So they gathered to Mizpah and drew water and poured [it] out before Yahweh. They fasted on that day and said there, "We have sinned against Yahweh!" So Samuel judged the {Israelites} at Mizpah.

[Now] when [the] Philistines heard that the {Israelites} had gathered at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the {Israelites} heard [of it], {they were afraid of the Philistines}.

Then the {Israelites} said to Samuel, "{You must not cease} from crying out to Yahweh our God, so that he will deliver us from the hand of [the] Philistines."

So the Philistines were subdued and they did not come anymore into Israelite territory. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.

He had a son whose name was Saul, a young and handsome man. There was not a man from the {Israelites} more handsome than he [was]; from his shoulders up, he was taller than all the people.

and he said to the {Israelites}, "Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel: 'I brought Israel up from Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that [were] oppressing you.'

He mustered them at Bezek; the {Israelites} [were] three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah [were] thirty thousand.

So all the people went to Gilgal, where they established Saul as king in the Lord's presence. They offered up peace offerings there in the Lord's presence. Saul and all the Israelites were very happy.

But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his colter, and his ax, and his mattock.

Then Saul said to Ahijah, "Bring near the ark of God" (for the ark of God was {at that time} with the {Israelites}).

Moreover the Hebrews that were with the Philistines before that time, who went up with them into the camp from the country around, even they also turned to be with the Israelites that were with Saul and Jonathan.

When all the Israelite men who had been hiding in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they also joined Saul and Jonathan in the battle.

The Israelites struck down the Philistines that day from Michmash all the way to Aijalon. Since the Israelites were completely exhausted,

This is what the Lord of Hosts says: ‘I witnessed what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they opposed them along the way as they were coming out of Egypt.

Saul said to the Kenites, "Go, leave! Withdraw from among the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you with them. You have shown loyal love to all the {Israelites} when they came up from Egypt." So the Kenites left from among [the] Amalekites.

Saul and the Israelite army assembled and camped in the valley of Elah, where they arranged their battle lines to fight against the Philistines.

The Philistines were standing on one hill, and the Israelites were standing on another hill with a ravine between them.

He stood and shouted to the Israelite battle formations: “Why do you come out to line up in battle formation?” He asked them, “Am I not a Philistine and are you not servants of Saul? Choose one of your men and have him come down against me.

When Saul and all the Israelites heard these words of the Philistine, they were upset and very afraid.

They are with Saul and the whole Israelite army in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines."

When all the Israelite men saw Goliath, they retreated from him terrified.

Previously, an Israelite man had declared: “Do you see this man who keeps coming out? He comes to defy Israel. The king will make the man who kills him very rich and will give him his daughter. The king will also make the household of that man’s father exempt from paying taxes in Israel.”

Then the {Israelites} returned from pursuing [the] Philistines and plundered their camp.

As they were coming [home], when David returned from killing the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul with tambourines, [songs of] joy, and musical instruments.

And Samuel died; and all the Israelites assembled, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

Now the Philistines collected all their armies to Aphek: and the Israelites encamped by a fountain which is in Jezreel.

When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley [of Jezreel], and those who were beyond the Jordan, saw that the other men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled; then the Philistines came and lived in them.

David asked him, “Where have you come from?”

He replied to him, “I’ve escaped from the Israelite camp.”

and he told them to teach the sons of Judah, the song of the bow. Behold, it is written in the Book of Jashar:

And when Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands were feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled.

For I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought up the {Israelites} from Egypt until this day; [rather,] I [was] going about in a tent and in a tabernacle.

In all of my going about among all the {Israelites}, did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, 'Why did you not build me a cedar house?'" '

In the spring of the year, at the time when kings normally conduct wars, David sent out Joab with his officers and the entire Israelite army. They defeated the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem.

Absalom did this to all the Israelites who came to the king for a settlement. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

Now Absalom and all the Israelites came to Jerusalem. Ahithophel was also with him.

And Absalom made Amasa captain of the host instead of Joab: which Amasa was a man's son, whose name was Ithra, an Israelite, that went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah, Joab's mother.

They took Absalom, threw him into a large pit in the forest, and stacked a huge pile of stones over him. In the meantime all the Israelite soldiers fled to their homes.

But the Israelite soldiers had all fled to their own homes.

So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites [were] not from the {Israelites}; they [were] from the remainder of the Amorites. Now the {Israelites} had sworn to them, but Saul tried to wipe them out in his zeal for the {Israelites} and Judah.

Next to Eleazar was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines were gathered into an army where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the people [of Israel] fled from the Philistines.

But the king's edict stood, despite the objections of Joab and the leaders of the army. So Joab and the leaders of the army left the king's presence in order to muster the Israelite army.

"You know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me -- how he murdered two commanders of the Israelite armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. During peacetime he struck them down like he would in battle; when he shed their blood as if in battle, he stained his own belt and the sandals on his feet.

It happened in the four hundred and eightieth year [after] the {Israelites} went out from the land of Egypt, in the fourth year {of Solomon's rule} over Israel, the month of Ziv (that [is] the second month), that he began to build the house for Yahweh.

And I will dwell {among} the {Israelites}, and I will not forsake my people Israel."

At that time, Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes, and the leaders of the {families} of the {Israelites} before King Solomon, in order to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh from the city of David, that is, Zion.

Now King Solomon and all the Israelites who had assembled with him went on ahead of the ark and sacrificed more sheep and cattle than could be counted or numbered.

There was not [anything] in the ark {except} the two tablets of stone which Moses had placed there at Horeb, where Yahweh {made} [a covenant] with the {Israelites} after they went out from the land of Egypt.

Then the king turned around and pronounced a blessing over the whole Israelite assembly as they stood there.

Solomon sacrificed the fellowship offerings which he offered to Yahweh: twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep; and the king and all of the {Israelites} dedicated the house of Yahweh.

All of the people who were remaining from the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites who [were] not of the {Israelites},

their children who remained after them in the land, whom the {Israelites} were not able to completely destroy, Solomon conscripted them for forced labor, until this very day.

But from the {Israelites} Solomon did not make a slave, but they [were] the men of war, his officers, his commanders, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and his cavalry.

from the nations which Yahweh had said to the {Israelites}, "You shall not {marry them}, and they shall not {marry you}. They will certainly turn your heart after other gods." But Solomon clung to them to love.

For six months Joab and the entire Israelite army stayed there until they had exterminated every male in Edom.

They sent for him, and Jeroboam and the whole Israelite assembly came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying,

The {Israelites} were living in the cities of Judah, and Rehoboam was reigning over them.

'Thus says Yahweh: "You shall not go up and you shall not fight with your brothers the {Israelites}. Return each of you to his house, for this thing was from me." '" So they heeded the word of Yahweh, and they returned to go home according to the word of Yahweh.

He offered [sacrifices] on the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month which his heart had devised. He inaugurated a religious feast for the {Israelites}, and he went up to the altar to offer incense.

There were also male shrine prostitutes in the land, and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which Yahweh had driven out from before the {Israelites}.

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.

So Ahab sent [word] among the {Israelites}, and he assembled the prophets to Mount Carmel.

Then he said, "I have been very zealous for Yahweh the God of hosts, for the {Israelites} have forsaken your covenant. They have demolished your altars, and they have killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left over, and they seek to take my life.

He said, "I have been very zealous for Yahweh the God of Hosts, for the {Israelites} have forsaken your covenant, demolished your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword; I alone am left, and they seek to take my life!"

So Ahab assembled the 232 servants of the district governors. After that he assembled all the Israelite army, numbering 7,000.

The {Israelites} had been mustered and provisioned, and they went to engage them. The {Israelites} encamped opposite them as two flocks of goats, but the Arameans filled the land.

These encamped opposite for seven days, and it happened on the seventh day that {the battle began}, and the {Israelites} killed the Arameans, one hundred thousand infantry in one day.

His advisers said to him, "Look, we have heard that the kings of the Israelite dynasty are kind. Allow us to put sackcloth around our waists and ropes on our heads and surrender to the king of Israel. Maybe he will spare our lives."

Also, he acted very abominably by going after idols like all the Amorites had done whom Yahweh had driven out from before the {Israelites}."

When they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and struck the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they went forward into the land smiting the Moabites.

So he took his firstborn son, who was to become king in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering on the city wall. Great wrath was on the Israelites, and they withdrew from him and returned to their land.

And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it: behold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed:) and let us send and see.

Then Hazael asked, "Why [is] my lord crying?" He said, "Because I know what evil you will do to the {Israelites}. You will {set their fortifications on fire}, and you will kill their young men with the sword. Their little ones you will dash to pieces, and their pregnant women you will rip open!"

Joram crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites, who had surrounded him, attacked at night and defeated him and his chariot officers. The Israelite army retreated to their homeland.

Then Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi conspired against Joram.Now Joram had been in Ramoth Gilead with the whole Israelite army, guarding against an invasion by King Hazael of Syria.

In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael defeated the Israelites throughout their territory:

Yahweh gave Israel a savior, and they went out from under the hand of Aram. So the {Israelites} lived in their tents as {formerly}.

Once, as the Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a raiding party, so they threw the man into Elisha’s tomb. When he touched Elisha’s bones, the man revived and stood up!

Jehoahaz's son Jehoash took back from Ben Hadad son of Hazael the cities that he had taken from his father Jehoahaz in war. Joash defeated him three times and recovered the Israelite cities.

The rest of the events of Jeroboam's reign, including all his accomplishments, his military success in restoring Israelite control over Damascus and Hamath, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel.

He walked in the way of the kings of Israel; he even let his son pass through the fire according to the detestable things of the nations which Yahweh drove out from before the {Israelites}.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not to the same degree as the Israelite kings who preceded him.

In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria. He deported the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah and by the Habor, Gozan’s river, and in the cities of the Medes.

Now [this] happened because the {Israelites} had sinned against Yahweh their God when he brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh the king of Egypt and they feared other gods.

They walked in the statutes of the nations whom Yahweh had driven out from before the {Israelites}, which the kings of Israel had introduced.

The {Israelites} secretly did things which [were] not right, against Yahweh their God; they built high places for themselves in all their towns, from the watchtower up to the fortified city.

The {Israelites} walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he committed, and they did not depart from it,

The king of Assyria brought from Babylonia, from Cush, from Arva, from Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and he settled [them] in the cities of Samaria in place of the {Israelites}, so they took possession of Samaria and lived in her cities.

He removed the high places, and he smashed the stone pillars; he cut down the poles of Asherah worship and demolished the bronze serpent which Moses had made, for up to those days the {Israelites} were offering incense to it and called it Nehushtan.

The king of Assyria deported the Israelites to Assyria and put them in Halah and by the Habor, Gozan’s river, and in the cities of the Medes,

He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, according to the detestable things of the nations that Yahweh had driven out from the presence of the {Israelites}.

I will never again cause the feet of the Israelites to wander from the land I gave to their ancestors if only they will be careful to do all I have commanded them—the whole law that My servant Moses commanded them.”

But Manasseh did not listen and tempted them to do evil more than the nations that Yahweh destroyed before the presence of the {Israelites}.

The king said, "Leave it alone! No one must touch his bones." So they left his bones undisturbed, as well as the bones of the Israelite prophet buried beside him.

These [are] the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the {Israelites}: Bela son of Beor, and the name of his city [was] Dinhabah.

And these Israelites, [on the east side of the Jordan River] made war with the Hagrites [a tribe of northern Arabia], Jetur, Naphish, and Nodab.

These Israelites took away their livestock: their 50,000 camels, and 250,000 sheep, and 2,000 donkeys; and 100,000 people.

For a great number fell mortally wounded, because the battle was of God. And these Israelites settled in their territory until the exile [by Assyria more than five centuries later].

So the {Israelites} gave the Levites the cities with their pasturelands.

Zabad his son, Shuthelah his son, and Ezer and Elead were killed by men who were natives of Gath, because they came down to take their livestock.

And the inhabitants that were first in their possessions in their cities were the Israelites, the priests, the Levites, and the Nethinim.