Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹Then Solomon made an altar of bronze, twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in width, and ten cubits in height.

²He also made the Sea [that is, the large basin used for ceremonial washing] of cast metal, ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and five cubits in height, and its circumference was thirty cubits.

³Under it and entirely encircling it were figures of oxen, ten to a cubit. The oxen were in two rows, cast in one piece.

⁴It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, three facing east; and the Sea was set on top of them and all their hindquarters turned inward.

⁵It was a handbreadth (the width of the four fingers) thick; its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold3,000 baths (measures).

⁶He also made ten [portable] basins in which to wash, and he put five on the right (south) side and five on the left (north). They would rinse things for the burnt offering in them, but the Sea was for the priests to wash in.

⁷And he made ten golden lampstands just as directed and set them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left.

⁸He made also ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left side, and he made a hundred [ceremonial] basins of gold.

⁹Moreover, he made the courtyard of the priests, and the great courtyard [for the people] and doors for the courtyard, and he overlaid their doors with bronze.

¹⁰He set the Sea on the right side at the southeast corner [of the house].

¹¹And Huram also made the pails [for ashes], the shovels, and the basins. So Huram finished the work that he did for King Solomon in the house of God:

¹²the two pillars, the bowls, the capitals on top of the two pillars, and the two lattice works to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on top of the pillars,

¹³and the four hundred pomegranates for the two lattice works, two rows of pomegranates for each lattice to cover the two bowls of the capitals on the pillars.

¹⁴He also made the stands and he made the basins on the stands;

¹⁵and the one Sea with the twelve oxen under it.

¹⁶The pails, the shovels, and the meat-forks, and all the utensils Huram-abi made of polished bronze for King Solomon for the house of the LORD.

¹⁷The king cast them on the plain of the Jordan, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredah.

¹⁸Solomon made all these utensils in such great quantity that the weight of the bronze could not be determined.

¹⁹Solomon also made all the articles that were in the house of God: the golden altar, and the tables for the bread of the Presence (showbread),

²⁰and the lampstands with their lamps of pure gold, to burn in front of the inner sanctuary (the Holy of Holies) as directed;

²¹the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs of gold, of purest gold;

²²and the snuffers, the basins, the dishes [for incense], and the firepans, of pure gold; and for the entrance of the house (temple), the inner doors for the Holy of Holies and the doors of the Holy Place (main room), were of gold.

¹Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of the LORD was finished. He brought in the things that his father David had dedicated, and he put the silver and the gold and all the utensils in the treasuries of the house of God.

²Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers' households of the Israelites, in Jerusalem to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD up from the City of David, which is Zion.

³All the men of Israel gathered before the king at the feast in the seventh month.

⁴And all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark.

⁵The Levitical priests brought up the ark, the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy utensils that were in the Tent.

⁶And King Solomon and all the assembly of Israel who gathered together with him before the ark were sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.

⁷Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place, to the inner sanctuary of the house, into the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim;

⁸for the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, making a covering above the ark and its carrying poles.

⁹The poles were so long that the ends of the poles of the ark were visible from the front of the Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary), but were not visible from the outside. They are there to this day.

¹⁰There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets [of the Ten Commandments] which Moses put there at Mount Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites, when they came out of Egypt.

¹¹When the priests came out of the Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves [separating themselves from everything unclean], without regard to their assigned divisions),

¹²and all of the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, with their sons and relatives, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres were standing at the east end of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets

¹³in unison when the trumpeters and singers were to make themselves heard with one voice praising and thanking the LORD, and when they raised their voices accompanied by the trumpets and cymbals and [other] instruments of music, and when they praised the LORD, saying, "For He is good, for His mercy and lovingkindness endure forever," then the house of the LORD was filled with a cloud,

¹⁴so that the priests could not remain standing to minister because of the cloud; for the glory and brilliance of the LORD filled the house of God.

¹Then Solomon said, "The LORD has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud.

²"I have built You a lofty house, A place for You to dwell forever."

³Then the king turned around and blessed the entire assembly of Israel, while they were all standing.

⁴And he said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David and has fulfilled with His hands what He promised, saying,

⁵'Since the day that I brought My people out of the land of Egypt, I did not choose a city among all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house so that My Name (Presence) might be there, nor did I choose any man to be a leader over My people Israel;

⁶but I have chosen Jerusalem that My Name might be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.'

⁷Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁸But the LORD said to my father David, 'Because it was in your heart to build a house for My Name, you did well that it was in your heart.

⁹Nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son who will be born to you, he shall build the house for My Name.'

¹⁰Now the LORD has fulfilled His word which He spoke; for I have risen in place of my father David and I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹¹There I have placed the ark [the symbol of His Presence] in which is the covenant of the LORD [the Ten Commandments], which He made with the people (descendants) of Israel."

¹²Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of the entire assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.

¹³For Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits square and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the courtyard; and he stood on it, and he knelt down on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven,

¹⁴and he said, "O LORD, God of Israel, there is no god like You in heaven or on the earth, keeping covenant and showing mercy and lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You [in obedience] with all their heart,

¹⁵[You] who have kept Your promise to Your servant David, my father, that which You told him; You have spoken with Your mouth and have fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is today.

¹⁶Now therefore, O LORD, the God of Israel, keep with Your servant David, my father, that which You promised him, saying, 'You shall not fail to have a man to sit on the throne of Israel, provided your sons are careful to walk in My law as you, [David,] have walked before Me.'

¹⁷Now then, O LORD, the God of Israel, let Your word which You have spoken to Your servant David be confirmed (verified).

¹⁸"But will God actually dwell with mankind on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You; how much less this house which I have built!

¹⁹Yet have regard for the prayer of Your servant and for his supplication, O LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You,

²⁰that Your eyes may be open toward this house day and night, toward the place in which You have said that You would put Your Name (Presence), to listen to the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place.

²¹So listen to the requests of Your servant and Your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from Your dwelling place, from heaven; and when You hear, forgive.

²²"If a man sins against his neighbor, and he is required to take an oath, and he comes and takes the oath before Your altar in this house,

²³then hear from heaven and act and judge Your servants, punishing the wicked by bringing his conduct on his own head, and providing justice to the righteous by giving to him in accordance with his righteousness (innocence).

²⁴"If Your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this house,

²⁵then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which You gave to them and to their fathers.

²⁶"When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin when You afflict and humble them;

²⁷then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and Your people Israel, indeed, teach them the good way in which they should walk. And send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance.

²⁸"If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, if there are [migratory] locusts or grasshoppers, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is,

²⁹then whatever prayer or request is made by any man or all of Your people Israel, each knowing his own suffering and his own pain, and stretching out his hands toward this house,

³⁰then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each in accordance with all his ways, whose heart You know; for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men,

³¹so that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways [in obedience to You] as long as they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.

³²"Also in regard to the foreigner who is not from Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for the sake of Your great name and Your mighty power and Your outstretched arm—when they come and pray toward this house,

³³then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, so that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, and fear You [reverently and worshipfully], as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your Name.

³⁴"When Your people go out to war against their enemies, by the way that You send them, and they pray to You facing this city [Jerusalem] which You have chosen and the house which I have built for Your Name,

³⁵then hear from heaven their prayer and their request, and maintain their cause and do justice.

³⁶"When they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin) and You are angry with them and hand them over to an enemy, so that they take them away captive to a land far away or near,

³⁷if they take it to heart in the land where they have been taken captive, and repent and pray to You in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned, we have done wrong and have acted wickedly';

³⁸if they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, and pray facing their land which You have given to their fathers and toward the city which You have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for Your Name;

³⁹then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, their prayer and requests, and maintain their cause and do justice and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.

⁴⁰"Now, O my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.

⁴¹"Now then arise, O LORD God, [and come] to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength and power. Let Your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation and let Your godly ones rejoice in [Your] goodness.

⁴²"O LORD God, do not turn away and reject the face of Your anointed; remember Your lovingkindness and faithfulness to Your servant David."

¹When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the [ Shekinah] glory and brilliance of the LORD filled the house.

²The priests could not enter the house of the LORD because the glory and brilliance of the LORD had filled the Lord's house.

³When all the people of Israel saw how the fire came down and saw the glory and brilliance of the LORD upon the house, they bowed down on the stone pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and praised the LORD, saying, "For He is good, for His mercy and lovingkindness endure forever."

⁴Then the king and all the people offered a sacrifice before the LORD.

⁵King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. In this way the king and all the people dedicated God's house.

⁶The priests stood at their posts [ready for service], and the Levites also, with the musical instruments of the LORD which King David had made to praise the LORD, saying, "For His lovingkindness and mercy endure forever," whenever David offered praise through their ministry. The priests were opposite the Levites blowing the trumpets and all Israel was standing.

⁷Moreover, Solomon consecrated the middle of the courtyard that was in front of the house of the LORD, for it was there that he offered burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings because the bronze altar which he had made was not sufficient to hold the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat [all together].

⁸At that time Solomon observed the feast for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very large assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt.

⁹On the eighth day they held a celebration, for they had observed the dedication of the altar for seven days, and the feast for seven days.

¹⁰And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month Solomon sent the people to their tents, rejoicing and happy in heart because of the goodness that the LORD had shown to David, to Solomon, and to His people Israel.

¹¹And so Solomon finished the house (temple) of the LORD and the palace of the king. He successfully accomplished all that he had planned to do in the house of the LORD and in his palace.

¹²Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night and said to him: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.

¹³If I shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or if I command locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence and plague among My people,

¹⁴and My people, who are called by My Name, humble themselves, and pray and seek (crave, require as a necessity) My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear [them] from heaven, and forgive their sin and heal their land.

¹⁵Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer offered in this place.

¹⁶For now I have chosen and sanctified and set apart for My purpose this house that My Name may be here forever, and My eyes and My heart will be here perpetually.

¹⁷As for you [Solomon], if you will walk before me as your father David walked, and do everything that I have commanded you, and observe My statutes and My ordinances,

¹⁸then I will establish your royal throne just as I covenanted with your father David, saying, 'You will not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.'

¹⁹"But if you [people] turn away and abandon My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and you go and serve other gods and worship them,

²⁰then I will uproot Israel from My land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have consecrated for My Name, out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and an object of scorn among all nations.

²¹And as for this house, which was so exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and appalled and say, 'Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?'

²²Then people will say, 'It is because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this adversity and evil on them.'"

¹Now it came about at the end of the twenty years, in which Solomon had built the house of the LORD and his own house (palace),

²that he built and fortified the cities which Huram (Hiram) had given to him, and settled the Israelites there.

³Then Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and captured it.

⁴He built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all his storage cities in Hamath.

⁵He also built upper Beth-horon and lower Beth-horon, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars [to lock the gates];

⁶and Baalath and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots and the cities for his horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land under his rule.

⁷All the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel,

⁸but were descendants of those who were left in the land, whom the Israelites had not destroyed—Solomon brought them up as forced laborers to this day.

⁹But Solomon did not make slaves of the Israelites for his work; they were men of war, his chief captains, and commanders of his chariots and his horsemen.

¹⁰These were the chief officers of King Solomon, two hundred and fifty [in authority] who ruled over the people.

¹¹Then Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David into the house (palace) he had built for her, for he said, "My wife shall not live in the house of David king of Israel, because the places where the ark of the LORD has entered are holy."

¹²Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD which he had built in front of the porch [of the temple],

¹³a certain number every day, offering them up as Moses commanded for the Sabbaths, the New Moons, and the three annual feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles).

¹⁴Now in accordance with the ordinance of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their duties of praise and ministering and serving before the priests as every day required, and the gatekeepers by their divisions at every gate; for David the man of God had so commanded.

¹⁵And they did not deviate from the commandment of the king to the priests and Levites in any respect or in regard to the storehouses or treasuries.

¹⁶Thus all the work of Solomon was carried out from the day the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid until it was finished. So the house of the LORD was completed.

¹⁷Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth on the shore of the [Red] Sea in the land of Edom.

¹⁸And Huram (Hiram) sent him, by his servants, ships and servants familiar with the sea; and they went with Solomon's servants to Ophir, and took from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought them to King Solomon.

¹When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with riddles. She was accompanied by a very large number of attendants, with camels bearing spices (balsam oil) and a large amount of gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she talked with him about all that was on her mind.

²Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was hidden from him which he did not make clear to her.

³So when the queen of Sheba saw the [depth of] Solomon's wisdom, and the house which he had built,

⁴and the food of his table, the [vast] seating order of his officials, the attendance and service of his ministers and their attire, his cupbearers and their attire, and his stairway by which he went up to the house of the LORD, she was breathless.

⁵She said to the king, "The report which I heard in my own land regarding your [accomplishments and your] words and your wisdom was true,

⁶but I did not believe the reports until I came and saw it with my own eyes. Behold, the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told to me; you have surpassed the report that I heard.

⁷Blessed and fortunate are your people, how blessed and fortunate are these servants of yours who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom!

⁸Blessed be the LORD your God, who delighted in you, setting you on His throne as king for the LORD your God; because your God loved Israel, establishing them forever, therefore He made you king over them, to do justice and righteousness."

⁹Then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, a very large amount of spices (balsam oil) and precious stones; there was no such spice [anywhere] like that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰The servants of Huram and those of Solomon, who brought gold from Ophir, also brought almug trees and precious stones.

¹¹From the almug timber the king made stairways for the house of the LORD and for the king's palace, and lyres and harps for the singers; none like that was seen before in the land of Judah.

¹²King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all [the things] she desired, whatever she asked, besides a return for what she had brought to the king. So she returned to her own land with her servants.

¹³Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents,

¹⁴besides what the traders and merchants brought; and all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon.

¹⁵King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold, using six hundred shekels of beaten gold on each large shield.

¹⁶And he made three hundred [smaller] shields of beaten gold, using three hundred shekels of gold on each shield; and the king put them in the house of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold.

¹⁸There were six steps to the throne and a golden footstool attached to the throne, and arms on each side of the seat, with two lions standing beside the arms.

¹⁹Also, twelve lions were standing there, one on each side of the six steps. Nothing like it had ever been made for any [other] kingdom.

²⁰All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; silver was not considered valuable in the days of Solomon.

²¹For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; once every three years the ships of Tarshish came bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and peacocks.

²²So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in wealth and wisdom.

²³And all the kings of the earth were seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put into his heart.

²⁴Each man brought his gift, articles of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses and mules, so much year by year.

²⁵Now Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots, and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities or with the king at Jerusalem.

²⁶He ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the border of Egypt.

²⁷The king made silver in Jerusalem as common as stones, and cedar wood as plentiful as the sycamore-fig trees that are in the lowland.

²⁸And they were importing horses for Solomon from Egypt and from all [the other] countries.

²⁹Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, from the first to the last, are they not written in the records of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat?

³⁰Solomon reigned forty years in Jerusalem over all Israel.

³¹And Solomon slept with his fathers [in death]; he was buried in the city of his father David. Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.

¹Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, because all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.

²When Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard about the new king (for he was in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon), Jeroboam returned from Egypt.

³And the people sent messengers and summoned him. So when Jeroboam and all Israel came, they spoke to Rehoboam, saying,

⁴"Your father [King Solomon] made our yoke hard (heavy, difficult); so now lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you."

⁵Rehoboam replied, "Come back to me again in three days." So the people departed.

⁶Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon [as advisers] while he was alive, asking, "What advice do you give me in answer to these people?"

⁷They answered him, saying, "If you are kind to these people and please them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever."

⁸But the king rejected the advice which the elders gave him, and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him [as advisers].

⁹He asked them, "What advice do you give to us regarding the answer to these people, who have spoken to me, saying, 'Lighten the yoke which your father put on us'?"

¹⁰The young men who grew up with him told him, "Tell the people who said to you, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter for us': 'My little finger is thicker than my father's loins!

¹¹Now my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, but I will add [more weight] to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions (extremely painful scourges).'"

¹²So on the third day Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam just as the king had directed, saying, "Return to me on the third day."

¹³The king answered them harshly, for King Rehoboam rejected the counsel of the elders.

¹⁴He spoke to them in accordance with the advice of the young men, saying, "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions."

¹⁵So the king did not listen to the people, for the turn of events was from God that the LORD might fulfill His word, which He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king did not listen and pay attention to them, the people answered him, "What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to your tents, O Israel; Now, [Rehoboam, descendant of] David, see to your own house." So all Israel went to their tents.

¹⁷But as for the Israelites who lived in Judah's cities, Rehoboam ruled over them.

¹⁸Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was over the forced labor, and the Israelites stoned him and he died. And King Rehoboam hurried to mount his [royal] chariot to escape to Jerusalem.

¹⁹And Israel has rebelled against the house of David to this day.

¹Now when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin, 180,000 chosen warriors to fight against [the ten tribes of] Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam.

²But the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,

³"Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin,

⁴'Thus says the LORD: "You shall not go up nor fight against your brothers (countrymen); return, every man to his house, for this thing is from Me."'" And they listened to and obeyed the words of the LORD and turned back from going against Jeroboam.

⁵Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem and built [fortified] cities for defense in Judah.

⁶He built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,

⁷Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam,

⁸Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,

⁹Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,

¹⁰Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, which are fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin.

¹¹He strengthened the fortresses and put officers in them, with supplies of food, [olive] oil, and wine.

¹²And in each city he put [large] shields and spears, and made them very strong. So he held Judah and Benjamin.

¹³Further, the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel took their stand with Rehoboam from all their districts.

¹⁴For the Levites left their pasture lands and their property and came to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had excluded them from serving as priests to the LORD.

¹⁵Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places, for the satyrs (goat demons) and calves (idols) which he had made.

¹⁶Those from all the tribes of Israel who set their hearts on seeking the LORD God of Israel followed them to Jerusalem, to sacrifice to the LORD God of their fathers.

¹⁷So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam the son of Solomon for three years; for they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years.

¹⁸Rehoboam took as his wife Mahalath, the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David, and of Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse.

¹⁹She bore him sons: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.

²⁰After her he took Maacah the daughter (granddaughter) of Absalom, and she bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith.

²¹Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter (granddaughter) of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines—for he had taken eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

²²Rehoboam appointed Abijah the son of Maacah the chief leader among his brothers, because he intended to make him king.

²³He acted wisely and distributed some of his sons throughout the territories of Judah and Benjamin to all the fortified cities. He gave them abundant provisions, and he sought many wives for them.

¹When the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the LORD.

²And it came about in King Rehoboam's fifth year, because they had been unfaithful to the LORD, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem

³with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen. The people who came with him from Egypt were beyond counting—the Lubim, the Sukkiim, and the Ethiopians.

⁴Shishak took the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.

⁵Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, "Thus says the LORD: 'You have abandoned (turned away from) Me, so I have abandoned you into the hands of Shishak.'"

⁶Then the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, "The LORD is righteous."

⁷When the LORD saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, saying, "They have humbled themselves so I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some measure of a remnant [that escapes]; and My wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by means of Shishak.

⁸Nevertheless they will become his slaves, so that they may know [the difference between] My service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries."

⁹So Shishak king of Egypt went up against Jerusalem; he took the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king's house (palace). He took everything. He even took the shields of gold which Solomon had made.

¹⁰In their place King Rehoboam made shields of bronze and entrusted them to the care of the officers of the guard who guarded the door of the king's house.

¹¹And whenever the king entered the house of the LORD, the guards came and carried the shields and then brought them back into the guards' room.

¹²When Rehoboam humbled himself, the wrath of the LORD turned away from him, so as not to destroy him completely; and also conditions were good in Judah.

¹³So King Rehoboam established himself in Jerusalem and reigned. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city in which the LORD had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put His Name. And his mother was Naamah the Ammonitess.

¹⁴He did evil because he did not set his heart to seek and worship and honor the LORD.

¹⁵Now the acts of Rehoboam, from the first to the last, are they not written in the records of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer, according to genealogical enrollment? There were wars between Rehoboam [of Judah] and Jeroboam [of Israel] continually.

¹⁶And Rehoboam slept with his fathers [in death] and was buried in the City of David; and Abijah his son became king in his place.

¹In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah.

²He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Micaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam [of Israel].

³Abijah began the battle with an army of brave soldiers, 400,000 chosen men. Jeroboam drew up in battle formation against him with 800,000 chosen men, valiant men.

⁴Then Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, "Listen to me, Jeroboam and all Israel:

⁵Do you not know that the LORD God of Israel, gave rule over Israel forever to David and to his sons by a covenant of salt [a permanent pact, extending to each generation of Israel]?

⁶Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, a servant of Solomon the son of David, rose up and rebelled against his lord [the king],

⁷and worthless (unprincipled, unethical) men gathered around him, useless and wicked men, who proved too strong for Rehoboam the son of Solomon when Rehoboam was young and timid, and could not assert himself against them.

⁸"And now you intend to assert yourselves against the kingdom of the LORD which is in the hands of the sons of David, since you are a great multitude and have with you the golden calves (idols) which Jeroboam made for you as gods.

⁹Have you not driven out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and made priests for yourselves like the peoples of other lands? So whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams, even he may become a priest of non-existent gods (idols).

¹⁰But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not abandoned (turned away from) Him. The sons of Aaron are ministering to the LORD as priests, and the Levites attend to their service.

¹¹Every morning and every evening they offer the burnt offerings and the fragrant incense to the LORD; and the showbread is set on the clean table [of pure gold], and the golden lampstand with its lamps is ready to light every evening; for we keep the charge of the LORD our God [that is, the obligation we have to Him], but you have abandoned (turned away from) Him.

¹²Behold, God is with us at our head, and His priests [are here] with their signal trumpets to sound an alarm against you. O sons of Israel, do not fight against the LORD God of your fathers, for you cannot succeed."

¹³But Jeroboam had set an ambush to come from the rear, so that Israel was in front of Judah and the ambush was behind them.

¹⁴When [the men of] Judah turned around, they were attacked from both front and rear; so they cried out to the LORD [for help], and the priests blew the trumpets.

¹⁵Then the men of Judah raised a war cry; and as they shouted, God struck Jeroboam and all Israel [with defeat] before Abijah and Judah.

¹⁶And the sons of Israel fled before Judah, and God handed over the sons of Israel to them.

¹⁷Abijah and his people inflicted on them a great defeat, so that 500,000 chosen men of Israel fell slain.

¹⁸Thus the sons of Israel were subdued (humbled) at that time, and the sons of Judah prevailed because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers.

¹⁹Abijah pursued Jeroboam and captured [several] cities from him: Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephraim (Ephron), with their villages.

²⁰Jeroboam did not recover strength again during the time of [the reign of] Abijah. And the LORD struck him and he died.

²¹But Abijah became powerful. He took fourteen wives for himself and fathered twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.

²²Now the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways and his sayings, are written in the writing of the prophet Iddo.

¹So Abijah slept with his fathers [in death], and they buried him in the City of David; and Asa his son became king in his place. The land was at peace for ten years during his days.

²Asa did what was good and right in the sight of the LORD his God.

³He removed the foreign altars and high places and tore down the [pagan] pillars (obelisks, memorial stones), and cut to pieces the Asherim [the symbols of the goddess Asherah].

⁴And he commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers [to inquire of and for Him and seek Him as a vital necessity], and to observe the law [given to Moses] and the commandment.

⁵Asa also removed the [idolatrous] high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah. The kingdom was at rest and undisturbed under his reign.

⁶He built fortified cities in Judah, since the land was at rest, and there was no one at war with him in those years, because the LORD had given him rest.

⁷So he said to Judah, "Let us build these cities and surround them with walls, towers, gates and bars [to secure the doors]. The land is still ours because we have sought the LORD our God; we have sought Him [longing for Him with all our heart] and He has given us peace on every side." So they built and prospered.

⁸Now Asa had an army of 300,000 men from Judah, who carried large shields and spears, and 280,000 from Benjamin, who carried shields and drew bows, all courageous men.

⁹Now Zerah the Ethiopian (Cushite) came out against Judah with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he came as far as Mareshah.

¹⁰Then Asa went out against him, and they drew up in battle formation in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.

¹¹Asa called out to the LORD his God, saying, "O LORD, there is no one besides You to help in the battle between the powerful and the weak; so help us, O LORD our God, for we trust in and rely on You, and in Your name we have come against this multitude. O LORD, You are our God; let not man prevail against You."

¹²So the LORD struck the Ethiopians [with defeat] before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.

¹³Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar; and so many Ethiopians fell that none of them were found alive; for they were destroyed before the LORD and His army. And they carried away a very large amount of spoil.

¹⁴They attacked and destroyed all the cities around Gerar, for the dread of the LORD had fallen on them. They plundered all the cities, for there was a large amount of spoil in them.

¹⁵They also struck down the people [living] in tents who had livestock, and took captive large numbers of sheep and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

¹Now the Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded,

²and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the LORD is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him [inquiring for and of Him, as your soul's first necessity], He will let you find Him; but if you abandon (turn away from) Him, He will abandon (turn away from) you.

³Now for a long time Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest, and without [God's] law.

⁴But when they were in their trouble and distress they turned to the LORD God of Israel, and [in desperation earnestly] sought Him, and He let them find Him.

⁵In those times there was no peace for him who went out or for him who came in, for great suffering came on all the inhabitants of the lands.

⁶Nation was crushed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every kind of distress.

⁷But as for you, be strong and do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work."

⁸And when Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Azariah the son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the repulsive idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. Then he restored the altar [of burnt offering] of the LORD which was in front of the porch [of the temple] of the LORD.

⁹He gathered all Judah and Benjamin and the strangers who were with them out of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to Asa from Israel in large numbers when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.

¹⁰So they assembled at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's reign.

¹¹They sacrificed to the LORD on that day from the spoil they had brought—700 oxen and 7,000 sheep.

¹²They entered into a covenant (solemn agreement) to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and soul;

¹³and that whoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman.

¹⁴They swore an oath to the LORD with a loud voice, with [jubilant] shouting, with trumpets, and with horns.

¹⁵All Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought Him with their whole heart, and He let them find Him. So the LORD gave them rest on every side.

¹⁶He also removed Maacah, King Asa's mother, from the position of queen mother, because she had made a repulsive image for [the goddess] Asherah. Asa cut down her idol, crushed it, and burned it at the Brook Kidron.

¹⁷But the high places [of pagan worship] were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless Asa's heart was blameless all his days.

¹⁸He brought the things that his father [Abijah] had dedicated and those things that he had dedicated into the house of God—silver and gold and utensils.

¹⁹And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's reign.

¹In the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah and fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to [meet with] Asa king of Judah.

²Then Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the LORD and from the king's house, and sent them to Ben-hadad king of Aram (Syria), who lived in Damascus, saying,

³"Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. Look, I am sending you silver and gold; go, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me."

⁴Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel; and they attacked and conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali.

⁵When Baasha heard about it, he ceased fortifying Ramah and stopped his work.

⁶Then King Asa brought all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had been building, and with them he fortified Geba and Mizpah.

⁷At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, "Because you relied on the king of Aram (Syria) and did not rely on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram (Syria) has escaped out of your hand.

⁸Were not the Ethiopians and Lubim a huge army with a great number of chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the LORD, He placed them in your hand.

⁹For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth so that He may support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this; therefore, from now on you will have wars."

¹⁰Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in prison [in the stocks], for he was enraged with him because of this. And at the same time Asa oppressed some of the people.

¹¹Now the acts of Asa, from the first to the last, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

¹²In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa developed a disease in his feet. His disease was severe, yet even in his illness he did not seek the LORD, but [relied only on] the physicians.

¹³So Asa slept with his fathers [in death], dying in the forty-first year of his reign.

¹⁴They buried him in his own tomb which he had cut out for himself in the City of David, and they laid him on a bier which he had filled with various kinds of spices blended by the perfumers' art; and they made a very great fire in his honor.