'From the day that I brought out my people Israel from Egypt I have not chosen a city from all the tribes of Israel to build a house where my name might be, but I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.'

Yahweh has carried out his promise which he had made; I have risen in place of David my father, and I sit on the throne of Israel as Yahweh promised, and I have built the house for the name of Yahweh the God of Israel.

I have provided a place there for the ark, in which is the covenant which Yahweh made with our ancestors when He brought them out of the land of Egypt."

You have kept for your servant David my father what you promised to him, and you have spoken with your mouth, and with your hand you have fulfilled [it] this very day.

So then, O Yahweh, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you promised to him, saying, 'For you, no man will be cut off from before me who [will be] sitting on the throne of Israel, if only your sons keep their ways to walk before me just as you have walked before me.'

So then, O God of Israel, please let your word be confirmed which you have promised to your servant David my father.

For will God really dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens could not contain you! {How could} this house that I have built?

When you shut up the heavens so there is no rain because they have sinned against you, then they pray to this place and they confess your name and they return from their sin because you punished them,

then you shall hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, for you will teach them the good way in which they should go, and you will give rain upon your land which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

you shall hear in heaven, the place of your dwelling, and act according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you as your people Israel, and to know that your name has been invoked over this house that I have built.

If your people go out to battle against his enemy in the way that you shall send them and they pray to Yahweh, toward the city which you have chosen and the house which I have built for your name,

and then they return their heart in the land where they have been taken captive and they return and plead to you in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned and we did wrong. We acted wickedly,'

if they return to you with all of their heart and with all of their soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive and they pray to you toward their land which you gave to their ancestors, the city that you have chosen and the house that you built for your name,

You shall forgive your people who sinned against you, [even] for all their transgressions which they committed against you. You shall give them compassion before their captors so that they may have compassion on them,

For you have separated them for yourself as an inheritance from all the peoples of the earth, as you promised through the hand of Moses your servant when you brought out our ancestors from Egypt, my Lord Yahweh!"

Yahweh said to him, "I have heard your prayer and your plea which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house which you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

As for you, if you walk before me as David your father walked, with {integrity of heart} and with uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, [and if] you keep my ordinances and my judgments,

"If ever you or any of your descendants turn from [following] me and do not keep my commandments [and] my ordinances that I have set before you and you go and serve other gods and bow down to them,

then I will cut Israel off from the face of the land that I have given to them, [even] the house which I have consecrated for my name I will cast away from my face; and Israel shall become a proverb and an object of taunting among all the peoples.

And they will say, 'Because they have forsaken Yahweh their God who brought their ancestors out from the land of Egypt and they embraced other gods and bowed down to them and served them. Therefore, Yahweh brought on them all of this disaster.'"

So he said, "What [are] these cities that you have given to me, my brother?" {So they are called the land of Cabul until this day}.

So Yahweh said to Solomon, "Because this was with you, and you did not keep my covenant and my ordinances which I have commanded you, I will certainly tear the kingdom from you, and I will give it to your servant.

Yet all of the kingdom I will not tear [away]. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen."

but one tribe shall be for him, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel;

To his son I will give one tribe in order to be a lamp for my servant David, always before my face, in Jerusalem the city in which I have chosen to place my name.

When all of Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, "{What share do we have in David}? [There is] no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel! Now look to your house, David!" Then Israel went to their tents.

And the king had decided, so he made two golden calves and he said to them, "{You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough}; here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."

He proclaimed to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Because you have disobeyed the word of Yahweh and have not kept the command which Yahweh your God commanded you,

but you have returned and have eaten food and drank water in the place which he ordered you not to eat food nor to drink water, then your dead body shall not return to the tomb of your ancestors.'"

It happened at the moment Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps coming through the doorway, he said, "Come [in], wife of Jeroboam. Why [are] you making yourself unrecognizable? I have been sent a hard [message] for you:

But you did more evil than all who were before you. You have gone and made for yourself other gods and molten idols to provoke me, but me you have {completely disregarded}.

Yahweh will strike Israel as one shakes the reed plant in the water, and he will root Israel up from this good land that he gave to their ancestors. He will scatter them beyond the River because they have made their sacred poles [which are] provoking Yahweh.

"[Let there be] a covenant between me and you, between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel that he may go up [away] from me."

"Because I exalted you from the dust and I made you a leader over my people Israel, but you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and you caused my people Israel to sin, to provoke me with their sins,

It shall be that you shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the crows to sustain you there."

"Get up and go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon and stay there. Look, I have commanded a woman there, a widow, to sustain you."

She said, "{As Yahweh your God lives}, surely I do not have a cake, {but only a handful of flour} in the jar and a little olive oil in the jug. Here I [am] gathering a few pieces of wood, and I will go and prepare it for me and my son, that we might eat it and die."

She said to Elijah, "{What do you have against me}, O man of God, [that] you have come to me to make known my guilt and to cause my son to die?"

He said, "How have I sinned that you [are] giving your servant into the hand of Ahab to kill me?

He said, "I did not throw Israel into confusion; rather you and the house of your father [have] by forsaking the commands of Yahweh when you went after the Baals!

With them, he built an altar in the name of Yahweh, and he made a trench {which would have held} about two seahs of seed, all around the altar.

It happened at the offering of the [evening] oblation, Elijah the prophet went near, and he said, "O Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel; let it be known today that you [are] God in Israel and [that] I [am] your servant and [that] I have done all of these things by your words.

Answer me, O Yahweh, answer me; that this people may know that you, O Yahweh, [are] God and that you have turned their hearts back again."

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!"

I will leave in Israel seven thousand, all of the knees that have not bowed down to Baal and all of the mouths that have not kissed him."

Then he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, "Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will go after you." Then he said, "Go, return, for what I have done to you?"

Suddenly a certain prophet approached Ahab king of Israel and said, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Have you seen all this great crowd? Behold, I [am] giving it into your hand today, that you may know that I [am] Yahweh.'"

Then the servants of the commanders of the provinces went out first, and Ben-Hadad sent, and they reported to him, saying, "Men have come out from Samaria."

Then he said, "If they have come out for peace, seize them alive; and if they have come out for war, seize them alive."

You must muster an army for yourself as the army {you have lost}, and horses and chariots as the horses and chariots [you lost], then we will fight them in the plain. Surely we will be stronger than they." So he listened to their voice and did so.

Then his servants said to him, "Please now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are kings of mercy. Let us now put sackcloth on around our waists and ropes on our heads. Then let us go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps {he will let you live}."

He said to him, "Because you have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh, look, as you now are going from me, a lion will kill you." When he went from beside him, the lion found him and killed him.

He said to him, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Because you have let the man I devoted for destruction go from [your] hand, your life shall be in place of his life and your people in place of his people.'"

You shall say to him, 'Thus says Yahweh: "Have you committed murder and also taken possession?" ' You shall also say to him, 'Thus says Yahweh: "In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs will also lick your blood." '"

Then Ahab said to Elijah, "Have you found me, my enemy?" He said, "I have found you because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of Yahweh.

I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, {because you made me angry} and have caused Israel to sin.'

"Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring disaster in his days. I will bring the disaster on his house in the days of his son."

Therefore, thus says Yahweh, 'The bed upon which you have gone, you will not come down from it, but you shall surely die.'" So Elijah went.

When the messengers returned to him, he asked them, "Why have you returned?"

Then they said to him, "A man came up to meet us, and he said to us, 'Go, return to the king who sent you and speak to him, "Thus says Yahweh, 'Is it because there is no God in Israel that you [are] sending to inquire of Baal-Zebub the god of Ekron? Therefore the bed upon which you have gone, you will not come down from it, for you will surely die.'" '"

and he said to him, "Thus says Yahweh, 'Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron--is it because there is no God in Israel [from whom] to inquire his word?--therefore the bed upon which you went, you shall not come down from it, for you shall surely die.'"

Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, "{What do we have in common}? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother." Then the king of Israel said to him, "No, for Yahweh has called for these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab."

Then Elisha said, "{As Yahweh of hosts lives}, before whom I stand, surely if I was not {regarding the face} of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would have not looked at you nor even glanced at you.

Then they said, "This [is] blood! Certainly the kings have fought one another, and each has killed his neighbor. Now, to the war booty, O Moab!"

Elisha asked her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" Then she said, "Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of olive oil."

Then his servant said, "How can I set this before a hundred men?" He said, "Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus Yahweh says, 'They shall eat and have some left over.'"

So he brought the letter of the king to Israel, saying, "Now, when this letter comes to you, I have just sent Naaman my servant to you that you may cure him from his skin disease."

But his servants came near and spoke to him and said, "My father, [if] the prophet had spoken a difficult thing to you to do, would you not have done [it]? [Why not] even when he says to you, 'Wash and you shall be clean'?"

When he went and stood by his master, Elisha asked him, "From where have you come, Gehazi?" And he said, "Your servant has not gone {anywhere}."

The king got up in the night and said to his servants, "Please let me tell you what [the] Arameans have done to us. [The] Arameans know that we [are] hungry, so they went out from the camp to hide in the field, saying, 'When they go out from the city, we shall seize them alive and go into the city.'"

Then one of his servants replied and said, "Please let them take five of the remaining horses which remain in [the city]; behold, they [are] like all of the multitude of Israel that remain in it; they are like all the multitude of Israel who have perished. Let us send and see."

He came, and look, the commanders of the army [were] sitting [there]. He said, "I have a word for you, O commander!" Jehu said, "For whom? For all of us?" And he said, "For you, O commander!"

So the rider of the horse went out to meet him, and he said, "Thus the king asks, 'Is it peace?'" Then Jehu said, "{What do you have to do with peace}? Turn after me." Then the watchman reported, saying, "The messenger went up to them, but he did not return."

Then he sent out a second horseman, and he came to them and said, "Thus the king asks, 'Is it peace?'" Then Jehu said, "{What do you have to do with peace}? Turn after me."

Then the messenger came and told him, saying, "They have brought the heads of the king's sons," and he said, "Put them [in] two piles [at] the entrance of the gate until morning."

So then, summon to me all of the prophets of Baal and all of his servants and his priests; no man should fail to come, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come shall not live!" Now Jehu was acting with cunning in order to destroy the servants of Baal.

Yahweh said to Jehu, "Because you have done well by doing right in my eyes and you have done to the house of Ahab according to all that [was] in my heart; [therefore,] sons of the fourth generation will sit for you on the throne of Israel."

They did not [have to] settle accounts with the men into whose hands they placed the money to give to the workers, for they [were] dealing honestly.

[Yet] the man of God became angry against him and said, "For striking five or six times, then you would have defeated Aram until finishing [them], but now you will defeat Aram [only] three times."

You have indeed defeated Edom and your heart is lifted up; enjoy the honor and stay home. Why should you provoke trouble so that you fall and Judah with you?"

At that time, Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram and drove out the Judeans from Elath. The Arameans came to Elath and have lived there until this day.

The covenant that I have {made} with you, you shall not forget, and you shall not fear other gods.

So Hezekiah king of Judah sent [word] to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong. Withdraw from me. What you impose on me I will bear." So the king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

You think only a word of lips, '[I have] advice and power for the war.' Now, on whom do you trust that you have rebelled against me?

Have I now come up against this place without Yahweh to destroy it? Yahweh has said to me, 'Go up against this land and destroy it!'" '"

Who among all of the gods of the countries have rescued their countries from my hand that Yahweh should rescue Jerusalem from my hand?'"

and Isaiah said to them, "Thus you must say to your master, 'Thus says Yahweh, "You must not be afraid because the face of the words which you have heard, [with] which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me.

Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, by utterly destroying them, and shall you be delivered?

Then Hezekiah prayed before the face of Yahweh and said, "O Yahweh, God of Israel who lives [above] the cherubim. You [are] God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the world; you have made the heavens and the earth.

Truly, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have utterly destroyed the nations and their land.

Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, 'What you have prayed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.

Whom have you mocked and reviled? And against whom have you have raised [your] voice and have haughtily lifted your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!

By the hand of your messengers you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, 'With my many chariots I have gone up [to] the height of the mountains. [To] the remote areas of Lebanon, I have felled the tallest of its cedars, the choicest of its cypresses. I have entered the place of overnight lodging. Even [to] the edge of forest of its fertile land.

Have you not heard? From long ago I have determined it, from the days of old I have planned it, and now I am bringing it to pass. It shall be turned into a pile of rocks; fortified cities are ruined.

Their inhabitants, short of hand, shall be dismayed; and they shall be ashamed. They have become green plants of the open field, and tender grass, green grass of the roof and blight before the standing grain.

Because you are raging against me, and your arrogance has come up in my ears, I will put my nose ring in your nose and my bridle in your mouth. And I will turn you back on the way that you have come.

"O Yahweh, please remember how I went about before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and [remember] the good that I have done in your eyes." Then Hezekiah {wept bitterly}.

"Return; you must say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people, 'Thus says Yahweh the God of David your ancestor, "I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. Look, I [am about to] heal you. On the third day you shall go up [to] the temple of Yahweh.

Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, "What did these men say, and from where have they come to you?" Hezekiah said, "From a far land; they have come from Babylon."