Then Abner called out to Joab: “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize this will only end in bitterness? How long before you tell the troops to stop pursuing their brothers?”

How much more when wicked men kill a righteous man in his own house on his own bed! So now, should I not require his blood from your hands and wipe you off the earth?”

David feared the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?”

When David returned home to bless his household, Saul’s daughter Michal came out to meet him. “How the king of Israel honored himself today!” she said. “He exposed himself today in the sight of the slave girls of his subjects like a vulgar person would expose himself.”

When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the troops were doing and how the war was going.

Uriah answered David, “The ark, Israel, and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my master Joab and his soldiers are camping in the open field. How can I enter my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live and by your life, I will not do this!”

On the seventh day the baby died. But David’s servants were afraid to tell him the baby was dead. They said, “Look, while the baby was alive, we spoke to him, and he wouldn’t listen to us. So how can we tell him the baby is dead? He may do something desperate.”

Then David said to Abishai and all his servants, “Look, my own son, my own flesh and blood, intends to take my life—how much more now this Benjaminite! Leave him alone and let him curse me; the Lord has told him to.

Barzillai replied to the king, “How many years of my life are left that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king?

She said, “In the past they used to say, ‘Seek counsel in Abel,’ and that’s how they settled disputes.

He asked the Gibeonites, “What should I do for you? How can I make atonement so that you will bring a blessing on the Lord’s inheritance?”

So don’t let him go unpunished, for you are a wise man. You know how to deal with him to bring his gray head down to Sheol with blood.”

So Benaiah went to the tabernacle and said to Joab, “This is what the king says: ‘Come out!’”

But Joab said, “No, for I will die here.”

So Benaiah took a message back to the king, “This is what Joab said, and this is how he answered me.”

“Therefore, command that cedars from Lebanon be cut down for me. My servants will be with your servants, and I will pay your servants’ wages according to whatever you say, for you know that not a man among us knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”

How happy are your men. How happy are these servants of yours, who always stand in your presence hearing your wisdom.

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?”

As for the rest of the events of Jeroboam’s reign, how he waged war and how he reigned, note that they are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings.

Then Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If Yahweh is God, follow Him. But if Baal, follow him.” But the people didn’t answer him a word.

Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

“Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? I will not bring the disaster during his lifetime, because he has humbled himself before Me. I will bring the disaster on his house during his son’s lifetime.”

But the king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear not to tell me anything but the truth in the name of Yahweh?”

“The Lord asked him, ‘How?’

“He said, ‘I will go and become a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’

“Then He said, ‘You will certainly entice him and prevail. Go and do that.’

The rest of the events of Jehoshaphat’s reign, along with the might he exercised and how he waged war, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.

But his servants approached and said to him, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more should you do it when he tells you, ‘Wash and be clean’?”

Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a man ahead of him, but before the messenger got to him, Elisha said to the elders, “Do you see how this murderer has sent someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door to keep him out. Isn’t the sound of his master’s feet behind him?”

While he was telling the king how Elisha restored the dead son to life, the woman whose son he had restored to life came to appeal to the king for her house and field. So Gehazi said, “My lord the king, this is the woman and this is the son Elisha restored to life.”

Hazael said, “How could your servant, a mere dog, do this monstrous thing?”

Elisha answered, “The Lord has shown me that you will be king over Aram.”

However, they were terrified and reasoned, “Look, two kings couldn’t stand against him; how can we?”

The rest of the events of Jehoash’s reign, along with his accomplishments, his might, and how he waged war against Amaziah king of Judah, are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings.

The rest of the events of Jeroboam’s reign—along with all his accomplishments, the power he had to wage war, and how he recovered for Israel Damascus and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah —are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings.

So one of the priests they had deported came and lived in Bethel, and he began to teach them how they should fear Yahweh.

Look, you are now trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will enter and pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. This is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who trust in him.

How then can you drive back a single officer among the least of my master’s servants and trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

Who among all the gods of the lands has delivered his land from my power? So will the Lord deliver Jerusalem?’”

“Please Lord, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and wholeheartedly and have done what pleases You.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

The rest of the events of Hezekiah’s reign, along with all his might and how he made the pool and the tunnel and brought water into the city, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.

David said, “I would never do such a thing in the presence of God! How can I drink the blood of these men who risked their lives?” For they brought it at the risk of their lives. So he would not drink it. Such were the exploits of the three warriors.

David feared God that day and said, “How can I ever bring the ark of God to me?”

Also, send me cedar, cypress, and algum logs from Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut the trees of Lebanon. Note that my servants will be with your servants

He is the son of a woman from the daughters of Dan. His father is a man of Tyre. He knows how to work with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, with purple, blue, crimson yarn, and fine linen. He knows how to do all kinds of engraving and to execute any design that may be given him. I have sent him to be with your craftsmen and the craftsmen of my lord, your father David.

How happy are your men. How happy are these servants of yours, who always stand in your presence hearing your wisdom.

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 the king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear not to tell me anything but the truth in the name of Yahweh?”

“Then a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I will entice him.’

“The Lord asked him, ‘How?’

Look how they repay us by coming to drive us out of Your possession that You gave us as an inheritance.

Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over how God had prepared the people, for it had come about suddenly.

So now, don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, and don’t let him mislead you like this. Don’t believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my power or the power of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you from my power!’”

His prayer and how God granted his request, and all his sin and unfaithfulness and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and carved images before he humbled himself, they are written in the Records of Hozai.

The king, with the queen seated beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you return?” So I gave him a definite time, and it pleased the king to send me.

I told them how the gracious hand of my God had been on me, and what the king had said to me.

They said, “Let’s start rebuilding,” and they were encouraged to do this good work.

But I said, “Should a man like me run away? How can I enter the temple and live? I will not go.”

They found written in the law how the Lord had commanded through Moses that the Israelites should dwell in booths during the festival of the seventh month.

You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh,
all his officials, and all the people of his land,
for You knew how arrogantly they treated our ancestors.
You made a name for Yourself
that endures to this day.

Every day Mordecai took a walk in front of the harem’s courtyard to learn how Esther was doing and to see what was happening to her.

Then Haman described for them his glorious wealth and his many sons. He told them all how the king had honored him and promoted him in rank over the other officials and the royal staff.

They found the written report of how Mordecai had informed on Bigthana and Teresh, two eunuchs who guarded the king’s entrance, when they planned to assassinate King Ahasuerus.

For how could I bear to see the disaster that would come on my people? How could I bear to see the destruction of my relatives?”

how much more those who dwell in clay houses,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed like a moth!

See how happy the man is God corrects;
so do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.

How painful honest words can be!
But what does your rebuke prove?

How long will you go on saying these things?
Your words are a blast of wind.

Yes, I know what you’ve said is true,
but how can a person be justified before God?

How then can I answer Him
or choose my arguments against Him?

How many iniquities and sins have I committed?
Reveal to me my transgression and sin.

how much less one who is revolting and corrupt,
who drinks injustice like water?

How long until you stop talking?
Show some sense, and then we can talk.

How long will you torment me
and crush me with words?

If you say, “How will we pursue him,
since the root of the problem lies with him?”

How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
Does disaster come on them?
Does He apportion destruction in His anger?

So how can you offer me such futile comfort?
Your answers are deceptive.

Isn’t God as high as the heavens?
And look at the highest stars—how lofty they are!

If only I knew how to find Him,
so that I could go to His throne.

I would learn how He would answer me;
and understand what He would say to me.

How can a person be justified before God?
How can one born of woman be pure?

how much less man, who is a maggot,
and the son of man, who is a worm!

How you have helped the powerless
and delivered the arm that is weak!

How you have counseled the unwise
and thoroughly explained the path to success!

These are but the fringes of His ways;
how faint is the word we hear of Him!
Who can understand His mighty thunder?

I have made a covenant with my eyes.
How then could I look at a young woman?

what could I do when God stands up to judge?
How should I answer Him when He calls me to account?

It is not only the old who are wise
or the elderly who understand how to judge.

For I do not know how to give such titles;
otherwise, my Maker would remove me in an instant.

If you sin, how does it affect God?
If you multiply your transgressions, what does it do to Him?

how much less when you complain
that you do not see Him,
that your case is before Him
and you are waiting for Him.

God tells them what they have done
and how arrogantly they have transgressed.

Can anyone understand how the clouds spread out
or how the thunder roars from God’s pavilion?

Do you know how God directs His clouds
or makes their lightning flash?

Do you understand how the clouds float,
those wonderful works of Him who has perfect knowledge?

I am so insignificant. How can I answer You?
I place my hand over my mouth.

BOOK I
(Psalms 1–41)How happy is the man
who does not follow the advice of the wicked
or take the path of sinners
or join a group of mockers!

A psalm of David when he fled from his son Absalom.Lord, how my foes increase!
There are many who attack me.

How long, exalted men, will my honor be insulted?
How long will you love what is worthless
and pursue a lie?Selah

my whole being is shaken with terror.
And You, Lord—how long?

For the choir director: on the Gittith. A Davidic psalm.Yahweh, our Lord,
how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth!

You have covered the heavens with Your majesty.

Yahweh, our Lord,
how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth!

For the choir director. Davidic.I have taken refuge in the Lord.
How can you say to me,
“Escape to the mountain like a bird!

For the choir director. A Davidic psalm.Lord, how long will You forget me?
Forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?

How long will I store up anxious concerns within me,
agony in my mind every day?
How long will my enemy dominate me?

For the choir director. A Davidic psalm.Lord, the king finds joy in Your strength.
How greatly he rejoices in Your victory!

How great is Your goodness
that You have stored up for those who fear You
and accomplished in the sight of everyone
for those who take refuge in You.