Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹He made a bronze altar 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 15 feet high.

²Then he made the cast metal basin, 15 feet from brim to brim, perfectly round. It was 7½ feet high and 45 feet in circumference.

³The likeness of oxen was below it, completely encircling it, ten every half yard, completely surrounding the basin. The oxen were cast in two rows when the basin was cast.

⁴It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The basin was on top of them and all their hindquarters were toward the center.

⁵The basin was three inches thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup or a lily blossom. It could hold eleven thousand gallons.

⁶He made ten basins for washing and he put five on the right and five on the left. The parts of the burnt offering were rinsed in them, but the basin was used by the priests for washing.

⁷He made the ten gold lampstands according to their specifications and put them in the sanctuary, five on the right and five on the left.

⁸He made ten tables and placed them in the sanctuary, five on the right and five on the left. He also made a hundred gold bowls.

⁹He made the courtyard of the priests and the large court, and doors for the court. He overlaid the doors with bronze.

¹⁰He put the basin on the right side, toward the southeast.

¹¹Then 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:

¹²two pillars; the bowls and the capitals on top of the two pillars; the two gratings for covering both bowls of the capitals that were on top of the pillars;

¹³the four hundred pomegranates for the two gratings (two rows of pomegranates for each grating covering both capitals’ bowls on top of the pillars ).

¹⁴He also made the water carts and the basins on the water carts.

¹⁵The one basin and the twelve oxen underneath it,

¹⁶the 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.

¹⁷The king had them cast in clay molds in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zeredah.

¹⁸Solomon made all these utensils in such great abundance that the weight of the bronze was not determined.

¹⁹Solomon also made all the equipment in God’s temple: the gold altar; the tables on which to put the Bread of the Presence;

²⁰the lampstands and their lamps of pure gold to burn in front of the inner sanctuary according to specifications;

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

²²the wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, ladles, and firepans — of purest gold; and the entryway to the temple, its inner doors to the most holy place, and the doors of the temple sanctuary — of gold.

¹So all the work Solomon did for the LORD’s temple was completed. Then Solomon brought the consecrated things of his father David — the silver, the gold, and all the utensils — and put them in the treasuries of God’s temple.

²At that time Solomon assembled at Jerusalem the elders of Israel — all the tribal heads, the ancestral chiefs of the Israelites — in order to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD up from the city of David, that is, Zion.

³So all the men of Israel were assembled in the king’s presence at the festival; this was in the seventh month.

⁴All the elders of Israel came, and the Levites picked up the ark.

⁵They brought up the ark, the tent of meeting, and the holy utensils that were in the tent. The priests and the Levites brought them up.

⁶King Solomon and the entire congregation of Israel who had gathered around him were in front of the ark sacrificing sheep, goats, and cattle that could not be counted or numbered because there were so many.

⁷The priests brought the ark of the LORD’s covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the most holy place, beneath the wings of the cherubim.

⁸And the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark so that the cherubim formed a cover above the ark and its poles.

⁹The poles were so long that their ends were seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen from outside; they are still there today.

¹⁰Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had put in it at Horeb, where the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.

¹¹Now all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves regardless of their divisions. When the priests came out of the holy place,

¹²the Levitical singers dressed in fine linen and carrying cymbals, harps, and lyres were standing east of the altar, and with them were 120 priests blowing trumpets. The Levitical singers were descendants of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun and their sons and relatives.

¹³The trumpeters and singers joined together to praise and thank the LORD with one voice. They raised their voices, accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and musical instruments, in praise to the LORD: For he is good; his faithful love endures forever. The temple, the LORD’s temple, was filled with a cloud.

¹⁴And because of the cloud, the priests were not able to continue ministering, for the glory of the LORD filled God’s temple.

¹Then Solomon said: The LORD said he would dwell in total darkness,

²but I have built an exalted temple for you, a place for your residence forever.

³Then the king turned and blessed the entire congregation of Israel while they were standing.

⁴He said: Blessed be the LORD God of Israel! He spoke directly to my father David, and he has fulfilled the promise by his power. He said,

⁵“Since the day I brought my people Israel out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city to build a temple in among any of the tribes of Israel, so that my name would be there, and I have not chosen a man to be ruler over my people Israel.

⁶But I have chosen Jerusalem so that my name will be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.”

⁷My father David had his heart set on building a temple for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁸However, the LORD said to my father David, “Since it was your desire to build a temple for my name, you have done well to have this desire.

⁹Yet, you are not the one to build the temple, but your son, your own offspring, will build the temple for my name.”

¹⁰So the LORD has fulfilled what he promised. I have taken the place of my father David and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the temple for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹¹I have put the ark there, where the LORD’s covenant is that he made with the Israelites.

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

¹³For Solomon had made a bronze platform 7½ feet long, 7½ feet wide, and 4½ feet high and put it in the court. He stood on it, knelt down in front of the entire congregation of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven.

¹⁴He said: LORD God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth, who keeps his gracious covenant with your servants who walk before you with all their heart.

¹⁵You have kept what you promised to your servant, my father David. You spoke directly to him, and you fulfilled your promise by your power, as it is today.

¹⁶Therefore, LORD God of Israel, keep what you promised to your servant, my father David: “You will never fail to have a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons guard their way to walk in my Law as you have walked before me.”

¹⁷Now, LORD God of Israel, please confirm what you promised to your servant David.

¹⁸But will God indeed live on earth with humans? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you, much less this temple I have built.

¹⁹Listen to your servant’s prayer and his petition, LORD my God, so that you may hear the cry and the prayer that your servant prays before you,

²⁰so that your eyes watch over this temple day and night, toward the place where you said you would put your name; and so that you may hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place.

²¹Hear the petitions of your servant and your people Israel, which they pray toward this place. May you hear in your dwelling place in heaven. May you hear and forgive.

²²If a man sins against his neighbor and is forced to take an oath and he comes to take an oath before your altar in this temple,

²³may you hear in heaven and act. May you judge your servants, condemning the wicked man by bringing what he has done on his own head and providing justice for the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

²⁴If your people Israel are defeated before an enemy, because they have sinned against you, and they return to you and praise your name, and they pray and plead for mercy before you in this temple,

²⁵may you hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel. May you restore them to the land you gave them and their ancestors.

²⁶When the skies are shut and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, and they pray toward this place and praise your name, and they turn from their sins because you are afflicting them,

²⁷may you hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, so that you may teach them the good way they should walk in. May you send rain on your land that you gave your people for an inheritance.

²⁸When there is famine in the land, when there is pestilence, when there is blight or mildew, locust or grasshopper, when their enemies besiege them in the land and its cities, when there is any plague or illness,

²⁹every prayer or petition that any person or that all your people Israel may have — they each know their own affliction and suffering — as they spread out their hands toward this temple,

³⁰may you hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and may you forgive and give to everyone according to all their ways, since you know each heart, for you alone know the human heart,

³¹so that they may fear you and walk in your ways all the days they live on the land you gave our ancestors.

³²Even for the foreigner who is not of your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your great name and your strong hand and outstretched arm: when he comes and prays toward this temple,

³³may you hear in heaven in your dwelling place, and do all the foreigner asks you. Then all the peoples of the earth will know your name, to fear you as your people Israel do and know that this temple I have built bears your name.

³⁴When your people go out to fight against their enemies, wherever you send them, and they pray to you in the direction of this city you have chosen and the temple that I have built for your name,

³⁵may you hear their prayer and petition in heaven and uphold their cause.

³⁶When they sin against you — for there is no one who does not sin  — and you are angry with them and hand them over to the enemy, and their captors deport them to a distant or nearby country,

³⁷and when they come to their senses in the land where they were deported and repent and petition you in their captors’ land, saying: “We have sinned and done wrong; we have been wicked,”

³⁸and when they return to you with all their mind and all their heart in the land of their captivity where they were taken captive, and when they pray in the direction of their land that you gave their ancestors, and the city you have chosen, and toward the temple I have built for your name,

³⁹may you hear their prayer and petitions in heaven, your dwelling place, and uphold their cause. May you forgive your people who sinned against you.

⁴⁰Now, my God, please let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place.

⁴¹Now therefore: Arise, LORD God, come to your resting place, you and your powerful ark. May your priests, LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and may your faithful people rejoice in goodness.

⁴²LORD God, do not reject your anointed one; remember the promises to your servant David.

¹When Solomon finished praying, fire descended from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.

²The priests were not able to enter the LORD’s temple because the glory of the LORD filled the temple of the LORD.

³All the Israelites were watching when the fire descended and the glory of the LORD came on the temple. They bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground. They worshiped and praised the LORD: For he is good, for his faithful love endures forever.

⁴The king and all the people were offering sacrifices in the LORD’s presence.

⁵King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep and goats. In this manner the king and all the people dedicated God’s temple.

⁶The priests and the Levites were standing at their stations. The Levites had the musical instruments of the LORD, which King David had made to give thanks to 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.

⁷Since the bronze altar that Solomon had made could not accommodate the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat of the fellowship offerings, Solomon first consecrated the middle of the courtyard that was in front of the LORD’s temple and then offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings there.

⁸So Solomon and all Israel with him — a very great assembly, from the entrance to Hamath to the Brook of Egypt — observed the festival at that time for seven days.

⁹On the eighth day they held a sacred assembly, for the dedication of the altar lasted seven days and the festival seven days.

¹⁰On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people home, rejoicing and with happy hearts for the goodness the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for his people Israel.

¹¹So Solomon finished the LORD’s temple and the royal palace. Everything that had entered Solomon’s heart to do for the LORD’s temple and for his own palace succeeded.

¹²Then the LORD appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple of sacrifice.

¹³If I shut the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on my people,

¹⁴and my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

¹⁵My eyes will now be open and my ears attentive to prayer from this place.

¹⁶And I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.

¹⁷As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and ordinances,

¹⁸I will establish your royal throne, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man ruling in Israel.

¹⁹However, if you turn away and abandon my statutes and my commands that I have set before you and if you go and serve other gods and bow in worship to them,

²⁰then I will uproot Israel from the soil that I gave them, and this temple that I have sanctified for my name I will banish from my presence; I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.

²¹As for this temple, which was exalted, everyone who passes by will be appalled and will say: Why did the LORD do this to this land and this temple?

²²Then they will say: Because they abandoned the LORD God of their ancestors who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They clung to other gods and bowed in worship to them and served them. Because of this, he brought all this ruin on them.

¹At the end of twenty years during which Solomon had built the LORD’s temple and his own palace —

²Solomon had rebuilt the cities Hiram gave him and settled Israelites there —

³Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and seized it.

⁴He built Tadmor in the wilderness along with all the storage cities that he built in Hamath.

⁵He built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon  — fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars  —

⁶Baalath, all the storage cities that belonged to Solomon, all the chariot cities, the cavalry cities, and everything Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, or anywhere else in the land of his dominion.

⁷As for all the peoples who remained of the Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not from Israel  —

⁸their descendants who remained in the land after them, those the Israelites had not completely destroyed — Solomon imposed forced labor on them; it is this way today.

⁹But Solomon did not consign the Israelites to be slaves for his work; they were soldiers, commanders of his captains, and commanders of his chariots and his cavalry.

¹⁰These were King Solomon’s deputies: 250 who supervised the people.

¹¹Solomon 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 King David of Israel because the places the ark of the LORD has come into are holy.”

¹²At that time Solomon offered burnt offerings to the LORD on the LORD’s altar he had made in front of the portico.

¹³He followed the daily requirement for offerings according to the commandment of Moses for Sabbaths, New Moons, and the three annual appointed festivals: the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Shelters.

¹⁴According to the ordinances of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests over their service, of the Levites over their responsibilities to offer praise and to minister before the priests following the daily requirement, and of the gatekeepers by their divisions with respect to each temple gate, for this had been the command of David, the man of God.

¹⁵They did not turn aside from the king’s command regarding the priests and the Levites concerning any matter or concerning the treasuries.

¹⁶All of Solomon’s work was carried out from the day the foundation was laid for the LORD’s temple until it was finished. So the LORD’s temple was completed.

¹⁷At that time Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth on the seashore in the land of Edom.

¹⁸So 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 seventeen tons of gold, and delivered it to King Solomon.

¹The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, so she came to test Solomon with difficult questions at Jerusalem with a very large entourage, with camels bearing spices, gold in abundance, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and spoke with him about everything that was on her mind.

²So Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for Solomon to explain to her.

³When the queen of Sheba observed Solomon’s wisdom, the palace he had built,

⁴the food at his table, his servants’ residence, his attendants’ service and their attire, his cupbearers and their attire, and the burnt offerings he offered at the LORD’s temple, it took her breath away.

⁵She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your words and about your wisdom is true.

⁶But I didn’t believe their reports until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, I was not even told half of your great wisdom! You far exceed the report I heard.

⁷How happy are your men. How happy are these servants of yours, who always stand in your presence hearing your wisdom.

⁸Blessed be the LORD your God! 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.”

⁹Then 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.

¹⁰In addition, Hiram’s servants and Solomon’s servants who brought gold from Ophir also brought algum wood and precious stones.

¹¹The 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.

¹²King 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.

¹³The weight of gold that came to Solomon annually was twenty-five tons,

¹⁴besides what was brought by the merchants and traders. All the Arabian kings and governors of the land also brought gold and silver to Solomon.

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

¹⁶He made three hundred small shields of hammered gold; 7½ pounds of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷The king also made a large ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold.

¹⁸The throne had six steps; there was a footstool covered in gold for the throne, armrests on either side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the armrests.

¹⁹Twelve lions were standing there on the six steps, one at each end. Nothing like it had ever been made in any other kingdom.

²⁰All 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,

²¹for the king’s ships kept going to Tarshish with Hiram’s servants, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

²²King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the world in riches and wisdom.

²³All the kings of the world wanted an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart.

²⁴Each of them would bring his own gift — items of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, and horses and mules — as an annual tribute.

²⁵Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. He stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in 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 as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar as abundant as sycamore in the Judean foothills.

²⁸They were bringing horses for Solomon from Egypt and from all the countries.

²⁹The remaining events of Solomon’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the Events of the Prophet Nathan, the Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and the Visions of the Seer Iddo concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat.

³⁰Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years.

³¹Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. His son Rehoboam became king in his place.

¹Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.

²When 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.

³So they summoned him. Then Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam:

⁴“Your father made our yoke harsh. Therefore, lighten your father’s harsh service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

⁵Rehoboam replied, “Return to me in three days.” So the people left.

⁶Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had attended his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, “How do you advise me to respond to this people?”

⁷They replied, “If you will be kind to this people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

⁸But he rejected the advice of the elders who had advised him, and he consulted with the young men who had grown up with him, the ones attending him.

⁹He asked them, “What message do you advise we send back to this people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

¹⁰Then the young men who had grown up with him told him, “This is what you should say to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you, make it lighter on us! ’ This is what you should say to them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!

¹¹Now therefore, my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I, with barbed whips.’”

¹²So 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.”

¹³Then the king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the elders’ advice

¹⁴and spoke to them according to the young men’s advice, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I, with barbed whips.”

¹⁵The 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.

¹⁶When 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 to your tent; David, look after your own house now! So all Israel went to their tents.

¹⁷But as for the Israelites living in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

¹⁸Then 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.

¹⁹Israel is in rebellion against the house of David until today.

¹When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized the house of Judah and Benjamin — one hundred eighty thousand fit young soldiers — to fight against Israel to restore the reign to Rehoboam.

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

³“Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people:

⁴‘This is what the LORD says: You are not to march up and fight against your brothers. Each of you return home, for this incident has come from me.’” So they listened to what the LORD said and turned back from going against Jeroboam.

⁵Rehoboam stayed in Jerusalem, and he fortified cities in Judah.

⁶He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,

⁷Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam,

⁸Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,

⁹Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,

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

¹¹He strengthened their fortifications and put leaders in them with supplies of food, oil, and wine.

¹²He also put large shields and spears in each and every city to make them very strong. So Judah and Benjamin were his.

¹³The priests and Levites from all their regions throughout Israel took their stand with Rehoboam,

¹⁴for the Levites left their pasturelands and their possessions and went to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons refused to let them serve as priests of the LORD.

¹⁵Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places, the goat-demons, and the golden calves he had made.

¹⁶Those from every tribe of Israel who had determined in their hearts to seek the LORD their God followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD, the God of their ancestors.

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

¹⁸Rehoboam married Mahalath, daughter of David’s son Jerimoth and of Abihail daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab.

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

²⁰After her, he married Maacah daughter of Absalom. She bore Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith to him.

²¹Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines. He acquired eighteen wives and sixty concubines and was the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

²²Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maacah as chief, leader among his brothers, intending to make him king.

²³Rehoboam also showed discernment by dispersing some of his sons to all the regions of Judah and Benjamin and to all the fortified cities. He gave them plenty of provisions and sought many wives for them.

¹When Rehoboam had established his sovereignty and royal power, he abandoned the law of the LORD  — he and all Israel with him.

²Because they were unfaithful to the LORD, in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, King Shishak of Egypt went to war against Jerusalem

³with 1,200 chariots, 60,000 cavalrymen, and countless people who came with him from Egypt — Libyans, Sukkiim, and Cushites.

⁴He captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.

⁵Then the prophet Shemaiah went to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah who were gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak. He said to them: “This is what the LORD says: ‘You have abandoned me; therefore, I have abandoned you to Shishak.’”

⁶So the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The LORD is righteous.”

⁷When the LORD saw that they had humbled themselves, the LORD’s message came to Shemaiah: “They have humbled themselves; I will not destroy them but will grant them a little deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak.

⁸However, they will become his servants so that they may recognize the difference between serving me and serving the kingdoms of other lands.”

⁹So 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.

¹⁰King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and committed them into the care of the captains of the guards who protected the entrance to the king’s palace.

¹¹Whenever the king entered the LORD’s temple, the guards would carry the shields and take them back to the armory.

¹²When Rehoboam humbled himself, the LORD’s anger turned away from him, and he did not destroy him completely. Besides that, conditions were good in Judah.

¹³King Rehoboam established his royal power in Jerusalem. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen 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.

¹⁴Rehoboam did what was evil, because he did not determine in his heart to seek the LORD.

¹⁵The events of Rehoboam’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the Events of the Prophet Shemaiah and of the Seer Iddo concerning genealogies. There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout their reigns.

¹⁶Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. His son Abijah became king in his place.

¹In the eighteenth year of Israel’s King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah,

²and he reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Micaiah daughter of Uriel; she was from Gibeah. There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.

³Abijah set his army of warriors in order with four hundred thousand fit young men. Jeroboam arranged his mighty army of eight hundred thousand fit young men in battle formation against him.

⁴Then Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, “Jeroboam and all Israel, hear me.

⁵Don’t you know that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt?

⁶But Jeroboam son of Nebat, a servant of Solomon son of David, rose up and rebelled against his lord.

⁷Then worthless and wicked men gathered around him to resist Rehoboam son of Solomon when Rehoboam was young, inexperienced, and unable to assert himself against them.

⁸“And now you are saying you can assert yourselves against the LORD’s kingdom, which is in the hand of one of David’s sons. You are a vast number and have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made for you as gods.

⁹Didn’t you banish the priests of the LORD, the descendants of Aaron and the Levites, and make your own priests like the peoples of other lands do? Whoever comes to ordain himself with a young bull and seven rams may become a priest of what are not gods.

¹⁰“But as for us, the LORD is our God. We have not abandoned him; the priests ministering to the LORD are descendants of Aaron, and the Levites serve at their tasks.

¹¹They offer a burnt offering and fragrant incense to the LORD every morning and every evening, and they set the rows of the Bread of the Presence on the ceremonially clean table. They light the lamps of the gold lampstand every evening. We are carrying out the requirements of the LORD our God, while you have abandoned him.

¹²Look, God and his priests are with us at our head. The trumpets are ready to sound the charge against you. Israelites, don’t fight against the LORD God of your ancestors, for you will not succeed.”

¹³Now Jeroboam had sent an ambush around to advance from behind them. So they were in front of Judah, and the ambush was behind them.

¹⁴Judah turned and discovered that the battle was in front of them and behind them, so they cried out to the LORD. Then the priests blew the trumpets,

¹⁵and the men of Judah raised the battle cry. When the men of Judah raised the battle cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.

¹⁶So the Israelites fled before Judah, and God handed them over to them.

¹⁷Then Abijah and his people struck them with a mighty blow, and five hundred thousand fit young men of Israel were killed.

¹⁸The Israelites were subdued at that time. The Judahites succeeded because they depended on the LORD, the God of their ancestors.

¹⁹Abijah pursued Jeroboam and captured some cities from him: Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron, along with their surrounding villages.

²⁰Jeroboam no longer retained his power during Abijah’s reign; ultimately, the LORD struck him and he died.

²¹However, Abijah grew strong, acquired fourteen wives, and fathered twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.

²²The rest of the events of Abijah’s reign, along with his ways and his sayings, are written in the Writing of the Prophet Iddo.

¹Abijah 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 ten years.

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

³He removed the pagan altars and the high places. He shattered their sacred pillars and chopped down their Asherah poles.

⁴He told the people of Judah to seek the LORD God of their ancestors and to carry out the instruction and the commands.

⁵He also removed the high places and the shrines from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom experienced peace under him.

⁶Because the land experienced peace, Asa built fortified cities in Judah. No one made war with him in those days because the LORD gave him rest.

⁷So he said to the people of Judah, “Let’s build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, with doors and bars. The land is still ours because we sought the LORD our God. We sought him and he gave us rest on every side.” So they built and succeeded.

⁸Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah bearing large shields and spears, and two hundred eighty thousand from Benjamin bearing regular shields and drawing the bow. All these were valiant warriors.

⁹Then Zerah the Cushite came against them with an army of one million men and three hundred chariots. They came as far as Mareshah.

¹⁰So Asa marched out against him and lined up in battle formation in Zephathah Valley at Mareshah.

¹¹Then Asa cried out to the LORD his God: “LORD, there is no one besides you to help the mighty and those without strength. Help us, LORD our God, for we depend on you, and in your name we have come against this large army. LORD, you are our God. Do not let a mere mortal hinder you.”

¹²So the LORD routed the Cushites before Asa and before Judah, and the Cushites fled.

¹³Then Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar. The Cushites fell until they had no survivors, for they were crushed before the LORD and his army. So the people of Judah carried off a great supply of loot.

¹⁴Then they attacked all the cities around Gerar because the terror of the LORD was on them. They also plundered all the cities, since there was a great deal of plunder in them.

¹⁵They also attacked the tents of the herdsmen and captured many sheep and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

¹The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded.

²So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Asa and all Judah and Benjamin, hear me. The LORD is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you abandon him, he will abandon you.

³For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without instruction,

⁴but when they turned to the LORD God of Israel in their distress and sought him, he was found by them.

⁵In those times there was no peace for those who went about their daily activities because the residents of the lands had many conflicts.

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

⁷But as for you, be strong; don’t give up, for your work has a reward.”

⁸When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the abhorrent idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He renovated the altar of the LORD that was in front of the portico of the LORD’s temple.

⁹Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, as well as those from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing among them, for they had defected to him from Israel in great numbers when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.

¹⁰They were gathered in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign.

¹¹At that time they sacrificed to the LORD seven hundred cattle and seven thousand sheep and goats from all the plunder they had brought.

¹²Then they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their ancestors with all their heart and all their soul.

¹³Whoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel would be put to death, young or old, man or woman.

¹⁴They took an oath to the LORD in a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with rams’ horns.

¹⁵All Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn it with all their mind. They had sought him with all their heart, and he was found by them. So the LORD gave them rest on every side.

¹⁶King 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.

¹⁷The high places were not taken away from Israel; nevertheless, Asa was wholeheartedly devoted his entire life.

¹⁸He brought his father’s consecrated gifts and his own consecrated gifts into God’s temple: silver, gold, and utensils.

¹⁹There was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.

¹In the thirty-sixth year of Asa, Israel’s King Baasha went to war against Judah. He built Ramah in order to keep anyone from leaving or coming to King Asa of Judah.

²So 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,

³“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.”

⁴Ben-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.

⁵When Baasha heard about it, he quit building Ramah and stopped his work.

⁶Then 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.

⁷At that time, the seer Hanani 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 you.

⁸Were not the Cushites and Libyans a vast army with many chariots and horsemen? When you depended on the LORD, he handed them over to you.

⁹For the eyes of the LORD roam throughout the earth to show himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to him. You have been foolish in this matter. Therefore, you will have wars from now on.”

¹⁰Asa was enraged with the seer and put him in prison because of his anger over this. And Asa mistreated some of the people at that time.

¹¹Note that the events of Asa’s reign, from beginning to end, 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, and his disease became increasingly severe. Yet even in his disease he didn’t seek the LORD but only the physicians.

¹³Asa rested with his fathers; he died in the forty-first year of his reign.

¹⁴He was buried in his own tomb that he had made for himself in the city of David. They laid him out in a coffin that was full of spices and various mixtures of prepared ointments; then they made a great fire in his honor.