who had a reputation among the three warriors.

They spent three days there eating and drinking with David, for their relatives had provided for them.

When they came to Chidon’s threshing floor, Uzzah reached out to hold the ark because the oxen had stumbled.

Then the Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah, and He struck him dead because he had reached out to the ark. So he died there in the presence of God.

The ark of God remained with Obed-edom’s family in his house for three months, and the Lord blessed his family and all that he had.

Then David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and that his kingdom had been exalted for the sake of His people Israel.

When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, they all went in search of David; when David heard of this, he went out to face them.

Now the Philistines had come and raided in the Valley of Rephaim,

David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring the ark of the Lord to the place he had prepared for it.

Then the Levites carried the ark of God the way Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord: on their shoulders with the poles.

They brought the ark of God and placed it inside the tent David had pitched for it. Then they offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings in God’s presence.

When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of Yahweh.

to offer burnt offerings regularly, morning and evening, to the Lord on the altar of burnt offerings and to do everything that was written in the law of the Lord, which He had commanded Israel to keep.

Heman and Jeduthun had with them trumpets and cymbals to play and musical instruments of God. Jeduthun’s sons were at the gate.

When David had settled into his palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Look! I am living in a cedar house while the ark of the Lord’s covenant is under tent curtains.”

When King Tou of Hamath heard that David had defeated the entire army of King Hadadezer of Zobah,

he sent his son Hadoram to King David to greet him and to congratulate him because David had fought against Hadadezer and defeated him, for Tou and Hadadezer had fought many wars. Hadoram brought all kinds of gold, silver, and bronze items.

King David also dedicated these to the Lord, along with the silver and gold he had carried off from all the nations—from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, and the Amalekites.

When the Ammonites realized they had made themselves repulsive to David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent 38 tons of silver to hire chariots and horsemen from Aram-naharaim, Aram-maacah, and Zobah.

The Ammonites marched out and lined up in battle formation at the entrance of the city while the kings who had come were in the field by themselves.

When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans had fled, they likewise fled before Joab’s brother Abishai and entered the city. Then Joab went to Jerusalem.

When the Arameans realized that they had been defeated by Israel, they sent messengers to summon the Arameans who were across the Euphrates. They were led by Shophach, the commander of Hadadezer’s army.

When Hadadezer’s subjects saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with David and became his subjects. After this, the Arameans were never willing to help the Ammonites again.

and innumerable cedar logs because the Sidonians and Tyrians had brought a large quantity of cedar logs to David.

But Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and they had no sons, so Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests.

These had their assigned duties for service when they entered the Lord’s temple, according to their regulations, which they received from their ancestor Aaron, as the Lord God of Israel had commanded him.

From Mahli: Eleazar, who had no sons.

All these sons of Heman, the king’s seer, were given by the promises of God to exalt him, for God had given Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.

Meshelemiah had sons:
Zechariah the firstborn, Jediael the second,
Zebadiah the third, Jathniel the fourth,

Obed-edom also had sons:
Shemaiah the firstborn, Jehozabad the second,
Joah the third, Sachar the fourth,
Nethanel the fifth,

Meshelemiah also had sons and brothers who were capable men—18.

Hosah, from the Merarites, also had sons: Shimri the first (although he was not the firstborn, his father had appointed him as the first),

These divisions of the gatekeepers, under their leading men, had duties for ministering in the Lord’s temple, just as their brothers did.

From the Levites, Ahijah was in charge of the treasuries of God’s temple and the treasuries of what had been dedicated.

This Shelomith and his brothers were in charge of all the treasuries of what had been dedicated by King David, by the heads of families who were the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and by the army commanders.

All that Samuel the seer, Saul son of Kish, Abner son of Ner, and Joab son of Zeruiah had dedicated, along with everything else that had been dedicated, were in the care of Shelomith and his brothers.

From the Izrahites: Chenaniah and his sons had the outside duties as officers and judges over Israel.

From the Hebronites: Hashabiah and his relatives, 1,700 capable men, had assigned duties in Israel west of the Jordan for all the work of the Lord and for the service of the king.

David didn’t count the men aged 20 or under, for the Lord had said He would make Israel as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Then King David rose to his feet and said, “Listen to me, my brothers and my people. It was in my heart to build a house as a resting place for the ark of the Lord’s covenant and as a footstool for our God. I had made preparations to build,

The plans contained everything he had in mind for the courts of the Lord’s house, all the surrounding chambers, the treasuries of God’s house, and the treasuries for what is dedicated.

Whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the Lord’s house under the care of Jehiel the Gershonite.

Then the people rejoiced because of their leaders’ willingness to give, for they had given to the Lord with a whole heart. King David also rejoiced greatly.

The Lord highly exalted Solomon in the sight of all Israel and bestowed on him such royal majesty as had not been bestowed on any king over Israel before him.

Solomon and the whole assembly with him went to the high place that was in Gibeon because God’s tent of meeting, which the Lord’s servant Moses had made in the wilderness, was there.

Now David had brought the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to the place he had set up for it, because he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem,

but he put the bronze altar, which Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, had made, in front of the Lord’s tabernacle. Solomon and the assembly inquired of Him there.

Solomon took a census of all the foreign men in the land of Israel, after the census that his father David had conducted, and the total was 153,600.

Then Solomon began to build the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the site David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

He had made chainwork in the inner sanctuary and also put it on top of the pillars. He made 100 pomegranates and fastened them into the chainwork.

The king had them cast in clay molds in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zeredah.

King Solomon and the entire congregation of Israel who had gathered around him were in front of the ark sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be counted or numbered because there were so many.

Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had put in it at Horeb, where the Lord had made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.

Now all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves regardless of their divisions. When the priests came out of the holy place,

For Solomon had made a bronze platform 7½ feet long, 7½ feet wide, and 4½ feet high and put it in the court. He stood on it, knelt down in front of the entire congregation of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven.

The priests and the Levites were standing at their stations. The Levites had the musical instruments of the Lord, which King David had made to praise the Lord—“for His faithful love endures forever”—when he offered praise with them. Across from the Levites, the priests were blowing trumpets, and all the people were standing.

Since the bronze altar that Solomon had made could not accommodate the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat of the fellowship offerings, Solomon first consecrated the middle of the courtyard that was in front of the Lord’s temple and then offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings there.

On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, rejoicing and with happy hearts for the goodness the Lord had done for David, for Solomon, and for His people Israel.

So Solomon finished the Lord’s temple and the royal palace. Everything that had entered Solomon’s heart to do for the Lord’s temple and for his own palace succeeded.

At the end of 20 years during which Solomon had built the Lord’s temple and his own palace—

their descendants who remained in the land after them, those the Israelites had not completely destroyed—Solomon imposed forced labor on them; it is this way today.

Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh from the city of David to the house he had built for her, for he said, “My wife must not live in the house of David king of Israel because the places the ark of the Lord has come into are holy.”

At that time Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the Lord’s altar he had made in front of the portico.

According to the ordinances of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests over their service, of the Levites over their responsibilities to offer praise and to minister before the priests following the daily requirement, and of the gatekeepers by their divisions with respect to each gate, for this had been the command of David, the man of God.

When the queen of Sheba observed Solomon’s wisdom, the palace he had built,

The king made the algum wood into walkways for the Lord’s temple and for the king’s palace and into lyres and harps for the singers. Never before had anything like them been seen in the land of Judah.

King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba her every desire, whatever she asked—far more than she had brought the king. Then she, along with her servants, returned to her own country.

The throne had six steps; there was a footstool covered in gold for the throne, armrests on either side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the armrests.

Twelve lions were standing there on the six steps, one at each end. Nothing like it had ever been made in any other kingdom.

All the kings of the world wanted an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart.

Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots, and 12,000 horsemen. He stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.

When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it—for he was in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon’s presence—Jeroboam returned from Egypt.

Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, “How do you advise me to respond to these people?”

But he rejected the advice of the elders who had advised him, and he consulted with the young men who had grown up with him, the ones serving him.

Then the young men who had grown up with him told him, “This is what you should say to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you, make it lighter on us!’ This is what you should say to them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins.

So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had ordered, saying, “Return to me on the third day.”

The king did not listen to the people because the turn of events came from God, in order that the Lord might carry out His word that He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered the king:

What portion do we have in David?
We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.
Israel, each man to your tent;
David, look after your own house now!

So all Israel went to their tents.

Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places, the goat-demons, and the golden calves he had made.

Those from every tribe of Israel who had determined in their hearts to seek Yahweh their God followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Yahweh, the God of their ancestors.

When Rehoboam had established his sovereignty and royal power, he abandoned the law of the Lord—he and all Israel with him.

When the Lord saw that they had humbled themselves, the Lord’s message came to Shemaiah: “They have humbled themselves; I will not destroy them but will grant them a little deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak.