Then Jezebel his wife came to him, and she said to him, "What is this, that your spirit is sullen and you are not eating food?"

So she wrote letters in the name of Ahab and sealed them with his seal. She sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who [were] dwelling with Naboth in his city.

She had written in the letters, saying, "Call a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people.

The men of his city and the elders and nobles who were living in his city did according to what Jezebel had sent to them, as [was] written in the letters which she had sent to them.

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."

So she went from him, and she shut the door behind her and her children. They [were] bringing [containers] to her, and she [kept] pouring.

It happened that when the containers were full, she said to her son, "Bring near me another container," but he said to her, "There is not another container." Then the olive oil stopped flowing.

So she came and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell the olive oil and repay your debt. You and your sons can live on what is left over."

It happened one day that Elisha passed through to Shunem where there [was] a wealthy woman, and she urged him to eat bread; so it happened each time he passed through, he would stop there to eat.

She said to her husband, "Please now, I know that he [is] a holy man of God who is passing {our way} regularly;

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

He said to him, "Please say to her, 'Look, you took all this trouble, showing care for us; what is there [for me] to do for you? To speak for you to the king or to the commander of the army?'" She said, "I [am] living among my people."

Then he said, "What may be done for her?" Gehazi said, "Well, she has no son, and her husband is old."

And he said, "Call for her," so he called for her and she stood in the doorway.

And he said, "At this time {next spring}, you [will be] embracing a son." She said, "No, my lord, man of God! You must not tell a lie to your servant!"

But the woman conceived, and she bore a son {in the spring}, which Elisha had promised to her.

She went up, laid him on the bed of the man of God, closed [the door], and went out behind it.

She called to her husband and said, "Please send one of the servants and one of the female donkeys for me, so that I can go quickly up to the man of God and return."

And he said, "Why are you going to him today? [It is] neither the new moon nor the Sabbath!" And she said, "Peace."

She saddled the female donkey, and she said to her servant, "Drive along and go; you must not hold me back from riding, unless I tell you."

So she went and came to the man of God by Mount Carmel. It happened when the man of God saw her {at a distance}, he said to Gehazi his servant, "There is this Shunammite.

Now, please run to meet her and ask her, 'Is it peace for you? Is it peace for your husband? Is it peace for the boy?'" She said, "Peace."

So she came to the man of God at the mountain, and she caught hold of his feet. Then Gehazi came near to push her away, but the man of God said, "Let her alone, for her soul is bitter, and Yahweh has hidden it from me and has not told me."

Then she said, "Did I ask for a son from my lord? Did I not say that you must not mislead me?"

[Elisha] called to Gehazi and said, "Call this Shunammite." So he called her and she came to him; then he said, "Pick up your son."

She came and fell at his feet and bowed down to the ground; then she picked up her son and went out.

When the Arameans went [on] a raid, they brought back a young girl from the land of Israel, and {she came into the service of} the wife of Naaman.

She said to her mistress, "If only my lord would [come] before the prophet who [is] in Samaria; then {he would cure his skin disease}."

So we cooked my son and ate him, and I said to her the next day, 'Give your son that we may eat him.' But she had hidden her son."

So the woman got up and did according to the word of the man of God. She and her household went and dwelt as an alien in the land of [the] Philistines for seven years.

So the king asked the woman, and she told him. So the king appointed for her a certain court official, saying, "Restore all that [is] hers and all the yield of the field from [the] day she left the land up to now."

When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard [of it], so she painted her eyes with black eye paint and adorned her head and looked through the window.

Now Jehu had come in the gate, so she said, "[Is it] peace, O Zimri, murderer of his master?"

Then he came and ate and drank, and said, "Please take care of this cursed one and bury her, for she is the daughter of a king."

Now Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, so she prepared to destroy all of the offspring of the royal family.

But Jehosheba the daughter of King Joram and sister of Ahaziah took Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, and she stole him from among the sons of the king who were being put to death, [putting] him and his nurse in the inner bedroom. So they hid him from the presence of Athaliah, and he was not killed.

When Athaliah heard the sound of the runners of the people, she came to the people at the temple of Yahweh.

She looked, and there was the king standing by the pillar according to the custom. The commanders and the trumpeters [were] by the king, and all of the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing on the trumpets. Athaliah tore her clothes and she called, "Treason, treason!"

So {they grabbed her} as she went [by] the entranceway of the horses to the palace of the king, and she was killed there.

This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: She despises you, she scorns you, the virgin daughter of Zion. Behind you the daughter of Jerusalem shakes [her] head.

Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he filled Jerusalem {from one end to another}, apart from his sin which he caused Judah to sin by doing evil in the eyes of Yahweh.

So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah the son of Harhas, the keeper of the robes. Now she [was] living in Jerusalem in the second district. Then they spoke to her,

and she said to them, "Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, 'Say to the man who sent you to me,

Also, [for] the blood of the innocent that he had shed--and he filled Jerusalem [with] innocent blood--Yahweh was not willing to forgive.

Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech.

Shem, Arphaxad, Shelah;

And the sons of Keturah, Abraham's concubine: she gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. And the sons of Jokshan: Sheba and Dedan.

And when Azubah died, Caleb married Ephrathah, and she bore Hur to him.

And afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Makir the father of Gilead. And he married her when he was sixty years old. And she bore Segub to him.

And Jerahmeel had another wife, and her name [was] Atarah. She [was] the mother of Onam.

And the name of the wife of Abishur [was] Abihail, and she bore to him Ahban and Molid.

So Sheshan gave his daughter to Jarha his slave for a wife, and she bore to him Attai.

She also gave birth to Shaaph the father of Madmannah, Sheva the father of Machbenah and the father of Gibea; and the daughter of Caleb [was] Acsah.

The sons of Ezrah: Jether, Mered, Epher, and Jalon. And she became pregnant with Miriam, Shammai, and Ishbah, the father of Eshtemoa.

The sons of Manasseh: Asriel, whom his Aramean concubine bore; she gave birth to Makir the father of Gilead.

And Maacah the wife of Machir gave birth to a son, and she called his name Peresh. And the name of his brother [was] Sheresh, and his sons [were] Ulam and Rekem.

And Ephraim went in to his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And he called his name Beriah because disaster [had been] upon his house.

And his daughter [was] Sheerah, and she built Lower and Upper Beth-Horon and Uzzen-Sheerah.

And when the ark of the covenant of Yahweh came into the city of David, then Michal the daughter of Saul looked down from the window and saw the king, David, leaping and dancing. And she despised him in her heart.

but it happened [that] the word of Yahweh [came] over me, saying, 'You have shed much blood and have made much war; you shall not build a house for my name because you have shed much blood upon the ground before me.

But God said to me, 'You may not build a house for my name because you [are] a man of war, and you have shed blood.'

Now the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, and she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with hard questions, with much wealth and camels, bearing spices and much gold and precious stones. And she came to Solomon and told him all that [was] {on her mind}.

And she said to the king, "The word which I heard in my land concerning your words and your wisdom [is] true,

And she gave to the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold and a very great amount of spices and precious stones. And there were no spices such as those that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

Now King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba every desired thing she asked, besides what she had brought to the king. Then she turned and went to her land, she and her servants.

And she bore to him sons: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.

And also Maacah, the mother of Asa, the king removed her from [being] queen, because she had made a repulsive image for Asherah. And Asa cut down her repulsive image, and he crushed and burned [it] at the Wadi Kidron.

Now [when] Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son [was] dead, she arose and murdered all the {royal descendants} of the house of Judah.

But Jehosheba the daughter of the king took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and kidnapped him away from the sons of the king who were to be put to death. And she put him and his nurse in a private bedroom. So Jehosheba the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, because she was a sister of Ahaziah, hid him from before Athaliah so that she did not put him to death.

When Athaliah heard the sound of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people [at] the house of Yahweh.

And she looked and, behold, the king was standing by his column at the entrance, and the commanders and trumpeters beside the king, along with all the people of the land, rejoicing and blowing with trumpets, and the singers with the instruments of song leading the praise. And Athaliah tore her garments and cried, "Conspiracy! Conspiracy!"

And they laid hands on her, and she went into the entrance of the Horse Gate of the house of the king, and they killed her there.

Then Hilkiah and those whom the king [had sent] went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, son of Tikvath, son of Hasrah, keeper of the garments. (Now she was living in Jerusalem in the second district.) And they spoke to her concerning this.

And she said to them, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: 'Say to the man who sent you all to me:

to bring Queen Vashti before the king {with her royal crown} to show the people and the officials her beauty, {for she was very attractive}.

"According to [the] law, what is to be done with Queen Vashti, because she has not done the command of King Ahasuerus {conveyed by} the eunuchs?

For this deed of the queen {will be known} to all the women, causing them {to look with contempt on their husbands}, as they will say, 'King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him but she did not come!'

{If it pleases} the king, let {a royal edict} go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of Persia and Media so that it will not be altered, that Vashti cannot come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to her neighbor who [is] better than she.

After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her.

He was raising Hadassah, that [is] Esther, his uncle's daughter, for she did not have a father or a mother; the young woman [had] a beautiful figure and [was] very attractive. When her father and mother died, Mordecai had taken her as his daughter.

{The young woman pleased him} and she won favor in his presence, and he quickly provided for her beauty treatment and her portion of food, with seven chosen maids to give to her from the {king's palace}, and he advanced her and her maids to the best part of the {harem}.

Esther did not disclose her people and her family because Modecai had charged her that she must not tell.

in this way, the girl goes to the king and all that she asks is given to her {to take} with her from the {harem} to the {king's palace}.

In the evening she would go and in the morning she would return to the {second harem} {under the care of} Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch in charge of the concubines. She would not go back to the king unless the king delighted in her and she was called by name.

When the turn came near for Esther daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken [her] as a daughter, to go to the king, she did not ask anything except what Hegai the eunuch of the king who was in charge of the women, advised. And Esther carried favor in the eyes of everyone that saw her.

And the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won his favor and loyalty more than all the virgins, so he put a {royal crown} on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

Esther had not made known her family and her people, just as Mordecai had instructed her; for Esther {did what Mordecai told her}, just as when she was brought up by him.

And Esther's maids and her eunuchs came and they told her, and the queen was deeply distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mordecai so that he might remove his sackcloth--but he did not accept [them].

Then Esther called Hathach from the king's eunuchs {who regularly attended to her}, and she ordered him [to go] to Mordecai to learn what was happening and why.

And Esther spoke to Hathach and {she gave him a message for Mordecai}:

And it happened, on the third day, and Esther put on royal clothes, and she stood in the inner courtyard of the {king's palace}, opposite the {king's palace}; the king [was] sitting on his royal throne in the {throne room} opposite the doorway of the palace.

When the king saw Queen Esther standing in the courtyard she found favor in his eyes, and the king held out the gold scepter that [was] in his hand to Esther, and Esther approached and touched the top of the scepter.

{And Haman added}, "Esther the Queen did not let [just anyone] come to the banquet that she prepared with the king except me, and I am also invited tomorrow to her [banquet] with the king.

Then Queen Esther answered, and she said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if it is good to the king, let my life be given to me at my petition and my people at my request;

And Esther again spoke before the king, and she fell before his feet and wept, pleading for his grace to avert Haman the Agagite's evil [plan] and the plot that he devised against the Jews.

and she said, "If it is good to the king, and if I have found favor before him, and if the king is pleased with this matter, and {I have his approval}, let [an edict] be written to revoke the letters of the plans of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews that [are] in all the provinces of the king.

She is brought to the king [in] colorful garments. [The] young women behind her, her attendants, [are] being brought to you.

God [is] in the midst of her; she will not be made to totter. God will help her {at daybreak}.

"[The] kings of armies flee, they flee, and she [who] remains at home divides [the] spoil.