Do this so your eyes may remain open to the requests of your servant and to the requests of your people's prayers, to listen to them whenever they call out to you,

And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of 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.

Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.

Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the Lord: 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. In this manner the king and all the Israelites dedicated the Lord’s temple.

At that time Solomon and all Israel with him celebrated a festival before the Lord our God for two entire weeks. This great assembly included people from all over the land, from Lebo Hamath in the north to the Brook of Egypt in the south.

And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.

Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:

And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house?

And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil.

And he said, What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day.

This Hiram had sent the king six score hundredweight of gold.

And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto this day.

Three times every year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar that he had built to the LORD, burning incense with the offerings in the presence of the Lord. This concludes the record of the Temple construction.

And she will give to the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and spices very many, and precious stone; there came no more as this spice for multitude which queen Sheba gave to king Solomon.

And the king made of the almug trees pillars for the house of the LORD, and for the king's house, harps also and psalteries for singers: there came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this day.

six steps hath the throne, and a round top is to the throne behind it, and hands are on this side and on that, unto the place of the sitting, and two lions are standing near the hands,

and twelve lions are standing there on the six steps, on this side and on that; it hath not been made so for any kingdom.

They [were] each bringing his gift; objects of silver and objects of gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules. {This used to happen year after year}.

Solomon did this for all of his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their own gods.

And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the LORD commanded.

Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant.

I'm not going to do this during your lifetime, for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of your son's control.

After this, the LORD allowed Hadad the Edomite to oppose Solomon. He was part of the royal line of Edom.

And this Hadad fled, and certain other Edomites of his father's servants with him, to go to Egypt; Hadad being yet a little lad.

He was a trouble to Israel all through the days of Solomon. And this is the damage Hadad did: he was cruel to Israel while he was ruler over Edom.

And this was the cause that he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon built Millo, and repaired the breaches of the city of David his father.

And this fellow Jeroboam was an active man. And when Solomon saw the young man, that he wrought so lustily in the work, he made him ruler over all the charges of the house of Joseph.

and said to Jeroboam, “Take 10 pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I am about to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand. I will give you 10 tribes,

I'm doing this because they have abandoned me and worshipped that Sidonian goddess Astarte, the Moabite god Chemosh, and the Ammonite god Milcom. They haven't lived my way by doing what I consider to be right and observing my statutes and my ordinances, like his father David did.

And I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever.

And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people?

And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever.

And he said unto them, What counsel give ye that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke which thy father did put upon us lighter?

And the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us; thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins.

And when Jeroboam and all the people were come to Rehoboam the third day - as the king appointed them, saying, "Come to me again this day three days" -

So the king did not give ear to the people; and this came about by the purpose of the Lord, so that what he had said by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, son of Nebat, might be effected.

So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.

"Say this to King Rehoboam son of Solomon of Judah, and to all Judah and Benjamin, as well as the rest of the people,

Thus saith the LORD, Ye 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 to depart, according to the word of the LORD.

If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.

And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.

Jeroboam made a festival in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival in Judah. He offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had set up. He also stationed the priests in Bethel for the high places he had set up.

The man of God cried out against the altar by a revelation from the Lord: “Altar, altar, this is what the Lord says, ‘A son will be born to the house of David, named Josiah, and he will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who are burning incense on you. Human bones will be burned on you.’”

And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the LORD hath spoken; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.

And the altar was broken and the burned waste on it overturned; this was the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.

And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place:

for this is what I was commanded by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or go back the way you came.’”

And their father saith unto them, 'Where is this -- the way he hath gone?' and his sons see the way that the man of God hath gone who came from Judah.

And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place:

because I've been given a command in the form of this message from the LORD: "You are to eat no food, drink no water, and do not return to Judah by traveling the way by which you go there.'"

"I'm a prophet like you," the old man replied, "and an angel spoke to me and delivered this message from the LORD: "Bring him back with you to your house and give him food and water.'" But he was lying,

and the prophet cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because you rebelled against the command of the Lord and did not keep the command that the Lord your God commanded you—

But have come back, and have taken food and water in this place where he said you were to take no food or water; your dead body will not be put to rest with your fathers.

And when he had put it to rest, he said to his sons, When I am dead, then you are to put my body into the earth with the body of this man of God, and put me by his bones so that my bones may be kept safe with his bones.

After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places.

And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.

And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam; and get thee to Shiloh: behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, which told me that I should be king over this people.

And the LORD said unto Ahijah, "Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh, to question with thee about her son which is sick. This wise and this wise answer her." And when she came, she feigned herself to be another woman.

And it cometh to pass, at Ahijah's hearing the sound of her feet as she came in to the opening, that he saith, 'Come in, wife of Jeroboam, why is this -- thou art making thyself strange? and I am sent unto thee with a sharp thing:

Go tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel says: I raised you up from among the people, appointed you ruler over My people Israel,

Because of all this, I am about to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam:

I will eliminate all of Jeroboam’s males,
both slave and free, in Israel;
I will sweep away the house of Jeroboam
as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone!

and all Israel have mourned for him, and buried him, for this one -- by himself -- cometh of Jeroboam unto a grave, because there hath been found in him a good thing towards Jehovah, God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.

And Jehovah hath raised up for Him a king over Israel who cutteth off the house of Jeroboam this day -- and what? -- even now!

For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to anger.

And more than this, there were those in the land who were used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods, doing the same disgusting crimes as the nations which the Lord had sent out before the children of Israel.

He did this because David had done what he approved and had not disregarded any of his commandments his entire lifetime, except for the incident involving Uriah the Hittite.

Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the Lord's temple and of the royal palace and handed it to his servants. He then told them to deliver it to Ben Hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, ruler in Damascus, along with this message:

When Baasha learned of this, he stopped fortifying Ramah and remained in Tirzah,

Baasha son of Ahijah, from the tribe of Issachar, conspired against Nadab and assassinated him in Gibbethon, which was in Philistine territory. This happened while Nadab and all the Israelite army were besieging Gibbethon.

This was because Jeroboam had provoked the Lord God of Israel by the sins he had committed and had caused Israel to commit.

Later, a message came from the LORD to Hanani's son Jehu. It was directed to rebuke Baasha, and this is what it said:

Zimri came in and struck him dead. (This happened in the twenty-seventh year of Asa's reign over Judah.) Zimri replaced Elah as king.

This happened because of all the sins which Baasha and his son Elah committed and which they made Israel commit. They angered the Lord God of Israel with their worthless idols.

The army at the encampment heard this report: "Zimri has conspired against the king and killed him." So the entire army of Israel made Omri, their commander, king over Israel.

[This happened] because of his sin which he committed by doing evil in the eyes of Yahweh, by going the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he did by causing Israel to sin.

And this Omri wrought wickedness in the eyes of the LORD worse than all that were before him,

Later, this message came to him from the LORD:

Go from this place; and thou hast turned for thee eastward, and been hidden by the brook Cherith, that is on the front of the Jordan,

Then this message came to him from the LORD:

for this is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘The flour jar will not become empty and the oil jug will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the surface of the land.”

After this, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. His illness became very severe until no breath remained in him.

Then he called out to the LORD and asked him, "LORD my God, have you also brought evil to this dear widow with whom I am living as her guest? Have you caused the death of her son?"

And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again.

And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth.

Quite some time later three years later! this message from the LORD came to Elijah: "Go visit Ahab, and I'll send some rain to the surface of the ground."

Ahab called for Obadiah, his household supervisor. This man, who feared the LORD very much,

It happened that Obadiah [was] on the way, and suddenly Elijah was there to meet him. When he recognized him, he fell on his face and said, "[Is] this you, my lord Elijah?"

Then Elijah said, "As truly as the LORD of Hosts liveth, before whom I stand: I will show myself unto him this day."

When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, "[Is] this you [who] throws Israel into confusion?"

Then you will invoke the name of your god, and I will invoke the name of the Lord. The god who responds with fire will demonstrate that he is the true God." All the people responded, "This will be a fair test."

And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.

Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.

When all the people saw this, they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground and said, "The Lord is the true God! The Lord is the true God!"

After this, Elijah told Ahab, "Get up and have something to eat and drink, because there's the sound of a coming rainstorm."

Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time.

He lay down and fell asleep under a certain broom tree, and suddenly this angel [was] touching him and said to him, "Get up, eat!"

Elijah arrived at a cave and stayed there. All of a sudden this message came from the LORD: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

He sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel and said to him, “This is what Ben-hadad says:

He said to him, "This is what Ben Hadad says, 'Your silver and your gold are mine, as well as the best of your wives and sons.'"