But you will have a son who will be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from wars on every side. His name will be Solomon, and in his time I will give Israel peace and quiet;

And from now, there will be no need for the House of the Lord, and the vessels used in it, to be moved about by the Levites.

So among the last acts of David was the numbering of the sons of Levi, from twenty years old and over.

From the goods taken in war, they gave, as a holy offering, materials for the building of the house of the Lord.

And you, Solomon my son, get knowledge of the God of your father, and be his servant with a true heart and with a strong desire, for the Lord is the searcher of all hearts, and has knowledge of all the designs of men's thoughts; if you make search for him, he will be near you; but if you are turned away from him, he will give you up for ever.

And David said to his son Solomon, Be strong and of a good heart and do your work; have no fear and do not be troubled, for the Lord God, my God, is with you; he will not give you up, and his face will not be turned away from you, till all the work necessary for the house of the Lord is complete.

Wealth and honour come from you, and you are ruler over all, and in your hand is power and strength; it is in your power to make great, and to give strength to all.

But who am I and what is my people, that we have power to give so freely in this way? for all things come from you, and what we have given you is yours.

For we, as all our fathers were, are like men from a strange country before you, who have got a place for a time in the land; our days on the earth are like a shade, and there is no hope of going on.

O Lord our God, all this store, which we have made ready for the building of a house for your holy name, comes from your hand and is yours.

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.

So Solomon went back from the high place at Gibeon, from before the Tent of meeting, to Jerusalem; and he was king over Israel.

And Solomon's horses came out of Egypt; the king's traders got them from Kue at a price.

A war-carriage might be got from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty: they got them at the same rate for all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.

And send me cedar-trees, cypress-trees and sandal-wood from Lebanon, for, to my knowledge, your servants are expert wood-cutters in Lebanon; and my servants will be with yours,

And we will have wood cut from Lebanon, as much as you have need of, and will send it to you on flat boats by sea to Joppa, and from there you may take it up to Jerusalem.

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.

And he made the great water-vessel of metal, round in form, measuring ten cubits across from edge to edge; it was five cubits high and thirty cubits round.

And under it was a design of flowers all round it, ten to a cubit, circling the water-vessel in two lines; they were made from liquid metal at the same time as the water-vessel.

The rods were so long that their ends were seen from the holy place before the inmost room; but they were not seen from outside; and there they are to this day.

From the day when I took my people out of the land of Egypt, no town in all the tribes of Israel has been marked out by me for the building of a house for the resting-place of my name; and I took no man to be a ruler over my people Israel;

And give ear to the prayers of your servant and of your people Israel, when they make their prayers, turning to this place; give ear from heaven your living-place; and hearing have mercy.

Then let your ear be open in heaven, and be the judge of your servants, giving punishment to the wrongdoer, so that his sin may come on his head; and, by your decision, keeping from evil him who has done no wrong.

Then give ear from heaven, and let the sin of your people Israel have forgiveness, and take them back again to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers.

When heaven is shut up and there is no rain, because of their sin against you: if they make prayers with their faces turned to this place, honouring your name and turning away from their sin when you send trouble on them:

Then give ear from heaven, so that the sin of your servants and the sin of your people Israel may have forgiveness, when you make clear to them the good way in which they are to go; and send rain on your land which you have given to your people for their heritage.

Then give ear from heaven your living-place, answering with forgiveness, and give to every man, whose secret heart is open to you, the reward of all his ways; (for you, and you only, have knowledge of the hearts of the children of men;)

And as for the man from a strange land, who is not of your people Israel but comes from a far country because of the glory of your name and your strong hand and your outstretched arm; when he comes to make his prayer, turning to this house:

Then give ear from heaven your living-place, and give him his desire, whatever it may be; so that all the peoples of the earth may have knowledge of your name, worshipping you as do your people Israel, and may see that this house which I have made is truly named by your name.

Then give ear from heaven to their prayer and their cry for grace, and see right done to them.

Then give ear from heaven your living-place to their prayer and their cry, and see right done to them, answering with forgiveness your people who have done wrong against you.

Now when Solomon's prayers were ended, fire came down from heaven, burning up all the offerings; and the house was full of the glory of the Lord.

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.

If my people, on whom my name is named, make themselves low and come to me in prayer, searching for me and turning from their evil ways; then I will give ear from heaven, overlooking their sin, and will give life again to their land.

But if you are turned away from me, and do not keep my orders and my laws which I have put before you, but go and make yourselves servants to other gods, giving them worship:

Then I will have this people uprooted out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will put away from before my eyes, and make it an example and a word of shame among all peoples.

And their answer will be, Because they were turned away from the Lord, the God of their fathers, who took them out of the land of Egypt, and took for themselves other gods and gave them worship and became their servants: that is why he has sent all this evil on them.

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.

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.

And the servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon, in addition to gold from Ophir, came back with sandal-wood and jewels.

And in addition to what he got from traders of different sorts, all the kings of Arabia and the rulers of the country gave gold and silver to Solomon.

And he was ruler over all the kings from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the limit of Egypt.

They got horses for Solomon from Egypt and from every land.

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.

So Israel was turned away from the family of David to this day.

The Lord has said, You are not to go to war against your brothers: let every man go back to his house, for this thing is my purpose. So they gave ear to the words of the Lord and were turned back from fighting against Jeroboam.

And the priests and Levites who were in all Israel came together to him from every part of their country.

And after them, from all the tribes of Israel, all those whose hearts were fixed and true to the Lord, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to make offerings to the Lord, the God of their fathers.

But still they will become his servants, so that they may see how different my yoke is from the yoke of the kingdoms of the lands.

And when he made himself low, the wrath of the Lord was turned back from him, and complete destruction did not come on him, for there was still some good in Judah.

But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not been turned away from him; we have priests who do the work of the Lord, even the sons of Aaron and the Levites in their places;

By whom burned offerings and perfumes are sent up in smoke before the Lord every morning and every evening; and they put out the holy bread on its table and the gold support for the lights with its lights burning every evening; for we keep the orders given to us by the Lord our God, but you have gone away from him.

But Jeroboam had put some of his men to make a surprise attack on them from the back, so some were facing Judah and others were stationed secretly at their back.

And he took away the high places and the sun-images from all the towns of Judah; and the kingdom was quiet under his rule.

And they overcame all the towns round Gerar, because the Lord sent fear on them; and they took away their goods from the towns, for there were stores of wealth in them.

And Asa, hearing these words of Azariah, the son of Oded the prophet, took heart and put away all the disgusting things out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the towns which he had taken from the hill-country of Ephraim; and he made new again the altar of the Lord in front of the covered way of the Lord's house.

For the eyes of the Lord go this way and that, through all the earth, letting it be seen that he is the strong support of those whose hearts are true to him. In this you have done foolishly, for from now you will have wars.

Then Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Let us now get directions from the Lord.

But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no other prophet of the Lord here from whom we may get directions?

And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still one man by whom we may get directions from the Lord, but I have no love for him, because he has never been a prophet of good to me, but only of evil: he is Micaiah, the son of Imla. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.

So when the captains of the war-carriages saw Jehoshaphat, they said, It is the king of Israel. And turning about, they came round him, but Jehoshaphat gave a cry, and the Lord came to his help, and God sent them away from him.

Now when the captains of the war-carriages saw that he was not the king of Israel, they went back from going after him.

And a certain man sent an arrow from his bow without thought of its direction, and gave the king of Israel a wound where his breastplate was joined to his clothing; so he said to the driver of his war-carriage, Go to one side and take me away out of the army, for I am badly wounded.

And Jehoshaphat was living in Jerusalem; and he went out again among the people, from Beer-sheba to the hill-country of Ephraim, guiding them back to the Lord, the God of their fathers.

And if any cause comes before you from your brothers living in their towns, where the death punishment is in question, or where there are questions of law or order, or rules or decisions, make them take care that they are not in the wrong before the Lord, so that wrath may not come on you and on your brothers; do this and you yourselves will not be in the wrong.

And they came to Jehoshaphat with the news, saying, A great army is moving against you from Edom across the sea; and now they are in Hazazon-tamar (which is En-gedi).

And Judah came together to make prayer for help from the Lord; from every town of Judah they came to give worship to the Lord.

And now, see, the children of Ammon and Moab and the people of Mount Seir, whom you kept Israel from attacking when they came out of Egypt, so that turning to one side they did not send destruction on them:

And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their goods from them, they saw beasts in great numbers, and wealth and clothing and things of value, more than they were able to take away; all this they took for themselves, and they were three days getting it away, there was so much.

In his time Edom made themselves free from the rule of Judah, and took a king for themselves.

So Edom made themselves free from the rule of Judah, to this day: and at the same time Libnah made itself free from his rule; because he was turned away from the Lord, the God of his fathers.

And more than this, he made high places in the mountains of Judah, teaching the people of Jerusalem to go after false gods, and guiding Judah away from the true way.

And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, The Lord, the God of your father David, says, Because you have not kept to the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or the ways of Asa, king of Judah,

And after all this the Lord sent on him a disease of the stomach from which it was impossible for him to be made well.

And he went back to Jezreel to get well from the wounds which they had given him at Ramah when he was fighting against Hazael, king of Aram. And Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to Jezreel to see Jehoram, the son of Ahab, because he was ill.

But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, secretly took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, away from among the king's sons who were put to death, and put him and the woman who took care of him in a bedroom. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest and sister of Ahaziah, kept him safe from Athaliah, so that she did not put him to death.

And they went through Judah, getting together the Levites and the heads of families in Israel from all the towns of Judah, and they came to Jerusalem.

And he put all the people in position, every man with his instruments of war in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left, by the altar and the house and all round the king.

Then he took the captains of hundreds and the chiefs and the rulers of the people and all the people of the land, and they came down with the king from the house of the Lord through the higher doorway into the king's house, and put the king on the seat of the kingdom.

And getting together the priests and Levites, he said to them, Go out into the towns of Judah year by year, and get from all Israel money to keep the house of your God in good condition; and see that this is done without loss of time. The Levites, however, were slow in doing so.

Then the king sent for Jehoiada, the chief priest, and said to him, Why have you not given the Levites orders that the tax fixed by Moses, the servant of the Lord, and by the meeting of Israel, for the Tent of witness, is to be got in from Judah and Jerusalem and handed over?

Now in the spring, the army of the Aramaeans came up against him; they came against Judah and Jerusalem, putting to death all the great men of the people and sending all the goods they took from them to the king of Damascus.

And when they had gone away from him, (for he was broken with disease,) his servants made a secret design against him because of the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they put him to death on his bed; and they put his body into the earth in the town of David, but not in the resting-place of the kings.

And for a hundred talents of silver, he got a hundred thousand fighting-men from Israel.

So Amaziah, separating the armed band which had come to him from Ephraim, sent them back again; which made them very angry with Judah, and they went back burning with wrath.

And ten thousand more the children of Israel took living, and made them go up to the top of the rock, pushing them down from the top of the rock so that their bodies were broken by the fall.

But the men of the band which Amaziah sent back and did not take with him to the fight, made attacks on the towns of Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon, putting to death three thousand of their people and taking away a great store of their goods.

Now when Amaziah came back from the destruction of the Edomites, he took the gods of the children of Seir and made them his gods, worshipping them and burning offerings before them.

And so the wrath of the Lord was moved against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him, who said, Why have you gone after the gods of the people who have not given their people salvation from your hands?

And Joash, king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of Judah, saying, The thorn-tree in Lebanon sent to the cedar in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son for a wife: and a beast from the woodland in Lebanon went by, crushing the thorn under his feet.

And Joash, king of Israel, made Amaziah, king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, prisoner at Beth-shemesh, and took him to Jerusalem; and he had the wall of Jerusalem pulled down from the doorway of Ephraim to the doorway in the angle, four hundred cubits.

And he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels which were in the house of the Lord, under the care of Obed-edom, and all the wealth from the king's house, as well as those whose lives would be the price of broken faith, and went back to Samaria.

Now from the time when Amaziah gave up worshipping the Lord, they made secret designs against him in Jerusalem; and he went in flight to Lachish: but they sent to Lachish after him and put him to death there.

And Uzziah had all these forces armed with body-covers and spears and head-covers and coats of metal and bows and stones for sending from leather bands.

So King Uzziah was a leper till the day of his death, living separately in his private house; for he was cut off from the house of God; and Jotham his son was ruling over his house, judging the people of the land.

And the children of Israel took away as prisoners from their brothers, two hundred thousand, women and sons and daughters, and a great store of their goods, and took them to Samaria.

And now give ear to me, and send back the prisoners whom you have taken from your brothers: for the wrath of the Lord is burning against you.

Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah, the son of Johanan, Berechiah, the son of Meshillemoth Jehizkiah, the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, put themselves against those who had come from the war,

And those men who have been named went up and took the prisoners, clothing those among them who were uncovered, with things from the goods which had been taken in the war, and putting robes on them and shoes on their feet; and they gave them food and drink and oil for their bodies, and seating all the feeble among them on asses, they took them to Jericho, the town of palm-trees, to their people, and then went back to Samaria.

For Ahaz took a part of the wealth from the house of the Lord, and from the house of the king and of the great men, and gave it to the king of Assyria; but it was no help to him.