Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread. Those who were hungry are satisfied. Even the barren has borne seven, and she who has many children languishes.

Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

The LORD visited Hannah, and she conceived, and bore three sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew before the LORD.

His daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, was with child, near to be delivered. When she heard the news that the ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and gave birth; for her pains came on her.

About the time of her death the women who stood by her said to her, "Do not be afraid; for you have given birth to a son." But she did not answer, neither did she regard it.

She named the child Ichabod, saying, "The glory has departed from Israel"; because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband.

She said, "The glory has departed from Israel; for the ark of God is taken."

Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, "The LORD helped us until now."

But it happened at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as wife.

Saul said, I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Therefore Saul said to David, "You shall this day be my son-in-law a second time."

When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, "He is sick."

She said to her young men, "Go on before me. Behold, I come after you." But she did not tell her husband, Nabal.

It was so, as she rode on her donkey, and came down by the covert of the mountain, that behold, David and his men came down toward her; and she met them.

When Abigail saw David, she hurried, and got off from her donkey, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground.

She fell at his feet, and said, "On me, my lord, on me be the iniquity; and please let your handmaid speak in your ears. Hear the words of your handmaid.

that this shall be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. When the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your handmaid."

So David received of her hand that which she had brought him: and he said to her, "Go up in peace to your house. Behold, I have listened to your voice, and have granted your request."

Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. Therefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

She arose, and bowed herself with her face to the earth, and said, "Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord."

Abigail hurried, and arose, and rode on a donkey, with five ladies of hers who followed her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.

When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, "Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul."

He said to her, "What does he look like?" She said, "An old man comes up. He is covered with a robe." Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and showed respect.

The woman had a fattened calf in the house. She hurried and killed it; and she took flour, and kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread of it.

She brought it before Saul, and before his servants; and they ate. Then they rose up, and went away that night.

Now Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son who was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the news came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel; and his nurse took him up, and fled: and it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.

It was so, as the ark of the LORD came into the City of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out at the window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.

David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house.

The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, "I am with child."

When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she made lamentation for her husband.

When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.

David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in to her, and lay with her. She bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. The LORD loved him;

Amnon was so troubled that he fell sick because of his sister Tamar; for she was a virgin; and it seemed hard to Amnon to do anything to her.

So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house; and he was laid down. She took dough, and kneaded it, and made cakes in his sight, and baked the cakes.

She took the pan, and poured them out before him; but he refused to eat. Amnon said, "Have all men leave me." Every man went out from him.

Amnon said to Tamar, "Bring the food into the room, that I may eat from your hand." Tamar took the cakes which she had made, and brought them into the room to Amnon her brother.

When she had brought them near to him to eat, he took hold of her, and said to her, "Come, lie with me, my sister."

She answered him, "No, my brother, do not force me. For no such thing ought to be done in Israel. Do not do this folly.

However he would not listen to her voice; but being stronger than she, he forced her, and lay with her.

She said to him, "Not so, because this great wrong in sending me away is worse than the other that you did to me." But he would not listen to her.

She had a garment of various colors on her; for with such robes were the king's daughters who were virgins dressed. Then his servant brought her out, and bolted the door after her.

Tamar put ashes on her head, and tore her garment of various colors that was on her; and she laid her hand on her head, and went her way, crying aloud as she went.

And the woman of Tekoa went to the king, and she fell on her face to the ground, and showed respect, and said, "Help, O king."

The king said to her, "What ails you?" She answered, "Truly I am a widow, and my husband is dead.

Then she said, "Please let the king remember the LORD your God, that the avenger of blood destroy not any more, lest they destroy my son." He said, "As the LORD lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground."

To Absalom there were born three sons, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar. She was a beautiful woman.

But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand. So he struck him with it in the body, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and did not strike him again; and he died. Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri.

He came near to her; and the woman said, "Are you Joab?" He answered, "I am." Then she said to him, "Hear the words of your handmaid." He answered, "I do hear."

Then she spoke, saying, "They were used to say in old times, 'They shall surely ask counsel at Abel;' and so they settled it.

But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.

Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured on them from the sky. She allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night.

The young lady was very beautiful; and she became the king's attendant and served him; but the king did not know her intimately.

And she said to him, "My lord, you swore by the LORD your God to your handmaid, 'Assuredly Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne.'

And behold, while she was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet came in.

Then king David answered, "Summon Bathsheba to me." So she came into the king's presence, and stood before the king.

"Moreover you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, even what he did to the two captains of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war on his sash that was about his waist, and in his shoes that were on his feet.

Then Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. She said, "Do you come peaceably?" He said, "Peaceably.

He said moreover, I have something to tell you." She said, "Say on."

Now I ask one petition of you. Do not deny me." She said to him, "Say on."

Bathsheba therefore went to king Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself to her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a throne to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand.

Then she said, "I ask one small petition of you; do not deny me." The king said to her, "Ask on, my mother; for I will not deny you."

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

The king said to him, "Do as he has said, and fall on him, and bury him; that you may take away the blood, which Joab shed without cause, from me and from my father's house.

This woman's child died in the night, because she lay on it.

She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.

Then the woman whose the living child was spoke to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, "Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill it." But the other said, "It shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide it."

Then the king answered, "Give her the living child, and in no way kill it. She is its mother."

When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions.

She came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bore spices, and very much gold, and precious stones; and when she had come to Solomon, she talked with him of all that was in her heart.

She said to the king, "It was a true report that I heard in my own land of your acts, and of your wisdom.

She gave the king one hundred twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones. There came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.

King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatever she asked, besides that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned, and went to her own land, she and her servants.

The LORD said to Ahijah, "Behold, the wife of Jeroboam comes to inquire of you concerning her son; for he is sick. Thus and thus you shall tell her; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will pretend to be another woman."

It was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, "Come in, you wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another? For I am sent to you with heavy news.

Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah. As she came to the threshold of the house, the child died.

Also Maacah his mother he removed from being queen, because she had made an abominable image for an Asherah; and Asa cut down her image, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.

And as she was going to get it, he called to her, and said, "Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand."

She said, "As the LORD your God lives, I do not have anything baked, except a handful of flour in a jar, and a little oil in a jug. Behold, I am gathering a couple of sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die."

And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah. And she, and he, and her household, ate for a long time.

And she said to Elijah, "What do we have in common, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son."

So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and to the nobles who were in his city, who lived with Naboth.

She wrote in the letters, saying, "Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people.

The men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, according as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them.

Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me: what do you have in the house?" She said, "Your handmaid has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil."

So she went from him, and shut the door on her and on her sons; they brought the containers to her, and she poured out.

It happened, when the containers were full, that she said to her son, "Bring me another container." He said to her, "There isn't another container." The oil stopped flowing.

Then she came and told the man of God. He said, "Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest."

It fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread.

She said to her husband, "See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, that passes by us continually.

He said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this Shunammite." When he had called her, she stood before him.

He said to him, "Say now to her, 'Behold, you have cared for us with all this care. What is to be done for you? Would you like to be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the army?'" She answered, "I dwell among my own people."

He said, "What then is to be done for her?" Gehazi answered, "Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old."

He said, "Call her." When he had called her, she stood in the door.

He said, "At this season, when the time comes around, you will embrace a son." She said, "No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your handmaid."

She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door on him, and went out.

She called to her husband, and said, "Please send me one of the servants, and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God, and come again."

He said, "Why would you want to go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath." She said, "It's alright."

Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, "Drive, and go forward. Do not slow down for me, unless I ask you to."

So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. It happened, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, "Behold, there is the Shunammite.

Please run now to meet her, and ask her, 'Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?'" She answered, "It is well."

When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, "Leave her alone; for her soul is troubled within her; and the LORD has hidden it from me, and has not told me."