Josiah was eight years old when he became king and reigned 31 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath.

So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah, wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the Second District. They spoke with her.

She said to them, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘Say to the man who sent you to Me:

Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king and reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.

Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king and reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah, from Rumah.

and also because of all the innocent blood he had shed. He had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not forgive.

Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became king and reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan, from Jerusalem.

Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king and reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.

Noah, Noah’s sons:
Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Shem’s sons: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech.

Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah,

When Azubah died, Caleb married Ephrath, and she bore Hur to him.

After this, Hezron slept with the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead. Hezron had married her when he was 60 years old, and she bore Segub to him.

Sheshan gave his daughter in marriage to his servant Jarha, and she bore Attai to him.

She was also the mother of Shaaph, Madmannah’s father, and of Sheva, the father of Machbenah and Gibea. Caleb’s daughter was Achsah.

Machir’s wife Maacah gave birth to a son, and she named him Peresh. His brother was named Sheresh, and his sons were Ulam and Rekem.

He slept with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. So he named him Beriah, because there had been misfortune in his home.

As the ark of the covenant of the Lord was entering the city of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from the window and saw King David dancing and celebrating, and she despised him in her heart.

but the word of the Lord came to me: ‘You have shed much blood and waged great wars. You are not to build a house for My name because you have shed so much blood on the ground before Me.

but God said to me, ‘You are not to build a house for My name because you are a man of war and have shed blood.’

The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, so she came to test Solomon with difficult questions at Jerusalem with a very large entourage, with camels bearing spices, gold in abundance, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and spoke with him about everything that was on her mind.

She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your words and about your wisdom is true.

Then she gave the king four and a half tons of gold, a great quantity of spices, and precious stones. There never were such spices as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba her every desire, whatever she asked—far more than she had brought the king. Then she, along with her servants, returned to her own country.

She bore sons to him: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.

After her, he married Maacah daughter of Absalom. She bore Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith to him.

and reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Micaiah daughter of Uriel; she was from Gibeah.

There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.

King Asa also removed Maacah, his grandmother, from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. Asa chopped down her obscene image, then crushed it and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

When Athaliah, Ahaziah’s mother, saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs of the house of Judah.

Jehoshabeath, the king’s daughter, rescued Joash son of Ahaziah from the king’s sons who were being killed and put him and the one who nursed him in a bedroom. Now Jehoshabeath was the daughter of King Jehoram and the wife of Jehoiada the priest. Since she was Ahaziah’s sister, she hid Joash from Athaliah so that she did not kill him.

When Athaliah heard the noise from the troops, the guards, and those praising the king, she went to the troops in the Lord’s temple.

As she looked, there was the king standing by his pillar at the entrance. The commanders and the trumpeters were by the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets while the singers with musical instruments were leading the praise. Athaliah tore her clothes and screamed, “Treason, treason!”

So they arrested her, and she went by the entrance of the Horses’ Gate to the king’s palace, where they put her to death.

Joash was seven years old when he became king and reigned 40 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beer-sheba.

When the Arameans saw that Joash had many wounds, they left him. His servants conspired against him, and killed him on his bed, because he had shed the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest. So he died, and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.

Amaziah became king when he was 25 years old and reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem.

Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king and reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah from Jerusalem.

So Hilkiah and those the king had designated went to the prophetess Huldah, the wife of Shallum son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the Second District. They spoke with her about this.

She said to them, “This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel says: Say to the man who sent you to Me,

to bring Queen Vashti before him with her royal crown. He wanted to show off her beauty to the people and the officials, because she was very beautiful.

The king asked, “According to the law, what should be done with Queen Vashti, since she refused to obey King Ahasuerus’s command that was delivered by the eunuchs?”

For the queen’s action will become public knowledge to all the women and cause them to despise their husbands and say, ‘King Ahasuerus ordered Queen Vashti brought before him, but she did not come.’

“If it meets the king’s approval, he should personally issue a royal decree. Let it be recorded in the laws of Persia and Media, so that it cannot be revoked: Vashti is not to enter King Ahasuerus’s presence, and her royal position is to be given to another woman who is more worthy than she.

Some time later, when King Ahasuerus’s rage had cooled down, he remembered Vashti, what she had done, and what was decided against her.

Mordecai was the legal guardian of his cousin Hadassah (that is, Esther), because she didn’t have a father or mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was extremely good-looking. When her father and mother died, Mordecai had adopted her as his own daughter.

The young woman pleased him and gained his favor so that he accelerated the process of the beauty treatments and the special diet that she received. He assigned seven hand-picked female servants to her from the palace and transferred her and her servants to the harem’s best quarters.

When the young woman would go to the king, she was given whatever she requested to take with her from the harem to the palace.

She would go in the evening, and in the morning she would return to a second harem under the supervision of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch in charge of the concubines. She never went to the king again, unless he desired her and summoned her by name.

Esther was the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai who had adopted her as his own daughter. When her turn came to go to the king, she did not ask for anything except what Hegai, the king’s trusted official in charge of the harem, suggested. Esther won approval in the sight of everyone who saw her.

The king loved Esther more than all the other women. She won more favor and approval from him than did any of the other young women. He placed the royal crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti.

Esther still had not revealed her birthplace or her ethnic background, as Mordecai had directed. She obeyed Mordecai’s orders, as she always had while he raised her.

When Mordecai learned of the plot, he reported it to Queen Esther, and she told the king on Mordecai’s behalf.

Esther’s female servants and her eunuchs came and reported the news to her, and the queen was overcome with fear. She sent clothes for Mordecai to wear so he could take off his sackcloth, but he did not accept them.

As soon as the king saw Queen Esther standing in the courtyard, she won his approval. The king extended the gold scepter in his hand toward Esther, and she approached and touched the tip of the scepter.

“What’s more,” Haman added, “Queen Esther invited no one but me to join the king at the banquet she had prepared. I am invited again tomorrow to join her with the king.

Then Esther addressed the king again. She fell at his feet, wept, and begged him to revoke the evil of Haman the Agagite, and his plot he had devised against the Jews.

The king extended the gold scepter toward Esther, so she got up and stood before the king.

She said, “If it pleases the king, and I have found approval before him, if the matter seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his sight, let a royal edict be written. Let it revoke the documents the scheming Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces.

She abandons her eggs on the ground
and lets them be warmed in the sand.

She forgets that a foot may crush them
or that some wild animal may trample them.

She treats her young harshly, as if they were not her own,
with no fear that her labor may have been in vain.

When she proudly spreads her wings,
she laughs at the horse and its rider.

In colorful garments she is led to the king;
after her, the virgins, her companions, are brought to you.

God is within her; she will not be toppled.
God will help her when the morning dawns.

“The kings of the armies flee—they flee!”
She who stays at home divides the spoil.

Why should the nations ask,
“Where is their God?”
Before our eyes,
let vengeance for the shed blood of Your servants
be known among the nations.

Even a sparrow finds a home,
and a swallow, a nest for herself
where she places her young—
near Your altars, Lord of Hosts,
my King and my God.

They shed innocent blood—
the blood of their sons and daughters
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
so the land became polluted with blood.

Wisdom calls out in the street;
she raises her voice in the public squares.

She cries out above the commotion;
she speaks at the entrance of the city gates:

for she is more profitable than silver,
and her revenue is better than gold.

She is more precious than jewels;
nothing you desire compares with her.

She is a tree of life to those who embrace her,
and those who hold on to her are happy.

Don’t abandon wisdom, and she will watch over you;
love her, and she will guard you.

Cherish her, and she will exalt you;
if you embrace her, she will honor you.

She will place a garland of grace on your head;
she will give you a crown of beauty.”

in the end she’s as bitter as wormwood
and as sharp as a double-edged sword.

She doesn’t consider the path of life;
she doesn’t know that her ways are unstable.

arrogant eyes, a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,

She will keep you from a forbidden woman,
a stranger with her flattering talk.

She is loud and defiant;
her feet do not stay at home.

Now in the street, now in the squares,
she lurks at every corner.

She grabs him and kisses him;
she brazenly says to him,

She seduces him with her persistent pleading;
she lures with her flattering talk.

For she has brought many down to death;
her victims are countless.

At the heights overlooking the road,
at the crossroads, she takes her stand.

Beside the gates at the entry to the city,
at the main entrance, she cries out:

Wisdom has built her house;
she has carved out her seven pillars.

She has prepared her meat; she has mixed her wine;
she has also set her table.

She has sent out her female servants;
she calls out from the highest points of the city:

“Whoever is inexperienced, enter here!”
To the one who lacks sense, she says,

The woman Folly is rowdy;
she is gullible and knows nothing.

She sits by the doorway of her house,
on a seat at the highest point of the city,

“Whoever is inexperienced, enter here!”
To the one who lacks sense, she says,

Wisdom resides in the heart of the discerning;
she is known even among fools.

Listen to your father who gave you life,
and don’t despise your mother when she is old.

indeed, she sets an ambush like a robber
and increases those among men who are unfaithful.

This is the way of an adulteress:
she eats and wipes her mouth
and says, “I’ve done nothing wrong.”

an unloved woman when she marries,
and a servant girl when she ousts her queen.

Who can find a capable wife?
She is far more precious than jewels.