The remaining 27,000 ran to Aphek and went into the city, but the wall fell on them. Now Ben Hadad ran into the city and hid in an inner room.

The men took this as a good omen and quickly accepted his offer, saying, "Ben Hadad is your brother." Ahab then said, "Go, get him." So Ben Hadad came out to him, and Ahab pulled him up into his chariot.

When the king passed by, he called out to the king, "Your servant went out into the heat of the battle, and then a man turned aside and brought me a prisoner. He told me, 'Guard this prisoner. If he ends up missing for any reason, you will pay with your life or with a talent of silver.'

So Ahab went into his palace, bitter and angry that Naboth the Jezreelite had said, "I will not sell to you my ancestral inheritance." He lay down on his bed, pouted, and would not eat.

Micaiah replied, "Look, you will see in the day when you go into an inner room to hide."

The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "I will disguise myself and then enter into the battle; but you wear your royal robes." So the king of Israel disguised himself and then entered into the battle.

While the battle raged throughout the day, the king stood propped up in his chariot opposite the Syrians. He died in the evening; the blood from the wound ran down into the bottom of the chariot.

They tore down the cities and each man threw a stone into every cultivated field until they were covered. They stopped up every spring and chopped down every productive tree. Only Kir Hareseth was left intact, but the slingers surrounded it and attacked it.

Go and close the door behind you and your sons. Pour the olive oil into all the containers; set aside each one when you have filled it."

One day Elisha came for a visit; he went into the upper room and rested.

Elisha told Gehazi, "Tuck your robes into your belt, take my staff, and go! Don't stop to exchange greetings with anyone! Place my staff on the child's face."

Someone went out to the field to gather some herbs and found a wild vine. He picked some of its fruit, enough to fill up the fold of his robe. He came back, cut it up, and threw the slices into the stew pot, not knowing they were harmful.

He said, "Get some flour." Then he threw it into the pot and said, "Now pour some out for the men so they may eat." There was no longer anything harmful in the pot.

As one of them was felling a log, the ax head dropped into the water. He shouted, "Oh no, my master! It was borrowed!"

If we go into the city, we'll die of starvation, and if we stay here we'll die! So come on, let's defect to the Syrian camp! If they spare us, we'll live; if they kill us -- well, we were going to die anyway."

Now Elisha the prophet summoned a member of the prophetic guild and told him, "Tuck your robes into your belt, take this container of olive oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth Gilead.

When you arrive there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi and take him aside into an inner room.

Jehu ordered his officer Bidkar, "Pick him up and throw him into the part of the field that once belonged to Naboth of Jezreel. Remember, you and I were riding together behind his father Ahab, when the Lord pronounced this judgment on him,

"Know for sure that I saw the shed blood of Naboth and his sons yesterday," says the Lord, "and that I will give you what you deserve right here in this plot of land," says the Lord.' So now pick him up and throw him into this plot of land, just as the Lord said."

When he left there, he met Jehonadab, son of Rekab, who had been looking for him. Jehu greeted him and asked, "Are you as committed to me as I am to you?" Jehonadab answered, "I am!" Jehu replied, "If so, give me your hand." So he offered his hand and Jehu pulled him up into the chariot.

They seized her and took her into the precincts of the royal palace through the horses' entrance. There she was executed.

Jehoiada the priest took a chest and drilled a hole in its lid. He placed it on the right side of the altar near the entrance of the Lord's temple. The priests who guarded the entrance would put into it all the silver brought to the Lord's temple.

One day some men were burying a man when they spotted a raiding party. So they threw the dead man into Elisha's tomb. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the dead man came to life and stood on his feet.

Don't let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the Lord when he says, "The Lord will certainly rescue us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria."

Certainly you must have heard! Long ago I worked it out, In ancient times I planned it; and now I am bringing it to pass. The plan is this: Fortified cities will crash into heaps of ruins.

The rest of the events of Hezekiah's reign and all his accomplishments, including how he built a pool and conduit to bring water into the city, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah.

You displayed a sensitive spirit and humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard how I intended to make this place and its residents into an appalling example of an accursed people. You tore your clothes and wept before me, and I have heard you,' says the Lord.

and his son Beerah, whom King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria carried into exile. Beerah was the tribal leader of Reuben.

Jehozadak went into exile when the Lord sent the people of Judah and Jerusalem into exile by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.

When David had settled into his palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, "Look, I am living in a palace made from cedar, while the ark of the Lord's covenant is under a tent."

Now you are willing to bless your servant's dynasty so that it may stand permanently before you, for you, O Lord, have blessed it and it will be blessed from now on into the future."

When the Ammonites saw the Arameans flee, they fled before Joab's brother Abishai and withdrew into the city. Joab went back to Jerusalem.

In the spring, at the time when kings normally conduct wars, Joab led the army into battle and devastated the land of the Ammonites. He went and besieged Rabbah, while David stayed in Jerusalem. Joab defeated Rabbah and tore it down.

The Lord ordered the messenger to put his sword back into its sheath.

Now seek the Lord your God wholeheartedly and with your entire being! Get up and build the sanctuary of the Lord God! Then you can bring the ark of the Lord's covenant and the holy items dedicated to God's service into the temple that is built to honor the Lord."

David divided them into groups corresponding to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

David, Zadok (a descendant of Eleazar), and Ahimelech (a descendant of Ithamar) divided them into groups to carry out their assigned responsibilities.

The king had a fleet of large merchant ships manned by Huram's men that sailed the sea. Once every three years the fleet came into port with cargoes of gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, the supervisor of the work crews, out after them, but the Israelites stoned him to death. King Rehoboam managed to jump into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem.

He brought the holy items that his father and he had made into God's temple, including the silver, gold, and other articles.

The Lord put fear into all the kingdoms surrounding Judah; they did not make war with Jehoshaphat.

Micaiah replied, "Look, you will see in the day when you go into an inner room to hide."

They seized her and took her into the precincts of the royal palace through the horses' entrance. There they executed her.

(Wicked Athaliah and her sons had broken into God's temple and used all the holy items of the Lord's temple in their worship of the Baals.)

All the officials and all the people gladly brought their silver and threw it into the chest until it was full.

They removed the altars in Jerusalem; they also removed all the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley.

They gave money to the craftsmen and builders to buy chiseled stone and wood for the braces and rafters of the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to fall into disrepair.

These are the people of the province who were going up, from the captives of the exile whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had forced into exile in Babylon. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own city.

But after our ancestors angered the God of heaven, he delivered them into the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and exiled the people to Babylon.

On the fourth day we weighed out the silver, the gold, and the vessels in the house of our God into the care of Meremoth son of Uriah, the priest, and Eleazar son of Phinehas, who were accompanied by Jozabad son of Jeshua and Noadiah son of Binnui, who were Levites.

These are the people of the province who returned from the captivity of the exiles, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had forced into exile. They returned to Jerusalem and to Judah, each to his own city.

You split the sea before them, and they crossed through the sea on dry ground! But you threw their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into surging waters.

Their descendants entered and possessed the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites who were the inhabitants of the land. You delivered them into their hand, together with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with as they pleased.

Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their adversaries, who oppressed them. But in the time of their distress they called to you, and you heard from heaven. In your abundant compassion you provided them with deliverers to rescue them from their adversaries.

You prolonged your kindness with them for many years, and you solemnly admonished them by your Spirit through your prophets. Still they paid no attention, so you delivered them into the hands of the neighboring peoples.

"Because of all of this we are entering into a binding covenant in written form; our leaders, our Levites, and our priests have affixed their names on the sealed document."

hereby participate with their colleagues the town leaders and enter into a curse and an oath to adhere to the law of God which was given through Moses the servant of God, and to obey carefully all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, along with his ordinances and his statutes.

On that day men were appointed over the storerooms for the contributions, first fruits, and tithes, to gather into them from the fields of the cities the portions prescribed by the law for the priests and the Levites, for the people of Judah took delight in the priests and Levites who were ministering.

for they had not met the Israelites with food and water, but instead had hired Balaam to curse them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into blessing.)

to bring Queen Vashti into the king's presence wearing her royal high turban. He wanted to show the people and the officials her beauty, for she was very attractive.

For the matter concerning the queen will spread to all the women, leading them to treat their husbands with contempt, saying, 'When King Ahasuerus gave orders to bring Queen Vashti into his presence, she would not come.'

If the king is so inclined, let a royal edict go forth from him, and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media that cannot be repealed, that Vashti may not come into the presence of King Ahasuerus, and let the king convey her royalty to another who is more deserving than she.

who had been taken into exile from Jerusalem with the captives who had been carried into exile with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile.

Now when Mordecai became aware of all that had been done, he tore his garments and put on sackcloth and ashes. He went out into the city, crying out in a loud and bitter voice.

But when they gazed intently from a distance but did not recognize him, they began to weep loudly. Each of them tore his robes, and they threw dust into the air over their heads.

Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go into the wasteland and perish.

If a land has been given into the hand of a wicked man, he covers the faces of its judges; if it is not he, then who is it?

then you plunge me into a slimy pit and my own clothes abhor me.

He leads counselors away stripped and makes judges into fools.

He reveals the deep things of darkness, and brings deep shadows into the light.

he lived in ruined towns and in houses where no one lives, where they are ready to crumble into heaps.

God abandons me to evil men, and throws me into the hands of wicked men.

These men change night into day; they say, 'The light is near in the face of darkness.'

Will it go down to the barred gates of death? Will we descend together into the dust?"

For he has been thrown into a net by his feet and he wanders into a mesh.

He is driven from light into darkness and is banished from the world.

In the dark the robber breaks into houses, but by day they shut themselves in; they do not know the light.

He has searched the sources of the rivers and what was hidden he has brought into the light.

He has flung me into the mud, and I have come to resemble dust and ashes.

He draws up drops of water; they distill the rain into its mist,

when the dust hardens into a mass, and the clumps of earth stick together?

For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm of David. When I call out, answer me, O God who vindicates me! Though I am hemmed in, you will lead me into a wide, open place. Have mercy on me and respond to my prayer!

You men, how long will you try to turn my honor into shame? How long will you love what is worthless and search for what is deceptive? (Selah)

For they do not speak the truth; their stomachs are like the place of destruction, their throats like an open grave, their tongues like a steep slope leading into it.

he digs a pit and then falls into the hole he has made.

The nations fell into the pit they had made; their feet were caught in the net they had hidden.

"Because of the violence done to the oppressed, because of the painful cries of the needy, I will spring into action," says the Lord. "I will provide the safety they so desperately desire."

He brought me out into a wide open place; he delivered me because he was pleased with me.

For you grant him lasting blessings; you give him great joy by allowing him into your presence.

All of the thriving people of the earth will join the celebration and worship; all those who are descending into the grave will bow before him, including those who cannot preserve their lives.

Guide me into your truth and teach me. For you are the God who delivers me; on you I rely all day long.

By David. To you, O Lord, I cry out! My protector, do not ignore me! If you do not respond to me, I will join those who are descending into the grave.

O Lord, you pulled me up from Sheol; you rescued me from among those descending into the grave.

"What profit is there in taking my life, in my descending into the Pit? Can the dust of the grave praise you? Can it declare your loyalty?

Then you turned my lament into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and covered me with joy.

Into your hand I entrust my life; you will rescue me, O Lord, the faithful God.

For he spoke, and it came into existence, he issued the decree, and it stood firm.

Let destruction take them by surprise! Let the net they hid catch them! Let them fall into destruction!

My enemies' taunts cut into me to the bone, as they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"

But you rejected and embarrassed us! You did not go into battle with our armies.