because when I was living at Geshur in Aram, your servant made this solemn promise: "If the LORD ever brings me back to Jerusalem, then I will serve the LORD.'"

But Absalom sent agents throughout all of the tribes of Israel, telling them, "When you hear the sound of the battle trumpet, you're to announce that Absalom is king in Hebron."

When David's friend Hushai the Archite approached Absalom, Hushai greeted Absalom, "Long live the king! Long live the king!"

Then I'll bring everybody else back to you. When the man you're looking for is dead, all the rest of the people will return quietly."

When Hushai approached Absalom, Absalom asked him, "Here's what Ahithophel had to advise. Should we do what he says? Or if not, say so!"

When Absalom's servants approached the woman of the house, they asked her, "Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?" "They've already crossed the brook," the woman answered. So Absalom's servants went away in search of Jonathan and Ahimaaz, but they couldn't find them, so they returned to Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, when Ahithophel observed that his counsel was not being acted upon, he saddled his donkey, got up, and left for his hometown. Leaving behind a set of orders for his household, he hanged himself. After his death he was buried in his father's tomb.

When David arrived at Mahanaim, Shobi (Nahash's son from the Ammonite town of Rabbah), Makir (Ammiel's son from Lo-debar), and Barzillai (from Rogelim in Gilead) were already there.

When one of the soldiers saw what had happened, he told Joab, "I saw Absalom stuck in an oak tree!"

So the king got up and took his seat in the gateway. When the army was informed, "The king is sitting in the gateway!" they all gathered together in his presence.

When he arrived from Jerusalem to greet the king, the king asked him, "So why didn't you come with me, Mephibosheth?"

I'm now 80 years old! I can hardly tell the difference between what tastes good or bad! I can't tell what I eat or drink! I can't hear the voice of men and women when they sing! So why should your servant be an added burden to your majesty the king?

When David arrived at his palace in Jerusalem, the king took the ten mistresses whom he had left behind to keep the palace in order and placed them in a separate house, providing for them under the care of a protective guard. He never visited them again, so they were under care until they died, living as if their husbands had died.

But when Amasa went out to muster the army of Judah, he delayed to act within the time allotted to him.

When they arrived at the great stone that is in Gibeon, Amasa came out to meet them. Joab was dressed in a soldier's uniform, over which was a belt that fastened a sword sheath to his thigh. As he walked forward, the sword was exposed.

While Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the highway, everybody who passed by was stopping to stare at him, so when the soldier saw that all of the army was stopping, he carried Amasa off the highway into a nearby field and covered him with a garment.

When David was informed what Rizpah, the daughter of Saul's mistress had done,

David had Saul's bones and the bones of his son Jonathan removed from the custody of certain men from Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square in Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them that is, back on the day when the Philistines had killed Saul on Mount Gilboa.

When he defied Israel, David's brother Shimeah's son Jonathan killed him.

They confronted me when I was in trouble, but the LORD remained my support!

The God of Israel has spoken; the Rock of Israel has talked to me. "When one is governing men justly, he fears God while governing.

Next was Dodai the Ahohite's son Eleazar. Eleazar, who also was one of the Three, was with David when they challenged the Philistines. When the Philistines had assembled in battle array, the Israeli army retreated,

When David saw the angel who had been attacking the people, he told the LORD, "Look, I'm the one who has sinned! I did the evil. These are only sheep! What did they do? Please, let your hand fall on me and on my household!"

When Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his staff approaching him. Araunah went out, bowed down before the king with his face on the ground,

When David had grown very old, they covered him with blankets, but he could not keep warm,

When he had been ushered into the presence of the king, Nathan bowed low in front of the king with his face to the ground and asked, "Your majesty, did you say "Adonijah will be king after me and will sit on my throne'?

Right about then, Adonijah and all of his guests were just finishing their meal when they heard all the noise. "Why is the city in such an uproar?" Joab asked as he heard the trumpet sounds.

So King Solomon sent for him, and he was brought down from the altar. When he had arrived, he fell on his face in front of King Solomon, so Solomon told him, "Go home!"

and so that the LORD may fulfill his promise that he spoke about me when he said, "If your sons pay attention to how they live by walking truthfully in my presence with all their heart and with all their soul, you will never lack a man on the throne of Israel.'

Be gracious to the descendants of Barzillai the Gileadite, and provide for them in your household, because they helped me when I had to run from your brother Absalom.

"Pay attention now! You have with you Gera's son Shimei the descendant of Benjamin from Bahurim. He cursed me violently that day when I had to leave for Mahanaim. When he visited me at the Jordan River, I made an oath to the LORD and told him, "I won't execute you with a sword.'

When Joab learned what had happened, he ran to the LORD's tent and grabbed hold of the horns of the altar, since Joab had supported Adonijah (though he had not supported Absalom).

The next morning, I got up to nurse my son, and he was dead. But when I examined him carefully in the light of day, he turned out not to be my son whom I had borne!"

When this decision that the king had handed down was announced, everybody in Israel was amazed at the king, because they all saw that God's wisdom was in him, enabling him to administer justice.

King Hiram of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he learned that Solomon had been anointed king to replace his father, because Hiram had been David's lifelong friend.

So now I'm planning to build a temple dedicated to the LORD my God, just as the LORD told my father when he said, "Your son, whom I will set on your throne to replace you, will build the Temple dedicated to me.'

That's how he designed the pillars at the portico of the sanctuary. When he set up the right pillar, he named it Jachin. When he set up the left pillar, he named it Boaz.

The wings of the cherubim spread over the resting place for the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering over the ark and its poles when viewed from above.

The ark was empty except for the two stone tablets that Moses had placed there at Horeb when the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelis after they had come out of the land of Egypt.

When the priests left the Holy Place after setting the ark in place, the cloud filled the LORD's Temple

Then Solomon prayed: "Blessed is the LORD God of Israel, who made a commitment to my father David and then personally fulfilled what he had promised when he said:

I have placed there the ark in which the covenant is stored that the LORD made with our ancestors when he brought them out of the land of Egypt."

"Now therefore, LORD God of Israel, keep your promise that you made to my father, your servant David, when you said, "You will not lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants will watch their lives, to live in my presence just as you have lived in my presence.'

"If your people Israel are defeated in a battle with their enemy because they have sinned against you, when they return to you and confess to you, pray, and in this Temple they ask you to show grace to them,

"When heaven remains closed, and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, and they pray in the direction of this place, confessing your name and turning from their sin when you afflict them,

"Now concerning the foreigner who is not from your people Israel, when he comes from a land far away for the sake of your name

(for people will hear of your great name, your mighty acts, and your obvious power), when he comes and prays facing this Temple,

"When your people go out to war against their enemies, no matter what way you send them, and they pray to the LORD in the direction of the city that you have chosen and in the direction of the Temple that I have built for your name,

"When they sin against you because there isn't a single human being who doesn't sin and you become angry with them and deliver them over to their enemy, who takes them away captive to the land that belongs to their enemy, whether near or far away,

because you have separated them to yourself as your heritage from all the people of the earth, as you spoke through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, Lord GOD.

When Solomon had completed saying this entire prayer to the LORD, he got up from kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven in the presence of the LORD's altar,

then I'll make your royal throne secure forever, just as I agreed to do so for your father David when I said, "You are to not lack a man on the throne of Israel.'

When the queen of Sheba heard about Solomon's reputation with the LORD, she came to test him with difficult questions.

When the queen of Sheba had seen all of Solomon's wisdom for herself, the palace that he had built,

During David's military campaign against Edom, when his army commander Joab had gone out to bury the dead, he killed every male in Edom.

after being summoned. When Jeroboam and the entire assembly of Israel arrived, they spoke to Rehoboam,

So Jeroboam and all the people went back to Rehoboam on the third day, just as they had been directed when the king said, "Come back again in three days."

When all of Israel saw that the king wasn't listening to them, the people responded to the king's message, "What's the point in following David? We have no inheritance in the descendants of Jesse. Let's go home, Israel! David, take care of your own household!' So Israel left for home.

Now when all of Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent for him and invited him to visit their assembly, where they installed him as king over all of Israel. Nobody (with the sole exception of the tribe of Judah) would align with David's dynasty.

Right when Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn some incense, a man of God arrived in Bethel from Judah in obedience to a command from the LORD.

Later that same day, he gave them a special display of power of what was to come when he said, "Here's proof that the LORD has decreed this: Look! This altar will be split apart and the ashes that are on it will spill out."

When he heard the man of God curse the altar in Bethel, the king pointed at the man of God from where the king was standing at the altar. "Seize him!" he ordered. But all of a sudden his hand that he had stretched out dried up, and he could not bring it back to his side!

When some men passed by and noticed the body lying in the middle of the road and the lion standing beside the body, they went straight to the city and told what had happened in the city where the old prophet lived.

After he had buried the man of God, he gave these instructions to his children: "When I die, bury me in the same grave in which the man of God is buried. Place my bones beside his,

Meanwhile, the LORD had spoken to Ahijah, "Be on your guard! Jeroboam's wife is coming to ask you about her son, because he is ill. You're to say such and such to her. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else!"

When she arrived, Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came through the doorway. He said this to her:

"Now get up and go home. When your feet cross the city line, your child will die.

All of Israel mourned him at his burial, just as the LORD had said when he spoke through Ahijah the prophet.

Meanwhile, Solomon's son Rehoboam reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city where the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to place his Name. His mother was an Ammonite named Naamah.

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

When Zimri observed that the city had been captured, he retreated into the king's palace, set fire to the citadel, and died when the palace burned down around him

Elijah the foreigner, who was an alien resident from Gilead, told Ahab, "As the LORD God of Israel lives, in whose presence I'm standing, there will be neither dew nor rain these next several years, except when I say so."

So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab, right when the famine in Samaria was most severe.

had taken 100 prophets and had hidden them by fifties in a cave, providing them with food and water when Jezebel was trying to destroy the LORD's prophets.

As soon as I've left you, the Spirit of the LORD will carry you off to I don't know where! Then when I go tell Ahab and he can't find you, he'll kill me, even though I have been your servant and have feared the LORD since I was young!

Hasn't anyone told you, my master, what I did when Jezebel was killing the LORD's prophets? I hid 100 of the LORD's prophets by fifties in a cave and provided food and water for them.

When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab asked him, "Is it really you, you destroyer of Israel?"

When all the people saw what had happened, they fell flat on their faces and cried out "The LORD is God! The LORD is God!"

The LORD replied to him, "Go! Return to Damascus, and when you get there, anoint Hazael as king over Aram,

Sure enough, the advisors to the king of Aram told him, "Their gods are mountain gods. That's why they were stronger than we were. But when we fight them on the plains, we're certain to be the stronger army!

When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she told Ahab, "Get up and confiscate Naboth's vineyard that he refused to sell you for cash. Naboth the Jezreelite isn't alive anymore. He's dead!"

That's when this message from the LORD came to Elijah the foreigner:

When Micaiah approached the king, the king asked him, "Micaiah, should we go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I not?" "Go to war," Micaiah replied, "and you will be successful, because the LORD will hand it over to the king!"

When he heard this, the king asked him, "How many times do I have to make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth? Now do it in the name of the LORD!"

Micaiah replied, "You'll see how when the day comes that you run away to hide yourself in a closet!"

So when the chariot commanders observed Jehoshaphat, they said by mistake, "It's the king of Israel!" and they turned aside to attack him. But Jehoshaphat cried out.

When the chariot commanders saw that their target was not the king of Israel, they stopped pursuing him.

Jehoshaphat was 35 years old when he became king. He reigned 25 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azubah. She was the daughter of Shilhi.

As the time drew near when the LORD was about to take Elijah to heaven in a wind storm, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.

When the Guild of Prophets who lived in Bethel came out to greet Elisha, they asked him, "You are aware, aren't you, that later today the LORD is going to remove your master from being your mentor?" "Of course I'm aware of it," he said. "Calm down."

When they had crossed the Jordan River, Elijah invited Elisha, "Ask me what you want me to do for you before I'm taken away from you." So Elisha asked, "Please, may there be a double portion of your spirit upon me!"

But when the Moabites arrived at the Israeli encampment, the Israelis got up and attacked them. The Moabites ran away from the Israelis, who followed them into the land as they continued their pursuit against Moab.

When the king of Moab realized that the battle was going strongly against him, he took 700 expert swordsmen to attempt to break through to the king of Edom, but was unable to do so.

When the last of the vessels had been filled, she told her son, "Bring me another pot!"

Now then, let's build a small upper room and put a bed in it for him there, along with a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. That way, when he comes to visit, he can rest there."

He told his attendant Gehazi, "Call this Shunammite." So when he had summoned her, she stood in front of him.

When the man of God noticed her from a distance, he told his attendant Gehazi, "Look! There's the woman from Shunem! Please run out quickly and greet her. Ask her, "Are things going well with you? Are things going well with your husband? Are things going well with your child?'" She answered Gehazi, "Things are going well."

As she came near the man of God on the mountain, she grabbed his feet. When Gehazi intervened to push her away, the man of God said, "Leave her alone! She is deeply troubled! The LORD has concealed the thing from me, and hasn't informed me."

Meanwhile, Gehazi went on ahead of them and placed the staff on the youngster's face, but when there was no sound or reaction, he returned, met Elisha, and told him, "The youngster has shown no sign of awakening."

When Elisha entered the house, there was the youngster, dead and laid out on Elisha's bed!