'King' in the Bible

Ornan said to David, “Take it! My lord the king may do whatever he wants. See, I give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering—I give it all.”

King David answered Ornan, “No, I insist on paying the full price, for I will not take for the Lord what belongs to you or offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

When David was old and full of days, he installed his son Solomon as king over Israel.

The secretary, Shemaiah son of Nethanel, a Levite, recorded them in the presence of the king and the officers, Zadok the priest, Ahimelech son of Abiathar, and the heads of families of the priests and the Levites. One ancestral house was taken for Eleazar, and then one for Ithamar.

They also cast lots the same way as their relatives the sons of Aaron did in the presence of King David, Zadok, Ahimelech, and the heads of the families of the priests and Levites—the family heads and their younger brothers alike.

From Asaph’s sons:Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asarelah, sons of Asaph, under Asaph’s authority, who prophesied under the authority of the king.

This Shelomith and his brothers were in charge of all the treasuries of what had been dedicated by King David, by the heads of families who were the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and by the army commanders.

From the Hebronites: Hashabiah and his relatives, 1,700 capable men, had assigned duties in Israel west of the Jordan for all the work of the Lord and for the service of the king.

There were among Jerijah’s relatives, 2,700 capable men who were heads of families. King David appointed them over the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh as overseers in every matter relating to God and the king.

This is the list of the Israelites, the heads of families, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, and their officers who served the king in every matter to do with the divisions that were on rotated military duty each month throughout the year. There were 24,000 in each division:

Joab son of Zeruiah began to count them, but he didn’t complete it. There was wrath against Israel because of this census, and the number was not entered in the Historical Record of King David.

Jaziz the Hagrite was in charge of the flocks.All these were officials in charge of King David’s property.

David assembled all the leaders of Israel in Jerusalem: the leaders of the tribes, the leaders of the divisions in the king’s service, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, and the officials in charge of all the property and cattle of the king and his sons, along with the court officials, the fighting men, and all the brave warriors.

Then King David rose to his feet and said, “Listen to me, my brothers and my people. It was in my heart to build a house as a resting place for the ark of the Lord’s covenant and as a footstool for our God. I had made preparations to build,

“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.

Then King David said to all the assembly, “My son Solomon—God has chosen him alone—is young and inexperienced. The task is great because the temple will not be for man but for the Lord God.

Then the people rejoiced because of their leaders’ willingness to give, for they had given to the Lord with a whole heart. King David also rejoiced greatly.

Then David said to the whole assembly, “Praise the Lord your God.” So the whole assembly praised the Lord God of their ancestors. They bowed down and paid homage to the Lord and the king.

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.

Solomon sat on the Lord’s throne as king in place of his father David. He prospered, and all Israel obeyed him.

All the leaders and the mighty men, and all of King David’s sons as well, pledged their allegiance to King Solomon.

The Lord highly exalted Solomon in the sight of all Israel and bestowed on him such royal majesty as had not been bestowed on any king over Israel before him.

David son of Jesse was king over all Israel.

He died at a ripe old age, full of days, riches, and honor, and his son Solomon became king in his place.

As for the events of King David’s reign, from beginning to end, note that they are written in the Events of Samuel the Seer, the Events of Nathan the Prophet, and the Events of Gad the Seer,

And Solomon said to God: “You have shown great and faithful love to my father David, and You have made me king in his place.

Lord God, let Your promise to my father David now come true. For You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.

God said to Solomon, “Since this was in your heart, and you have not requested riches, wealth, or glory, or for the life of those who hate you, and you have not even requested long life, but you have requested for yourself wisdom and knowledge that you may judge My people over whom I have made you king,

Solomon accumulated 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar as abundant as sycamore in the Judean foothills.

Then Solomon sent word to King Hiram of Tyre:Do for me what you did for my father David. You sent him cedars to build him a house to live in.

Then King Hiram of Tyre wrote a letter and sent it to Solomon:Because the Lord loves His people, He set you over them as king.

Hiram also said:May the Lord God of Israel, who made the heavens and the earth, be praised! He gave King David a wise son with insight and understanding, who will build a temple for the Lord and a royal palace for himself.

Then Huram made the pots, the shovels, and the bowls.So Huram finished doing the work that he was doing for King Solomon in God’s temple:

the pots, the shovels, the forks, and all their utensils—Huram-abi made them for King Solomon for the Lord’s temple. All these were made of polished bronze.

The king had them cast in clay molds in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zeredah.

King Solomon and the entire congregation of Israel who had gathered around him were in front of the ark sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be counted or numbered because there were so many.

Then the king turned and blessed the entire congregation of Israel while they were standing.

The king and all the people were offering sacrifices in the Lord’s presence.

King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. In this manner the king and all the people dedicated God’s temple.

The priests and the Levites were standing at their stations. The Levites had the musical instruments of the Lord, which King David had made to praise the Lord—“for His faithful love endures forever”—when he offered praise with them. Across from the Levites, the priests were blowing trumpets, and all the people were standing.

These were King Solomon’s deputies: 250 who ruled over the people.

Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh from the city of David to the house he had built for her, for he said, “My wife must not live in the house of David king of Israel because the places the ark of the Lord has come into are holy.”

So Hiram sent ships to him by his servants along with crews of experienced seamen. They went with Solomon’s servants to Ophir, took from there 17 tons of gold, and delivered it to King Solomon.

She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your words and about your wisdom is true.

May the Lord your God be praised! He delighted in you and put you on His throne as king for the Lord your God. Because Your God loved Israel enough to establish them forever, He has set you over them as king to carry out justice and righteousness.”

Then she gave the king four and a half tons of gold, a great quantity of spices, and precious stones. There never were such spices as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

The king made the algum wood into walkways for the Lord’s temple and for the king’s palace and into lyres and harps for the singers. Never before had anything like them been seen in the land of Judah.

King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba her every desire, whatever she asked—far more than she had brought the king. Then she, along with her servants, returned to her own country.

King Solomon made 200 large shields of hammered gold; 15 pounds of hammered gold went into each shield.

He made 300 small shields of hammered gold; about eight pounds of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

The king also made a large ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold.

All of King Solomon’s drinking cups were gold, and all the utensils of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. There was no silver, since it was considered as nothing in Solomon’s time,

King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the world in riches and wisdom.

Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots, and 12,000 horsemen. He stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar as abundant as sycamore in the Judean foothills.

Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. His son Rehoboam became king in his place.

Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.

When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it—for he was in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon’s presence—Jeroboam returned from Egypt.

Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, “How do you advise me to respond to these people?”

So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had ordered, saying, “Return to me on the third day.”

Then the king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the elders’ advice

The king did not listen to the people because the turn of events came from God, in order that the Lord might carry out His word that He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered the king:What portion do we have in David?We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.Israel, each man to your tent;David, look after your own house now!So all Israel went to their tents.

Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. However, King Rehoboam managed to get into his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.

“Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people:

Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maacah as chief, leader among his brothers, intending to make him king.

Because they were unfaithful to the Lord, in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt went to war against Jerusalem

So the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “Yahweh is righteous.”

So King Shishak of Egypt went to war against Jerusalem. He seized the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the treasuries of the royal palace. He took everything. He took the gold shields that Solomon had made.

King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place and committed them into the care of the captains of the royal escorts who guarded the entrance to the king’s palace.

Whenever the king entered the Lord’s temple, the royal escorts would carry the shields and take them back to the royal escorts’ armory.

King Rehoboam established his royal power in Jerusalem. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king and reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put His name. Rehoboam’s mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.

Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. His son Abijah became king in his place.

In the eighteenth year of Israel’s King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah

Abijah rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. His son Asa became king in his place. During his reign the land experienced peace for 10 years.

King Asa also removed Maacah, his grandmother, from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. Asa chopped down her obscene image, then crushed it and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

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.

So Asa brought out the silver and gold from the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the royal palace and sent it to Aram’s King Ben-hadad, who lived in Damascus, saying,

“There’s a treaty between me and you, between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you silver and gold. Go break your treaty with Israel’s King Baasha so that he will withdraw from me.”

Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies to the cities of Israel. They attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali.

Then King Asa brought all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had built it with. Then he built Geba and Mizpah with them.

At that time, Hanani the seer came to King Asa of Judah and said to him, “Because you depended on the king of Aram and have not depended on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.

His son Jehoshaphat became king in his place and strengthened himself against Israel.

These were the ones who served the king, besides those he stationed in the fortified cities throughout all Judah.

for Israel’s King Ahab asked Judah’s King Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead?”He replied to him, “I am as you are, my people as your people; we will be with you in the battle.”

But Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “First, please ask what the Lord’s will is.”

So the king of Israel gathered the prophets, 400 men, and asked them, “Should we go to Ramoth-gilead for war or should I refrain?”They replied, “March up, and God will hand it over to the king.”

The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man who can ask Yahweh, but I hate him because he never prophesies good about me, but only disaster. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.”“The king shouldn’t say that,” Jehoshaphat replied.

So the king of Israel called an officer and said, “Hurry and get Micaiah son of Imlah!”

Now the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah, clothed in royal attire, were each sitting on his own throne. They were sitting on the threshing floor at the entrance to Samaria’s gate, and all the prophets were prophesying in front of them.

And all the prophets were prophesying the same, saying, “March up to Ramoth-gilead and succeed, for the Lord will hand it over to the king.”

The messenger who went to call Micaiah instructed him, “Look, the words of the prophets are unanimously favorable for the king. So let your words be like theirs, and speak favorably.”

So he went to the king, and the king asked him, “Micaiah, should we go to Ramoth-gilead for war, or should I refrain?”Micaiah said, “March up and succeed, for they will be handed over to you.”

But the king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear not to tell me anything but the truth in the name of Yahweh?”

So the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you he never prophesies good about me, but only disaster?”

And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab king of Israel to march up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ So one was saying this and another was saying that.

Then the king of Israel ordered, “Take Micaiah and return him to Amon, the governor of the city, and to Joash, the king’s son,

and say, ‘This is what the king says: Put this guy in prison and feed him only bread and water until I come back safely.’”

Then the king of Israel and Judah’s King Jehoshaphat went up to Ramoth-gilead.