But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.

And he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.

And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulcher of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God heeded prayers for the land.

But Abishai the son of Zeruiah aided him, and struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore unto him, saying, You shall go no more out with us to battle, that you quench not the light of Israel.

And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, who was of the sons of the giant.

And there was yet again a battle in Gath, where there was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.

And David spoke unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul:

He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me.

And the afflicted people you will save: but your eyes are upon the haughty, that you may bring them down.

As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is proven: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.

He teaches my hands to make war; so that a bow of steel is broken by my arms.

You have enlarged my path under me; so that my feet did not slip.

And I have consumed them, and wounded them, that they could not arise: yea, they are fallen under my feet.

For you have girded me with strength to battle: them that rose up against me have you subdued under me.

You have also given me the necks of my enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me.

It is God that avenges me, and that brings down the people under me,

And that brings me forth from my enemies: you also have lifted me up on high above them that rose up against me: you have delivered me from the violent man.

The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, He that rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.

But the man that shall touch them must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear; and they shall be utterly burned with fire in their place.

These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: The Tachmonite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite: he lifted up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time.

And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines that were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel had gone away:

He arose, and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand stuck to the sword: and the LORD brought about a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to plunder.

And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!

And the three mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: nevertheless he would not drink it, but poured it out unto the LORD.

And he said, Be it far from me, O LORD, that I should do this: is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men.

For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, who was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, and number you the people, that I may know the number of the people.

And Joab said unto the king, Now the LORD your God add unto the people, however many they may be, a hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it: but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?

And they passed over Jordan, and encamped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that lies in the midst of the valley of Gad, and toward Jazer:

And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

Go and say unto David, Thus says the LORD, I offer you three things; choose you one of them, that I may do it unto you.

So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto you in your land? or will you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? now consider, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.

And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD turned from the destruction, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now your hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

And David spoke unto the LORD when he saw the angel that struck the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let your hand, I pray you, be against me, and against my father's house.

And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, erect an altar unto the LORD in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

And Araunah said, Why has my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people.

And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it from you at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which does cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

Therefore his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin: and let her stand before the king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in your bosom, that my lord the king may get heat.

Therefore Nathan spoke unto Bath-sheba the mother of Solomon, saying, Have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith does reign, and David our lord knows it not?

Now therefore come, let me, I pray you, give you counsel, that you may save your own life, and the life of your son Solomon.

And you, my lord, O king, the eyes of all Israel are upon you, that you should tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him.

Otherwise it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders.

And the king swore, and said, As the LORD lives, that has redeemed my soul out of all distress,

Then you shall come up after him, that he may come and sit upon my throne; for he shall be king in my place: and I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah.

And all the people came up after him, and the people played on flutes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth shook with the sound of them.

And Adonijah and all the guests that were with him heard it as they had made an end of eating. And when Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, Why is this noise of the city being in an uproar?

And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon: and they have come up from there rejoicing, so that the city resounds with it. This is the noise that you have heard.

And all the guests that were with Adonijah were afraid, and rose up, and went every man his way.

And it was told Solomon, saying, Behold, Adonijah fears king Solomon: for, lo, he has caught hold of the horns of the altar, saying, Let king Solomon swear unto me today that he will not slay his servant with the sword.

Now the days of David drew near that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying,

And keep the charge of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do, and wherever you turn yourself:

That the LORD may continue his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, If your children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you (said he) a man on the throne of Israel.

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

But show kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those that eat at your table: for so they came to me when I fled because of Absalom your brother.

And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem.

And he said, You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign: however the kingdom has turned about, and has become my brother's: for it was his from the LORD.

And he said, Speak, I pray you, unto Solomon the king, (for he will not say nay to you,) that he give me Abishag the Shunammite to be my wife.

And king Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he struck him down so that he died.

So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the LORD; that he might fulfill the word of the LORD, which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.

And it was told king Solomon that Joab was fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD; and, behold, he is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, strike him down.

And the king said unto him, Do as he has said, and strike him down, and bury him; that you may take away the innocent blood, which Joab shed, from me, and from the house of my father.

For it shall be, that on the day you go out, and pass over the brook Kidron, you shall know for certain that you shall surely die: your blood shall be upon your own head.

And it came to pass at the end of three years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away unto Achish son of Maachah king of Gath. And they told Shimei, saying, Behold, your servants are in Gath.

And it was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and had come again.

And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Did I not make you to swear by the LORD, and admonished you, saying, Know for a certain, on the day you go out, and travel anywhere, that you shall surely die? and you said unto me, The word that I have heard is good.

Why then have you not kept the oath of the LORD, and the commandment that I have charged you with?

The king said moreover to Shimei, You know all the wickedness which was in your heart, that you did to David my father: therefore the LORD shall return your wickedness upon your own head;

So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; who went out, and struck him, so that he died. And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.

And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: except that he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.

And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar.

And Solomon said, You have shown unto your servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before you in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you; and you have kept for him this great kindness, that you have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.

And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.

Give therefore your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this your so great a people?

And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.

Behold, I have done according to your words: lo, I have given you a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like you before you, neither after you shall any arise like unto you.

And I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches, and honor: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto you all your days.

Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him.

And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, except we two in the house.

Then said the king, The one says, This is my son that lives, and your son is dead: and the other says, Nay; but your son is dead, and my son is living.

And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do justice.

Baana the son of Ahilud; in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean, which is by Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, even unto the place that is beyond Jokmeam:

And those officers provided food for king Solomon, and for all that came unto king Solomon's table, every man in his month: they lacked nothing.

And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore.

And he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springs out of the wall: he spoke also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.

And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the place of his father: for Hiram was always a lover of David.

You know how that David my father could not build a house unto the name of the LORD his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet.

But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor misfortune.

Now therefore command you that they cut me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with your servants: and unto you will I give wages for your servants according to all that you shall appoint: for you know that there is not among us any that has skill to cut timber like unto the Sidonians.

And it came to pass, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be the LORD this day, who has given unto David a wise son over this great people.

My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea: and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place that you shall appoint me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and you shall receive them: and you shall accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household.

And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bore burdens, and fourscore thousand quarried stone in the mountains;

Besides the chief of Solomon's officers who were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, who ruled over the people that labored in the work.

And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.

The lowest chamber was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad: for outside in the wall of the house he made narrowed ledges round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house.

And the house, when it was being built, was built of stone made ready before it was brought there: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was being built.

And the house, that is, the temple before it, was forty cubits long.

And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house: also the whole altar that was by the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.

And he set the cherubim within the inner house: and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubim, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the middle of the house.

And it was covered with cedar above the beams, that lay on forty-five pillars, fifteen in a row.

And he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the capitals that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other capital.

And the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch, four cubits.