His servants advised him, "A young virgin must be found for our master, the king, to take care of the king's needs and serve as his nurse. She can also sleep with you and keep our master, the king, warm."

Now Adonijah, son of David and Haggith, was promoting himself, boasting, "I will be king!" He managed to acquire chariots and horsemen, as well as fifty men to serve as his royal guard.

Adonijah sacrificed sheep, cattle, and fattened steers at the Stone of Zoheleth near En Rogel. He invited all his brothers, the king's sons, as well as all the men of Judah, the king's servants.

Now let me give you some advice as to how you can save your life and your son Solomon's life.

The king swore an oath: "As certainly as the Lord lives (he who has rescued me from every danger),

Then follow him up as he comes and sits on my throne. He will be king in my place; I have decreed that he will be ruler over Israel and Judah."

As the Lord is with my master the king, so may he be with Solomon, and may he make him an even greater king than my master King David!"

Now Adonijah and all his guests heard the commotion just as they had finished eating. When Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he asked, "Why is there such a noisy commotion in the city?"

As he was still speaking, Jonathan son of Abiathar the priest arrived. Adonijah said, "Come in, for an important man like you must be bringing good news."

Do the job the Lord your God has assigned you by following his instructions and obeying his rules, commandments, regulations, and laws as written in the law of Moses. Then you will succeed in all you do and seek to accomplish,

"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.

But now don't treat him as if he were innocent. You are a wise man and you know how to handle him; make sure he has a bloody death."

Now I'd like to ask you for just one thing. Please don't refuse me." She said, "Go ahead and ask."

He said, "Please ask King Solomon if he would give me Abishag the Shunammite as a wife, for he won't refuse you."

She said, "I would like to ask you for just one small favor. Please don't refuse me." He said, "Go ahead and ask, my mother, for I would not refuse you."

She said, "Allow Abishag the Shunammite to be given to your brother Adonijah as a wife."

Now, as certainly as the Lord lives (he who made me secure, allowed me to sit on my father David's throne, and established a dynasty for me as he promised), Adonijah will be executed today!"

Solomon dismissed Abiathar from his position as priest of the Lord, fulfilling the decree of judgment the Lord made in Shiloh against the family of Eli.

The king told him, "Do as he said! Strike him down and bury him. Take away from me and from my father's family the guilt of Joab's murderous, bloody deeds.

Shimei said to the king, "My master the king's proposal is acceptable. Your servant will do as you say." So Shimei lived in Jerusalem for a long time.

Solomon replied, "You demonstrated great loyalty to your servant, my father David, as he served you faithfully, properly, and sincerely. You have maintained this great loyalty to this day by allowing his son to sit on his throne.

If you follow my instructions by obeying my rules and regulations, just as your father David did, then I will grant you long life."

Baana son of Ahilud was in charge of Taanach and Megiddo, as well as all of Beth Shan next to Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth Shan to Abel Meholah and on past Jokmeam.

Ben-Geber was in charge of Ramoth Gilead; he controlled the tent villages of Jair son of Manasseh in Gilead, as well as the region of Argob in Bashan, including sixty large walled cities with bronze bars locking their gates.

The people of Judah and Israel were as innumerable as the sand on the seashore; they had plenty to eat and drink and were happy.

Solomon ruled all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These kingdoms paid tribute as Solomon's subjects throughout his lifetime.

God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment; the breadth of his understanding was as infinite as the sand on the seashore.

So I have decided to build a temple to honor the Lord my God, as the Lord instructed my father David, 'Your son, whom I will put on your throne in your place, is the one who will build a temple to honor me.'

and Solomon supplied Hiram annually with 20,000 cors of wheat as provision for his royal court, as well as 20,000 baths of pure olive oil.

So the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he had promised him. And Hiram and Solomon were at peace and made a treaty.

As the temple was being built, only stones shaped at the quarry were used; the sound of hammers, pickaxes, or any other iron tool was not heard at the temple while it was being built.

"As for this temple you are building, if you follow my rules, observe my regulations, and obey all my commandments, I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father David.

He built a wall 30 feet in from the rear of the temple as a partition for an inner sanctuary that would be the most holy place. He paneled the wall with cedar planks from the floor to the rafters.

The inner sanctuary was 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 30 feet high. He plated it with gold, as well as the cedar altar.

He plated the entire inside of the temple with gold, as well as the altar inside the inner sanctuary.

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

The Lord has kept the promise he made. I have taken my father David's place and have occupied the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised. I have built this temple for the honor of the Lord God of Israel

Now, O Lord, God of Israel, keep the promise you made to your servant, my father David, when you said, 'You will never fail to have a successor ruling before me on the throne of Israel, provided that your descendants watch their step and serve me as you have done.'

When all your people Israel pray and ask for help, as they acknowledge their pain and spread out their hands toward this temple,

Then they will obey you throughout their lifetimes as they live on the land you gave to our ancestors.

"The time will come when your people will sin against you (for there is no one who is sinless!) and you will be angry with them and deliver them over to their enemies, who will take them as prisoners to their own land, whether far away or close by.

After all, you picked them out of all the nations of the earth to be your special possession, just as you, O sovereign Lord, announced through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt."

"The Lord is worthy of praise because he has made Israel his people secure just as he promised! Not one of all the faithful promises he made through his servant Moses is left unfulfilled!

May the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our ancestors. May he not abandon us or leave us.

May the Lord our God be constantly aware of these requests of mine I have presented to him, so that he might vindicate his servant and his people Israel as the need arises.

May you demonstrate wholehearted devotion to the Lord our God by following his rules and obeying his commandments, as you are presently doing."

Solomon offered as peace offerings to the Lord 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. Then the king and all the Israelites dedicated the Lord's temple.

You must serve me with integrity and sincerity, just as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations.

Then I will allow your dynasty to rule over Israel permanently, just as I promised your father David, 'You will not fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.'

(Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer. He burned it and killed the Canaanites who lived in the city. He gave it as a wedding present to his daughter, who had married Solomon.)

Solomon did not assign Israelites to these work crews; the Israelites served as his soldiers, attendants, officers, charioteers, and commanders of his chariot forces.

Solomon built the terrace as soon as Pharaoh's daughter moved up from the city of David to the palace Solomon built for her.

The king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones; cedar was as plentiful as sycamore fig trees are in the lowlands.

When Solomon became old, his wives shifted his allegiance to other gods; he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God, as his father David had been.

Pharaoh liked Hadad so well he gave him his sister-in-law (Queen Tahpenes' sister) as a wife.

I will leave his son one tribe so my servant David's dynasty may continue to serve me in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen as my home.

You must obey all I command you to do, follow my instructions, do what I approve, and keep my rules and commandments, like my servant David did. Then I will be with you and establish for you a lasting dynasty, as I did for David; I will give you Israel.

Then Solomon passed away and was buried in the city of his father David. His son Rehoboam replaced him as king.

"Your father made us work too hard. Now if you lighten the demands he made and don't make us work as hard, we will serve you."

Jeroboam and all the people reported to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had ordered when he said, "Return to me on the third day."

"Say this to King Rehoboam son of Solomon of Judah, and to all Judah and Benjamin, as well as the rest of the people,

The Lord says this: "Do not attack and make war with your brothers, the Israelites. Each of you go home, for I have caused this to happen."'" They obeyed the Lord and went home as the Lord had ordered them to do.

He built temples on the high places and appointed as priests people who were not Levites.

Just then a prophet from Judah, sent by the Lord, arrived in Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing near the altar ready to offer a sacrifice.

As the prophet from Judah was traveling, a lion attacked him on the road and killed him. His corpse was lying on the road, and the donkey and the lion just stood there beside it.

When the old prophet who had invited him to his house heard the news, he said, "It is the prophet who rebelled against the Lord. The Lord delivered him over to the lion and it ripped him up and killed him, just as the Lord warned him."

After this happened, Jeroboam still did not change his evil ways; he continued to appoint common people as priests at the high places. Anyone who wanted the job he consecrated as a priest.

Jeroboam's wife did as she was told. She went to Shiloh and visited Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see; he had lost his eyesight in his old age.

When Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she came through the door, he said, "Come on in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you pretending to be someone else? I have been commissioned to give you bad news.

So I am ready to bring disaster on the dynasty of Jeroboam. I will cut off every last male belonging to Jeroboam in Israel, including even the weak and incapacitated. I will burn up the dynasty of Jeroboam, just as one burns manure until it is completely consumed.

"As for you, get up and go home. When you set foot in the city, the boy will die.

So Jeroboam's wife got up and went back to Tirzah. As she crossed the threshold of the house, the boy died.

All Israel buried him and mourned for him, just as the Lord had predicted through his servant the prophet Ahijah.

Jeroboam ruled for twenty-two years; then he passed away. His son Nadab replaced him as king.

There were also male cultic prostitutes in the land. They committed the same horrible sins as the nations that the Lord had driven out from before the Israelites.

Rehoboam passed away and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David. His mother was an Ammonite named Naamah. His son Abijah replaced him as king.

He followed all the sinful practices of his father before him. He was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God, as his ancestor David had been.

Abijah passed away and was buried in the city of David. His son Asa replaced him as king.

In the twentieth year of Jeroboam's reign over Israel, Asa became the king of Judah.

Asa did what the Lord approved like his ancestor David had done.

He also removed Maacah his grandmother from her position as queen because she had made a loathsome Asherah pole. Asa cut down her Asherah pole and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

The high places were not eliminated, yet Asa was wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord throughout his lifetime.

Now Asa and King Baasha of Israel were continually at war with each other.

King Baasha of Israel attacked Judah and established Ramah as a military outpost to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the land of King Asa of Judah.

Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the Lord's temple and of the royal palace and handed it to his servants. He then told them to deliver it to Ben Hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, ruler in Damascus, along with this message:

"I want to make a treaty with you, like the one our fathers made. See, I have sent you silver and gold as a present. Break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel, so he will retreat from my land."

Ben Hadad accepted King Asa's offer and ordered his army commanders to attack the cities of Israel. They conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maacah, and all the territory of Naphtali, including the region of Kinnereth.

King Asa ordered all the men of Judah (no exemptions were granted) to carry away the stones and wood that Baasha had used to build Ramah. King Asa used the materials to build up Geba (in Benjamin) and Mizpah.

The rest of the events of Asa's reign, including all his successes and accomplishments, as well as a record of the cities he built, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. Yet when he was very old he developed a foot disease.

Asa passed away and was buried with his ancestors in the city of his ancestor David. His son Jehoshaphat replaced him as king.

In the second year of Asa's reign over Judah, Jeroboam's son Nadab became the king of Israel; he ruled Israel for two years.

Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa's reign over Judah and replaced him as king.

When he became king, he executed Jeroboam's entire family. He wiped out everyone who breathed, just as the Lord had predicted through his servant Ahijah the Shilonite.

Asa and King Nadab of Israel were continually at war with each other.

In the third year of Asa's reign over Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king over all Israel in Tirzah; he ruled for twenty-four years.

Baasha passed away and was buried in Tirzah. His son Elah replaced him as king.

In the twenty-sixth year of King Asa's reign over Judah, Baasha's son Elah became king over Israel; he ruled in Tirzah for two years.

Zimri came in and struck him dead. (This happened in the twenty-seventh year of Asa's reign over Judah.) Zimri replaced Elah as king.

Zimri destroyed Baasha's entire family, just as the Lord had predicted to Baasha through Jehu the prophet.

In the twenty-seventh year of Asa's reign over Judah, Zimri became king over Israel; he ruled for seven days in Tirzah. Zimri's revolt took place while the army was deployed in Gibbethon, which was in Philistine territory.