And David saw that the Lord had made his position safe as king over Israel, lifting up his kingdom on high because of his people Israel.

These are the names of the children he had in Jerusalem: Shammua and Shobab, Nathan and Solomon

And when the Philistines had news that David had been made king over all Israel, they went up in search of David, and David, hearing of it, went out against them.

Now the Philistines had come, and had gone out in every direction in the valley of Rephaim.

And David did as the Lord had said; and they overcame the army of the Philistines, attacking them from Gibeon as far as Gezer.

And David made all Israel come together at Jerusalem, to take the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had got ready for it.

And the sons of the Levites took up the ark of God, lifting it by its rods, as the Lord had said to Moses.

And David was clothed with a robe of fair linen, as were all the Levites who took up the ark, and those who made melody, and Chenaniah the master of those who made melody; and David had on a linen ephod;

Then they took in the ark of God and put it inside the tent which David had put up for it; and they made offerings, burned offerings and peace-offerings before God.

And when David had come to an end of making the burned offerings and peace-offerings, he gave the people a blessing in the name of the Lord.

So he made Asaph and his brothers keep their places there before the ark of the agreement of the Lord, to do whatever had to be done before the ark at all times day by day:

And Heman and Jeduthun had horns and brass instruments sounding loudly, and instruments of music for the songs of God; and the sons of Jeduthun were to be at the door.

For from the day when I took Israel up, till this day, I have had no house, but have gone from tent to tent, and from living-place to living-place.

And David took from him a thousand war-carriages and seven thousand horsemen and twenty thousand footmen: and he had the leg-muscles of all the horses cut, keeping only enough of them for a hundred war-carriages.

Now when Tou, king of Hamath, had news that David had overcome all the army of Hadadezer, king of Zobah,

He sent his son Hadoram to King David, to give him words of peace and blessing, because he had overcome Hadadezer in the fight, for Hadadezer had been at war with Tou; and he gave him all sorts of vessels of gold and silver and brass.

These King David made holy to the Lord, together with the silver and gold he had taken from all nations; from Edom and Moab and from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines and from Amalek.

Then certain men went and gave David word of what had been done to them. And he sent out with the purpose of meeting them; for the men were greatly shamed. And the king said, Keep where you are at Jericho till your hair is long again, and then come back.

And when the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves hated by David, Hanun and the children of Ammon sent a thousand talents of silver as payment for war-carriages and horsemen from Mesopotamia and Aram-maacah and Zobah.

So the children of Ammon came out and put their forces in position on the way into the town; and the kings who had come were stationed by themselves in the field.

And when the Aramaeans saw that Israel had overcome them, they sent men to get the Aramaeans who were on the other side of the River, with Shophach, the captain of Hadadezer's army, at their head.

And David took the crown of Milcom from off his head; its weight was a talent of gold and it had stones of great price in it; and it was put on David's head, and he took a great store of goods from the town.

And again there was war at Gath, where there was a very tall man, who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six fingers on his hands and six toes on his feet; he was one of the offspring of the Rephaim.

And God sent an angel to Jerusalem for its destruction: and when he was about to do so, the Lord saw, and had regret for the evil, and said to the angel of destruction, It is enough; do no more. Now the angel of the Lord was by the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

And David went up, as Gad had said in the name of the Lord.

At that time, when David saw that the Lord had given him an answer on the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he made an offering there.

For the House of the Lord, which Moses had made in the waste land, and the altar of burned offerings, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.

Jahath was the chief and Zizah the second; but Jeush and Beriah had only a small number of sons, so they were grouped together as one family.

And the sons of Eliezer: Rehabiah the first; and Eliezer had no other sons, but Rehabiah had a great number.

And at his death Eleazar had no sons, but only daughters, and their relations, the sons of Kish, took them as wives.

The holy bread was in their care, and the crushed grain for the meal offering, of unleavened cakes or meal cooked over the fire or in water; they had control of all sorts of weights and measures;

They had to take their places every morning to give praise and make melody to the Lord, and in the same way at evening;

And they had the care of the Tent of meeting and the holy place, under the direction of the sons of Aaron their brothers, for the work of the house of the Lord.

But Nadab and Abihu came to their end before their father, and had no children; so Eleazar and Ithamar did the work of priests.

So they were put into their different groups, to take their places in the house of the Lord, in agreement with the rules made by Aaron their father, as the Lord, the God of Israel, had given him orders.

Of Mahli: Eleazar, who had no sons.

Further, David and the chiefs of the servants of the holy place made selection of certain of the sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Jeduthun for the work of prophets, to make melody with corded instruments and brass; and the number of the men for the work they had to do was:

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

And Obed-edom had sons: Shemaiah the oldest, Jehozabad the second, Joah the third, and Sacar the fourth, and Nethanel the fifth,

And Shemaiah his son had sons, rulers over the family of their father, for they were able men.

Meshelemiah had sons and brothers, eighteen able men.

And Hosah, a son of the children of Merari, had sons: Shimri the chief (for though he was not the oldest, his father made him chief);

Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth: Hosah had thirteen sons and brothers.

And the families were taken by the decision of the Lord for every door; the small family had the same chance as the great.

The sons of Jehieli: Zetham and Joel, his brother, had the care of the stores of the house of the Lord.

Shelomoth and his brothers were responsible for all the store of holy things which David the king and the heads of families, the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and the captains of the army, had given to the Lord.

And everything Samuel the prophet and Saul, the son of Kish, and Abner, the son of Ner, and Joab, the son of Zeruiah, had made holy; whatever anyone had given, it was under the care of Shelomoth and his brothers.

Of the Izharites, Chenaniah and his sons had to do all the public business of Israel, in relation to judges and men in authority.

But David did not take the number of those who were under twenty years old, for the Lord had said that he would make Israel like the stars of heaven in number.

And Azmaveth, the son of Adiel, was controller of the king's property; Jonathan, the son of Uzziah, had control of all store-houses in country places and in the towns and little towns and strong places;

Ezri, the son of Chelub, had authority over the field-workers and farmers;

Obil the Ishmaelite had control of the camels and Jehdeiah the Meronothite of the she-asses;

Now Jonathan, David's father's brother, expert in discussion, and a man of good sense, was a scribe; and Jehiel the son of Hachmoni, had the care of the king's sons;

Then David the king got up and said, Give ear to me, my brothers and my people; it was my desire to put up a house, a resting-place for the ark of the Lord's agreement, and for the foot-rest of our God; and I had got material ready for the building of it.

And the design of all he had in his heart for the outer squares of the house of the Lord, and for the rooms all round it, and for the store-houses of the house of the Lord, and for the store-houses for the holy things;

And those who had stones of great price gave them to the store of the house of the Lord, under the care of Jehiel the Gershonite.

Then the people were glad because their offerings were freely given, for with a true heart they freely gave what they had to the Lord; and David the king was full of joy.

And the Lord made Solomon great in the eyes of all Israel, clothing him with glory and honour such as no other king in Israel had had before him.

Then Solomon, and all the men of Israel with him, went to the high place at Gibeon, because the Tent of meeting of God, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, had made in the waste land, was there.

But the ark of God had been moved by David from Kiriath-jearim to the place which he had made ready for it, for he had put up a tent for it at Jerusalem.

And the altar of brass which Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, was there before the Tent of the Lord; and Solomon and all the people went to give worship there.

Wisdom and knowledge are given to you; and I will give you wealth and honour, such as no king has had before you or ever will have after you.

And Solomon got together war-carriages and horsemen; he had one thousand, four hundred carriages and twelve thousand horsemen, which he kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king at Jerusalem.

And Solomon had seventy thousand men numbered for transport, and eighty thousand for cutting stone in the mountains, and three thousand, six hundred as overseers.

Then Solomon took the number of all the men from strange lands who were living in Israel, as his father David had done; there were a hundred and fifty-three thousand, six hundred.

Then Solomon made a start at building the house of the Lord on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, where the Lord had been seen by his father David, in the place which David had made ready in the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

And fifty shekels weight of gold was used for the nails. He had all the higher rooms plated with gold.

And he made the ten gold supports for the lights, as directions had been given for them, and he put them in the Temple, five on the right side and five on the left.

So all the work which Solomon did for the house of the Lord was complete. And Solomon took the holy things which David his father had given, the silver and the gold and all the vessels, and put them in the store-houses of the house of God.

And King Solomon and all the men of Israel who had come together there with him, were before the ark, making offerings of sheep and oxen more than might be numbered.

Now when the priests had come out of the holy place, (for all the priests who were present had made themselves holy, not keeping to their divisions;

(For Solomon had made a brass stage, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had put it in the middle of the open space; on this he took his place and went down on his knees before all the meeting of Israel, stretching out his hands to heaven.)

And the priests were in their places, and the Levites with their instruments of music for the Lord's song, which David the king had made for the praise of the Lord whose mercy is unchanging for ever, when David gave praise by their hand; and the priests were sounding horns before them; and all Israel were on their feet.

Then Solomon made holy the middle of the open square in front of the house of the Lord, offering the burned offerings there, and the fat of the peace-offerings; for there was not room on the brass altar which Solomon had made for all the burned offerings and the meal offerings and the fat.

So Solomon kept the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great meeting, for the people had come together from the way into Hamath and from as far as the river of Egypt.

And on the eighth day they had a holy meeting; the offerings for making the altar holy went on for seven days, and the feast for seven days.

And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he sent the people away to their tents, full of joy and glad in their hearts, because of all the good which the Lord had done to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people.

So Solomon came to the end of building the house of the Lord and the king's house; and everything which it was in his mind to make in the house of the Lord and for himself had been well done.

Now at the end of twenty years, in which time Solomon had put up the house of the Lord and a house for himself,

He took in hand the building up of the towns which Huram had given him, causing the children of Israel to make living-places for themselves there.

And of Baalath, and all the store-towns which Solomon had, and the towns where he kept his war-carriages and his horse men, and everything which it was his pleasure to put up in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land under his rule.

Their men who were still living in the land, and whom the children of Israel had not put an end to, these Solomon put to forced work, as is done to this day;

Now these were the chief men in authority whom King Solomon had: two hundred and fifty of them, in authority over the people.

Then Solomon made Pharaoh's daughter come up from the town of David to the house which he had made for her; for he said, I will not have my wife living in the house of David, king of Israel, because those places where the ark of the Lord has come are holy.

Then Solomon made burned offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had put up in front of the covered way,

Offering every day what had been ordered by Moses, on the Sabbaths and at the new moon and at the regular feasts three times a year, that is at the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tents.

And he gave the divisions of the priests their places for their work, as ordered by his father David, and to the Levites he gave their work of praise and waiting on the priests, to do what was needed day by day; and he gave the door-keepers their places in turn at every door; for so David, the man of God, had given orders.

And all the work of Solomon was complete, from the day when he put the base of the Lord's house in position, till Solomon had come to the end of building the Lord's house.

Now the queen of Sheba, hearing great things of Solomon, came to Jerusalem to put his wisdom to the test with hard questions; and with her came a very great train, and camels weighted down with spices, and great stores of gold and jewels: and when she came to Solomon she had talk with him of everything in her mind.

And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house which he had made,

But I had no faith in what was said about you, till I came and saw for myself; and truly, word was not given me of half your great wisdom; you are much greater than they said.

And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a great store of spices and jewels: never had such spices been seen as the queen of Sheba gave to Solomon.

And with the sandal-wood the king made steps for the house of the Lord and for the king's house, and instruments of music for the makers of melody; never before had such been seen in the land of Judah.

And King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatever she made request for, in addition to what she had taken to the king. So she went back to her country with her servants.

For the king had Tarshish-ships sailing with the servants of Huram: once every three years the Tarshish-ships came back with gold and silver, ivory and monkeys and peacocks.

And all the kings of the earth came to see Solomon and to give ear to his wisdom, which God had put into his heart.

Solomon had four thousand buildings for his horses and his war-carriages, and twelve thousand horsemen whom he kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king in Jerusalem.

And Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel had come together to make him king.

And when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had news of it, (for he was in Egypt where he had gone in flight from King Solomon,) he came back from Egypt.

Then King Rehoboam took the opinion of the old men who had been with Solomon his father when he was living, and said, In your opinion, what answer am I to give to this people?