Bible in 90 Days

³⁸ Then he made ten brass vats, and placed them on the stands. Each vat was six feet square and contained 240 gallons of water. ³⁹ Five of these vats were arranged on the left and five on the right-hand side of the room. The tank was in the southeast corner, on the right-hand side of the room. ⁴⁰ Hiram also made the necessary pots, shovels, and basins and at last completed the work in the Temple of the Lord that had been assigned to him by King Solomon.

^41-46 Here is a list of the items he made:

All these items were made of burnished bronze and were cast at the plains of the Jordan River between Succoth and Zarethan. ⁴⁷ The total weight of these pieces was not known because they were too heavy to weigh!

⁴⁸ All the utensils and furniture used in the Temple were made of solid gold. This included the altar, the table where the Bread of the Presence of God was displayed, ⁴⁹ the lampstands (five on the right-hand side and five on the left, in front of the Most Holy Place), the flowers, lamps, tongs, ⁵⁰ cups, snuffers, basins, spoons, firepans, the hinges of the doors to the Most Holy Place, and the main entrance doors of the Temple. Each of these was made of solid gold.

⁵¹ When the Temple was finally finished, Solomon took into the treasury of the Temple the silver, the gold, and all the vessels dedicated for that purpose by his father David.

8 Then Solomon called a convocation at Jerusalem of all the leaders of Israel—the heads of the tribes and clans—to observe the transferring of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the Tabernacle in Zion, the City of David, to the Temple. ² This celebration occurred at the time of the Tabernacle Festival in the month of October. ^3-4 During the festivities the priests carried the Ark to the Temple, along with all the sacred vessels that had previously been in the Tabernacle. ⁵ King Solomon and all the people gathered before the Ark, sacrificing uncounted sheep and oxen.

⁶ Then the priests took the Ark into the inner sanctuary of the Temple—the Most Holy Place—and placed it under the wings of the statues of the Guardian Angels. ⁷ The Angels had been constructed in such a manner that their wings spread out over the spot where the Ark would be placed; so now their wings overshadowed the Ark and its carrying poles. ⁸ The poles were so long that they stuck out past the Angels and could be seen from the next room, but not from the outer court; and they remain there to this day. ⁹ There was nothing in the Ark at that time except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed there at Mount Horeb at the time the Lord made his covenant with the people of Israel after they left Egypt.

¹⁰ Look! As the priests are returning from the inner sanctuary, a bright cloud fills the Temple! ¹¹ The priests have to go outside because the glory of the Lord is filling the entire building!

^12-13 Now King Solomon prayed this invocation:

¹⁴ Then the king turned around and faced the people as they stood before him, and blessed them.

¹⁵ “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,” he said, “who has done today what he promised my father David: ¹⁶ for he said to him, ‘When I brought my people from Egypt, I didn’t appoint a place for my Temple, but I appointed a man to be my people’s leader.’ ¹⁷ This man was my father David. He wanted to build a Temple for the Lord God of Israel, ¹⁸ but the Lord told him not to. ‘I am glad you want to do it,’ he said, ¹⁹ ‘but your son is the one who shall build my Temple.’ ²⁰ And now the Lord has done what he promised; for I have followed my father as king of Israel, and now this Temple has been built for the Lord God of Israel. ²¹ And I have prepared a place in the Temple for the Ark that contains the covenant made by the Lord with our fathers, at the time that he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

^22-23 Then, as all the people watched, Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord with his hands spread out toward heaven and said, “O Lord God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or earth, for you are loving and kind and you keep your promises to your people if they do their best to do your will. ²⁴ Today you have fulfilled your promise to my father David, who was your servant; ²⁵ and now, O Lord God of Israel, fulfill your further promise to him: that if his descendants follow your ways and try to do your will as he did, one of them shall always sit upon the throne of Israel. ²⁶ Yes, O God of Israel, fulfill this promise too.

²⁷ “But is it possible that God would really live on earth? Why, even the skies and the highest heavens cannot contain you, much less this Temple I have built! ²⁸ And yet, O Lord my God, you have heard and answered my request: ²⁹ Please watch over this Temple night and day—this place you have promised to live in—and as I face toward the Temple and pray, whether by night or by day, please listen to me and answer my requests. ³⁰ Listen to every plea of the people of Israel whenever they face this place to pray; yes, hear in heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive.

³¹ “If a man is accused of doing something wrong and then, standing here before your altar, swears that he didn’t do it, ³² hear him in heaven and do what is right; judge whether or not he did it.

^33-34 “And when your people sin and their enemies defeat them, hear them from heaven and forgive them if they turn to you again and confess that you are their God. Bring them back again to this land which you have given to their fathers.

^35-36 “And when the skies are shut up and there is no rain because of their sin, hear them from heaven and forgive them when they pray toward this place and confess your name. And after you have punished them, help them to follow the good ways in which they should walk, and send rain upon the land that you have given your people.

³⁷ “If there is a famine in the land caused by plant disease or locusts or caterpillars, or if Israel’s enemies besiege one of her cities, or if the people are struck by an epidemic or plague—or whatever the problem is— ³⁸ then when the people realize their sin and pray toward this Temple, ³⁹ hear them from heaven and forgive and answer all who have made an honest confession; for you know each heart. ⁴⁰ In this way they will always learn to reverence you as they continue to live in this land that you have given their fathers.

^41-42 “And when foreigners hear of your great name and come from distant lands to worship you (for they shall hear of your great name and mighty miracles) and pray toward this Temple, ⁴³ hear them from heaven and answer their prayers. And all the nations of the earth will know and fear your name just as your own people Israel do; and all the earth will know that this is your Temple.

⁴⁴ “When you send your people out to battle against their enemies and they pray to you, looking toward your chosen city of Jerusalem and toward this Temple that I have built in your name, ⁴⁵ hear their prayer and help them.

⁴⁶ “If they sin against you (and who doesn’t?) and you become angry with them and let their enemies lead them away as captives to some foreign land, whether far or near, ⁴⁷ and they come to their senses and turn to you and cry to you saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong’; ⁴⁸ if they honestly return to you and pray toward this land that you have given their fathers, and toward this city of Jerusalem that you have chosen, and toward this Temple that I have built for your name, ⁴⁹ hear their prayers and pleadings from heaven where you live, and come to their assistance.

⁵⁰ “Forgive your people for all of their evil deeds, and make their captors merciful to them; ⁵¹ for they are your people—your inheritance that you brought out from the Egyptian furnace. ⁵² May your eyes be open and your ears listening to their pleas. O Lord, hear and answer them whenever they cry out to you, ⁵³ for when you brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, you told your servant Moses that you had chosen Israel from among all the nations of the earth to be your own special people.”

^54-55 Solomon had been kneeling with his hands outstretched toward heaven. As he finished this prayer, he rose from before the altar of Jehovah and cried out this blessing upon all the people of Israel:

⁵⁶ “Blessed be the Lord who has fulfilled his promise and given rest to his people Israel; not one word has failed of all the wonderful promises proclaimed by his servant Moses. ⁵⁷ May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers; may he never forsake us. ⁵⁸ May he give us the desire to do his will in everything, and to obey all the commandments and instructions he has given our ancestors. ⁵⁹ And may these words of my prayer be constantly before him day and night, so that he helps me and all of Israel in accordance with our daily needs. ⁶⁰ May people all over the earth know that the Lord is God and that there is no other god at all. ⁶¹ O my people, may you live good and perfect lives before the Lord our God; may you always obey his laws and commandments, just as you are doing today.”

^62-63 Then the king and all the people dedicated the Temple by sacrificing peace offerings to the Lord—a total of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep and goats! ⁶⁴ As a temporary measure the king sanctified the court in front of the Temple for the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings: for the bronze altar was too small to handle so much. ⁶⁵ The celebration lasted for fourteen days, and a great crowd came from one end of the land to the other. ⁶⁶ Afterwards Solomon sent the people home, happy for all the goodness that the Lord had shown to his servant David and to his people Israel. And they blessed the king.

9 When Solomon had finished building the Temple and the palace and all the other buildings he had always wanted, ^2-3 the Lord appeared to him the second time (the first time had been at Gibeon) and said to him, “I have heard your prayer. I have hallowed this Temple that you have built and have put my name here forever. I will constantly watch over it and rejoice in it. ⁴ And if you live in honesty and truth as your father David did, always obeying me, ⁵ then I will cause your descendants to be the kings of Israel forever, just as I promised your father David when I told him, ‘One of your sons shall always be upon the throne of Israel.’

⁶ “However, if you or your children turn away from me and worship other gods and do not obey my laws, ⁷ then I will take away the people of Israel from this land that I have given them. I will take them from this Temple which I have hallowed for my name, and I will cast them out of my sight; and Israel will become a joke to the nations and an example and proverb of sudden disaster. ⁸ This Temple will become a heap of ruins, and everyone passing by will be amazed and will whistle with astonishment, asking, ‘Why has the Lord done such things to this land and this Temple?’ ⁹ And the answer will be, ‘The people of Israel abandoned the Lord their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt; they worshiped other gods instead. That is why the Lord has brought this evil upon them.’”

¹⁰ At the end of the twenty years during which Solomon built the Temple and the palace, ^11-12 he gave twenty cities in the land of Galilee to King Hiram of Tyre as payment for all the cedar and cypress lumber and gold he had furnished for the construction of the palace and Temple. Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities, but he wasn’t at all pleased with them.

¹³ “What sort of deal is this, my brother?” he asked. “These cities are a wasteland!” (And they are still known as “The Wasteland” today.) ¹⁴ For Hiram had sent gold to Solomon valued at $3,500,000!

¹⁵ Solomon had conscripted forced labor to build the Temple, his palace, Fort Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, and the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. ¹⁶ Gezer was the city the king of Egypt conquered and burned, killing the Israeli population; later he had given the city to his daughter as a dowry—she was one of Solomon’s wives. ^17-18 So now Solomon rebuilt Gezer along with Lower Beth-horon, Baalath, and Tamar, a desert city. ¹⁹ He also built cities for grain storage, cities in which to keep his chariots, cities for homes for his cavalry and chariot drivers, and resort cities near Jerusalem and in the Lebanon mountains and elsewhere throughout the land.

^20-21 Solomon conscripted his labor forces from those who survived in the nations he conquered—the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. For the people of Israel had not been able to wipe them out completely at the time of the invasion and conquest of Israel, and they continue as slaves even today. ²² Solomon didn’t conscript any Israelis for this work, although they became soldiers, officials, army officers, chariot commanders, and cavalrymen. ²³ And there were 550 men of Israel who were overseers of the labor forces.

Miscellaneous Notes:

²⁴ King Solomon moved Pharaoh’s daughter from the City of David—the old sector of Jerusalem—to the new quarters he had built for her in the palace. Then he built Fort Millo.

²⁵ After the Temple was completed, Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings three times a year on the altar he had built. And he also burned incense upon it.

²⁶ King Solomon had a shipyard in Ezion-geber near Eloth on the Red Sea in the land of Edom, where he built a fleet of ships.

^27-28 King Hiram supplied experienced sailors to accompany Solomon’s crews. They used to sail back and forth from Ophir, bringing gold to King Solomon, the total value of which was several million dollars each trip.

10 When the queen of Sheba heard how wonderfully the Lord had blessed Solomon with wisdom,^[a] she decided to test him with some hard questions. ² She arrived in Jerusalem with a long train of camels carrying spices, gold, and jewels; and she told him all her problems. ³ Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for him, for the Lord gave him the right answers every time.^{[b] 4} She soon realized that everything she had ever heard about his great wisdom was true. She also saw the beautiful palace he had built, ⁵ and when she saw the wonderful foods on his table, the great number of servants and aides who stood around in splendid uniforms, his cupbearers, and the many offerings he sacrificed by fire to the Lord—well, there was no more spirit in her!

⁶ She exclaimed to him, “Everything I heard in my own country about your wisdom and about the wonderful things going on here is all true. ⁷ I didn’t believe it until I came, but now I have seen it for myself! And really! The half had not been told me! Your wisdom and prosperity are far greater than anything I’ve ever heard of! ⁸ Your people are happy and your palace aides are content—but how could it be otherwise, for they stand here day after day listening to your wisdom! ⁹ Blessed be the Lord your God who chose you and set you on the throne of Israel. How the Lord must love Israel—for he gave you to them as their king! And you give your people a just, good government!”

¹⁰ Then she gave the king a gift of $3,500,000 in gold, along with a huge quantity of spices and precious gems; in fact, it was the largest single gift of spices King Solomon had ever received.

¹¹ (And when King Hiram’s ships brought gold to Solomon from Ophir, they also brought along a great supply of algum trees and gems. ¹² Solomon used the algum wood to make pillars for the Temple and the palace, and for harps and harpsichords for his choirs. Never before or since has there been such a supply of beautiful wood.)

¹³ In exchange for the gifts from the queen of Sheba, King Solomon gave her everything she asked him for, besides the presents he had already planned. Then she and her servants returned to their own land.

¹⁴ Each year Solomon received gold worth a quarter of a billion dollars, ¹⁵ besides sales taxes and profits from trade with the kings of Arabia and the other surrounding territories. ^16-17 Solomon had some of the gold beaten into two hundred pieces of armor (gold worth $6,000 went into each piece) and three hundred shields ($1,800 worth of gold in each). And he kept them in his palace in the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁸ He also made a huge ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold. ¹⁹ It had six steps and a rounded back, with arm rests; and a lion standing on each side. ²⁰ And there were two lions on each step—twelve in all. There was no other throne in all the world so splendid as that one.

²¹ All of King Solomon’s cups were of solid gold, and in the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon his entire dining service was made of solid gold. (Silver wasn’t used because it wasn’t considered to be of much value!)

²² King Solomon’s merchant fleet was in partnership with King Hiram’s, and once every three years a great load of gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks arrived at the Israeli ports.

²³ So King Solomon was richer and wiser than all the kings of the earth. ²⁴ Great men from many lands came to interview him and listen to his God-given wisdom. ²⁵ They brought him annual tribute of silver and gold dishes, beautiful cloth, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules.

²⁶ Solomon built up a great stable of horses with a vast number of chariots and cavalry—1,400 chariots in all and 12,000 cavalrymen, who lived in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem. ²⁷ Silver was as common as stones in Jerusalem in those days, and cedar was of no greater value than the common sycamore! ²⁸ Solomon’s horses were brought to him from Egypt and southern Turkey, where his agents purchased them at wholesale prices. ²⁹ An Egyptian chariot delivered to Jerusalem cost $400, and the horses were valued at $150 each. Many of these were then resold to the Hittite and Syrian kings.

11 King Solomon married many other girls besides the Egyptian princess. Many of them came from nations where idols were worshiped^[c]—Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from the Hittites— ² even though the Lord had clearly instructed his people not to marry into those nations, because the women they married would get them started worshiping their gods. Yet Solomon did it anyway. ³ He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines; and sure enough, they turned his heart away from the Lord, ⁴ especially in his old age. They encouraged him to worship their gods instead of trusting completely in the Lord as his father David had done. ⁵ Solomon worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the horrible god of the Ammonites. ⁶ Thus Solomon did what was clearly wrong and refused to follow the Lord as his father David did. ⁷ He even built a temple on the Mount of Olives, across the valley from Jerusalem, for Chemosh, the depraved god of Moab, and another for Molech, the unutterably vile god of the Ammonites. ⁸ Solomon built temples for these foreign wives to use for burning incense and sacrificing to their gods.

^9-10 Jehovah was very angry with Solomon about this, for now Solomon was no longer interested in the Lord God of Israel who had appeared to him twice to warn him specifically against worshiping other gods. But he hadn’t listened, ¹¹ so now the Lord said to him, “Since you have not kept our agreement and have not obeyed my laws, I will tear the kingdom away from you and your family and give it to someone else. ^12-13 However, for the sake of your father David, I won’t do this while you are still alive. I will take the kingdom away from your son. And even so I will let him be king of one tribe, for David’s sake and for the sake of Jerusalem, my chosen city.”

¹⁴ So the Lord caused Hadad the Edomite to grow in power. And Solomon became apprehensive, for Hadad was a member of the royal family of Edom. ¹⁵ Years before, when David had been in Edom with Joab to arrange for the burial of some Israeli soldiers who had died in battle, the Israeli army had killed nearly every male in the entire country. ^16-18 It took six months to accomplish this, but they finally killed all except Hadad and a few royal officials who took him to Egypt (he was a very small child at the time). They slipped out of Midian and went to Paran, where others joined them and accompanied them to Egypt, and Pharaoh had given them homes and food.

¹⁹ Hadad became one of Pharaoh’s closest friends, and he gave him a wife—the sister of Queen Tahpenes. ²⁰ She presented him with a son, Genubath, who was brought up in Pharaoh’s palace among Pharaoh’s own sons. ²¹ When Hadad, there in Egypt, heard that David and Joab were both dead, he asked Pharaoh for permission to return to Edom.

²² “Why?” Pharaoh asked him. “What do you lack here? How have we disappointed you?”

“Everything is wonderful,” he replied, “but even so, I’d like to go back home.”

²³ Another of Solomon’s enemies whom God raised to power was Rezon, one of the officials of King Hadadezer of Zobah who had deserted his post and fled the country. ²⁴ He had become the leader of a gang of bandits—men who fled with him to Damascus (where he later became king) when David destroyed Zobah. ²⁵ During Solomon’s entire lifetime, Rezon and Hadad were his enemies, for they hated Israel intensely.

²⁶ Another rebel leader was Jeroboam (the son of Nebat), who came from the city of Zeredah in Ephraim; his mother was Zeruah, a widow. ^27-28 Here is the story of his rebellion: Solomon was rebuilding Fort Millo, repairing the walls of this city his father had built. Jeroboam was very able, and when Solomon saw how industrious he was, he put him in charge of his labor battalions from the tribe of Joseph.

²⁹ One day as Jeroboam was leaving Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh (who had put on a new robe for the occasion) met him and called him aside to talk to him. And as the two of them were alone in the field, ³⁰ Ahijah tore his new robe into twelve parts ³¹ and said to Jeroboam, “Take ten of these pieces, for the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I will tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon and give ten of the tribes to you! ³² But I will leave him one tribe^[d] for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen above all the other cities of Israel. ³³ For Solomon has forsaken me and worships Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians; and Chemosh, the god of Moab; and Milcom, the god of the Ammonites. He has not followed my paths and has not done what I consider right; he has not kept my laws and instructions as his father David did. ³⁴ I will not take the kingdom from him now, however; for the sake of my servant David, my chosen one who obeyed my commandments, I will let Solomon reign for the rest of his life.

³⁵ “‘But I will take away the kingdom from his son and give ten of the tribes to you. ³⁶ His son shall have the other one so that the descendants of David will continue to reign in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen to be the place for my name to be enshrined. ³⁷ And I will place you on the throne of Israel and give you absolute power. ³⁸ If you listen to what I tell you and walk in my path and do whatever I consider right, obeying my commandments as my servant David did, then I will bless you; and your descendants shall rule Israel forever. (I once made this same promise to David. ³⁹ But because of Solomon’s sin, I will punish the descendants of David—though not forever.)’”

⁴⁰ Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but he fled to King Shishak of Egypt and stayed there until the death of Solomon.

⁴¹ The rest of what Solomon did and said is written in the book The Acts of Solomon. ⁴² He ruled in Jerusalem for forty years, ⁴³ and then died and was buried in the city of his father David; and his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.

12 Rehoboam’s inauguration was at Shechem, and all Israel came for the coronation ceremony. ^2-4 Jeroboam, who was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon, heard about the plans from his friends. They urged him to attend, so he joined the rest of Israel at Shechem and was the ringleader in getting the people to make certain demands upon Rehoboam.

“Your father was a hard master,” they told Rehoboam. “We don’t want you as our king unless you promise to treat us better than he did.”

⁵ “Give me three days to think this over,” Rehoboam replied. “Come back then for my answer.” So the people left.

⁶ Rehoboam talked it over with the old men who had counseled his father Solomon.

“What do you think I should do?” he asked them.

⁷ And they replied, “If you give them a pleasant reply and agree to be good to them and serve them well, you can be their king forever.”

⁸ But Rehoboam refused the old men’s counsel and called in the young men with whom he had grown up.

⁹ “What do you think I should do?” he asked them.

¹⁰ And the young men replied, “Tell them, ‘If you think my father was hard on you, well, I’ll be harder! ¹¹ Yes, my father was harsh, but I’ll be even harsher! My father used whips on you, but I’ll use scorpions!’”

¹² So when Jeroboam and the people returned three days later, ^13-14 the new king answered them roughly. He ignored the old men’s advice and followed that of the young men; ¹⁵ so the king refused the people’s demands. (But the Lord’s hand was in it—he caused the new king to do this in order to fulfill his promise to Jeroboam, made through Ahijah, the prophet from Shiloh.)

^16-17 When the people realized that the king meant what he said and was refusing to listen to them, they began shouting, “Down with David and all his relatives! Let’s go home! Let Rehoboam be king of his own family!”

And they all deserted him except for the tribe of Judah, who remained loyal and accepted Rehoboam as their king. ¹⁸ When King Rehoboam sent Adoram (who was in charge of the draft) to conscript men from the other tribes, a great mob stoned him to death. But King Rehoboam escaped by chariot and fled to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ And Israel has been in rebellion against the dynasty of David to this day.

²⁰ When the people of Israel learned of Jeroboam’s return from Egypt, he was asked to come before an open meeting of all the people; and there he was made king of Israel. Only the tribe of Judah^[e] continued under the kingship of the family of David.

²¹ When King Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he summoned his army—all the able-bodied men of Judah and Benjamin: 180,000 special troops—to force the rest of Israel to acknowledge him as their king. ²² But God sent this message to Shemaiah, the prophet:

^23-24 “Tell Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and all the people of Judah and Benjamin that they must not fight against their brothers, the people of Israel. Tell them to disband and go home, for what has happened to Rehoboam is according to my wish.” So the army went home as the Lord had commanded.

²⁵ Jeroboam now built the city of Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and it became his capital. Later he built Penuel. ²⁶ Jeroboam thought, “Unless I’m careful, the people will want a descendant of David as their king. ²⁷ When they go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices at the Temple, they will become friendly with King Rehoboam; then they will kill me and ask him to be their king instead.”

²⁸ So on the advice of his counselors, the king had two golden calf idols made and told the people, “It’s too much trouble to go to Jerusalem to worship; from now on these will be your gods—they rescued you from your captivity in Egypt!”

²⁹ One of these calf idols was placed in Bethel and the other in Dan. ³⁰ This was of course a great sin, for the people worshiped them. ³¹ He also made shrines on the hills and ordained priests from the rank and file of the people—even those who were not from the priestly tribe of Levi. ^32-33 Jeroboam also announced that the annual Tabernacle Festival would be held at Bethel on the first of November^[f] (a date he decided upon himself), similar to the annual festival at Jerusalem; he himself offered sacrifices upon the altar to the calves at Bethel and burned incense to them. And it was there at Bethel that he ordained priests for the shrines on the hills.

13 As Jeroboam approached the altar to burn incense to the golden calf idol, a prophet of the Lord from Judah walked up to him. ² Then, at the Lord’s command, the prophet shouted, “O altar, the Lord says that a child named Josiah shall be born into the family line of David, and he shall sacrifice upon you the priests from the shrines on the hills who come here to burn incense; and men’s bones shall be burned upon you.”

³ Then he gave this proof that his message was from the Lord: “This altar will split apart, and the ashes on it will spill to the ground.”

⁴ The king was very angry with the prophet for saying this. He shouted to his guards, “Arrest that man!” and shook his fist at him. Instantly the king’s arm became paralyzed in that position; he couldn’t pull it back again! ⁵ At the same moment a wide crack appeared in the altar and the ashes poured out, just as the prophet had said would happen. For this was the prophet’s proof that God had been speaking through him.

⁶ “Oh, please, please,” the king cried out to the prophet, “beg the Lord your God to restore my arm again.”

So he prayed to the Lord, and the king’s arm became normal again.

⁷ Then the king said to the prophet, “Come to the palace with me and rest awhile and have some food; and I’ll give you a reward because you healed my arm.”

⁸ But the prophet said to the king, “Even if you gave me half your palace, I wouldn’t go into it; nor would I eat or drink even water in this place! ⁹ For the Lord has given me strict orders not to eat anything or drink any water while I’m here, and not to return to Judah by the road I came on.”

¹⁰ So he went back another way.

¹¹ As it happened, there was an old prophet living in Bethel, and his sons went home and told him what the prophet from Judah had done and what he had said to the king.

¹² “Which way did he go?” the old prophet asked. So they told him.

¹³ “Quick, saddle the donkey,” the old man said. And when they had saddled the donkey for him, ¹⁴ he rode after the prophet and found him sitting under an oak tree.

“Are you the prophet who came from Judah?” he asked him.

“Yes,” he replied, “I am.”

¹⁵ Then the old man said to the prophet, “Come home with me and eat.”

^16-17 “No,” he replied, “I can’t; for I am not allowed to eat anything or to drink any water at Bethel. The Lord strictly warned me against it; and he also told me not to return home by the same road I came on.”

¹⁸ But the old man said, “I am a prophet too, just as you are; and an angel gave me a message from the Lord. I am to take you home with me and give you food and water.”

But the old man was lying to him. ¹⁹ So they went back together, and the prophet ate some food and drank some water at the old man’s home.

²⁰ Then, suddenly, while they were sitting at the table, a message from the Lord came to the old man, ^21-22 and he shouted at the prophet from Judah, “The Lord says that because you have been disobedient to his clear command and have come here, and have eaten and drunk water in the place he told you not to, therefore your body shall not be buried in the grave of your fathers.”

²³ After finishing the meal, the old man saddled the prophet’s donkey, ^24-25 and the prophet started off again. But as he was traveling along, a lion came out and killed him. His body lay there on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. Those who came by and saw the body lying in the road and the lion standing quietly beside it, reported it in Bethel where the old prophet lived.

²⁶ When he heard what had happened he exclaimed, “It is the prophet who disobeyed the Lord’s command; the Lord fulfilled his warning by causing the lion to kill him.”

²⁷ Then he said to his sons, “Saddle my donkey!” And they did.

²⁸ He found the prophet’s body lying in the road; and the donkey and lion were still standing there beside it, for the lion had not eaten the body nor attacked the donkey. ²⁹ So the prophet laid the body upon the donkey and took it back to the city to mourn over it and bury it.

³⁰ He laid the body in his own grave, exclaiming, “Alas, my brother!”

³¹ Afterwards he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the prophet is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones. ³² For the Lord told him to shout against the altar in Bethel, and his curse against the shrines in the cities of Samaria shall surely be fulfilled.”

³³ Despite the prophet’s warning, Jeroboam did not turn away from his evil ways; instead, he made more priests than ever from the common people, to offer sacrifices to idols in the shrines on the hills. Anyone who wanted to could be a priest. ³⁴ This was a great sin and resulted in the destruction of Jeroboam’s kingdom and the death of all of his family.

14 Jeroboam’s son Abijah now became very sick. ² Jeroboam told his wife, “Disguise yourself so that no one will recognize you as the queen, and go to Ahijah the prophet at Shiloh—the man who told me that I would become king. ³ Take him a gift of ten loaves of bread, some fig bars, and a jar of honey, and ask him whether the boy will recover.”

⁴ So his wife went to Ahijah’s home at Shiloh. He was an old man now and could no longer see. ⁵ But the Lord told him that the queen, pretending to be someone else, would come to ask about her son, for he was very sick. And the Lord told him what to tell her.

⁶ So when Ahijah heard her at the door, he called out, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you pretending to be someone else?” Then he told her, “I have sad news for you. ⁷ Give your husband this message from the Lord God of Israel: ‘I promoted you from the ranks of the common people and made you king of Israel. ⁸ I ripped the kingdom away from the family of David and gave it to you, but you have not obeyed my commandments as my servant David did. His heart’s desire was always to obey me and to do whatever I wanted him to. ⁹ But you have done more evil than all the other kings before you; you have made other gods and have made me furious with your gold calves. And since you have refused to acknowledge me, ¹⁰ I will bring disaster upon your home and will destroy all of your sons—this boy who is sick and all those who are well.^[g] I will sweep away your family as a stable hand shovels out manure. ¹¹ I vow that those of your family who die in the city shall be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the field shall be eaten by birds.’”

¹² Then Ahijah said to Jeroboam’s wife, “Go on home, and when you step into the city, the child will die. ¹³ All of Israel will mourn for him and bury him, but he is the only member of your family who will come to a quiet end. For this child is the only good thing that the Lord God of Israel sees in the entire family of Jeroboam. ¹⁴ And the Lord will raise up a king over Israel who will destroy the family of Jeroboam. ¹⁵ Then the Lord will shake Israel like a reed whipped about in a stream; he will uproot the people of Israel from this good land of their fathers and scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, for they have angered the Lord by worshiping idol-gods. ¹⁶ He will abandon Israel because Jeroboam sinned and made all of Israel sin along with him.”

¹⁷ So Jeroboam’s wife returned to Tirzah; and the child died just as she walked through the door of her home. ¹⁸ And there was mourning for him throughout the land, just as the Lord had predicted through Ahijah.

¹⁹ The rest of Jeroboam’s activities—his wars and the other events of his reign—are recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel. ²⁰ Jeroboam reigned twenty-two years, and when he died, his son Nadab took the throne.

²¹ Meanwhile, Rehoboam the son of Solomon was king in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he was on the throne seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which, among all the cities of Israel, the Lord had chosen to live in. (Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah, an Ammonite woman.) ²² During his reign the people of Judah, like those in Israel, did wrong and angered the Lord with their sin, for it was even worse than that of their ancestors. ²³ They built shrines and obelisks and idols on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴ There was homosexuality throughout the land, and the people of Judah became as depraved as the heathen nations which the Lord drove out to make room for his people.

²⁵ In the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign, King Shishak of Egypt attacked and conquered Jerusalem. ²⁶ He ransacked the Temple and the palace and stole everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made. ²⁷ Afterwards Rehoboam made bronze shields as substitutes, and the palace guards used these instead. ²⁸ Whenever the king went to the Temple, the guards paraded before him and then took the shields back to the guard chamber.

²⁹ The other events in Rehoboam’s reign are written in The Annals of the Kings of Judah. ³⁰ There was constant war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. ³¹ When Rehoboam died—his mother was Naamah the Ammonitess—he was buried among his ancestors in Jerusalem, and his son Abijam took the throne.

15 ^1-2 Abijam began his three-year reign as king of Judah in Jerusalem during the eighteenth year of Jeroboam’s reign in Israel. (Abijam’s mother was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.) ³ He was as great a sinner as his father was, and his heart was not right with God, as King David’s was. ⁴ But despite Abijam’s sin, the Lord remembered David’s love^[h] and did not end the line of David’s royal descendants. ⁵ For David had obeyed God during his entire life except for the affair concerning Uriah the Hittite. ⁶ During Abijam’s reign there was constant war between Israel and Judah.^{[i] 7} The rest of Abijam’s history is recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Judah. ⁸ When he died he was buried in Jerusalem, and his son Asa reigned in his place.

⁹ Asa became king of Judah, in Jerusalem, in the twentieth year of the reign of Jeroboam over Israel, ¹⁰ and reigned forty-one years. (His grandmother was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.) ¹¹ He pleased the Lord like his ancestor King David. ¹² He executed the male prostitutes and removed all the idols his father had made. ¹³ He deposed his grandmother Maacah as queen mother because she had made an idol—which he cut down and burned at Kidron Brook. ¹⁴ However, the shrines on the hills were not removed, for Asa did not realize that these were wrong.^{[j] 15} He made permanent exhibits in the Temple of the bronze shields his grandfather had dedicated,^[k] along with the silver and gold vessels he himself had donated.

¹⁶ There was lifelong war between King Asa of Judah and King Baasha of Israel. ¹⁷ King Baasha built the fortress city of Ramah in an attempt to cut off all trade with Jerusalem. ¹⁸ Then Asa took all the silver and gold left in the Temple treasury and all the treasures of the palace, and gave them to his officials to take to Damascus, to King Ben-hadad of Syria, with this message:

¹⁹ “Let us be allies just as our fathers were. I am sending you a present of gold and silver. Now break your alliance with King Baasha of Israel so that he will leave me alone.”

²⁰ Ben-hadad agreed and sent his armies against some of the cities of Israel; and he destroyed Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, all of Chinneroth, and all the cities in the land of Naphtali. ²¹ When Baasha received word of the attack, he discontinued building the city of Ramah and returned to Tirzah. ²² Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah, asking every able-bodied man to help demolish Ramah and haul away its stones and timbers. And King Asa used these materials to build the city of Geba in Benjamin and the city of Mizpah.

²³ The rest of Asa’s biography—his conquests and deeds and the names of the cities he built—is found in The Annals of the Kings of Judah. In his old age his feet became diseased, ²⁴ and when he died, he was buried in the royal cemetery in Jerusalem. Then his son Jehoshaphat became the new king of Judah.

²⁵ Meanwhile over in Israel, Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, had become king. He reigned two years, beginning in the second year of the reign of King Asa of Judah. ²⁶ But he was not a good king; like his father, he worshiped many idols and led all of Israel into sin.

²⁷ Then Baasha (the son of Ahijah, from the tribe of Issachar) plotted against him and assassinated him while he was with the Israeli army laying siege to the Philistine city of Gibbethon. ²⁸ So Baasha replaced Nadab as the king of Israel in Tirzah during the third year of the reign of King Asa of Judah. ²⁹ He immediately killed all of the descendants of King Jeroboam, so that not one of the royal family was left, just as the Lord had said would happen when he spoke through Ahijah, the prophet from Shiloh. ³⁰ This was done because Jeroboam had angered the Lord God of Israel by sinning and leading the rest of Israel into sin.

³¹ Further details of Baasha’s reign are recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.

^32-33 There was continuous warfare between King Asa of Judah and King Baasha of Israel. Baasha reigned for twenty-four years, ³⁴ but all that time he continually disobeyed the Lord. He followed the evil paths of Jeroboam, for he led the people of Israel into the sin of worshiping idols.

16 A message of condemnation from the Lord was delivered to King Baasha at this time by the prophet Jehu:

² “I lifted you out of the dust,” the message said, “to make you king of my people Israel; but you have walked in the evil paths of Jeroboam. You have made my people sin, and I am angry! ³ So now I will destroy you and your family, just as I did the descendants of Jeroboam. ^4-7 Those of your family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the fields will be eaten by the birds.”

The message was sent to Baasha and his family because he had angered the Lord by all his evil deeds. He was as evil as Jeroboam despite the fact that the Lord had destroyed all of Jeroboam’s descendants for their sins.

The rest of Baasha’s biography—his deeds and conquests—are written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.

⁸ Elah, Baasha’s son, began reigning during the twenty-sixth year of the reign of King Asa of Judah, but he reigned only two years. ⁹ Then General Zimri, who had charge of half the royal chariot troops, plotted against him. One day King Elah was half drunk at the home of Arza, the superintendent of the palace, in the capital city of Tirzah. ¹⁰ Zimri simply walked in and struck him down and killed him. (This occurred during the twenty-seventh year of the reign of King Asa of Judah.) Then Zimri declared himself to be the new king of Israel.

¹¹ He immediately killed the entire royal family—leaving not a single male child. He even destroyed distant relatives and friends. ¹² This destruction of the descendants of Baasha was in line with what the Lord had predicted through the prophet Jehu. ¹³ The tragedy occurred because of the sins of Baasha and his son Elah; for they had led Israel into worshiping idols, and the Lord was very angry about it. ¹⁴ The rest of the history of Elah’s reign is written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.

^15-16 But Zimri lasted only seven days; for when the army of Israel, which was then engaged in attacking the Philistine city of Gibbethon, heard that Zimri had assassinated the king, they decided on General Omri, commander-in-chief of the army, as their new ruler. ¹⁷ So Omri led the army of Gibbethon to besiege Tirzah, Israel’s capital. ¹⁸ When Zimri saw that the city had been taken, he went into the palace and burned it over him and died in the flames. ¹⁹ For he, too, had sinned like Jeroboam; he had worshiped idols and had led the people of Israel to sin with him. ²⁰ The rest of the story of Zimri and his treason are written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.