Therefore, I have sworn to Eli’s family: The iniquity of Eli’s family will never be wiped out by either sacrifice or offering.”

So Solomon banished Abiathar from being the Lord’s priest, and it fulfilled the Lord’s prophecy He had spoken at Shiloh against Eli’s family.

This man would go up from his town every year to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts at Shiloh, where Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were the Lord’s priests.

Eli’s daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and about to give birth. When she heard the news about the capture of God’s ark and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband, she collapsed and gave birth because her labor pains came on her.

Eli’s sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord

The boy Samuel served the Lord in Eli’s presence. In those days the word of the Lord was rare and prophetic visions were not widespread.

So the people sent men to Shiloh to bring back the ark of the covenant of the Lord of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

“I didn’t call,” Eli replied. “Go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.

Once again, for the third time, the Lord called Samuel. He got up, went to Eli, and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Then Eli understood that the Lord was calling the boy.

Eli heard the outcry and asked, “Why this commotion?” The man quickly came and reported to Eli.

The man said to Eli, “I’m the one who came from the battle. I fled from there today.”

“What happened, my son?” Eli asked.

When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward off the chair by the city gate, and since he was old and heavy, his neck broke and he died. Eli had judged Israel 40 years.

Hannah got up after they ate and drank at Shiloh. Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s tabernacle.

While she continued praying in the Lord’s presence, Eli watched her lips.

A man of God came to Eli and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Didn’t I reveal Myself to your ancestral house when it was in Egypt and belonged to Pharaoh’s palace?

Samuel lay down until the morning; then he opened the doors of the Lord’s house. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision,

Ahijah, who was wearing an ephod, was also there. He was the son of Ahitub, the brother of Ichabod son of Phinehas, son of Eli the Lord’s priest at Shiloh. But the troops did not know that Jonathan had left.

Eli-zaphan son of Parnach, a leader from the tribe of Zebulun;

Hannah was praying silently, and though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard. Eli thought she was drunk

Eli responded, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant the petition you’ve requested from Him.”

Then they slaughtered the bull and brought the boy to Eli.

Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy served the Lord in the presence of Eli the priest.

Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife: “May the Lord give you children by this woman in place of the one she has given to the Lord.” Then they would go home.

Now Eli was very old. He heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

One day Eli, whose eyesight was failing, was lying in his room.

Once again the Lord called, “Samuel!”

Samuel got up, went to Eli, and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

“I didn’t call, my son,” he replied. “Go back and lie down.”

On that day I will carry out against Eli everything I said about his family, from beginning to end.

but Eli called him and said, “Samuel, my son.”

“Here I am,” answered Samuel.

“What was the message He gave you?” Eli asked. “Don’t hide it from me. May God punish you and do so severely if you hide anything from me that He told you.”

So Samuel told him everything and did not hide anything from him. Eli responded, “He is the Lord. He will do what He thinks is good.”

When he arrived, there was Eli sitting on his chair beside the road watching, because he was anxious about the ark of God. When the man entered the city to give a report, the entire city cried out.

At that time Eli was 98 years old, and his gaze was fixed because he couldn’t see.

The gatekeepers’ descendants included:

Shallum’s descendants, Ater’s descendants, Talmon’s descendants, Akkub’s descendants, Hatita’s descendants, Shobai’s descendants, in all 139

The gatekeepers included:

Shallum’s descendants, Ater’s descendants, Talmon’s descendants, Akkub’s descendants, Hatita’s descendants, Shobai’s descendants 138.

The inheritance of Simeon’s descendants was within the territory of Judah’s descendants, because the share for Judah’s descendants was too large for them. So Simeon’s descendants received an inheritance within Judah’s portion.

Since more leaders were found among Eleazar’s descendants than Ithamar’s, they were divided accordingly: 16 heads of ancestral houses were from Eleazar’s descendants, and eight heads of ancestral houses were from Ithamar’s.

Like a servant’s eyes on his master’s hand,
like a servant girl’s eyes on her mistress’s hand,
so our eyes are on the Lord our God
until He shows us favor.

The descendants of Solomon’s servants included:

Sotai’s descendants, Hassophereth’s descendants, Peruda’s descendants,

Shephatiah’s descendants, Hattil’s descendants, Pochereth-hazzebaim’s descendants, and Ami’s descendants.

Abishua’s son, Phinehas’s son,
Eleazar’s son, Aaron the chief priest’s son

The descendants of Solomon’s servants included:

Sotai’s descendants, Sophereth’s descendants,
Perida’s descendants,

Shephatiah’s descendants, Hattil’s descendants,
Pochereth-hazzebaim’s descendants, Amon’s descendants.

At noon Elijah mocked them. He said, “Shout loudly, for he’s a god! Maybe he’s thinking it over; maybe he has wandered away; or maybe he’s on the road. Perhaps he’s sleeping and will wake up!”

When Joseph saw that his father had placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he thought it was a mistake and took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s.

So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, and then the tents of the two female slaves, but he found nothing. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s.

As for the rest of Levi’s sons:
from Amram’s sons: Shubael;
from Shubael’s sons: Jehdeiah.

All these men were under their own fathers’ authority for the music in the Lord’s temple, with cymbals, harps, and lyres for the service of God’s temple. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the king’s authority.

“Yet the Lord God of Israel chose me out of all my father’s household to be king over Israel forever. For He chose Judah as leader, and from the house of Judah, my father’s household, and from my father’s sons, He was pleased to make me king over all Israel.

They ate and drank with great joy in the Lord’s presence that day.

Then, for a second time, they made David’s son Solomon king; they anointed him as the Lord’s ruler, and Zadok as the priest.

So Solomon finished the Lord’s temple and the royal palace. Everything that had entered Solomon’s heart to do for the Lord’s temple and for his own palace succeeded.

All of Solomon’s work was carried out from the day the foundation was laid for the Lord’s temple until it was finished. So the Lord’s temple was completed.

You must not have sexual intercourse with your mother’s sister or your father’s sister, for it is exposing one’s own blood relative; both people will bear their punishment.

But if the priest’s daughter becomes widowed or divorced, has no children, and returns to her father’s house as in her youth, she may share her father’s food. But no outsider may share it.

Come, let’s drink deeply of lovemaking until morning.
Let’s feast on each other’s love!

In the thirty-sixth year of Asa, Israel’s King Baasha went to war against Judah. He built Ramah in order to deny access to anyone—going or coming—to Judah’s King Asa.

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.

Then the whole assembly made a covenant with the king in God’s temple. Jehoiada said to them, “Here is the king’s son! He must reign, just as the Lord promised concerning David’s sons.

Whenever the chest was brought by the Levites to the king’s overseers, and when they saw that there was a large amount of money, the king’s secretary and the high priest’s deputy came and emptied the chest, picked it up, and returned it to its place. They did this daily and gathered the money in abundance.

Then the king and Jehoiada gave it to those in charge of the labor on the Lord’s temple, who were hiring stonecutters and carpenters to renovate the Lord’s temple, also blacksmiths and coppersmiths to repair the Lord’s temple.

When they finished, they presented the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, who made articles for the Lord’s temple with it—articles for ministry and for making burnt offerings, and ladles and articles of gold and silver. They regularly offered burnt offerings in the Lord’s temple throughout Jehoiada’s life.

For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

They camped at the Lord’s command, and they set out at the Lord’s command. They carried out the Lord’s requirement according to His command through Moses.

The priests went to the entrance of the Lord’s temple to cleanse it. They took all the unclean things they found in the Lord’s sanctuary to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. Then the Levites received them and took them outside to the Kidron Valley.

“What Zelophehad’s daughters say is correct. You are to give them hereditary property among their father’s brothers and transfer their father’s inheritance to them.

Instead, we have renounced shameful secret things, not walking in deceit or distorting God’s message, but commending ourselves to every person’s conscience in God’s sight by an open display of the truth.

Pahath-moab’s descendants: Jeshua’s and Joab’s descendants 2,812

Kiriatharim’s, Chephirah’s, and Beeroth’s people743

Lod’s, Hadid’s, and Ono’s people725

The Levites included:

Jeshua’s and Kadmiel’s descendants from Hodaviah’s descendants 74

The temple servants included:

Ziha’s descendants, Hasupha’s descendants,
Tabbaoth’s descendants,

Keros’s descendants,
Siaha’s descendants, Padon’s descendants,

Lebanah’s descendants, Hagabah’s descendants,
Akkub’s descendants,

Hagab’s descendants,
Shalmai’s descendants, Hanan’s descendants,

Giddel’s descendants, Gahar’s descendants,
Reaiah’s descendants,

Rezin’s descendants,
Nekoda’s descendants, Gazzam’s descendants,

Uzza’s descendants, Paseah’s descendants,
Besai’s descendants,

Asnah’s descendants,
Meunim’s descendants, Nephusim’s descendants,

Bakbuk’s descendants, Hakupha’s descendants,
Harhur’s descendants,

Bazluth’s descendants,
Mehida’s descendants, Harsha’s descendants,

Barkos’s descendants, Sisera’s descendants,
Temah’s descendants,

Jaalah’s descendants, Darkon’s descendants, Giddel’s descendants,

Delaiah’s descendants, Tobiah’s descendants, Nekoda’s descendants 652

After these events, during the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, Ezra—

Seraiah’s son, Azariah’s son,
Hilkiah’s son,

Shallum’s son,
Zadok’s son, Ahitub’s son,

Amariah’s son, Azariah’s son,
Meraioth’s son,

Zerahiah’s son,
Uzzi’s son, Bukki’s son,

Gershom, from Phinehas’s descendants;
Daniel, from Ithamar’s descendants;
Hattush, from David’s descendants,

I am going to make the sun’s shadow that goes down on Ahaz’s stairway go back by 10 steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back the 10 steps it had descended.

Pahath-moab’s descendants: Jeshua’s and Joab’s descendants 2,818

Kiriath-jearim’s, Chephirah’s, and Beeroth’s men743

Lod’s, Hadid’s, and Ono’s people721

The temple servants included:

Ziha’s descendants, Hasupha’s descendants,
Tabbaoth’s descendants,

Keros’s descendants,
Sia’s descendants, Padon’s descendants,

Lebanah’s descendants, Hagabah’s descendants,
Shalmai’s descendants,

Hanan’s descendants,
Giddel’s descendants, Gahar’s descendants,

Reaiah’s descendants, Rezin’s descendants,
Nekoda’s descendants,

Gazzam’s descendants,
Uzza’s descendants, Paseah’s descendants,

Besai’s descendants, Meunim’s descendants,
Nephishesim’s descendants,

Bakbuk’s descendants,
Hakupha’s descendants, Harhur’s descendants,